I just want to live a good life

Chapter 408 This Jade Buddha is Unlucky

There were cries of surprise everywhere.

The emperor glanced at Marquis Zhongyuan and said the word "Xuan".

Even if he didn't want to make a big deal out of it, he couldn't do that at the moment.

A moment later, a man came up to the temple carrying a jade Buddha statue.

The man looked to be in his twenties, with a haggard look and was wearing a coarse cloth garment that did not match the jade Buddha in his arms.

Seeing the emperor, he was calm. He gently placed the jade Buddha at his feet, lifted his robe and knelt down, "I, a humble servant, greet the emperor with great respect."

"Sheng Huai, is this jade Buddha yours?"

The emperor asked.

"Yes, this is my family heirloom. It was taken away by some bad guys a few days ago."

Everyone quickly glanced at Marquis Zhongyuan.

Marquis Zhongyuan angrily said, "You are talking nonsense. When did I take your jade Buddha?"

Sheng Huai glanced at Marquis Zhongyuan and said in a neither humble nor arrogant manner: "It was not you who took my jade Buddha, but this jade Buddha is a gift to you."

"Hey, Marquis Zhongyuan just said that the Jade Buddha was recovered from Southern Xinjiang, and now his lie has been exposed!"

"Who made him mess with Concubine Xia? Look at how the father and daughter are jumping up and down. They just want to embarrass Concubine Xia."

"It's not certain who will be embarrassed this time."

"..."

"What's going on? Sheng Huai, tell me in detail."

As soon as the emperor opened his mouth, everyone shut up and listened quietly to Sheng Huai's account of what happened.

The Sheng family is a merchant family in the Imperial City. They have a caravan that travels to southern Xinjiang. The caravan travels back and forth between the Imperial City and southern Xinjiang every year, bringing southern Xinjiang's specialty products back to the Imperial City to sell, and also bringing the Imperial City's fine goods to southern Xinjiang to sell.

A few days ago, a caravan returned from southern Xinjiang and brought back a jade Buddha. This jade Buddha was collected from a local village and was intended to be taken back to the imperial city and sold for a good price.

But as soon as this jade Buddha appeared in the world, it brought disaster to the Sheng family.

The shop was reported to be selling contraband items, and Sheng Huai's father was thrown into jail.

Sheng Huai asked people everywhere to plead for mercy but to no avail. Finally, someone suggested that he try giving some treasures away, and he thought of the jade Buddha.

The jade Buddha was intended to be given to Jingzhao Yin, but who would have thought that Sheng Huai's father died in prison on the day the jade Buddha was given away.

Sheng Huai's mother couldn't bear the blow and fell ill. A few days later, she followed her father.

What was once a happy family suddenly became broken up.

All this was caused by the man who was falsely accused of selling contraband in the Sheng family shop. In grief, Sheng Huai went to settle the score with that man, only to learn from him that it was Marquis Zhongyuan who took a fancy to the jade Buddha and deliberately framed his family.

The jade Buddha was delivered to the hands of Jingzhao Yin, and Sheng Huai went to confront Jingzhao Yin, but was severely beaten and thrown out.

He was unwilling to give up, so he went to find Marquis Zhongyuan to ask for the jade Buddha back, but he was driven out without even seeing Marquis Zhongyuan. That was not the end. The Sheng family’s shop was sealed up and their property was confiscated, and Sheng Huai even lost his home.

After hearing about Sheng Huai's experience, everyone was deeply saddened.

"Your Majesty, this villain is full of nonsense. I am innocent!"

Marquis Zhongyuan frowned, knelt on the ground, and looked serious.

Dong Jingshu glared at Su Nuan fiercely and said angrily, "Concubine Xia, you were afraid that the Queen Mother would not like the gift you sent, so I kindly exchanged it with you and gave you some silver. Not only are you ungrateful, but why did you find someone to frame my father?"

"Whether it is a false accusation or not is up to the Emperor to decide, not you and your daughter." Su Nuan said calmly, "Besides, I originally just wanted to return the jade Buddha to Sheng Huai, and didn't want him to present it in the palace. It was you two who insisted that I take out the jade Buddha. Then I invited Sheng Huai to come later."

She really didn't want Sheng Huai to show up, so why would she let Sheng Huai wait outside the palace? But she did not mention the jade Buddha before, so what she said was true.

The Dong family father and daughter naturally knew that this was not the time to find a loophole in her words. The key point now was to make the emperor believe that they were wronged.

So the father and daughter cried out for justice together.

Both the Emperor and the Empress Dowager looked unhappy. Who would be happy if a case turned up during a birthday party?

The emperor ignored the Dong family father and daughter's cry of injustice and turned to ask Mu Yunting: "Prince, what do you say?"

Mu Yunting looked at Dong Jingshu, then at Su Nuan, and sighed inwardly, and replied: "Since the Jade Buddha incident involves human life, it should be thoroughly investigated."

"Okay, then this matter will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice for investigation."

Lord Shen never expected that he would pick up a case while congratulating the Empress Dowager on her birthday. After receiving the order, he prepared to leave with Sheng Huai.

"Wait a minute, didn't Concubine Xia just say that the owner of the Jade Buddha wanted to give it to the Queen Mother? Is she just leaving like that?"

It was Prince Guang'an who spoke again.

Su Nuan was about to give him a thumbs up. This guy was really omnipresent in his efforts to find trouble for her!

It's a pity that he didn't use his brain. Now that things have come to this, how could the Queen Mother still accept the jade Buddha?

Su Nuan was about to mock Prince Guang'an when Sheng Huai stood up and said to the Queen Mother in a neither humble nor arrogant manner: "If this jade Buddha can be given to the Queen Mother, it will naturally be its best destination. However, this jade Buddha has caused my family to be broken up, which is unlucky. I think it should be sent to Jing'an Temple for worship."

The Queen Mother looked at Prince Guang'an with disgust, then turned to Sheng Huai and said, "You are right. It would be better to send it to Jing'an Temple."

The jade Buddha incident just passed.

Su Nuan was surprised that no one came to ask her how she knew Sheng Huai.

Of course no one asked, because everyone would think that she was the one who took the initiative to approach Sheng Huai.

Even Mu Yunting thought so.

"If you wanted to take revenge on Marquis Zhongyuan, you shouldn't have chosen an occasion like today. You disrupted the Royal Grandmother's birthday banquet and made both Father and Royal Grandmother unhappy."

Su Nuan wanted to say that whether they were happy or not was not that important to her, but she held back because the focus of Mu Yunting's words was the first half.

"Do you think I deliberately wanted to cause trouble for Marquis Zhongyuan today?"

"Is not it?"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince really thinks highly of me. Do you know how much work I had to do in advance to use this matter to cause trouble for Marquis Zhongyuan? You have secret guards watching me, don't you know how many people I have and how much I can do?

Tell me, how did I know that the Jade Buddha would be in Dong Jingshu's hands, and how did I know that she would give it to the Queen Mother as a gift? "

"Then why did you let Sheng Huai wait outside the palace?"

Su Nuan sneered and replied, "Because he wants to wait for a result."

"What do you mean, please tell me clearly."

After careful consideration, Su Nuan finally decided to make things clear with Mu Yunting. It was not because she was afraid that he would misunderstand her, but being misunderstood by him now would affect what she was going to do later.

"I just met Sheng Huai yesterday. He came to me and said that if I helped him get the Jade Buddha back, he would sell himself to me."

Mu Yunting's face darkened. "Why would he sell himself to you?"

"For work. He's well-educated, knows how to do accounting, is smart, and his family once owned a shop. It's perfect for him to help me run the shop."

"Every shop has a shopkeeper, so he doesn't need to take care of it."

"Your Highness, do you still want to listen to me?"