Mrs. Zhou collapsed to the ground when she heard the words, begging bitterly, “Your Majesty, Sisi is your daughter-in-law. She killed Tong Yingying by mistake because of her own dementia. Please spare Sisi’s life. I’m willing to die in her place!”

Seeing that the Emperor ignored her, Mrs. Zhou lay prone in front of Lu Chen and begged, “Your Royal Highness, Sisi became retarded because she saved your life…”

Lu Chen frowned and said, “No, the one who saved me was actually not her, but the person didn’t want their identity to be revealed. Besides, even if Zhou Sisi saved my life, can she kill at will?”

Zhou Sisi looked at Lu Chen. Seeing her mother being so humble, she was extremely sad. “Imperial Cousin, so you want to take my life just for Tong Yingying?”

“You hate me so much that you even want me to die? Then why did you treat me so well when we were young?”

Zhou Sisi gave Lu Chen the wood carving in her hand. “I still remember, when I was a child, no one wanted to play with me because of my dementia, so you carved these little wooden figurines for me, telling me that they would play with me. But why are you so ruthless to me now?”

Qiao Jinniang said softly, “Lu Chen didn’t play with you, but just gave you wood carvings to play with you…”

“Besides, that was so many years ago. No one can live in the past, okay?”

The wooden sculpture in Zhou Sisi’s hand fell to the ground, and she glared at Qiao Jinniang fiercely. “It’s you. It’s all because of you. If it weren’t for you, my imperial cousin wouldn’t have treated me like this.”

Lu Chen shielded Qiao Jinniang behind him and said, “Sisi, you and I are brother and sister. How could a brother marry his sister? Besides, the Zhou family has never allowed their daughter to marry into the imperial palace. Even without Jinniang, you would never be able to marry me!”

“Besides, this is not the reason you killed Tong Yingying in public!”

Zhou Sisi said with a sneer, “It turns out that I’m even less significant than Tong Yingying in your heart…

“Why can’t I kill her? If she hadn’t been telling me that I should marry you, my obsession wouldn’t be so deep!

“She wanted to marry into the East Palace herself, so she tried to make use of me! Now she just got what she deserved. I just didn’t expect that Your Majesty would not care about Prince Huai at all, nor that the Queen and the Crown Prince would be so cold-hearted!”

She was Consort Huai. Even if she killed a commoner, so what?

But Lu Chen and Emperor Huilin were unwilling to let her off.

Qiao Jinniang said, “Zhou Sisi, how do you have the cheek to say that? Yes, Tong Yingying wanted to make use of you, but weren’t you willing to be used by her?

“Without Mother, the Duke Wu Mansion would never be where it is today, but you broke Mother’s heart just because you couldn’t force her to agree to you marrying her son. Now you’re blaming Mother for being cold-hearted?

“You’ve already returned to normal long ago, but still pretended to be retarded, trying to marry into the East Palace in disregard of your parents and grandmother!

“What you’ve done is simply disgusting!

“Up to now, you are still blaming others without any repentance at all. As you said, you just got what you deserve.”

Lu Chen instructed the guards to quickly pull the mother and daughter down.

Emperor Huilin asked Qiao Jinniang, “The person who slandered you has been punished. But just now you said thieves liked crying ‘Stop Thief’. Do you mean it was Mrs. Zhou who killed Qiao Ruoyun?”

Qiao Jinniang said, “No, but Mrs. Zhou must know who the murderer is, so I will have someone tell the people locked up in the Qin Mansion that Mrs. Zhou has been arrested and the Ministry of Penalty is interrogating her into confessing who the murderer is. Then the murderer will not be able to sit still.

“Besides, the nobility title of Duke Wu has been withdrawn, which means that the murderer won’t be able to get away even if he has a notibility title, so he would definitely try to silence Mrs. Zhou.”

In fact, who Qiao Jinniang had been suspecting of was Qin Shu.

However, Qin Shu looked so lifeless and haggard today. If she still insisted the murderer was Qin Shu, everyone would think she was slandering him…

Emperor Huilin said to Lu Chen, “The Qin family is a noble family after all. If it is found out that the murderer is not from the Qin family, the Crown Princess and the Qiao family will have to be punished severely too.”

Lu Chen cupped his hands and said, “Yes, Father.”

Emperor Huilin said to the imperial censors, “Just wait for some time. If the murderer is not from the Qin family, I will definitely uphold justice for the Qin family.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The imperial censors didn’t dare to say anything more.

No one would expect that the Zhou family would lose their nobility title so easily. But they were really stupid. As the Queen’s natal family, they were a natural ally of the Crown Prince, but they betrayed the Crown Prince for the sake of their daughter and ended up in misery.

…

Inside the Zhou Mansion.

Receiving the letter from her mother, Zhou Shihui smiled. Her mother was finally willing to come help her.

However, she could not be happy for long when an imperial decree arrived at the Zhou family stating that the nobility title of Duke Wu was withdrawn by the Emperor.

Old Madam Zhou almost fainted. Zhou Siming hurriedly supported her and had servants call a doctor over.

Zhou Siming frowned. He and Lu Chen grew up together, but after Lu Chen returned to Chang’an, he was less and less able to understand Lu Chen.

He actually didn’t care about the affections between him and the Zhou family at all, not even caring about Old Madam Zhou!

“Mother!” A well-dressed woman walked in and supported Old Madam Zhou.

This woman looked very similar to the Queen, but Zhou Siming could tell she was not the Queen. The Queen seemed more dignified and younger than her.

Seeing this woman, Zhou Shihui immediately cried, “Mother, you finally came to see me. I’ve suffered a lot of grievances and was even put in prison…”

Reading the imperial decree, the woman frowned. “My sister has been the Queen for twenty years. I am afraid she has forgotten who helped her to take this position back then!”

Zhou Siming said, “Are you Eldest Aunt?”

“Yes, Siming, you have grown-up a lot. Don’t worry. I can get our nobility title back!”

Zhou Siming pursed his lips and said, “Eldest Aunt, the nobility title doesn’t matter. What matters is that Sisi was sentenced to be executed this autumn. I wonder if you can rescue Sisi.”

Zhou Sisi was still so young. Zhou Siming certainly wouldn’t let her be executed.

Zhou Qinghe said, “Don’t worry. I will save her. The most important thing is to heal your grandmother first.”

…

In the Empress Dowager’s palace.

Hearing the news from Li Lingling, the Empress Dowager laughed crazily. “The Zhou family has finally been deprived of the nobility title! This must be my son avenging me!”

Li Lingling didn’t dare to tell the Empress Dowager that His Majesty withdrew the nobility title of Duke Wu just because the Duke Wu Mansion betrayed the Crown Prince and defected to Prince Huai, and even fought for power for Prince Huai in the court.

“Grandmother, Concubine Qin is pregnant. Although Zhou Sisi was sentenced to death, there is still no place for me in the Prince Huai Mansion!”

The Empress Dowager said to Li Lingling, “Just be patient. Prince Huai has lost the support from the Duke Wu Mansion, so he can’t afford losing the Duke Qin Mansion too.”

Li Lingling pursed her lips and said, “By the way, Prince Huai doted on his so-called ‘adopted son’ very much. At first glance, I could tell he was his biological son. I just don’t know which b*tch gave birth to him for Prince Huai.”

The Empress Dowager said, “You can ask to raise that adopted son. Are you afraid of Concubine Qin? Remember, you are Consort Huai, but she is just a concubine.

“Just relax. My son is on my side. The Queen and the Crown Prince’s good times won’t last long. You’ll be the next queen anyway.”