Aunt Jiang nodded slightly and said with a smile: "He is lucky to meet the empress."
"Don't say that, how can I give any blessing to others... After all, it's all thanks to you for helping me these years."
If possible, she would like to send everyone around her out safely.
I don't know what she thought of, and the queen's thoughts gradually drifted away.
Seeing this scene, Grandma Jiang thought about what the empress had just said, "The matter is basically done." She felt a little uneasy for no reason, so she brought a cup of tea and said: "Empress, please have a sip of tea..."
The queen took the teacup and drank it slowly.
In the Yangxin Hall, Emperor Qingming summoned Xia Tingzhen and Ji Xiu to discuss matters.
Listening to the emperor's explanation to Ji Xiu, Xia Tingzhen's face remained calm, but she was already feeling restless in her heart.
"Your Majesty, it's time to take the medicine." Li Ji reminded him at the right time, his voice slightly hoarse.
Qiao Bingying's case has not yet yielded any results. He was punished with twenty sticks and suffered a minor illness yesterday.
Seeing Emperor Qingming nodding, Xia Tingzhen and Ji Xiu stood up at the right time, bowed and left.
After exiting the inner hall, Ji Xiu walked ahead a little faster and stepped down the white jade steps.
At this time, the eunuch who came out of the tea room on the side came over with a tray and was about to arrive in front of the palace door.
He lowered his head all the way and bumped into Xia Tingzhen who was coming out of the palace.
In a panic, the teapot in the prisoner's hand dropped at his feet, and the freshly brewed tea splashed all over Xia Tingzhen.
"How did you do this! It's because you don't have eyes!" The eunuch in charge immediately scolded: "Why don't you hurry up and apologize to the chief minister!"
The blood drained from the face of the inner prisoner, and he knelt down and said: "Forgive me, Lord Chief Assistant! Please forgive me, Lord Chief Assistant!"
Then he quickly raised his head and hurriedly used his sleeve to wipe off the tea stained on the shoes and boots of the adult in front of him. When he saw that the sleeve of the official robe was also wet and stained with a few tea leaves, he took another sleeve and wiped it off.
Wipe off only the sleeves.
While wiping in a hurry, a half-folded piece of paper leaked out of the inner prisoner's sleeve, and it seemed to have been stuffed into Xia Tingzhen's sleeve through his movements -
But only he knew that in such a flash, the piece of paper had returned to his sleeve again.
However, the eunuch in charge who had been watching his every move carefully was destined not to think so——
The eunuch in charge's eyes flashed slightly: "It's all because of the slave's lax discipline that this blind thing bumped into the adults. Do you want the slave to take the adults to change clothes?"
Everything happened in just a short moment. Xia Tingzhen frowned and said coldly: "No need."
Then with a cold face, he strode away with his sleeves fluttered.
After the eunuch in charge bowed and sent him off respectfully, he looked at the eunuch who was kneeling where he was, raised his eyebrows and scolded: "See, you are usually available, so I asked you to take the position of serving tea. You'd better do it on the first day."
Cause me such trouble!"
"The slave was negligent for a moment. Please ask Manager Liu to give the slave another chance!" Tears welled up in the prisoner's eyes.
"Okay, why don't you clean up quickly and go down to collect your punishment?"
"Yes, yes..." Xiao Chenzi responded repeatedly and quickly picked up the pieces of broken porcelain in front of him.
"What a useless thing..." the eunuch in charge cursed while looking at the timid little eunuch with cold eyes.
On the other side, Ji Xiu deliberately slowed down his pace.
Seeing the wet marks on Xia Tingzhen's body, Ji Xiu half-smiled and said, "Master Xia seems to be having a rough time lately. Duke Zhen Guo is already on his way back to Beijing... Master Xia has a good plan.
Why did it come to nothing?"
Xia Tingzhen turned to look at him and said coldly: "There is no evidence for this, so please be careful when speaking to the Minister of Ji——"
Ji Xiu responded with a sneer.
He really had no evidence and knew nothing about Xia Tingzhen and the emperor's specific plans——
But the emperor summoned him to the palace today, all because he was telling him that he would strengthen the defense of the capital before and after the Duke of Zhenguo returned to Beijing, and even allocated some troops to him - oh, if he didn't do anything wrong, what the hell are you afraid of?
Xia Tingzhen strode away, completely ignoring Ji Xiu's cynicism.
He would never waste his energy and thoughts on such meaningless words, especially with the recent events happening one after another——
Looking at the thin and straight back, Ji Xiu's eyes grew colder inch by inch.
He has been dreaming about his two sons lately.
He had dreamed about it before, but he had never dreamed of such a clear process. Everything he heard that night in the Yuan family's lacquerware shop was engraved word by word in his mind, lingering day and night, slowly.
Slowly weaving into a complete dream.
And every time he dreamed about it, he felt as if he had experienced the pain of losing a child again. This kind of pain now was not only painful, but also filled with hatred——
In his dream, he promised the two children that he would find out the truth for them and seek justice!
Two official sedans were waiting outside the Forbidden Palace. The moment Xia Tingzhen sat in the official sedan, she closed her eyes and gradually raised her hands on her knees.
Today, the emperor explained everything to Ji Xiu in front of him, like beating or testing...
Something went wrong when it came to poisoning Duke Zhen, and Yue Pei failed again and was exposed. It is normal for the emperor to be angry with him for this.
But he had a vague feeling that it wasn't just that...
Could it be that it was for Qiao Bing?
Xia Tingzhen frowned and opened her eyes.
But how could this matter have anything to do with him? Even if the emperor was suspicious, he had no reason to doubt him...
The emperor's mind is changeable, especially recently it has become increasingly difficult to figure out.
And Duke Zhen Guo will return to Beijing soon, and I don’t know what the situation will be like...
These were far different from his previous plans. Thinking of all the disadvantages to himself, Xia Tingzhen's eyes showed a rare irritability.
After a few thoughts, he thought of Qiao Bingying again.
He could almost conclude that this matter must be related to the Queen——
And behind the queen is the Wu family...
If he can find evidence to prove this, even if it is just suspected evidence, at this juncture, he is not afraid that the already crazy emperor will not take action against the Wu family——
There is no real grudge between him and the Wu family, but if King Yan really wants to seize the throne, the biggest bargaining chip will be the Wu family...
And he must never let King Yan sit in that position, otherwise he will no longer have a way to survive...
If everything before was to pave the way for the Xia family's future prosperity, then in this situation now, all he wants is to save his life first...
So now he only cares about one thing——
The emperor can die...
But before death, the emperor still needs to use himself to remove as many obstacles as possible for the little prince in the palace - speaking of it, this is also the responsibility of His Majesty as a 'father', isn't it?
Xia Tingzhen's eyes were deep, thinking about where to start investigating the Wu family.
…
In the Yangxin Hall, Emperor Qingming put down the medicine bowl, took the tea brought by Li Ji and rinsed his mouth.
"Your Majesty, today is the death anniversary of Concubine Chen... Your Majesty, would you like to go to Qingyang Palace to take a look?" Li Ji put down the tea cup and reminded softly from the side.
Concubine Chen was the prince's biological mother and died of illness three years ago.
On the anniversary of his death two years ago, His Majesty always made a show of going to the Qingyang Palace to stay for a while.
"Just let the people below follow the rules, I won't go through." Emperor Qingming frowned in annoyance, not caring about such trivial matters.
Li Ji responded "Yes".
Come on, Your Majesty doesn't even show up now.
I saw the eunuch carrying the medicine bowl walking out of the inner hall, and the eunuch in charge who was waiting in the outer hall just entered and reported what he had just seen.
"The note..." Upon hearing this, Emperor Qingming sat up straight and asked in a deep voice, "Did you see it clearly?"
"Yes, I can see it clearly!" the eunuch in charge said in a low voice: "The little guy was holding the tea tray, pretending to accidentally bump into Xia Shoufu, and while he was apologizing and wiping the tea, he quietly stuffed the note into
Xia Shoufu has it in his sleeves..."
He had recently been ordered to lead people to keep an eye on Xiao Chenzi, so he would not miss any detail.
Emperor Qingming sneered from his teeth.
"Okay, it's really good..."
Recently, due to Qiao Bingying's incident, the palace was heavily guarded and the message could not be transmitted, so he did such small tricks under his nose...
He should have thought of it a long time ago. As soon as the news about Duke Zhenguo came to his ears that night, the only one who knew about it was Xia Tingzhen. The only one who could have expected that he would attack Qiao Bingying that night was probably Xia Tingzhen!
Are you planning to hide Qiao Bingying and use it as a bargaining chip to threaten him?
Or should I say - I plan to dedicate it to others to use it as a pledge to save my life in the future?!
His good teacher has always been so thoughtful... He knows this better than anyone else!
Normally, he could just turn a blind eye to the other party's secret attempts to benefit himself, but if he had the intention of betraying him...
Perhaps it was just a common method to make him suspect the Queen and the Imperial Preceptor before!
"Where is the eunuch now..." Emperor Qingming tried his best to control the anger that was almost going to his head. Recently, he had become more irritable and his thoughts seemed to be uncontrollable.
"Back to Your Majesty, I just asked him to go down to receive his punishment."
"Bring people to see me——"
He wants to investigate clearly in person!
"Yes." The eunuch in charge agreed and withdrew.
"...No one has ever been here before?"
The eunuch in charge, who came to the Baoxia section of the back hall where he usually punished the palace ladies, could not find anyone, frowned: "Do you know where he went!"
A confidant inmate whispered: "After coming out of the waiter, he quietly slipped out of the side door, but don't worry, Liu Song followed him secretly."
The eunuch in charge frowned.
Sneaked out...
What kind of tricks are you playing?
Could it be...
Thinking of a possibility, the eunuch in charge hurriedly said: "You should also go out and look for him, so that Liu Song won't be able to spot him alone. If you find him, remember not to rush to alert him, but take a closer look at where he is going."
Where, but to meet someone..."
He must inform your majesty about this as soon as possible!
The eunuch in charge returned to the palace and informed Emperor Qingming that Xiao Chenzi had slipped out.
Emperor Qingming's eyes flashed a few times.
"Keep an eye on it first. Once there is any news, tell me immediately."
It would be a good thing if we could lead out other people or clues——
But now it seems that he can't be too hasty in making a conclusion as to who this little eunuch is...
Outside the palace, dusk is getting darker.
Xiao Chenzi followed the path and arrived at the Imperial Garden.
There was no one around at this time, so the sound of his footsteps was much louder.
The eunuch who followed him could only keep his steps as light as possible and did not dare to follow too close.
Xiao Chenzi chose a dark place to walk, with only one thought in his mind - he must get rid of the other party, otherwise once the other party discovered his intentions, he would have to be captured and tortured!
He is not afraid of being tortured.
But in this case, the scene will not be played so satisfactorily...
And if the empress was alerted, wouldn't it be easy for someone to catch him if she tried to save him secretly?
After all, the empress has been so adventurous lately.
And he couldn't let his empress take risks for him.
He knew that something had happened to Xiao Jiezi.
Even though no news came out in the dark court, he made an agreement with Xiao Jiezi that he would mark the dog hole in the backyard of the dark court the next day to convey the news.
It was his own decision to let Xiaojiezi handle this matter, so he has to bear the consequences and do it cleanly from start to finish, without leaving any trouble for the empress...
With these thoughts in mind, Xiao Chenzi's feet suddenly accelerated and he ducked into the side path.
The eunuch who was following him noticed something strange and hurriedly caught up with him.
Listening to the footsteps following behind him, Xiao Chenzi ran forward with all his strength in the night. I wonder if the night wind was too strong, which made his eyes red and filled with tears.
At the same moment, the prince came out of Qingyang Palace with two chamberlains.
Today is the anniversary of the death of his mother and concubine, so he specially came to take a look at his mother's residence.
In previous years, his father would come with him, but this year it was just him.
"I want to sit in front." When passing a lotus pond, the prince slowed down and said, "You guys just stay here."
The two chamberlains didn't say much. They responded "yes" and stopped obediently, not to follow.
His Royal Highness the Prince would often come to this lotus pond to sit alone, but each time he would only let them watch from a distance.
There was a stone table beside the lotus pond, and the prince sat there quietly, his eyes a little sore.
When his mother-in-law was still alive, this place was where he came most often. At first he only thought that his mother-in-law loved Lian, but later he found out that it was because he would pass by this place every day when he was studying——
He was raised in the Queen's Palace when he was young, and his mother-in-law was weak and of low birth. Before she gave birth to him, she was just a minor attendant.
Therefore, he rarely had the opportunity to meet his mother and concubine, and his father did not want him to go to see his mother and concubine——
But he knew that his mother-in-law had always been thinking of him in her heart...
"Concubine, I miss you..."
The boy's voice was so low that it was inaudible. He looked at the withered lotus pond and spoke intermittently.
"I have been dreaming about you lately. Do you miss me too?"
"You know, Ajin is also dead... He grew up with me. I accidentally caught the cold before. My father blamed him for not taking good care of me, so he punished him. After he was punished,
Then the root of the disease came to light, and it was all his sons and ministers who harmed him..."
"I will bury him properly..."
"Father has stopped asking people to pay attention to me as before...probably because I don't have much time left."
There was no bitterness in the boy's tone, but a slight sigh.
"But I always want to do something else... Even if I can't become a person like General Xu, I can't leave nothing behind after I come to this world..."
"Mother concubine..."
At this time, the boy suddenly heard a noise coming from the grass not far away from him.
It's not like the movement caused by the wind...
"Who's there?"
The prince lowered his voice and asked tentatively.
