The queen is spoiling the king and madly criticizing him for spoiling her

Chapter 375: Impersonation

"Chen Cong, I'm asking you, have you really never done anything to bully Wu Yuan?" Gu Jianchu stared at Chen Cong with his cold eyes, as if he wanted to see through Chen Cong.

Chen Congming panicked, sniffed hard, and shook his head repeatedly, "No, I have never bullied Wu Yuan."

Zhang's face showed a trace of anxiety.

Chen Cong is a brainless person. If he lets the queen continue asking like this, he will eventually let the cat out of the bag, but there is no way to stop him now.

"But Wu Yuan clearly pointed out you. She said that Madam Zhang went to the market that day to sell her harvest for money, and you went out under the pretext of hunting, leaving her alone at home. She let her guard down and took a bath, but you turned back halfway, barged into the room, and bullied her despite her struggles. You bullied her many times after that, until this most recent time, when Madam Zhang discovered her."

Hearing this, Zhang and Chen Cong's eyes were filled with unconcealable panic. What the Queen said was unknown to anyone except Wu Yuan, the person involved.

But Wu Yuan was clearly dead at that time. Even if she wasn't dead, she was seriously injured, how could she still be alive?

Gu Jianchu saw the mother and son sinking into self-doubt and continued, "Wu Yuan also said that after being discovered by Madam Zhang, she called her a slut for seducing her cousin. Even Chen Cong pushed all the blame onto Wu Yuan, saying that she seduced you and that's why you made the mistake. You and your son even assaulted Wu Yuan, almost beating her to death. Then, fearing that the truth would be exposed and you would end up in jail, you planned to throw Wu Yuan off a cliff."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could Wu Yuan tell you this? Wu Yuan was clearly dead at that time." Chen Cong was so irritated that he retorted in a panic.

After he finished speaking, Chen Cong suddenly realized that he had let the cat out of the bag. He looked at Zhang beside him in panic.

Gu Jianchu immediately pressed on, "How did you know Wu Yuan was already dead, or did you admit that you attacked Wu Yuan?"

Xie Ci sat aside, tapping the table with his fingers, quietly watching everything in front of him, with a proud smile on the corner of his mouth.

The Queen is no worse than the Chief Justice in judging cases, and she will play psychological warfare with them.

The ministers who were watching nearby fell silent. They had indeed underestimated the queen's ability.

Now they could understand why those concubines were driven out of the palace. If they met an opponent like Gu Jianchu, let alone those young girls who were ignorant of the world, even they might not be able to stay.

It seems that I really need to reconsider whether to send my daughter to the palace.

Only Dou Cong, the Minister of Dali Temple, was accustomed to the situation.

Gu Jianchu was concentrating on dealing with the mother and son, but the ministers' little thoughts did not escape Xie Ci'an's eyes.

Xie Ci'an held the jade pendant at his waist, a sneer flashed in his eyes. Backing down was not enough. What he wanted was for the animals to remain dormant under his feet forever, without any rebellion or other thoughts of going against the current. He might be able to turn a blind eye to other things, but not the Queen's affairs.

Chen Cong glanced at Zhang in panic, then met Gu Jianchu's gaze guiltily, shaking his head repeatedly, "No, I didn't do it. I don't know if Wu Yuan was dead at the time. I'm just guessing."

"Your words are really inconsistent. One moment you say Wu Yuan is dead, and the next moment you say Wu Yuan is not dead. It seems you know something. If you confess honestly now, it will be fine. If you don't, I will have no choice but to hand you over to the Imperial City Division." Gu Jianchu looked at Chen Cong calmly.

Chen Cong shook his head in panic, his body dodging backwards in an attempt to escape. "I don't know. I don't know anything."

"Yunhe, take the person away." Gu Jianchu was too lazy to talk nonsense with them.

To deal with such people, you need to use both soft and hard tactics. Being too polite to them will only make them more arrogant. Now that they have developed self-doubt, they will confess everything with just a little torture.

Yun He walked in with two imperial guards. Under Yun He's command, the two imperial guards stepped forward and carried Chen Cong. Before they could take him away, Zhang rushed over to protect Chen Cong. "Your Majesty, please don't torture me. I confess. I confess everything."

Yunhe looked at Gu Jianchu with uncertainty.

Gu Jianchu waved his hand, and Yunhe and two guards retreated to the side without leaving the meditation room.

Gu Jianchu picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip only to find that it was not tea. The water had a faint sweetness, but the color of the soup was similar to that of tea.

Zhang knelt politely again, closed her eyes, and sighed, "A few days ago, Wu Yuan suddenly came to my house and said that she was dismissed from the palace. She couldn't go back to the Wu family now and was homeless. She hoped that we could take her in for a few days. It's winter now, and there's not much grain harvested today. It's a burden for us to have one more person to feed. So I thought about rejecting Wu Yuan and asking her to find another way. After all, even if she can't go back to the Wu family, she can still go to her aunt's house, the wife of the Privy Councilor. It's better than a farm family like ours."

"But my disappointing son insisted on letting her stay. I thought about it over and over again and felt that Wu Yuan was quite pitiful. She lost her mother at such a young age. I took her in out of pity. But I never thought that my disappointing son would have such thoughts about her. One day, while I was not at home, he secretly got together with Wu Yuan. Even if Wu Yuan was expelled from the palace, she was a woman who had been there after all. How dare we defile her so casually?"

"What I didn't expect was that my disappointing son had other thoughts about Wu Yuan more than once. He had sex with her many times when I was not at home. One time, I came home early and accidentally caught them doing it. I was so angry that I scolded Wu Yuan a few times. But I didn't expect that the little girl was so hot-tempered that she actually fought me again. During the argument, Wu Yuan accidentally bumped into the corner of the table, hitting her head with a big bloody hole and fainting on the spot. I was so scared that my whole body went limp. I instinctively thought Wu Yuan was dead."

"After all, it's impossible for a person to survive with such a big bloody hole on his forehead. I'm afraid the authorities will find out and arrest us and put us in jail. Even if Wu Yuan died accidentally, it would be difficult to defend herself once she's in jail. After careful consideration, I came up with an idea to dispose of Wu Yuan's body. This way, no one would know how she died."

"So I took advantage of the snow today and asked Chen Cong and me to carry Wu Yuan's body to the hillside and push her down the mountain."