With a million soldiers, the empress begged me not to rebel

Chen Qingwan sneered in her heart, brothel?

As the empress, what kind of beauties has she not seen?

This Princess Mingyue is really... innocent and naive.

However, she pretended to be curious and nodded:

"Okay, let's go check it out."

The three of them arrived at the entrance of Zuixianlou, and the madam saw Princess Mingyue in gorgeous clothes at a glance.

He immediately came up with a smile on his face:

"Hey, what wind brought Her Highness the Princess here? Please come in, please come in!"

Princess Mingyue walked in arrogantly, followed closely by Chen Qingwan and Qiao'er.

The madam led them to the private room on the second floor.

He immediately called over a group of beautiful women, some plump and some thin, each with their own unique charm.

Princess Mingyue was obviously very interested in this occasion.

He took Chen Qingwan and Qiao'er to enjoy singing and dancing and taste fine wine.

Chen Qingwan was absent-minded and looked around.

I found that although there was singing and dancing here, there was an air of decadence.

She thought to herself, is a place like this really suitable for a girl like Princess Mingyue?

Just then, a ragged man suddenly rushed in.

He knelt before Princess Mingyue and cried:

"Princess, please save my daughter!"

"She was abducted by the prefect's son, and now her life or death is uncertain!"

Princess Mingyue was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage:

"How dare you kidnap a girl in broad daylight!"

"This princess will go and seek justice for you!"

Chen Qingwan's heart moved. This might be an opportunity...

"Your Highness, since this man has been wronged so much."

"How about we go to the prefectural government office together and seek justice for him?"

When Princess Mingyue heard this, she was delighted and immediately stood up and slammed the table:

"Alright! This princess wants to see how bold the son of the Jingzhou prefect is, to actually have the guts to forcibly seize a common woman!"

Princess Mingyue brought Chen Qingwan and Qiao'er with her in a threatening manner.

The group marched straight to the prefectural government office.

When the bailiff at the gate of the yamen saw that it was the Princess of Beixiang who had arrived, he dared not be negligent and hurried in to report.

Upon hearing the news, the prefect of Jingzhou was so frightened that he rushed out to greet them.

His son was usually arrogant and domineering, and often caused him trouble.

This time he actually offended the princess. Isn't this going to cost him his life?

Princess Mingyue didn't care about him at all. As soon as she entered the government office, she started to question him:

"Where's your precious son? Tell him to come out and see this princess!"

The prefect wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and replied timidly:

"My son...my son is resting in the back hall. I'll go get him right away."

Soon, a young man in gorgeous clothes and with slicked-back hair and powdered face came out.

He squinted his eyes at Princess Mingyue and said frivolously:

"Hey, where did this wild girl come from? How dare you shout in front of me?"

Princess Mingyue was furious when she heard this. She pointed at the young man's nose and cursed:

"How dare you be so disrespectful to this princess, you ignorant fool! Come, capture him!"

Chen Qingwan stood aside, watching all this coldly, with a playful smile on her lips.

She winked at Qiao'er calmly, and Qiao'er understood and quietly retreated.

When the prefect saw that Princess Mingyue was serious, he became a little panicked.

He quickly hid behind the prefect and shouted:

"Dad, save me! This crazy woman is going to beat me!"

The prefect was terrified. While protecting his son, he apologized to Princess Mingyue.

The scene was in chaos, but Chen Qingwan remained calm.

Qiao'er was extremely efficient and quickly investigated the whole story.

It turned out that the so-called "commoner girl" was actually the childhood sweetheart of the prefect's son, and the two had already secretly decided to spend their lives together.

The man's family despised the poor and loved the rich, and they saw that the magistrate's son was now in a state of poverty.

She wanted to break off the engagement, so she instigated the man to sue him for robbing the girl.

Chen Qingwan informed Princess Mingyue of the results of the investigation, and Princess Mingyue was skeptical:

"Are you telling the truth? Is this man and his family lying to me?"

Chen Qingwan smiled slightly:

"Your Highness, please bring both parties and their families to Zuixianlou."

"Hear this matter openly, let the people bear witness, and the truth will naturally come to light."

Princess Mingyue thought this was a good idea and agreed.

Everyone came to Zuixianlou, and Chen Qingwan ordered people to bring up the parties involved and their families.

She first questioned the man, who tearfully accused the prefect's son of forcibly abducting his sister.

Chen Qingwan listened calmly, asking a few questions from time to time.

The men answered fluently, as if they had really suffered a great injustice.

Next, Chen Qingwan asked the woman again.

The woman lowered her head and said nothing, just crying silently.

Seeing this, Chen Qingwan said to the man's family:

"You insist that the prefect's son raped a common woman, but do you have any evidence?"

The man’s family quickly took out a petition, which was filled with the “crimes” of the prefect’s son.

Chen Qingwan took the complaint, looked at it carefully, and then asked the woman:

"Is what is written in this petition true?"

The woman still kept her head down and said nothing, but just shook her head gently.

Seeing this, Chen Qingwan already had the answer in her mind.

She threw the complaint in front of the man's family and shouted:

"The handwriting on this petition is clearly from the same person!"

"Do you know that the crime of deceiving the emperor is punishable by the death of all nine generations of your clan?"

The man's family members were so frightened that their faces turned pale. They fell to their knees and begged for mercy.

Princess Mingyue snorted coldly:

"Since this is your first offense, I will spare your lives! But while you may escape the death penalty, you cannot escape the punishment of living!"

After saying that, she ordered people to drag the man's family away and give each of them twenty lashes of the board.

The truth came out, and the magistrate's son and his lover finally got married.

Princess Mingyue also realized that she almost wronged a good person, and she admired Chen Qingwan's wisdom and observation even more.

Chen Qingwan took this opportunity to quietly demonstrate her abilities.

He also gained a deeper understanding of the corruption in Jingzhou's officialdom and the suffering of the people, laying the groundwork for his future governance of Jingzhou.

After three rounds of drinking, Princess Mingyue, under the influence of alcohol, took Chen Qingwan's hand and said in a sweet voice:

"Sister Chen, you are so amazing! If it weren't for you, I would have wrongly blamed a good person today!"

Chen Qingwan pulled her hand back without leaving a trace and smiled faintly:

"Your Highness, I am too kind. I am only doing my duty."

Princess Mingyue became more and more intimate, and put her arm around Chen Qingwan's shoulders, saying with drunken eyes:

"Sister Chen, you are so beautiful, more beautiful than any other woman I have ever seen!"

"Tell me, would Lord Lu like you like this?"

Chen Qingwan's heart trembled slightly when she heard Princess Mingyue's sudden and slightly drunken words.

She calmly moved aside to avoid Princess Mingyue's intimate gesture.

But he still maintained a decent smile on his face:

"Your Highness, thank you for your compliment."

"How dare I, a humble servant, be compared to Her Royal Highness the Princess?"

"Besides, Lord Lu is a pillar of the country. I dare not make any presumptuous assumptions."