Chapter 19 — Kneeling before the Queen and Duke

After Tuong Ba Khiem was controlled by the guards right at the main hall, the Holy King immediately ordered Dai Ly Tu to coordinate with the Xing Ministry to open a comprehensive investigation, not only into the plot to assassinate the princess that had just taken place, but also to review the entire fire at Vinh Tho palace twenty years ago. The order to search Chiang Ba Khiem's palace was issued that same day, and a large army entered the magnificent mansion that he had painstakingly built during his twenty years of power.

During the search, officials discovered a secret basement deep under Tuong Ba Khiem's private study, where countless secret documents were hidden, detailing the spy network he had built over the years, spanning across noble families, ministries in the royal court, and even in the army. In it, there are also records about placing Tham Nhuoc Lan in the Sam family since she was a child, about closely monitoring all changes in that family for fifteen long years, in case the little princess's true identity was discovered.

That evidence, combined with the testimony of the palace maid who acted on the housekeeper's orders, and the housekeeper's own testimony after being arrested and thoroughly interrogated, has built up a complete panorama of Tuong Ba Khiem's crimes spanning twenty years, from the fire that killed Princess Vinh Tan and the attempt to murder the newborn princess, to the installation of spies to follow, and finally the poisoning plot and assassination plan that were just broken.

News of the arrest of Grand Master Tuong Ba Khiem and the full disclosure of his crimes quickly spread throughout Khanh Duong capital, causing a strong shock among the mandarins. Many officials who had secretly relied on his influence to advance their careers were now in extreme panic, hastily trying to cut off all ties. Some even took the initiative to confess and declare the wrongdoings they had committed under Tuong Ba Khiem's orders, hoping to receive leniency thanks to their cooperative attitude.

The imperial siege that Chiang Ba Khiem had painstakingly built for twenty years now collapsed like a castle built on sand in just a few short days. The deputy general guarding the barracks west of the citadel, who recklessly dispatched his troops following the signal of that fateful salt shipment, was taken to the capital to face treason charges on the night of his arrest. His testimony further strengthened the evidence of Tuong Ba Khiem's intention to use mutiny to silence the court. The other generals who had been beholden to him were elevated to their positions. Upon hearing that news, no one dared to act rashly. They could only stay motionless and wait for the final verdict from the court. No one wanted to be further implicated in the crime of the defeated mastermind.

Master Tu, when he heard that Tuong Ba Khiem was arrested, hastily cut off all remaining contacts, secretly happy because he had not received any official protection from that Grand Master before, so the Tu family seemed to have escaped a disaster of direct involvement. But he also understood that, now that the great mastermind had collapsed, Bach Quan's own crimes in the Khinh Vu poisoning case would no longer be able to be protected or mitigated by anyone. The entire responsibility would inevitably fall on his son, making him even more worried, unable to eat or sleep well in the days waiting for the final verdict from the court.

In addition, the expanded investigation also discovered many lower-level officials who had received bribes or carried out shady orders from Chiang Ba Khiem over the years, from covering up unjust cases to manipulating election results to install their faction's people in important positions. All of these incidents were brought to light one after another, creating an unprecedented large-scale purge in the Dai Ninh court for decades, making the atmosphere in the officialdom more tense than ever, but at the same time bringing a new breath of vitality, a new belief in justice to many honest officials who had suffered under the shadow of Tuong Ba Khiem's power for so many years.

Viet Khoi, as the person who directly broke up the plot and collected most of the evidence, was praised by the Supreme Saint and at the same time assigned the responsibility of supervising the entire extended investigation process, ensuring that no accomplice could slip through the law's net. Many officials in the court, after hearing the story clearly, couldn't help but marvel when they learned that the princess herself, using only numbers and familiar thinking from the time she managed the books of the silk and sea salt trade for the Sam family, was the first person to discover Tuong Ba Khiem's secret military mobilization plan, not thanks to any miracle or luck - a vivid proof that her sharp intelligence did not stop at sowing suspicion in the neighborhood. room, but also enough to expose a plot to mutiny among the royal court. He worked non-stop for many days, with Dai Ly Tu officials reviewing every secret document, every testimony, piecing together the entire network of crimes that had taken root in the royal court over the past twenty years.

Khinh Vu was also invited to participate in a number of important interrogation sessions, both as a direct victim and as a living witness of both cases twenty years apart. Standing before Tuong Ba Khiem imprisoned in a dungeon, his face no longer had the majestic majesty as before, leaving only the old, destitute and helpless look of a man who had completely failed.

"Do you regret it?" Khinh Vu asked, his voice calm but containing the weight of twenty years of injustice.

Tuong Ba Khiem looked up at her, his eyes dull and lifeless. "Regret," he sneered, his voice hoarse. "I only regret not having done everything thoroughly more than twenty years ago, only to have to accept this outcome today. If you had really died in the fire that year, perhaps things would have been different."

Khinh Vu was silent for a long time, neither angry nor sad, only a deep sadness for an entire generation caught up in a vicious cycle of power struggles. "You have killed countless innocent lives because of your greed for power," she said, her voice low. "My mother, the innocent maids who died in the fire that year, and even Nhuoc Lan, a child who you turned into a tool from an early age. You have ruined countless lives, just to protect a position of power that will be lost today."

Before leaving the dungeon, Khinh Vu also asked Tuong Ba Khiem about the final details related to the night of the fire in the past, wanting to know more about the last moments of the mother she never had the chance to meet. Tuong Ba Khiem, perhaps because he had completely surrendered to his fate, no longer hid it, coldly and cruelly recounting how he had ordered the Vinh Tho palace to be set on fire at midnight, how he had people guarding every escape route to ensure that no one in that palace could survive, and how he had truly panicked when he heard that the newborn baby had not been found in the ashes, knowing that there was still a potential disaster that had not been resolved. thoroughly.

"You want to know why I didn't kill you as soon as I found the clue?" Tuong Ba Khiem suddenly laughed dryly, his cloudy eyes looked into the distance as if he were talking to himself rather than to Khinh Vu. "I had people trace all the old debts of gratitude of Lady Vinh Tan for several years, and finally tracked down the merchant Sam Dinh Ngan, the person who had saved the life of that family. But when I found him, you had been sitting comfortably as the young lady of the Sam family for five or six years, with a different name, a different identity, recognized by an entire region of commerce as his biological child. Killing a child for no reason in a respected family, especially without any reasonable cause, would be like personally writing a decree of condemnation for myself. Setting a pair of eyes next to you, waiting, is the only way a person like me can sleep peacefully for all those years."

Hearing those stories, Khinh Vu felt her whole body tremble, not because of fear but because of extreme pain as he imagined the terrible scene his mother had to go through in the last moments of her life. She clenched her fists, trying to maintain the necessary composure of a princess in the face of her enemies, even though inside her heart there were complex emotions that were difficult to express in words. Leaving the dungeon, Khinh Vu stood silently for a long time under the pale afternoon sunlight, feeling a strange feeling of relief mixed with emptiness. The mastermind behind the entire tragedy of her life finally received the appropriate punishment, but that could not erase the losses that she and so many others had suffered over the past twenty years. She understands that no matter how late justice came, it was still better than letting the crime forever be buried in darkness, and now, the rest of the journey was facing Tu Bach Quan and Tham Nhuoc Lan, the two people who directly caused the greatest pain in her life.

Before leaving the prison area, Khinh Vu did not immediately return to the palace, but turned to a separate prison block where Tham Nhuoc Lan was being held awaiting trial, a private meeting she had been cherishing for many days, ever since she knew that Nhuoc Lan was also just a child manipulated by Tuong Ba Khiem since he was five or six years old. Nhuoc Lan sat crouched in the corner of the dungeon. When she heard familiar footsteps, she raised her head and couldn't hide her surprise when she recognized the visitor. "What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice hoarse from many sleepless nights. "Have you come to see me in my misery for pleasure?"

"No," Khinh Vu replied, her voice calm, pulling a small chair to sit down not far from the bars. "I have come to give you one last choice. I know clearly that since you were a child, you were sent to the Sam family by order of Tuong Ba Khiem, without the right to decide your own fate. If in public, you will reveal the entire truth, accept responsibility for what you have done without blaming all the mistakes on others or denying lies, I will personally ask the court for leniency, considering the circumstances. I've been forced to since I was a child. It's the only thing I can still do for someone who has called me sister for fifteen years."

Nhuoc Lan was silent for a long time, her hands clasped tightly around the old prisoner's shirt, her eyes wavering between inherent stubbornness and a fatigue that had been harbored for too long. "Why do you have to do that?" she asked, her voice less cold. "I hurt you so much that I almost lost my life. You have every right to let me suffer the death I deserve."

"Because I understand, the biggest crime is not yours," Khinh Vu replied, her eyes never leaving the haggard face of his former foster sister. "It lies with the person who turned an innocent child into an instrument of murder. I cannot completely forgive what you have done, but I also do not want to turn a blind eye to the fact that you were also a victim, even if in a different way."

Nhuoc Lan bowed her head for a long time. When she looked up, her eyes were filled with tears. For the first time since being arrested, she showed a bit of genuine weakness, no longer trying to hide behind her familiar coldness. "Okay," she said softly, her voice shaking. "I will tell the whole truth in public, not avoiding, not blaming anyone anymore."

Khinh Vu nodded, stood up and left the prison without saying another word, leaving Nhuoc Lan alone to face the final struggles before the court date. She knew that promise would not erase the pain she had endured, but at least it gave her the feeling that she had done everything she could to close the fifteen-year resentment in the most complete way, not letting the hatred last another moment.

Viet Khoi came to her side as soon as he heard that she had just left the prison area. Seeing the pain on her face, he gently held her hand, didn't say much, just stood quietly beside her as a solid fulcrum. "The worst is over," he said softly after a long moment of silence. "From now on, you will no longer have to face anything alone."

Khinh Vu looked up at him, the corners of her eyes were still filled with tears but a rare ray of warmth shone. "I know," she replied, her voice softer. "And I also know, if it weren't for you standing by my side throughout the whole journey, I probably wouldn't have been able to get to this day, I wouldn't have been able to see justice finally being served for my mother and for myself."