Sun Xingye had been brought to the Taiji Hall. He was still wearing his underwear, his hair was disheveled, and he looked panic-stricken.

The guards forced him to kneel on the ground. Emperor Zhou asked, "The Crown Princess is dead. Did you know?"

Sun Xingye was shocked and said, "I don't know. I don't know!"

Minister Lin of the Ministry of Justice rebuked him, "Don't try to be sneaky! The imperial physician has examined that the Crown Princess died because she took Xiaoxiangdan. The pill was made by you and never passed through the hands of others. Who else could it be but you?"

"I really don't know!" Sun Xingye defended himself, "Your Highness the Crown Prince has treated me with deep affection. I have served the Crown Princess for more than a month and have received countless favors. I have no home and no job. I am alive in this world because of the Crown Prince's favor. Why did you poison the Crown Princess? Please investigate!"

"You don't want to tell me, right?" Minister Lin waved his hand and said, "Take her away. First, give her twenty lashes. See if he is willing to let go."

Sun Xingye still shouted that he was innocent, and was dragged away with his mouth covered. The execution was in the courtyard, and the ministers were watching. Soon, there was the sound of iron whip hitting flesh and Sun Xingye's screams.

For some reason, when she heard the man screaming in pain, Concubine Gao actually shuddered.

Pei Yuan walked over to her and sat down, smiling, with his palms facing upwards, revealing a few red dates: "Your Majesty, would

you like to eat some? They're sweet." Concubine Gao closed her eyes and said, "Eat them yourself."

Pei Yuan snorted and laughed: "I'm afraid that if you don't eat them now, you won't have the chance in the future."

Concubine Gao was startled and looked at him warily: "What do you mean?"

"These dates are very rare. It is said that they bloom once every ten years and bear fruit once every ten years. It also requires the right time and place, extremely fertile soil, and extremely abundant rain, so that the dates will not wither before they are ripe." Pei Yuan patiently explained to her, and handed them to her, "Your Majesty, you should eat them."

Concubine Gao pursed her lips and said, "I have never heard of such magical dates. It's nonsense!"

"If you don't want to eat it, forget it." Pei Yuan leaned back comfortably on the chair, crossed his legs, threw a date into his mouth, chewed it, spit out a date kernel, and praised, "It's really sweet."

Concubine Gao stared at him for a long time, her heart became more and more panicked, turned her head and cursed, "You are sick."

Pei Yuan finished his handful of dates, and Sun Xingye was also beaten. He was brought in with blood dripping and thrown on the ground.

Minister Lin took the whip that beat him, whipped it again, and then hit the floor tile in front of him, and asked in a sharp voice: "Aren't you going to tell the truth? You have to tell the truth after your skin and flesh are torn. Why do you have to do this? If you tell it now, you can also get a whole body."

Sun Xingye raised his head with difficulty, and his lips moved. Minister Lin leaned over and listened carefully, and his expression changed drastically.

He asked, "Are you telling the truth?"

Sun Xingye nodded. Minister Lin quickly glanced at Pei Yuan, stood up, walked towards Emperor Zhou, and whispered what Sun Xingye had just said.

Emperor Zhou had a subtle expression on his face. He paused for a moment, leaned forward, and said to Sun Xingye, "Repeat what you just said loudly."

"It was... the fourth prince who did it." The ministers exclaimed.

Sun Xingye panted heavily and continued, "The Fourth Prince was jealous of the care that Gao Taifu had given to His Highness, and wanted to kill the Crown Princess and frame His Highness to sow discord between His Highness and the Gao family. The reason why he chose Rouge Eyes was because the Fourth Prince said that if he did the opposite, no one would suspect that he used the same poison a second time."

Emperor Zhou turned his head and looked in the direction of Pei Yuan, his eyes burning.

Concubine Gao breathed a sigh of relief.

She pinched her thigh, tears welled up in her eyelashes, and she knelt down and said, "Fei He died unjustly! Your Majesty, please order the arrest of the Fourth Prince and punish him severely. Only when the thief is dead can Fei He rest in peace!"

Gao Taifu had been standing far away, and in order to avoid suspicion, he could not participate in the trial. Now that the truth was out, he also prostrated himself and cried, "Your Majesty, please severely punish the Fourth Prince!"

In an instant, a group of ministers knelt on the ground to ask for an order.

Emperor Zhou stared at Pei Yuan and said slowly, "I'll give you a chance to explain."

Pei Yuan lowered his eyes and brushed the wrinkles on his skirt.

Although he had set up the trap himself to make Emperor Zhou suspicious of him, when Emperor Zhou really fell into the trap, in addition to feeling relieved that everything went according to plan, he also felt a little mocking.

A father repeatedly doubted his son. Was it the father's failure or the son's failure? Maybe it was both.

Everyone was waiting for his explanation.

Pei Yuan raised his head. He was still sitting with his legs apart, his waist bent, his elbows resting on his knees. He asked calmly, "Have we met Mr. Sun before? Do I recognize you?"

Sun Xingye said, "More than a month ago, I was the one who sent Eunuch Chang Xi to the prince's mansion. Don't you remember?"

He was talking about the time when Chang Xi was turned into a human pig. Pei Yuan nodded: "I remember."

Sun Xingye said: "It was after that time that you secretly arranged a secret meeting with me, told me the detailed plan to poison the Crown Princess, and bribed me with gold to induce me to agree."

The ministers were convinced by his words, pointing and saying: "Sun Xingye's words are reasonable and well-founded. The fourth prince is not a good person, so it is not surprising that he did such a thing. If it can be proved that they really had a secret meeting, this matter can be confirmed."

Everyone was spitting at Pei Yuan for not repenting and being cruel and vicious. Several older ministers were so embarrassed that they even cried, saying that people's hearts are not as good as before, and they were defending Gao Feihe.

Emperor Zhou's eyes showed deep disappointment.

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "Mr. Sun is indeed a scholar. His ability to make up stories is enough to write a book."

"Are you still going to deny it?" Concubine Gao stood up and pointed at Pei Yuan and cursed, "There are witnesses and evidences. What else do you have to say? You look young, but you are so scheming. The truth has been revealed, and you still have the mind to eat dates and smile. You have no shame and your morals are bad to the core!"

"Do you know why I am so indifferent?" Pei Yuan stretched out his hand to block her fingers, "Because I have experienced this kind of thing more than once."

Concubine Gao's heart skipped a beat again.

Emperor Zhou also looked over suspiciously.

Pei Yuan stood up and said, "Just now, the noble concubine said that there are both witnesses and evidence. If the witness says it is Sun Xingye, it is barely acceptable, but what about the evidence?"

Emperor Zhou glanced at Minister Lin, who immediately understood and said, "I will arrange for people to search the Jibei Palace immediately."

"Don't be partial." Pei Yuan said coldly, "If you want to search, you have to search the Prince's Palace as well. What if His Royal Highness the Prince is scheming and wants to frame me? Sun Xingye is his conspirator, and it is not impossible that he instructs Sun Xingye to frame me."

Concubine Gao stared at Pei Yuan's profile, and suddenly she understood what was going on. This was too similar to the time when Pei Yuan was framed... In this situation, as long as Rouge Eyes is found in the Prince's Mansion, Xiao'er will have no excuse even if she has a hundred mouths! She turned her head and looked at Sun Xingye. She now suspected that this Sun was also someone arranged by Pei Yuan. Now he was holding on to Pei Yuan and making everyone think that it was Pei Yuan who did it, but once the physical evidence was found, he would immediately turn against him and put all the blame on Xiao'er.

From the beginning to the end, it was Pei Yuan himself who was acting!

His purpose was to redress his injustice by making up this false case, and then kill two birds with one stone and send Xiao'er to the guillotine!

Concubine Gao felt her head buzzing and her hands and feet getting cold. What should she do? Now it was like an unsolvable situation. She could guess all the clues, but she couldn't say it out loud. Even if she did, who would believe it? Just like Pei Yuan at the beginning, no one would believe him no matter what he said. As

long as Minister Lin led his troops to search for the poison, the situation she had worked so hard for so many years would collapse.

Concubine Gao was sweating profusely. Just before Minister Lin was about to leave, she stopped him loudly, "Why? My daughter-in-law and my niece died, and my son was wrongly accused. Why do you want to humiliate us like this? Can't my Feihe rest in peace after death? Xiao'er and Feihe had a deep relationship, and he would never poison her. If you go to search the prince's mansion, what will Feihe think in the netherworld? I won't allow it!"

"Li Jiang, calm down." Emperor Zhou persuaded helplessly, "Investigate more carefully and find the real murderer. Only then can Feihe rest in peace."

"Isn't the murderer right in front of us?" Concubine Gao's eyes were gripping Pei Yuan like a poisonous snake, "Why do you have to search the prince's mansion! With such lack of trust, how can the prince gain a foothold in the court in the future? The court officials will laugh at him!"

Emperor Zhou no longer paid attention to her, and ordered Minister Lin, "Go and check it."

"Do you remember how you searched my mansion last?" Pei Yuan put his hands behind his back and said with a smile, "Red ants are poisonous. Arsenic mixed with icing sugar can attract red ants. Follow their trail and you can find ant holes and poison."

Minister Lin bowed and said, "Thank you for the reminder."

Concubine Gao was almost paralyzed in the chair. She now had only one ray of hope, that her guesses were all wrong, Sun Xingye was not Pei Yuan's man, he was not bribed, and he did not hide drugs in the Prince's Mansion... Everyone waited quietly, but half an hour later, there was another noise outside the courtyard, and Minister Lin had brought people back.

Looking at the red bottle in his hand and Minister Lin's hesitant expression, Concubine Gao suddenly rolled her eyes and fainted.

The palace servants were horrified and hurriedly fed her water and pinched her Ren Zhong. Emperor Zhou pretended not to see anything and asked Minister Lin, "Where did you find it?" "It

was hidden under a tree in the backyard of the Prince's Mansion. It was very secretive."

Emperor Zhou closed his eyes, grabbed the cup beside him and threw it to the ground, pointing at Sun Xingye and shouting, "I'll give you one last chance. Tell me the truth. Otherwise, I'll cut you into pieces!"

Minister Lin winked at his men, and someone immediately brought a crutch to stuff Sun Xingye's fingers in.

Sun Xingye tried to hold it in for a while, but couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into tears, "I plead guilty, I plead guilty!"

"This was indeed done by the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince promised me that if I could help him with this, he would reward me with a hundred acres of good farmland and ensure that my family would have no worries about food and clothing for generations..."

Emperor Zhou interrupted him, "Aren't you fatherless and motherless? Are they all dead?"

"I am a twin, but my family is poor. My parents only left my brother and sold me to a childless couple in a neighboring village. Later, my biological parents passed away, and my brother was about to die of illness. Before he died, he passed on his fame to me. I have been living under my brother's name..." Seeing the increasingly cold eyes of Emperor Zhou, Sun Xingye swallowed his saliva and continued, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked me to poison the Crown Princess today and put the blame on the Fourth Prince... He has long been unable to tolerate the Crown Princess's arrogance, so this move will kill two birds with one stone." Concubine

Gao She struggled to wake up, rushed forward and strangled Sun Xingye's neck: "You thief, what nonsense are you talking about? How can this be possible! You and Pei Yuan are obviously the same bird, acting together to kill my son..."

Emperor Zhou could no longer bear it and had someone pull her away, and then shouted: "Where is the prince? Where did the prince go? Has the palace maid who went to look for him come back? Wasn't he resting in the side hall? Why has he been missing for a long time?"

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "Maybe he has fled for fear of punishment?"

Concubine Gao was furious and almost wanted to rush over and tear him apart. Pei Yuan sat back in his chair, looking at the noisy and chaotic hall, and suddenly felt extremely bored. After all the intrigues and calculations, it's still not as comfortable as going home to have a meal with Baoning. These people in front of him, including him, said, thought, and acted in a completely different way. It's so boring.

It's been a few hours since he last saw Baoning. Pei Yuan stroked his lower lip and wondered what Baoning was doing. Or has he fallen asleep? While

thinking, he raised his eyes and saw Nanny Qiushi who had just stepped into the palace. His heart sank and he had an uncertain premonition.

Nanny Qiushi also saw him and hurried over to whisper everything that happened in the empress's palace. Finally, she asked, "Your Highness, has the princess been here?"

Pei Yuan stood up suddenly and walked towards Concubine Gao with heavy steps. Concubine Gao was still confused and was suddenly lifted up by Pei Yuan's collar.

He gritted his teeth and asked with a sinister look, "You did it?"

The palace servants were all terrified and wanted to rescue her, but seeing Pei Yuan's expression, they didn't dare to do anything and looked at each other.

Emperor Zhou frowned and said, "Yuan'er, what's wrong with you!"

Concubine Gao's face turned pale, she was strangled to the point of being unable to breathe, and she struggled, "What nonsense are you talking about, let me go!"

"You know what I said in your heart." Pei Yuan got close to her face and almost yelled, "Return her to me immediately. If anything happens to her, I will kill you on the spot!"

...

In the Suoyang Palace, Baoning looked at the secret letter in front of him, stunned.

It was written by Concubine Xian, the paper had turned yellow, and the first four words were: Mingshan personally wrote.