The group of ministers craned their necks to watch the spectacle.
"Hey, it really merged!"
"So, did Minister Song's father cuckold the old Prince of Qi? Or is he also the prince's son?"
"What a mess! Minister Song's father had quite the audacity to meddle with royal bloodlines, tsk tsk…"
For a moment, the hall buzzed with gossip.
The Prince of Qi was dumbfounded.
"No, that's impossible! I'm my father's legitimate son!"
How could he possibly be the son of some country bumpkin? That is absolutely impossible!
This time, Mingting didn't need to do anything. The Prince of Qi bit his finger and dripped more of his blood on the bone.
In order to prove his point, he even squeezed out a generous amount.
It seeped in! It merged again!
"Congratulations, Your Highness, on finding your long-lost brother! Congratulations, Minister Song, on reuniting with your sibling. What a joyous occasion!"
Mingting smiled brightly as he congratulated them, "Though I wonder if the princess is Minister Song's elder sister or younger sister..."
This reminder made everyone recall…
'The princess and Minister Song were married and had a son together.'
'If they were siblings, this would be a massive scandal.'
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Song Yi panicked. His father had spent his entire life in the countryside, so how could he have ever met the old princess, who lived in the capital's royal mansion?
Even if they had met, there was no way the old princess would have taken a liking to his father!
"It must be you… you did something!"
Song Yi suddenly turned around and pointed at Mingting.
"You unfilial brat! You must have used some underhanded method to frame me!"
"How vile! I'm your biological father, and you dare harm me like this? What good does killing me do you?!"
Both Song Yi and the Prince of Qi glared at Mingting with bloodshot eyes, as if he were some kind of demonic sorcerer.
Even the Crown Prince and Su Hengzhong, who had been worried for Mingting, were dumbfounded at this moment.
The sudden twist was something they had never anticipated!
Whom should they believe now? What had Mingting done?
"What do you think you're doing?" Seeing that Song Yi was about to pounce on Mingting, the son of the Duke of Zhenguo immediately stepped forward and blocked him.
"What a joke! If you do something shameful, don't expect it to stay hidden forever. You think you can do whatever you want without consequences?"
Song Yi wanted to cry.
He truly hadn't expected things to escalate like this. This was like snow in June… he was utterly wronged!
"Count Zhongyi, what exactly is going on?"
Emperor Li, who had been sitting on the dragon throne, had been itching to know, but due to the majesty of the Emperor, he couldn't come down to join the fun.
Of course, Emperor Li didn't believe the old princess would ever betray the old Prince of Qi.
'But why did Prince of Qi's blood merge with Song Yi's father's leg bone? What was the reason?'
Emperor Li wanted to know how Mingting had pulled this off.
"Your Majesty, could you wait until Minister Shangguan returns with the items I requested? Then I'll explain."
"Very well."
Shangguan Shi rushed back, finally gathering everything Mingting needed and having it carried into the hall.
Everyone looked and saw a live dog, a live chicken, an icebox, some powder, and bones of varying lengths, including fresh ones.
Instantly, curiosity surged among the crowd.
"Minister Song, weren't you so convinced that the 'Blood Dripping Method' could prove I'm your bloodline? Then how do you explain this?"
Mingting slaughtered the chicken and let some of its blood drip onto the leg bone of Song Yi's father. The blood quickly seeped in.
"So, this chicken was also birthed by your father? It's your little chicken brother? Song Xiaoji?" (T/N: The Xiaoji here means Little Chicken.)
'Pfft!'
'Hahahaha! Chicken brother!'
Shangguan Shi had just heard about the situation from others, and now, witnessing this scene, he couldn't help but laugh.
The ministers also covered their mouths, stifling their laughter.
"This, this…" Song Yi was dumbfounded.
Next, Mingting made a small cut on the dog's paw, took some blood, and dripped it onto the leg bone. The red blood also seeped in.
"So this dog was also birthed by your father? Your little dog brother from the Song Family? Then father truly is remarkable. He is capable of siring Prince Qi, you, and chickens and dogs. Admirable, truly admirable!"
"You are talking nonsense! You must have tampered with something!"
Song Yi coughed violently, and there was blood at the corner of his mouth.
Not bothering to pay attention to Song Yi, Mingting turned to Emperor Li.
"Your Majesty, what I wish to say is that the Blood Dripping Method for verifying kinship is unreliable. I've asked Minister Shangguan to gather some bones so we can conduct an experiment for everyone."
At this point, Emperor Li couldn't hold back anymore and personally stepped down from the throne.
Mingting lined up the bones on a table so everyone could see clearly. Then, he grabbed Song Yi again.
"Minister Song, since you're so eager to verify the truth, why not contribute a little more?"
Mingting squeezed the wound he had made earlier, drawing some blood, and dripped it onto three different bones.
On the old bone, the blood quickly merged. But on the fresh bone with intact tissue, the blood slid right off.
"The first is pig bone, the second is human bone I retrieved from a mass grave, and the third is from an executed prisoner not long ago." Shangguan Shi explained from the side.
"Your Majesty, please observe. When fresh blood drips into old bones, it will immediately seep into them. In contrast, fresh bones won't absorb the fresh blood. This has nothing to do with blood relations, it's about the bone itself."
Mingting said with a smile, "Minister Song's blood can seep into the pig bone. Surely, he can't be the offspring of a pig, right? How could a pig give birth to a human?"
Song Yi, who is repeatedly humiliated by Mingting, was now so furious he couldn't speak.
"But why does this happen?"
After the initial laughter, everyone frowned in contemplation.
Since its inception, the Blood Dripping Method had been regarded as an infallible standard.
In the past, whenever disputes over lineage arose, the Blood Dripping Method would be used to determine kinship. But today, Mingting had given them a vivid lesson.
The facts are in front of them. It turns out that the Blood Dripping Method is not reliable. But why?
Soon, Mingting explained the reason.
It turns out that after a person dies, the soft tissue on the bones would dissolve and disappear over time, leaving only skeletal remains.
Bones that had turned skeletal would develop tiny cracks due to erosion, and as long as fresh blood is dripped into it, whether it's humans or animals' blood, it would seep into these cracks.
In contrast, fresh bones still had soft tissue layers and membranes intact, so blood will not seep in.