"Mother, this is..."
Shen Haolin and Shen Cha looked at a red envelope and a white envelope placed in front of them, looked at the Queen Mother in confusion, and then at Song Jue, Song Qiyun, and Song Jinyu sitting next to them.
As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the palace, they were led by Eunuch Cui who was waiting at the entrance to the Queen Mother's palace. Just as Song Jue said before, the Queen Mother had something important to tell them. After they bowed, the Queen Mother took out these two letters.
Judging from the reactions of the three Song Jue brothers, they had read the contents of these two letters before and knew what would happen next. But these three people didn't know if they had been instructed by the Queen Mother, and she didn't give them the slightest hint.
"You don't need to look at them, just read these two letters first." The Queen Mother smiled at the two of them, "You will understand after reading them."
"yes!"
Shen Haolin and Shen Cha looked at each other, picked up the red envelope on the left, pulled the letter out of it, and after opening it, they only looked at the beginning, and they were already shocked.
"this……"
Looking at Shen Cha next to him, he had basically the same reaction as him, with disbelief written all over his face.
"Continue, continue." The Queen Mother smiled and waved her hand, asking them to continue reading. "After you two have read yours, you can exchange them, look at the other's, and then find out the difference between the two letters."
The two people exchanged a look, then lowered their heads to read the letter in their hands, looking very carefully for fear of missing any clues. After reading their own, just as the Queen Mother said, the two exchanged the letters in their hands and read each other's carefully again.
Although the contents of the two letters were completely different, they also knew that what the Queen Mother wanted them to read was not the contents of the letters.
They put the two letters side by side and compared the time of nearly half a stick of incense very carefully. They could not see any problems in it. There was really no flaw at all.
"How?" The Queen Mother saw them folding the letter intact and putting it back into the envelope, and said with a smile, "What's the gain?"
"As far as I'm concerned, no." Shen Cha put the two letters back in front of the Queen Mother, "Judging from the content, the letter in my brother's hand should be a secret file kept by the Ministry of Punishment, which is the so-called ironclad evidence of Aunt Xue's conviction. According to the information we have, this letter was forged by a craftsman. The letter I got is a letter written by Aunt Xue to the Queen Mother. If it is correct, it should be her own handwriting."
"That's half right." Song Jue poured a cup of tea for Shen Haolin and Shen Cha. "Both of these letters are forgeries. The one you saw was specially used to frame the queen mother. It was only sent out halfway. Something went wrong and the letter was never produced. This time, we found these among the pile of physical evidence."
"Frame the Queen Mother?" Shen Haolin was stunned and looked at Song Jue, "What's the point of framing the Queen Mother... No, this is definitely not their plan!" He shook his head gently and smiled bitterly, "In this case, we Looking in the wrong direction, it’s not that simple.”
"Oh? Tell me, let's see if you think the same as me."
"Aunt Xue... she should have blocked the disaster for you." Shen Haolin looked at Song Jue seriously, "Their target is you."
"It seems that I am not the only one who thinks so." Song Jue sighed and leaned lazily next to Shen Haolin, "They had a big plot back then. Once the mother is convicted, as a son, I can keep the prince. I'm lucky to have the title, but don't count on the throne. Their target is not only me, but also Qiyun and Xiaojiu."
"That's right. What they want is for everyone in the Queen Mother's lineage to lose power. It can be said to be a two-pronged approach. Get rid of Aunt Xue, and the prestige of the Wuding Marquis Mansion and the Shen Family Army will be cut in half, no matter how many battles they win. , the first thing people thought of was the so-called collaboration with the enemy, Mrs. Wu Dinghou. Facts have proved that this move was right. In the past few years, Brother Xiaotian has been carrying such a heavy burden and bearing such infamy. And for the Queen Mother The empress wants to make sure that Brother Xiaojue, Qiyun, and Xiaojiu have no chance of getting involved in the throne. I don’t know how serious the differences they had on this plan, or the great difficulties they encountered, which led to them having to temporarily withdraw from the throne. The hand ends at Aunt Xue's place." Shen Cha held the teacup, looked at the Queen Mother, and then at Song Jue, "Looking at it this way, the Queen Mother's natal family is just the smallest link, the least important chess piece, and Jin The person or person who cooperated with Wan Yanping was actually another person, a person who had great ideas about the throne."
"It's not that I haven't thought about having a mole, but..." Song Jue touched his chin, "If he really exists, then this person has been hidden very well. After so many years, we haven't found anything at all. A little bit of awareness. If we hadn't been determined to find out the truth about my aunt's case, I'm afraid we wouldn't have discovered this."
"If this is the case, our previous reasoning will be overturned." Shen Cha knocked on the table lightly, "What we thought before was to use Aunt Xue to frame the Wuding Hou Mansion and frame the Shen family army. But now it is different. Their goal is If it is Your Majesty, the nature of the whole case will be completely different.”
"Cha'er is right. Their original plan should be much bigger than the current one." Shen Haolin sighed, "If I guessed correctly, they should have forged Aunt Xue's secret letter first. The Queen Mother, and then they forged the so-called ironclad letter. They only needed to mention something about the Kingdom of Jin in the forged letter to the Queen Mother, to show that she was in contact with the Kingdom of Jin and the eldest prince."
"But..." Song Jinyu frowned, "Doesn't such a serious matter require careful verification? The Ministry of Punishment concluded that there is a connection based on just a few words in a letter. Are they handling the case so hastily? Are they not afraid of being derelict in their duties or being blamed? Charge of dereliction of duty?”
"Aunt Xue is at the border and the eldest prince is in Yiqing Mansion. How to get evidence? They calculated this accurately and arranged this step. If evidence can be obtained, this lie will be easily exposed." Shen Cha sneered. "But the letter was not sent out. Instead, it was a forged letter between Aunt Xue and the eldest prince. The reason behind this can be explored."
"The biggest doubt we had about this case at the beginning was that there was no confession from our aunt, and we were convicted based only on an unclear letter. Moreover, my father clearly knew that my aunt was wrongly accused, but for some unknown reason, he still agreed with the Ministry of Punishment The crime set against Dali Temple. I really don’t understand why! If you have any difficulties, you can tell them and we can solve them together, right?" Song Jue rubbed his forehead and looked at the Queen Mother Madam, "I remember, did my father send several letters to my uncle?"
"Secret edicts, the kind that will burn immediately after being read." The Empress Dowager also sighed, "I have made inquiring around, but your father refused to reveal any details or secrets about this case, not even a word. He also advised me not to get involved in this matter. He once said that if the children want to overturn the verdict in the future, the truth will come out one day. At that time, the children will understand why he did what he did. He said When he said this, he looked very bitter and sad."
"This is..." Several children present looked at each other, "What do you mean? So, is this case deliberately left to us?"
"Probably!" The Queen Mother looked a little tired, "Okay, I have told you everything I know, and you will be responsible for the rest. Can you solve this mystery? Can you help your aunts and uncles? It depends on your ability to reverse the case." She waved her hand gently, "You all can go, I'm a little tired and need to rest!"
Several children stood up, saluted the Queen Mother, and quietly left the palace.
"Go to the warm hall!" Song Jue asked Eunuch Cui to order the imperial kitchen to prepare dinner and midnight snacks, and then said to a few people around him, "We have to have a good chat tonight!"
