"It's okay!" Seeing that she woke up, Jiang Yashuang simply leaned down, hugged her, and whispered after a moment.
Qiu Yilan noticed that his voice was a little hoarse, and knew that he must have been anxious after being locked out of the palace that night. She hurriedly made way for the couch, pulled him to sit down on the edge of the couch, and leaned on his shoulder to comfort him softly: "It's okay, it's okay, don't worry!"
The couple hugged each other for a while, and finally calmed down. Qiu Yilan asked, "What witness did Dai Cong talk about?"
"That witness was originally arranged by me." Jiang Yashuang sighed tiredly, "I wanted to trick the Queen Mother Gu and clear myself at the same time, but after such a big thing happened last night, who could care about such a little twist and turns? ?”
On the contrary, in the face of the incident in which the emperor was almost poisoned to death in front of all the civil and military officials and concubines of the harem, it was really not a big deal for an Imperial Academy editor to be slandered.
Qiu Yilan breathed out: "Even if others don't care, Dafang and the Dou family will definitely be thinking about it - just make it clear, otherwise even if we are not afraid of them, it will be difficult for grandfather to do it."
Jiang Yashuang tilted her head and kissed her face and said, "Yes."
After a while, Qiu Yilan asked softly: "Is there no one outside at this moment?"
"Huh?" Jiang Yashuang was startled.
"I have something extremely important to tell you! No one must hear it, not even Su He!" Seeing that his wife wanted to hide it from even Su He, Jiang Yashuang knew that the matter must be of great importance, and hurriedly went outside the house to send people away. Order Su He and others to stay at a distance and not allow anyone to approach the inner room!
When the maids heard this, they were not nervous. Instead, they hid their mouths and snickered. It was obvious that they were overthinking.
Jiang Yashuang didn't bother to care about how they speculated on her order. After returning to the house, she listened carefully for a while and confirmed that no one was around. Then she sat back on the couch and said, "It's time to talk!"
"Before the banquet was about to start, my cousin Xin and I were chatting and joking by a railing outside the palace. We heard someone throwing things under the flower tree nearest to us amidst the sound of wind and snow. When we looked back, we found that behind the corner of the corridor in front of the palace was Someone left in a hurry and just said something to Cousin Xin, but a little chamberlain came over and urged us to enter the palace to prepare for the arrival..." Qiu Yilan whispered, and Jiang Yashuang's face gradually became serious: "You mean what happened at the banquet? ?”
"I don't know either!" Qiu Yilan sighed distressedly, "The Queen Mother and Fourth Aunt asked me when Cousin Xin and I left the palace, which railing we were leaning on, and called the palace staff to check. This suddenly occurred to me - I was really frightened at the time! I thought I had been trapped, but the Queen Mother sent someone to look at it, and they didn’t say they found anything, but I definitely heard that sound right!”
Jiang Yashuang frowned and thought for a while, and asked in detail about the sound she heard at that time, the location where the thing fell, and the way the corner of her clothes brushed... Finally, she muttered: "This is indeed an important clue, but now I'm afraid Fourth Gu I’m still checking the palace people with the Queen Mother, and I’ll report the news in the evening and let Fourth Aunt arrange someone to check it out!”
"But be careful! I'm thinking that if this matter has something to do with His Majesty's poisoning, and it was the Queen Mother who did it, why didn't they find something last night? Is it because Cousin Xin and I brought it with us last night? There is a large group of servants here, and when the time comes, they will say that nothing was thrown away, and they can't force us to convict them. But if the fourth aunt is caught secretly looking for something, there will be no way to explain clearly! "Qiu Yilan heard from his tone that the emperor's poisoning was not caused by the Queen's party, and she said fearfully, "Fortunately, Your Majesty was saved this time, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. Although my brother has not arrived in Shazhou City yet, he still can't. Entering the realm of Shazhou!”
If the emperor dies at this juncture, and the situation is cold and urgent, there is a high probability that Qiu Jinglan will be killed first to ensure the stability of the morale of the Zhenxi Army! After all, a country cannot live without a king for a day. Once the emperor dies, it means that the prince must be decided in the shortest possible time. If the king is chosen, what should Kuang Shihan be afraid of? If the seventh prince is chosen, then Kuang Shihan is desperate anyway, what can't he do? !
In other words, once the emperor dies, Kuang Shihan will definitely risk everything and even personally lead a part of the Zhenxi Army to kill Qiu Jinglan! By that time, unless Qiu Jinglan can evacuate Shazhou and rush back to Beijing in time, she will definitely die!
Jiang Yashuang patted his wife on the shoulder: "Although His Majesty is not in good health, he should be fine. Don't worry! I sent someone out of the city to inform my brother about this news last night! I found out this morning After the reason, I got another handwritten letter... Brother, you have your own sense of proportion!"
"It's just that no one in the palace was poisoned last night. All the utensils in the palace, including the pillars and floor tiles, were inspected inch by inch by the imperial physician and the imperial guards in full view of the public... I really don't know how your majesty was poisoned?" Qiu Yilan held up her finger. Twisting his long hair, he asked doubtfully, "By the way, what kind of poison was your Majesty poisoned? I was thinking about what the man threw under the flower tree, and I didn't pay attention."
"It's Hedinghong." Jiang Yashuang muttered, "No poison can be found anywhere. This is really strange..."
Qiu Yilan knew that the Hedinghong here was actually a nice name for arsenic [Note]. As the most famous poison in ancient times, it had always been used to kill heroes, eliminate dissidents, fight in the backyard, seek wealth and murder, murder husbands, and fight in the world. A must-have item for vendettas, martial arts mysteries... However, because it has been used so much, it is not difficult to check, and traces of it can be found with a silver needle.
But when the Second Empress ordered a thorough inspection of the entire hall and everyone in the hall, countless silver needles were like grates to grate everyone and everything in the hall. There were so many pairs of eyes that they couldn't find any of them turning black - oh , except for the glass of wine the emperor drank!
"In short, no matter who did it, if you dare to do such a thing, there must be a plan!" Jiang Yashuang thought for a while, a murderous intention flashed in his eyes, and said slowly, "If Empress Dowager Gu did such a rebellious thing, Our family is not completely helpless when it comes to ethics!" He looked at his wife, "But to prevent accidents, don't go out during these days... The Xihe Palace, the Ruan Family, and the Li Family have all sent their servants to take care of themselves. ! It’s an emergency, it’s okay to be rude.”
Qiu Yilan naturally agreed.
However, the Prince of Xihe, the Ruan family, and the Li family could neglect or explain the situation and not go there in person, but the Zhuang family was different - the rule at this time was that the uncle was the eldest, and every year in the Zhuang family's year, the three brothers Jiang Yadan had to go together to worship. In particular, Qiu Yilan just married at the beginning of this year. This is the first first month in her husband's family, which is of great significance.
Even if something big happens in the palace, since it's not the worst, this relative still has to leave!
Speaking of which, the only daughter-in-law of the Jiang family who could really stay at home this year was little Mrs. Tao. Mrs. Tao blocked all her relatives and only asked her to concentrate on the pregnancy.
So on the third day of the first lunar month, Qiu Yilan and Jiang Yashuang, who barely had a night's rest, got up early and dressed up. They kowtowed to Qin Guogong and Mrs. Tao in the upper room, explained where they were going, and then went with Jiang Yadan and Jiang Yazhu. , rushed to Zhuang Mansion to pay New Year greetings.
The Jiang and Zhuang families live in the same capital, and they usually have a lot of exchanges. This day was not very solemn, but Man's elder brother Zhuang Rong and his eldest son Zhuang Nanfeng greeted him outside the gate. Entering the second door, Zhuang Man and her sister-in-law Feng caught Sheng Passing Water and Qiu Yilan. After arriving in the hall together, after the ceremony, Zhuang Mo and his wife shouted with a smile, and had people bring generous red envelopes to hand out to each one.
After everyone exchanged pleasantries, Zhuang Mo's wife, Wen Shi, winked at her daughter-in-law, Feng Shi. Feng Shi understood and proposed to take her two cousins-in-law to sit in her yard: "I bought a few pots of plum blossoms two days ago. Now... It's open, do you two brothers and sisters want to go take a look?"
This was obviously to let the female relatives escape - Sheng Sishui and Qiu Yilan both knew this and walked out of the door wisely.
Mrs. Wen took Zhuang Man to the kitchen again as an excuse to check on the preparations for the luncheon, leaving the entire hall to her uncles and nephews to talk.
As soon as their mother and daughter left, Zhuang Mo lost his mood for chatting and immediately asked Jiang Yashuang: "After Dai Cong took you out of the palace on New Year's Eve?"
"I have already explained it clearly to my eldest brother." Jiang Yashuang smiled, "The witness he found was stubborn. Even his nephew asked him questions and he was speechless and couldn't explain himself. He insisted that it was his grandson who instigated him to hand over the evidence of the Dou family's crimes. Even though Qiu Dian is not sensitive, he still has a lot of helpers around him, and he can use money to bribe others to do things. How could he be stupid enough to personally hand over the evidence of his crime to a strange beggar on the roadside? Aren’t you afraid that he will turn around and spend the reward and throw the evidence into the ditch again?”
The person he arranged would certainly leave clear loopholes so that he could clear himself.
Dai Cong later realized that he had been tricked, but the "beggar witness" was actually a man arranged to die by Jiang Yashuang. As Dai Cong said, he would not survive that night at all. On the first day of the first lunar month, the man died decisively and died without any evidence. Dai Cong had nowhere to go if he wanted to complain, but he was also lucky and happened to be poisoned just in time for the emperor. Who would have the heart to hold him responsible for slandering the Hanlin? Even if the old score will be opened in the future, for now, we have avoided this disaster for the time being.
Zhuang Mo was relieved when he heard that he had explained clearly that he had not murdered his uncle's in-laws, and warned: "The Dou family has become more and more ugly in recent years, relying on your uncle's unusual status in front of your grandfather. It's just that no matter how ugly it is, it's still your elder's in-laws. No matter how unhappy you are, the most you can do is watch others act silently, but you can't do it yourself! Even if you defeat them, you will have a reputation of disrespecting your elders! This is no longer worth it!”
Jiang Yadan and the other two nodded in agreement, but none of them really took this to heart—Jiang Yadan and Jiang Yazhu had long since forgotten what fame was. Jiang Yashuang laughed it off and said, "Sure." Big things don't stick to trivial matters, and my uncle is pushing his limits more and more. If we are still afraid of what others say and hold back, the decline of our house will be imminent, and we will even be reduced to the point where we just pass by with our uncle's breath. Even though my uncle said this out of love and care. We are really not suitable for the current situation of Sifang!"
However, during the Chinese New Year, the three brothers didn't want to spoil Zhuang Mo's interest, so the uncle responded to whatever he said and was very obedient. Seeing this, Zhuang Mo knew that these three nephews were all talking without meaning, and they didn't mean what he said at all. Listen!
It's just something that their grandfather Qin Guogong couldn't do. Zhuang Mo didn't expect to coax them into obeying his words with just a few words. He sighed secretly and stopped his words of advice before bringing up the hottest topic today: "But he didn't know that he was planning to murder the saint. Does the driver have any clues?"
Now is the period of government closure, although the emperor's poisoning has caused criminal investigation and military departments to be put on duty urgently. However, officials from the education department like Zhuang Mo continued to celebrate the New Year. At home, they had less information than when they were on business. The Zhuang family had no connections in the palace, so they could only get the latest news from their nephews.
However, what disappointed him was that the Jiang family's grandchildren could not bring any weighty inside information: "It is said that the palace is still investigating, and many palace residents have been beaten to death in the past two days! But all kinds of dirty things have been discovered. Quite a few, but they have no clue when it comes to serious matters!”
In fact, there were a lot of dirty things that came out under high pressure in the past two days. In the past, any one of them would have been enough to arouse heated discussions between the government and the public. However, in the face of the horrific incident in which the emperor almost died, they all turned into a cloud!
Zhuang Mo listened to his nephews talking about some of the dirty things that had been discovered. He frowned and thought for a long time, and then said worriedly: "So many such secret things have been discovered, but the serious matter of murdering Shengjia has not been revealed yet." No progress has been made yet! But I am worried that if it is not found out, or if it is found out that it has nothing to do with the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother will bring up these dirty things again and attack the Queen Mother on the grounds that the Queen Mother is incompetent in running the palace! "
… When Empress Jiang married the emperor, Empress Dowager Gu and the Jiang family were still in the honeymoon period. In addition, the Empress Dowager herself had to take care of the government affairs. She was very generous and handed over the palace rights after serving tea on the first day the Empress entered the palace. Leave it all to her!
Afterwards, Empress Jiang was not satisfied with the power of the Sixth Palace and began to interfere in the affairs of the government. However, the palace power was not released and was handed over to her confidant Lady Lin. Therefore, if anything happened in the palace, the Empress had an unshirkable responsibility. Leadership responsibility!
Regardless of hatred or position, the Queen Mother Party has no reason to let go of this opportunity to force the Queen to step down!
[Note] The author has no medical knowledge and skills, so please don’t worry about the wrong signs of arsenic poisoning...