The concubine is poisonous

Chapter 56 Trap
Although the emperor had ordered his servants to investigate the poisoning of Concubine Yun, the Empress Dowager Huang still didn't want to sit and wait. After all, it happened in the harem at this time, and there is no queen in the harem, so the empress dowager is the master of the harem.

Of course, the empress dowager couldn't swallow the anger of poisoning people on her own territory, and it was her own niece, so on the one hand, the emperor sent guards to investigate, and on the other hand, the empress dowager also began to investigate all relevant people in the harem by herself.

The empress dowager first suspected concubine Lu Liqi. The reason was very simple. Concubine Qi usually gets along well with everyone, but she has a lot of thoughts in secret. The empress dowager can get a general idea by looking at Lu Liqi's eyes, but there is no evidence. The Empress Dowager decided to interrogate Concubine Qi secretly.

The Empress Dowager found an excuse to call Lu Liqi to the Palace of Compassion and Ning, and angrily reprimanded Concubine Qi for her insincerity, poisoned Concubine Yun, and wanted to beat her to death.

Concubine Qi suddenly yelled at her injustice and said, "Reporting to the Empress Dowager, the concubine did know something about the poisoning of Concubine Yun's sister. It's just that she is concerned with Concubine Ning at this time, and I hope the Empress Dowager can retreat."

When the Empress Dowager heard that it was related to Concubine Ning at this time, she also remembered that she had heard about Concubine Yun yelling at Concubine Ning in the Imperial Garden a few days ago, so she said: "This matter has something to do with that bitch? You step down first."

After the maids serving the Empress Dowager stepped back, Lu Liqi reported back: "Yesterday, when Concubine Ning and I were playing in the garden, I met my sister. My sister got emotional and scolded Concubine Ning. When Concubine Ning thought about it, she hated her." Sister so."

The empress dowager said displeasedly: "The Ai family has heard about the quarrel between Concubine Yun and that bitch, but if it is said that she poisoned Concubine Yun, I am afraid it will be difficult to convict her. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to get rid of Aijia's suspicion of you."

Lu Liqi got up and said: "Please allow my concubine to go forward and talk to the queen mother carefully."

The Empress Dowager thought for a while and said, "Come here."

Lu Liqi heard the words and stepped forward, leaned over and whispered in the empress dowager's ear, the empress dowager suddenly showed surprise when she heard Lu Liqi's words, "Oh? It's Yun'er, the person you mentioned Who is it?"

After Lu Liqi whispered in the empress dowager's ear for a while, the empress dowager's face gradually showed joy, she nodded and said: "Okay, I'll go and get her personal entrails."

As the Empress Dowager said, she got up and asked the servants around her to summon the guards who were listening to the guards in the Compassionate Ning Palace, and prepared to go to the Qinzheng Palace.

A group of people rushed to Qinzheng Hall, at this time Gu Xinning happened to go to Xianfu Palace to give antidote to the maids and eunuchs of Xianfu Palace.Ye Junyan happened to be reviewing the memorial at the Palace of Qinzheng.

Ye Junyan saw the empress dowager acting aggressively, he couldn't help but frowned and got up and asked, "Why is the empress mother here?"

The Empress Dowager still hated Ye Junyan for not being merciful to her last time, and said angrily: "The Emperor doesn't want to see me as the empress, but I, the empress, still miss you as the emperor!"

Ye Junyan heard that the Empress Dowager's latecomers were not kind, so he replied unceremoniously: "If the Queen Mother just came to see the children, then the Queen Mother has already seen her, do you have any other orders?"

The empress dowager looked at Ye Junyan coldly and said, "Order the emperor? How dare the Ai family! The Ai family is here to arrest the bitch who poisoned my niece."

Ye Junyan thought to himself, 'How would she know that it was Gu Xinning's poison? Ye Junyan was puzzled and said, "Oh? The queen mother said that the person who poisoned me is in my Qinzheng Palace? Could it be me that the queen mother doubted?"

The Empress Dowager understood that Ye Junyan already knew that the person she was looking for was Concubine Ning, but she deliberately pretended to be stupid, obviously intending to protect that bitch, and she was even more displeased in her heart: "Of course the Emperor will not harm his concubine, but Your concubine hums."

Ye Junyan frowned when he heard the words and asked: "The queen mother is talking about Concubine Ning? Concubine Ning was with me at the Qinzheng Hall when she was eating yesterday, and she didn't go out. How did you poison Concubine Yun's meal?"

The Empress Dowager looked at Ye Junyan, and asked coldly, "Is there a maid named Cuixia in the Palace of Qinzheng?"

Ye Junyan was taken aback when he heard the words, looked at the group of court ladies and eunuchs standing behind him, and said, "Cuixia, what did the Empress Dowager ask you?"

After hearing Ye Jun's words, the emperor, a court lady, came out timidly, knelt down in front of the empress dowager and kowtowed: "Your maidservant is Cuixia, I respectfully wish the empress dowager well."

The Empress Dowager glanced at Cuixia, who was kneeling on the ground, and asked viciously: "Baby maid, how did you poison Concubine Yun, and you didn't really do it."

When Cuixia heard the words, she quickly prostrated herself and exclaimed her innocence, "I want to report to the Empress Dowager, even if I have borrowed courage from the sky, I will not dare to poison Concubine Yun, please the Empress Dowager to be careful."

Ye Junyan asked: "The queen mother suspects that Cuixia has been poisoned, do you have evidence? Is it impossible for the queen mother to want to beat him up?"

The empress dowager snorted coldly and said, "Hmph, do you think Ai's family won't find evidence of your crime if you don't tell me? Come and search her room for me."

"Yes." The guards received the order, and Qiqi rushed to Cuixia's room.

Ye Junyan saw the empress dowager giving orders at will in his Qinzheng Palace, he felt very displeased and said: "The queen mother regards this place as your harem?"

The Empress Dowager heard the displeasure in Ye Jun's words, and replied unceremoniously: "Since Concubine Ning is from the harem, and the Ai family is in charge of the harem, and Concubine Ning happens to live here, the Ai family wants to inquire about something. , it should not be regarded as violating the palace rules by exceeding the authority."

While the two were arguing, the guard who was in charge of searching Cuixia's room had returned to his command, holding a porcelain vase and a golden hairpin in his hand.

The golden hairpin is exquisitely crafted, inlaid with rare diamonds, and few of them are found in the world. When the empress dowager saw this hairpin, she immediately recognized that it was the one she gave to Lu Liqi when she first met Concubine Qi.But calmly said: "Cuixia, is this hairpin yours?"

Cuixia looked up at the hairpin in the Empress Dowager's hand and said timidly, "Yes, it belongs to a slave."

The empress dowager said furiously: "Bold maidservants, people's filth will be caught, and now you still want to hide your crime? Concubine Qi, tell me."

The Empress Dowager turned her words to Lu Liqi, and Lu Liqi quickly knelt down and said, "To the Empress Dowager, this hairpin was given to Concubine Ning by my concubine when they met for the first time."

The Empress Dowager said coldly to Cuixia, who was kneeling on the ground: "This hairpin is the last golden hairpin carefully crafted for the Ai family by the former craftsman of the court before he left. The Ai family gave it to Concubine Qi, and Concubine Qi It was given to Concubine Ning again, but how did it end up in your hands now? Stealing the master’s property is going to kill you, are you really not afraid of death?”

Cuixia heard the words and hurriedly begged for mercy, begging the Empress Dowager to forgive her.

At this time, the imperial doctor sent by the empress dowager also arrived. The empress dowager handed over the porcelain bottle found by the guards to the imperial doctor for inspection. The imperial doctor poured the medicine inside on a piece of paper and began to examine it carefully. It is a white powdery substance.After careful screening through several procedures, the imperial doctor asserted: "To the Empress Dowager, the bottle is indeed arsenic, and there is absolutely no mistake."

The Empress Dowager looked at Cuixia again and asked, "Aren't you going to confess your crime? It seems that the only way to do it is to use severe punishment."

As soon as Cuixia heard that the punishment was going to be executed, she hurriedly pleaded: "My maidservant, I didn't poison Concubine Yun, please be merciful to the Empress Dowager, and please be merciful to the Emperor."

Just as Ye Junyan was about to speak, he was interrupted by the Empress Dowager's stern words: "Your Majesty, just now you said that the Ai family had no evidence, and you were making trouble for no reason. Now that the Ai family has found solid evidence from this lowly maidservant's room, the emperor still wants to protect you." Cover up?"

After Ye Junyan heard the words, he was speechless for a moment when he saw the things the empress dowager found in Cuixia's room. It was worth letting the empress dowager order the guards to take Cuixia off her criminal responsibility.

Cuixia finally confessed under the torment of Zhixing that it was Concubine Ning who gave her the poison, and asked her to try to put it in the meal of Concubine Yun. reward.Cuixia said that when she saw how exquisite and expensive the workmanship of this golden hairpin was, she was fascinated for a moment and agreed to Concubine Ning to do it.

At this time, Gu Xinning went to Xianfu Palace to visit Du Xinlan, and when she came back, she saw a large number of guards blocking the Qinzheng Palace. She was wondering, when she suddenly saw a maid covered in blood, with deformed and distorted fingers on the ground, facing her Crawled, and while crawling, she kept saying: "Your Majesty, I'm sorry, Cuixia really can't bear the empress dowager's torture, I've already said everything, it's Cuixia who's sorry for her, she begs her to make amends."

Between the elbows and armpits, no matter how flexible Gu Xinning was, she suddenly seemed a little overwhelmed. She barely understood what the blood-stained palace lady was saying. When she bent down to carefully identify Recognizing that it was Cuixia, the palace maid of Qinzheng Palace, she couldn't help saying: "Cuixia? What are you doing?"

Before Gu Xinning finished speaking, the empress dowager interrupted Gu Xinning and said angrily, "How did you become like this? It's all thanks to you, a good master."

Gu Xinning saw that the Empress Dowager was here, so she bypassed Cuixia who was crawling on the ground, walked up to the Empress Dowager and saluted lightly, "My concubine pays her respects to the empress, good luck to the empress."

Before the word 'Xiang' could be uttered, the empress dowager sternly said, "Bitch, why don't you kneel down and plead guilty!"

Gu Xinning was taken aback for a moment, then knelt down and asked: "The queen mother said that I want my concubine to plead guilty, but I don't know what crime my concubine committed?"

The Empress Dowager yelled angrily: "How dare you pretend to be ignorant of instigating the maid to poison Concubine Yun?"

Gu Xinning frowned and said, "What evidence does the Empress have that I instigated the court lady to poison Concubine Yun?"

"Show him the evidence!" The Empress Dowager ordered coldly.

When she saw the golden hairpin and a bottle of medicine powder in the guard's hand, Gu Xinning already understood her situation, but she still pretended not to understand, so she asked, "Why is this hairpin at the queen's place? Is this bottle?" "

Seeing that Gu Xinning was still sophistrying, the Empress Dowager said, "Ask your court lady Cuixia."

Cuixia crawled over again and yelled: "Madam, I'm sorry, I've already been summoned, you should admit it too, so that you don't have to suffer the same flesh and blood as the maidservant, you gave the arsenic to the slaveservant, let the maidservant He went to poison Concubine Yun, and gave this hairpin to the maidservant, saying that after the matter is completed, this hairpin will belong to the maidservant, because the maidservant is not good at doing things, and the maid of Zhongcui Palace saw it when she poisoned it, and it broke the empress. It's because Cuixia is sorry for your empress."

When Gu Xinning heard what Cuixia said, she already understood in her heart that this was a conspiracy, that someone had set a trap for her. Although she knew it was a complete set, she couldn't explain it in her heart. The hairpin was indeed hers, and she didn't given to anyone.

But at this moment, she couldn't explain how it got into Cuixia's hands for the time being. Even if Cuixia stole it, why did she poison Concubine Yun? Someone deliberately planned a trap with the purpose of framing himself.

(End of this chapter)