Before she could finish speaking, Han Yingying suddenly stood up and glared at her.
The young palace maid instinctively shrank her neck.
"What does Consort Han mean by this?" Consort Lan's lips curled slightly.
Consort Han sat down hastily, replying in a disordered tone, "Your Majesty, I was just anxious. This vile woman has gone too far."
Consort Lan chuckled: "Sister is right, but while this palace maid is certainly hateful, the person behind her is even more hateful."
As she spoke, she looked at Han Yingying with her eyes and said, "Sister, your interruption just now made people think you were feeling guilty. It turns out you were thinking of the Empress Dowager."
Han Yingying's eyes darted around, and she said in a vacant tone, "Sister is right."
Consort Lan smiled and nodded: "In that case, let's hear what she has to say."
Han agreed with an awkward smile and didn't say anything more.
Consort Lan curled her lips into a mocking smile. She looked at the little palace maid and said softly, "Speak. Even if you don't, she probably won't let you off the hook. Why don't you confess now, and I'll leave you with a whole corpse."
The young palace maid glanced at Consort Lan, then at Consort Han, and finally closed her eyes tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks.
After a long while, she opened her eyes and looked at Consort Lan firmly: "This servant confesses, but only wants to ask Your Highness to grant this servant one request, otherwise this servant will not speak."
Consort Lan frowned: "Are you threatening me?"
The young palace maid shook her head: "I know I am going to die, but I hope that you can take my younger sister, Xiao Qi, into your courtyard and give her some protection."
Consort Lan narrowed her eyes, and after a long while nodded: "I agree. I will have someone bring her over later."
Upon hearing this, Han Yingding turned deathly pale and loosened her clenched hands.
She knew very well that she was probably finished this time, and that she was destined to be the scapegoat.
The young palace maid nodded, panting heavily, and with her last strength spoke: "It was Consort Han who made me do it. She gave my younger sister, Xiao Qi, a hairpin and then accused Xiao Qi of stealing it. She told me that if I didn't do it, she would report me to the Empress and have her execute Xiao Qi."
After saying that, she kowtowed to Consort Lan and then prostrated herself on the ground.
Upon hearing this, Han Daying immediately knelt down on the ground with a thud: "Sister, sister, it wasn't me, I didn't poison her."
After receiving the answer, Consort Lan was also furious. She had a very close relationship with the Empress Dowager, so she was genuinely angry: "The witnesses and evidence are all here, what else do you want to say?"
"No, no!" she cried, shaking her head. "It really wasn't me! How could I possibly harm the Empress Dowager? It really wasn't me! I just... I just told her to hide this in Jinghe Palace! It really wasn't me!"
Han's family was not a wealthy family, so when one thing went wrong, everything came out like beans rolling downhill.
Consort Lan frowned: "If you didn't do it, why did you hide it in Jinghe Palace? Do you think I'm a three-year-old?"
"It really wasn't me who did it, sister, please investigate thoroughly."
Consort Lan sneered: "Even if it wasn't you, didn't you just confess to framing the Imperial Concubine?"
"I, I..." Han Yingding then realized what she had unintentionally said.
He won't be able to say a word.
"Consort Han, you'd better think carefully about how to explain this to the Emperor." Consort Lan waved her hand after saying that, "Take them to Chengshun Palace. The rest of you can leave for now. No one is allowed to go out and talk about this until the matter is investigated!"
"Yes." The other concubines nodded in unison, none of them daring to step forward now.
Just as the group was about to get up and head to Chengshun Palace, a young palace maid rushed over, saying, "Your Majesty..."
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