Chapter 154: When Big Gray Makes a Move, You Know It's the Real Deal

Xia Jiujiang turned to Tian Xiaoyuan and said, "Lend me Dahui for a moment."

Tian Xiaoyuan was momentarily stunned. She had originally come to cause trouble for her, yet it had only resulted in a chaotic scene right outside the Prince Ning Mansion. Now, Xia Jiujiang was actually stepping in to help Tian Xiaoyuan. At the same time, Tian Xiaoyuan was quite curious: how did Xia Jiujiang plan to use Dahui to prove her innocence?

Tian Xiaoyuan gave a sharp whistle, and Dahui bounded forward with a mighty and majestic air, looking so imposing that even Xia Jiujiang felt a sudden itch to raise one herself.

Seeing a massive dog approaching, the woman broke out in goosebumps from sheer terror. "Y-y-you... what do you want to do?"

Xia Jiujiang let out a soft chuckle. "Why are you so terrified? Didn't I say I can find out who this child's biological father is?"

Yet the woman looked at Xia Jiujiang as if staring at a venomous snake, sending chills down her spine. She swallowed hard; she was now caught in a dilemma. If she refused, the momentum she had worked so hard to build would immediately arouse suspicion.

The surrounding crowd had never witnessed such a good show and kept their eyes glued to the entrance of the Prince Ning Mansion. However, a single figure quietly retreated toward the outer edge, perhaps intending to slip away unnoticed. Out of the corner of their eye, however, they noticed that the surrounding streets were now completely sealed off by guards from the Prince Ning Mansion, allowing entry but no exit.

The woman was startled and cried out, "Y-you... you're trying to find Prince Ning, so why let loose a dog? Could it be that you want to use a dog to scare my son? If my son suffers even the slightest injury, Prince Ning will not let you off!"

"There's no rush. If he truly is Prince Ning's flesh and blood, how could I possibly let the little young master get hurt?"

At the mention of the little young master, a flash of greed gleamed intensely in the woman's eyes.

Xia Jiujiang continued, "Of course, if some random stray cat or dog is trying to frame Prince Ning... then even if he gets hurt, it's only what he deserves. I'm afraid their entire household would be executed and their clan wiped out as well."

The phrase "executed and their clan wiped out" made the woman shudder. Yet, steeling her resolve, she let the greedy look return to her eyes, clearly determined not to stop until she achieved her goal.

One could only wonder what benefits the mastermind behind the scenes had promised this woman to make her take such massive risks. There were likely more moves to come.

The woman demanded, "How do you intend to test this?"

Xia Jiujiang replied, "It's very simple. Didn't you insist that your son is Prince Ning's child? I happen to have a dog here with human intelligence that can smell karmic ties. As long as it sniffs your son, it will know who his true father is."

The woman scoffed in disbelief. "How can a dog smell someone and know whether or not he's Prince Ning's child?" She felt as though she were listening to an utter fantasy, absurd and ridiculous. Was this woman trying to play tricks simply because she thought she was easy to fool?

Xia Jiujiang said with a smile, "Never mind how the dog proves who the child's biological father is afterwards; the question is, do you dare to try?"

The woman argued unreasonably, "Fine! Go ahead and test it. With all these respected elders and townsfolk as witnesses, if you can't prove it, you must let my son enter the Prince Ning Mansion."

Xia Jiujiang gave Dahui a command: "Go." Knowing that Xia Jiujiang was helping to prove Tian Xiaoyuan's innocence, Dahui obediently trotted over to the child's side and began to sniff him.

When the child saw Dahui, he felt a spark of fondness and reached out his hand to pet it. But the woman immediately pulled the child into her arms. A heavy, pungent scent of rouge radiated from her; if the dog wanted to sniff the child, her own thick scent would be just enough to mask the boy's natural odor.

The woman stared at Dahui, frowning as she said, "This isn't a dog... it's a wolf, isn't it?"

She had a keen eye after all.

The moment the word "wolf" was mentioned, gasps rippled through the crowd.

"It's a wolf!"

"Is the Princess Consort of Jin planning to let a wolf bite people to death?"

"Why is this wolf's tail held straight up? That doesn't seem right."

"I've never seen a dog that looks like that... it's half dog and half wolf."

"Could it be some hybrid breed?"

"If so, it must be vicious. A single bite from those teeth would be fatal."

Unflustered, Xia Jiujiang said, "What does it matter to you whether Dahui is a wolf or a dog? In plain sight of everyone here, I wouldn't let Dahui bite you to death anyway. What matters most is whether its nose can sniff out the 'truth'."

Stumped, the woman was left utterly speechless.

After circling the child for a moment, Dahui came to a halt. Tian Xiaoyuan suddenly understood what Xia Jiujiang was about to do, and a wave of excitement surged within her. She told Dahui, "Dahui, go find that person."

Receiving the order, Dahui whirled around and plunged straight into the crowd. A minor commotion rippled through the onlookers, everyone terrified of being bitten by the beast. But within moments, Dahui clamped its jaws onto the hem of someone's trousers and dragged a man out from the thick of the crowd.

Stumbling, the man fell to the ground, and Dahui lunged directly toward him. Seeing this, the child blurted out, "Daddy... Daddy..."

Hearing this cry, the woman turned pale with panic. She frantically grabbed the child, who was trying to rush toward the man, and clamped her hand over the boy's mouth. Yet, that single cry of "Daddy" had been heard clearly by everyone present.

Having grasped Xia Jiujiang's intention earlier, Tian Xiaoyuan curved the corners of her lips into a smile now that the person had been caught. "So this is whose seed the child really is."

The gazes the surrounding crowd cast upon the woman and child shifted abruptly; the pity they had felt moments before was replaced entirely by mockery.

"Indeed, the child clearly called him Daddy."

"She panicked because she was afraid Dahui would maul this man to death, and in her anxiety, she blurted out the truth."

"So they were just here to cause trouble all along."

"To think anyone would dare frame him—that is Prince Ning we are talking about."

Refusing to yield, the woman stubbornly denied it. "No, no! I don't know this man at all!"

"If you don't know him, why did your son call him Daddy?"

Flustered, the woman stammered, "How can you believe the nonsense of a little child? Just now, seeing this dog about to leap forward, he was scared and simply wanted to find a father figure to cling to."

Xia Jiujiang shifted her gaze to the child. "What about you? Is this man your father?"

Terrified, the child turned deathly pale. He glanced first at the man on the ground, then back at the woman. At a loss for what to say, and paralyzed by fear, he burst into a wail. "Mommy... what should I say... Mommy, I'm scared."

Clearly, the child had never anticipated so many complications arising. Combined with the strict instructions his mother had given him beforehand, he had no idea what to do. Overwhelmed and frantic, he broke down in tears.

Pulling the child protectively into her arms, the woman glared at Xia Jiujiang. "Why are you intimidating my child? He never said this man was his father! You randomly dragged out some stranger just to slander my reputation. Who knows if you arranged all this in advance? No wonder you made such a big fuss—you're just helping the Princess Consort of Ning frame me!"

To think she would resort to the thief crying "stop thief." Xia Jiujiang's patience was completely exhausted. She stood up, glanced down at the man on the ground, and asked, "Are you this child's biological father?"

The man immediately denied it. "No! I don't know this woman or this child at all."

Xia Jiujiang let out a contemptuous laugh. "You don't? That makes things even simpler. You may not believe a dog, but I happen to think a dog is at least incapable of lying the way humans do. Furthermore, your child has already cried out 'Daddy.' If you still refuse to admit the truth, we can simply fetch a bowl of clean water and conduct a blood test for paternity. Prince Ning won't even need to show his face for us to know whether or not this child is his flesh and blood."