sjar Chapter 538: No Evidence, So What If I Admit It
Chapter 538: No Evidence, So What If I Admit It
"Your Highness, I was careless. I deserve to die!"
Lin Jie knelt down, and Xiao Yi didn't even glance at him. He just looked at Jiang Suining and Shen Yanxi. After a long while, he laughed softly, and his smile made people feel a little cold.
"Amazing, really amazing. It seems that I underestimated you."
"Now that things have come to this, Fourth Prince, can you please tell me what role you played in that incident back then?" Jiang Suining stared at Xiao Yi.
Xiao Yi shrugged lightly, with a look of confusion on his face.
"What happened in the past? What did you mean by what happened in the past? Miss Jiang, are you talking about the disaster relief money case? But that case has been concluded, and the murderer is the third brother, who has committed suicide out of fear of the crime. Is there anything Miss Jiang is dissatisfied with?"
"Your Highness, why do you have to be like this? Now that we are here today, why not speak frankly? Were you the one framing the Third Prince for what happened back then?" Shen Yanxi's tone was sharp and intimidating for a moment, as if he wanted to tear off all the cover and expose everything to the sunlight.
In such a tone, the smile on Xiao Yi's face was like the mist after the sun rose in the early morning, dissipating bit by bit.
"Okay, I admit that I was the one who sent Lin Jie from the beginning, and I was also the one who sent people to kill those people in the suburbs."
At first, the suburban murder case seemed to be over, but he had not been able to find the missing evidence, and he suspected that the evidence had fallen into the hands of others.
The first person they suspected was Jiang Suining who passed by there, but they sent people to sneak into the Jiang family to search and find out, but there was no clue. So later, they took advantage of the opportunity when the Jiang family was recruiting guards and sent Lin Jie to sneak in.
But he didn't expect that Lin Jie would reveal his true colors from the very beginning, and he didn't expect that the chess piece he had laid out back then would actually backfire on him!
"Your Highness has also admitted that it was you who did what happened back then?" Shen Yanxi spoke again.
Xiao Yi raised his eyebrows with disdain, "Even if this prince admits it, so what? Without evidence, everything is just empty talk. Originally, this prince thought that you really had another Feng Yimin in your hands, but now it seems that all this is just a game."
"Although Feng Yimin is dead, we have gained a lot by luring you, the Fourth Prince, out of this game." Jiang Suining's tone was not discouraged at all. "What's more, we didn't expect to prove anything in this situation. The purpose of all this today is just to find out what the truth was back then."
"The truth?" Xiao Yi said slowly, "After all, it's been a long time, and I don't know where to start for the moment."
Shen Yanxi said: "Then let's start with the seal of the Third Prince on the letter."
"The seal is indeed a key piece of evidence." Xiao Yi raised a playful smile on his face again, even with a hint of pride, "That was just something I secretly stamped on while Xiao Ling wasn't noticing. Speaking of which..."
Xiao Yi stretched out his voice slightly, with a hint of reminiscence in his tone.
"In fact, I am probably the first one who wanted to seize the throne, but I knew very early that this path was too difficult. Once I reveal my intention, I will become the target of public criticism. The best way is to erect a target to attract fire. And Xiao Ling is the target chosen by this prince."
Jiang Suining looked at Xiao Yi, who was unable to hide his pride, and said, "But I heard that you two have a deep brotherly love, and the Third Prince once saved your life."
"How can there be brotherhood among the royal family?" Xiao Yi asked with a sneer, "Besides, wasn't what happened back then also his plan?"
At first he felt that Xiao Ling saved him and was very grateful, but later he discovered that his fall into the water was actually secretly planned by Xiao Ling.
There was even a young eunuch who was going to pass by the lake, but Xiao Ling found a way to send him away, in order to ensure that no one would pass by and save him. And the wooden bridge by the lake where he often played had also been tampered with by Xiao Ling, who had secretly observed him many times.
"At that time, Xiao Ling was having a hard time in the palace. He wanted to use me and do me a favor so that he could live a better life. That was understandable. But since he was using me to scheme against me from the beginning, why can't I scheme against him? What's more, Xiao Ling also got a share of the disaster relief money."
Xiao Ling's biological mother was of low status, and compared to himself or other princes, he had no support from his mother's family. In that situation, if he wanted to win over court officials, make friends with officials, or even raise staff and cultivate his own power, he could not do without money.
However, he did not have much savings, and the monthly salary of the prince was far from enough, so he set his sights on the disaster relief funds and tried to find a way to make some money from it.
Of course, Xiao Ling still knew how to restrain himself, and he didn't make much money.
After he found out about it, he tried to make a huge fortune from it, and put the blame of everything on Xiao Ling, using Xiao Ling's name.
But the upper class followed suit, and after layers of exploitation, the relief money was far from enough. Seeing that the situation was out of control, the officials below began to secretly send messages to Xiao Ling, hoping that he, the prince, could find a solution.
He intercepted all those letters and began to issue orders in Xiao Ling's name.
Although he realized that Xiao Ling had done it on purpose to make him fall into the water, he did not break up with him. He even got along with Xiao Ling like a brother over the years.
His third brother trusted him very much and foolishly believed that he had no intention of stealing the throne. He did not hide many things from him, so it was a simple matter for him to enter the Third Prince's Mansion, get his seal, and imitate his handwriting.
Later, the disaster relief work in Songjiang Prefecture got increasingly out of control and involved more and more people. He was indeed nervous and scared, but then he thought of another point. If this matter was resolved smoothly, he would have had evidence against the officials involved.
Moreover, he was hiding behind Xiao Ling, so if the truth were to be revealed one day, he could still use Xiao Ling as a scapegoat.
Although he was still young at that time, his ideas were not thorough enough, and he was not experienced enough in doing things, but perhaps with God's help, everything really went as he imagined.
Later, Jiang Suining's father was killed and the case of disaster relief silver was successfully concluded.
Under his operation, most of the relevant officials were promoted. Although those people thought it was Xiao Ling's work and even began to serve Xiao Ling, he didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
After all, a tall tree attracts the wind. The more powerful Xiao Ling seems, the easier it is for him to be ignored. He can be slowly won over and chew those tough bones in secret.
In addition, he had already made instructions in advance that no one was allowed to mention what happened back then, otherwise they would be killed. So even though those people felt that they were already on the side of the Third Prince, they would never mention what happened back then in front of Xiao Ling.
As for Xiao Ling, with the disaster relief money that he had carefully designed back then, it would be very easy for him to get him to step down.
Of course, although he thought that those people might secretly leave some evidence, he did not expect that the idiot Chu Yisheng would actually let someone steal the evidence.
That was the first variable he encountered!