A lazy bum transmigrates and marries a eunuch – it's awesome!

Chapter 226 Trial of Case

Ye Xiao's words left Zhao Chengye completely stunned. His first reaction was that this man had lost his mind.

You look older than Jiang Xinyu, how dare you talk about my mother?

These days, people don't even care about shame when it comes to climbing the social ladder?

Some people are even rushing to claim kinship with the newly appointed Marquis of Zhenguo...

Uh, something doesn't seem right.

Xiao Yuan does seem to have a son, and since Jiang Xinyu married him, she naturally became his mother.

This guy is pretty shameless; he has the nerve to talk about this kind of nepotism.

Ye Xiao was naturally embarrassed to say it, after all, his current status was different from before.

In ancient times, relationships and social status were governed by strict rules, and even adopted sons were divided into different ranks.

Ye Xiao was once considered Xiao Yuan's adopted son, but he didn't change his surname, didn't hold a banquet, and wasn't included in the family genealogy.

He's only slightly better than the lowest-level godson who's just casually mentioned.

It's different now.

He cannot be considered Xiao Yuan's adopted son yet; once he is included in the family genealogy, he will be Xiao Yuan's heir.

This weight is undeniably significant, so much so that even if Xiao Yuan had another biological son, he could never surpass him.

An adopted son, as the name suggests, is a son who inherits the family line.

According to religious etiquette, he is considered the legitimate son. If there are no other legitimate sons above him, then all the family's resources and titles belong to him.

Even if the male head of the household has other sons, it's the same.

The rules varied slightly across different periods of feudal dynasties, but the rules for inheriting titles were largely the same.

In the Great Jin Dynasty, only the eldest son of the legitimate wife is entitled to inherit the title.

If a family has only illegitimate sons and no legitimate sons, their chances of being granted the title of heir apparent depend on the attitude of the imperial family.

If it is something the emperor likes or needs, then the emperor will approve it.

If the Emperor deems you to have dark eyes, then you can only adopt a legitimate son from your brothers or clan to inherit your title, and you are not allowed to pass it on to a son born out of wedlock.

Although it sounds inhumane, people at that time accepted it, and the adopted son was called a "heir."

Just like a prince altering his jade tablet, once it falls under the name of a concubine, he is considered her biological son.

If this prince becomes emperor in the future, he will have to honor his mother, whose name is on his jade tablet, as Empress Dowager.

Regardless of who gave birth to him, once the imperial edict is altered, he becomes someone else's son.

Xiao Yuan has already changed Ye Xiao's surname and requested that he be granted the title of heir apparent.

According to clan etiquette, he is Xiao Yuan and Jiang Xinyu's biological son, and the eldest legitimate son of their family.

Xiao Yuan and Jiang Xinyu cannot have children. Even if they could, the child they have would be the second son born of the legitimate wife.

Even if Ye Xiao were alive, this title would not fall into the hands of his biological son.

It was only at this point that the formal ceremony hadn't been held yet; otherwise, Ye Xiao would have called Xiao Yuan and Jiang Xinyu "father" and "mother."

Seeing that Zhao Chengye seemed to understand who he was, Ye Xiao's smile became even more malicious.

"Others may not know much about Prince Zhao's character, but I do. You'd better confess as soon as possible."

Looking at the other person's ambiguous smile, Zhao Chengye knew that this person intended to settle a personal score under the guise of official business.

But now that things have come to this, he has no way out, so he might as well go all out and take a hard line.

"I don't understand what you mean by that, Lord Xiao."

I do acknowledge that I accidentally killed Li Mingyue, but she poisoned my father first.

As a son, it is only right and proper to avenge my father.

I heard that during the time when Chief Supervisor Xiao faked his death, he killed quite a few people to avenge his father. You should understand my feelings.

You can't deliberately make things difficult for me just because your mother used to be my fiancée.

If you insist on deliberately framing me because of personal grudges, then I, Zhao, will have no choice but to beat the drum of petition and ask the Emperor and the Regent to make a decision.”

Hearing Zhao Chengye mention the Regent Ye Xiao, Xiao chuckled.

It seems that the image of his father and uncle being on equal footing is quite deeply ingrained in people's minds.

Unfortunately, this guy made the wrong decision.

If my uncle had gotten involved, my mother would have just been laughed at a few more times, since her ex was really not presentable.

In any case, the final result is the same; it seems that the title of Duke of England can be revoked.

That's good; losing one duke saves a lot of money.

Ye Xiao was too lazy to argue with this guy, and to avoid any bad rumors, he didn't even chase away the guests who came to pay their respects.

They carried out the British Duke's body right in front of everyone.

Didn't you say I was settling personal scores?

Let's show everyone what true filial piety looks like.

After Green Bamboo presented the blood-stained clothes, Ye Xiao was instructed by Jiang Xinyu to first go to the Li family and rescue Madam Li.

It's just some poison that makes people weak and unable to speak; the Eastern Depot has no shortage of people with such crooked and evil skills.

The poison the Li family could produce wasn't anything particularly rare, so the antidote was quickly administered.

Madam Li recounted everything that Li Mingyue had told her.

They said it was impossible for her daughter to poison the Duke; it must have been Zhao Chengye who killed her to cover it up.

Because the interrogator was from the Eastern Depot, Madam Li deliberately embellished the story, emphasizing that Zhao Chengye wanted to harm Supervisor Xiao.

They were thinking that even if Zhao Chengye couldn't be convicted, they would still make the Eastern Depot skin him alive.

The people in the Eastern Depot were all old veterans of handling cases.

Everyone could see through Madam Li's little schemes, and Zhao Chengye's petty tricks couldn't be hidden from her either.

Watching a spectacle is always a popular form of entertainment.

The group of people who came to pay their respects stayed behind to get a closer look at the details of the Duke's death.

This time, however, the price of being a gossipmonger was quite high; before even getting to the gossip, I had to throw up completely.

The Duke's body was black with blue lips; it was obvious at a glance that he had been poisoned.

This made everyone even more excited, and they all showed a hint of sarcasm when they thought of what the Duchess had said about her daughter-in-law being virtuous and filial while bedridden.

To prevent her husband from marrying someone else, the daughter-in-law poisoned her father-in-law to make him observe mourning. This move would be considered outrageous anywhere.

But something even more explosive was coming soon.

Ye Xiao had Li Mingyue's body found and carried into the main hall, where a chorus of fainting and vomiting immediately erupted.

It's horrible; the visual impact of Li Mingyue's deformed head is extremely strong.

Only the military officers were able to hold on; many civil officials went outside to vomit.

The remaining military officers also looked at Zhao Chengye with strange eyes.

It was as if he never expected that this seemingly gentle and scholarly man would be so cruel to his wife.

The servants of the Li family were also found and brought to the main hall. Li Mingyue's wet nurse fainted upon seeing her young lady's body.

The maids were also terrified, their faces turning ashen, and they were so stunned that they forgot to cry.

They've been crying ever since they were locked up yesterday. They knew the young lady might be in bad shape, but they never imagined it would turn out this bad.

Ye Xiao glanced at the corpse and smiled wickedly.

"Since Prince Zhao suspects that I am not able to handle this matter impartially, then let all the officials participate in the interrogation."

Let everyone see just how wronged you really are.

The maid in the pink dress, let's start with you.

Introduce yourself, and then tell me what you know.

Ye Xiao's maid happened to be Li Mingyue's personal maid.

Hearing that the esteemed officials were there to hear the case, he suppressed his grief and indignation, introduced himself, and then recounted everything he knew in detail.

The other young maids also shared what they knew, and then the wet nurse was woken up so she could add to the story.

The overall meaning is roughly the same.

After their daughters married into this household, their mothers-in-law disliked them, their sisters-in-law made things difficult for Zhao Shizi, and they were not considerate of him. They lived in misery and every day felt like a year.

A few days ago, the girl accidentally learned that Zhao Chengye had participated in the Left Chancellor's rebellion, and she thought of using this to blackmail him into divorcing her.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Chengye, enraged and humiliated, beat the girl to death to silence her.

They had no idea when the Duke died.

But the Duke was perfectly fine before the girl was beaten to death.