The little lady in the palace

Chapter 204 Poisoning
In the main courtyard of the back house, the arrival of the second son of the mansion made all the wives a little curious. After all, the noise that the second son has made in Beijing recently is really not pleasant.

In addition to being curious, everyone was a little embarrassed.What they originally planned to see was that Princess Yi, the aunt, might not get along with this concubine, or might not get along so well that even the superficial perfunctory could not be maintained...

But what I actually saw was that the second young master lost all manners when he entered the courtyard!
At that time, the concubine was toasting to everyone, and the second son came in just after she drank the first cup.Then, under the watchful eyes of everyone, he directly took the wine cup from his aunt's hand, and said to everyone: "Come on, my concubine can't drink enough, I will drink for my concubine today."

The crowd was stunned.

And then he actually had a drink like that.The rules of defense between men and women are put there, it is already offensive for him to use other women's tableware like this, let alone the princess is her elder?
For a moment, he was stunned because no one knew how to deal with it, but he continued to pour and drink as if he couldn't see the embarrassment of everyone.

Prince Yi's son, who came in a few steps later than him, turned green when he saw it.Pressing his anger, he went forward to greet the princess first, and then glanced at the second brother who was a few steps away, and was about to roll up his sleeves as soon as he gritted his teeth!
"A Zuo!" Yu Yin shouted and held him down.Her complexion was also extremely ugly, after all... I have never seen such a public disrespect since I was a child!
However, it would be even more embarrassing if there was another scene of brothers fighting.

Yu Yin patted Ah Zuo's hand: "Sit down. It's not easy for your second brother to be outside recently, let him have a good time."

"Mother concubine...!" Meng Shizuo sat down indignantly, not daring to look away from his second brother, ready to rush to the rescue at any time.

He didn't understand. Didn't the second brother discuss with his father, mother and concubine when he went out?Besides, during the time he went out, his brothers helped him a lot, so why is he acting so abruptly now? !
Not far away, while smiling, Meng Shiqi toasted a woman in front of him who was supposed to be a distant cousin, and at the same time glanced behind him casually.

Seeing the third brother's expression, he guessed that the third brother didn't rush over right now, probably because the aunt and concubine stopped him.

However, the mother-in-law and concubine were obviously very angry, sitting there with a cold face, not in the mood to hold vegetables with chopsticks - just not in the mood!It is better not to eat even one bite, and it is safe to not move your chopsticks!
While Meng Shiqi was teasing, his heart was trembling like a drumbeat.

He actually didn't know what the concubine mother was going to do, but his intuition made him feel that the concubine mother was going to be detrimental to the concubine mother.So on the one hand, he didn't want anything to happen to his aunt and concubine, but on the other hand, he didn't dare to expose the matter rashly...

After all, she was his mother and concubine anyway.

Meng Shiqi drank one cup after another, and spent time making toasts to everyone in turn, thinking about what he could do after drinking for a while while toasting.

In the side room, Xiangying still has a small table of dishes.The dishes are similar to those at the banquet, except that she is alone, so the portions are smaller.

This is mainly because her identity is really shameful.A few months ago, Xiangying felt oppressed and lonely because of this, but today, she doesn't feel that way anymore.

She understands that this is a difficult hurdle to overcome, and the princess has already taken care of her as much as possible by making such an arrangement.The concubine treats her well, the young master likes her, and the second son is still working hard for her... This makes her feel that even though life is sometimes tiring, the world is still beautiful.

At the same time, she also became more and more confused, why did she commit suicide a few months ago?

Maybe it was just like what the princess said, because she was sick at that time.

Xiangying was eating food while thinking about these things, when she suddenly heard someone calling her in a low voice at the door, and looked up to see Ming Jing.

"Master Weng?" She beckoned Ming Jing to enter the room. Ming Jing walked up to her and pointed outside, and whispered, "My second brother is outside. He has been drinking since he came, and he hasn't stopped until now. You don't want to see him." See?"

Xiangying hesitated a little.

She wanted to say that she couldn't go, but she unconsciously cast her gaze outside the door.The half-open door just framed his figure, and she could see at a glance that he was drinking non-stop.

...How can such a drinking method work? !
Looking at it from a distance, Xiangying felt that Meng Shiqi's way of drinking was too exaggerated.It's not like the noble son in the prince's mansion at all, but it feels a bit like the hero of the rivers and lakes drinking booze in the storybook.

But of course she doesn't care about etiquette, and it's not her turn to find fault with him... But drinking like this hurts my stomach!

Xiangying frowned, looked around the table, and asked Mingjing in thought: "Master Weng, can you do me a favor?"

Ming Jing nodded: "Tell me."

Xiangying got up and picked up a bowl of porridge on the table: "Please persuade the second son to drink some porridge, otherwise you will definitely spoil it after drinking so much."

Then she warned again: "Don't mention that it was given by your servant, it's easy to cause trouble."

"I know." Ming Jing responded with a smile, "I understand" was clearly written between her eyebrows.Then she went out of the house, handed the porridge to the servant girl waiting outside, and went to the second brother.

Xiangying couldn't help but look outside again.It's really worrying for Meng Shiqi to drink like this...

I hope he can eat more porridge.The porridge was brought over later, and it is still hot now. The eunuch who delivered the porridge said that the concubine ordered it to be added to her. When she took it, she looked at it and found that it was very thick. There were still a lot of fresh and tender fish fillets inside. It should be very comfortable in the stomach when you drink it!

In the courtyard, after Meng Shiqi drank a few more glasses, he was dragged aside by his younger sister.

This makes him very helpless, if the third brother rushes over, he can push the third brother away or ignore the third brother, but for a little girl like Ming Jing, he is afraid that if he misses, he will hurt her.

So Meng Shiqi had no choice but to let Ming Jing hold him down.Ming Jing put the porridge in front of him, looking obviously unhappy: "Second brother, drink some porridge before going to drink, it would be better if you don't go...!"

Ming Jing didn't understand either, she thought to herself, second brother, what are you doing?Didn't you see that the faces of the third brother and the concubine mother turned green?The faces of the aunts and aunts around me are all green too...!
Meng Shiqi didn't answer seriously, and after a while of huh-huh, he slumped and drank the porridge.While drinking the porridge, he was still staring at his mother and concubine, and he felt relieved when he saw that there were no one-per-person dishes on the table, and most of them were large dishes.

If the concubine mother wants to do something, it is impossible to do it in these big dishes.The battle of poisoning a table of wives is also too great, and his mother and concubine are not so frenzied!

Thinking this way, Meng Shiqi finished a few mouthfuls of porridge.The warm boiled white porridge passed from the throat to the abdomen, which really made the whole body feel much more comfortable for a while.But soon, the smell of alcohol seemed to be rushed up by the heat, and he suddenly felt sick in his chest, so he couldn't bear it any longer, so he vomited out.

Ming Jing: "..."

Second brother is so troublesome! ! !
So Lan Jing put on a dark face and called the servants to clean up. After Meng Shiqi vomited, she felt better and became more awake. After a while, a sharp pain arose in her stomach!
Then another wave of heat surged up along with the stinging pain, but this time the feeling was not nausea, he only felt a fishy sweetness spread in his mouth, and coughed out as soon as his throat tickled, but when he fixed his eyes, he saw a mouthful of black blood!

"Ah!!!" Ming Jing screamed, and the surroundings immediately stirred up chaos.

Meng Shiqi didn't feel too uncomfortable, but there was such a pain that was always engraved in his stomach.But this not too painful feeling made him gradually lose his mind. When he saw the concubine and the third brother rushing here, his vision was already blurred.

"Aqi?!" The concubine's voice was anxious.

"Second brother!" The third brother's voice was no longer real.

A good wedding banquet broke up unhappy because of this sudden and terrifying turn of events.

And the change was so big that everyone couldn't care less about whether it was unlucky, even Lan Jing and Tan Yu rushed back from the newly opened mansion, rushed into the main courtyard and hurriedly asked how Ah Qi was.

"... Lan Jing." Yu Yin greeted her from the main room, and shook her hand, "Ah Qi hasn't woken up yet, but the imperial doctor said that the poisoning is not serious, you can go back and rest at ease."

Where can Ke Lanjing feel at ease?He blurted out and asked, "How did the good one get poisoned?!"

When she heard in her own mansion that her second brother was poisoned and passed out, she thought it was someone else spreading rumors, and she thought that the second brother probably vomited blood because of drinking too much and hurting his spleen and stomach...

After all, poisoning had never happened since she could remember!
Lan Jing desperately wanted to find out what was going on, but the matter hadn't been clarified yet, and Yu Yin didn't know what to say to her.Fortunately, Tan Yu stepped forward and hugged her: "Don't worry, let's talk slowly after entering the room."

Yu Yin nodded, and they entered the hall together.But Yuyin can only tell the story of the banquet for the time being, if she has to say more, she can only add that she later heard that the porridge came out of Xiangying House.

So Xiangying has already been detained, and if necessary, there will still be a trial.

"Xiangying?" Lan Jing was startled when she heard this, "But Xiangying...it's impossible to harm Ah Qi!"

Lan Jing felt that if there was only one person left in the family that would not harm Ah Qi, then it must be Xiangying.

"I don't think so either." Yu Yin sighed, "but I don't know anything right now, so I don't dare to be careless. Your father is currently examining the people in the kitchen, why don't you go back first, and when I have a letter, I will send a message immediately." People tell you."

But Lan Jing didn't want to leave, and even Tan Yu couldn't feel at ease.They waited for another half an hour, until the night was getting dark, and they still didn't see the prince coming, so they had to go back first.

Yu Yin sat in the main room and continued to wait. When she dozed off a little while waiting, she saw Meng Junhuai striding into the courtyard from the moon gate directly in front.

"Jun Huai?" Yu Yin greeted her, and Meng Junhuai's frown relaxed when he saw her: "Still sleeping."

"How can I sleep?" Yu Yin sighed, seeing that he was holding a stack of papers, which seemed to be a confession, and asked again, "Are you out of the trial?"

"There are quite a few people who bribed you, take a look." Meng Junhuai casually handed her the confession, and then went straight to the bedroom.Yuyin followed him in, and seeing him sitting on the side of the couch tiredly, she also sat beside him and watched.

She flipped through it, and there were a total of seven confessions in this pile, but no two were the same.

In the first one, the man said that he was bought by Xiangying, that Xiangying hated Ah Qi because he had been in the mansion for a long time, so he wanted to end it by killing him;

The second copy, the name was confessed by a maidservant, said to be entrusted by the son, because the son felt that Ah Qi's recent actions had insulted the lintel, and wanted to clean up the family;

The third one pinned the crime on Yu Yintou, saying that Yu Ying suspected that Ah Qi had caused trouble, causing her to be discussed in Beijing, which also meant to clean up the house.

In addition, there are those who say that the concubines in the north are jealous, those who said that the Jiang and Gu families who were deposed in the past held grudges, and those who said that the officials of the DPRK and China took revenge on Ah Qi because of their grievances with Jin Yiwei...

There are all kinds of reasons, all of which seem to make sense, and Yu Yin is convinced in her heart!

But which one is true?She turned her head to ask Meng Junhuai's opinion, Meng Junhuai sneered: "None of them are true."

Yu Yin curled her lips, and then he carefully analyzed for her which sentence in the confession was flawed, which two sentences were contradictory, and so on, which made Yu Yin sigh that he really didn't wait in Jinyiwei all these years in vain!
But the problem is... still don't know who it is?
Yuyin asked again what he planned to do next, Meng Junhuai pondered for a while and said, "It will be a trial."

Yu Yin: "..."

She told him her thoughts and felt that no one could be Xiangying.Meng Junhuai said: "But the porridge came from her. Even if it wasn't her, she is the only one who knows best who served the porridge last time."

This also makes sense.This kind of banquet is very busy throughout the whole house, and there are too many servants coming and going to serve the dishes.And because she was afraid that something would happen to the eldest son of the emperor, she sent most of the people to the front to watch, and a little negligence in the back was inevitable.Therefore, it would be difficult for others to remember who this person is, and Xiangying, who took the porridge from this person, is one of them who is more likely to remember him.

Yu Yin thought for a while and said, "There's no need for a real 'interrogation', I'll ask her first, and then I'll talk if I can't find out."

Meng Junhuai nodded, and Yuyin stood up and left the room.

Xiangying was detained in her own room for the time being, and she was still awake when Yu came into the room, sitting by the bed in a daze.

Seeing Yuyin coming in, Xiangying stood up and saluted.Yu Yin said "Excuse me", and her next sentence was eager: "How is the second young master?"

"..." Yuyin sighed, pulled her to sit down with her, told her not to worry, and then asked her if she still remembered the appearance of the person who came to bring her porridge later?

Xiangying was stunned, and after thinking hard for a while, she shook her head, saying that she really didn't pay attention.

Yuyin's heart sank.

"Wangfei, you believe in your servants, and your servants must not do anything to poison the second son!" Xiangying said.

Then she thought about it, but then said: "If you don't believe me, just ask someone to check the servant... Oh! It's fine to have an interrogation! The servant has indeed seen that person and said a few words, maybe he will be forced to question him I can remember it!"

Xiangying was also so worried that she didn't know what to do. She wanted to help but couldn't. She couldn't think of the only place where she could help.

She was really afraid that someone really wanted to harm the Second Young Master, so if there was no major incident this time but it was not found out, what would happen next time? !

Since Yuyin couldn't follow her words at this moment and send the person to interrogation, she only tried to inspire her to continue to recall the person before.Like what is his voice?Can you tell your age from your voice?Do you remember the look?If you remember the look, you can think of the appearance...

This method works, but it has to be said that it is very laborious.

After asking about it, Yuyin couldn't help but think, or else she would simply charge the dining room up and down for trial.

There are about three NO.40 people in total, and she doesn't care about human lives, but just wants to make this matter clear.Besides, the porridge was originally from the dining room, and it is impossible for these three No. 40 people to be all innocent.

But when Xiangying lowered her head and thought hard about how tall the eunuch was, Shan Shan rushed in: "Lady!"

Shan Shan seldom lost his composure like this, but he still didn't take care of it. He held the door frame slowly and said again: "Second Young Master, Second Young Master woke up... I was anxious to see you when I woke up!"

"I'll go right away!" Yu Yin responded, seeing Xiangying's eyes filled with surprise from the corner of the eye, and said to her, "I'll go first, if it's convenient, I'll let you go see it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

"Well, I'm not in a hurry." Xiangying breathed a sigh of relief, her tone was much more relaxed than before, as if her whole body had a little more strength.

The place where Ah Qi is located is not far away, because the incident happened in the main courtyard, Yu Yin was afraid that it would be bad if he moved rashly, so he directly opened a side room on the east side of the main courtyard for him to rest.

When she entered the room, Meng Junhuai was already in the room.The two nodded each other, and Yuyin looked at Aqi: "How is it?"

Ah Qi still looked a little weak, his face was pale, and his lips were a little bruised.He calmed down and looked at Yuyin uneasily: "Mother Concubine..."

"I'm here, don't be afraid, I'm fine." Yuyin sat on the embroidered pier beside the couch, and Ah Qi stretched out his hand to grab her in a daze: "Mother, I'm fine."

"It's fine as long as it's okay, don't worry, my concubine will definitely investigate this matter and give you an explanation!" Yu Yin promised.

Ah Qi's hand on her sleeve trembled: "Don't check..."

"Ah?" Yu Yin was startled.

Ah Qi shook his head: "I'm fine, why are you making such a big fuss? Anyway, I don't live in the mansion...don't look into it."

Yuyin was puzzled and hadn't responded, but he wanted to sit up because of his anxiety, and continued: "Please...don't check, Jiahe Wanshixing, I have caused you a lot of trouble, I don't want to do it again ..."

"Ah Qi." Meng Junhuai's voice cut off his words suddenly.

He looked at Yuyin and then at Aqi: "If you know something, you'd better tell us frankly."

"No..." Aqi avoided his gaze and shook his head, "I just think, I just think that maybe..."

"You probably don't know that the bowl of porridge was originally for Xiangying." Meng Junhuai looked at him, and Ah Qi's face turned pale.

With the snap of her fingers, Yuyin understood many things from his expression.

Her hands and feet were uncontrollably cold, and in an instant, it seemed that there was a chill in every joint.She gasped in shock: "East courtyard..."

"No." Aqi denied tremblingly, looking at them almost beggingly, "Father, Queen Mother, Don't...don't guess like this, my mother and concubine will not..."

And Yuyin didn't seem to hear his words: "You've been blocking wine for me in the main courtyard..."

She couldn't help wondering if Ah Qi knew more things, things that hadn't happened yet.For example...Youshi may not only want Xiangying's life, but also hers?

"No..." Aqi shook his head blindly, as if he wanted to defend himself, but also seemed to just want to avoid it.

Meng Junhuai frowned: "Yang Enlu."

"Master." Yang Enlu stepped forward in response, and the room suddenly fell into a strange silence until Meng Junhuai said, "Go check the East Courtyard."

"No!" Ah Qi shouted suddenly, his hoarse voice seemed to shake the room.

Yang Enlu paused hesitantly, Ah Qi clenched his teeth, and propped himself up to the ground: "Father..."

"Aqi!" Yuyin wanted to help her, but he still avoided Yuyin's hand and knelt down: "Father, this matter... There is no reason to rush to investigate the mother and concubine, I just... because of paranoia That's why I came to the main courtyard to keep my concubine from drinking, I have never heard concubine mother say anything that would be bad for concubine..."

He tried his best to defend his mother, but this argument...it is obviously not very likely to hold water.

Meng Junhuai ignored him, and waved at Yang Enlu: "Go."

"Father!" Aqi panicked and grabbed the hem of his clothes, "Mother and concubine failed, you..."

"She wants the life of your aunt and concubine!" Meng Junhuai yelled angrily.

He really didn't expect that You Shi would suddenly do such a thing after so many years.

"You didn't get poisoned to death today because you drank too much and vomited! What if the poison was poured into your aunt's concubine's bowl, or your younger brother's sister's bowl!" Meng Junhuai said through gritted teeth.

"My eldest brother and I will persuade her! Let's explain it to her!" Meng Shiqi didn't dare to hesitate at all when answering, "Can we all protect the concubine? We, we know that the concubine treats us well...we will not let the concubine treat us well... The concubine will do this kind of thing again! Father, please forgive the concubine mother once, the concubine mother was confused for a while..."

"You see this clearly and then say she was confused for a while!" Meng Junhuai angrily smashed the stack of confessions in his hand on his face.

He originally wanted to ask Ah Qi about these, to see what suspicious people Ah Qi could think of.

Now... Oh, I was confused for a while.

The completely different testimonies of those seven or eight people were clearly compiled by someone. If he hadn't been in Jinyiwei to take care of the interrogation every day, many suspicious points would be difficult to see.

"Father..." Aqi stared blankly at the scattered papers, and sat down on the ground with empty eyes.

Even when he left the house alone and suddenly started to rely on himself, he was not so desperate.

Now he felt that the concubine mother was finished.He couldn't help her, and he couldn't hate the person who betrayed her, let alone take revenge.

Why on earth would she do such a thing...

What should we do now!
Meng Junhuai looked at his expression for a while, and couldn't bear it, so he let out a tired breath: "Ah Qi."

Archie didn't respond.

"This matter... human life is at stake. No matter who did it, you can't say that you won't investigate it." Meng Junhuai looked at the vast night in the courtyard, and with some strength in his heart, he said, "Father, go ask Just ask, if it wasn't for your concubine mother, I would never wrong her."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and walked out. After taking two steps, he stopped again: "Don't beg your concubine to let go, I won't listen to her, don't make things difficult for her."

"Father..." Meng Shiqi was stunned, and the thought that just popped up in his mind was abruptly cut off like this.

In the bedroom in the east courtyard, Youshi didn't know how long she had been crying, but in short, her eyes were swollen from crying, everything was blurred, and her eyelids felt heavy.

She never expected that the bowl of porridge added to Luo Xiangying would end up being drunk by Ah Qi...

If Ah Qi hadn't drank so much...he hadn't spit it out in time, he would be dead by now.

Youshi regretted and hated in his heart, regretted why he arranged such a thing, so as to hurt his son; hated that Xie Yuyin was so lucky, did so many cruel things without retribution, and when things happened, he was blessed by gods and Buddhas like.

She didn't understand the reason for this, but she knew that she lost again in this round.

Suddenly there was a sound of greetings from outside the door, You Shi was startled, and listening carefully, he felt the sound of footsteps coming from far to near.

It had been a long time since she had been visited at such a late hour.I was stupefied, I couldn't guess who it was; I stood up suspiciously and went to check, just walked around the screen and backed away because I saw the person clearly: "...Master."

"Ah Qi is awake." Meng Junhuai looked at her with lowered eyes, "But this matter must be settled."

(End of this chapter)