PFC Chapter 595: Palace Fights Are All Scheming
Chapter 595: Palace Fights Are All Scheming
"My Lady, I have found out about the incense you asked me to look into."
Jiang Lin bowed and reported.
It was already after dinner. Xiao Yun had finished washing up and was sitting at the table weaving a red string. This was a talisman for her adopted son. There was a small bead on it that could protect his safety.
The items available in her space were not suitable for young children. They were either jade pendants or rings or wooden plaques or hairpins. Those would be too conspicuous on children, so she made one.
She put down what she was holding, looked at Jiang Lin and said, "Get up and answer the question. Have you found out who it is?"
Jiang Lin stood up straight and replied, "I followed the eunuch who delivers the monthly allowance to our palace and found one of the managers of the Imperial Household Department. His name is Zhang Hai, and he is responsible for the incense and ornaments in each palace.
However, I secretly checked the place where the incense was placed and found that the incense from other palaces were all placed together, divided into monthly portions, and there were no special markings. Only the incense from our Liuyun Palace and Fengyi Palace were placed separately, and the boxes were individually marked.
Xiao Yun raised an eyebrow. If they were placed separately, it meant they had already administered the drug in advance to avoid confusion. But why were the ones in Fengyi Palace also placed separately? Could it be that Qiao Wan hadn't administered the drug, and someone had drugged both her and Qiao Wan with the incense?
That's not right. She had smelled the incense in Fengyi Palace when she went there in the morning. There was nothing wrong with it. At most, there were some medicinal herbs in it to clear the mind and refresh the brain. This was normal. People usually light this kind of incense in the morning.
At night, most people will order something calming to help them get a good night's sleep.
She looked at Jiang Lin and asked, "Did you bring back some of the incense?"
Jiang Lin nodded, "Yes, the incense slaves from each palace have brought back some. I am incompetent and don't know how to do this, so I can only bring them back for your personal inspection, Your Majesty."
Xiao Yun nodded in satisfaction. It was good enough that they knew to bring it back without her prior instructions. After all, not everyone was as proficient in medicine and pharmacology as she was.
Looking at the several small cloth bags that Jiang Lin took out, she opened them one by one. There was only a small handful in each one.
The incense here is not the modern kind that is burned one by one, but the kind that is scattered. Before lighting it, you have to use a mold to shape it in the incense burner and then light it.
Jiang Lin was quite attentive and even used different threads to tie the cloth bags to distinguish which palace they belonged to.
Xiao Yun sniffed them one by one and found that the ones from Liuyun Palace had indeed been drugged. It was probably because the herbs were ground into powder and added into the incense when they were making it. The blending was very natural and not added later.
It seems like it was specially prepared for her.
The ones in other palaces are all normal, but the smells are different. For example, the one in the Empress Dowager's Palace is sandalwood, and the ones in the concubines' palaces are mostly floral.
However, Qiao Wan's Fengyi Palace incense was divided into two cloth bags. One was indeed the kind that refreshed the mind and invigorated the brain when smelled in the morning, while the other was more special.
It was mixed with some aphrodisiac herbs in a very small dosage, which could help with pleasure without hurting the body or causing people to lose their minds. It seemed to be specially prepared for herself and Emperor Yongkang.
No wonder it was kept separate. If it was given to the wrong person, it would benefit others.
But it’s useless to find out all this, because we still don’t know who is behind the scenes.
Just as I was thinking this, I heard Jiang Lin continue: "My Lady, if you find Zhang Hai, I actually have a vague idea of who ordered this."
Xiao Yun raised an eyebrow, "Who?"
"Zhang Hai has a master named Wei Xing. This Wei Xing is the head of the Imperial Household Department and is also Wei Jinghuan's godson."
Xiao Yun had never heard of Wei Xing, but Wei Jinghuan sounded somewhat familiar. However, after searching the original body's memory, he still couldn't find out who he was.
She looked at Jiang Lin in confusion and motioned him to continue.
Jiang Lin: "Wei Jinghuan was the chief eunuch of the late emperor. After the late emperor's death, he was supposed to follow the other eunuchs to the imperial mausoleum to continue serving there. However, the empress dowager kept him here, saying that he had served the late emperor for many years and had made great contributions. She granted him permission to remain in the palace to retire."
Xiao Yun frowned slightly and fell into deep thought.
The Empress Dowager certainly didn't keep Wei Jinghuan because of his old friendship with the late Emperor. It was very likely that Wei Jinghuan was the Empress Dowager's man, a secret agent placed by the late Emperor's side. This meant that the Empress Dowager was quite capable, as all her subordinates had become the late Emperor's stewards.
You have to know that the chief eunuch can do so many things. It can be said that he is in charge of every aspect of the emperor's affairs. It is very easy to kill the emperor.
This man's godson Wei Xing was in charge of the Imperial Household Department, and the incense was burned by Wei Xing's apprentice Zhang Hai. The connection between them is self-evident. I didn't expect that it was really the empress dowager. Then my dream seed was not wrong.
A sharp look flashed across her eyes. She would go and see the effect later and search his soul at the same time.
"There's no need to investigate this matter any further. Just take care of our little piece of land. Aside from Li Hongyue and Gui Sheng'er's wet nurse, we've figured out how to deal with everyone else."
Xiao Yun gave instructions to Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin took the order and withdrew.
Xiao Yunduan picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and put it down again. It was a little cold.
There was a faint sound of wind blowing through leaves outside the window. Xiao Yun lowered her eyes and sneered silently. How could she not know that someone was watching her in the dark?
She had used her spiritual sense to scan Jiang Lin before he came in. The man was wearing black and hiding under the eaves. He had good stealth skills, but unfortunately he met an extraordinary person like her, so she discovered him at the first moment.
She said these words on purpose so that the other party could hear them. Jiang Lin might have alerted the enemy when he was investigating, otherwise this person would not have come. Since the other party showed up on his own initiative, she could just take a look at who was behind this.
Xiao Yun sat quietly without moving, as if he was thinking.
After a while, the man in black outside moved again. He must have seen that there was really no movement in the house. He first walked silently and quickly to the palace wall, then jumped up and used his lightness skills to jump over the high palace wall and leave.
From the original body's memory, I know that this world has martial arts. For example, the original body's father and brothers all have the skill of climbing walls and flying over rooftops.
Unfortunately, the original body did not learn it. Her mother, the wife of the Duke of Zhenguo, wanted to raise her into a lady from a noble family and did not want her to marry into a military general's family and be worried like her when her husband went to war.
But she did not expect that she would be married to the prince as a concubine. The wife of the Duke regretted it. She thought it would be better to teach her daughter some kung fu and make her more aggressive, so that the emperor might not be interested in her and would not grant the marriage.
But it’s too late to say anything now, the matter is done and it’s a foregone conclusion.
Xiao Yun put an invisibility talisman and a speed talisman on himself before following. Even if he had a better martial arts secret book, it would not be mastered in a day or two, so he had better use the plug-in. It would be crazy not to use the plug-in.
With the help of the Speed Talisman, even if the other party took a step ahead, she would catch up quickly. With her spiritual sense, she didn't need to follow too closely, leaving a distance of at least 100 meters between them, so the other party could not notice.
I originally thought they would go to a palace, but I didn't expect them to go all the way out of the palace, and they were getting further and further away, almost leaving the inner city...