551 What about Your Clan? (2/2)
There were tears on his face!
The king closed his eyes with sorrow and shame.
”That is as shown on record. There must be many girls who have been sent to some important figures in the court as gifts…” Minister Wang’s eyes lit up. He glanced at the officials on the court and said, ”I wonder how many…”
Officials were all sighing, except two of them. They were both trying to avoid eye contacts.
They didn’t participate in the filthy business of Second Prince, but they accepted the girls from him. They still kept the girls… at home…
Minister Wang looked at them and said, ”My dear friends, what do you two think about it?”
The two of them were terrified. They hurriedly kneeled down and kowtowed, begging, ”Your majesty… Please… I was wrong… I deserve penalty…”
The king looked at them in disdain. He had praised these two officials many times for their hard work in their jobs before, but now he said to them, ”Since you know you deserve it, fine. Somebody come and drag them out. Kill them both!”
”Wipe out their families and kill their clans!”
As the king gave such an order, the two officials suddenly broke down.
The guards in the court gathered over and grabbed them both, then they dragged them out like dragging two dead dogs. They begged and begged, feeling extreme desperation as they got nearer to the gate.
One of them suddenly shouted, ”Kill my clan! Good! Can I ask you something, your majesty! I just accepted one woman and I have never harmed her ever! Am I that unforgivable? If you insist to wipe out my entire clan, what about you? Your son had done such a flagrant crime!”
”King obeys to law like all citizen! Second Prince did so many flagrant things. Should you wipe out his clan too? Should you dig out his ancestors’ tombs? Your son committed such a crime, don’t you, as his father, have any responsibility for it? Even if you kill all the officials here, can you cover the truth that such a crime was on your royal family?”
”Hahahaha… Wipe out my clan! Good! I know I am unforgivable! I will go to hell and wait till the moment you put the order to wipe out your own clan! I want to see how you wipe out your own clan yourself and convince the entire world!”
The two of them knew they were bound to die this day, so they decided to go straightforward on it. They feared nothing now.
They just said whatever they had in their mind!
In fact, they were right. They were not even part of Second Prince’s men. What they did was just misprision. They accepted the girls from Second Prince, and it was just following the unspoken rule in the court. Besides, they liked the girls so much and had never harmed them. They didn’t know where Second Prince got them either…
It was a special time and the king was lost in anger, that was why they got such a serious penalty. In fact, they should be just warned and suspended from duty for some time. Normally, they wouldn’t get punished like this—execution and clan extermination should have been out of the question!
The hall was in silence all of a sudden.
The king’s face was twisting.
In his eyes, there were depression, gloom, anger, guilt, remorse…
The angry shout of the two officials before death resounded in his ears like sharp needles stabbing deep into his heart!
[Are they right?]
[Aren’t they right?]
[But… I… What should I do?]
The king was having complex emotions in his heart. Eventually, he sighed and said, ”Bring them back. Suspension for half a year. Let’s see how they behave after half a year.”
His eyes looked so gloomy. ”They’re right. My son made such an unforgivable crime. I can’t vent my anger to people with such an unreasonable excuse.”
…