Empress, she is rising step by step

Although Zhu Ci used Hongxiu's younger brother as a threat, as long as her brother's life was in her hands, Hongxiu would not dare to easily reveal to Concubine Bai what she had done to Jingyue.

But Zhu Ci was always not so reassured about Hongxiu. Every time she wrote a letter home to her brother, she would check it before having someone send it out to make sure it was safe.

"Bring it to me and see."

Zhuying handed the letter to Zhu Ci, who carefully opened the envelope with a razor blade, took out the letter paper and read it through.

They are just ordinary family talk. It can be seen that Hong Xiu has a good relationship with her younger brother, and the words are full of love for her brother.

After reading, Zhu Ci folded the letter and put it away. Suddenly she thought of something and took out the letter paper.

She unfolded it and smelled it closely, and then looked it up to the sunlight. There was a tiny brown dot at the end of the last line of words, which you couldn't see unless you looked carefully.

"Zhuying, go get the candle."

"Oh, okay." Zhuying hurriedly lit the candle with a fire stick and came to Zhu Ci with the candlestick.

Zhu Ci hung the letter above the candlelight. Zhuying approached curiously, and she was surprised to find that a few lines of light brown writing slowly appeared on the blank space on the letter paper.

Her eyes widened in shock, "Master, this is..."

Zhu Ci looked at the few extra lines and sneered: "Hongxiu is secretly reporting a message to her brother, asking him to find an opportunity to escape. Fortunately, I was more cautious, otherwise I would have sent the letter out like this. Could it be that you are harming yourself?"

"But how did she do it? My servant didn't notice it at all just now."

Zhuying took the letter and followed Zhu Ci's example, shining it in the sunlight and then warming it in the candlelight.

"How did you find out?"

"Smell carefully, this paper smells of rice vinegar, and there is a stain at the end of the last line. If it were oil stains, the color would never be this light."

Zhu Ci didn't expect that his sensitive sense of smell would be such a big help to him.

Hearing this, Zhuying got closer and smelled it, but she couldn't smell anything. She only smelled the fragrance of poor quality ink.

Zhu Ci continued: "If you write on paper with rice vinegar, it will not show up on the paper. You can only see it by roasting it with fire. If you use milk, you need to soak it in water to see it."

"My master is still smart. If you don't see the clues in this letter, you will probably cause a series of troubles in the hands of brother Hongxiu."

The more Zhuying thought about it, the more she became afraid. If Hong Xiu's brother ran away, not only would her uncle be in danger, but her master's life would also be in danger.

Hongxiu no longer had any worries, and she hated her master for threatening her brother's life, so she might reveal the truth to the imperial concubine.

"Seeing that Hongxiu has been so honest during this period, I thought she would keep to herself and not dare to use any crooked ideas. Now it seems that everything is just a cover-up. She wants the master to relax his vigilance and then wait for an opportunity to pass on the news."

Zhu Ci thought of the familiar fragrance on Hongxiu's body, and her eyes grew colder.

"I originally wanted to save her life, but now it seems that I was too kind."

"Then let's do it now..." Zhuying made a swipe at her neck.

Zhu Ci shook his head, "Don't be anxious. Jingyue died not long ago. If Hongxiu disappears for no reason, the imperial concubine will definitely be suspicious of me. I have to think of a way to get rid of Hongxiu without screaming." The imperial concubine is suspicious."

She picked up the letter and looked at the handwriting on it, "Just pretend you don't know and send the letter out as usual. Don't make Hongxiu suspicious. I saw that her handwriting is somewhat similar to yours, so you follow her Write a new letter in your own handwriting." Then Zhu Ci studied ink and asked Zhuying to sit in front of the desk and copy a letter from Hong Xiu.

After Zhuying finished writing, Zhu Ci took the two letters in his hands, looked at them for a moment, and nodded.

"Yes, if you ignore the traces of candle fire on it, I really can't tell which letter is written by you."

Zhuying placed the brush on the Qingshan penholder, "Hongxiu's calligraphy was taught by the slave. Her writing habits are exactly the same as the slave, but it is hard to tell the truth from the fake for a while."

Zhu Ci packed the letter and ordered someone to take it out of the palace.

Shen Que was called away by Wuxue, the Queen Mother's confidant, thinking that the Queen Mother was not feeling well.

The Queen Mother has been ill in recent years. She always feels dizzy and hot every few days, and even after taking medicine, she never gets better.

When asked about Wuxue, Wuxue said that the Queen Mother's body was still the same as before. She didn't feel much better, but she didn't feel too uncomfortable either. She just missed seeing the Emperor for a long time and wanted to invite the Emperor to have dinner with her.

Shen Que has been busy with the floods in the south of the Yangtze River recently, and because of the recent unrest in the harem, he has been very anxious. It has been a long time since he went to the Changqiu Palace to pay his respects to the Queen Mother.

Fortunately, the Queen Mother was accompanied by Yan Qingshu. She had someone to chat and laugh with her to relieve her boredom and not be too boring.

In the Changqiu Palace, the Queen Mother was feeding the parrots. It was a colorful parrot with shiny feathers. When it saw Shen Que coming in, it flapped its wings and jumped a few times.

"The emperor is here! Long live the emperor! Long live the emperor!"

Shen Que laughed and walked over to say hello to the Queen Mother, "I would like to say hello to the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother looks much better than when I came last time."

"'People feel refreshed when happy events happen.' The Dragon Boat Festival will be coming soon, and Wenmei is pregnant again. Can the Aijia look bad?"

The Queen Mother asked Shen Que to get up, and she handed the bird food to Yo Xue.

Shen Que put one hand behind his back, touched the parrot's head and teased it.

"You have very sensitive ears, and you know that I am coming from all the way. Can you read me a poem?"

The parrot didn't buy it and turned his head arrogantly, "Humph, I'll read it even if you ask me to. Who do you think you are?"

Shen Que was stunned. The Queen Mother did not expect that the parrot would speak arrogantly, so she suppressed her laughter.

"Shu'er always speaks freely in the palace. She doesn't even act like a girl. Even this parrot has learned to speak freely."

Shen Que didn't care. If he couldn't tolerate a parrot, he wouldn't need to be the emperor.

"Shu'er is innocent and unrestrained. I've heard a lot about Honey Sword, and I think Shu'er has a good temperament of being straightforward and saying whatever she wants."

"No matter how good she is, she always offends people. She doesn't have any bad intentions, but if she falls into the ears of someone with good intentions, it becomes intentional."

The Queen Mother sighed softly. She always felt that Shu'er was really pitiful when she lost her parents at such a young age, so she doted on her. Now I feel a little regretful, if one day she goes to Hexi. Who will protect her?

"The emperor will accompany the Aijia to have a simple meal. The Aijia ordered people to cook what you like to eat, but I don't know if you, the emperor, can still eat it."

Shen did know that the Queen Mother was alluding to Qifeng Palace, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.