After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 479 The fatal handle

The confession of Zhou Shuyi copied by Marquis Yingchuan was roughly recorded in the form of a dialogue.

However, he may have omitted many details for the sake of simplicity. From the confession, it seems that Zhou Shuyi answered all his questions and told him everything he knew. That is called an obedient and honest person, but he ignored those who were unwilling to do so. , ambiguities and prevarications, as well as the many tricks Mr. Zeng used to deceive his wife during the interrogation process, were all hidden.

But Zhen Guogong and Tu Rong didn't care about this either. They just need to know the truth.

The Marquis of Yingchuan was initially more concerned about Zhou Shuyi's conspiracy against his son. Several questions were asked around her plan to set up a plot to kill his son in the northwest. From the time she started to think about it, she had conspired with the Sun family. The process, the manpower dispatched, and the follow-up steps that have not yet been implemented were all asked in great detail. Zhou Shuyi also answered one by one. From her answers, it was obvious that the Sun family wanted to sow discord.

As for Zhou Shuyi's desire to be the Marquis of Yingchuan, it started not long after she married into the Zeng family. The reason why she gave birth to her eldest son was that she kept encouraging the Marquis of Yingchuan and his wife to adopt their son, and also secretly spread rumors that Mrs. Marquis of Yingchuan was infertile, which was naturally not unfounded.

She drugged Mrs. Yingchuan Hou, her sister-in-law.

She ordered the dead men she raised privately to do it. The medicine was also a recipe secretly given to her by Mrs. Ma. It was said to be a secret recipe passed down from Mrs. Ma's biological mother. No one present asked much about this. The Duke of Qin's wife had no children and only had two daughters. However, after her family failed, she allowed the Duke of Qin to take a concubine and give birth to a concubine who would inherit the title. There is no need to be curious about how many shady tricks there are. They are all a family scandal.

Zhou Shuyi thought that she had done it without anyone noticing, and there was no good news for three years after Mrs. Yingchuan passed away, so she decided that her medicine had worked. Who would have thought that Mrs. Yingchuan Hou would suddenly decide to take a concubine for her husband in the third year? Although the Marquis of Yingchuan had never spoken to this concubine, no one could guarantee that he would never spend the night in her house. Zhou Shuyi was worried that the eldest son would give birth to a bastard son, and record it in the name of his first wife, which would affect the adoption of her son, so she sent the dead man to take action again, this time to directly administer medicine to the Marquis of Yingchuan, so as to completely eliminate any future troubles.

It's a pity that the dead man received a generous reward for his success in the first operation. After a few years of comfortable life, his skills were wasted a lot, and the second operation failed. Not only did he fail to drug Marquis Yingchuan, but he was discovered on the spot and seriously injured, barely able to escape. After finally escaping, he died not long after.

And this dead man was Zhang Pinggui's father.

When Tu Rong read the confession to this point, Zeng Qingxi sighed and provided some circumstantial evidence: "Back then, the Marquis did find someone sneaking into his room with evil intentions, but it was a pity that he could not keep the person. But none of us guessed that the person was the second wife. The people who were sent to administer the medicine thought they were sent by the Sun family to cause trouble. At that time, Mr. Hou was having some quarrels with Mr. Sun Ge, and they were not very happy. Mr. Hou understood the holy intention and knew that the emperor did not want to be in front of the emperor. There was a dispute among the important ministers, so we concealed the matter. If we had known that it was the second wife who was causing trouble, we wouldn't have had to go out of our way to clear up the traces of the intruder! "

Fortunately, because the second attempt at administering the medicine failed, Marquis Yingchuan asked the imperial doctor to diagnose his wife's pulse and help her get well. Not long after, she received good news. The second wife Zhou Shuyi's plot failed, and there was no way to send dead soldiers to administer the medicine after that. When Prince Yingchuan grew up, she simply attacked her nephew directly and stopped making decisions from the Marquis Yingchuan and his wife. Whether Zhou Shuyi drugged her sister-in-law and her eldest brother-in-law, or attempted to murder the Yingchuan Hou Shizi, all this was so that her son could be adopted to the eldest family member and become the heir to the Yingchuan Hou Mansion. Even though her husband gave birth to a son, she still only has one son and one daughter. Once the son is adopted, the couple will have no heirs. She has not changed her mind. At most, she just strives for her son to have two wives. She is so persistent in being the crown prince that even Marquis Yingchuan finds it difficult to understand. Naturally, he would not forget to ask her about this during the interrogation.

The confession skipped the process of Zhou Shuyi's hesitation and shirk, and directly recorded the reasons she gave.

She admitted that before she got married, she received instructions from her mother, Mrs. Ma, and knew that she would become the daughter-in-law of the Zeng family of the Yingchuan Marquis Mansion no matter what, and strive to have the opportunity to enter the Zeng family ancestral hall. In the main room behind the ancestral hall, Take away something hidden. I don’t know what this thing looks like or how big it is, but it must be very hidden and has not been discovered for decades. Mrs. Ma speculated that this thing was either paper or cloth. In short, it was something that could be written on. It was probably hidden in corners or dense grids where no one would notice. If Zhou Shuyi wants to find this thing, it will definitely take a lot of time and energy. Considering that the Zeng family ancestral hall is not a place where just anyone can enter, it is very important for her to become the clan wife or the mother of the heir.

It is a pity that after Zhou Shuyi came to Beijing, she lost the opportunity to marry the Marquis of Yingchuan. After becoming his sister-in-law, she has not been able to facilitate the adoption of her son. Therefore, she has not been able to enter the small house behind the Zeng family ancestral hall. She had tried to set it on fire, trying to burn the house with its secrets. It's a pity that the Zeng family ancestral hall is made of solid materials and has good fire protection. There are people guarding it day and night. The fire was put out before it started. She was afraid of attracting attention and did not dare to set fire again. She had no choice but to continue to facilitate her son's adoption of the eldest son's house, hoping that after her son became the owner of Yingchuan Hou Mansion, she could openly enter the back room of the ancestral hall to look for things.

What is it that is so important?

According to Zhou Shuyi's explanation, Mrs. Ma claimed that the thing was something that her fiancé Prince Pingxihou secretly brought into the ancestral hall when she was a girl and secretly hid it while she was confessing her love. It contained her dark history, which must not be known to anyone.

Zhou Shuyi didn't believe it and didn't want to take big risks for this thing. Mrs. Ma had no choice but to admit that she was deceived by a heartless man when she was young. . Pingxi Hou Shizi was deeply in love with her as his fiancée at that time, and secretly took her into his ancestral hall without telling his family, so that she could see the hidden escape tunnel in the ancestral hall. It was originally dug secretly by the ancestors of the Zeng family to protect the family, and it leads directly to the outside of the city. In the past generations of the Zeng family, only the head of the family and the heirs knew about the existence of this tunnel. Every year, they would secretly clean and maintain the tunnel during ancestor worship. Pingxihou Prince brought her in to express his true feelings to her, but in order to help the unfaithful man escape from Pingxihou's arrest, she brought outsiders into the Zeng family's ancestral hall.

She even took the risk to steal military information from her fiancé Prince Pingxihou, and copied it down in her own handwriting in order to stop the heartless man from taking any more risks. She also wrote a separate letter explaining what happened, and even signed it. She sent this fatal letter to the unfaithful man, leaving a fatal clue in his hands. When he fled the capital, he once again used this secret passage in the Pingxihou Mansion and left the letter she had written to him in the ancestral hall.

Once someone discovers her, there is no hope of her recovery.

(End of this chapter)