Chapter 40 : Framing the Scandal

"Have you already started arranging the men?"

By the railing on the third floor of a teahouse next to the city gates stood a tall and a short man, both clad in light-coloured thick cloaks, their hoods hiding their faces in a shadow.

A vast army was hurrying out of the city on the main street, running towards the south.

"Yes. The city gates will be manned by the Tantai family's exclusive guards, and once they are under control, they will immediately rush to the palace to support you."

"The two of us together can't possibly have more than three thousand men, do you have the certainty that you can make the other forces bind their hands?"

"As long as we pre-empt the situation and seize the moment to control the entire situation, if the other imperial princes don't know better, it's just the right time to plant a charge of forcing the palace, and the generals out there coming to the capital without imperial orders is tantamount to a revolt. What I said is all right?"

"Very well, as soon as the Feng Taishi falls, we will make our move! Thanks to your reminder, I was able to stay in the imperial capital without delay."

"Fang Ping disguised himself as you to quell the rebellion?"

"Hm."

"The Emperor has invited me to go to Eunuch Feng's residence today, there is a good show about to take place. Then, I will take my leave first." The shorter man finished speaking and turned around to go downstairs.

"A good show? May really want to go see it ..."

Pei Si Yan went out the back door of the teahouse, handed the cloak to Yun Qi to take home, and herself and Li Qing Dye headed to the Feng Mansion.

"Is everything ready?" She asked.

Li Qinghan said, "Yes, it was all set up last night according to your instructions."

Pei Si Yan felt refreshed,, a wry smile appeared on her beautiful face, she finely straightened her somewhat wrinkled sleeves, and straightened her body proudly.

In front of the Feng Mansion, a bustling scene, a group of officials gathered together, chatting idly. The forbidden guards were neatly lined up on both sides of the street, prohibiting all idle people from approaching. A team of carriages were lined up, and Taishi Feng, dressed in purple official robes, personally commanded the arrangements, the servants surprisingly moved the goods on the carriages into the mansion in an orderly manner.

Feng family's second son, Shixian, did not have any interest in being an official, and simply went into business. Over the years, he had travelled around in the south and north of the sky, almost travelling to all corners of the Spirit Abyss Continent, and relying on his clever mind and exceptional courage, he had opened countless merchant houses in just five or six years, accumulating a considerable amount of wealth.

Strong power and huge money, allowed Imperial Master Feng to be a fish out of water in the official world, becoming a strong pillar for the Second Prince.

This time, Feng Shixian had been out in the world for half a year and had searched back quite a few rare and precious treasures of the Blue Country, preparing to offer them to the Emperor in his father's name in the hope that the Emperor's dragon face would be pleased.

Pei Shi Yan walked over and greeted him in a friendly manner, "Good day, Lord Feng."

Taishi Feng gave her a contemptuous look and said monotonously, "Thank you, Lord Wuban, for showing your face."

"It's me who should thank you for giving me the opportunity to open my eyes." Pei Si Yan said in an unclear sense, smiling politely and walking towards Wuluo, "Lord Chu, there happens to be something to talk to you about."

Feng Taishi let out a cold "hmph" sound from his nose and continued to greet the other officials.

"You don't have to be polite to people like Feng Dingyuan," Wuluo was a bit indignant, "relying on the fact that he has the Second Prince, he thinks he is lawless! Now that the second prince is in trouble, let's see how long he can still be complacent."

"Lord Wuluo, I'm a bit confused," Pei Si Yan lightly smiled, with a look of not really caring, "Eunuch Feng has always been clean and honest, respected by the officials and the people, such a good official is exactly what the court needs, right?"

"Need him?" Wuluo sneered, remembering the endless struggle between them in the past few months, the loss of energy, manpower and financial resources, the anger in his heart burned hotter and hotter, "Lord Wuban, seeing that our two families are about to become in-laws, there are some things that I have to kindly remind you of, don't think that Taishi Feng is a good person! Otherwise you will suffer sooner or later, if something happens to the Tantai family, it might spill over to my Chu family!"

Pei Si Yan pretended to be surprised, "How could that be?"

Wuluo asked rhetorically, "Do I have to lie to you?"

Pei Si Yan feigned a sudden realisation and nodded gratefully to Wuluo, "Thank you Lord Wuluo for reminding me."

Wuluo looked at Pei Si Yan worriedly, and in his heart, he suddenly began to regret marrying the Tantai family. He had thought that although Wu Pan was a woman, she had handled many things quite well and was able to see through Feng Taishi's hypocrisy, but he had never thought that he had completely miscalculated.

The marriage has been fixed, withdrawing from the marriage is not good for both families.

Feng Taishi has always been hostile to the Tantai family, and now the only thing that can be done is to suppress Feng Taishi's momentum as soon as possible, and not to let the slow-witted Wu Pan pour oil on the fire of the Wuluo family.

"The Emperor has arrived!" A loud cry rang out, suppressing all the loud noises.

People hurriedly kneeled down and saluted, the imperial carriage passed through the crowd and stopped at the entrance of the Feng Mansion, Eunuch Qian lifted the curtain and carefully helped the emperor to get off the car.

"Long live the emperor, long live the emperor!" The crowd shouted in unison.

"All of you, please excuse yourselves." The Emperor said, his voice hoarse and his face grey, but still barely managed to raise his spirits as he majestically scanned the people present.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Eunuch Feng hurriedly greeted him and said in a respectful voice, "Your Majesty's great presence, the humble abode suddenly fluffs up! I thank you for your Majesty's holy grace! Your Majesty, please."

"Well." The emperor is about to take a step, suddenly "clang" a loud noise, the people look for the sound, the original is a wooden box placed on the carriage may not be placed steadily, tipped over on the ground, the goods inside scattered all over the place.

"I'm damned, I'm damned!" The servant immediately fell back to his knees, kowtowing and begging for forgiveness.

The Emperor just glanced at it and did not speak.

Imperial Master Feng impatiently whispered, "Quickly tidy up!"

"Yes." The servant hurriedly climbed to his feet and quickly picked up the clothes on the ground, holding them in his arms as the other subordinates helped him carry the box back to the carriage.

Just as the servant was about to put the clothes in, the Emperor suddenly spoke, "Wait." He frowned tightly and walked quickly to the chest, the servants lowered their heads in panic and took a few steps back.

The ministers stretched their necks and watched the Emperor's every move as if they were watching. Feng Taishi's face was a bit ugly as he followed the Emperor, "Your Majesty, what's wrong with you?"

The emperor rattled a few times in the box and took out a basalt-coloured dress, slowly unfolding it, the crowd fixed their eyes on it, all of them were shocked, as if they saw something horrible.

On the red collar and cuffs of the dress was a dragon pattern embroidered with gold and silver threads, and in the bright daylight, complex and luxurious patterns emerged on the black dress.

This was a dragon robe that only belonged to the emperor.

"What's this, Ai-Qing Feng?" The Emperor's tone was flat, no joy or anger could be heard.

Feng Taishi's face was white with disbelief as he looked at the dragon robe, then at the box, and finally his gaze fell on his son Feng Shixian's body as he asked in a trembling voice, "This, this is ..."

"Your Majesty, the grass people do not know where this thing came from!" Feng Shixian bravely replied.

The emperor carefully looked at the patterns on the black clothes, stroked the silky material, and coldly smiled, "The workmanship is really meticulous, it seems that a lot of effort has been put into it. Secretary Feng, what do you say?"

"Your Majesty, I have been an official for many years, loyal and devoted, working tirelessly for the country and the people, bowing and scraping!" Seeing the seriousness of the situation, Eunuch Feng could not help but raise his voice and say, "I would never do anything to illicitly create a dragon robe! There must be someone who deliberately framed me, I still ask the emperor to look into this and return justice to me!"

The Emperor was silent again, and the onlookers carefully observed his expression, occasionally sneaking in a few words. At this moment no one will come forward to interject half a sentence, for Feng Taishi defence may end up becoming the culprit of plotting rebellion, while scolding people for plotting rebellion, may not be able to become the mastermind of falsely accusing Feng Taishi.

The whole street is silent, the sight of the whole head focused on the emperor, and his hands on the dragon robe. The sunlight is white, sprinkled all over the earth, a long time makes people dizzy.

It seems like a long, long time, the emperor finally spoke, his old face revealed disdain and ridicule, eyes unblinking staring at a certain place of the dragon robe, "I have doubts about your loyalty, Feng Aiqing?"

Pei Si Yan carefully pushed up the emperor's words, by intuition, what the emperor said seemed to be the opposite.

"Your Majesty is willing to believe me, I ..."

The emperor waved his hand, "Nonsense I don't want to hear." He again took the dragon robe slightly compared to Feng Taishi's figure, and then threw the clothes to the ground as if they were the same waste, and slowly walked forward just as a foot stepped on top of the clothes, "The matter is important, Wu Ruyi, you come to investigate this matter thoroughly, and you must give me a clear answer. Before the water falls out, everyone up and down the Feng family shall not step out of the mansion for half a step."

Eunuch Feng exclaimed, "Your Majesty!" Wouldn't handing it over to one of the Four Great Auxiliary Ministers, Wu Dai, give people the opportunity to publish a personal vendetta? In his own life, he had often suppressed the auxiliary ministers with things like "the gate valves are extravagant and corrupt, and they serve the tigers as accomplices", and although it made the people happy, it also created more and more conflicts.

Originally thought that the second prince ascension to the throne of the day is not far away, the auxiliary ministers family will usher in a complete change, so never put them all in the eyes. But at the moment when the second prince lost the emperor's trust, and met this kind of bizarre things, is undoubtedly adding insult to injury, surely caused the emperor's suspicion, only afraid of ...

Feng Taishi's eyes went dark for a while, Feng Shixian hastened to support him.

Wuxi smiled and said, "Feng Aiqing, in order to prove that you are innocent, first aggrieved for a period of time."

"I am tired, swing back to the palace." The Emperor's face looked even more tired, and an ominous aura enveloped his body.

It really wasn't far from coming to the end of his life. Pei Si Yan looked at the Emperor's hunched back and thought, in the past, he "embezzled the disaster relief food and silver" thing, the Emperor pursued the root of the matter. But now Feng Taishi's residence suddenly appeared dragon robe, related to the "plot against the throne", the emperor but only a few words, the thing commanded down, did not personally inquire.

Not to Feng Taishi's trust, but the emperor has not much energy to manage.

Pei Siyan looked back at a dishevelled and anxious look of Feng Taishi, just a dragon robe want to fight across the Feng family power, she never thought.

Good show, will also be staged one after another ...

The imperial chariot is far away, the officials in twos and threes quickly step away, as if the Feng family are infected with the plague.

Pei Si Yan and Li Qing Dye forced away the other people's line of sight and turned into a small uninhabited alley. Not long after, Shen Zhongning sneaked in after them.

"Trouble Lord Shen to help me spread a rumour." Pei Siyan said in a low voice as Li Qingyan stood at the mouth of the hutong looking out.

"Your Excellency, please speak."

"The reason why Eunuch Feng will assist the Second Prince is because the Second Prince is cowardly and incompetent, and when His Highness ascends to the throne, he will have the best chance of winning by replacing him!"

Shen Zhongning looked at Pei Siyan incredulously and stammered, "But, but the ... people won't believe that Eunuch Feng has the heart to plot against the dynasty!"

"The population of the imperial capital is countless, is it hard to believe that all of them believe in Imperial Master Feng? Are there no gangsters who are willing to do anything as long as they have money and roam the streets and alleys of the imperial capital?" Pei Si Yan laughed, fished out a silver ticket from her sleeve and stuffed it into Shen Zhongning's hand, "Trouble you, big brother."

Shen Zhongning nodded vigorously, "Please don't worry, I will definitely do it as soon as possible."

"To let the rumours spread as widely as possible ..."