Li Tongyu woke up the next day. She rubbed her throbbing head and summoned her servants.
"Your Majesty, the ministers have been kneeling outside the Peace - Negotiation Hall for a whole day and night. What should we do?"
"Tell them to go inside and wait. I'll be there soon."
"Yes, Your Majesty. I'll go right away."
Li Tongyu knew what they were here for. There was no way to avoid the matter regarding Yang'er.
Looking haggard, Li Tongyu walked into the Peace - Negotiation Hall. Seeing the exhausted ministers who had stayed up all night, she frowned slightly.
"May I ask what brings all of you here?" Since they hadn't broached the subject yet, there was no need for her to bring it up first.
However, things didn't go as she wished. Before she could even take a sip of tea, Minister Chen spoke up, "We are here regarding the matter of the prince. We implore Your Majesty to give the people of the world an explanation."
Li Tongyu rubbed her aching head and asked, "Is the Grand Tutor here?"
"I'm here, Your Majesty," the Grand Tutor stepped forward.
"Have you found out what I asked you to investigate?"
"This..."
Seeing the Grand Tutor stammering, Li Tongyu grew even angrier.
"What do you mean 'this'? Speak up quickly!"
"Yes, Your Majesty. I've found out that the prince did commit those crimes, and it started half a year after Your Majesty ascended the throne."
"Ridiculous!" Li Tongyu was truly enraged. He had done so many things behind her back!
"Your Majesty, please calm down. The heir is of utmost importance," a group of ministers knelt on the ground and pleaded.
"Do any of you gentlemen have a good solution?"
"This... The only way now is to bring the prince to justice to appease the public's anger and unite the people's hearts. Otherwise, there may be civil unrest in Nanqing."
Li Tongyu leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes without saying a word. After a while, she opened her eyes.
"Pass on my oral edict. From now on, the prince is unworthy of his title. Strip him of his title and demote him to a commoner. Exile him to the border. He is not allowed to enter the capital without my summons." After saying this, Li Tongyu seemed to lose all her strength.
Ignoring the ministers in the hall, she leaned on the eunuch beside her and walked out step by step.
"Master, the prince has been exiled to the border."
"Is that so? Now Ruan Ming should have learned about the fate of his Ruan family. Go and tell him about this, and then tell him that it will pain his loved ones and delight his enemies. Treat others as they have treated you. I believe he will know what to do."
"Yes, Zhu Fei will go and handle it right away."
Even though Li Tongbai was exiled to the border, he was treated well on the way. Li Tongyu had made special arrangements for him, so he hardly suffered any hardships on the journey out of the capital.
"Hehe, Your Highness, there's an inn up ahead. Let's go and rest there."
"Okay, let's go." The group walked and stopped along the way, as if they were on a sightseeing tour.
Ruan Ming had been trailing them for half a month and they had only passed one city. When his Ruan family was exiled, they had passed three cities in half a month.
The more Ruan Ming thought about it, the angrier he got. Remembering the message Mu Fengqie had sent him, his eyes were filled with determination. Since he couldn't kill Li Tongyu for now, killing her younger brother would be the same. He would make her suffer!
"Ah! There's a dead person! There's a dead person!" People were coming and going at the city gate of the capital, but today they were extremely panicked.
"Hey, look. Isn't that the head of the prince who was just exiled?" Someone suddenly recognized the person hanging on the city wall.
"It seems so."
"Now that you mention it, it really does look like him."
Li Tongbai's head was hanging on the wall, and his body was hanging beside it. The corpse was in a terrible state, clearly having suffered inhumane treatment before death.
The people below were talking in whispers. Instead of thinking he deserved to die, they thought it was a good thing that he was killed.
The common people had been a bit dissatisfied with his punishment at the beginning. Now that he was dead, they felt relieved.
"What did you say? Who died?!" Li Tongyu stood up abruptly, swaying and almost losing her balance. Fortunately, the eunuch beside her supported her.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, the prince has been killed. His body is now hanging on the city wall of the capital."
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and take Yang'er's body down and bring it back to me!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down. The imperial physician said that you must not get angry in your current condition, or it may affect the fetus."
"My younger brother is dead, and his death is so mysterious. How can I calm down? Go and make preparations. I want to bury Yang'er with the grandeur befitting a prince."
"Your Majesty, this..."
"What do you mean 'this'? Do you dare to disobey my order?"
"I wouldn't dare, Your Majesty. I'll go and make preparations right away."
The common people in the capital watched as a grand funeral was held in the palace, and everyone was required to abstain from meat for three months.
"Why should we? It's just the prince who died, not the emperor. Moreover, he was a demoted and exiled prince," a reckless person blurted out his thoughts. The people beside him quickly covered his mouth in fear.
"Are you crazy? You can't just say anything." Although it was what they were thinking, there was no need to say it out loud. Brother, I admire your courage.
"Do you think this was the work of someone seeking revenge?"
"I think it's possible. Otherwise, how could he have died so miserably? He deserved it!"
"Have you heard another thing, about..." As he said this, he glanced in the direction of the palace.
Suddenly, a group of people huddled together and whispered.
"What did you hear? Tell us quickly."
"I heard that there was a heavy rain a while ago, and there was a flood in a village. The matter was reported to the court. However, although the court officially sent silver for disaster relief, in fact, all the people in that village were killed."
"Ah! Is what you're saying true?"
"Yes, it's a capital crime to slander the royal family, especially that person."
"Oh, I didn't believe it at first, so I sent someone to investigate. Guess what I found?"
"What?"
"Come on, stop being so mysterious. Just tell us."
"It turns out that there really was such a village, but it had been flooded, and there wasn't a single person left."
"Could it be that the emperor resettled the people elsewhere?"
"That's what I thought at the time. Seeing that the village was flooded and uninhabitable, I thought I had come in vain and planned to take a shortcut home. Who would have thought that I saw a huge pit on the way."
"Inside it, there were all corpses, including adults and children. Moreover, they had all had their throats slit and were thrown there."
This person didn't say who those people were, but the listeners had already guessed. So this matter spread like wildfire in the capital.
The person watched as people were talking animatedly, hooked his lips in satisfaction, and left. After walking to a deserted place, he tore off the human - skin mask on his face, revealing a delicate face.
"I didn't expect you to have the ability to make up stories," Yuan Yuhan said teasingly when Mu Nan returned to the inn.