The Rebirth of an Ill-Fated Consort (Chapters 1- 203)

Chapter 178 : Jiang-Xia's Death

Translated by : Irisu

Edited by : Anks & Ely

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In the end, not even three days had passed when in the early afternoon of the second day, the soldiers in charge of escorting the exiled prisoners sent a flying pigeon to pass a missive. It stated that all three generations from the Xia family, as well as Jiang Chao, had committed suicide to escape punishment en route to their exile.

Although this was what was said, what the truth was or whether it was a falsehood- no one would ever know. It's just that no matter how noble and far-reaching they all once were, they had already become corpses, and so no one cared about the truth. Thus, a generation of Marquis fell into decay. Meanwhile, the common people were all clapping their hands in satisfaction — for such people to have destroyed the urgently needed military provisions in a single fire, they were truly guilty of terrible crimes. Moreover, who knew what other kinds of intentions they might have harboured?

When Qi Feng shared the news, he noticed that Jiang Ruan merely replied with a faint noise of affirmation. So, he asked, "Third Sister-in-law, why do you seem so unbothered? Aren't you afraid that they might have been rescued by someone?"

"When crafty rabbits are dead, then the hunting dogs are useless[1]." Jiang Ruan seemed utterly unfazed as she checked the account book before her. Ever since she had entered the fu, Steward Lin had begun to treat her as the mistress of the Jinying Wangfu. It wasn't just having authority over every matter, everything had been handed over to Jiang Ruan to take care of. Even if she was predisposed to decline, the ledger and the storeroom keys were still handed over to her in the end. Initially, she had not wanted to bother with these matters, but in the end this was Xiao Shao's Wangfu. Even if she was given free rein, to wash her hands of this was not too good either. So now, on a daily basis, she had one more thing to look over. She then continued, "The Xia family has been Xuan Li's blade in the imperial court for so many years that they have too many sworn enemies. Once Xuan Li began to regard them as discarded goods, it was impossible to expect that he would do anything to help them. To be killed en route to being banished; finding any means as they wish to frame it as them dreading punishment and committing suicide is not bad either. Only it's a pity that they were absolved of their crimes this quickly."

[1] 狡兔死走狗烹 (jiǎo tù sǐ zǒugǒu pēng) – it means when someone has no use of a person, they would immediately dispose of them.

"Actually, you've guessed wrong this time." Qi Feng chuckled, "It wasn't the enemies of Xia family who did this."

"It was Xuan Li then," Jiang Ruan responded indifferently, "he has the guts to do so."

"How did you know?" Qi Feng was stunned.

"Xuan Li wants to protect the secret passageway, so dares not let this secret be exposed. Therefore, he sacrificed the Xia family and Jiang Chao. Furthermore, they had done so much over the years as Xuan Li's underlings, which meant that they must have more or less known about Xuan Li's end goal. So naturally, they would have some leverage. This being the case, how could he possibly allow the Xia family to live? Xuan Li murdered them to both silence and prevent them from divulging his secrets." Jiang Ruan continued, "Speaking of which, the Xia family must have assumed that being exiled was due to Xuan Li. They must have thought that they could eventually make a comeback after obediently not resisting their sentence. Yet, they actually set themselves on a road of no return."

Qi Feng rubbed his nose, "To think you've actually guessed pretty closely." He continued, "The Jinyi Guards who were sent were watching attentively. Once the Xia family and Jiang Chao realized that Xuan Li had sent people to silence them, their complexions changed. Unfortunately, we were just a little too late, but there wasn't any time to regret. Third Sister-in-law, I acted on my own initiative and had Xia Jun's and Jiang Chao's severed heads collected and brought back," he looked at Jiang Ruan closely, "How does Third Sister-in-law want to handle this?"