Chapter 358 Something is fishy

The flickering candlelight jumped and reflected on Song Zhao's beautiful profile.

Xiao Fuzi looked at the sinister smile on the corners of her lips and couldn't help feeling a little chilly.

However, this chill was due to Song Zhao's powerful aura that was pressing down on him invisibly.

Far from being afraid, he felt relieved.

"Your Highness is now willing to be ruthless, which is very different from before. When the Queen killed you in the past, you always thought of the innocence of the child and allowed the Queen to successfully give birth to Princess Jing and Princess Chang before you took revenge on her..."

"If Concubine Hui's son is innocent, then what is the crime of my son?"

Song Zhao interrupted Xiao Fuzi in a solemn voice. He was not angry with him, but he was thinking of Cheng Yu, and he felt a wave of heartache.

It was a fluke that the child was alive, but even if he was alive, Song Zhao still had to endure the pain of separation from her child every day.

All of this was given by Concubine Hui.

She took a deep breath and said fiercely:

"If Concubine Hui wants to bury my son alive, then don't blame me for returning tenfold the injustice that Cheng Yu has endured to her son. Death is the easiest thing, and I don't want her to die. I want her to live a life worse than death!"

She sat in front of the dressing table, looking at herself in the mirror, and slowly took off the pearls and jade on her head.

"Cheng Jing deserves to die a miserable death since he has a mother like her. Just wait and see. He is so lucky that he can escape the first day, but can he escape the fifteenth day?"

Outside the window, the night deepens.

Every night after curfew in the palace, the silence was eerily quiet.

But at this moment, the whole palace could hear miserable screams coming from the direction of Yaohua Palace.

The imperial physician was using white gauze to stuff it into her broken knee joint to clean the wound.

Following this voice, Song Zhao drank the calming drink very happily and let Yunshan and the others help her wash up.

In fact, this farce had been planned ever since Song Zhao reconciled with Xiao Jingheng and became interested in butterflies.

At first, Song Zhao ordered Xiao Fuzi and Yunshan to lead the palace servants to the Imperial Garden to catch a large number of butterflies and bring them back to Changle Palace.

After meeting Concubine Yao by chance in the Imperial Garden that day, Song Zhao told Yunshan in advance that no matter what Concubine Yao said later, Yunshan had to stay alone and slap Concubine Yao a few times, the harder the better, in order to arouse Concubine Yao's hatred towards her.

When the palace went to pay respects to Ning Wanshuang that day, anyone could see that the red mark on Concubine Yao's face was from a slap, but no one investigated the matter further.

After Song Zhao returned to the palace, Concubine Hui came to her palace soon.

Song Zhao deliberately ordered people to release all the captured butterflies, letting them dance gracefully in front of Concubine Hui.

Song Zhao knew very well how deep Hui Fei's thoughts were. Even if she had "lost her memory" now, Hui Fei would definitely find a way to completely eliminate her.

How could a smart person like Concubine Hui not think that Song Zhao was allergic to peach pollen when seeing so many butterflies?

But she thought about it and would definitely not do it herself.

So after Concubine Hui left Changle Palace, Song Zhao asked Xiao Fuzi to follow her all the way.

It was not until Xiao Fuzi saw Concubine Hui enter Yaohua Palace that Song Zhao knew that the fish had taken the bait.

Later, Xiao Fuzi became more vigilant and would patrol around Changle Palace every day.

As expected, Fu'er, who was beside Concubine Yao, often wandered around outside Changle Palace stealthily, and sometimes released butterflies from the glass bottle she carried with her.

So Xiao Fuzi deliberately interrupted the patrolling guards near Changle Palace, causing them to go in the wrong direction, and they 'happened' to see Fuer's unusual behavior.

When the chess game reaches this point, it is time for Rong Yue to take the stage.

Song Zhao took advantage of the convenience of the Tianji Office and arrested the entire family of Xiao Yaozi, the eunuch who was in charge of purchasing outside the palace, and forced Xiao Yaozi to buy the Five Poison Powder for her.

He then gave the Five Poison Powder to Rong Yue, asking her to take the opportunity to place the powder in Concubine Yao's bedroom without anyone noticing when she went to celebrate Concubine Yao's birthday.

Then, when Xiao Jingheng came to see her, she took advantage of Ruoxin's "childish talk" and said that she had never even seen her own brother. This prompted Xiao Jingheng to personally ask Concubine Hui to bring Chengjing to Changle Palace for a visit.

When the day came for Concubine Hui and her son to arrive, Ning Wanshuang rudely took Ruoxin away in advance.

When Cheng Jing arrived, he would definitely be attracted by the large number of butterflies flying around the spring flowers and the autumn moon.

And what Chunhua and Qiuyue heard that day about the method of "attracting bees and butterflies" that Xiao Fuzi and Yunshan talked about was also what Xiao Fuzi deliberately let them hear.

Whenever Cheng Jing played with Chunhua, Qiuyue and the others in the courtyard, Xiao Fuzi would take the opportunity to release butterflies with wings covered with Five Poison Powder from her own veranda and let them fly towards Chunhua, Qiuyue and Cheng Jing.

The powder of the Five Poisons Powder fell with the fluttering of the butterfly's wings. Chunhua and Qiuyue, the two spies planted by Xiao Jingheng in Changle Palace, would have no chance of survival. Cheng Jing was the closest to them, so naturally he could not escape.

After the truth was revealed, Song Zhao thought that if all the evidence pointed directly at Concubine Yao, it would be a bit too deliberate.

So he threatened Xiao Yaozi's family and made him turn against the emperor and testify against him.

In this case, even if Concubine Yao jumped into the Yellow River, she could not clear herself of the blame.

In this whole incident, Song Zhao could have gotten rid of the spies that Xiao Jingheng had arranged around Concubine Hui, allowing her to suffer the pain of losing her son. He could also have eliminated Concubine Yao, the ungrateful villain, in the process. It could be said that he killed three birds with one stone.

But there was one thing that Song Zhao did not expect.

That is Chunlan, who is beside Concubine Hui, and she would actually risk her life to protect Chengjing?

After washing up, Yunshan was helping Song Zhao get ready for bed when she heard her ask:

"I heard from Xiao Fuzi that Chun Lan, who is by Concubine Hui's side, was a maid assigned to Concubine Hui by the Ministry of Internal Affairs after Chan'er died?"

Yunshan nodded and said, "Yes. She has only served Concubine Hui for three months. But because she was efficient and took good care of Cheng Jing, Concubine Hui valued her very much. Although she was not promoted to head maid, she was always with Concubine Hui wherever she went."

Hearing this, Song Zhao was puzzled and felt even more strange.

"Since she has only served for three months, how could she be so loyal to Concubine Hui? At the critical moment that day, she even risked her own life to protect Cheng Jing, and even covered his mouth and nose until her death?"

She suddenly raised her eyebrows and looked at Yunshan with suspicion, "Don't you think this is too unreasonable?"

Yunshan thought for a moment and said, "If the young lady hadn't mentioned it before, I wouldn't have thought about it. But now that I think about it, Chunlan is not like me, who has been with the young lady since childhood. Ordinary palace maids enter the palace to do good things, just to make money, but Chunlan is willing to risk his own life..."

The master and servant looked at each other, and no one said anything else.

After a long silence, Song Zhao finally said something.

"Let the Tianji Office investigate and find out who this Chun Lan is."