HCB Chapter 408 The End
Chapter 408 The End
Sure enough, it was just as Fu Nanjun expected.
Shi Mingzhu faked her death and fled, set fire to the palace, and jumped between the emperor's two sons. She was guilty of deceiving the emperor, arson, contempt of the royal family, and adultery, among other crimes.
How could Concubine Ning endure such a great humiliation? She fainted in front of the emperor.
The emperor was furious.
It was not until they received the news that Duke Zhenguo and Shi Mingwu, father and son, had both passed away that the anger of the emperor and the empress subsided to a large extent.
From the day the Shi family entered the capital, the capital and the imperial court were in an uproar.
The next day, the emperor attended court.
The ministers were divided into two factions.
One group petitioned the emperor to execute at least three clans of Shi Mingzhu, Zhenguo Gong and Shi Mingwu.
One group believed that the old Duke, the Zhenguo Duke, the second master Shi Jizhen and the ancestors of the Shi family had made great military achievements, and that the old Duke, the Zhenguo Duke and Shi Mingwu were all dead, so their punishment should be reduced as appropriate.
Moreover, there is no concrete evidence that the Shi family colluded with the Fifth Prince. Shi Mingzhu's affair with the Fifth Prince should have been her personal behavior.
The two groups were arguing fiercely.
The Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and the Jingzhao Prefecture conducted a strict investigation of the Shi family, which uncovered cases of the Shi family eating empty salaries, the court embezzling grain and fodder in local areas, other local garrisons eating empty salaries, selling official positions, privately killing slaves, collusion between officials and businessmen, and so on.
The emperor was old and did not dare to investigate further, fearing that his throne would be unstable. So he put these cases on hold for the time being and waited to deal with them slowly later.
The court argued for two months, and the emperor's decrees were issued one after another:
Shi Mingzhu was given a cup of poisoned wine;
The fifth prince was stripped of his title as a prince, demoted to a commoner, his fiefdom revoked, and sentenced to guard the imperial mausoleum for thirty years. All his subordinates who defected to him and held official positions above the seventh rank were executed, and the rest were exiled.
The hereditary title of Duke of Zhenguo was taken back by the imperial court, leaving only a second-class earl to Shi Lingyun, and the titles inherited by his descendants would be downgraded from generation to generation, which was considered the legacy of the Shi family's generations of meritorious service;
All the descendants of the Shi family from the line of the old Duke were stripped of their official positions, leaving only Shi Lingyun with an empty title;
The sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of the old Duke must observe mourning for six years and reflect on their mistakes;
Finally, the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion was confiscated and the court took back the mansion.
However, the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion had already been divided, and only the property of the eldest branch was confiscated.
Fu Nanjun and Le Anning kept a trick and gave half of the property that was divided up to their sons.
The emperor did not touch the property under the child's name because several members of the Shi family had died.
The properties of the second and third wives were not touched, but the second master Shi Jizhen voluntarily handed over half of his property to show his loyalty and to atone for his sin of drawing a salary without doing anything.
In this way, the Shi family’s case finally came to an end.
Shi Jizhen, Fu Nanjun, Le Anning and Shi Minghui brought Shi Mingwu's coffin back to Nanjing and observed mourning in accordance with the emperor's order.
However, Shi Mingzhu's story has not yet come to an end.
She's not dead.
The emperor told the public that she died in the Heavenly Prison, but in fact she was secretly taken away by the Fourth Prince Zhou Shao.
"Zhou Shao!" Shi Mingzhu saw the face of the man who turned around, and a flame of hope rekindled in her dead heart. She trembled her pale lips and asked tearfully, "You, do you remember something?"
She knew that Zhou Shao was the only life-saving straw she could grasp.
She won't die!
Very good!
If she died in such a miserable and unbearable way in this life, then what was the point of God letting her be reborn?
Zhou Shao laughed coldly, "What should I remember? Remember that you cheated on me and made me a cuckold?"
Shi Mingzhu's delicate body trembled, and her dark eyes suddenly widened.
Zhou Shao said word by word, "Oh, Shi Mingzhu, don't let your wishful thinking stop. You've cheated on me and turned me into the biggest joke in the world. It might even be written into history books and unofficial history, and people in the future generations will laugh at me for being a cuckold. How can I let you die so easily? I want you to live a life worse than death!"
Shi Mingzhu took a step back and looked at him fearfully: “You, what are you going to do?”
Zhou Shao ordered his men to stuff her into a carriage and said sarcastically, "Didn't you and Lao Wu swear to be lovers forever? I will grant your blessing!"
Shi Mingzhu clung to the carriage window and cried, "Zhou Shao, Zhou Shao! You can't be so heartless. One day, you will regret sending me back to Zhou Xu! You will regret it, you will regret it——"
When he recovers the memories of his first and second lives, he will definitely regret giving her to another man!
She didn't want to go to the imperial mausoleum. If she went there, how could she save Zhou Xu? If she stayed outside, she might be able to help Zhou Xu escape.
She had already thought about how to stay by Zhou Shao's side and endure humiliation, use the beauty trap, contact the Shi family, the Shi family's old subordinates, and Zhou Xu's old subordinates, wait for the opportunity, rescue Zhou Xu, make a comeback, and correct everything to the trajectory of the second life!
But all this is ruined!
Destroyed by Zhou Shao's hands!
"Zhou Shao, I hate you——"
Zhou Shao almost vomited blood.
This woman even wants to disgust him at the last minute!
What's the matter? She and Zhou Xu were living together happily. Did she think he would be jealous of their happiness?
A poor couple has many sorrows, not to mention that Zhou Xu once had great ambitions, and Shi Mingzhu was once the apple of the Shi family's eye. Both of them were people with lofty ambitions. After spending a few years of poverty in the imperial mausoleum, they would surely feel resentful and torture each other.
Sure enough, after just one year, Shi Mingzhu and Zhou Xu could no longer pretend their love for each other, and they accused each other of ruining themselves.
Zhou Shao couldn't help laughing when he heard the news that the two of them were arguing with each other. For the first time, he felt that this strange-tasting black tea was not so difficult to swallow.
"This black tea is good, with a light fruity aroma. Xiao Fengzi, go and buy more. I want to take it back and let my father, mother, and princess taste it. Oh, by the way, go to the imperial mausoleum and tell the unfortunate couple about the current situation of the Shi family."
The eunuch Xiao Fengzi agreed with a smile, and his prince finally showed his first smile in a year.
The next day, Xiao Fengzi took a carriage to the imperial mausoleum and stood outside the gate to tell Shi Mingzhu: "Last November, your eight-year-old brother Shi Minghui died of illness."
Shi Mingzhu felt dizzy and shook her head frantically: "Impossible, impossible! How could my starling die? What disease did he have?"
Xiao Fengzi didn't answer, but continued with a smile, "In the first month of this year, your second brother Shi Mingwei gave birth to a big fat boy, named Shi Yunfei, who was born posthumously to Mr. Shi's concubine. I don't know if you have ever heard of the concubine's name. When she was a maid, the master called her Shannai. Congratulations to you on having a nephew."
Shi Mingzhu pried through the crack in the door and shouted hoarsely, "Shan Nai! I know her. How could she be my second brother's mistress? Impossible, absolutely impossible! This must be Shi Yao's conspiracy. Shan Nai used to be Shi Yao's maid!"
"In March of this year, the Du family in the border town sent people to Jinling to retrieve the engagement letter of the Du family girl and cancel the engagement with the girl's seventh brother Shi Mingchen."
Shi Mingzhu slumped on the ground and shouted bitterly, "Du Jinhui! How dare she humiliate my Shi family like this! The Du family is nothing. The Duke of Zhenguo Mansion is so lucky to have chosen her as his granddaughter-in-law! How dare she add insult to injury? She is so heartless and ungrateful!"
It was in vain that she spent so much time and effort in her second life to ruin Xie Qingdai's reputation and promoted Du Jinhui, who was originally only a concubine, to be the seventh brother's legal wife. But it turned out that Du Jinhui was just a vulgar person. When she saw the Shi family was in trouble, she fled.
Shi Mingzhu asked quickly: "Where are my sisters-in-law? Are they dead?"
Xiao Fengzi was speechless.
No wonder the Shi family was acquitted. Before returning to Nanjing, no one went to visit Shi Mingzhu.
The Fourth Prince was really blind to fall in love with her. He had quarreled with the Imperial Concubine many times because of her, and all his former sincerity had gone to waste.
This is a heartless, selfish, and self-centered woman.