Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1032 A major case

Seeing Dong Ji and his good son Zhu Junyu accusing each other, Zhu Fu's pale face gradually turned into a dark blue. He finally calmed down and shouted again:
"Stop arguing!"

"General Dong, Brother Dong. You and my Zhu family are all in the same boat. If anything happens to my handsome boy, do you think you can survive alone?" Zhu Fu said with a sneer.

"His Royal Highness Prince Zhou is not a mediocre person. As an old subordinate of his, you should know this better than anyone else."

"If something happens to my son, do you think the court will not be able to find out what's going on behind our backs?"

“……” Dong Ji was stunned for a moment, snorted heavily, and turned his head away in annoyance.

"My son." Zhu Fu turned to his eldest son Zhu Junyu.

"Father... will find a way. But if it really can't be covered up, it will be traced back to you."

"… Your father has raised you for so many years. You must remember that no matter what, you must at least keep the Nanyang incident under wraps…"

Zhu Fu felt somewhat reluctant.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Junyu was so angry that his soul was surging. He no longer had the rebellious and unruly look he had just shown. He looked at Zhu Fu with disbelief for a long time, and then suddenly hugged Zhu Fu's clothes, wailing, "Dad! How could you do this? I'm your own son!"

"I know, I know...Son, Daddy has no choice..."

Zhu Fu also wiped his tears and said. Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs, let alone the only son he has. But Dong Ji was right. Even if he had an only son, he could still find a way to have another one.

But, if this huge family business is lost... then everything will be over!

To put it bluntly, the pressure from the imperial court was too heavy. Under such heavy pressure, Zhu Fu's fatherly love for Zhu Junyu was not worth mentioning.

"I... I don't want to die, I don't want to die!" Zhu Junyu heard his father say this, as if he had seen some evil ghost, he let go of his hand and fell to his knees, rolling and crawling backwards. He was really scared, he had been in Yingtian Prefecture for so long, how could he not know the methods of Zhou Wang Zhu Su?

Even Zhu Xian, the once powerful son of a marquisate, was killed by this Prince Zhou with one sword, and he also killed Zhu Xian's father Zhu Liangzu by the way; the Prime Minister Hu Weiyong was also schemed by this Prince Zhou, and the grass on Prime Minister Hu's grave is now three meters high; even the three elders of Pingyang, who were well-known scholars, lost all their manners and died in depression after being invited to heaven by this His Highness Prince Zhou... Anyone who provokes His Highness Prince Zhou will never have a good end. This sentence has long been a consensus like a taboo in their circle of dandies.

And now, somehow this matter has involved King Zhou, and Dong wants to throw himself out to take the blame. The most terrifying thing is that his own father agreed!
Perhaps it was the extreme fear that activated the already low IQ of this dandy boy. Zhu Junyu suddenly had an idea and pointed at Zhu Fu and Dong Ji and roared, "Don't even think about... don't even think about using me as a scapegoat!"

"If I...if I get caught, I will definitely give you all away! If we have to die, we'll die together!"

Zhu Fu frowned, and a hint of murderous intent flashed across Dong Ji's eyes. Zhu Junyu quickly hugged Zhu Fu's thigh again and said, "Dad, you can't abandon me!"

"You... aren't you from the same clan as His Majesty? We both have the same surname as His Majesty, Zhu! Now it's just a foreigner who died. His Royal Highness Prince Zhou may not suspect Nanyang, nor may he suspect our family..."

"As long as we can just evade the issue, won't everyone be happy..."

This reminded Zhu Fu, and he said to Dong Ji: "Perhaps the Fifth Prince really only cares about the safety of Bifeng Royal Manor, and suddenly wanted to investigate the death of that person."

"Brother Dong, since His Highness has entrusted you to investigate, it means His Highness still trusts you. Can't you just...put away the truth in front of His Highness?"

"This..." Dong Ji was somewhat reluctant. In his opinion, it would be safest to drag Zhu Junyu, the playboy, out to take the blame. But Zhu Junyu obviously didn't understand the overall situation. If he was arrested and imprisoned, he would probably say everything he should and shouldn't say. For now, he had to think of other ways.

He thought for a while, then said hesitantly, "If Your Highness really just did it on impulse, then I can still get away with it."

"But what if, His Highness is actually very concerned about this matter..."

The three of them fell silent again. Zhu Su was a powerful prince. If he discovered that they were deliberately deceiving, the consequences would be very miserable. Zhu Fu suddenly remembered something and said, "Your Highness the Fifth Prince is busy with all kinds of affairs. How could he know that a foreigner died outside the city?"

"My son, you just said that the foreigners had talked with the people from the Maritime Affairs Department. It must be the people from the Maritime Affairs Department who informed the Fifth Prince of this matter, and the Fifth Prince then learned about it."

"You killed that foreigner last night. When he died, His Highness had just returned from our banquet. And today, Brother Dong, you received a summons from His Highness early in the morning. When you went to His Highness's residence, His Highness hadn't even woken up yet."

"Then, someone from the Maritime Affairs Department must have informed Your Highness of this matter on your way home or after you returned home last night. Coincidentally, in order to take good care of Your Highness, I asked the housekeeper to follow Your Highness' carriage until Your Highness entered the mansion last night."

"If Your Highness was very concerned about this matter, the Zhou Palace would have taken action last night. And the Zhou Palace did not take action, which means that Your Highness investigated this person only on a whim..."

His reasoning was well-founded, which made Dong Ji and Zhu Junyu's eyes light up. Dong Ji hurriedly asked Zhu Fu to call the steward who followed Zhu Su last night. After hearing what they said, the steward really remembered something, "Master, I remember now. When His Highness was on the road last night, someone did report to him about something about the foreigners..."

"Then your highness, what did you say at that time?" Zhu Junyu asked anxiously.

Does His Highness take this matter seriously? The answer to this question now almost concerns his life and death. How can he not be anxious?
Unfortunately, the steward was old and his memory was not very good. He thought about it slowly for a long time, which made the three people very anxious. After a long time, the old steward suddenly slapped his head and said, "I remember now. The prince opened the curtains at that time and said nonchalantly: 'It's just that a foreigner is missing, what's the big deal?'"

"He also said, 'There are at least 8,000 foreigners stranded in our Ming Dynasty. If they die, they die. Can the foreigners be more noble than us Ming people?'"

"Then, His Highness fell asleep in the carriage. He also ordered Di Tong to go ahead and ask the palace to prepare hot water for bathing in advance."

"The man who reported this to His Highness just followed behind His Highness' carriage in disgrace..."

After the old steward said this, Zhu Fu and Dong Ji's faces brightened, and Zhu Junyu cheered, feeling as if he had escaped death. Zhu Fu waved away the old steward who looked confused and said happily, "So, Brother Dong may be relieved, right?"

"Your Highness obviously didn't take this matter to heart, he just did it casually. It's you and I who are concerned and confused!"

"As long as you, Brother Dong, pretend to do another autopsy to 'confirm' that the ghost really died of drunkenness, His Highness will not pursue the matter any further."

Dong Ji showed hesitation. In fact, he still thought it would be safest to send Zhu Junyu out to take the blame, saying that Zhu Junyu had a rift with the foreigner and killed him out of anger. Anyway, with Zhu Fu's relationship, it was only a foreigner who was killed, so Zhu Junyu might not be in trouble.

He always felt instinctively uneasy about trying to deceive the shrewd Fifth Prince.

However, Zhu Junyu is obviously useless. If he is put in jail, I am afraid that all of us will suffer together... After weighing the pros and cons, Dong Ji glared at Zhu Junyu fiercely and said, "There is no other way for now."

"Then let's do it this way, but you, the Zhu family, have to help me make this thing more beautiful."

"I need you to help me find some trustworthy coroners. Also, if the Maritime Affairs Bureau wants to cause trouble again, you must suppress them..."

"Of course." Zhu Fu said. As long as Zhou Wang Zhu Su did not interfere, they could still control the Maritime Affairs Bureau. Yang Shiqi of the Maritime Affairs Bureau had not been in office for long, and was just a young man. When the time came, they would instruct their sea merchants to cause some trouble and find something for the Maritime Affairs Bureau to do, which would be enough to make them so anxious that they would not be able to think of pursuing other things.

After the idea was agreed upon, Dong Ji quietly left Zhu Fu's garden. He was an official of the imperial court, so he was very careful when dealing with merchants like Zhu's family, and he was used to hiding his whereabouts.

After cautiously returning to the camp of the Wucheng Bingmasi, Dong Ji changed his appearance and began to pretend to carry out Zhu Su's orders in a grand manner.

One day later, Zhu Su received a report from a soldier in the Wucheng Bingma Division. "Your Highness, my general has dug out the body of that foreigner and asked several coroners to examine it again."

"Several coroners said that the man died of drunkenness. We have reburied his body now."

"The general still needs to train his troops today and cannot spare time. He specifically told me that he will come to the palace to pay a visit to Your Highness another day..."

"Haha, he is quite conscientious in his work." Zhu Su was reading several recently published storybooks in Yingtian Prefecture in the house. After hearing the report from the soldiers of the Five Cities Military Department, he praised Dong Ji casually.

"In that case, then let's do this. I would like to say hello to your general on your behalf."

After sending the soldier away, Zhu Su casually placed the notebook in his hand on the table and looked at Di Meng beside him: "The body has been dug up. Do you remember where it was buried?"

"Yes." Di Meng replied. "I have already arranged for someone to follow Dong Ji."

"We have already discovered where Abigail's body is buried."

"Okay." Zhu Su nodded.

"Tonight, go find the body and let our people examine it carefully."

"…Remember, you can only look for trustworthy people, not merchants."

Zhu Su had two sources of manpower. One was his old military subordinates who had followed him in battle, and the other was merchants who had dealings with the Zhou Palace and were spread all over the place.

Many of these merchants owed favors to the royal palace, and using them as a source of intelligence was quite effective when dealing with foreign enemies.

But this time it was an internal affair and involved confidential information, so the businessmen were not trustworthy.

In fact, what Zhu Su hoped most was that Dong Ji would live up to his expectations. After all, Dong Ji was his former subordinate, and logically speaking, he should be the most trustworthy person. He was also the lieutenant general of the Wucheng Bingmasi.

If Dong Ji can be trusted, it would be safest and more legitimate to hand the matter over to Dong Ji for investigation.

And from an emotional point of view, Zhu Su also hoped that Dong Ji would live up to his trust... In his mind, he still remembered the image of that honest and upright man holding a sword, bravely and fearlessly chasing and killing the enemy.

He didn't want this man to forget his original intention and become someone he didn't want to see...

Late at night, the light in the study of Prince Zhou's mansion was still on, and Prince Zhou Zhu Su was still reading a storybook in the study, but his focus was no longer on the storybook.

"Your Highness," Gou'er's voice came from outside the door. After Zhu Su's signal, Gou'er pushed the door open and reported to Zhu Su: "Commander Di is back."

"Let him in." Zhu Su stood up. He was waiting for this definite message from Di Meng tonight.

He really couldn't sleep until he got the exact news.

After a while, Di Meng, still wearing black night clothes and smelling a bit of earth, came in. Zhu Su waved his hand to exempt him from the formalities and asked, "How is it?"

"Your Highness," Di Meng said with a fist. "Abigail really died of poisoning."

Zhu Su's eyes suddenly froze.

"Our coroner opened Abigail's abdomen and found no alcohol in her stomach, but there were signs of poisoning."

"Moreover, the coroner General Dong found was obviously just pretending to be there. There was no sign of an autopsy on the body."

Zhu Su sneered when he heard this. He just felt that Dong Ji had changed a lot and was no longer the same as before, but he didn't expect that he was so bold as to deal with him like this.

"…Since it has been confirmed that Abigail's death was caused by someone else, then it is basically confirmed that the Srivijaya pirates have something to do with the Ming Dynasty."

The evidence is solid, it's time to uncover a big case.

"Sanbao, go, take this king's sign and go to the Censorate... No, go to the Northern Pacification Office and ask Commander Jiang to send out the Imperial Guards to thoroughly investigate this case."

"Yes," Sanbao bowed and left. Zhu Su turned to Di Meng and said, "Di Meng, go and bring people to get Abigail's body."

After thinking for a while, Zhu Su waved his hand to stop Di Meng who was about to accept the order. "I will go all the way here myself. Go and call the personal soldiers in the palace."

"Your Highness?" Di Meng was stunned for a moment, and advised: "Your Highness, the city is dirty, your precious body..."

"Abigail's body is the first evidence in this case. As long as we find the murderer who killed Abigail, we can follow the clues to the case." Zhu Su touched his chin and said. "If I personally come to get such crucial evidence, do you think the mastermind behind the scenes will panic?"

"Perhaps, it will scare the snake out of the grass."

(End of this chapter)