A court deliberation sealed his doom-now red silk and festive ribbons became white mourning cloth and spirit money
Dusk drew near, and the Imperial City lay silent.
No reply came from the phoenix palanquin. The most exalted Empress was deathly pale, her heart cut as though by knives.
The assembled ministers looked at the Second Prince with the deepest pity.
Pacification Commissioner Jia would not yield a single step!
Most devastating of all, he truly was a loyal servant of the realm. No one could accuse him of harboring treacherous intentions.
Search the histories of every dynasty: who had ever rooted out rebels in defense of imperial power without earning lavish praise?
Yet everyone, at court and beyond, knew that only one person could change the Second Prince's fate.
That person was also Pacification Commissioner Jia.
How absurd the ways of the world were!
If Pacification Commissioner Jia would only take a step back in exchange for the Empress's favor, the Second Prince could escape his cage of death!
For this rebellion case that had shaken Great Qian had been investigated single-handedly by Pacification Commissioner Jia, who had dragged deeply concealed members of the Imperial Nobility into the light!
He knew every detail. In this case, his authority was absolute. The court trusted him, the people trusted him, and even the historians who recorded the truth without fear would base their accounts on his final case report.
All he needed to say was, "His Highness was probably not deeply involved and was deceived by the Prince of Zhongshun," and no one in the realm would question it.
On what grounds could they? Without Pacification Commissioner Jia, who could have rid the realm of the Prince of Zhongshun, that monstrous blood python?
Yet precisely despite this, he had never changed his verdict!
The Second Prince was a principal rebel!
In the suffocating atmosphere, the First Prince and several Legitimate