Chapter 450 - 448: The Reasons Behind Everything (Update 2)

Chapter 450: Chapter 448: The Reasons Behind Everything (Update 2)

Nanny Lu’s face turned pale, and she couldn’t help but exclaim, "What is this talk of substitutes and appearances, the old servant doesn’t know what you all are talking about! Back then, I was responsible for choosing young servants for His Highness, and I certainly couldn’t choose some misfits, could I? Moreover, they were only seven or eight years old when they first entered the Prince Mansion, how could I have known what they would look like when they grew up..."

"So that’s why, four of the young servants were eliminated by you."

Xu Jing rudely interrupted Nanny Lu, having had enough of watching her act. "It’s true that at that time, it was difficult to predict what they would look like as adults, so you chose eight young servants whose builds were similar to Prince Ling’s at that age, and slowly kept the ones that met your requirements as they grew."

If I’m not wrong, the four remaining young servants all have builds similar to Prince Ling."

Sanye was taken aback and mumbled, "Indeed..."

Previously, she only knew that the young servants around Prince Ling were tall and handsome, little wonder they were chosen to serve by his side.

But she hadn’t noticed that their builds, rather than being similar to each other, were similar to Prince Ling!

Xu Jing looked at Nanny Lu and continued, "Shuangrui once told me that initially, he was selected from hundreds of people, but I’m afraid you picked from over a thousand people. Because your criteria for selection included not only the build but also the soles of their right feet, which needed to have two moles like Prince Ling’s in roughly the same places!"

Nanny Lu’s face turned as white as a sheet and her lips trembled, yet she stubbornly said, "You mustn’t speak nonsense..."

"To find out if I’m talking nonsense, it’s quite simple."

With a slight smile, Xu Jing said, "Shuangxi’s body was left in Yulin County, Shengzhou where the incident occurred. Just have someone rush there to check if he also has two moles on the sole of his right foot, and everything will become clear.

You could even send people to Qi State to check on the other two young servants left there."

Governor Zhang, hearing this, immediately summoned a Government Official with a stern face and ordered him to hurry to Shengzhou to investigate the matter.

Nanny Lu’s lips trembled even more, rendering her speechless for a moment.

At this time, Chen Hu couldn’t help but say, "If the substitute was chosen by Nanny Lu, then Nanny Lu must be involved in the case, but the Consort claimed that when she entered Princess Ling’s room, they were already gone, so who is the real murderer?"

Xu Jing glanced at him and said, "I have felt from the beginning that it couldn’t be Consort Fang. She merely helped carry two heads and was so traumatized by the experience, needing incense to calm her nerves while wearing bright clothes. Such fragile nerve wouldn’t allow her to kill so many people without blinking an eye.

Moreover, I’ve asked the guards around Consort Fang, and at the time of Dongxue’s death, Consort Fang and Sanye were in the room, they had no time to kill Dongxue.

When the first case happened, the guards were still not watching Prince Ling and the others very closely. However, by the time of the second case, they barely let Prince Ling and the others leave their sight, except their servants.

But if any of the servants disappeared, the guards would certainly have noticed something.

So, as long as we ask the guards who were with Prince Ling and the others at the time, it would be easy to find out who wasn’t with them when Dongxue and Tianxi were murdered in the second incident..."

While speaking, Xu Jing looked at Dongyang, who had been quietly standing by the side of Princess Consort Ling, with a hint of mockery, "The guards clearly told me that Shuangrui hardly left Prince Ling’s side at that time, and Nanny Lu was always by Princess Consort Ling’s side. Both Dongxue and Shuangxi were sent out for errands when they were murdered, leaving only — you, Dongyang!"

Dongyang slightly lowered his head, his face pale.

In fact, finding the suspect wasn’t difficult through elimination, but everyone had been fixated on the two missing heads throughout this case, and suddenly having five suspects in the murder of Princess Ling’s case only added to the confusion.

All eyes turned to Dongyang, and Governor Zhang suddenly shouted sternly, "Dongyang, is this true?!"

Dongyang’s body trembled slightly, and he slowly raised his head. Although his face was devoid of color, there was a determined look in his eyes.

However, he neither nodded nor shook his head, just stared coldly at Governor Zhang and Xu Jing.

Chen Hu, feeling uneasy under Dongyang’s gaze, said, "Does that mean Nanny Lu and Dongyang were accomplices? They killed those people together and then coerced Consort Fang into helping them move the heads?

Gasp! If that’s the case, everything they did was so Prince Ling could use Shuangrui as a decoy to escape in the end? Now that I think about it, they killed everyone around Prince Ling. Even though Prince Ling and Shuangrui are similar in build, there’s a chance those people might have noticed something.

Even the two moles on the soles couldn’t possibly be in the exact same spots..."

Suddenly realizing something, Chen Hu looked up in shock at Princess Consort Ling, who had remained silent and seemingly hidden among the crowd.

Yes, even if Nanny Lu had chosen people with two moles like Prince Ling on the soles of their feet, people are still people; the position, size, and color of moles can’t be exactly the same!

This is why they had to kill everyone around Prince Ling first.

Without witnesses, no one would realize the person who died in the fire wasn’t Prince Ling, but Shuangrui!

But... even if others couldn’t tell, how could Princess Consort Ling fail to notice?

As Prince Ling’s birth mother, she should be the one who knows Prince Ling the best!

Unless... Princess Consort Ling was also aware of this!

The mastermind behind this conspiracy might very well be Princess Consort Ling!

Nanny Lu suddenly gritted her teeth and said coldly, "Absurd! All this is mere speculation! What substitute, what Silk Escape, the old servant doesn’t know anything!

I only know that our prince was murdered. This is your negligence! Are you all concocting a false truth to shift the blame onto us to avoid responsibility?

Besides, you claim Dongyang is the murderer, but where is the evidence? During the time when Dongxue and Tianxi were killed, Dongyang indeed... had been sent out on an errand, but that can’t prove she is the murderer!

Has anyone seen Dongyang killing someone?!"

Xu Jing looked at Nanny Lu coldly, then suddenly chuckled softly, "I indeed lack concrete evidence, which is why I didn’t have General Han arrest Dongyang immediately, but just stationed him to keep an eye on Prince Ling.

To be honest, I misjudged the situation. I anticipated that Shuangrui would be killed by you, but I didn’t expect you to use the Fire Escape method.

Earlier, I always thought you were doing all this under the Jiang Family’s orders, just so you could stay in Xinzhou, allowing the nearby Jiang Family to have time to rush over, and then attack the Full Moon Building in the chaos, taking away Prince Ling and Princess Consort Ling.

Shuangrui served as a distraction for us. Once Shuangrui and Prince Ling swap clothes, and Shuangrui is killed with his head cut off in advance, it would blur our judgment, allowing the Jiang Family to seize the opportunity to snatch away the crucial Prince Ling.

Before the Full Moon Building caught fire, my deduction was always like this."

For this reason, she had specifically left Cheng Xiao at the Full Moon Building to prevent such a swap.

Xu Jing paused for a moment, then looked at the silent Princess Consort Ling and said, "When I realized the Consort was left behind alone, I knew something was off.

Filial piety is important — how could a prince escape alone while leaving his mother behind and expect to win people’s hearts and recruit talents? If this were the Jiang Family’s doing, they wouldn’t have just taken Prince Ling, they would have taken the Consort too.

To be blunt, the Consort might have been inadvertently lost during the escape, but leaving her alone as a hostage in Great Chu is more disadvantageous to them.

"Furthermore, the Jiang Family is certainly capable of such tasks, but the person who executed the escape in the end was Prince Ling himself. From start to finish, I have never seen the Jiang Family’s meddling.

Consort, if I’m not mistaken, you orchestrated all this, didn’t you? Did you do it in hopes that Prince Ling could escape the court’s and the Jiang Family’s oppression, so he could live the rest of his life... free?"