midnight.
Not far from Jiaotang Garden, the sound of running and chasing was suddenly heard.
Kong Qing is on duty tonight, and if he sees something wrong, he will take people over.
But before he took two steps, he heard someone shouting, "You stole the master's things and you want to run away? I'll see where you can run to!"
This sounds like a theft that has been discovered.
"Eunuch Qing, are we still going?" asked the young eunuch who was following him.
Kong Qing frowned, "Forget it, let's not get involved in this mess."
It would be bad if I got into trouble there.
The young eunuch really wanted to watch the fun, but Kong Qing didn't say he wanted to go, so he didn't dare to act on his own, so he stretched his neck and glanced over there.
It seemed that they had caught the person and were dragging him back.
"Tsk tsk, this guy is really stupid. He didn't even scream when he was beaten. Why is he running in the middle of the night? And he's coming to our side. He has dirty hands and feet. We will beat him up if we catch him!"
Kong Qing was about to enter the yard when he heard the muttering and suddenly remembered something.
There are no other concubines in this area, only Jiaotang Garden is living there. Why did she come here
His eyes flashed, and he immediately said, "Let's go and take a look."
The young eunuchs were stunned and quickly followed.
Six or seven people soon caught up.
I saw a palace maid being dragged back and struggling constantly.
"What are you doing? Making a lot of noise near Jiaotang Garden late at night, disturbing Ming Shunyi and the Fourth Prince's rest. You deserve to have your heads chopped off!" Kong Qing came up and shouted at them.
The person opposite paused for a moment and chuckled.
"Hey, it's our fault, but this doesn't mean she's arrested. She stole the master's things and has dirty hands. We are just going to take her back to report."
Kong Qing narrowed his eyes and took a few steps forward, "Which master?"
"Hui Zhaorong, she stole Hui Zhaorong's jewelry." the man said.
But Kong Qing didn't quite believe it, because although he couldn't see the face of the palace maid who was held down by them, she struggled even harder after hearing the conversation.
So he was about to go forward to look at the palace maid's face, but was stopped.
"Oh, eunuch, we still have to go back and report. This is not a big deal."
"Hui Zhaorong has always had a good relationship with our Shunyi. Zhaorong's affairs are Shunyi's affairs. Since they are Shunyi's affairs, I must take a look at them."
Kong Qing was very strong. With a wave of his hand, the young eunuchs who followed him came forward and pushed away the people who were escorting the palace maid.
When the palace maid raised her head, even though her face was covered in blood, Kong Qing still recognized her as Nian Wen.
"This is clearly someone close to Fang Xiuyuan. You are arresting people for your master, but you can't even tell who your master is? I think you are committing murder on purpose. Take this maid away and tell Shunyi!"
With a greeting, the person who followed snatched Nianwen from the other person.
Not only that, Kong Qing called people over and tied up the eunuchs who had captured people and brought them back to Jiaotang Garden.
Inside the house.
Ye Jun was still sleeping when he was woken up.
Huiyue and Nanzhi helped her to stand up while quickly recounting the whole story.
There was no time to do her makeup, so she quickly put on her clothes, casually tied her hair up and came out.
The incident happened suddenly, but Ye Jun had a premonition that something big was going to happen tonight.
"Go and invite the emperor quickly, and go quietly. You know the severity of the matter and what to say." Ye Jun lowered his eyes slightly and gave an order to Huiyue.
The latter nodded and set off immediately.
Soon, Ye Jun appeared in the main hall.
The room was full of candles and was still quite bright. Nianwen's face was covered in blood and she was leaning against the leg of a chair, gasping for breath.
"Wipe her face and stop the bleeding." Ye Jun frowned.
Nan Zhi nodded and immediately asked the palace maids to prepare.
During this gap, Ye Jun began to ask questions.
"They said you stole something... Hui Zhaorong's stuff?"
Such words are really fake, Ye Jun asked with a smile.
Sure enough, Nianwen shook her head, as if she had no strength left.
Ye Jun said seriously, "Then tell me why they want to accuse you of stealing and arrest you."
“Ah, ah.”
Nianwen opened her mouth, but could only utter hoarse and unclear syllables.
Nan Zhi frowned and whispered, "Shun Yi, there seems to be something wrong with her throat."
"Can't you speak anymore?" Ye Jun's eyes darkened.
Nianwen nodded.
This was unexpected. Yao Xiang actually made Nianwen mute.
Indeed, if they were killed directly, it would inevitably arouse suspicion. Palace maids were also carefully selected to enter the palace and could not be killed at will.
But if they were poisoned to silence first and then tortured to death slowly, it wouldn't attract much attention.
Ye Jun narrowed his eyes and said, "Send someone to invite a royal doctor to see if she can be cured."
After all, it is difficult to interrogate someone if he cannot speak. Many slaves are illiterate, and if they cannot speak, they can’t do anything.
Since it would take a while to interrogate Nianwen, he asked someone to wipe her face and clean her wounds.
Then he turned to interrogate the eunuch who came to arrest people.
But the eunuch just said that he was following orders and knew nothing else.
Ye Jun calmly drank a sip of tea, "Let's not talk about whether Nianwen stole anything, I just want to ask you, why did you lie that Nianwen was Hui Zhaorong's person."
"That's because Fang Xiuyuan ordered that such a shameful thing should not be known to outsiders. We know that Hui Zhaorong has a good relationship with you, Shunyi, and we thought that if we reported Hui Zhaorong's name, your people would not keep pestering us."
The leading eunuch fought like a sieve and told the whole story with a sad face.
At the end, he kowtowed and said, "Empress Shunyi, Empress, I really don't know anything. I just heard the order that Nianwen stole the imperial gift and asked us to arrest her and take her back."
When he said this, Nianwen, who had just washed her face, became angry.
Unfortunately, she couldn't speak anymore, and when she tried to argue, she could only utter hoarse syllables.
Ye Jun looked at the eunuch's expression and saw that he really knew nothing, so he could only ask people to tie them up and throw them aside while he continued to question Nian Wen.
"Did the poison make your voice hoarse? Was it Fang Xiuyuan who did it?"
Nianwen nodded hurriedly, and at the end she made a gesture of wiping her neck with her hand.
Ye Jun frowned and asked, "She still wants to kill you?"
But this time, Nian Wen shook her head and pointed at Ye Jun instead.
Now I understand.
"You mean, she wants to kill me?" Ye Jun said, and sure enough, he saw Nianwen nodded.
But before I could ask further, I suddenly heard a noise coming from the yard outside.
Lu He didn't try to stop them, and saw Yao Xiang and his men rushing in.
As soon as he entered the room, he glanced at Nianwen. Seeing that she was still alive, his expression suddenly darkened.
Ye Jun stood up with a cold face, "At this late hour, Fang Xiuyuan brought people to forcefully break into my palace. Do they have any respect for hierarchy?"
Only then did Yao Xiang retract his gaze and bowed reluctantly.
"I am sorry for being rude, but I heard that Ming Shunyi had arrested a maid who stole something bestowed upon me by the emperor, so I was worried that something might have happened, so I hurried here."