Children of Loulan

Chapter 296: The Old Minister is Wronged

The king read through all the letters page by page, his face became increasingly gloomy, veins popped out on his forehead, and his chest rose and fell violently with anger. Finally, he could no longer suppress his anger, and he threw his hand violently, smashing the letter in his hand to the ground.

"Patta, patta..." Letters fell to the ground like snowflakes. The king's eyes widened in anger, and he pointed at the letters on the ground and asked sternly, "Prime Minister, do you want me to find someone to carefully check the authenticity of these letters?"

At this time, the prime minister standing by saw the letters falling from the dragon case and was instantly panicked. Although the map and the document presented before were forged, the account book and these letters were real! He thought that the minister had completely destroyed these evidences, but he never expected that the other party had secretly kept them.

But it was only a moment of panic, and he seemed to come to his senses suddenly, and fell to his knees without hesitation. His face was as pale as paper, beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and his body was shaking with fear.

He kowtowed desperately and shouted at the top of his voice to protest his injustice: "My king! I am really innocent! I know nothing about these things! I really don't know. Please, Your Majesty, be careful and look into everything!" He cried out at the top of his lungs, his voice filled with endless grievances and resentment, and his appearance made people feel pity.

However, the king ignored his cry and didn't even raise his eyelids. The king looked gloomy and coldly looked at the woman standing beside him and asked, "Where did you get these things?"

When the woman heard the king asking the question, she hurriedly bowed respectfully and then answered carefully: "Your Majesty, these were handed to me personally by my father-in-law before he was arrested." Her voice was soft and gentle, but it revealed a hint of nervousness and fear that was difficult to conceal.

The king narrowed his eyes slightly and continued to ask: "Well, did he ever tell you why he wanted to plead guilty for the prime minister?"

The woman took a deep breath, calmed herself down, and then slowly replied, "My father-in-law said that he has been working for the Prime Minister for many years, and during this time he knows too many unknown secrets. Now that something has happened, if he is not willing to take all the blame, I'm afraid the remaining old and young, women and children in our family will be implicated. Only if he steps forward and exchanges his life for the safety of the whole family, will the Prime Minister be able to let us go, and even give us some assistance from time to time in the days to come." At this point, the woman was already sobbing, and tears kept rolling down like beads with a broken string.

The king frowned slightly, staring at the kneeling woman in front of him with a sharp gaze, and said in a low and majestic voice: "Then why did you come here to file a complaint today?"

The woman's face was covered with tears and her body was trembling slightly. She raised her head and looked at the king with a sad and angry look, crying, "My king, it's because the prime minister wants to kill all the remaining old and young in my family! I really have no other choice. In order to protect the only remaining bloodline in my family, I have no choice but to fight to the death. I have the courage to come to you to complain!"

At this moment, the Prime Minister standing by suddenly became gloomy. He took a step forward and angrily retorted, "How dare you! Stop talking nonsense here. When did I kill all your family members?"

After hearing this, the woman became more and more agitated. She turned her head suddenly, stared at the prime minister, and said in a hoarse voice: "The prime minister is naturally unwilling to admit it, but this matter is by no means groundless! I hope the king can see through everything and send someone to investigate carefully. When my family was on the road of exile, the escorted officials bullied and beat us at will, and some were even beaten to death. Some people contracted serious diseases for no reason and eventually died on the way. Isn't it obvious who is behind this?"

At this point, the woman was already sobbing. After calming down a little, she continued, "Later, I took the remaining elderly, children, women and children in my family and finally moved to the slums. I just wanted to have a place to stay and survive. However, even such a humble wish could not be realized. I don't know why, those hooligans on the streets targeted our family. Just a few days ago, my mother-in-law clashed with the gang of hooligans to protect her young children, but was beaten to death by them. Now, my family is dead or injured, and there are only a few left. If I don't try my best to fight for a chance of survival, I'm afraid my whole family will die!"

The prime minister was so angry that his face turned red, his eyes were as big as copper bells, and his eyeballs were about to fall out. He shouted angrily: "Your family has suffered such misfortune, all because of the minister's own evil deeds, which is his own fault, and he has ended up like this today. What does this have to do with me? You are lying here, insisting that it was me who killed you all, but do you have any real evidence? Besides, it is common for those exiled people to die on the road. What does this have to do with me? And you are just a woman, how did you hear that your family died on the road of exile? Who is behind this instigation? Tell the truth quickly!"

Facing the Prime Minister's angry rebuke, the woman was not afraid at all. She raised the corners of her mouth slightly, revealing a cold smile, and retorted: "Humph, don't you know, Prime Minister? Even if those exiled prisoners die unfortunately, the government will notify their families in time! Since you, Prime Minister, keep saying that this matter has nothing to do with you, and I, a commoner, really can't produce conclusive evidence for the time being, then I might as well ask the king to come forward and investigate it thoroughly. With the king's wisdom and bravery, it must not be difficult to find out the truth of this matter. Moreover, the so-called evidence that I submitted to the king before, whether it is true or false, the king can find out at the same time. At that time, we will naturally know whether this woman is ignorant of the sky and the earth, and wants to wrongly accuse you, Prime Minister; or whether you, Prime Minister, have a guilty conscience and want to cut off our family to eliminate future troubles!"

The Prime Minister was dumbfounded for a moment and could not speak for a long time: "You..."

The woman burst into tears and cried out in a sad voice, "I beg the king to investigate this matter thoroughly! Although my father-in-law did commit a serious crime and deserved the punishment, he has already been executed. Moreover, all the adult men in the family were not spared and died tragically on the way to exile. Now, there are only two young and pitiful children left in this huge family! Fortunately, thanks to the king's great grace, these two children have been exempted from the crime and become ordinary civilians. So, I beg the king to make a decision for me and these two young and innocent children!"

As she spoke, the woman knelt down with tears streaming down her face, and then kowtowed to the ground with all her strength. There was a muffled "bang" sound, and because she kowtowed too hard, her forehead instantly came into close contact with the hard ground, and one could even vaguely see blood oozing out of the wound.