FID – Chapter 416

  Chapter 416: For This Day!

  Fu Yuzheng bowed lower. Out of the corner of her eyes, she caught Fu Shuyuan who was wishing he could kill her with his vicious eyes. She turned her head a little and smiled at him.

  ”This problem has never been detected from the Fus’ fabrics before. I think it’s because the Fus’ cloth is costly. The retail price is also very high, and only the capital’s powerful and noble families can afford to buy them. The powerful and noble families wear garments two to three times at most, unlike ordinary people, who repeatedly wear and repeatedly wash their clothes. Hence, this flaw has never been discovered until now.”

  Behind the curtain, Consort Liu’s face turned cold and sullen.

  She also often wore clothes made from the Fus’ fabrics.

  If there was indeed a problem, didn’t that mean she had been wearing faded clothes for many years?

  If word of it got out, she’d be a laughingstock!

  In order to save her own dignity, she needed to suppress the matter. She must never let things get out.

  The Fu family’s collapse and disgrace was nothing. It would be her, Consort Liu, who’d have no place to show her face! 

  ”This matter…”

  ”Bang!” Feng Mohan slammed his hands on the table, and the anger in his voice couldn’t be suppressed: “Someone, fetch their fabric immediately to verify! In the presence of the Son of Heaven, no one is allowed to fool this ruler! Once the matter is verified, you’ll be punished severely!”

  ”Your Majesty, this matter isn’t so simple…”

  ”Concubine Dowager, you are the master of the harem, but I’m the master of the entire palace. You also said, the future special fabrics to be supplied will be worn for my eyes. Do you want me to pretend to know nothing about a pile of fading cloth day by day?”

  Consort Liu was left without an argument. She could only clasp the armrest beside her, barely restraining her anger.

  Feng Mohan was in this together. He wanted her to be disgraced.

  All the nobles in the harem, except the Emperor, who hadn’t worn the Fus’ clothes?

  The whole harem would become the laughingstock of the common people.

  What exactly was Feng Mohan thinking?

  The harem was also a major image of the palace.

  What good would it do him if they were ridiculed?!

  The Emperor had issued a decree and could never take it back.

  The two elder concubines, who had been sitting on the side as a backdrop, spoke hesitantly, “Your Majesty, this Concubine also has clothes made from the Fu family’s fabric. They’ve been washed many times, so why not take them out as verification, and also save some time?”

  They were the two old concubines around the previous Emperor. Although they were still staying in the harem, their situation wasn’t at all good. They were barely surviving.

  Consort Liu usually treated them harshly, and it was common for her to deduct their monthly allowance, which led to them living on a shoestring and having to repeatedly wear what was left on hand, such as clothing.

  Soon an attendant went to fetch their clothes. At first, the color was still bright, but experts could see the difference.

  The colors were definitely different than when they were first produced. Uneven shades began to appear, and there were hard-to-detect stains on the clothes.

  Fu Shuyuan just shouted injustice with a wave of anger, but at this time, upon seeing the clothes that were presented, his legs immediately gave out, and he almost slumped to the ground.

  There was no need to wash something till it faded; he also knew that he was done for.

  Fu Yuzheng did not lie. There was indeed such a problem in the fabrics the Fus’ produced.

  That being the case, as he once served a special supplier, once pursued, he would be convicted of deceiving the Emperor!

  It was a crime punishable by decapitation!

  The entire Fu family was finished!

  The rest of the participating merchants, who were watching and looking at Fu Shuyuan’s eyes, looked at him with a mixture of sympathy, ridicule and schadenfreude.

  How ecstatic and proud Fu Shuyuan was just now, how miserable he would be soon.

  The old clothes had been washed many times, so it didn’t take long. When an attendant presented the clothes that were washed twice again, it could be seen that they were undoubtedly faded.

  Consort Liu immediately smashed the teacup in her hand in anger: “How dare you!”

  ”Concubine Dowager, forgive me! Your Majesty, please spare my life!” Fu Shuyuan broke away from the servants who were restraining him. He crawled on his knees and cried, tears flowing all over his face: “This servant has always been conscientious in my family business. The cloth we produce has been tested for color fastness and fading for many times before we dare to display it. This servant is completely unaware that there is such a flaw. Otherwise, even if this servant is given the courage, I’ll never dare to conceal and deceive Your Majesty!”

  ”The Fu family would not dare to make this big mistake because your weaving and dyeing skills are stolen. They’re not your family’s ancestral creation! You can learn and use stolen things but not necessarily use them well,” Fu Yuzheng coldly watched Fu Shuyuan ugliness and sneered.

  ”Fu Yuzheng! Do you want to see me die before you give up? I am your father! With your actions, you’ve sent me to death! You are an unfilial, rebellious daughter! I should beat you to death right now!”

  ”Am I a rebellious daughter? What about the day when you, Lord Fu, spoiled your concubine and killed your wife, poisoned your wife and strangled your son? How should people who have died miserably come to reason with you?! If you scold me for being disobedient and unfilial, who will give justice to my mother and brother?!”

  Beat her to death? Did he think she was still the Fu Yuzheng who was at his mercy? Who humbled herself to survive?

  She gritted her teeth and survived for so many years just for this day!

  She let him be fully satisfied with his achievements. With him standing high, she wanted him to watch helplessly as the whole Fu family plummet from the clouds!

  Only when people, who had indulged in riches and honor and were used to a luxurious life in which everybody showered them with flattery, struggled at the bottom could they better understand the humiliation and pain!

  ”Someone, give Fu Shuyuan a slap on the mouth! I’m afraid that Lord Fu did not take what I said seriously. Repeatedly making noise and clamor, it seems that the palace rules are nonexistent in his eyes?!”

  Fu Yuzheng kneeled in front with her eyes averted, silent.

  Feng Mohan was taking a turn to vent her anger for her, slapping him in front of his most hated daughter. Fu Shuyuan would never forget this humiliation in his lifetime!

  Because there was a problem with the Fu family fabric, the final result of the selection had changed.

  Finally, it was announced that Fu Yuzheng’s Phoenix In Flight beat the other two in high-quality fabrics, and finally rose to become the special fabric supplier this year.

  The Fu family, on the other hand, was removed from the selection list and sentenced for their previous special supplies.

  Although it had been ten years since the incident happened, the offense happened in the palace, and the matter was never too long for the people in the palace.

  Besides, Feng Mohan had to show his filial piety to his late grandfather, who was blinded, so how could he let it go without coming forward?

  Sentenced!

  ”Fu Shuyuan of the Fu family in the capital, presented inferior cloth during the selection, fooled the court, and then after investigating his past service as a special supplier, special fabrics were found all inferior! This is a wicked offense, with the crime of deceiving the Emperor! Considering the fact that he was unaware of the circumstances, he is exempted from the crime punishable by decapitation and sentenced to the confiscation and forfeiture of all his family assets. His family will be exiled for thousands of miles and will not be allowed to return to the capital forever! By the Emperor himself!”

  Feng Mohan wrote the imperial edict in the Shuangyun Hall and immediately sent it to be posted on the city gates to inform the people of the city and the world.

  The Fu family was over.

  After this incident, they had no possibility of a comeback.

  The Fu family would no longer be in the upper class circles of the capital.

  Fu Shuyuan was escorted out.

  The selection officially ended, and those who went to participate in the selection were led by the eunuchs to leave the palace through the side gates again.