Watching Xiao Jinyu's slightly stunned expression, Xue Rucheng deliberately slowed his speech further. "Your Highness has already examined Shi Niang's body..." He cast a careless glance at Chu Chu and remarked lightly, "Most people in this world have poor memories—they need constant reminders to stay in their proper place. At that time, I needed someone of status, talent, and beauty to heed my guidance and manage the As Returning Pavilion for me. But Shi Niang was still young then, like a wild pony. To make her behave properly, one had to not only tighten the reins but also use the whip frequently."
Chu Chu clearly saw a flicker of turmoil between Xiao Jinyu's brows, fleeting yet unmistakable. His voice turned noticeably colder. "Shi Niang always held you in high esteem..."
Xue Rucheng waved his hand with a bitter smile. "A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding... When Your Highness saw Shi Niang whispering and passing messages to me in the palace, it was all her gathering courtly intelligence for me. I once told Your Highness that the most well-informed places in the world are the pleasure quarters—hence, the best sources of palace news lie not in the court but in the inner chambers."
"Shi Niang confessed with her own—"
Xue Rucheng continued waving his hand, laughing with self-mockery as if recalling a childhood folly. "I told her that if a third person learned of this, I would reveal Your Highness's origins to the world... If not for wanting to escape me sooner, Shi Niang would never have abandoned Your Highness alone in the palace to marry that gilded coward by imperial decree."
Xiao Jinyu silently clenched his jaw, his face pale as paper, yet his composure remained unbroken. After a long silence, he finally said, "Shi Niang knew of my origins long ago..."
Xue Ruyu frowned slightly, as if sifting through murky memories, before speaking slowly. "I recall... it was after I first taught Your Highness to read at age three that I told her."
Xiao Jinyu's voice hardened like ice. "Did she also know of my father's wrongful accusation?"
"Not that..." Xue Rucheng stroked his beard, studying Xiao Jinyu's increasingly ashen face with amusement. "When I helped Qin Luan forge Ning Jun Wang's handwriting, she was still a pampered young princess unaware of my existence. But when I forged the Prince of Wu Commandery's scripts, Shi Niang often ground ink for me... How unpredictable fate is."
Holding Qing Ping in her arms, Chu Chu couldn't grasp Xiao Jinyu's trembling hand. She could only watch him with a heart gripped by tension, her own chest burning with such fury and sorrow that she longed to bite Xue Rucheng. How much worse must it be for him—and his health couldn't withstand such rage and hatred.
After a moment of stillness, as if everything had reached its end, Xiao Jinyu leaned back slowly against his chair. He released a soundless sigh, raised a hand to retrieve a bundle of cloth strips from his sleeve, and tossed them to the ground.
Chu Chu clearly saw a desolate smile curl at the corners of his lips, and her heart plummeted.
Xue Rucheng unhurriedly bent down, using his left hand to pick up the strips one by one. When he deciphered the crooked blood-written characters on the worn cloth, he froze.
Every strip was covered in writing, yet each repeated the same phrase over and over:
May Your Livestock Flourish.
"Grand Tutor Xue," came a voice from the cell door, strained from suppressed laughter, "consider this a wedding congratulation. Don't stand on ceremony."
Chu Chu hurriedly turned toward the cell door. Where there had been emptiness moments before, Jing Yi now stood beaming with mirth."Brother Jing!"
Before Chu Chu's delighted voice had faded, a creaking sound of a prison door opening suddenly came from the dark end of the corridor, followed by the chaotic footsteps of a group of people. As the footsteps drew nearer, their figures gradually became visible.
The Emperor, Ashina Suwu, Xiao Jue being pushed in a wheelchair by Leng Yan, and several officials Chu Chu had never seen before, all came to a stop right outside this prison cell.
Chu Chu looked toward Xiao Jin Yu and noticed that although his complexion was extremely poor, he was wearing a faint smile—so faint it resembled a cup of tea that had been steeped multiple times.
The stunned expression lingered on Xue Rucheng's face for only a moment before he casually tossed aside the torn cloth strips and slowly knelt down. "Your servant... pays respects to Your Majesty."
Chu Chu hurriedly knelt as well, speaking before Xue Rucheng could say another word: "Your Majesty, you heard it just now, right? Ning Jun Wang is innocent!"
"Of course I heard," the Emperor's voice carried a warmth like spring, "I've been going through all this trouble precisely to hear Grand Tutor Xue say those words..." He then turned to look at the officials behind him, "The Dali Temple, the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Personnel—does anyone have further questions regarding this case?"
Xiao Jin Yu glanced toward Xiao Jue standing among the officials. The moment his eyes caught sight of the third-rank civil official robe on Xiao Jue, he froze momentarily. Looking more carefully at the officials standing behind the Emperor, he noted the Ministers and Vice Ministers of Justice and Personnel, the Chief and Assistant Chief of Dali Temple, the Censor-in-chief and Deputy Censor of the Censorate—but from the Ministry of War, only a Vice Minister was present, missing the over-sixty-year-old third-rank Minister of War.
The officials were still reeling from Xue Rucheng's earlier statement, all remaining silent. Xiao Jue merely pressed his still-pale lips together, quietly watching Xue Rucheng kneeling in the cell. The Emperor added, "If you don't clarify things now and there are loopholes in the case files later, when Prince An sends them back for revision at year's end, I won't have time to plead on your behalf."
As soon as the Emperor finished speaking, Ashina Suwu standing beside him suddenly raised his hand. "I'm unclear."
The corner of the Emperor's mouth twitched as he forced a relatively friendly smile. "What is the Khan unclear about?"
Ashina Suwu showed no hesitation in acting like one of their own, brushing past the Emperor's shoulder to stride into the cell. He walked over to where Xue Rucheng knelt on the ground, picked up the cloth strips Xue Rucheng had discarded, casually helped up the still-kneeling dazed Chu Chu, then spent a long while frowning at the characters on the cloth strips before asking Xiao Jin Yu with a serious expression, "What does 'liù chù xīng wàng' mean?"
Xiao Jin Yu furrowed his brow and looked at Jing Yi. He had indeed asked this expert lock-picker to casually write something and secretly hide it here, but he never expected the man to be this casual about it... causing him to nearly lose his composure when he first clearly saw these characters.
Jing Yi coughed dryly twice, answering with complete seriousness, "It means... roughly the same as 'early birth of precious sons,' just more euphemistic. Makes it seem more scholarly."
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