Venerated Venomous Consort

Besides, there were some officials present to bear witness, thus, Rong Yan had no chance to refute. And this was one of the motives to murder.

Secondly, it was his personal affair with Gu Tianqing!

Rong Yi used to flirt and almost managed to molest Gu Tianqing!

Even though Rong Yan came in time, Rong Yi was not afraid of him and even molested Gu Tianqing publicly, which infuriated Rong Yan greatly.

Therefore, this was the second motive for Rong Yan to murder Count Le Hua. Little Si who was serving the latter at the time could also bear witness.

Thirdly, because of the private affair between Rong Yan and Gu Tianqing, they plotted against Gu Xijiu. They wanted her to go to the secret garden of Rong Yi and deliberately ensured people were accusing her for meeting her lover. Fortunately, because of Gu Xijiu’s faithfulness and no show, Rong Yan’s plot had failed.

For this incident, the eighth prince, Master Hu and Gu Xijiu could be the witnesses.

Regarding the letter which Rong Yan gave to Gu Xijiu, it was destroyed but it managed to be inspected by the eighth prince, Rong Che. He recognized that the handwriting belonged to Rong Yan.

Duke Lu had good eloquence too. After presenting all the evidences to the emperor, he cried, "Your Majesty, I knew that my son was a bastard and used to humiliate the twelfth prince, but he shouldn’t be condemned to death, right? And I did not expect that the twelfth prince would bear grudges and plot against my son! He sent someone to kill him and framed the sixth Gu daughter. Fortunately, she was rational enough not to go and thus his plan to kill two birds with one stone did not succeed. It was obviously a planned trap when he sent people, including Master Hu, early the following day to frame the sixth Gu daughter. His plan was to create a pseudo image that both my son and sixth Gu daughter had die together, so that he can eliminate her and take revenge at the same time! Otherwise, it was too coincidental that the day he deceived the sixth Gu daughter to meet at the garden was also the night that my son was murdered! Your Majesty, my son died so pitifully! He was marked indeed...Your Majesty, please do decide for me!"

With cries and tears from Duke Lu, the emperor experienced a serious headache!

The emperor could only investigate from Rong Che and Gu Xijiu, "Xijiu, did Rong Yan write you the letter? Che, did you see that letter too?"

Gu Xijiu looked like she was shocked by the cruel truth that her face turned a little pale, "The twelfth prince did write me the letter indeed. At that time, I thought it was a joke, but...but I did not expect that this was the exact same plot."

Rong Che sighed, "I have truly seen it, it was... was the handwriting of the twelfth brother."

The emperor looked towards Master Hu again and he repeated the whole story about what happened at the garden of Gu Xijiu when he went to investigate again. As it was a homicide case, he did not dare hide any single detail.

The face of the emperor turned very gloomy and looked at both Rong Yan and Gu Tianqing, who were kneeling and trembling with fear, "Do both of you have anything to clarify?"

Rong Yan was still trying hard and with determination, he said, "My father, somebody...somebody wanted to frame me. I am not involved in any private affairs with Gu Tianqing. I had only just met her a few times because I always pay visits to the mansion of the general."

Gu Tianqing was not admitting to that, lest she lose her reputation!

Duke Lu seemed to have expected this, he blurted again, "Your Majesty, Miss Gu Tianqing is about two months pregnant. If you don’t believe, you can send the imperial physician to feel her pulse."