Chapter 69
In the original novel, with the help of Jiang Jinyue’s golden finger, the Crown Prince’s path to the throne was smooth, and those they wanted to eliminate died without a hitch. There was no mention of the Empress harboring such deep hatred for the Wei family.
Now, because of the unexpected variable of Jiang Lin, the Empress and Crown Prince faced constant setbacks, and their entire focus shifted to targeting the Wei family, determined to eliminate every last one of them.
But this hatred had to have an origin, and Jiang Lin was completely clueless about it. He stared wide-eyed at Wei Yunzhao, not blinking.
Wei Yunzhao pushed his wheelchair out himself, "Let's go to the government office first. I'll tell you when we get back."
The government office runners had sent word that Old Lady Wei had died from choking.
She had eaten too quickly and hadn’t noticed bone fragments mixed into her food. The bone got stuck in her throat, and she choked to death.
For prisoners like Old Lady Wei, the food was usually leftovers or slop from other places, and it was normal for bone fragments to be mixed in. The jailers didn't stare at them one by one while they were eating, so they didn't notice that there was something wrong with Madam Wei. By the time they found her, her body was already cold.
After the autopsy, the coroner concluded that she had indeed died from choking on a bone fragment.
It sounded reasonable and logical.
Except that the timing was a bit too coincidental. She had been in prison for so long without incident, yet just two days after the marriage decree was issued, she choked to death.
Wei Yunzhao insisted on waiting until they returned to tell Jiang Lin, but Jiang Lin was too curious to wait. He had no choice but to patiently accompany Wei Yunzhao to the government office first.
When they arrived, Yin Ji was also there, staring at Old Lady Wei’s corpse as if searching for something.
Wei Yunzhao asked him, "Master Yin, is there something wrong?"
Yin Ji shook his head and left the morgue. "There's nothing wrong. I just think it's too coincidental."
Having handled cases for many years, Yin Ji never believed in coincidences. Cases with too many coincidences were always deliberate.
He asked Wei Yunzhao and Jiang Lin, "Should we investigate this case thoroughly?"
Yin Ji looked somewhat haggard, his eyes bloodshot, with dark circles and sagging bags under his eyes, which were all signs of not sleeping well or not sleeping at all.
It also showed how much the marriage decree had affected him.
Jiang Lin stepped forward and lowered his voice. "Master Yin, we all know who’s behind this, don’t we?"
A smart man like Yin Ji could naturally guess the meaning of Emperor Changde issuing two imperial decrees to grant marriages one after another. After guessing this, he naturally knew who wanted Old Lady Wei dead.
"So, you plan to let it go?" Yin Ji’s gaze lingered on Jiang Lin.
"No," Jiang Lin shook his head. "That’s why we must investigate. Even if it only costs them a couple of allies, it’s worth it. What do you think, Master Yin?"
A faint smile appeared on Yin Ji’s face. "Don’t worry, as the prefect of Shengjing, I won’t allow innocent people to die unjustly in the government office prison."
Old Lady Wei’s body wasn’t taken back by Wei Yunzhao and Jiang Lin. It remained at the the government office for the coroner to perform a new autopsy to find out the real cause of Old lady Wei's death.
There was no secret in a place like the government office, and the news spread quickly.
Jiang Lin and Wei Yunzhao couldn’t help much with the investigation, so they returned home first. As soon as they got back, Jiang Lin pestered Wei Yunzhao to explain the grudge between the Empress and the Wei family. He was too curious, feeling like his heart was being clawed at.
"Alright," Wei Yunzhao agreed, his eyes filled with sorrow. "It’s a story from long ago, something my father told me when we were at the border."
The story was long, and Wei Yunzhao told it in detail and slowly.
His father had told him that he once had a distant aunt named Wei Xuan, who was two or three years older than his father. She had loved martial arts since she was a child, not at all like a proper lady from a wealthy family but more like a wild boy. Not only did she often disguise herself as a man to enter military camp, she also often gathered a group of children of officials and ran around the streets, claiming she wanted to be a righteous hero.
Once she really ran into trouble. Some kidnappers who were bold enough to snatch a child in broad daylight. The child happened to be the current Crown Prince’s maternal uncle, Minister Cao, Cao Qinghong.
Back then, Master Cao was a fair-skinned and delicate young master, he was raised in luxury, and could be sold for a good price at first glance, so unfortunately he was targeted by kidnappers.
Wei Xuan was equally bold. She actually followed those kidnappers into the courtyard where they were hiding. After figuring out the terrain, she slipped out again to report to the authorities and inform the Cao family. In the end, the kidnappers died without ever knowing they had been outsmarted by a young girl.
Wei Xuan became a great benefactor of the Cao family. The grace of saving a life was often repaid with one’s own life. Therefore, the Cao and Wei families became engaged in marriage. Because of this marriage, the two families became very close and had a harmonious relationship.
But the good times didn't last long, Wei Xuan died.
The incident began when she went out of the city with two girls from the Cao family to offer incense, and encountered bandits on the way. In order to protect the two girls from the Cao family, Wei Xuan was severely injured during the fight with the bandits and fell off a cliff and died. Wei Xuan was only sixteen that year and was about to marry Cao Qinghong.
The Cao family felt guilty about this, so they wanted to arrange another marriage. The marriage was shifted to the second daughter of the Cao family. Cao Jing'er betrothed to Wei Su, thus maintaining the friendship between the two families.
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