Chapter 560: Banished to the Cold Palace

The eunuch who searched the palace said that they dug them out from under the maple trees outside according to Concubine Qin's suggestion.

"It seems that Lord Xu is really a man of great foresight." Qin Yuwei raised the corners of her lips and asked Li Yao if she had anything else to say.

Li Yao was unwilling to give in and stared at Qin Yuwei.

She subconsciously thought that Qin Yuwei was framing her again, but then she thought again, Qin Yuwei couldn't possibly know that there was such a thing in her palace.

Even if she knew, there was no way she could get it.

"Higurashi... this bitch! She actually betrayed me!"

Li Yao's eyes became extremely resentful, he gritted his teeth, and even forgot his own identity for a moment.

Yes, I have long felt that the little bitch is restless. Every time the emperor comes to Fangmiaotai, the little bitch flirts with him.

She clearly told herself that this thing had been dealt with, but now it was easily dug out from under the tree.

If she wasn't intentionally harming herself, what was that!?

"Bitch, I trusted you so much... Bitch, bitch!"

Li Yao cursed at the void.

Such behavior is self-incriminating.

"What on earth is this?" Yan Xiuyun asked, looking at the bag of wood chips.

Qin Yuwei advised him to stay calm and ordered people to go to the Imperial Hospital to invite several imperial doctors to come and ask if anyone knew this thing.

After several imperial doctors carefully examined it, someone recognized it.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this is the 'Joy Wood', grown in the deep forests in the southwest of Daliang. Due to its special toxicity, Daliang has long banned the circulation of this tree.

This wood has a special fragrance. After being prepared with a specific method, it is placed in an incense burner and burned over fire. If a person stays in it for a long time, he will be infatuated and unable to control his emotions.

If you want to neutralize the medicinal properties of this fragrance, you must use benzoin to cover it up. When these two fragrances are mixed, the smell is like the fragrance of powder used by ordinary women. "

Qin Yuwei asked whether this incense would be harmful to the man's body.

The imperial physician thought carefully for a moment and said that according to medical records, this fragrance is warm in nature and addictive. Excessive inhalation and use in sexual intercourse between men and women can easily cause internal heat in men, deplete kidney essence, and cause a gradual weakening of the physical constitution.

At this point, the imperial physician's expression changed slightly, as if he had thought of something extremely important, and even his voice trembled a little:

"Your Majesty, please forgive my daring.

This kind of incense will weaken a man's physique, and the arrow wound Your Majesty received has not only failed to heal, but has even caused a recurrence of the disease. I'm afraid this is related to the effect of this incense!"

"Your Majesty, I only wanted to use this fragrance to keep you here, but I didn't know it would cause physical damage!

After I became pregnant with the prince, I never used this incense again, and I have absolutely no intention of harming Your Majesty!"

Li Yao’s face turned pale as paper and she knelt on the ground begging desperately.

She started to push the blame onto Feicui again, saying that she was deceived by the people around her and that Feicui was the one who wanted to harm her.

Qin Yuwei looked at her with pity and ordered someone to bring the jade up.

When Li Yao saw Feicui, he rushed towards her like crazy and asked her at the top of his voice why she wanted to hurt him.

Feicui's face was full of panic and confusion. She said that she was loyal to her and had never harmed her.

"Bitch! If you didn't harm me, why did you bury the Joy Wood under the maple tree and tell me that you had already dealt with it!?"

Jade opened her eyes wide and explained:

“My lady, what are you talking about… The slave girl had already mixed the wood of Huan Yi into the bait and fed it to the fish in the imperial garden, so how could it be buried under the maple tree?

What's more, the red maple trees in the yard need to be tilled and fertilized every six months. If there was something hidden underneath, wouldn't it have been discovered long ago?"

Li Yao opened her mouth and her mind went blank in an instant!

She turned her neck blankly to look at Qin Yuwei, who was already kneeling in front of Yan Xiuyun.

"In order to find out the truth about the poisoning in the harem, I had to come up with this plan. I beg Your Majesty to forgive me." Qin Yuwei said respectfully.

Yan Xiuyun asked her what was going on.

Qin Yuwei then admitted that the pieces of joy wood brought by the eunuchs were not dug out from under the maple tree, but were brought by herself.

She believed that Li Yao would not deal with the remaining spices herself.

So they separated Li Yao from the others and pretended to find the item. Li Yao was fooled and told the truth herself.

Yan Xiuyun asked Qin Yuwei to stand up and looked at Li Yao with a grim face.

That’s right, some time ago, every time he came to Fangmiaotai, he would smell such fragrance, and soon he would feel hot all over.

Later, if I didn't smell this fragrance after a few days, I would feel uncomfortable all over and had to linger in Fangmiaotai frequently.

Li Yao became pregnant because of this.

Yan Xiuyun's eyes fell on Li Yao, and there was no more pity, only deep hatred.

He issued an edict in a deep voice.

Concubine Rong Li violated human ethics and committed heinous crimes. She was a disgrace to the harem and a threat to the government.

Considering that he gave birth to a dragon descendant, he will be spared from death. From today on, all his titles will be stripped away, demoted to a commoner, and imprisoned in the cold palace, where he will not be allowed to take a single step out until his death.

The little prince Yan Tiao was sent out of the palace and raised by the concubine dowager who lived in the temporary palace. He was not allowed to return to the court without an imperial decree.

Anyone in the former dynasty or the harem who dared to plead for him would be regarded as an accomplice and punished with the same crime as Li, and there would be no leniency.

Li Yao was dragged out, and her cries gradually faded away until they disappeared into the night of the palace.

Yan Xiuyun coughed violently several times and was exhausted. Qin Yuwei hurriedly helped him sit down.

Yan Xiuyun glanced at the pieces of Joy Wood on the ground with disgust, and Qin Yuwei immediately ordered people to clean them up.

Yan Xiuyun suddenly asked her where she got these things.

"Today's three-court trial has ended, and Your Majesty is rushing to the Ministry of Revenue, so Chang Shaoqing has not had time to report to you.

It happened that I was present and was temporarily handling the affairs of the harem, so Chang Shaoqing revealed to me that someone in the harem might have hidden the Joy Wood. For the comfort of Your Majesty, I asked you to investigate the case together. "

Qin Yuwei then told the story of how Chang Yunxiao discovered the matter.

It turned out that when Ri Chang Yun Xiao came to Fang Miao Terrace to inquire about Li Yao, Patrolman Si Ying noticed that there was a strange smell in Fang Miao Terrace.

She once handled a murder case in Qingzhou. The owner of a perfume shop wanted to curry favor with a rich lady, but he was already married and was afraid of being accused of being unkind and unjust, so he came up with a vicious plan.

He brought a beggar home, lit incense balls made of joy wood, and after his wife came home, he locked her and the beggar in the room.

Afterwards, his wife committed suicide out of shame and anger, and even his parents were stabbed in the back when they walked on the street.

The owner of the incense shop became a victim of betrayal by his wife. He buried his wife with a hypocritical attitude and successfully married into a wealthy family.

At that time, the Dali Temple intervened in the case, and Si Ying took people to the shopkeeper's house to search.

The shopkeeper cleverly used benzoin to cover up the traces of the joy wood. The two scents mixed together, close to the scent of women's powder, so Si Ying did not suspect anything at the time.

Later, the truth of the case came to light, the shopkeeper confessed his crime and finally revealed the secret of the Huanyi wood.

Si Ying recalled carefully and remembered that the fragrance in the shopkeeper's house was indeed a bit strange, and she remembered that smell.

When Chang Yunxiao left Fangmiao Terrace, he listened to Si Ying's words and immediately checked the files of the Qingzhou case at that time, as well as the retained physical evidence and confessions.

Huanyi wood has long been banned from circulation and can only be purchased through some special channels.

And among the physical evidence left over from the Qingzhou case, there was a bag of Joy Wood debris found in the warehouse of the incense shop owner...

(Ps. Happy Wednesday! Amie deserves some praise and compliments [starry eyes])