The beauty of the Hou family and the king's plan

It just so happened that Xiao Yuanhuai also had some questions that he didn’t understand and wanted to find out.

The Mei Mansion was in deathly silence. Even the insects and birds noticed something was wrong and fled from their nests.

Mei Hanlin was detained in the study room. He was making tea when Xiao Yuanhuai arrived.

"You came."

Xiao Yuanhuai had a complicated expression, and he had conflicting feelings towards his grandfather.

When I was little, I admired him and learned from him. From my previous life until the moment of his death, I never suspected that he had two hearts.

It was this person whom he loved and respected who refused to give the imperial edict to him, causing him to resent the late emperor for his entire life.

Seeing Xiao Yuanhuai standing still, Mei Hanlin slowly walked to the chessboard and sat down alone. He picked up a white piece with his skinny hands.

He said to him, "Come, play one last round with grandfather."

Xiao Yuanhuai did not refuse and started playing with the black pieces.

He was decisive and swift in his actions today, and the battle was over in just half an hour, with the white pieces on the chessboard completely routed.

"Ahuai, you were not very good at playing chess with me in the past." Mei Hanlin looked at the chessboard calmly.

He underestimated his grandson. It seemed that he had never revealed his cards to his grandfather.

Be it a marriage, a will, or the level of chess playing.

Xiao Yuanhuai didn't intend to exchange pleasantries with him, and asked directly: "Is it grandpa's idea to send assassins to assassinate the queen?"

Mei Hanlin did not deny: "Yes."

"Just ask anything else you want to ask."

Xiao Yuanhuai's eyes dimmed and he felt bored.

"I don't understand why Grandfather would do this?"

Mei Hanlin showed a mocking look on his face, "Why? Of course it's for the position of queen, because the next monarch has the blood of the Mei family."

"Hasn't this been done? Isn't my mother a daughter of the Mei family? I don't have half of the Mei family bloodline?" This is what Xiao Yuanhuai could not understand the most.

When Mei Hanlin heard him mention his biological mother, he became furious.

"Don't mention your mother to me! She is not worthy of being a daughter of the Mei family!"

"She only has the late emperor in her heart, not the Mei family. I helped her become the late emperor's most favored concubine and gave birth to his favorite son.

But she didn't give anything in return to the Mei family and was not willing to do anything I asked her to do.

She even tortured herself to death after giving birth to you in order to prevent you from being controlled by the Mei family!"

"She is not worthy of being my daughter!"

After hearing this, Xiao Yuanhuai felt a huge wave of emotion in his heart.

So that's how it is. It turns out his mother didn't die in childbirth. It turns out his mother gave him everything she had and even sacrificed her own life to save him!

It's so stupid!

"So, you hate her so much that you would rather die than reveal your ambitions to my father?"

Mei Hanlin was stunned, and Xiao Yuanhuai continued, "She shouldn't die, and the Mei family is not worth her doing this."

"The person who deserves to die the most is you!"

Mei Hanlin's eyes were filled with shock, and he tried to murmur something in rebuttal, but nothing came out.

Xiao Yuanhuai turned around and ordered the people outside: "Give me poisoned wine, and leave my body intact and throw it into the mass grave!"

After saying this, he walked away without a trace of emotion.

It was not until he reached the courtyard that he breathed a long sigh of relief and looked at the blue sky and white clouds.

"Mother, I hope you won't blame me."

"Your Majesty, Miss Mei intends to commit suicide and wants to see Your Majesty." Chen Ke's men knelt on one knee and reported.

He was in charge of guarding Mei Ruolan, and could not let anyone die without the order from above. But Mei Ruolan tried to commit suicide several times, and he was helpless.

Xiao Yuanhuai snorted coldly and said softly: "If she wants to die, let her die. If she can't die tonight, send her off."

......

The next day, Xiao Li, the chief minister of the Dali Temple, submitted the case file of the assassination of the queen in the court.

As early as two days ago, the people from the Five Cities Military Division handed over those assassins to the Dali Temple.

After hearing this, Xiao Li was both shocked and angry. He was shocked that Mei Hanlin, who was highly respected by scholars all over the world, turned out to be such a shameless villain. He was also angry that Xiao Yuanhuai failed to protect her and let her fall into danger.

Later, when he came to his senses, he remembered that the queen had never appeared in the group going to pray for blessings from beginning to end.

He just snorted and muttered, "That's more like it."

After taking over the group of criminals, he interrogated them all night and used dozens of torture instruments from the Dali Temple one by one.

Finally, the files were sorted out before going to court.

There were more than a dozen pages of paper, all containing evidence of the murder committed by Mei and the Yingyang Zheng family.

The evidence is irrefutable! There is no escape!

Xiao Yuanhuai sentenced Mei Hanlin, Mei Ruolan and Madam Mei to death.

The rest of the Mei family who were unaware of the situation, regardless of gender, age or status, were all exiled to the western border.

The county government bordering the snow-capped mountains in the Western Regions reported the discovery of a silver mine hidden in the ice and snow.

I was worried that there were not enough people to carry out the excavation, so it was better to keep the Mei family members than to kill them.

There is another thing that is the most difficult to deal with, which is the punishment of Mei Qianhe.

As one of the unaware people in the Mei family, Mei Qianhe should also be exiled to the western border.

But on the one hand, he is indeed a talent. Apart from Minister Cui, he is also the only one who can handle things on his own in the Ministry of Revenue.

On the other hand, he also cares about the people and is not a selfish person.

But some court officials also questioned that although the Mei family had brought this upon themselves, it was hard to guarantee that Mei Qianhe would not harbor resentment and do something that would be detrimental to Dali.

Xiao Yuanhuai naturally believed in Mei Qianhe's character, but the court officials did not.

For this reason, the eldest princess personally went to the palace to meet Shen Baozhao and plead for Mei Qianhe.

Finally, it was agreed to temporarily dismiss Mei Qianhe from his post and let him reflect on his mistakes in the mansion. His reinstatement would be discussed after the Mei family's affairs were settled.

The princess felt relieved when she saw that the emperor and empress had no intention of pursuing the matter.

Soon, two months passed in a flash. In September, the autumn wind started to blow and the crab legs turned yellow.

As the due date approached, Shen Baozhao became more and more greedy.

It so happened that Jin Yuxin said that day that he had personally caught the crabs from the lake in Wuzhou Prefecture, and as soon as he arrived in Kyoto, he hurriedly delivered them to the palace.

He planned to have lunch with his Majesty brother and the Queen's sister-in-law.

He had been living a particularly carefree life in the past six months. When the spring news came in the south, he spent his days in Kyoto. When the plague broke out in Kyoto, he went to the south to eat, drink and have fun.

In his words, it's all about business.

Lord Jin and Mrs. Jin were so worried that they had to adopt sons and nephews from side branches for him, for they were afraid that when they grew old, Jin Yuxin would be left alone, and there would be no one to hold the banner and break the pot when he died.

Jin Yuxin brought a particularly large number of crabs, and it just so happened that Xue Sheng and his wife and Cui Mingzhu and his wife were both in the palace.

Shen Baozhao planned to hold a banquet in Kunning Palace for a good gathering.

The banquet would definitely not be dull with Jin Yuxin present. He made jokes and didn't care about status. Anyway, as long as he didn't rebel or break the law, his majesty brother would be tolerant of him.

After three glasses of wine, everyone started talking more.

Xue Sheng smiled and said, "Jin Duoduo, while His Majesty is free today, quickly ask His Majesty to grant you a marriage. Otherwise, who will your Jin family's huge fortune go to?"