Chapter 170 - 168: Fake Pregnancy to Win Favor?
Shen Xinghan rubbed his temples. "Mother, don’t blame others. At the root of this matter, it’s still Second Brother’s fault. I told him years ago to rein in his temper and not resort to violence so casually, but he wouldn’t listen! Abusing maids as a child, murdering subordinates in the military, and now even massacring an entire village! He slaughtered hundreds of herders, and the fact that His Majesty didn’t demand his head is already thanks to Lu Qianqian’s influence!"
Mrs. Qin, both anxious and angry, cried as she struck him. "What are the lives of some herders worth compared to your brother’s?! As his elder brother, not only do you refuse to find a way to get him out of trouble, but you’re also here scolding him. How many brothers do you think you have?!"
"If you ask me," Shen Yunxi suddenly interjected, "this is actually Big Brother’s fault. If you’d just listened to me and killed Cui Ji outright back when he caused that scandal with the storybook, how could he now be accusing Second Brother of mass murder? But no, you insisted on trying to win him over. Well? Did your attempts succeed?!"
"Such short-sighted opinions, truly foolish!" Shen Xinghan frowned deeply. "There’s no such thing as a perfectly sealed wall. Even without Cui Ji, someone else would have exposed Second Brother. The fault lies not with Cui Ji, but with Second Brother himself!"
Shen Xinglei, in an irritable tone, said, "Enough, can you all stop arguing! What I’m most curious about is this: Cui Ji is far away in the Capital—how did he even find out about all the things I did?"
Indeed, how had Cui Ji managed to weave such a meticulous trap?
He had prepared the evidence so thoroughly that Shen Xinglei hadn’t even been afforded a chance to defend himself.
The Imperial Prison was cold and damp.
Even the gusts of wind that passed through carried a faint stench of decay and death.
Shen Xinghan felt a chill creeping up his spine, as though a pair of unseen eyes were lurking in the shadows, spying on his entire family.