Unrepentant

Chapter 20:In the end , there will be one day

Lin Si Ze slightly lifted his eyes to glance at Gu Hong Jian, as if he already knew what she was going to say, but didn't interfere and simply allowed her to continue talking.

"When these letters were mailed, it was coincidentally a month prior to rebellious Minister Yao Bing's coup. 'That position' you spoke of was also clearly not referring to the emperor, because since the emperor had ascended the throne, you have no intention of bringing your family to the capital. Therefore, who 'that position' refers to is clear. When the late Emperor had still been on the throne, the crown prince candidate had yet to be determined, but you had been confident then. Evidently, you had long known what was going to happen, so you and Yao Bing had basically joined together!" Gu Hong Jian deepened her voice as she revealed her verdict, "To conspire; this is abundantly clear!"

Assistant Minister Fan stammered and wanted to refute, but he realized he unexpectedly could not!

He could only continue kowtowing, banging his head till his forehead bled, but he was simply sentenced by Lin Si Ze with an indifferent order of 'Come, drag him down.'

Afterward, Assistant Minister Fan was executed for the crime of conspiring against the throne, as well as all his relatives.

Gu Hong Jian established herself in the imperial court because of this extremely brilliant impeachment.

Assistant Minister Fan was the first one to suggest forbidding her from taking an official post. In the end, he was executed as well as all his relatives.

This impeachment clearly indicated Gu Hong Jian's method to be exceptional, with the emperor helping on the sly as well. No one was completely pure, so none wanted to take a risk.

There was but one completely pure person, who was in fact Zhao Yun Yuan.

Zhao Yun Yuan, however, merely sought an opportunity in private to puzzledly ask Gu Hong Jian how she came to learn about Assistant Minister Fan's many crimes.

Gu Hong Jian did not hide this either and smiled as she explained, "He wrote the eulogy yet relied on Yao Bing. Naturally, he could not be a good person. After a little bit of research, you could discover a few misdeeds. As for that crucial letter to his family...ah, that report was actually written long beforehand. He probably had nothing to do with the matter of forcing the emperor to abdicate, in fact, but it was useful, so I brought it up."

Zhao Yun Yuan was extremely shocked upon hearing 'useful' and said, "How...how could you do such a thing?!"

Gu Hong Jian asked, "What's wrong? Cutting the grass doesn't eliminate the rootes. The spring breeze will blow and create new life."

"You..." Zhao Yun Yuan was in disbelief. "Impeaching Assistant Minister Fan, because of his wickedness, certainly doesn't mean you can brazenly add offenses, especially if your reasoning is that...cutting the grass doesn't eliminate the roots?!"

Gu Hong Jian blinked and said, "In any case, he didn't do good things; his family didn't either...so it's like that."

"True, his family had many evil-doers within it, but there were innocent women and children who were also implicated!" Zhao Yun Yuan furiously argued, frowning.

At this moment, Zhao Yun Yuan had already entered the Imperial Hanlin Academy. Gu Hong Jian laughed and said, "Imperial Secretary Zhao really does wholeheartedly read only the holy book; his whole body radiates with an austere, righteous aura, and he harbors benevolence. However, Imperial Secretary Zhao, do you think there is anyone innocent in the matter of that entire family killed by Assistant Minister's nephew? In addition, countless commoners are bullied and humiliated by influential officials; who is innocent here? A father's debt is repaid by his son. This phrase has been heard of before by Imperial Secretary Zhao, right? Assistant Minister Fan indulged his family like so, and his nephew's biological parents as well as the natives of that area also knew of this matter, yet none did anything to intercede. It is clear that none of them are good people. Furthermore, I don't think this kind of environment will breed noble children. Assistant Minister Fan's father-in-law's family has, in fact, committed a lot of wicked deeds as well, but I haven't spoken of a single one. I, from beginning to end, believed that the punishment of executing the entire family—through guilt by association—is a very good sentence, because those who do not care about the suffering of others should taste for themselves the feeling of losing all their close relatives and suffer all the pain."