Bao Ning hesitated for a moment and didn't know whether to read on.

The letter was placed in a secret compartment behind a painting. Since it was placed in a secret compartment, it means that Concubine Xian did not want other people to see it.

It was just a coincidence that she found the secret compartment. After eating the poisonous mushroom, she felt disgusted in addition to the fantasy in front of her. She found the spittoon next to the small couch in the corner with her memory.

Although she had never been to the real Suoyang Palace, the small building of the Jibei Palace was almost exactly the same as this one. Bao Ning was familiar with it. Even without candles now, she could find every location accurately like a blind person familiar with her own home.

After moving the spittoon, unexpectedly, a light "click" sound came from the quiet room. The sound was so faint that Bao Ning even thought it was an illusion. But when she moved the spittoon several times and put it back, she heard the faint sound again and again. Bao Ning realized that it might be the sound of interlocking teeth. Interlocking teeth meant that there might be a mechanism here.

Then she noticed the floor tiles under her feet. With the moonlight, she could see that it was a messy Bagua map.

There was also such a map in the Jinbei Palace. When she saw it for the first time, she felt it was novel and studied it for a while and read several books. But later she found it too boring and put it aside.

Baoning tried to move the floor tiles, and was surprised to find that the bricks that were previously immovable could now be easily picked up. At first, Baoning thought that this was a game that Concubine Xian had developed herself. She tried to restore the Bagua diagram, and when the last brick returned to its original position, another "click" sound was heard.

She found a secret compartment with a crack behind the mural.

There was a stack of papers inside, most of which were poems and essays. Baoning flipped through them one by one in the moonlight, and finally found this letter - Mingshan's personal letter. Baoning

felt in a trance that she was like a villain who was eager to pry into other people's privacy, and the privacy she pry into was Pei Yuan's mother's privacy. The feeling of guilt made Baoning put the letter back immediately, but after thinking for a moment, she took it back.

Qiu Mingshan...

What is his relationship with Concubine Xian, and what is his relationship with Pei Yuan?

Baoning suppressed her heartbeat and read the letter carefully, word by word.

The beginning was full of deep feelings, like a confession of the heart, like a woman in seclusion missing her husband who had not returned home for a long time. Baoning looked back at the first sentence several times and confirmed that it was written to General Qiu, not Emperor Zhou.

This is already a shocking secret!

Baoning thought, if she hadn't eaten the Jianshouqing, she would never have continued to read it with her previous courage. The poisonous mushrooms strengthened her courage. He turned to the next page in a daze. It was Concubine Xian's advice to Qiu Mingshan, telling him not to dwell on the romantic relationship between a man and a woman, but to win the trust of Emperor Zhou as soon as possible, go to the border to gain experience, and lead troops. Only when he became strong, they could meet again openly one day, instead of just having fun in the dead of night.

Baoning read it several times in disbelief and confirmed that Concubine Xian and General Qiu were having an affair.

The last sentence meant that Yuan'er and I are waiting for you to come back.

...

Baoning felt as if she was trapped in a big bell, and someone was hitting the bell with a hammer, and her whole body was buzzing. What does this letter mean?

Concubine Xian and Qiu Mingshan were having an affair. They were young and in love, but later Emperor Zhou fell in love with Concubine Xian and forced her into the palace. Qiu Mingshan followed her to the capital and became the emperor's bodyguard, hoping to accompany him closely. Later, Concubine Xian became pregnant. She didn't know whose child it was, but Qiu Mingshan didn't care. No matter who it was, he would recognize it. He hated Emperor Zhou very much, and Concubine Xian also hated Emperor Zhou, so Concubine Xian urged him to make achievements as soon as possible and take her and the child away from death...

But later, Concubine Xian died early, and this secret became a real secret.

Now she has discovered it.

Baoning stood in front of the secret compartment in a daze, holding the letter in his hand, not knowing what to do for a moment.

Until there was a sudden movement at the door, Baoning's heart jumped, and she quickly closed the door of the secret compartment, folded the letter paper and hid it in her front, and hid herself. The surroundings were empty, and there was nowhere to hide. She glanced at the painting on the wall and went behind it.

Zhao Qian came in with four palace maids and eunuchs wearing white clothes and painted pale faces. He himself wore a black official uniform, holding a rustling iron chain in his hand, pretending to be the Black Impermanence, jumping forward.

As they walked, Zhao Qian whispered to them, "You will pretend to be the ghosts I took away. First, scare her to death, and then take the opportunity to hang her on the white silk, pretending that she hanged herself. Do you understand?"

The men agreed, exchanged glances with each other, and went their separate ways.

Baoning hid behind the painting and could only hear the sound of the iron chain dragging on the ground and the chaotic footsteps. Her heart was pounding. She peeked out with one eye and saw a white shadow hanging a rope. The shadow held a long bundle of hemp rope in his hand. One end was hung on the window sill on Baoning's side, and the other end was hung somewhere unknown, so that the whole rope was stretched straight and about one person high from the ground.

Bao Ning was scared at first, she didn't know whether the person coming was a bad guy or a ghost, but after seeing this scene, her heart was at ease.

Maybe the person coming was a fool.

She waited for a while and heard new movements.

A person dressed as a fierce ghost slid over from the other end along the rope!

This person's waist was extremely flexible, and his feet were more than a foot off the ground. With his hands climbing the hemp rope, he could even do such complicated and difficult movements as opening his legs, bending his waist, and flying.

If Bao Ning hadn't just happened to see them hanging on the rope, she would have really believed that this person was floating in the sky.

The only drawback was that this might be a slightly shorter woman, and there was a slightly taller person behind her who was holding her waist to help her slide.

From Baoning's direction, two pairs of legs can be seen.

The two men were very strong, and they went back and forth three or four times. Baoning watched them silently. After the last time, a new ghost finally came out, a black ghost.

The black ghost said angrily: "This is not okay, you go and search quickly, search every corner, within one stick of incense, I want to see someone!"

The black ghost covered his face with a mask, with a green face and fangs, and looked terrifying. But the voice was somewhat familiar.

Baoning did not dare to move rashly, and still waited quietly, clenching the beacon in her hand. This was given to her by Pei Yuan before they left, but now it was inside the house and could not be used.

Two female ghosts in white clothes ran upstairs to look for people.

There were also two male ghosts in white clothes searching on the first floor.

One of them said, "Sir, it's too dark, we can't see anything! Can you light a lamp?"

Hei Wuchang cursed, "Why light a lamp? There are ghosts everywhere, do we still need to light a lamp?"

The two men nodded in agreement and continued to search. Hei Wuchang cursed and dragged the iron chain around the room.

They were about to reach the painting where Bao Ning was.

One of them noticed something was wrong and asked suspiciously, "Look, isn't this painting wrong? It's bulging. There must be something hidden behind it."

Another said, "Let's go and take a look."

As the footsteps approached, Bao Ning's heart began to beat faster. There were five people on the other side, and they might have weapons in their hands. She was alone. If they really started fighting, she would be dead in two moves... Bao Ning quickly took off her hairpin and threw it away. Her hair was scattered in front of her face. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand, and the lipstick spread.

The eunuch's hand had already touched the painting. When he was about to uncover it, he heard a voice from behind the painting: "How dare you touch anything in my palace without permission!"

Baoning tore through the painting and came out, grabbing the eunuch's hair and scolding him: "You are playing tricks. Do you want to go down to the underground to accompany me?"

The eunuch screamed: "Ghost! Concubine Xian has stolen the corpse!"

Zhao Qian was also startled when he heard the voice and hurried over. He saw Baoning coming out from behind the painting, revealing the lower half of his face and smiling strangely at him.

The eunuch who tried to touch the painting fainted in fear.

The young palace maid upstairs also heard the voice and leaned on the stairs to look. I have heard that the Suoyang Palace is mysterious and strange. The girl is timid and was trembling when she came. Now she was so scared that she lost her soul when she saw the slightest movement. She screamed and ran downstairs, trying to open the door and escape.

Baoning also wanted to go out, so she followed closely, and the little palace maid ran faster.

After Baoning came in, the door was locked from the outside. After Zhao Qian came in, he locked it from the inside to prevent her from escaping. As the maid was busy unlocking the door, Zhao Qian, who had been silent, saw the clue and threw away the chain in his hand and walked towards Bao Ning, shouting: "You played a ghost and fooled me once, do you want to fool me again?"

The room was silent for a moment, Bao Ning took a breath and turned his head to look.

Zhao Qian took off the mask on his face, pointed at himself mockingly and asked: "Princess, do you remember who I am?"

Bao Ning certainly remembered him and what he was talking about. When Pei Yuan's mother died, she was burning paper money outside and happened to meet Zhao Qian and scared him once. Later, Zhao Qian was exposed and was sent to Qingluofang by Pei Yuan. He escaped a few days later with serious injuries. I thought he died outside, but he went into the palace.

The two young palace maids were still trembling, and Zhao Qian no longer counted on them. He shook his sleeves, revealing the sharp blade underneath, and rushed towards Baoning.

The reason why he chose to pretend to be a ghost to scare people was, firstly, to avenge the fear he had caused him, and secondly, to avoid any traces of a fight. But at this point, it didn't matter whether there were any traces or not, as long as he could kill her.

Zhao Qian thought of the tragedy of the first night he received a guest, in which his life was broken, and he hated it so much that his teeth itched.

"Princess, let's go!"

He said, and stabbed with a knife, and Baoning staggered to avoid it. The people who followed him reacted and took out their short blades to help. Baoning was surrounded by them, cold sweat rolling down her cheeks.

She had almost no advantages, the only thing was her familiarity with the furnishings in the room.

Thinking of this, Baoning tried to calm down. She needed to do something to divert these people's attention. She pushed her hair aside, put her hand on the first button of her collar, and slowly took off her clothes. Zhao Qian didn't know why she did this, his eyes were already straight, only to see a pair of white hands covering the dark red buttons, which looked even more radiant under the moonlight.

Zhao Qian swallowed and asked, "What do you want to do?"

Baoning just smiled, without saying a word, took off the outer coat of the palace dress and held it in his hand. While the people in front of her were confused, she turned around and ran to the shortest maid, covering her head with her clothes, snatched the knife with great force, and put it on the maid's neck.

She wanted to threaten Zhao Qian with this, but he didn't care at all. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Do you think this will work?"

"I will kill her." Bao Ning threatened, "I really will."

Zhao Qian smiled and said, "Try it."

Bao Ning pointed the tip of the knife at the maid's neck. Her hands were shaking violently. While she was still hesitating, she saw the maid secretly put her hand into her front, as if she wanted to take something out. Bao Ning made up her mind and stabbed the sharp knife at the maid's neck with her backhand. She didn't know where she got the strength from, but the blade sank two inches into the neck. With a force, she...

Zhao Qian didn't think she would really dare!

Blood spurted out, splashing all over his head and face. The warm fishy smell made him want to vomit. Baoning also wanted to vomit. She had reached her limit. While everyone below was shocked, Baoning turned around and fled to the stairs. She remembered that there were many windows in the attic. After so many years of wind and sun, some of the windows might not be strong. She could break the window and jump down.

"Catch up with her, we can't let her run away!" Zhao Qian's eyes were red, and he hurried to catch up.

Baoning went straight to the third floor. She tried to open the windows one by one, smashing them with a knife blade. At the second to last window, she finally broke it open. Zhao Qian was already standing at the stairs. Baoning pushed open the window, sat at the window, and looked at him coldly.

Zhao Qian threatened her: "Go ahead and jump, go ahead. This is the third floor. If you jump down, you will be crippled if not dead, and it will save me the trouble of taking action."

He even leaned against the wall leisurely: "Don't you dare? Do you want me to help you?"

Baoning asked: "Why are you so determined to kill me?"

While she was talking, she put her hands behind her back, rubbing the flint and the tinder, trying to create sparks and ignite a beacon.

Zhao Qian smiled and said, "Is that important? But it doesn't matter if I tell you. You and I have a grudge, and other people also have a grudge against you. If I kill you, I can get revenge and get a large sum of money. Who else should I kill if not you?"

Baoning asked, "Did Concubine Gao ask you to come?"

Zhao Qian nodded, "Yes, so what?"

"You are so stupid." Baoning continued to try. Her hands were covered in blood and were slippery. The flint was about to slip out of her hand several times, but she held it tightly again.

She continued, "Gao Guifei has so many confidants, but she chose you who has a grudge against me. Don't you understand why? Because you have enough motive to kill me. If the matter is exposed, Gao Guifei can put all the responsibility on you and deny her instigation. Anyway, you want to kill me without instigation, so she can save herself."

Baoning finished speaking and heard a "hissing" sound. She felt relieved, knowing that the flames of war had been ignited.

After hearing her words, Zhao Qian's back suddenly straightened, squinting his eyes and looking at her. Just as he was about to say something else, he heard two loud noises of "bang" and "clang".

A firework flew straight up to the sky. Zhao Qian reacted with his pupils shrinking: "You are stalling for time, waiting for reinforcements?"

Zhao Qian didn't think about what the second sound was. He held the knife target tightly and shouted to stab Bao Ning. When the tip of the knife was only an inch away from Bao Ning's nose, he suddenly stopped. There were footsteps on the stairs. The sound just now should be the door at the bottom of the floor being kicked open.

Zhao Qian gritted his teeth and wanted to stab Baoning first and then deal with the other things. Just as he was about to exert force, Baoning kicked him in the lower abdomen. Zhao Qian fell backwards. When he wanted to get up again, he saw Pei Xiao climbing up to the attic .

Thinking that reinforcements had come, Zhao Qian was overjoyed: "Prince, you..."

But Pei Xiao roared: "Thief! How dare you commit a crime in the palace?" Then he stabbed Zhao Qian in the chest with a sword.

Baoning looked at him. Zhao Qian died with his eyes open and fell backwards softly.

Pei Xiao pulled out the sword, looked back at Baoning and said: "Sister-in-law, it's too late for your third brother to save you. Come down quickly and I will take you back."

Baoning didn't believe him. In this situation, if Pei Xiao wanted to, he could just kill her as well, and then put the blame on Zhao Qian, so that he could have the best of both worlds.

Bao Ning sat by the window without saying a word or moving.

Pei Xiao couldn't wait any longer, so he took a step forward and wanted to grab her hand. Bao Ning heard someone rushing downstairs.

The footsteps closest to her were very familiar, and she knew without looking that it was Pei Yuan.

He saw the signal and rushed over.

Pei Xiao also heard it, and there was a flash of anger in his eyes, and his steps became faster in an attempt to catch her. Bao Ning's last bit of strength was exhausted, and she fell backwards.