Chapter 31: Framing Others

Jiang Deshun said that the brocade bag containing the dirty things was found in her inner bedroom.

Every day when she went to pay her respects to the Queen, Yunshan would clean the inner chamber carefully. It was impossible for the brocade bag to be hidden in her palace for many days without being discovered.

Therefore, this brocade bag must have been placed in her palace today.

Today, the six palaces learned the news of her promotion to Changzai, and almost all the concubines in the harem came to give her gifts.

Led by the Empress, Concubine Chen, Concubine Yun and Concubine Ying all sent palace maids to bring gifts, but Song Zhao only received them in the outer hall.

Concubine Yao met Song Zhao in the courtyard early in the morning, so she gave her the gift in the courtyard. She had not even been to the outer hall of the west wing.

As for Concubine Hui, she had the mentality of a child and didn't know how to win people's hearts, so she never sent anyone to give gifts to Song Zhao.

So the only ones who had entered the inner chamber today were Li Changzai, Xiao Changzai, Liu Changzai, and Shu Fei.

Shu Fei's pregnancy has been stable, and she is due to give birth in two months. She is more worried about her child than anyone else, so it is impossible for her to kill her own child with her own hands just to wrongly accuse Song Zhao.

It was obvious that something had gone wrong with the wild ginseng when it was delivered to Shufei's palace.

Xiao Changzai and Liu Changzai had no chance to come into contact with it at all.

After much thought, the only person who has the motivation and conditions to do this is Li Changzai.

If outsiders wanted to find out Shu Fei's daily food menu, it would not be difficult.

That wild ginseng is a good thing. Shu Fei cares so much about the royal heir in her belly, so of course she would not miss out on anything that can nourish her.

Therefore, as long as Li Changzai knew which day Shu Fei's meal would use ginseng, she would find a way to put the "dirty stuff" prepared in advance into Song Zhao Palace to prove her guilt.

Song Zhao's cold eyes looked through the gap in the diamond-shaped window at Li Changzai, who was still pinching her waist and cursing in the courtyard.

I had underestimated her before. She could come up with such a subtle way to frame me.

Song Zhao fiddled with a pot of chrysanthemums on a small table, picking off the petals one by one. When only the bare stamens were left, a cold smile appeared on the corners of his lips. He suddenly pulled it up by the roots, sniffed it at the tip of his nose, and muttered to himself:

"It seems I have to think of a way to make her flower completely wither."

After saying that, he threw the chrysanthemum into the incense burner and burned it.

*

In the next two days, Song Zhao didn't eat a single bite of the food sent by the imperial kitchen, and returned it intact.

In the past two days, she has been keeping herself alive by drinking water.

It was not until the third day that the palace maid brought her a basket of buns.

She took a sip and immediately tasted that it was Yunshan's craftsmanship.

She knew that she was under house arrest and Yunshan must be very anxious outside and was keeping an eye on her situation all the time.

Today's buns must have been made by Yunshan at great expense to smooth things over, and have someone send her own stuff in.

After the food was delivered to Song Zhao, the door of the west wing hall was closed again, and two palace servants stood guard outside the door and did not allow anyone to approach.

After a while, they heard the sound of bowls and dishes being broken in the hall.

I pushed the door open and went in to check, only to see that it was Song Zhao who had thrown the buns and the steamer to the ground.

"Take these things out! Is this how the people in the imperial kitchen treat me? After all, I am a proper lady. The emperor has not punished me, but they dare to send me these rotten foods? Who are they trying to humiliate?"

The two palace servants were only responsible for guarding Song Zhao. Song Zhao didn't want to eat, and no one forced her to eat.

So they picked up the dirty buns that had rolled on the ground, and after leaving, they threw the buns into the泔水桶.

When the palace servant went to throw the buns, Yunshan followed him all the time.

Yunshan certainly found it strange.

The young lady would definitely taste her cooking skills, and even if she didn't want to eat it, there was no need for her to get so angry.

After the palace maids left, she took the buns out of the swill bucket and broke them open one by one.

Sure enough, a rolled-up note was found inside one of the buns.

There were only two words written on the note:

【Huo, Fu】

Yunshan didn't understand what this meant, but Song Zhao sent her a message at this time, which must be a very important matter.

The only person in the palace who could discuss matters with her was Xiao Fuzi.

So she didn't dare to delay and hurried to find Xiao Fuzi to show him the note.

"I don't know what this means, young master. Please help me take a look."

Xiao Fuzi stared at the two words for a long while, then suddenly asked:

"You were at the scene when Shu Fei had a miscarriage. Did you hear them mention a herb called Huoshicao among the medicines that caused Shu Fei's miscarriage?"

Yunshan thought for a moment and nodded, "I did say that. Is there anything special?"

Xiao Fuzi said, "That's it. Huoshicao can stimulate the efficacy of blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing drugs to the extreme, but because of its single efficacy, it is rarely used in daily life. Doctors rarely prescribe this medicine to treat people, so few people buy it. I just came to serve the young master, and I don't know many things. I remember the servant that Li Changzai brought into the palace. Is her name Fu'er?"

Yunshan nodded vigorously, and suddenly realized: "Oh! I understand! So the word "Fu" written by the young master means "Fu'er"?"

Xiao Fuzi said: "That should be the meaning. Now the only thing that can prove that the young lady murdered Shu Fei is the brocade bag containing medicine powder found in the young lady's bedroom.

The Imperial Pharmacy has records of taking medicines, so the harmful things in the brocade bag must not have been taken from the palace. If the emperor wants to prove the innocence of the young lady, he will definitely send people to Kyoto to find out if there are any pharmacies that have sold those things to anyone, especially the herb Huoshicao.

If I'm not mistaken, the young lady's intention is for us to find a way to inform the master as soon as possible, inform the people in the Kyoto Pharmacy in advance, give them Fu'er's portrait and let them identify it, and then when the people in the palace patrol the pharmacy, they can identify that the person who bought those blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing herbs is Fu'er, and this way the young lady can be cleared of suspicion!"

Yunshan was not a smart girl, but after listening to Xiao Fuzi's clear and logical explanation, she felt that her young lady might be able to turn the deadlock around this time. She immediately became excited and cried,

"Thanks to you. If I were alone, I would not understand what you meant, and it would kill you..."

"Stop crying." Xiao Fuzi wiped her tears for her. "The young lady only has us to rely on now. Let's find a way to pass the news out of the palace as soon as possible!"