Zi'an waved his hands, "No, don't misunderstand me. What kind of relationship do I have? Although he and Lao Qi are brothers, he has never regarded Lao Qi as his brother. He wants to kill Lao Qi all the time. How could I show mercy to him?"
"Then what's wrong with you?" Zhuangzhuang asked.
Zi'an couldn't explain it clearly. After all, there was no evidence and everything was just her guess.
She thought for a moment and said, "Forget it. Let's follow the Night King's plan and kill him so that Old Seven will have no worries."
If he is still thinking about the affairs of the court while he is at the front line, he will inevitably be distracted. The confrontation between two armies and the game of life and death are the things that he cannot afford to be distracted by.
Zhuangzhuang nodded, "It's good that you know how to think like this. In fact, Lao Ba is my nephew. We are blood relatives, so I can't bear it. But he has wolfish ambitions and must be eliminated. If he stirs up civil strife again, what will happen to the capital? What will happen to the country? Remember that the ancestor once taught my brother that the common people are the country and the people. Only when there are common people can the country be consolidated. In wars, the people are born in worries and die without corpses. It is a chaotic world and purgatory. We can't do anything if outsiders rebel, but Lao Ba is from our Murong family. The Murong family was the first to cause chaos, so he must be severely punished."
Zi'an said: "Now that the decision has been made, let's proceed according to the original plan. I'll go see the old lady first." Zi'an said.
"I'll go with you." Zhuangzhuang stood up. "Is her injury serious? You helped her bandage it, right?"
"It's okay to just hurt your arm. You just need to rest for a few days. The old lady is still strong despite her old age." Zi'an really admired her. Although there were guards present at the time, the old lady was the one with the best martial arts. She fought against several assassins and only suffered minor injuries.
The old lady was resting in a side room of Huiqing Palace. When Zi'an came in, she just wanted to go out, but Liu Liu held her down and refused to let her go.
"Zi'an, you came at the right time. She kept asking to see you." Liu Liu felt like she had found a savior when she saw Zi'an coming.
Zi'an straightened his eyes and looked at Chen Taijun, "Are you feeling better?"
"I wanted to talk to you just now, but there are outsiders here. Please sit down. I feel something is wrong." The old lady said solemnly.
Zi'an's heart skipped a beat. "You also found something wrong?"
"Yes, tonight Sun Fang'er and I had dinner at Ci'an Palace. The noble concubine was very polite. At that time, I thought she had poisoned the food, but after testing it, there was no poison. After we finished eating, she actually saw me out personally and spoke to me loudly at the door."
"Said loudly? What did he say?" Zi'an asked hurriedly.
"She said that after listening to my words today, she suddenly realized what she wanted. She also said that everyone has a lifetime, what do they want? She said that she was too obsessed in the past. It's good that Prince Nan Huai has returned to the Southern Kingdom. She wants to repair her mother-son relationship with the Regent."
Zi'an and Zhuangzhuang looked at each other, both feeling a little surprised. These words didn't sound like what the noble concubine would say.
"Could it be that she really changed her personality? That's why Lao Ba killed her?" Zhuangzhuang asked doubtfully.
"Who was she saying this to on purpose? How did she know someone was there at the time? Did she know in advance that someone was going to assassinate her?" Liu Liu was also deeply confused.
Zi'an asked, "Old Lady, were those assassins ruthless in every move?"
"Yes, if not for this, how could I have been injured? If I hadn't fought desperately with just a few petty thieves, would I have been injured?"
It seems that this is a 100% killing move. However, if the noble concubine knew that Prince Nan Huai would kill her, why didn't she take precautions? She didn't even send anyone to protect her. It really doesn't make sense.
But she said she didn't know that Prince Nan Huai would take action. Then who was she talking to when she said this to the old lady? It was definitely not for the old lady. If she had said it long ago, she would not have said it during the whole meal, but only spoke loudly when she was sent to the door, fearing that others would not hear it.
"Old lady, how many assassins are there? Did you see clearly?" Zi'an asked.
"Seven of them, they saw it clearly, all seven of them have fought with me before, their Qinggong skills are really amazing."
"All seven of them are masked, right?"
"No."
"Do you remember clearly what those people looked like?"
The old lady laughed, "How could I possibly remember? When fighting, I was only focused on watching the opponent's moves, so how could I care about what he looked like? Besides, there were seven people, so I could remember one or two, but it's impossible to remember them all."
Zhuangzhuang asked, "What do you doubt?"
Zi'an didn't answer, and continued to ask the old lady, "How long did you confront the assassins? After you were injured, those people didn't continue to harass you but attacked the palace instead?"
"We confronted each other for about an incense stick of time. After I was injured, they all went in."
"So you didn't follow him in?"
"No, because there was a sound of rain of arrows at that time, and I thought that there were still people lurking on the other side, so I stayed at the palace gate to guard and wait for the second group of assassins."
"But there was no second group of assassins, right? You said you heard the sound of a rain of arrows. Did any arrows come at you in the end?"
"Yes!" said the old lady, "Aren't there arrows at the scene? They were shot by the enemy after the assassins broke in."
Zi'an said: "There were no arrows at the scene."
The old lady was startled. "How could there be nothing? When I turned around and entered the hall, there was an arrow I had shot down on the ground."
"No, the imperial guards did not find any arrows when they inspected the scene." Zi'an said.
The old lady asked doubtfully, "Did they not find it or was it picked up?"
"Let's not talk about that for now. What confuses me is why the two surviving assassins didn't bite the poison and commit suicide? If they were subdued, then according to the palace guards' description, after they entered the palace, the imperial guards hadn't arrived yet."
"The imperial guards didn't come, but Ah Fu came with the secret guards." said the old lady.
"How long after the assassins entered the hall did you enter the hall?" Zi'an asked.
"It didn't take long, just a short while, less than half an incense stick of time."
Zi'an said in a deep voice, "This is the problem. You and the guards fought against seven assassins for an incense stick of time, but in the end you failed to hurt the assassins. You were even injured by the assassins. However, after the assassins entered the palace for a while, they were all injured and finally committed suicide by biting themselves with poison. Are the secret guards around Ah Fu and the noble concubine so powerful? And how did Sun Fang'er get injured? She was injured by a dagger, not a sword."
The old lady said, "Yes, this is the key to the problem. I found something wrong, so I said I wanted to discuss it with you. Sun Fang'er could not have been killed by an assassin. Although assassins do carry two weapons, when killing someone, you only need to use one, especially when dealing with an unarmed woman. There is no need to change weapons."
"You think so too? Sun Fang'er's injury is the key. Since she was not killed by an assassin, only one person could have done it. She was the one who protected the noble concubine in the palace. She and the noble concubine were the only ones in the palace. I guessed this before, but there is one thing I can't figure out. Since she is the mother Gu, her poison cannot be cured before the child Gu dies. Why did she kill Sun Fang'er before the same fate Gu was cured?"
(End of this chapter)