Seven men in black fell to the ground one after another. Ah Fu came in with her secret guards. The noble concubine quickly opened the door of the inner hall. Two men in black came out and dragged the two dead men in black on the ground in. Then they stabbed each of the men in black in the chest. After that, the two stabbed each other with a sword and fell to the ground with a pill of poison in their mouths.
When the old lady and others rushed in, the noble concubine held her arms, while the guards led by Ah Fu put away their swords and pointed at the assassin on the ground.
At the same time, a large number of imperial guards also arrived. The two injured men in black were captured, and the unconscious Sun Fang'er was also carried out.
Seeing that Sun Fang'er was still moving, Ah Fu wanted to chase her out, but was stopped by Concubine Gui. Sun Fang'er was doomed to die. Although she had just fallen to the ground with serious injuries, she had also inhaled the poison powder. Although the amount was not much, she should not be able to hold on for long.
The assassination happened in the palace, and the incident happened in the Empress Dowager's palace, so it naturally attracted attention.
The emperor heard about this and ordered King Liang and King Ye to rush over to deal with it and make sure to find out the identity of the assassin.
The two men in black who were captured were taken away for interrogation.
The remaining men in black examined the bodies and then abandoned them in the mass grave.
The interrogation was presided over by the Night King himself, who interrogated the suspects together with the Minister of Justice.
The old lady was slightly injured, but it was not serious. Zi'an bandaged her and she is basically fine.
However, Sun Fanger's condition is more serious and she hasn't woken up yet.
With red eyes, the noble concubine said to the judge: "You must save her at all costs. She is the future Princess Nan Huai."
After hearing this, Zi'an thought that the noble concubine valued Sun Fang'er very much. After all, Sun Fang'er was a great helper.
"Let me go and take a look!" Sun Fang'er is the key to detoxification, she really can't die.
The noble concubine said coldly: "You? If she dies, will you be responsible? Get out of here and don't get close to her."
Zi'an said to the judge privately: "If the situation is not good, tell me immediately."
"Yes, Princess!" said the judge.
In fact, there was no need for interrogation. Zi'an believed that these assassins were sent by Prince Nan Huai. Just as Hu Huanxi told Sun Fang'er, Prince Nan Huai wanted to assassinate Concubine Gui so that he could continue to stay in the capital.
Now that his biological mother had passed away, he would have to observe mourning for at least a year. This year was enough for him to stir up trouble in the capital.
Zi'an felt that nothing could be learned from the two living assassins. She had seen Nan Huai Wang's assassins before, and they would rather die than speak.
Moreover, five of them had died of poisoning. They must have committed suicide by biting the poison, just like last time.
Poison was also found in the mouths of the other two surviving assassins, but they were probably held in place due to injuries and were unable to bite it apart.
"It was really dangerous this time. Didn't you order people to protect the noble concubine? How could the assassin still get close?" Zhuangzhuang asked Zi'an. If Prince Nanhuai succeeded this time and the noble concubine died, the seventh brother would be in real danger.
"Not yet. I have sent out the men, hoping to subdue Prince Nan Huai first to prevent future troubles." Zi'an was secretly shocked. If the old lady had not been present this time, the noble concubine would have really fallen into the clutches of the murderer.
Zhuangzhuang cursed: "This old man is really outrageous. He did it just because his own mother said so."
"They are the same kind of people, mother and son. Didn't the noble concubine also attack the seventh brother?" Zi'an sat down and thought about the whole thing. He always felt that something was wrong, but after thinking about it over and over again, there was really nothing wrong.
"What's wrong? Are you still scared?" Zhuangzhuang asked when he saw her pale face.
"No," Zi'an looked at Zhuangzhuang, "Do you think there is anything strange about this?"
Zhuang Zhuang was stunned. "What's so weird about this? Is there an assassin lurking in Ci'an Palace? Lao Ba's men are all highly skilled in martial arts, and they are good at Qing Gong. It's not surprising that they can lurk in Ci'an Palace. However, Lao Ba missed the target by one step and didn't expect that the old lady was in Ci'an Palace. Otherwise, she would have succeeded this time."
Zi'an said, "Yes, but why didn't he expect Chen Taijun to be there? Chen Taijun had been staying in Ci'an Palace for the past few days. Moreover, Chen Taijun was about to leave, and no one noticed the existence of the assassin. The assassin could have made his move after Chen Taijun left, right? But this also makes sense. Lao Ba wanted to kill Chen Taijun as well, so he made his move before the old lady left."
"Yes, once Lady Chen dies, he will have one less obstacle."
"But why did Prince Nan Huai want to kill Sun Fang'er?" Zi'an didn't understand this. Prince Nan Huai and Concubine Dowager should not kill Sun Fang'er. Could it be that they knew about Sun Fang'er's relationship with Hu Huanxi
But Sun Fang'er went to find Hu Huanxi only after Prince Nan Huai left the capital. How did he know that Sun Fang'er had told Hu Huanxi everything
Even if King Nan Huai had ordered people to monitor Sun Fang'er, her people had also been monitoring King Nan Huai, and no one reported the news to King Nan Huai during this period.
Zian just couldn't understand this.
"I heard that Sun Fang'er was injured by a dagger. Doesn't an assassin use a sword?" Zhuangzhuang suddenly asked.
Zi'an said, "Yes, I don't understand this either, but there are only Noble Concubine and Ah Fu in the palace. Noble Concubine will not kill Sun Fang'er unless the Gu of the same fate is solved."
"That's impossible. The mother Gu can only be released if the child Gu dies. If the child Gu doesn't die, the mother Gu can't be released."
"How do you know?" Zi'an asked in surprise. Even she didn't know this.
"I asked her when Aunt She came."
"Aunt Ah She knows how to remove the poison?"
"She said she didn't understand, but she knew roughly what was going on."
Zi'an remembered what Aunt Ah She said about vinegar, and he had seen vinegar in the Noble Concubine's room, "Could drinking vinegar cure the poison? But if it's like what you said, the poison of the same life Gu can only be cured after the child Gu dies, and now the child Gu is not dead, why did the Noble Concubine bother with Sun Fang'er's blood and vinegar?"
"She probably thought that Lao Qi was dead, right?" Zhuang Zhuang thought for a moment and said, "Since Lao Qi was dead, she would naturally have to find a way to remove the poison."
It seemed to make sense, and Zian couldn't figure out anything for the moment, but he just felt something was very strange.
"How many people did you dispatch to ambush King Nan Huai?" Zhuang Zhuang asked.
"All secret guards are dispatched, including the Night King's men."
"Are you going to use force?" Zhuangzhuang asked.
Zi'an nodded, "Ye Wang reported this to the Emperor, and the Emperor said that we should take action once we leave Qiao Town to root out the evil. However, this matter cannot be done by the court or the Emperor, so it can only be done by Ye Wang and I."
Zhuangzhuang calculated, "He is in Qiaozhen now, right? We will set off early tomorrow morning. He probably won't do anything during the day. After all, there are a lot of people coming and going on the official road. After passing Qiaozhen, he will probably stay in Sujiang Mansion at night. There are bandits causing chaos in Sujiang Mansion. If we kill Lao Ba, we can blame it on the bandits. This is a good strategy."
"I actually want to subdue him, not take his life right now." Zi'an said.
Zhuangzhuang frowned, "But if we don't remove the root of the problem, there will be endless troubles in the future."
"Yes, we are at war now and cannot afford civil unrest." Zi'an said, but he was still a little uneasy in his heart, always feeling that there was something behind this matter.
Prince Nan Huai is a man so cruel that he even attacks his own mother. When he becomes vicious, he is really scary. It would be best if he is eliminated as soon as possible.
"What are you worried about?" Zhuangzhuang saw that she was still hesitant and thought she was soft-hearted, so he couldn't help but get angry, "Could it be that you still want to give him a break because he is Lao Qi's younger brother? Think about it carefully, you treat him as your brother-in-law, but he doesn't think so. You can kill him if you say so."
(End of this chapter)