Tang Dynasty Puppet Doctor

Chapter 99 Proposal
The White Horse Temple case soon caused quite a stir in Luoyang City. The empress immediately issued an edict, ordering the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate to jointly try the case. However, because Prince Wei was involved, many judicial officials chose to avoid it and did not dare to take the case.

Fortunately, Hong Xian complied with Murong Huan's request and testified in court, admitting that Qiu Shenji's disappearance was the result of a conspiracy between her and Liu Sizhi of the Dali Temple. Lu Ling was finally acquitted and walked out of the court.

Lu Shiyilang was overjoyed. When he went to meet Lu Ling at the gate of the Magistrate's Court, he saw that the once proud and noble young man was covered in blood and had become extremely miserable and haggard. He couldn't help but feel sad and cursed the cruel official Jiang Junchen a thousand times in his heart.

After the two returned to the Dali Temple, they soon received an imperial edict from the court, ordering Lu Linglai to serve as the chief judge of the Dali Temple and preside over the White Horse Temple case.

On the first day of the public trial, Xie Zi'e brought Su Yu to the court and took out the account books of Su Yu's private transactions with some officials in the court.

Su Yu, who had been locked in a secret room for a long time without seeing the sun, had already lost his rationality in the torture of waiting in vain. When he saw the account book, he was immediately frightened and confessed everything he knew.

An account book immediately implicated several court officials, or so-called followers of King Wei.

These officials, led by Zhang Jiafu and Wang Chengyi, were also "invited" into the court to testify.

Then, Su Yu confessed everything about Qiu's death, how he had been threatened by Lai Junchen, how he had led a group of street scoundrels to submit a false accusation letter into the copper box, and how he had colluded with corrupt officials.

The courtroom was suddenly filled with noise and became a lively scene of dog-eat-dog fighting, while outside the courtroom, the onlookers were already cursing.

"I never thought that this Lord Su Sanlang would do so many evil things that hurt the world. Not only did he kill his own wife, but he also colluded with corrupt officials and falsely accused loyal ministers. He truly deserves to be cut into pieces. His death is not a pity!"

"Yes! These corrupt officials not only embezzled the relief food, but also embezzled military pay. They also forced the affected people to sell their children. They are completely devoid of conscience and worse than beasts!"

"Kill them! Kill them!"

The crowd outside the Dali Temple was immediately outraged, and then countless Luoyang citizens gathered outside the Dali Temple, requesting the government to severely punish these corrupt officials.

This matter soon reached the ears of the empress. After experiencing a life-and-death crisis in the White Horse Temple, the empress was already in fear, and the public outrage forced her to make a choice that was more in line with the people's wishes.

Therefore, not long after, a group of ministers headed by Di Renjie were released from the Magistrate's Court. Lai Junchen should have been imprisoned and sentenced to death for the crime of false accusation, but the empress pardoned his death penalty in consideration of his previous meritorious service in investigation and only demoted him to a commoner.

On the contrary, although important officials in the court such as Di Renjie escaped death, they were all demoted to local officials. Di Renjie, who had just entered the cabinet and was appointed prime minister, was also demoted to the magistrate of Pengze County.

Murong Huan did not feel very good when he heard the news. They had gone through so much trouble and only saved the lives of these court officials, but still could not escape the empress's fear and was demoted.

Xiao Muchen comforted her, saying, "It's a great honor to be able to save your life. Ah Huan, we all have to thank you this time. You saved all of our lives."

If she had not hypnotized Hong Xian and peeked into his dreams, she would not have been able to foresee this incident, and there would have been no subsequent deployment arrangements, especially since she personally broke into the dungeon and saved his life.

Whenever he recalled this incident, Xiao Muchen felt a warmth in his heart, as well as guilt and heartache.

He picked up Murong Huan's injured hand again and looked at it, but Murong Huan seemed to be in an intractable dilemma.

Helan Minzhi's last words kept circling in her mind, and it was difficult for her to connect her master with the person Helan Minzhi mentioned.

Is the master really treating them well because he feels guilty?

And the ice silkworm poison on Xiao Muchen...

Just as he thought of this, Xiao Muchen asked, "By the way, when you asked about the poison in my body, what did Helan Minzhi say in your ear?"

Because Helan Minzhi had said that he would pay a price, he didn't want Murong Huan to pay anything to save him, so he said, "Don't believe him. He hates my Xiao family to the core and won't tell us the real detoxification method." Murong Huan smiled and replied, "I know, but I will also make my own judgment on whether what he said is true or false."

Having said this, she suddenly looked at him seriously and said, "Xiao Muchen, you said that after this matter, you would come to my house to propose marriage, but is that true?"

Xiao Muchen was delighted: "Of course it's true, I will go to the Su family to propose marriage now!"

Murong Huan nodded and said, "Okay!"

The Su family was once again shrouded in dark clouds because of Su Yu's incident. The whole mansion was in a state of misery. Old Madam Su had cried several times, and as she cried, she once again blamed Murong Huan for this misfortune.

Su Qing also realized belatedly why Ah Huan wanted him to separate from his third brother that day to avoid being implicated.

"What sin did our Su family commit? Why have these unfortunate things happened one after another since that girl came back?"

"This time it was my third brother who made the mistake. He killed Mrs. Qiu and helped Lai Junchen gather scoundrels to falsely accuse Prime Minister Di and other important officials. Mother, what did he do after you handed over the medicine shop left by my second brother to him?"

"He not only made a mistake, but also committed a serious crime. You have always spoiled him. This time, our entire Su family will go to jail with him."

This sentence finally stopped Old Madam Su from crying and she came to her senses a little.

It was at this time that Xiao Muchen came to the Su family with Murong Huan. After hearing what Old Madam Su said, he was filled with endless anger.

In the end, he only asked Su Qing to meet him and asked Su Qing to hand over Murong Huan's engagement letter to him.

"Originally I didn't want to trouble Marquis Su, but Ah Huan can't be without an identity, so please give me her engagement letter, so that Madam Su won't do anything to sell out her granddaughter for the sake of your Su family!"

Su Qing understood what she meant. She was afraid that his mother would get carried away and hand over Ah Huan's engagement letter to the Cui family, making Ah Huan a concubine of Cui Jiulang.

Su Qing felt guilty and didn't know what to say. He just said, "It's our Su family who has wronged Ah Huan. I hope Xiao Zhongcheng will treat her well in the future."

After saying that, he actually knelt down in front of Xiao Muchen and said, "This time, no matter whether our Su family can escape this disaster or not, Ah Huan will be in your hands from now on."

Xiao Muchen pulled him up, and Su Qing no longer hesitated and handed the already written engagement letter of Murong Huan to Xiao Muchen.

"Speaking of which, this engagement letter was written by her father and has been entrusted to me for safekeeping. Before my second brother died, he was most worried about her. He hoped that she would marry a good husband when she grew up. This was also my second brother's wish."

"Don't worry, County Marquis. Master Su Sanlang's affairs will not implicate the Su family. However, the Su family will definitely close all the medicine shops he runs and return them to Ah Huan."

Su Qing was overjoyed after hearing this, and almost burst into tears of gratitude: "I know, I will definitely handle this matter. Please rest assured, Xiao Zhongcheng, I will give all the assets left by my second brother to Ah Huan as her dowry."

……

After receiving the engagement letter, Murong Huan and Xiao Mochen returned to the Xiao family again. The seal of the Xiao Mansion had been removed, and the furnishings inside had not changed much.

After packing up everything, Murong Huan went to Qingxinyuan to rest, but that night she had another strange dream.

She actually dreamed of her master.

(End of this chapter)