Fragrance Returned

Kong Jing had been hiding in the Pan family, and was captured when she and Pan Baishou escaped from the secret passage.

Qiu Wangzhi asked someone to take the prisoner to Jinwuwei, and he went directly to the palace.

In the side hall of Taiji Palace, the emperor was listening to Qiu Wangzhi's report with a gloomy face. Behind him stood Eunuch Shan, who bent his waist lower than usual.

Sun Yumu walked in, presented a pile of memorials and said, "Your Majesty, Gao Ming has confessed everything, and the evidence of the crime has also been seized. This is his handwritten letter to Your Majesty, and he asked me to hand it to Your Majesty."

The emperor cursed, "That beast, he is against heaven and earth, and he can harm his own brother and son like this. I will not let him off easily."

He thought Gao Ming was afraid of death and asked his men to show mercy, and he didn't want to read the letter.

But seeing that there were more than 20 pages of paper, he was a little curious and took it to read.

The characters were in regular script, which had both soft beauty and strength and strength. Every word was full of agility and profound connotation, which made the emperor look at it.

Not to mention the princes and grandchildren, even among the ministers, there are few people who can write such characters. Xiangxiang's regular script is not as good as his.

Gao Ming can actually write such characters. What does he not know about this son?

It was written in prison. In that environment, he could calm down and write such characters. His character is extraordinary.

The first address of the letter is "Father's knees", not "Father".

Then it is "My son respectfully knocks on the door", not "My son".

This is a letter written by an ordinary son to an ordinary father.

The emperor's heart was captured, and he changed from holding the letter with two fingers to holding the letter with two hands.

He read more and more attentively, and his expression changed slightly with the content of the letter. He forgot that there were two ministers standing in front of him.

Halfway through, the emperor's eyes were red, and he shed tears after reading it.

Eunuch Shan quickly presented a silk scarf. The emperor took the silk scarf to wipe his tears and lowered his head in thought.

Sun Yumu and Qiu Wangzhi looked at each other, and both lowered their heads expressionlessly.

The letter described the ulterior motives of the old Su's servants to teach Gao Ming since he was old enough to understand, the bullying, ridicule, exclusion, and injustice he suffered like a sharp knife cutting his heart, and the struggle and hesitation when Eunuch Guo found him.

Especially when his beloved Aunt Mu died of illness when he was seven years old, he felt that the sky had fallen and slept with Aunt Mu's body in his arms for a night. His tears dried up that night, and he would not cry no matter how big the setback was.

He also said one thing. When he was thirteen years old, Empress Dowager Su personally took him and several older princes, Gao Feng, Gao Jie, and Gao Yun, to the royal Taoist temple Qingyun Temple to burn incense. Because Empress Dowager Su wanted to discuss Taoism with the abbot of the Taoist temple, several younger generations went to the guest room to rest after eating.

When Gao Ming walked into the guest room, he found a person crawling under the bed.

This was a Taoist priest. Gao Ming had seen him and heard others call him Taoist Mu. He also saw the eunuchs serving Empress Dowager Su talking to him.

At this time, there was a noise outside, as if someone was being arrested.

Someone knocked on Gao Ming's door and asked if there was anyone in the room.

The eunuch came in, and Gao Ming quickly sat on the bed and blocked Taoist Mu with his legs, saying, "There is no one here."

The reason he saved the Taoist priest was because the Taoist priest's surname was "Mu", which reminded him of Aunt Mu.

After the people left, he locked the door.

Taoist Mu crawled out and said, "Thank you for saving my life, Your Highness. I was captured by the Su family and asked to see which of the princes had the appearance of the emperor. At that time, I didn't dare to tell the truth, and only said that the second prince had the appearance of the emperor...

"They wanted to take me to the Su Mansion to use them. But I lied, the second prince was not the emperor at all, and it was impossible for him to be the emperor, so he dared not go to the Su Mansion. He wanted to take the opportunity to escape, but they found him..."

Gao Ming hated Empress Dowager Su and Gao Feng the most. Of course, he was happy that Gao Feng could not be the emperor.

Seeing that the Taoist priest was not tall, he went out and took a set of dirty clothes that the eunuchs had changed and gave it to him, "You hide here first, and you find a way to get out after we leave. "

Mu Daoist didn't expect that the prince would dare to save him, and he was overjoyed.

He added, "Thank you, Your Highness, for saving my life. I'll tell you the truth again, Your Highness is 70% lucky, 100% very lucky. The Third Prince is also 50% lucky, but there is still one point of evil.

"The Second Prince has an average fate, he will never ascend to the throne, and he has no good life... If the emperor only has you princes, Your Highness will plan well, and his hope will be much greater than that of the Third Prince."

Because of that adventure, Gao Ming thought he was destined to be the emperor, and he didn't want his children to suffer like him, so he listened to Eunuch Guo's words regardless of everything...

He knew that he was guilty and was willing to be punished, but he hoped that the emperor would let his three children go, they were innocent...

The emperor knew that his eldest son had gone through that when he was young.

He slapped the dragon table and said, "No matter how low his mother was, she was still my son, but he actually lived that kind of life..."

He regretted it very much at this time. If he had asked one more question at the beginning, Gao Ming's life would have been better and he would not have gone down the road of no return.

Sun Yumu said again, "Your Majesty, I have examined Prince Duan's body. His left and right upper arms and two thighs are almost completely broken, with scars layered on top of each other, which is shocking."

The emperor asked, "He was cut by magic."

Sun Yumu said, "Magic can be done with needles, the damage is not that serious. Those wounds are knife wounds, most of which are old wounds, and they are all caused by Gao Ming's self-mutilation."

The emperor was puzzled, "Self-mutilation?"

Sun Yumu said, "I heard from Prince Duan that he started after Aunt Mu died. Whenever he felt pain in his heart that could not be eliminated, he would secretly take a knife or a sharp object to cut the flesh on his body. The flesh hurts, and the heart doesn't hurt that much."

"The servants didn't dare to tell anyone when they saw it. This matter has been concealed to this day. Because he received many blows when he was young, he often suffered from nightmares. If he had nightmares, he would also harm himself.

"Your Majesty, before we destroyed Jingci Temple, King Duan did not know that those medicines were made by Kong Jing with human blood. Moreover, he did not directly cause death. I am brave enough to intercede for King Duan. He is guilty, but not guilty. lethal.

"Of course, we must first make sure that he can no longer use 'Lian Xin San' to cast spells to harm others."

Qiu Wangzhi also clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty, I also believe that King Duan's crime will not lead to death."

After Qiu Wangzhi caught Kong Jing and Pan Shoubai for interrogation, he found out that they and Princess Duan had been hiding from Prince Duan that Lian Xin San was made with the blood of a boy.

The emperor asked again, "Kong Jing doesn't know how to remove the 'Lian Xin San' from the human body?"

Qiu Wangzhi said, "I gave Kong Jing a severe punishment. She said there was no way to remove the 'Lian Xin Powder'. As long as the subject no longer casts spells, the condition of those who have cast spells before will not worsen, and those who have not cast spells will not get worse." Any discomfort."

The emperor was still worried. Except for Xiao Ba, his princes and grandsons all have that thing on them. What if someone casts the spell again?

He said weakly, "Bring Gao Ming to Zhonghe Hall tomorrow. I want to see him."