After rebirth, I became the widow of my mortal enemy

Chapter 218 What is Betrayal

"So, Father, hurry up and write. If you delay any longer, you won't be able to survive even if you take the antidote."

Prince Ning stuffed the brush into Emperor Zhaoqing's hand and forced Emperor Zhaoqing to sit up from his lying position.

Emperor Zhaoqing lowered his eyes to look at the brush in his hand, then raised his eyes to look at Prince Ning.

"Do you know... that you are forcing the emperor to abdicate?"

"It was my father who forced me to do that first," Prince Ning pointed to the blank imperial edict on the dragon case, "write it quickly."

Emperor Zhaoqing was about to put down his pen, but suddenly, his wrist turned, and the brush flew out of his hand and threw towards Prince Ning.

Prince Ning's face changed and he instinctively took two steps back to avoid it.

At the same time, Emperor Zhaoqing quickly stood up from the dragon throne, took a few big steps, distanced himself from Prince Ning, and called out, "Zhan Zhan!"

A figure flashed out from the screen behind Emperor Zhaoqing, holding a long sword, and stood beside Emperor Zhaoqing in a protective posture.

It was Zhan Zhan, the sword-bearing guard in front of the emperor.

King Ning looked at them in disbelief.

Looking at Zhan Zhan who suddenly appeared.

Looking at Emperor Zhaoqing who seemed fine.

He just threw a pen at him and stood up from the dragon chair and strode away. How did he look like a person who was poisoned?

So, Zhan Zhan had already hidden in the palace?

So, the emperor didn't take the poison at all?

Prince Ning's pupils shrank, and he quickly drew out the soft sword hidden in the brocade belt around his waist and stood on guard.

Then he looked at Yan Mobai with an ugly expression: "So, you betrayed me, and you two colluded to put on a show?"

"What is betrayal?" Yan Mobai said coldly: "Your Highness wants Ning Miao's life, wants my life, isn't that betrayal?"

"I don't want your lives, I just want the throne of the Eastern Palace!" King Ning said angrily.

Yan Mobai curved his lips.

"Really? Let Ning Miao bear the crime of deceiving the emperor, isn't it asking for her life? Let me bear the crime of regicide, isn't it asking for my life?"

Prince Ning's eyes flickered slightly, and he felt a little guilty.

But he still said confidently: "When I become king, I will have the final say and I will pardon you!"

Yan Mobai naturally didn't believe his nonsense.

"At this point, Your Highness, please stop saying these hypocritical words. If a man who kills his own wife to achieve his goal really becomes a king, will he let go of those of us who hold Your Highness in his hands?"

Prince Ning's face froze. "What nonsense are you talking about? Are you saying that I killed my own princess?"

"Isn't it?" Yan Mobai asked back.

"What evidence do you have?" King Ning asked back.

Yan Mobai looked at him.

"Your Highness thinks you have done a perfect job, right? But Your Highness has forgotten my identity."

"As the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, I have seen all kinds of cases. The more all the evidence points to an accident, the more likely it is that it was man-made."

"Let's talk about the motive first. Didn't Your Highness say before that the Emperor didn't make Your Highness the Crown Prince because he was afraid of the Yuan family army behind Your Highness?"

"After the death of the princess without leaving any children, your highness severed his direct relationship with the Yuan family, and only a nominal relationship remained."

"Your Highness wants to get rid of the Emperor's fear. This is your Highness's motive."

Prince Ning was about to deny it, but Yan Mobai didn't give him a chance to speak, and continued, "Let's talk about the evidence."

"Let me first tell you the evidence that His Highness wants us to see. The princess decided to go to the theater on a whim, and the elegant room she sat in was also chosen on the spur of the moment after she went to the opera house. Everything shows that it was an accident."

"But who gave the princess the idea? And who made the princess choose that elegant pavilion? No one knows, because the princess is dead."

"All of these came from the mouth of the princess's maid Hanxiang. She was in the elegant pavilion with the princess, and the princess was killed on the spot, but she survived."

Prince Ning immediately retorted: "Just because she survived, you say she gave false testimony?"

"Of course not. I went to see her and I found that the incense she burned in her room was contraceptive incense."

"First, she is a maid. It is strange to burn incense in a maid's room, especially the incense that prevents pregnancy. Second, Your Highness got this incense from Mr. Shi, right?" Yan Mobai asked.

When he asked Mr. Shi for the contraceptive medicine, Mr. Shi asked him that there were contraceptive pills and contraceptive incense, and asked him which one he wanted?

He had smelled the scent of this contraceptive incense and he remembered it.

Prince Ning's expression became increasingly ugly.

"I...Is there anything strange about my favoring a maid? This doesn't prove anything!"

Yan Mobai said "hmm".

"It can only prove that His Highness had an affair with this maid, but nothing else. However, the strange thing is that His Highness never suspected this maid after the princess died unexpectedly."

"Logically speaking, since she had an affair with His Highness, she had motives to harm the princess, for example, she was afraid that the princess would discover your scandal, or she wanted to replace the princess."

"Most importantly, she was the only person who accompanied the princess throughout the accident and participated in the entire process. She was also a direct witness. All the key testimonies came from her."

"I know your Highness. Your Highness knows the relationship between you and her, so it is impossible for him not to doubt her. But your Highness does not have any doubts at all. What does this mean?"

"This means that Your Highness was a participant. What the other party said was instructed by Your Highness."

Prince Ning was furious: "This... this is just your conjecture. I was... I was too sad at the time to think so much."

Yan Mobai sneered.

"I'm so sad and upset that I'm even more thinking about the princess's death. Was she murdered by someone?"

"When the other people around the princess, whether it was me or Miss Yuan, we learned that the princess had an accident, our first reaction was: Was it the remnants of King Kang who did it?"

"But as the husband, His Highness, the person closest to the princess, he immediately determined that it was an accident."

"Do you remember the first words I said to His Highness when I saw him in the mourning hall that day? I said that I had already consulted with Song Shaoqing about the situation and he said it was an accident."

"At that time, I really hoped that His Highness would say, 'It's impossible, it can't be an accident,' and let me investigate it carefully, but no, at that moment, I roughly knew that it was His Highness who did it."

"Later, when I went to see Hanxiang, I found contraceptive incense in her room, which only made me more certain."

Prince Ning's smile was uglier than his crying.

"So, you openly asked the Dali Temple to close the case as an accident, but secretly told my father behind my back?"

Yan Mobai looked at him.

"No, I am a little disappointed with His Highness. I feel that His Highness is no longer the one I knew."

"But I still did what His Highness wanted. I didn't conduct a thorough investigation and closed the case as an accident. I pretended to be completely unaware of the incident and didn't tell anyone, including the Emperor, Ning Miao, Chi Feng, and Lan Ying."

"Even when Miss Yuan approached me and asked me to tell her the truth in exchange for a favor I owed her, I just thought it was an accident."

"I am loyal to Your Highness, but Your Highness..." Yan Mobai paused.

"Your Highness wants to put me to death."