The prison was very dark, only the end of the corridor on the wall was burning with a faint flame.
Zong Ruichen carefully walked down the stairs, and only his voice could be heard on the steps.
He naturally listened to the words of the Third Imperial Brother. He also knew that the Fourth Prince was not a good person.
Last time, the Third Imperial Brother led the troops to Yu Country without saying a word, and almost left without having time to inform Zong Ruichen.
He lived in the Xuan Cavalry army camp, and it was not until the Xuan Cavalry were ready to go and were about to leave in the early morning that he learned about it. Zong Ruichen was startled and hurriedly packed his luggage, but was told by Mu Yuanlong that he was not prepared to take him.
Zong Ruichen had a hard time describing his depressed mood at the time.
He had been looking forward to going to the battlefield for so long, and the imperial brother had also promised him that he would go after his eyes recovered. It was impossible to say that he was not disappointed.
But he also knew that the Third Imperial Brother did this because his martial arts had not yet been learned, and he was afraid that he would have an accident on the battlefield, so he made this arrangement.
But after he left the palace, he lived in the Xuan Cavalry army camp and studied martial arts with Brother Mu. Now that all the Xuan Cavalry had left, he had to return to the Third Prince’s Mansion. The Third Prince’s Mansion still housed imperial brother’s friends, Gu Ziyuan and Ye Linghan.
After experiencing so many things, it was difficult for Zong Ruichen to confide in Ye Linghan again. The latter also seemed very busy, running out every day. As for Gu Ziyuan, he had an official position and worked from dawn to dusk, and they were not familiar with each other.
So during the time when the Third Imperial Brother left the capital, Zong Ruichen was idle, and only the Fourth Imperial Brother often came to play with him.
At the beginning, Zong Ruichen was naturally full of vigilance against Zong Chengsi, and impervious to oil and salt. (TL: extremely stubborn)
However, to be fair, in the past few months, Zong Chengsi had indeed not done anything he couldn’t afford, and even had not mentioned the Third Imperial Brother or fanned the flames in front of him, causing Zong Ruichen to be full of vigilance at the beginning but nowhere to apply. He didn’t even take him to any unsightly places, but rather took care of him and often took him out for a walk.
No matter how precocious Zong Ruichen was, he was just a teenager. In the early years, he was still staying in the Cold Palace and had never experienced the kindness of others.
Only the Third Imperial Brother and the Fourth Imperial Brother, perhaps the latter was fake, Zong Ruichen still decided to come and send him off on his last journey, and by the way, ask why the Fourth Imperial Brother suddenly rebelled.
Until Zong Ruichen walked all the way to the bottom, the prison was cold and quiet, without a sound.
He held the torch provided by the prison guard, exhaled in the cold air as he walked forward, carefully staring at the only black spot in the distant cell.
Clatter clatter clatter clatter——
It wasn’t until Zong Ruichen stood outside the cell for a while that the person who had been hanging his head in the cell suddenly looked up.
Zong Ruichen was frightened and took a step back.
The face illuminated by the firelight was distorted, the eyes were full of bloodshot, there was no trace of the usual neat and handsome demeanor, but rather like a hellish demon.
“Heehee, heeheehee.”
All night long, Zong Chengsi endured unimaginable torture in the prison.
Over the years of fighting for the throne, he indeed had many small moves in private and also made friends with some important court officials. For example, the letter he sent to the King of Beining, and some unspeakable ones, letters of conspiracy with people of all kinds.
However, these letters were all kept in the secret room of the Fourth Prince’s Mansion.
There was also a very hidden secret compartment in the secret room, which was a box that Zong Chengsi bought from a merchant who traveled around the world when he was searching outside in the early years. If the box opening mechanism was entered incorrectly three times, it would automatically destroy the things inside.
Zong Chengsi’s character was cautious, every time he transmitted secret letters, he used extremely hidden means, not to mention that there were so many preparations for storing secret letters. He dared to guarantee that only he knew about all this, and it was absolutely impossible to find a second person who knew about this.
So at the beginning, he was full of confidence, convinced that Yu Beizhou, no matter how arrogant, would not dare to do anything to him, until the King of Beining threw a stack of letters on the ground, and then found the servants of the Fourth Prince’s Mansion and the strategists of the Fifth and Sixth Prince’s Mansion.
The evidence was irrefutable.
“Father Emperor, spare this son’s life!! This son has absolutely no such intention, please Father Emperor discern!” (TL: 明鉴 (ming jian)-A word of respect used to pray for the other party to review clearly.)
When these evidences were placed in front of everyone, Zong Chengsi panicked.
He knelt on the ground, speaking indiscriminately. “Furthermore, this son entered the palace last night, and had an important matter to report to the Father Emperor! Last night, this son was fortunate to be entrusted by an immortal in his dream, telling that the Third Prince is not your biological son, your biological son is the King of Beining! If you don’t believe it, you can ask him, this son is telling the truth, there is absolutely no falsehood!”
Yu Beizhou sneered just right. “What nonsense is the Fourth Prince talking about? It’s one thing to disrespect the Crown Prince, but to slander and drag this King into the water?”
“Besides,” he added casually, “The Crown Prince is the chosen one from the Witch Sacrificial Ceremony, your accusations are nothing more than desperate struggles, absurd talk.”
Zong Chengsi felt his blood run cold.
He was one hundred percent sure that Yu Beizhou was definitely of Emperor Yuan’s bloodline, but he never thought that this person, not wanting to restore his own prince’s identity, would actually help Zong Luo hide?!
Not to mention the fact that the Third Prince and the King of Beining, although they were martial brothers, they didn’t see eye to eye and were enemies. Even if it’s just an ordinary person, who would willingly give up their own noble identity to someone else???
Zong Chengsi couldn’t understand, and he didn’t understand. He didn’t know where he went wrong.
It was clearly a game of chess that was sure to win, but because of the chess piece’s betrayal, he lost everything.
Emperor Yuan watched all this, said nothing, waved his hand to let Yuan Jia bring the decree, with a look of extreme disappointment.
After stamping the jade seal on the decree, he looked at Yu Beizhou. “After dealing with this matter, come to the main hall to see Zhen. You still owe Zhen an explanation.” From beginning to end, he didn’t look at Zong Chengsi more.
Only Zong Chengsi, resisting like a madman, had his tongue ripped out.
Not many people came to visit today. Just now when Zong Luo came, he wished he could eat his flesh. Unexpectedly, in the end, he saw Zong Ruichen.
Zong Chengsi knew in his heart that he could not escape his death sentence, and inevitably had some thoughts of a fish dying or the net breaking.
(TL: Chinese idiom, literally meaning, either the fish 鱼 dies 死 or the net 网 breaks 破. It’s used to describe a life-and-death situation in which both sides try to defeat and survive the opposing side.)
