At this time, in the back hall of Shuntian Mansion, the conflict between Xiao Feng and Yan Shifan finally reached the stage of hand-to-hand combat.
"You are rambling here and there, all because you are making a fuss about this female body. Even if you find out some shortcomings in the drafting stage of female talent, how much does it have to do with this case?
It doesn’t matter if this woman is a failed draft girl, it’s a definite fact that King Jing is being framed!”
Yan Shifan knew that Xiu Nu's fraud case was irreversible and that almost half of the Yan Party's grassroots cadres had been eliminated. But this was not the time to feel distressed. He directly turned from defense to offense and brought the topic back to the prince's frame-up case.
"Master Yan, Zhao Er has confessed that Prince Yu's jade pendant was stolen by him.
Since King Yu’s jade pendant was stolen three days before the female corpse case, how could he frame King Jing by forging his jade pendant as King Jing’s jade pendant?”
"This... then Zhao Er may be lying. Even if he stole King Yu's jade pendant, he may have lied about the time.
What's more, he may not have stolen it at all. The so-called theft of the jade pendant is just a thief cry from King Yu himself to catch the thief!"
The possibility that Yan Shifan said is not impossible. Zhao Er's confession alone is indeed difficult to be completely convincing. Jiajing also looked at Xiao Feng.
"Master Yan's words are reasonable, but Zhao Er's confession is not isolated, but can be verified.
Master Yan probably doesn't know that King Yu has a habit of taking inventory and maintaining the things given by Long live every once in a while. This includes imperial edicts, utensils, calligraphy and paintings, etc."
This is not surprising, because there was no constant temperature and humidity equipment in the past. Even in a building like the Wangfu Palace, it is inevitable that there will be moisture in the house, not to mention things like insect bites and rat bites.
Even in the palace, there are inevitably mice scurrying around, otherwise how would the royal cat come? Do you really think you can rely on people to catch mice?
Jiajing nodded slightly, indicating that I understand the fear of being dominated by moisture and rats, and my palace is often aired and cleaned when the weather is good.
"So what?" Yan Shifan expressed disdain. He didn't know what Xiao Feng wanted to explain.
"Two days before Prince Yu's jade pendant was lost, it happened to be the time when Prince Yu's palace was inventorying and maintaining the items given by the emperor. All the people in the palace followed suit, and even invited people from Yaguzhai from outside to help clean up the valuable antique calligraphy and paintings."
After all, Prince Yu was the son of Jiajing. Even if Jiajing didn't particularly like him, he would still be rewarded with regular gifts during festivals in recent years. So cleaning it up was indeed a big project.
"At that time, King Yu took off the jade pendant and asked people from Yaguzhai to help clean it. Not only the few people who went to Yaguzhai saw it with their own eyes, but also all the servants in the mansion witnessed it.
Therefore, Zhao Erzhi's words are at least believable. If it was indeed the jade pendant he stole, then the time would not have been earlier than three days before the body of the Kujing woman was found."
Yan Shifan still couldn't figure out Xiao Feng's point, so he retorted impatiently.
"Even so, as I said before, it's possible that Zhao Er didn't steal King Yu's jade pendant at all, but King Yu was shouting to catch the thief!"
"Even if Master Yan is right, King Yu's jade pendant was not lost at all, Zhao Er lied, and King Yu shouted to catch the thief.
But at least one thing is that two days before the jade theft mentioned by Zhao Er, that is, five days before the case of the female body in the dry well,
The people in Yaguzhai and the people in Prince Yu's Mansion have all seen with their own eyes that Prince Yu's jade pendant is still Prince Yu's and has not become Prince Jing's, right?"
Yan Shifan frowned and nodded, he couldn't deny this.
Xiao Feng smiled and waved outside the lobby, and then An Qingyue walked in with someone.
The man was shivering and his whole body was shaking. He was the director of the Craftsman Hall of the Ministry of Industry.
"Have you ever encountered any obstacles when you went to invite someone?"
"Master Zhao Wenhua, the left minister, questioned me, but I said that I was investigating the case under orders, so he didn't stop me anymore."
Xiao Feng nodded, pointed at Zeng Zaoban and said to Jiajing: "Long live, this is Zeng Zaoban who polished jade pendants for the three princes."
Jiajing had a slight impression and nodded. He didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Xiao Feng's gourd. Yan Shifan also frowned, not knowing why.
"Zeng Zaoban, today in front of Long Live, if there is any deception, it will be the crime of deceiving the emperor. The crime of deceiving the emperor will be punished by the whole family."
Xiao Feng's tone was calm, as if he was telling Zeng Zaobao a very common thing.
"A villain would not dare, a villain would not dare to deceive the emperor even to death!" Zeng Zaoban was almost paralyzed on the ground and could only kowtow.
"That day you said that you wanted to polish King Yu's jade pendant into a fake one for King Jing. How long would it take you?"
"Ten days. It also takes ten days when the villain is at his peak. It will definitely take more than that now. And now that the villain's hands are shaking, I'm afraid he won't be able to do such a job..."
Yan Shifan's mind buzzed, and he finally understood what Xiao Feng had planned, but it was a pity that it was already too late.
"Long live the craftsmen who have made it all know that his peak period lasts ten days, and others will not take less than this time.
But after Prince Yu’s jade pendant was lost for at most three days, the corpse of the Kujing woman was holding the fake Prince Jing’s jade pendant in her hand. What does this mean?”
Jiajing has a superior IQ, so he naturally understood what Xiao Feng meant.
"Isn't this fake jade pendant of King Jing made from King Yu's jade pendant?"
"Long live the Holy Ming, but in the whole world, it is probably as difficult as going to heaven to find another piece of jade that can fake the jade pendant of King Jing."
Jiajing was silent for a long time. Finally, he seemed very tired and sat back on his futon. Huang Jin always carried this futon with him.
There were already deep butt marks on it. Firstly, it was very comfortable to sit on. Secondly, Jiajing felt that it could prove his diligence in practicing Taoism.
"Lu Bing, do you know who can enter the prince's mausoleum?"
Lu Bing grinned and said long live, didn't you know this well, and you still had to let me say it to offend people?
"Long live, the Prince's mausoleum is guarded by the mausoleum guards. Except for those who have orders from Long Live, others...only Taichang Temple officials can enter according to regular hours."
Taichang Temple is in charge of the affairs of the ancestral temple. Of course, the emperor's ancestral tombs are also within the scope of its management, so it has to be responsible for some routine work.
Yan Shifan, the young minister of Taichang Temple, lowered his head and did not dare to look at Jiajing, but he could still feel that almost all the eyes in the room were focused on him.
"Huang Ban, take my instructions and go to the mausoleum...see the prince and bring me the jade pendant."
Huang Jin stepped down respectfully, picked a fast horse, took a few eunuchs with him, walked dignifiedly onto the street, pressed the horse's bridle, and ran out of the city gate at a small pace.
The onlookers all sighed: "Look at the nobles in this palace, they are so elegant and noble even when they ride horses."
Just after leaving the city gate, Huang Jin suddenly whipped his whip, whipping his horse into a gallop and galloping away. Several young eunuchs behind him quickly followed suit.
Huang Jin knew that Jiajing was filled with anger, but if Jiajing didn't show it, he couldn't show it either. He had to pretend as if nothing had happened, because he knew that Jiajing hadn't figured out how to deal with the matter.
The emperor's ancestral tombs are not close together. The old ancestral tomb is in Nanjing, and the new ancestral tomb is in Changping, which is a hundred miles away from the city. Fortunately, Huang Jin's horse is good, and it took two hours to make the round trip.
When Huang Jin returned to the back hall of Shuntian Mansion, everyone seemed to have been frozen for three hours. Even their positions had not changed. Only Yan Song's trembling legs showed his old age and frailty.
Jiajing was meditating on the futon with his eyes closed. His mood was much calmer than when Huang Jin left. He opened his eyes when he heard the sound of Huang Jin coming back.
Huang Jin held a jade pendant with a yellow cloth in his hand, and the word "Jun" was engraved on it. At that time, the title of prince had been determined, and Jiajing personally ordered the word "Jun" to be used.
Jiajing's eyes lit up and he looked at Xiao Feng. Yan Shifan lowered his head, looking aggrieved, and his performance was very profound and real.
Xiao Feng seemed to be expecting it. He picked up a wooden plate and walked to Jiajing with Huang Jin.
"Long live, what's in this wooden plate is the evidence that was sealed before. Long live, please see if the jade pendant in the prince's mausoleum is the same thickness as this fake jade pendant of King Jing."
Jiajing picked up the two jade pendants, compared them repeatedly, and finally put them down, and his eyes dimmed.
Xiao Feng picked up two pieces of jade pendants: "These two pieces of jade pendants are the same thickness, but one layer thinner than King Jing's broken jade pendant.
Then there are only two possibilities. One is that both pieces are fake and were polished later; the other is that the broken piece by King Jing is a fake, and King Jing hid the real jade pendant.
Master Yan, which one do you think it should be?"
Yan Shifan's mouth was full of bitterness. He knew that whatever he said now was wrong.
If you say that those two pieces were forged, it would be equivalent to admitting that you entered the mausoleum privately and stole the jade pendant.
If these two pieces are true, then the piece that King Jing broke into pieces should naturally be fake. King Jing said earlier that the jade pendant was broken, which would be the crime of deceiving the emperor.
The truth is indeed as Xiao Feng said, he had long planned to make a fuss about the jade pendants of King Yu and King Jing.
He stole the prince's jade pendant, had it polished into King Jing's jade pendant, and kept it in his hand for later use.
When the prince is dead, no one will visit him, and no one will open the coffin to see if the jade pendant inside is there. People will never think that the prince actually has such a jade pendant.
But he didn't have a clear plan in mind, and he didn't know Thousand-Armed Tathagata at that time, and he lacked the means to secretly change the jade pendant without King Yu's knowledge.
So this was always a backup plan, and he was waiting for a perfect opportunity. Until that night, in King Jing's courtyard, he drank wine, took medicine, and in a particularly excited state, beat Lan Nu to death with a whip.
.
He suddenly had an idea and came up with a brilliant idea. Not only could he kill King Yu, but he could also kill Xiao Feng...
He kept Lan Nu's body in ice for three days to make her look like she had just died. During this time, Zhao Er threatened Thousand-Armed Tathagata and stole King Yu's jade pendant.
The only flaw in the plan was that the condition of Lan Nu's body meant that he didn't have that much time to polish King Yu's jade pendant into King Jing's, but the trump card he had left in his hand finally came into play.
Of course, it was not that he was unprepared for the unexpected. He used this time to investigate the case and polished King Yu's jade pendant into the prince's and secretly sent it back.
This makes it even more foolproof. After all, even if one day under extremely special circumstances, the prince's coffin needs to be opened, who would notice that the prince's jade pendant is a little thinner than before?
The only thing he didn't expect was why Xiao Feng guessed that he might have stolen the prince's jade pendant?
How could he have thought that the time required to polish the jade pendant was a big loophole in this case?