Chapter 290: Chapter 262: The Wife is Right!
"Thank you!"
Zhe Yu nodded in the direction of Fu Zhen.
Fu Zhen paused slightly: "But I have a condition; this assassin must be handed over to the Princely Heir’s wife."
"Why?"
Fu Zhen looked at him: "If you don’t want to lose completely, then listen to me."
Zhe Yu remained silent, then said: "You captured him, so naturally I’ll listen to you."
Fu Zhen nodded.
...
Just as Liang Chen finished asking Pei Zhan and Fu Zhen about their conversation in the carriage, Fu Zhen came up.
The big nephew swallowed his complex feelings forcefully, and looked at Fu Zhen, who seemed to be deep in thought: "How’s the situation? No surprises, right?"
"Not really unexpected." Fu Zhen sat down, explained the situation, then said, "It’s almost as we predicted, Mrs. Zhang has taken action."
"Then why do you have your brows furrowed, looking so worried?"
Fu Zhen took a breath: "I’m thinking about that fool Zhe Yu."
Pei Zhan lifted his eyes: "Why think about him?"
Fu Zhen pondered for a moment, shook her head, and eventually said nothing.
When Liang Chen heard she handed over the assassin, he became puzzled: "This was a hard-won witness, and just like that, you gave him away?"
Pei Zhan, leaning against the desk on the side, said: "Giving him was also to testify against Xu Yin. As long as it’s to deal with enemies, who it goes to doesn’t matter. My wife must have her reasons for doing this."
Liang Chen’s eyes widened as he looked at this shameless person: "Even if your wife fell, you would praise how gracefully she fell, is that it?"
"Of course not." Pei Zhan glanced at him, "I would never let her fall again in this life."
Liang Chen was speechless, feeling that this guy was a little obsessed, so he turned his head away, not wanting to deal with him. He asked Fu Zhen: "Tell me your reasoning!"
Fu Zhen also tried not to pay attention to Pei Zhan being conspicuous: "Actually, when I gave the person to Zhe Yu, I didn’t expect him to really help Princess Rong convict Xu Yin. The incident happened last night, and since the assassin didn’t return, Xu Yin definitely wouldn’t sit and wait for his doom. Even if the assassin returned, having been captured by us, Xu Yin would no longer trust him.
"Although I don’t know what ace he holds, since he dared to go to Prince Rong’s Mansion, he must be confident enough to escape unscathed from Princess Rong’s hands.
"A single Princess Rong cannot deal with him; if she could, Yongping wouldn’t have ended up in such a state, and Xu Yin would have long been tied to Princess Rong."
Though Fu Zhen had stumbled at Xu Yin’s hands before, no one understood him better than she did.
Liang Chen thought about it and agreed, then pondered: "Even if we keep the assassin, we can’t get anything out of him. If we directly hand him over to the government office, we’d expose ourselves. Now, having Zhe Yu hand him over to Princess Rong makes sense.
"The Ministry of Justice has more ways to interrogate criminals than us, and they can justifiably join forces with various departments to investigate, and they might really find something.
"But the assassin has to be delivered to the Ministry of Justice first."
Pei Zhan covered the tea cup: "Don’t worry, with Mrs. Zhang involved, the person will definitely reach the government office."
Fu Zhen also nodded: "Exactly."
As Liang Chen said, even keeping the assassin wouldn’t yield anything, as just a guard around Xu Yin, he couldn’t spill more secrets. Right now, Princess Rong is dealing with him, and if she fails, keeping the assassin would be useless.
The only choice was to hand him over.
Back then, the Zhang Family took enormous blame in this case, and now Mrs. Zhang is eagerly wanting to crush Xu Yin, so she will find a way to make trouble for him.
But the fool Zhe Yu fully believed that nothing would go wrong on Princess Rong’s side, and if Fu Zhen hadn’t asked him to hand over the assassin to Mrs. Zhang, he would definitely have given him to Princess Rong.
If the person went into Princess Rong’s hands, whether the assassin remained an "assassin" would become highly uncertain.
...
Knowing the truth, Mrs. Zhang was almost grinding her teeth with hatred inside her room, but she had no reason to storm into Princess Rong’s place to intervene, and the evidence to accuse Xu Yin wasn’t in her hands—she was only anxious.
When she heard that the manor guards dragged out two guards from the Xu family, only to have them returned after two canings, she became even more uneasy.
The canings that should have landed did not, which was enough to show a change on Princess Rong’s side. Xu Yin’s shrewdness was known to her; even though Princess Rong was aggressive, it wasn’t impossible for him to stabilize the situation at a critical moment.
Just as she was deeply vexed, a servant from the Zhe family rushed back: "Reporting to the Princely Heir’s wife! The Zhe family caught an assassin last night!"
"...Assassin?"
Mrs. Zhang had not placed much hope on Zhe Yu, and hearing these words, she immediately stopped pacing.
"Exactly! By the Princely Heir’s wife’s orders, I went to the Zhe family to inquire, and General Zhe told me directly about this and even agreed to hand over the assassin to the Princely Heir’s wife!"
"He’s actually willing to hand him to me?"
Mrs. Zhang almost couldn’t believe her ears!
The fact that Zhe Yu had caught an assassin from last night was already surprising, but that he didn’t hand the assassin to Princess Rong this morning, and instead gave him to her now, was even more unexpected and puzzling!
It even made her wonder if there was a trap...
"Where is the person?" she asked with a frown.
"At the Zhe family, General Zhe said if the Princely Heir’s wife doesn’t believe it, she can personally go to the Zhe family to fetch him."
Given this, what was there for Mrs. Zhang to hesitate about? After all, the Zhe family isn’t a dragon’s lair; what’s wrong with her taking a look?
"Prepare the sedan chair!"
...
Princess Rong had someone stop the canings, and Xu Yin’s gaze returned from the outside.
"Consort, you are wise." He bowed slightly.
Princess Rong gave him a sidelong glance: "Even though I didn’t have the person beaten, you essentially admitted that Zhe Yu was acting on your orders. Xu Yin, do you know what this means? You’ve harmed not just Zhe Yu, or me, but you’ve targeted the manor. You framed the Zhang family to use me against them or to make us fight each other.
"Your wings have grown, but they are not yet strong enough to contend with the manor! Do you know the consequences of letting the Prince find out about all this?"
"I certainly understand, mother-in-law. Actually, there’s no need for the Prince to intervene; with just you alone, you could decide my fate."
Princess Rong sneered: "Since you know, why do it?"
"Before I answer, may I boldly ask the Princess, if you already suspect it was me, why not inform the government office immediately?"
Princess Rong’s face hardened: "If not for Yongping and young Lian’er, I would send you to the government office at once to be tried!"