The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Finished explaining to Yunrong.

Xie Yuzhen was in a hurry to go out, but Concubine Chen followed him and asked, "Concubine Zhao, is there something strange about Concubine Wang?"

She arrived late. When she came, Concubine Wang had already been gagged and taken down by Yun Rong. The palace servants were in chaos. Concubine Chen only knew that Concubine Wang was locked up for some crime, and no one told her what had happened before.

Xie Yuzhen stopped and said, "She plotted to murder the Queen."

"Ah?" Concubine Chen was surprised. "The Queen is usually not harsh to her. They are even relatives. How come..."

"I can't figure it out either. Maybe... after losing that child, my brain has become stuck in a rut." Xie Yuzhen frowned. He didn't know what the conflict between the two Wang families was. Wang Xuan, the attendant, did not trust the queen from the moment she entered the palace. She would rather take medicine secretly to hide her pregnancy than believe the queen who had saved nine heirs.

Oh.

Now it's ten.

Xie Yu's thoughts were really wandering: "Does your Majesty know about the relationship between the Wang Xianshi's family and the Dongxiang Palace?"

Chen Guipin's family had been officials in Beijing for generations, but they were not very prosperous and kept a low profile. She was much more familiar with the situation of officials in Beijing than Xie Yuzhen. She looked at Xie Yuzhen thoughtfully and said after a moment's thought, "Not two years after the Queen married His Majesty, the Princess of Dongxiang passed away. When the Princess was alive, the family visited her every now and then, and seemed to be planning to adopt a son for the late Prince. However, the Princess and the Queen rejected this idea several times, and the Wang family was later punished by His Majesty for this matter."

"I really don't know how to describe the good things about this family. Although the Prince of Dongxiang is still surnamed Wang, he has long been included in the royal family tree. Even if he wants to adopt a son, he should adopt a son from the Lu family, which is perfect..." Chen Guipin said, "That's all I know. As for how the Prince of Dongxiang's mansion interacted with the Wang family before moving to the capital, I don't know."

"Thank you for your advice, Your Majesty." Xie Yuzhen always felt that there seemed to be something hidden in Concubine Chen's words.

After bidding farewell to Concubine Chen, who perhaps didn't like to speak directly because she had read too many Buddhist scriptures, Xie Yuzhen headed straight towards the Lizheng Palace. Halfway along the way, he happened to meet an acquaintance who was in a hurry. It was the commander of the Imperial Guards whose sword he had taken away. When the commander saw Xie Yuzhen, he called out to the queen and said, "Where are you going, the queen? Your Majesty has ordered me to come and protect the queen. You..."

"You're here just in time. I'm going to the Lizheng Palace to see His Majesty." Xie Yuzhen glanced behind the commander of the Imperial Guards, "Why is Eunuch Feng here too?"

Feng Xiang raised his sleeve to wipe the sweat off his head. "Your Majesty is worried that the palace is too chaotic tonight and disturbed the Empress Dowager, so he asked me to go and pay my respects to the Empress Dowager."

Upon hearing this, Xie Yuzhen frowned even deeper - he was not going to inquire whether Empress Dowager Hu was sleeping peacefully, it was obvious that he had not yet disposed of the things on Deng Si's body. Now that there were strange signs in the sky and trouble had broken out in the previous dynasty, he made up his mind to deal with it!

It turns out that this dog man is not reliable!

Xie Yuzhen took a deep breath and said, "Then please go, eunuch. Please..."

"What is my surname?"

"Commander He, bring your brothers and follow me to the Lizheng Palace." Xie Yuzhen had no intention of returning the sword to Commander He. Commander He just felt that when she said this, she didn't act like a palace concubine. Instead, she looked like a street thug who gathered his brothers to have a fight.

He quickly shook off the disrespectful thought in his mind, followed Xie Yuzhen with tears on his face, and walked in the direction he had just come from.

He even snatched the lantern from his subordinate and ran to the front to light the way for Xie Yuzhen: "My lady, be careful. The moon is not out tonight and it is dark. Don't fall."

Xie Yuzhen was about the same height as him, a warrior. He had to hold a lantern to light the way, but he could not go past the noble concubine. However, Xie Yuzhen walked like a gust of wind, almost running. The more Commander He walked, the more he felt his hands and feet were tied up. He could only say weakly that it was difficult to walk in the dark.

"It must be hard work for you to run back and forth all the time..." Xie Yuzhen was pondering over what Chen Guipin had just said. He felt that there seemed to be something else hidden in those words besides the obvious meaning, but he just couldn't grasp the clue.

"This is my humble servant's duty. I dare not blame Your Majesty for any hardship." Commander He has a chubby appearance, and his attitude towards his superiors seems to be very smooth.

Xie Yuzhen walked very fast. When he saw the Lizheng Hall was right in front of him, he looked up and saw a crescent moon like a thin eyebrow hanging on the top of the building opposite. The moon was thin and dull. If you didn't look carefully, no one would be able to detect its existence.

When Xie Yuzhen saw the moon, a somewhat outrageous guess suddenly popped up in his mind.

The moon waxes and wanes, coming and going...

Wang Yue, Yue Wang, Yue Wang?

In this palace...aren't there palace maids called Yue Lai and Yue Hui?

And these two were brought here together from home by a pair of "sisters"...

Yuelai was Shen Nanliu's former female official, and she had died of illness before her master got into trouble; and Yuehui... is still working for Wen Baolin.

Xie Yuzhen felt that her speculation was a bit far-fetched, but she didn't care about that at the moment. She let her suspicious and thoughtful heart wander freely and stepped into the Lizheng Hall.

The Lizheng Hall is divided into two halls, front and back, with the left and right sides respectively housing the imperial study and a kitchen that was dedicated to supplying meals and hot water to the emperor and his courtiers.

The front hall was used for meetings, and the back hall was used for the emperor to rest.

Xie Yuzhen found the side door, raised his sword to stop the palace servants who were about to report, signaling them not to shout, then raised his hand to throw the sword back to Commander He. Under the frightened gazes of the palace servants, he walked over with light steps, and took advantage of the cover of the door curtain to secretly peek into the Lizheng Hall from the side door.

The Duke of Ying, who had met him once before at Changrui Palace, was brought out again. He was standing in the front, talking eloquently: "...When there are strange signs in the sky, there must be evil. Although the princess has made contributions to the country, the death of the late emperor is a more serious matter. I implore your majesty to conduct a thorough investigation. If there is someone who is maliciously causing trouble, it is better to investigate it as soon as possible so that the Concubine Ning and the Empress can be cleared of all charges."

Why is this guy at the front?

It seems that the Duke of Yingguo's words were for the sake of Empress Ning's innocence, but even if she was an ordinary woman in the folks, if she was accused of poisoning her eunuch, she would be stained with dirt even if she didn't do it. What's more, this is a place called the royal family where face and dignity are highly valued.

Even if it was finally found out that Concubine Ning and the Queen were innocent, people would still question them and they might continue to sit on the positions of Queen and Concubine.

Moreover, Xie Wei really didn't believe that these guys didn't have a backup plan to put the blame on the Queen and Concubine Ning.

It’s just…the Duke of England is so jumpy just because Concubine Deng died?

As soon as Duke Yingguo finished speaking, Xie Yuzhen saw another man in his forties speaking up, "Duke Yingguo is right. Your Majesty, the celestial phenomena are a warning. There must be something extremely unfair happening in the world, disturbing human relations. Your Majesty, please make a decision as soon as possible."

To ordinary people, a daughter-in-law poisoning her father-in-law and a concubine poisoning the late emperor are indeed extremely unethical and unfair things.

Xie Yuzhen turned around and asked the eunuch behind her who dared not even breathe: "Who is talking?" When she looked back, she found that a few eunuchs were missing, and Commander He and the other two Yulin Guards were surrounding her, as if they were waiting for her to make any unusual move, and then they would rush over to serve the emperor regardless of their status.

The eunuch replied tremblingly: "To answer your Majesty, it is the Marquis of Yuyang."