The fake daughter of a fallen ghost is reborn

Sure enough, just a few days later, Xue Zhiyi, who was on night duty, heard a loud gong sound, accompanied by the smell of burnt smoke.

Chuizhu, who was also on duty, rushed out to check, and came back with a worried look on his face: "There's a fire in Suining Palace!"

Outside the Jianzhang Palace, palace servants were beating gongs and running to warn the six palace maids, shouting, "There's a fire! There's a fire!"

With all this noise, the empress dowager could no longer sleep, so she put on some clothes and got up.

Unable to bear the smell of smoke, she covered her lips and coughed a few times, then ordered: "Zhiyi, go and see what the situation is, and then report to me."

After receiving the order, Xue Zhiyi followed the direction of the fire and, as expected, saw chaos outside Suining Palace. The palace servants were busy carrying water to put out the fire.

By the time she returned to Jianzhang Palace, it was almost dawn.

The empress dowager had not fallen asleep yet. When she saw Xue Zhiyi coming back, she gave her a seat.

"How is it?" she asked. "Is everyone okay?"

But suddenly she saw Xue Zhiyi's expression was strange, so she winked at Chai Yue, indicating that Chai Yue should take the serving palace people away first.

Xue Zhiyi then said, "Reporting to the Queen Mother, two palace maids in Suining Palace died, and several palace maids and eunuchs who tried to rescue them were injured, and they were unable to successfully rescue Concubine Song."

She lowered her eyes and sighed, "Noble Concubine Song was buried in the sea of ​​fire, one body and two lives, please accept my condolences, Queen Mother."

Hearing this, the queen mother was surprised, and her old eyes trembled slightly: "How could such a thing happen?"

Xue Zhiyi stayed near Suining Palace for half the night, so he naturally found out everything he needed to know.

She said, "I have inquired and found out that there was something wrong with the candlesticks provided by the Shanggong Bureau. The candlesticks fell over and burned the curtains. I didn't expect that there was no water in the Taiping jar. The palace servants went to a far place to get water to put out the fire, but it delayed the opportunity, and..."

The words lingered on her lips for a moment, and she said, "In addition, your majesty ordered Concubine Song to stay in Suining Palace to rest and take care of her pregnancy, and she was not allowed to go out. The palace gates were locked, and she was unable to escape in time, which ultimately led to this disaster."

Although Concubine Song was not a good person, she had not committed a capital crime after all, and she was pregnant with the empress dowager's grandson. How could the empress dowager not sigh?

The Queen Mother said with sorrow in her eyes: "It's a pity for Song's child, and it's a pity for the heir to the throne."

Xue Zhiyi added: "The two mistakes of the Shanggong Bureau and the Taiping Jar made His Majesty very angry. He immediately held An Zhaoyi accountable, removed her authority to assist in the management of the six palaces, and punished all the palace servants who were related to them."

The emperor was furious, and seemed to have completely forgotten why Concubine Song failed to escape from Suining Palace in time.

After a long silence, the Queen Mother suppressed her regret and asked Xue Zhiyi, "You asked me to dismiss others. Do you have anything else to say?"

Seeing that the Queen Mother had calmed down, Xue Zhiyi said, "When the fire started, Concubine Wu Lifei was the first to arrive. She had people cut the beams connecting the palace rooms to prevent the fire from spreading, and she also comforted the frightened palace maids. His Majesty appreciated this very much and asked her to temporarily replace Concubine An to help manage the six palaces."

The Queen Mother quickly understood: "Are you trying to say that this was Concubine Wu Lifei's design?"

Xue Zhiyi lowered her eyes: "I dare not speak nonsense, but it is indeed possible."

Hearing this, the Queen Mother sighed again: "Concubine Wu Lifei has been in the palace for many years. She is gentle and cautious. She came all the way from Nan'an, so many people looked down on her. Later, when Pingzhang grew up, her temper became more and more outspoken. She often stood up for Concubine Lifei, and then people in the palace began to respect her a little more."

Thinking of this, the Queen Mother's tone became a little lighter: "But when the late emperor was still alive, I was also framed by a concubine who looked honest and indifferent. Concubine Li may not be pretending to be hypocritical, but it is possible that she has abandoned her original conscience for some purpose."

Looking at the flickering candle flame, as if ready to devour something, Xue Zhiyi's eyes became a little colder.

"I think it is not certain whether this matter was done by Concubine Li, but we can investigate secretly first, so that we can have a better idea."

The Queen Mother nodded slightly and agreed: "You are right."

After saying that, she sighed again: "I'm afraid Concubine Li will do anything for her daughter. A mother can risk anything."

Xue Zhiyi knew that the Queen Mother was worried that if this was really done by Concubine Wu Lifei, she would use such cruel means to eliminate dissidents and win favor in order to make Huo Zhiyu the candidate for the marriage and protect Princess Pingzhang.

If Concubine Wu Lifei can really do this, then I am afraid she will spare no effort to push Huo Zhiyu towards the path of marriage.

Thinking of this, Xue Zhiyi only smiled, but the coldness in his eyes intensified a bit: "It is better to remove the firewood from under the cauldron than to try to stop the boiling water by adding more water. As long as the roots of the tree are cut off, no matter how many flowers there are, they will be vain."

The Queen Mother said nothing, but pondered for a long time. Looking at the gradually whitening sky, she said, "The envoys from Beidi will enter Dayong in the next few days."

Xue Zhiyi raised his eyes and looked into the empress dowager's cloudy eyes.

The Queen Mother said, "It is a prince who has come. I heard that the prince's name is Helian You, and he is well-known in Beidi."

This name made Xue Zhiyi's heart sink.

Helian You, the son of the current Khan of Beidi, made great contributions in the battle to besiege and kill Huo Yan and his son, so he was highly respected and had a good reputation in Beidi.

But this reputation is built on blood feud.

The person who killed Huo Zhiyu's father and brother is now being welcomed into Dayong with great fanfare. She will even be married to the place where her father and brother died, leaving her to live the rest of her life in turmoil.

How could the Queen Mother and the Huo family not fight to the death?

……

Half a month later, Sifang Pavilion finally completed the construction before the arrival of the Northern Di delegation and was ready to welcome the guests.

That day, after Xue Zhiyi finished her shift and opened the door of her room, she saw Huo Wuyou sitting at her desk, leaning forward with his eyes closed.

She was already used to seeing someone enter the house without saying hello, so she just sat down opposite him and said, "My Lord, I am honored to be here. What can I do for you?"

Hearing this, Huo Wuyou opened his eyes wearily, as if he had really fallen asleep just now.

When he saw Xue Zhiyi, his eyes brightened a little, dispelling the weariness in them.

His voice was lazy: "Can't you care about me?"

Looking at him, Xue Zhiyi realized that Huo Wuyou didn't look very well, and the color of his lips was almost as pale as when he was injured on the boat that day.

She was so close that day, she wouldn't have remembered it wrong.

Seeing the worry on Xue Zhiyi's face, Huo Wuyou smiled. Before Xue Zhiyi could ask him anything, he took the initiative to roll up his sleeves and said, "Look, you're injured."

There was a hideous wound on Huo Wuyou's left arm, which stretched half the length of his arm. Although the bleeding had stopped, it was still shocking to look at.

She didn't care about Huo Wuyou's smiling face for a moment, and asked him, "How did you do it?"

Huo Wuyou held his chin up and said, "Why don't you ask me if it hurts?"

"Just bear with the pain." Xue Zhiyi asked him coldly, "Tell me quickly, how did it happen?"

Huo Wuyou stopped smiling unhappily and said, "I wanted to take advantage of Helian You, the little thief, to come to the capital and intercept the secret letter from him, but I didn't expect that the Beidi people have a sharper nose than a dog, and we were discovered."

After that, he sneered again: "Dozens of people chased and blocked me. Fortunately, I am agile and talented. I only suffered such a small injury and shook off those people."