My stepsister tried to steal the prince's hand in marriage, but little did she know I had been

Chapter 291 I have witnesses

"You're utterly slanderous!" Duke Wen pointed at Lady Wen and yelled, "You keep accusing me of murdering my wife, but what evidence do you have?"

"As for that usury..." Duke Wen sneered again, "That's utter nonsense! When the Court of Judicial Review handled this case, you were the one who was arrested and imprisoned!"

Upon hearing this, Madam Wen stared coldly at Duke Wen: "If you hadn't forced me, how could I have committed such a heinous act?"

“I knew you wouldn’t admit it,” Madam Wen chuckled softly, “so I was prepared long ago.”

"My lord!" she cried out to Lord Bai, "I have a witness!"

Duke Wen's eyelids twitched suddenly, and then he stared intently at Madam Wen.

Witness? What witness? Is it the witness in the usury case... or... or the witness from fifteen years ago?

Such speculation made Duke Wen very anxious.

Madam Wen looked at him with an inscrutable expression, her coldness and mockery mocking his struggle.

"I have witnesses who witnessed the Duke of Wen poisoning his first wife fifteen years ago!" She then called out loudly, "Rongxiu! You can come out now!"

During the trial, a crowd of onlookers gathered, and upon hearing Madam Wen's words, a commotion arose among them.

At this moment, a woman wearing a veiled hat walked out with a limp. She lifted the veil and knelt on the court floor: "This servant is Rongxiu! She was the late Madam's personal maid! Back then, she witnessed the Duke of Wen poisoning the late Madam and was hunted down by the Duke of Wen. She has never dared to return to the capital."

"Upon hearing that the case against my late wife was to be overturned, I rushed back to the capital," she said bitterly. "I not only witnessed Duke Wen poisoning my late wife with my own eyes, but I also have evidence of his poisoning of her!"

At this point, she took something out of her sleeve.

When Duke Wen saw the silk scroll, he was stunned for a moment, and then a chill ran down his spine.

He gripped both hands tightly, his gaze shifting several times before finally settling on Rongxiu.

Even though Rongxiu's face was scratched, he could still vaguely recognize what Rongxiu looked like back then through this face.

It is indeed velvet embroidery...

The maid who always smiled the most beside Chu Wanqing, but whenever she saw him, Rongxiu always had a bitter and resentful look on her face.

Therefore, he was deeply impressed by velvet embroidery.

Rongxiu's eyes were filled with resentment; the silk scroll in her hand was written in blood.

She presented the silk scroll to Lord Bai: "Please, Your Excellency, judge this! This is a blood-written letter by my mistress... Chu Wanqing! Every word on it details the crimes of the Duke of Wen!"

"He murdered his wife, and the evidence is irrefutable! I beg Your Honor to distinguish between the loyal and the treacherous, and to seek justice for my innocent and tragically deceased master!"

The blood-written letter that Rongxiu produced was the evidence she had taken away many years ago.

This is precisely the evidence that Lady Wen and Duke Wen have been searching for.

Duke Wen's eyes widened in disbelief; he never imagined that Rongxiu was still alive.

Moreover... it was Madam Wen who summoned them.

The next moment, Duke Wen stared at Madam Wen in disbelief. All these years, had Madam Wen been helping Rongxiu hide her tracks?

Madam Wen, kneeling on the ground in a disheveled state, gave him a cold smile.

Indeed, velvet embroidery was her last trump card.

Looking back now, it seems that her decision was indeed correct. If she had listened to Duke Wen's nonsense and handed the embroidery over to him, how could she have brought him down today?

The existence of this blood-written letter is of utmost importance, and Lord Bai dares not delay.

"Go and invite General Chu and Madam Chu over immediately," Lord Bai said in a deep voice. "This letter written in blood... I'm afraid we'll need to ask the two elders to review it."

In this world today, the only people who can recognize Chu Wanqing's handwriting are probably her parents.

Upon hearing Lord Bai's words, Rongxiu's heart remained in suspense. She stared intently at the blood-written letter, fearing it might be switched.

Seeing this, Madam Wen smiled contemptuously and closed her eyes.

This was all part of Wen Shuyao's plan, so how could it have gone wrong?

Ultimately, this letter written in blood will become the most powerful evidence.

Lord Bai ordered his men to hurry to the Chu family and invite General Chu and his wife, but the group did not see Wen Shuyao for a long time.

In fact, of all the people in the world, Wen Shuyao is the one most closely related to this case.

"Princess Consort Jing didn't come? Not even the Prince Jing's residence sent anyone?"

A busybody raised his voice in the crowd: "Are you going to just watch your own father go to the execution ground?"

These voices, once heard in the crowd, attracted many people to echo them.

In their view, filial piety is the most important of all virtues, and the two words "filial piety" are the rules that Wen Shuyao has no choice but to follow.

These voices reached the ears of Old Madam Chu. Her eyes sharpened, and she immediately ordered someone to bring the troublemakers out of the crowd.

"Princess Consort Jing herself told me this before." Old Madam Chu glanced coldly at the group, raised her voice considerably, and said in a deep voice, "She did not want her presence to affect the Dali Temple's judgments."

“It concerns her parents. As their daughter, she could only wait for news at the Prince’s residence. She also did not want the power of the Prince’s residence to interfere with the Dali Temple’s handling of the case.”

"How come Princess Jing, who is so dedicated to seeking fairness and justice, is considered an unfilial daughter in your mouths?"

Old Madam Chu's eyes were like sharp arrows, piercing fiercely into the eyes of these people.

Upon meeting Old Madam Chu's gaze, the group turned pale. They were about to speak when the old nanny beside Old Madam Chu suddenly announced loudly, "They are from the Liu family!"

"They also have tattoos unique to the Liu family!"

As soon as the old woman spoke, the imperial guards who had been holding them immediately lifted their sleeves.

On the inside of their wrists, the butterfly tattoos that belonged exclusively to the Wang family were clearly visible.

Lord Bai is a man who hates evil as if it were his enemy; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to become the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review at such a young age.

His face turned cold, and several officials from the Court of Judicial Review immediately stepped forward and took the men from the Imperial Guards into the courtroom.

Madam Wen looked at these people and sneered inwardly.

Wen Shuyao had already laid a trap, just waiting for these aristocratic families to fall into it. Unexpectedly, the Liu family, the head of the three major aristocratic families, was the first to fall into the trap.

After Lord Bai sent men to imprison these people, he personally delivered the blood-written letter to Old Madam Chu.

"Madam, please take a look, is this... Miss Chu's handwriting?"

This letter written in blood was carefully preserved, but after years of weathering, the writing on it has become somewhat blurred.

However, upon seeing the words on it, Old Madam Chu firmly declared, "This is my daughter's handwriting!"

As she said this, her gaze sharpened as she stared directly at Duke Wen: "So it was you! So it was you who poisoned Wanqing!"

"No wonder! No wonder you were so eager to bury Wanqing before we even got back to the capital! It turns out you used poison!"