118 News Spread in Da Cheng (1/2)
The next morning, news of Prince Jing mansion caught on fire the night before spread across the Capital city. The fire was quite big, damaging thirty percent of the property. Fortunately, as the fire started at a secluded place, there were no casualties reported.
The officers from the fire department and department of justice came in and out from Prince Jing's mansion to investigate the matter. Some busybody onlookers camped outside Prince Jing's mansion to catch the first news about the fire.
Prince Jing testified that an intruder broke into his house and started the fire. However, the culprit managed to get away as his guards failed to catch him.
The officers from the department of justice were dispatched to look for the culprit. The only clues they got from Prince Jing's guard was that the culprit had an injury on his left arm.
The officers turned the city upside down, but they could not find the culprit.
Two days after, another shocking news spread across the city. During the officers' investigation, they discovered several corpses in the Prince's compound.
From the post-mortem, they found out that the bodies belonged to female aged around thirteen to fifteen. The oldest corpses were said to be buried in Prince Jing's compound for at least five years ago.
Rumors of young maidservants in Prince Jing's household went missing for every few months surfaced. The officers tried to suppress the rumors but failed as the busybody onlookers have already spread the news around.
By the time the Emperor learned about the news, it was already too late for them to do anything. Even Prince Yi and Chancellor Chen could not do anything to help Prince Jing.
The officials started to appeal for the Emperor to take action against Prince Jing before the citizen of Da Cheng would be discontent and cause trouble for the government.
The Emperor was displeased with the news. He then shut himself in his study and refused to meet any of his officials. However, the Emperor's refusal did not stop the officials from kneeling before the Great Hall and continue to plead for the Emperor to uphold justice.
…