Shu Hong was extremely surprised. Immediately afterwards, he shouted, "Gu Junyan, what do you want to do?"
Gu Junyan presented a roll of brocade, and an imperial attendant took it and handed it to the emperor.
The emperor unfurled the brocade, frowned and glanced at it, then asked, "What is this?"
Gu Junyan replied, "This girl's name is Zhuzhu. Since she resembled the Gu family members, the Shu family raised her until last year. Later, as she was of no further use, the Shu family tried to kill her. However, fate played a cruel joke on her. By chance, she managed to escape, but then fell seriously ill. By the time my men found her, she was at the end of her life. With her last bit of strength, she wrote a letter in her own blood detailing the evil deeds of Shu Hong and Shu Ying. It's right on this brocade."
The emperor knitted his brows and looked at the brocade again, asking, "Is this girl already dead?"
Gu Junyan sighed slightly. "We failed to save her."
Shu Hong hung his head, a flicker of fear flashing in his eyes. Immediately afterwards, he looked up and shouted, "Your Majesty, I'm wronged! I have no idea who this Zhuzhu is, let alone anyone who resembles the Gu family members..."
Gu Junyan was in no hurry. He continued, "Your Majesty, I've found out that after the Shu family arrived in Luanhe City, they secretly adopted young girls. Each of these girls was chosen to resemble my third uncle, Gu Shuxian. They adopted a total of eleven girls and raised them well until last year. Then they selected one of them to stay, and that was Shu Mingzhu. The others were all directly killed!"
Shu Hong stared with wide eyes. "There's no such thing... He's framing me... Your Majesty..."
The emperor waved his hand. "Gu Junyan, continue."
Gu Junyan said, "But they made a small oversight. Among these girls, there was one named Zhenzhen who secretly discovered that the Shu family's actions were to avenge a grudge from twenty years ago. Zhenzhen and Zhuzhu were twins. Knowing that only one of the eleven girls could survive, she managed to get some fake - death medicine, allowing the two sisters to escape. But before that, the Shu family was extremely cruel and persecuted the ten girls. Zhuzhu sacrificed herself for her sister Zhenzhen, enabling her sister to escape safely, while she herself was left with many injuries."
"After the two sisters escaped, they had neither money nor a means of survival, not even a household register. They could only survive by begging. My men found them and invited a doctor for Zhuzhu, but it was already too late."
Hearing this, Shu Hong's lips trembled, and he didn't dare to say another word.
The emperor frowned and asked, "So there's still one alive?"
Gu Junyan nodded. "The young girl Zhenzhen is still alive. Even when I saw her, I was quite shocked because her appearance resembles mine by about sixty or seventy percent."
Shu Hong wracked his brains and said with difficulty, "Your Majesty, it's all fake. I've never done such things. I've never bought or imprisoned women, let alone tortured and killed young girls... I..."
Gu Junyan continued, "Apart from the written statements of Zhenzhen and Zhuzhu before their deaths, I've also found out that Shu Ying is not dead. This time, I've brought both Zhenzhen and Shu Ying back."
Shu Hong let out a scream and collapsed to the ground.
The Princess of Liang looked blank and asked, "A Ying is still alive?"
Gu Junyan smiled faintly. "If the princess doesn't believe it, you can go to the Supreme Court with me to see your younger sister."
The emperor stood up. "Guo Chang!"
Lord Guo, the Minister of the Supreme Court, quickly stepped forward. "Your servant is here."
The emperor said, "I'll leave this case to you to investigate."
"Your servant obeys."
The emperor didn't want to listen to Shu Hong anymore. He flicked his sleeves and left.
Since Gu Junyan was from the Gu family, he couldn't continue investigating this case. He had his men hand over all the relevant evidence to Lord Guo. Then he walked up to Gu Liyue and ruffled her hair.
"Liyue, are you okay?"
Gu Liyue was in a daze for a long time before asking, "But... what was the Shu family trying to do?"
"Revenge." Gu Junyan was very calm. "The Shu family used to be a third - rank official family. Because of what happened back then, they failed to form a high - status marriage alliance. Instead, our Gu family sent them to Luanhe City. Shu Hong was naturally unwilling. This time, bringing Shu Mingzhu back was an attempt at revenge."
Gu Liyue swallowed hard. "But..."
Gu Junyan continued, "But they didn't expect that our Gu family never really cared about Shu Mingzhu. Since Shu Mingzhu couldn't return to the Gu family, their remaining plans were useless."
Gu Liyue lowered her eyes. "So, even in that situation, Father never did anything to let Mother down, right?"
Gu Junyan rubbed his fingers and nodded. "Yes. All the men of the Gu family are like this. They would rather be broken jade than intact tiles. Liyue, you're a daughter of the Gu family. You should remember this, okay?"
Lu Yunxi walked over, grabbed Gu Liyue, looked at her from side to side, and then simply pushed Gu Junyan away. "Go and do your own thing. I want to have a private chat with Liyue."
She pulled Gu Liyue away and whispered, "I only saw your second uncle and eldest brother. Where... are your second brother and fourth brother?"
Gu Liyue naturally knew that Lu Yunxi couldn't possibly care about her brothers. She probably wanted to see the fourth brother. So she spread her hands and said, "My second sister - in - law was diagnosed with pregnancy a few days ago. Since the pregnancy was still in the early stage, she didn't tell anyone. I guess my second brother must be accompanying her."
Lu Yunxi scratched her head. After Gu Liyue stopped talking, she pushed her. "Who wants to know about your second brother? Where's your fourth brother? What's he doing? Why isn't he here?"
"Are you looking for me, Princess?"
Gu Chengzhi had just walked over and heard Lu Yunxi say this. He quickly asked, "I'm here. What do you want from me?"
Lu Yunxi stared with wide eyes. With her back to Gu Chengzhi, she didn't even dare to turn her head. Her face was flushed red as she looked at Gu Liyue for help.
Gu Liyue found it quite amusing. She had actually seen her fourth brother coming a long time ago and deliberately led Lu Yunxi to say this. But she also knew that her friend was shy. She waved her hand and said, "No. Yunxi was just curious why you weren't with me just now."
Lu Yunxi let out a sigh of relief and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, yes. Gu Chengzhi, you should be ashamed. You always say you love your sister, but why weren't you there when your sister was being bullied just now?"
Gu Chengzhi scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "When I heard the commotion, the emperor was here. I didn't dare to disturb rashly, so I didn't come over. So as soon as they left, I came right away. Is my sister okay?"
Gu Liyue smiled. "I'm fine. Don't worry, Fourth Brother."
Seeing that Gu Chengzhi still wanted to say something, Lu Yunxi quickly waved her hand. "Okay. We girls are talking. What are you doing here as a man? Go away, go away."
Although Gu Chengzhi was worried about his sister, he still turned around and left, looking back three times at every step.
Gu Liyue asked curiously, "What's wrong with you? Didn't you want to see him? Now that you've seen him, why are you acting like this and urging him to leave?"
Lu Yunxi blushed a little. She bit her lips for a long time before saying, "I wanted to see him, but I also think it's better not to."
Gu Liyue asked, "Are you going to keep your feelings in your heart for the rest of your life?"
Lu Yunxi was coy. "I'm a girl. It's not proper for me to take the initiative..."
Gu Liyue looked at her in surprise. "Princess, you're Princess Lu Yunxi. I thought you would never be restricted by such things."