After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 711 Witness
Haitang actually doesn’t care whether there really is such a witness in this world.

But for the emperor, finding such a "witness" was actually not that difficult.

As long as there is reliable evidence that Jin Xu had returned to the Jin family's rented house in the capital, whether she died or left again and her whereabouts are unknown, she can be treated as two separate people from "Xu Gongren of Cining Palace". Jin Xu left the palace after the fire in Kunning Palace, so Xu Gongren, who stayed in the palace with Empress Dowager Zhou and sealed the palace to no outsiders, would naturally have no problem with her identity. Accordingly, Concubine Xu's claim that she met her long-lost elder sister in the palace, hid her, and then quietly sent her out of the palace could not be considered a lie.

As for who the Jin family buried in the grave, it doesn't matter. Even if someone claims that it is not the real Jin Xu, it does not mean that Jin Xu did not leave the palace, but stayed in the palace as a palace maid, and now even became the imperial concubine.

Unless someone in the Cining Palace who witnessed all of this betrays Empress Dowager Zhou, the Emperor and Concubine Xu and publicly tells the truth, Concubine Xu's identity can be kept secret.

Haitang was almost telling Jin Jiashu that since the emperor had already made so many false statements, it wouldn't matter if he added one more false witness, right?

After hearing her words, Jin Jiashu fell into deep thought.

He actually understood the implication in Haitang's words, but he felt that this might not be safe.

Now, apart from Empress Dowager Zhou's close confidants in the Cining Palace, there are too many people under the Emperor who know Concubine Xu's secret. If one more person is added, the risk will increase. If someone lets the secret slip in front of the Sun family one day, it will be a disaster!
Besides, it is not easy to find a witness that outsiders can trust on the street where the Wu Mansion used to be located.

Although Wu Wen'an was once the father-in-law of the emperor and the Minister of Rites in the court, he enjoyed a high reputation among the scholars, but he did not live in a house granted by the emperor, but in the ancestral house where the Wu family had lived for generations. Others thought that the neighbors of the Wu family were all dignitaries, but in fact, because that area was close to the Imperial Examination Hall, there were more ordinary scholars.

The Wu family has been prosperous for a long time and has been a scholarly family for generations. The ancestral home covers a large area. In addition to the ancestral main house, they also bought a large piece of land to build a garden, and built a long row of houses outside the garden. All of them are small courtyards to accommodate relatives or students from other places. When the Wu family members are not serving as examiners for the imperial examinations, they will rent out the vacant courtyards to candidates from other places to take the exams. The year Xie Wenzai participated in the imperial examination, he lived in one of the small courtyards. He did not have time to move out until he was exiled shortly after he was appointed. He was asked by his teacher Wu Wen'an to draft memorials because of his good writing skills and his close proximity.

It can be seen that the property owned by the Wu family occupied more than half of the area of ​​the street, and the remaining half was occupied by other families. Among these families, not to mention the small families, those who had idle properties would rent them out to candidates from other places to earn rent to supplement their family income. Jin Juren rented such a house. After the landlord and his wife rented the house to him, they moved to their old house in the countryside. They returned to the city once a month to collect rent, and they could live a comfortable life in the countryside with the rent.

Since the house rental business on this street was well developed, when the Wu family got into trouble, those who lived close to them were either students, relatives or tenants who were dependent on the Wu family, or students who rented houses from other places. The former were often purged by the Sun family afterwards, and almost all of them were driven out of the capital and wandered around; not to mention the students who failed the exam and returned to their hometowns, or those who fled because they were afraid of trouble like Jin Juren, those who passed the exam were also appointed as officials outside the capital, and very few stayed in the capital. Those who stayed did not dare to offend the Sun family. As for the remaining local households... After the Wu Mansion was burned to the ground, more than half of the street was deserted, and no one dared to buy houses here. Even if it was close to the Imperial Examination Hall, the rental market was far less prosperous than before, and the rental income was much lower than before. Those who were taboo, as long as they could afford it, sold their houses and moved away; those who could not afford to buy other properties could only stay where they were, but their lives were not as comfortable as before.

Wanting to find a trustworthy person among these people to give false testimony... Jin Jiashu felt it was unreliable no matter how he thought about it. Over the years, he would occasionally hear from Ma Shangyi or Wu Ke about what happened in the area around the old site of the Wu Mansion, and he became more and more certain of this. Who wouldn't be afraid of the power of the Sun family if they had seen how the Wu family was burned down overnight? Some of them even volunteered to be the eyes and ears of the Sun family, helping them to monitor whether there were any relatives, friends or students of the Wu family who came to the old site to pay homage! Choosing a "witness" from such a group of people was simply courting death!
However, if the emperor just randomly found someone to pretend to be a "witness", it would not work. The Sun family had been keeping a close eye on the Wu family's old site for years, and there were people in the street who acted as their eyes and ears. If they found a fake person, they would be exposed immediately, and the emperor would be embarrassed.

Therefore, if such a "witness" is really needed, it must be someone who was known to live on this street when the incident happened, so that it would not be easy to be exposed. This person must also stand on the side of Concubine Xu, be reliable enough, and be smart enough to make up a story that is watertight and will never reveal the truth in front of others.

Jin Jiashu was silent for a long time before he raised his head and said softly, "Even if we can find a witness who says that my mother did return to the Jin family after leaving the palace, what can we do if Jin Wu insists on not admitting it?"

Haitang raised her eyebrows, "Of course he won't admit it! Madam Xu is favored in the palace now, and the Eighth Prince is about to be crowned as the heir. It's not something a small person like him can easily offend. Madam Xu personally sent the eldest sister out of the palace, hoping that she could escape the Sun family's search, but after returning home, she was killed by the Jin family. How could Jin Wu admit such a thing? Even if he was just a baby back then, once he became the son of the murderer who killed Madam Xu's eldest sister, he would not have a good ending."

Jin Jiashu pursed his lips and said, "But now he is willing to be used by the Sun family to harm my aunt. He dares to do such a thing. Is he afraid of making a mortal enemy with my aunt?"

Haitang blinked: "He is just a small person, how can he disobey the Sun family? Even if he is not willing, he can only submit to the Sun family, right?"

Jin Jiashu was silent for a while before he said, "When the second branch of the Jin family was tried in the Chang'an government office, they mentioned the old events. They insisted that my mother died of an acute illness after returning home. But Aunt Jin once protested to me that she had never seen my mother come back that year, and that they did not kill my mother. They just pretended that my mother was dead because they were too afraid of the power of the Sun family, and took the opportunity to escape by leaving the city under the pretext of attending the funeral. I don't know whether what she said is true or not. If it is true, then my mother's grave in the capital should be an empty coffin. If the Sun family goes to dig it up, it will be exposed at any time."

Haitang blinked again, "Ah... Since you and Madam Xu both knew where your mother was buried, why didn't you move her grave? Didn't you arrange for someone to guard the grave? How could you let the Sun family dig up the grave casually? Besides, how could the Sun family have the nerve to dig up other people's graves? Even if the coffins in the graves were empty, so what? After the fire at the Wu family, didn't they arrest people everywhere on that street? I heard that the girls who were married off in the early years of the Wu family didn't escape, and there are relatives and friends of the Wu family among the neighbors. Who knows who the Sun family arrested when they were arresting people everywhere! Their relatives and friends can't just leave them alone without seeing the body alive or dead, right? There must be someone who arranged a cenotaph for the arrested people, right? What can this prove? It's all the sins of the Sun family!"

Jin Jiashu looked at Haitang and slowly revealed a strange smile on his face: "Sister Hai, you really... helped me a lot!"

(End of this chapter)