When my vicious stepmother mistakenly married me to the Immortal Lord

Du Shulan knelt on the ground and crawled to Ximen Liu's feet, crying, "Your Highness, you must believe me! I am innocent! They colluded to frame me!"

"How could I possibly commit such a treacherous act, since I am truly loyal to Your Majesty and the court? They are jealous of my imperial decree and have devised such a vicious scheme to harm me!"

Ximen Liu looked at Du Shulan coldly, without a trace of pity in his eyes. "Ms. Du, you still refuse to plead guilty? Are these confessions and physical evidence all fake?"

Du Shulan cried and shook her head, "No, no, these are all forged by them. I am innocent!"

Jiang Song felt extremely disgusted when he saw Du Shulan's hysterical look.

Seeing that Ximen Liu was unmoved, Du Shulan turned to Jiang He and said, "He'er, my dear daughter, you must believe your mother. She is wholeheartedly doing this for you and Yun'er! You can't just watch her being wronged!"

"He'er, you're going to be the Princess of Jingyuan in the future. Go and beg the Prince to spare your mother's life! Okay?"

Princess Jingyuan?!

Ximen Liu's eyes suddenly became sharp. He looked at Jiang He and laughed out loud, "Oh, Jiang He, I didn't even know when I got engaged to you?"

Jiang He's face turned red and then pale. She opened her mouth, but no word came out. She only felt a burning pain on her face, as if she had been slapped hard in the face.

"Oh, you're still dreaming of being a princess? You're so shameless!" Someone in the crowd mocked, which immediately caused a burst of laughter.

Jiang He felt ashamed. She had never felt so embarrassed as she did at that moment.

Ximen Liu has been visiting her house frequently these days, but it turns out he is not here to see her, but has other purposes.

It was ridiculous that she was so self-indulgent that she thought Ximen Liu was interested in her and even began to fantasize about the glorious life she would live after becoming the Princess of Jingyuan.

At this moment, the dream was shattered, the reality was cruel, and Jiang He felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife.

When Jiang Buli heard Du Shulan's words about asking his daughter to get close to King Jingyuan, he felt so ashamed that he strode forward and kicked Du Shulan to the ground.

"You ignorant woman! Do you know what you are saying? My Jiang family has been loyal and righteous for generations. How could there be such a shameless and cruel woman like you?"

Du Shulan was dizzy from the slap, and blood oozed from the corners of her mouth. She covered her face and looked at Jiang Buli with a sad expression.

"My Lord, you... you actually hit me? In front of so many outsiders..."

Jiang Buli glared at him, "Beating you is too light a punishment! Are you trying to harm your entire family by doing these evil things? How could my Jiang family have a vicious woman like you?"

After saying this, he turned and bowed deeply to Ximen Liu. "Your Highness, this matter was all done by my humble wife alone. The entire Jiang family has been kept in the dark. Please investigate carefully and do not implicate the innocent."

"Lord Jiang, are you anxious to wipe out the Jiang family? Mrs. Du is your legal wife, and she did these things without your permission?" Xie Guangting retorted immediately, his eyes full of doubt.

Jiang Buli's face changed, and he quickly defended himself, "Brother Guangting, you are wrong. I, Jiang, have lived an upright life. How could I possibly be in cahoots with this vicious woman?"

"Besides, my Jiang family is completely unaware of what she is planning. Otherwise, how could we allow her to do whatever she wants?"

"On the Dragon Boat Festival, my Xie Mansion was attacked. My guards killed over 20 criminals on the spot. One of them was named Du Tiancai, as I recall!"

"By the way, your legitimate wife's nephew is also called Du Tiancai, right? He was wearing black and holding a long sword. He was stabbed in the vitals by my Xie family guards and died on the spot."

Xie Guangting pressed on step by step, not giving Jiang Buli any chance to breathe.

"What Du Tiancai? Brother Guangting, I don't know what you are talking about. My Jiang family has nothing to do with those bandits!" Jiang Buli hurriedly denied, with beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Really? Then on the Dragon Boat Festival, when you hosted a banquet at your house, my family gave you the heads of those criminals and asked you to take them to the court to claim the reward. Did you claim them?"

Jiang Buli's face turned even paler, and he stammered, unable to speak, "I...I was..."

"What's that? Is it because you already knew that those criminals were your wife's nephews and subordinates, so you didn't dare to hand over their heads?" Xie Guangting shouted.

"What! My genius?! Dead?!"

"Du Shulan, you actually killed Tiancai! You vicious woman, I will never let you go!"

Suddenly, a woman rushed out from the crowd, pounced on Du Shulan, and started crying and beating her.

This woman was Du Tiancai's mother and the second wife of the Du family. She was heartbroken when she learned of her son's death. When she saw Du Shulan at this moment, all her anger and sadness turned into fists and hit Du Shulan hard.

"You vicious woman! For your own selfish desires, you actually killed my son! My son, he was so young, and he's gone just like that!"

"Tell me, what about my Tianyou?! Is he also..."

"I haven't seen Tianci for more than half a month. Where is he?!"

"God, and my Tian'en and Tianfu..."

"You lied to us, saying you sent them to the Southern Territory for training, but it turns out they lost their lives doing dirty things for you! You vicious woman! We will never forgive you!"

Several more women rushed out from the crowd crying and wailing. They were all relatives of the Du family's side branch. Now they learned that their sons might have died because of Du Shulan, so they stepped forward to question her, and were very emotional.

There was chaos in the lobby. Du Shulan was surrounded by people. Crying, shouting and cursing mixed together in a mess.

Ximen Liu frowned and shouted, "Enough, stop it!"

His majestic voice pierced through the noise, and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Ximen Liu.

Ximen Liu saw everything that just happened and had already made up his mind.

He spoke slowly, his voice as cold as the wind blowing through the hall: "Lord Jiang, you are an official appointed by the court. Why did you conceal such a major event in your family and not report it? What is your intention?"

Jiang Buli shuddered and quickly knelt on the ground. "Your Highness, please calm down. I was confused for a moment and made a mistake out of concern for my family's reputation. Please, Your Highness, consider my many years of service to the court and be lenient with my sentence."

"The Du, Jiang, and He families are suspected of colluding with the remnants of the Shen family and plotting evil. The evidence is irrefutable. I will report this case to the court today and ask Your Majesty to make a decision."

"Immediately seal off the residences of these four families and detain all relevant personnel pending trial. No mistakes are allowed!"

At Ximen Liu's command, the guards around him immediately took action and arrested Du Shulan, Jiang Buli, and all the related personnel from the Jiang, Du, and He families in the Marquis' Mansion.

A brief silence returned to the lobby, leaving only the gasps and whispers of the crowd.

"Your Highness, we just discovered something at the mass grave in the west of the city!" At this time, Xie Changyu and Xie Ruyi hurried in from outside the door, looking nervous.

"What's going on?" Ximen Liu raised his eyebrows and looked at Xie Changyu.