Black Lotus Concubine's Case-solving Notes

The Beisi Prison is filled with a gloomy and chilly atmosphere.

Feng Jia was lying in the innermost cell. It was her seventh day in prison.

She had not had a drop of water for seven days and had been tortured. Her body was covered with whip marks and black blood stains soaked through her torn prison uniform. Long-term malnutrition made her originally black and shiny long hair look like weeds.

She is Feng Jia, the daughter of Feng Guo, the Minister of Dali Temple. At the age of twelve, she solved a strange case in the capital and was appointed by the emperor as the Princess of Huicheng County. At the age of fourteen, she entered the Dali Temple with the first place in the civil service examination and was appointed as the Junior Chancellor of the Dali Temple. At the age of fifteen, she married her childhood sweetheart, Xie Zilin, the eldest son of the Xie family. After marriage, they lived in harmony with each other and had a daughter named Yangyang.

They could have been in love with each other for the rest of their lives, but seven days ago, her father Feng Guo was involved in a corruption case in the imperial city, and she was implicated and imprisoned in the Beisi Prison, awaiting execution in the autumn.

But she didn’t believe it!

Her father taught her propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame, taught her to read and judge cases, and taught her that the Dali Temple was a place for the injustice of the people in the world to be redressed and for justice to be served. Her father was the Minister of the Dali Temple, and he served as an official for thirty years. He was honest all his life. But corruption? She didn't believe it!

So keep living.

Feng Jia told herself that she would hold on no matter how harsh the punishment was. As long as she was still alive, she still had a chance!

Her father-in-law, as the Prime Minister, would definitely find a way to thoroughly investigate the case and clear her family's name. She still has her husband, who must be busy running around for her. And there is also Yangyang, her poor daughter! She cannot lose her mother at such a young age. She must not die!

It was drizzling outside, and raindrops were seeping out of the damp walls. The walls were covered with black moss. As long as you got close to the walls, a disgusting smell of blood mixed with the stench of mildew would hit you in the face, but Feng Jia didn't care.

Her body was in so much pain that she was almost numb. Her instinct for survival made her lie on the wall and suck continuously. She wanted to live!

The dry corners of her mouth were slowly moistened, and a breath of life finally burst out of her originally dry eyes.

At this moment, accompanied by the heavy sound of iron chains, the prison door suddenly opened and Feng Jia turned his head.

A beautiful woman came slowly over. She had pretty eyes and thin eyebrows, and a lively look in her eyes. She was wearing a bright red wedding dress. She was gorgeous and charming, like a holy and elegant peony flower blooming high in the sky. She seemed out of place with the scene in the prison at the moment.

The man looked at Feng Jia with a condescending look, as if he was looking down on an ant.

Princess Pyeongchang?

"I've been starving you for seven days, but you're not dead yet. You're just like a stink bug!" Princess Pingchang took out a handkerchief and covered her mouth and nose with it, saying in disgust, as if she couldn't stand the strange smell on Feng Jia's body.

Feng Jia frowned, not knowing when he had ever offended the princess, so that she would come to the prison to mock him on her big day.

In fact, she had met this princess once during the Lantern Festival. At that time, she had just married Xie Zilin and accompanied her husband to the palace for pilgrimage. It happened that Princess Pingchang was choosing a husband in the palace that day. The favored Princess Pingchang, Xu Qiao, snuggled in the arms of Emperor Longqing, looking down at the court officials kneeling on the ground at the steps.

Princess Pingchang, a favored princess, swept her eyes across and finally landed on Feng Jia who was kneeling beside Xie Zilin. It was on that day that Feng Jia had the honor to see the princess's dignity.

Seeing Feng Jia in such an awkward situation, Princess Pingchang laughed softly: "In such a situation, you don't still have hope, do you?"

She laughed as if she had thought of something ridiculous, and the tassels of her phoenix coronet and bridal robe fluttered. Then she said to the eunuch beside her, "Xiao Yunzi, go tell Lord Feng, so that she won't have any more fantasies."

Xiao Yunzi flatteredly agreed, grabbed Feng Jia's hair and pulled it back hard, forcing her to look up, and said in a cold voice like a poisonous snake: "County Lady Feng, Lord Feng, you must listen carefully. The criminal Feng Guo signed and sealed the day before yesterday, confessing to the corruption case. He was beheaded at noon. The emperor was furious about this and ordered people to confiscate the Feng family's property. All 140 people in the Feng family were criminals and were executed on the spot. I'm afraid that the people from the Northern Ship Administration have already arrived at the Feng Mansion..."

Feng Jia looked up at Xiao Yunzi, and felt a fishy taste in her throat: "... No, it's impossible!"

"Impossible? Lord Feng, no, now you are the daughter of a criminal, I can no longer call you Lord Feng," Princess Pingchang said with a low laugh, "By the way, you reminded me of something interesting. Last night, the Dali Temple said that several pieces of bodies were fished out of the moat. The body was cut off and swollen. If it weren't for the jade pendant hanging around the waist, no one would have known that the person who fell into the river was the eldest son of the Feng family. Where is your eldest brother?"

"Everyone in the capital says that the eldest son of the Feng family committed suicide out of fear of punishment, but in my opinion, he must have offended someone, otherwise why would he be cut into pieces and thrown into the cold moat?" Princess Pingchang flicked the shark pearl earrings on her ears and said indifferently: "You, Feng Jia, have been a prodigy in solving cases since you were young. Why don't you guess who your eldest brother offended?"

After saying this, the jade plaque engraved with the words "Feng Yu" was thrown in front of Feng Jia.

Feng Jia desperately protected the jade token against her chest. Every word Princess Pingchang uttered was like a hard and sharp knife, digging at her bit by bit, slowly turning her heart from a shallow pit into an abyss, until it completely pierced through her heart.

Why! Why! She asked herself that she had lived a clean life and had no regrets, so why was her father beheaded, her brother died tragically, and the Feng family was wiped out!

Who did I offend?

Who did the Feng family offend?

In a flash, something flashed through Feng Jia's mind, and the dots connected into a line.

Princess Pyeongchang's ambiguous look during the Lantern Festival, her husband who was worried after that day, her brother's hesitant look, and what she accidentally heard the jailers say a few days ago.

"I thought that gentleman was a man of letters, but I didn't expect that he would step on his wife to climb up the social ladder for power and wealth."

"It's such a pity that such a young child was strangled to death by his own grandfather. He seemed to be only two years old and could already speak... How pitiful..."

"But it's understandable. If he didn't strangle the child to death, how could he prove his loyalty to the princess and get rid of the Xie family? How could that gentleman rise to prominence and become a royal consort? Could it be that he wanted the princess to be his stepmother? What a joke! Cutting the grass at its roots is such a simple truth."

……

Xie family...Princess...Prince consort?

I see! I see!

If her husband hadn't become a consort, why would Xie Zilin not come to see her for so many days? If she hadn't blocked Princess Pingchang's way, how could the Feng family be involved in the imperial corruption case that no one dared to investigate thoroughly!

That's it!

It turned out that she had offended a nobleman and implicated her father and brother!

To cut the grass is to remove the roots, so this is what it means!

In this case, her Yangyang should be dead, and her daughter should be dead?

Looking at Princess Pingchang's bright red wedding dress and listening to the joyful music playing faintly outside the prison, Feng Jia felt herself to be extremely ridiculous at that moment. Hot tears slowly flowed out of her dry and empty eye sockets, dripping onto the back of her hand in a striking scarlet color.

Her Yangyang died, her father and brother died, and the entire Feng family had their property ransacked, but today the people of this city are beating drums and playing music to celebrate Princess Pingchang finding a good husband?

"Xie Zilin! After three years of marriage, you are still not as good as the title of Prince Consort! You are not as good as the wealth and glory!" Feng Jia fell to the ground, gritting her teeth, "Xie Zilin! You did such an outrageous thing, why don't you dare to see me! Xie Qian! You killed my Yangyang, this hatred is irreconcilable! I will kill you! I will kill you!!!"

Feng Jia's voice was shrill, painful and crazy.

Princess Pingchang was becoming more and more pleased, her face slightly twisted with excitement: "You are really a smart person, you understand everything at once. It's a pity that your smart head won't survive until tomorrow."

Feng Jia only felt a flash of cold light in front of his eyes, and Xiao Yunzi was approaching step by step with a dagger in his hand.

"Everyone says you are the most beautiful woman in the capital. I want to see what a lantern made of the skin of this most beautiful woman looks like." Princess Pingchang's voice was gentle, but it was like a devil crawling: "Don't worry, it won't hurt. Xiao Yunzi is an experienced hand. You will only feel a little numb and itchy at first, but I can peel off your whole skin in half an incense stick... What are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at you, Princess Pingchang. Do you think the prince consort you married is any good?" Feng Jia laughed wildly. "What do you think you can get after all your scheming? I know Xie Zilin's secret. I'm the only one in the world who knows this secret...Xu Qiao, after all, I'm better than you, better than you..."

"What secret is it? Tell me!"

"Hahaha……"

"Bitch! I told you to tell me!"

"You really want to know? Then come closer, I'll tell you alone..."

Princess Pingchang walked over, and Feng Jia leaned over and whispered in her ear.

Suddenly there was a shrill scream. Princess Pyeongchang covered her ears, took two steps back in disbelief, and knocked down Xiao Yunzi next to her.

Princess Pingchang's palms were full of sticky blood, and Feng Jia actually bit off a piece of her flesh! And one of the mermaid pearl earrings that her father had put on her before she got married was in Feng Jia's mouth!

"Happy! Hurray!"

"Kill her! Kill her for me!!!" Princess Pingchang was furious. Her beautiful face was distorted by anger. She completely lost the manners and demeanor that a princess should have. She snatched the dagger from Xiao Yunzi's hand and stabbed it into Feng Jia's chest. She stabbed her again and again in anger until even Xiao Yunzi could not bear it anymore and reminded her.

Feng Jia was tortured beyond recognition. The moment she closed her eyes, all the events of the past flashed before her eyes.

She was wronged! She hated it! Xie Zilin, Xie Qian, and Princess Xu Qiao of Pingchang, all those who had harmed her, if there was an afterlife, she, Feng Jia, swore that she would seek justice and pay blood debt with blood!