The Provincial Government's joint hearing soon reached a consensus. Kong Changyu's false accusation was proven, and Wang Yang emerged unscathed.
He had emerged unscathed, but neither the twenty-two million taels nor the Gold Beads had been returned.
For one thing, this was only the conclusion of Jingzhou's local hearing, and it still had to be reported to the Imperial Court. For another, both Kong Changyu's original accusation and Wang Yang's defense involved the Prince of Badong. Given the prince's current position, the bias of his testimony was obvious without asking, but procedure still demanded that they go through the motions.
Considering the Prince of Badong's special circumstances, bringing him into court for questioning was inconvenient, so a Legal Clerk was sent to the prison to take his statement.
In the judgment of the officials at the joint hearing, the Prince of Badong could react in only three ways.
He would either unleash a torrent of abuse, abandon his resistance before the ironclad evidence and confess openly, or do everything he could to incriminate Wang Yang.
Yet to everyone's surprise, the Prince of Badong remained calm throughout. He answered no questions and merely demanded to see Wang Yang.
He said that if they let him speak to Wang Yang alone, he would answer whatever they asked. He also had the Legal Clerk bring Wang Yang a message-
"An old friend is leaving. Will you come to see him off?"
Silence instantly fell over the hall, and everyone looked at Wang Yang.
Although the Imperial Court had yet to announce its decision on the Prince of Badong, anyone with eyes could see that he would not escape his doom.
If the Son of Heaven truly cared about this son, he would have given instructions before dispatching troops. Even if he had not