Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 803 - 754: Voluntary Abdication (Part 1)

The evidence was complete, and the Yu Wen father and son were sentenced for multiple crimes and imprisoned by the Ministry of Justice.

The death penalty was unavoidable.

The Ministry of Justice and the Jingzhao Mansion jointly presented the trial results to the Empress Dowager in the palace.

There are still unfinished matters, namely finding out the accomplices of the Yu Wen father and son.

The Empress Dowager ordered a thorough investigation of Princess Consort Yu Wen.

As the saying goes, when the wall tumbles, everyone pushes.

Without waiting for the Empress Dowager to order a thorough investigation, those who had dealings with Princess Consort Yu Wen and feared being implicated, or those with personal grievances, all stood up to expose her.

They accused Princess Consort Yu Wen of being arrogant, bullying the Empress, deceiving the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, and even being involved in selling official positions.

The three fat positions guarding the warehouses in the Ministry of Revenue were sold by Princess Consort Yu Wen and Yu Wen Zan, together earning a total of sixty thousand silver.

Princess Consort Yu Wen herself received forty thousand taels.

Adding to the issues with the Yu Wen father and son, the Empress Dowager was extremely furious with Princess Consort Yu Wen’s conduct.

She ordered that Princess Consort Yu Wen be confined in Yeting Palace.

.

The investigation into the poisoning of the Emperor and Empress was cleared, indirectly vindicating Li Yuzhu, Li Yuwen, Pei Shenyan, and Mu Yuanxiu.

The Empress Dowager ordered the Empress to release the four from house arrest.

The Empress led the four to the Empress Dowager Palace to express their gratitude.

On the way, the Empress briefed them on the external developments.

Pei Shenyan and Mu Yuanxiu, living in a remote pavilion far from other palace gardens, were almost unaware of any outside news.

Hearing the Empress speak of the Yu Wen family’s matters, Pei Shenyan was shocked, "Their family is so bold! They actually dared to poison the Emperor?"

Li Yuwen sneered lightly, "Fortune favors the bold, husband, isn’t that the saying?"

Pei Shenyan shook his head, "But they committed regicide! They disturbed the court’s order! Incited potential chaos! Fortunately, it has calmed down."

Li Yuzhu, recalling history books from her previous life, was not at all surprised to hear such things.

If there is an incompetent ruler in the court, palace coups and military insurrections will emerge continually.

With an inept person becoming Emperor, anyone would believe they are capable.

Mu Yuanxiu listened silently, with only a slight frown.

Without realizing it, they had arrived at the Empress Dowager Palace.

After ceremonious greetings, the Empress Dowager looked at Li Yuzhu, "I remember, when Sanniang was little, you didn’t like to speak, but now you’ve grown up to be shrewd."

Li Yuzhu lowered her head and replied, "I was young, ignorant of everything, so I didn’t like to talk."

"So now, you understand much more?" The Empress Dowager eyed Li Yuzhu coldly, "Instigating the Imperial Physician to exhume the Emperor’s body for poison inspection, you’re quite bold!"

Li Yuwen discreetly tugged Li Yuzhu’s hand, indicating for her not to be afraid.

Pei Shenyan, unaware of the exhumation for poison testing, looked at Li Yuzhu in astonishment.

Mu Yuanxiu also looked at her.

Yet Li Yuzhu was unafraid, calmly stating, "If we didn’t do this, we wouldn’t have found the culprit."

"The Emperor was poisoned with arsenic, the Imperial Physician has confirmed this," the Empress Dowager said coldly.

"Poisons have many forms, some are ingested long ago, like the Empress, whose poisoning was chronic, so even hair strands contained toxins. For others, it was recent, and the toxins in hair strands aren’t obvious, but would be present elsewhere in the body.

For instance, eyes would differ from normal, the skin as well. But no signs were found in the Emperor’s body similar to the Empress’s case, the physicians only saw poison in the mouth and nose identifying it as arsenic, yet they don’t know when he was poisoned.

Arsenic comes in prepared powder form, and there’s realgar, a substance containing only arsenic components. Without opening up the Emperor’s stomach, how could one discover the recent large ingestion of realgar? How else would it lead us to the Yu Wen family’s trail?"

Li Yuwen, the Empress, Pei Shenyan, and Mu Yuanxiu listened to her explanation and suddenly realized.

The Empress Dowager, too, was left speechless.

Li Can was poisoned and died, the Empress Dowager ordered capable eunuchs and nannies to investigate in the palace, while the Imperial Physicians also tried to determine the cause beside Li Can.

But after nearly a month of investigation, nothing was found.

Eventually, Li Yuzhu suggested dissecting Li Can’s stomach.

The Empress Dowager resolutely opposed.

Many officials also disagreed, and some even took the opportunity to impeach Li Yuzhu and the Lu Ling Royal Mansion, accusing Li Yuzhu of malicious intent.

Li Yuzhu stated, without this method, they would never find the cause of Li Can’s poisoning in this lifetime.

Initially, the Empress Dowager ignored her; later, realizing that almost a month had passed with no progress, she agreed to Li Yuzhu’s suggestion.

Thus, Li Yuzhu directed the Imperial Physicians to act.

Finally, in Li Can’s stomach, they found a large amount of yellow rice cakes mixed with realgar.

Realgar is precisely an ingredient for making arsenic.

Following the records from the day of Li Can’s death, they found that a eunuch was missing.

Ultimately, it was discovered that the eunuch had bought the yellow rice cake dessert.

Thus, the truth was revealed.

"Even so, you have left the Emperor without dignity in death; achievements and faults offset, no reward," the Empress Dowager said in a deep voice.

Given the Empress Dowager’s attitude towards the Li Family three years ago, Li Yuzhu expected no reward for the Li Family, but she was satisfied that the four of them were free again.

"Thank you, Empress Dowager, for your leniency," Li Yuzhu bowed in ceremony.

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The three brothers of the Li Family, already ahead with the news, arranged a carriage and waited early at the palace gates to pick up Li Yuzhu and Li Yuwen’s couple.

Accompanied by people from the Empress’s side, they exited the palace gates.

Li Xing’an’s sharp eyes spotted them first, shouting, "Yuwen, Sanmei! Over here, over here! Hey, brothers-in-law, you suffered hardship, home is ready with a feast, we’re here to take you back."

Pei Shenyan, with a slight smile, walked over, "Brothers, have you been well lately?"

"Good, good, we’re all well. And you?" Li Xing’an patted Pei Shenyan’s shoulder.

"Alright," Pei Shenyan smiled faintly.

Li Xingmao went to see the two sisters.

Li Xingsheng approached Mu Yuanxiu, "Yuanxiu."

"Second Brother," Mu Yuanxiu cupped his hands, smiling slightly at Li Xingsheng.

Li Xingsheng eyed Mu Yuanxiu, his gaze slightly narrowing, "Yuanxiu, you’ve been confined in the pavilion in the palace all this time?"

Mu Yuanxiu sighed, "Yes, they wouldn’t let us out, but thankfully I had the eldest brother-in-law’s company. We read books, played chess, the days were not too difficult."

Pei Shenyan chimed in, "Yes, I kept Yuanxiu company daily, ensuring he wasn’t mistreated."

Li Xingsheng smiled, "Is that so?" Grabbing Mu Yuanxiu’s arm strongly, "Let’s go, let’s go home, Brother has prepared a great meal, all your favorites."

His grip was strong, causing Mu Yuanxiu to frown in pain, "Second Brother, why grip my arm?"

Li Yuzhu turned, freeing Mu Yuanxiu from Li Xingsheng’s hand, shielding Mu Yuanxiu behind her, "Second Brother, why are you bullying Yuanxiu?"

Li Xingsheng coughed lightly, smiling sheepishly, "Nonsense, I wasn’t bullying him, we’re just getting along, aren’t we, Yuanxiu?"