This kind of thing is extremely unpleasant for the royal family. If the emperor had not taken into consideration that this is the biological daughter of Duke Yu, and the only biological daughter he had just found, the emperor would have wanted to take Qu Moying's life. Now... it is only like this temporarily. The Princess of England has always had a poor health and she might die at any time.
"Your Majesty..." The Queen glanced at Pei Yuanjun.
"Your Majesty, I have a question." Pei Yuanjun raised his hand and the portrait fell into his hand. After his handsome eyes swept over it, the smile in his eyes did not reach the bottom of his eyes, "Your Majesty, whose portrait is this."
"Isn't it the Princess of England's?" The Queen was stunned and asked hurriedly.
"How can you tell that she is my princess?" Pei Yuanjun sneered, "I look more like Princess Jing. Could it be that Princess Jing has never dressed like this before? Why does the Queen keep saying that this matter has something to do with me, saying that this is my princess? Let's not talk about who this matter is related to, how did the Queen identify this as my princess?"
Pei Yuanjun raised the portrait in his hand. The woman in the portrait was wearing a lilac-colored dress, with a slender waist and a band around her hair. Her eyes were covered, leaving only her cherry lips exposed, which were slightly pursed. From the painting, it was really impossible to tell who the person in the painting was.
The Queen paused for a moment. She really didn't think about Princess Jing. At that time, her mind was full of Princess Ying.
Now that Pei Yuanjun had given him such a wake-up call, he suddenly panicked.
"Please provide evidence, Your Majesty!" Pei Yuanjun insisted.
The Queen was speechless and secretly annoyed. She was misled by Princess Qia's words. Princess Qia kept asking about the British Princess, but now thinking about it, she didn't say a single word directly pointing out that it was the British Princess.
It is understandable that Princess Qia admitted her mistake, but she is different. She is the queen. She knows the situation of Princess Ying and Princess Jing.
"Queen." The Emperor's face darkened and he looked at the Queen coldly with suspicion in his eyes.
“Your Majesty…I was also misled by Princess Qiya’s words. I didn’t think about it at the time.” The Queen explained hastily.
"The Empress is the head of the three palaces and the master of the harem. She must have heard a lot of such specious words in the past, right? I heard that the harem is the best at killing people without bloodshed. It is these specious words that can tarnish someone's innocence or ruin their reputation without any ability, and can even take their life."
Pei Yuanjun threw the words casually on the table beside him and flicked the non-existent dust off his sleeves.
The Empress did not dare to look into the Emperor's cold eyes. She only felt cold sweat on her back. Now she was forced to do it. She said with a serious face, "King Ying, this matter must be investigated thoroughly. There can't be any misunderstanding. Whether it is the Princess of Ying or the Princess of Jing, they are both daughters of famous families."
After the Empress finished speaking, she bowed deeply to the Emperor and said, "Your Majesty, I will investigate this matter when I return."
"How will the Queen investigate when she returns?" Pei Yuanjun asked with a smile.
"First, we need to find out where the portrait came from, and then find out who is in the portrait." The Queen Mother explained reluctantly. The Emperor said nothing here, which put a lot of pressure on the Queen Mother. She could sense the Emperor's sinister and cold expression at this moment.
"Where did the portrait come from? It's definitely not of the King of Wei. What kind of person is the King of Wei? He likes quietness the most. I'm afraid there aren't many people guarding this palace. It's very convenient for anyone to put something in there. There are many nobles in this palace."
Pei Yuanjun said lazily, his voice did not sound angry at all, but rather made people feel very gentle.
There are indeed many nobles in this palace. Above the little nobles are the concubines, and above them is the Queen. If there is anyone else in the harem who can cover the sky with one hand, it can only be the Queen.
"The King of Wei would never do such a thing." The emperor nodded in agreement with Pei Yuanjun's words.
That means it was someone in the palace who framed him.
The Queen's heart shuddered, and she knew something was wrong. She knelt down and kowtowed to the Emperor. When she raised her head again, her eyes were red. "Your Majesty, I really didn't know about this. It was Princess Qiya who picked up the painting, and then...it was Princess Qiya who asked Princess Ying, which led to my misunderstanding."
"Empress, do you believe what the Princess of Northern Frontier said?" Pei Yuanjun asked.
These words made the Empress shudder in her heart. Seeing the Emperor's increasingly gloomy face, she hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, this matter is indeed my fault. I was anxious at the time and wanted to come here first to let Your Majesty make the decision, so I didn't pay attention to these aspects."
Pei Yuanjun sneered and said nothing more.
"How many people know about this?" The emperor asked, pinching his brows.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I will go back and ask them to keep their mouth shut," said the Queen.
"Now? Don't you think it's too late, Queen?" The emperor looked disappointed.
"Your Majesty..." The Queen had a bad feeling and the hand in front of her trembled.
"Back then... was it also like this? We were helpless and knew nothing. It was just an occasional misunderstanding... It was someone else's fault." The emperor asked in a hoarse voice, his eyes fixed on the emperor kneeling on the ground.
"Your Majesty, I... I don't understand what you are saying!" The Queen was in a panic.
"You don't understand, but I do." The emperor shook his hand, "Go down!"
"Your Majesty..." The Queen wanted to explain, but saw Li Quan silently shaking his hand at her.
The Empress didn't dare to say anything else, and bowed to the Emperor again, "I will go and handle this matter now."
Having said that, she stood up and walked out of the imperial study with red eyes.
She stood outside the door, waiting until the tears in the corners of her eyes dried a little before she walked out. She was the queen of a country, no longer a concubine under the former empress, but just a concubine.
Empress Yuan is already dead.
No matter how much favor she has, it is just floating. Now her son is the crown prince, and that is enough...
"Your Majesty, have you remembered something? A woman who was framed just like my princess?" Pei Yuanjun raised his eyebrows and asked with a hint of coldness.
"Nothing." The emperor lowered his head and his expression could not be seen.
"Your Majesty doesn't look like nothing happened. Could it be that a woman was framed like the princess who served me, and died on some trumped-up charges? Some specious words, some reasons that sounded flawless, but in fact... Your Majesty doesn't need to think so much... There is only one reason."
Pei Yuanjun looked at the emperor with deep eyes and said.
"What?" The emperor's voice became increasingly hoarse. He did not raise his head. He did not know how to look up at his son. He was too embarrassed to face him.
"If something like this really happened... no one involved in this is innocent." Pei Yuanjun said coldly.
The emperor's hands trembled and he pressed hard on the table in front of him.
"For example, today's incident, at first glance it sounds as if it was really my princess's misconduct that caused the King of Wei to draw a portrait. But in fact, if you think about it carefully, the King of Wei is not that kind of person. My princess has always been dignified and steady. How could she be involved? And what about the other people involved in this matter? If they were really innocent, they would not have really gotten involved in this."
Pei Yuanjun said disapprovingly, as if his words were not referring to the Empress but the mother of the country.
The emperor's heart seemed to be hit hard by a fist, and he could hardly breathe due to the pain. If he had thought about it carefully at the beginning, would the ending be different? The entire Yuan family, the life of the Empress Yuan, and his own children would not have been left stranded outside...
Which concubines were involved at that time
There were quite a lot of them. All those who were found to be suspicious were dealt with, and those who were found not to be suspicious were released. At that time, the Empress Dowager and Concubine He were both involved.
When it was clear that they had done nothing and were innocent, they were both released. The empress became the new empress after the empress Yuan passed away because of her powerful family background and she seemed dignified and gentle.
As for Concubine He, the Emperor felt pity for her because he thought that she and Empress Yuan were from the same clan.
Now that I think about it, was he really right
Is there no one who is innocent? Was the queen at that time also the same as now, just a bystander who was accidentally dragged into it, and she felt that she was really innocent at that time.
But is it really
"Your Majesty... I want to ask you about what happened to Empress Yuan." Seeing that he remained silent, Pei Yuanjun did not hesitate to say what he wanted to say most.
"What happened back then... is over." The emperor said in a low voice.
"Is it over? Your Majesty should know what happened in my house. The daughter of the Qu family was so bold that she actually wanted to kill my princess and take her place. Even if her status is not high enough, she had to step on my princess' position to fight for a favored status. The same thing happened in the Eastern Palace before. Don't you think it's the same thing?"
Pei Yuanjun stepped forward, stood in front of the imperial desk, and looked at the emperor who was struggling in pain.
"The so-called girl of the same clan, the so-called extremely innocent. If my princess died this time, who would know that Ms. Qu had such a kind heart? Maybe I would look up to her and let her rise to prominence for the sake of the princess." Pei Yuanjun continued, the sneer in his eyes burning with a hint of crazy hostility.
"The Crown Princess of the Eastern Palace died in the scheme of the Eastern Palace Concubine. That Eastern Palace Concubine was the Crown Princess's cousin and grew up together. Even so, she still took action when it was time to do so. If it weren't for the fact that the Eastern Palace Concubine thought that the Crown Princess was gone and was self-righteous and arrogant, it's hard to say what the result would have been. What if she had been replaced by someone with more sophisticated means? Even if she died, no one would know. Others would only praise their kindness and gentleness."
The strong anger in the last few words made Li Qi lower his head involuntarily, his face pale without a trace of blood. The problem that the emperor had been worried about... finally... came...