Chapter 72 Who Was the Disloyal and Unfilial One?

Shen Ninghua folded her hands on her waist and looked straight ahead with her slender back straight. The dress was embroidered with a large patch of azaleas and fluttered charmingly with her movements, like a sea of flowers.

Her gaze swept across the emperor on the throne, the princes under the stairs, and finally stopped on Shen Dong and the others kneeling on the ground.

Whenever there was a crisis, she was always the first to be used as a shield. Whenever there was an accident, she was the first to be suspected. Whenever there was a problem, she was the first to be blamed. Now, someone should be sacrificed, and she was still the first to be made use of! Didn’t she also have a heart? Wouldn’t she be heartbroken? Was she the person that deserve to die ten thousand times of death?

“Greetings, Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty.”

Baili Qingcang’s sharp gaze landed on Shen Ninghua and slowly became gentler. “As you were.”

Everyone was shocked. The princes and the officials were all kneeling on the ground. Only Shen Ninghua was allowed to stand in the center of the hall.

Shen Dong was on his knees and looking down at the ice-cold jade ground. Shen Ninghua’s silhouette was clearly reflected on the smooth ground. A trace of sadness flashed through his heart. The matter of the prescription was too big. The Shen family couldn’t escape unscathed without any sacrifice. In that case, he could only sacrifice Shen Ninghua.

Baili Qingcang’s voice was solemn. “Shen Ninghua, Shen Xuanye said that you gave him the medicine to cure the plague. Is that true?”

“Yes.” Shen Ninghua nodded.

“Then you also knew that he used the medicine you gave him to study the prescription?”

“Yes.”

“Then you knew that there was something wrong with the prescription he developed?”

“Yes, I did.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the officials in the hall immediately began to discuss.

“She really knew. She knew but she never said it. What did she want to do?”

“She didn’t care about the people at all. She should be punished with death penalty.”

“That’s right. Such a girl is simply a disgrace to her family!”

Some people even questioned Shen Ninghua angrily.

“Shen Ninghua, do you know what loyalty and filial piety mean? You knew that there was something wrong with the prescription, but you didn’t say it. As a result, thousands of people in Jiangnan region almost lost their lives after drinking the medicine. You ignored the interests of the country. This is disloyalty! You gave the medicine to your father and younger brother, knowing that they made a mistake but not telling them. This is unfilial. You should be ashamed of being such a disloyal and unfilial person!”

“Lord Wang is right. It would be better to die without loyalty and filial piety.”

“The two lords are right…”

Baili Qingcang looked coldly at the farce in the hall, and his expression was as deep as the sea. Baili Jinchuan secretly gritted his teeth. These people really dared to be so shameless with their choice of words, and they targeted Shen Ninghua.

The only person in the hall who remained unmoved was Shen Ninghua. From the beginning to the end, the expression on her face remained indifferent. In face of the questions and insults, she had kept a calm expression on her emotionless face.

After fifteen minutes, the officials finished their angry accusations. Only then did Shen Ninghua slowly say, “Are you done? Since you’ve finished speaking, can I speak now?”

“You witch, what else do you have to say?”

Shen Ninghua turned her head to look at Lord Wang, who was the first to speak. “You are Lord Wang, right? I remember that your Wang family was able to enter the court to serve His Majesty because your family had a woman who became the late emperor’s concubine. I heard that when this concubine was being favored, you all tried to curry favor with her. But later when she was thrown into the cold palace because of her mistakes, you immediately broke off your relationship with her. No wonder you accused me the most happily today. You have always treated women as tools. Whoever is useful for you is a treasure and whoever is useless is a garbage. If the concubine who was out of favor didn’t live in the cold palace at that time, you would have strangled her to death to show your loyalty, right?”

“Nonsense, you…you…nonsense!”

Shen Ninghua stared at him. “Nonsense? You said I was unfaithful and unfilial. Then I would like to ask you. Is it a bad thing for me to have medicine that could cure the plague?”

Lord Wang’s expression changed slightly. “No.”

“I have this medicine. Father asked me for it to do some research and I gave it to him. Is there anything wrong?”

“No, nothing wrong.”

“Then let me ask you again. Did I force my father to offer the prescription? Did I buy the medicine and send it to the people of Jiangnan? Did I force them to drink it?”

Lord Wang’s head was covered in cold sweat, and he was speechless. “You…you…”

“I didn’t do these things. Then why did you keep saying that I made it hard for the people to live on? In the face of the disaster, you and your fellow officials who are pillars of the country are all at a loss, unable to find any solution, but you are very good at persecuting a weak girl like me. You enjoy the salary of the Imperial Court, eat the fruits of people’s blood and sweat, occupy a high position but do nothing at all. Now tell me, who in the world is disloyal and unfilial? ”

A nearby official immediately jumped out and said, “How dare you accuse an important official of the Imperial Court at such a young age? How dare you!”

Shen Ninghua smiled coldly. “Now you know that I am a weak girl at a young age. Why didn’t you remember this when you accused me of bringing disaster to the country and the people? As an important official of the Imperial Court, you try to force a weak girl to death. You are the truly shameless person!”

“Presumptuous! Shouting loudly in the court, where’s your respect to the law?”

Shen Ninghua looked over. The speaker was an official from the Ministry of Officials. “If I disturbed the court, His Majesty would punish me. You really cared too much! Didn’t your Ministry of Officials have a saying that the door of the yamen is open to the south and anyone with a good reason but no money cannot find justice? Isn’t the law always interpreted willfully by you guys? Now you want to talk about the law?”

More and more officials couldn’t tolerate this. They were all officials of the Imperial Court. If they were suppressed by a girl under fifteen years old, how could they stand in court in the future?

After the official of the Ministry of Officials stepped down, an official of the Ministry of Rites stood up. “You little girl really dared to slander important officials of the Imperial Court. This is a capital crime. Don’t think that you can be unscrupulous just because you are the Prime Minister’s first daughter.”

“Slander?” Shen Ninghua took out a booklet from her sleeve and flipped two pages. “It’s been three months and twenty-three days since I came back from the country villa. Every day, I sent people to the yamen set up by the Ministry of Officials for hearings. For so many days, the yamen of the Ministry of Officials dealt with a total of 18 cases. Apart from three small cases of theft, there were 15 unsettled cases. Excluding the seven cases that have not been concluded yet, there are eight concluded cases and six of them are misjudged! The facts of the case and the proceedings of the trials are carefully recorded here. Sir, you need to take a closer look and see if I am slandering anyone!”

Under the stare of Shen Ninghua’s cold and dark eyes, the official of the Ministry of Rites was covered in cold sweat. “You…Your Majesty, this matter…”

Baili Qingcang waved his hand and asked the eunuch to bring over the booklet in Shen Ninghua’s hand. The more he read it, the fiercer the storm in his eyes got. Finally, the storm swept out. “Drag the Minister of Officials Zhou Xueyi to the entrance of the market and behead him. Invite all the common people who have been wronged in this booklet to observe the execution!”

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please think twice.”

“I hate officials who cheat for personal interest the most. I would rather kill a hundred by mistake than let one go.” Baili Qingcang heavily tossed the booklet onto the desk. “This is the capital, under my feet! If cases here are handled like this, what about the officials who are far away from the capital? There are plenty of people willing to take their positions even if I kill all the corrupt officials!”

There was a deathly silence in the court. No one dared to argue with Shen Ninghua anymore, afraid that she would come up with more evidence.

Shen Ninghua stood upright like green bamboo. She was clearly thin and delicate, but she radiated with overwhelming splendor in the hall!

Baili Qingcang looked at her and his fingers trembled slightly. She was indeed her child. Such pride, such unparalleled beauty!

“Shen Dong, what else do you have to say?”

Shen Dong turned to look at Shen Ninghua, as if he had met this daughter for the first time. In the end, a trace of determination flashed in his eyes. “Ninghua, since you know that there is something wrong with the prescription, you must know what the real prescription is. Hurry up and present it to His Majesty.”

Shen Ninghua’s body trembled, and a trace of water filled her eyes. “Father, I know there’s something wrong with the prescription, but I don’t know where it went wrong.” She clearly knew that she would be abandoned in the end, but her heart was still in pain.

“You once learned medical skills from the old doctor who treated you. How could you not know the real prescription? Hand it over quickly. Aren’t you willing to save your brother and me?” Shen Dong said earnestly, but these words caused the last sympathy in Shen Ninghua’s heart to dissipate.

“Father, I have learned some medical skills, and I know the general direction of research. I have been working hard since I knew the uses of those medicines, with the hope that one day I could find a prescription to save thousands of people. But you and younger brother insisted on taking away all my medicines, so I had no choice but to stop the research.” Shen Ninghua then looked up at Baili Qingcang.

“Your Majesty, there are quite a few research manuscripts and medical books left behind by the old doctor in my courtyard. I have put them all away. My maidservant Bai Ruo knows their location. You can send people to fetch them.”

“Alright.” Baili Qingcang’s eyes lit up and he nodded. “Go to the Prime Minister’s Mansion and fetch the manuscripts and medical books that Shen Ninghua spoke of. Also, see if any of Shen Xuanye’s manuscripts remained. If there is any, bring them over together.”

Chen Yun was very happy. “Your Majesty, I have been fortunate to drink the wine brewed by Shen Ninghua. The pharmacology within it is very sophisticated. If I can compare her manuscript against Shen Xuanye’s manuscript, I should be able to learn a lot.”

Hearing this, Baili Qingcang was overjoyed. “Alright, feel free to do your research. If you lack any medicinal ingredients, you can directly go to my private warehouse to get them. You must decipher the prescription as soon as possible.”

The atmosphere in the court was slightly softened, and many officials covered in cold sweat heaved a sigh of relief. If the prescription couldn’t be worked out, countless people would be implicated once the emperor started investigation into the issue.

Shen Ninghua lowered her eyes and slightly shifted her gaze to meet Baili Jinchuan’s. She nodded her head in a slightly undetectable manner.

Baili Jinchuan curled his lips. Shen Ninghua finally made up her mind. He really needed to thank Shen Dong for being so heartless. From today on, he wanted the Prime Minister Shen’s Mansion to disappear in the capital!

“Report! Your Majesty, very bad news. We went to the Shen Mansion to collect manuscripts and medical books, but found that Shen Ninghua’s Yingyue Courtyard was in a mess. Prime Minister Shen’s wife, Madam Zhao, brought people to throw everything inside into the pond. The manuscripts and medical books were completely destroyed!”

Baili Qingcang’s eyes darkened. His body shivered and he held onto the throne to balance himself. His lips trembled with anger and turned purple. “Shen Dong! Shen Dong! What a good Prime Minister Shen. What a good Madam Zhao. If the prescription can’t be found, I’ll kill your whole family and relatives!”