Chapter 552: Recording Scandal

Chapter 552: The Recording Uproar

Ji Yuntang saw that the ministers who had just questioned Empress Dowager Yuan and the National Preceptor were now being swayed by their explanations and starting to doubt their own judgment. She gave a wry twitch of her lips.

This wouldn't work. The ministers present had no clue that photos could be mass-produced.

They were already beginning to suspect the photos were fake.

Ji Yuntang thought it over and decided she needed to hit them with something more decisive to make them realize their suspicions were justified.

With that in mind, she quietly took out a recording pen from her storage space, then prepared a megaphone to project the sound.

The moment she switched on the recording pen, everyone suddenly heard a middle-aged man's voice booming from the air above, loud and clear.

"Cousin, just think about it. We've been waiting seventeen long years for this day. Think of all the work we've put in over the years."

"For you and our son, I faked my death by leaping off a cliff and wrecked my face, leaving behind my parents, wife, and kids..."

What came next got even more absurd. Everyone stood frozen, dumbstruck.

They were too stunned to even wonder where the voice was coming from.

Because one sharp-eared official caught on that this voice sounded exactly like the National Preceptor's.

He froze, his jaw practically hitting the floor.

"In broad daylight, I must be hearing things. I actually heard the National Preceptor say he faked his death, jumped off a cliff, abandoned his parents, wife, and kids, and never went back to see them for over a decade. Am I dreaming or what?"

"You're not dreaming, I heard it too. The National Preceptor said he plotted to kidnap Perfected Person Lingxi when he descended the mountain, and used dark magic to swap faces with him. So is the current National Preceptor the real one or a fake?"

"..."

Everyone buzzed with discussion, while the National Preceptor in the hall was utterly stunned.

Wasn't that his own voice, the words he'd spoken to Empress Dowager Yuan?

Why was it playing here?

He looked around frantically for the source of the voice but found nothing.

The voice seemed to materialize out of thin air, reaching everyone's ears.

But it didn't stop there. Then Empress Dowager Yuan's voice rang out.

"Chao'er, the coronation ceremony is about to start. Mother has had the palace's finest embroiderers sew your Crown Prince robes..."

At the words "your mother," the whole hall erupted.

As far as anyone knew, Empress Dowager Yuan had no children at all, and the only Crown Prince who'd ever called her "mother" was dead. So how could she suddenly have another son?

When they heard the rest, they all turned to look at Yuanchao.

That's because Yuanchao had said he didn't want to be emperor, yet Empress Dowager Yuan was still trying to persuade him, going on about how great it was to be emperor and how attentive his concubines would be.

She even told Yuanchao to just show up and play figurehead emperor.

He wouldn't have to make any big decisions or review any memorials—she'd handle it all for him.

Empress Dowager Yuan also guilt-tripped Yuanchao, telling him to put himself in her shoes. If Yuanchao didn't show up today, it would only embarrass her.

In the end, she talked him into it, and he agreed to change and come to the ceremony.

The ministers were beyond words at this point. They felt their worldview shattered, as if struck by lightning.

From the intimate photos to the bizarre recording, it all pointed to one fact:

Yuanchao was Empress Dowager Yuan and the National Preceptor's son.

And they'd pushed Yuanchao forward as Crown Prince—he had no desire for the throne himself.

Watching this, Yuan Jiuan knew it was all Ji Yuntang's handiwork.

He had no idea how she'd pulled it off, but from the moment she'd fitted him with a prosthetic leg and got him back on his feet, he knew this woman was no ordinary person.

So it was no surprise she'd pulled this stunt to publicly humiliate them.

Yuan Jiuan figured he should step up and stoke the fire.

He spoke up: "So it seems this young man Yuanchao isn't some once-in-a-century heaven-sent emperor, but the bastard son of the fake National Preceptor and Her Majesty the Empress Dowager."

"You claimed he was destined to be emperor just to put your own son on the throne. Am I right, Your Majesty?"

Empress Dowager Yuan's face went blank, frozen by the shock of it all.

She couldn't fathom how this perfectly planned ceremony had gone so wrong.

Where had these photos come from? Where had their voices come from? She racked her brains and came up empty.

But at this moment, everyone was staring at her with mixed expressions, waiting for her to say something.

Especially the four family heads—their faces had darkened, their eyes stormy.

It hit them that they might have been played by Empress Dowager Yuan and the National Preceptor!

If those voices were real, if Yuanchao really was the bastard son of Empress Dowager Yuan and the fake National Preceptor...

Then the whole "Crown Prince from the Five Great Families" thing was just a conspiracy cooked up by the two of them!

One pretended to be generous, making them think their young talents all had a shot at the throne.

The other played the mystic, using Daoist mumbo-jumbo to fool them, scaring them into not defying heaven's will, afraid of bringing disaster on themselves.

The two played off each other, spinning them in circles and fobbing them off with a bit of money.

They suddenly felt like total idiots.

They'd all been acting out of self-interest, yet they'd stupidly bought her lies about looking out for the families.

Seeing Empress Dowager Yuan hesitate, Qi Huaichuan shot to his feet in fury.

"Empress Dowager, our families have been nothing but loyal to you. How many favors have we done you over the years? Is this how you repay your uncles and elders?"

"If those portraits of you two were fake, what about the voices we just heard? There's no way those were faked, right?"

Empress Dowager Yuan's vision went blurry. She barely kept herself upright, fighting not to collapse.

If it weren't all happening right in front of her, she'd have thought she was dreaming.

Today's events were beyond bizarre—in all her years, she'd never seen or heard anything like it.

If this got out, it would destroy both her and the National Preceptor's reputations.

And once Yuanchao's bastard status came out, his shot at Crown Prince was basically over.

------------