Tang Dynasty Puppet Doctor

Chapter 113 Asking for the Truth

"What is he doing here? Is he here to ask you, Auntie, for the antidote?"

No matter how much hatred there is between the Xiao family and the Cui family, even if the other party comes to visit him in person, they dare not do anything to him in broad daylight.

Cui's face fell instantly. She hated her former stepson, but she hadn't had any contact with him for many years since she returned to the Cui family. At the Peony Flower Banquet not long ago, she was humiliated by a little maid beside him and lost face in front of Princess Taiping and the eldest lady of the Cui family.

"Kill him! What does the poison in his body have to do with me? I don't have the antidote!"

Cui said upset.

The housekeeper was a little embarrassed and stammered as he handed the invitation to Cui Yi, the head of the fifth branch of the Cui family.

"Master, Xiao Zhongcheng is here to investigate a case, not because of any personal grudges."

Cui Yi was not a very opinionated person. He was currently serving as the Minister of Rites. Before his father died, he handed over half of the property of their Anping branch to his sister Cui, and said that he was not good at managing the family's private property. Only his sister Cui Yuan could continue to carry forward the economic lifeline controlled by the Cui branch.

So even if Cui Yuan and Xiao Hongjing divorced and returned to the Cui family, Cui Yi could not do anything to his sister. Instead, in order to appease his sister's emotions, he sometimes listened to her and did what she said. After all, a large half of Cui's revenue came from the management of his sister Cui Yuan.

Cui Yi glanced at Cui Yuan and said awkwardly, "Since it's not a personal grudge, please invite him in! After all, the Xiao family and our Cui family don't have any big hatred, right? Don't let people spread the reputation of our Cui family being narrow-minded. Besides..."

He suddenly looked at the housekeeper with a look of astonishment. "What did you just say? You came here to investigate a case? What case is our Cui family currently involved in? Even if he is now the Chief Censor, he can't just accuse our Cui family of a crime just because of a personal grudge from the past, right?

Is he going to be a cruel official like Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen? Isn't he afraid of tarnishing the reputation of his Lanling Xiao family?

At this point, Cui Yi's legs went limp and he waved his hands hurriedly, saying:

"Let him go! Just tell him I'm sick and lying on the bed, so I can't see guests!"

The housekeeper, somewhat distracted, arrived outside the Cui family's door again, grinning. He was about to say something when he heard the guards beside Xiao Zhongcheng say, "You're not letting us in, are you? I knew it. It seems you won't accept the toast, but you'll have to drink the penalty!"

Xuan Yu immediately pulled out a token from his shirt, placed it before the butler, and shouted, "The Inner Guard is investigating the case. Let us in immediately!"

In addition, he also put on a big show. In the blink of an eye, the housekeeper saw dozens of internal guards in black surrounding the gate of their Cui family's mansion.

……

With a thud, the housekeeper rushed back to the Cui family's front hall and knelt on the ground. He pointed outside the door and stammered, "Master, husband... Madam, gentlemen, the people from the Inner Guard are here to investigate!"

When Cui Yi heard the word "Inner Guard", his face turned dark. Although he had never dealt with people from the Inner Guard, he knew that the Inner Guard directly obeyed the orders of the Sage and secretly monitored all officials. They were more terrifying than the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate.

Cui Shi's face turned pale rapidly. He suddenly remembered that day when he was abducted by Xiao Muchen's guards and taken to a dark dungeon. Then he realized that could it be the secret prison of the Inner Guard Palace?

After Wuling Yue was dismissed from his post, Xuan Yu now directly took over the position of deputy governor of the Internal Guard Bureau. He not only has the power to conduct secret investigations, but also has the power to directly arrest suspects.

"The guards around Xiao Muchen are actually from the Inner Guard? Then he..."

Cui Shi thought of a possibility he had never thought of before, and his eyes almost went black and he collapsed to the ground.

However, the one who gave way before him was his father, Cui Yi. When he heard the word "internal guards", Cui Yi fell directly to the ground, frightening the servants and maids. Madam Cui hurriedly helped him up, and then he heard him tremblingly say, "Please... please come in!"

……

When Murong Huan and Xiao Muchen arrived at the Cui family's front yard, Cui Yi and the others were already kneeling on the ground, all of them sweating profusely. Cui Shi, sweating profusely, looked up at Xiao Muchen, who was standing tall with Murong Huan, and asked tremblingly, "Xiao Muchen, you wouldn't bring the inner guards to raid my house just for a trivial matter, would you? You're taking revenge on a personal vendetta. Aren't you afraid of being impeached by the other censors?"

"Shut up! Who said our husband is coming to confiscate our property?" Xuan Yu shouted coldly. He scanned everyone, lingering on Cui Yuan's face for a moment before asking, "Where is your Fifth Lady Cui Ying now?"

As soon as Xuan Yu finished speaking, Cui Ying, who was kneeling in the crowd, began to tremble all over and almost cried out, "Cui Wu Niang is here!"

"Mr. Xiao, I know I was wrong to instigate Su Sanniang and Su Wuniang to write a letter to Princess Jiahe and lure her to the Bailiang Poetry Society. However, we also admire Princess Jiahe's talent, so we sincerely want to make friends with her. As for my elder brother, Cui Shi, it was also a moment of confusion, and he was schemed by Su Sanniang. The young lady of the Su family has always admired my elder brother and wanted to marry into our Cui family. To please my elder brother, she came up with this bad idea. I hope that Lord Xiao will forgive my mistakes. We will never dare to disrespect Princess Jiahe again."

Upon hearing this, Xuan Yu's eyes widened. He had originally come here just to investigate the case and save the life of this young lady named Cui Ying, but he didn't expect to hear such unpleasant words of confession.

"You...are colluding with the young ladies of the Su family to plot against our future mistress?"

Xuan Yu pointed at Cui Ying angrily.

Cui Yuan stood up fearlessly and said, "Since you are not here to search our house, and our Cui family has not committed any serious offenses of disrespect, may I ask what case Xiao Zhongcheng has brought to our Cui family to investigate?"

Xiao Muchen glanced at his former stepmother, then turned his gaze to Cui Ying.

"Just ask Cui Ying to go with us to the Dali Temple!"

Cui Ying burst into tears: "Xiao Zhongcheng, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me. Please don't take me to the Dali Temple!"

“We went to the Dali Temple to protect you. If you don’t leave, you will most likely be killed like Zheng Shuxiao!”

After Xuan Yu finished speaking, he threw a puppet doll in front of Cui Ying.

"Look who this is? Is it you? This is the murderer's death warning for you. You will die at 1:00 PM tomorrow!"

Cui Ying's face turned pale with fear at this moment, and he actually begged, "Okay, I'll go with you. I'll go to the Dali Temple with you. Can you really protect me?"

Xuan Yu was too impatient to talk to her any more, so he told her to get up quickly and walk out of Cui Mansion with them.

The people from the Cui family wanted to stop them, but stopped at Cui Yuan's signal.

After getting on the carriage, Cui Ying was trembling with fear all the way, glancing at Murong Huan and Xiao Muchen from time to time.

Murong Huan then asked, "Cui Ying, you should be able to guess who killed Zheng Shuxiao, right? Until now, you still refuse to tell the truth?"

"If you are unwilling to tell the truth, we will no longer care about your affairs."

Upon hearing this, Cui Ying hurriedly pulled Murong Huan's hand and said, "Don't, don't ignore it. Okay, I'll tell you, I'll tell you..."

"Actually, this wasn't my idea. It was Si Niang... Si Niang's idea. Si Niang said that Lu Yingying, that lowly slave, was still trying to climb up the social ladder and become the eldest daughter of the Cui family. So she needed to be taught a lesson. Originally, Zhang Langjun and Zheng Shuxiao had tricked Lu Yingying into the governor's residence, but Si Niang said that if we gave her to the governor and made her his concubine in the future, she might even retaliate against us. That would be too easy for her. So, she pretended to rescue her from the governor's residence, and then gave her... gave her to a group of bandits..."

"What did you say?"

At this time, not only Murong Huan was shocked, but even Xiao Muchen's eyes revealed an extremely angry, pity and horror.

"In the fourth year of the Chuigong reign, you were only teenage girls, yet you were capable of such a heartless act. Do you know that Lu Yingying is Madam Cui's biological daughter?"

After reading this, you should be able to see that this is a story of collective bullying, and it is also a very tragic story.