Chapter 70: Protecting the most favored only qualifies as having the word "most"...
Consort Hui shook her head, choking back tears, unable to express the bitterness in her heart.
She wanted to tell the whole truth, but she couldn't.
The mother and son had already been framed and were unable to extricate themselves. Moreover, the He family had now betrayed them and sided with Prince Ning, leaving them with nothing left to rely on. Revealing everything now wouldn't lead to mutual destruction; only she and Hong'er would be doomed, becoming victims of this conspiracy.
The struggles in the palace have always been like this: it's either you die or I live. Consort Hui knew that she would have done the same if she were in that situation, so what she hated most was not the people who had plotted against them, but the He family.
As her closest blood relatives, the He family caused her to lose one of her sons in her early years, and now they have abandoned her and her other child, climbing over them to get ahead.
She never did anything to wrong the He family in her life. Whenever the He family needed something, she would help in any way she could. But in the end… what did she get in return?
Seeing that she only shook her head and refused to explain the reason, Qi Jinghong lost all patience and turned to leave.
Seeing this, Consort Hui hurriedly chased after him, grabbing him and trying to say a few more words, but Qi Jinghong didn't want to hear a single word anymore, shaking her off and continuing to walk forward.
Consort Hui couldn't stop him. Seeing that he had already stepped out of the palace gate, she disregarded everything else and chased after him, shouting, "Don't trust the He family! Never trust the He family!"
The palace servants guarding the door stopped her, and she could only watch Qi Jinghong's back from afar, repeating the same sentence over and over, but the departing man never looked back.
Consort Hui watched the receding figure, tears welling in her eyes again, and she let out a mournful sob. As the figure gradually disappeared, her sobs grew fainter and fainter, until finally only a bitter smile remained on her face.
The palace gates closed again. She stood there stunned for a moment, then raised her hand to wipe away the tears on her face, slowly walked back to her room, and sat alone until late at night.
Previously, she was unsure of the Emperor's attitude, but after seeing Hong'er today, she understood, she understood...
…………
"How is Consort Hui? Has she been saved?"
Upon receiving the news, Gao Zheng rushed to the Prince of Ping's residence and asked the question before even sitting down.
Xu Jinyu arrived before him and was now sitting next to Qi Jingxuan and Shen Yan. The three of them looked at him when they heard the noise, but remained silent about his question.
This reaction said it all. Gao Zheng's heart sank, and he raised his hand and slammed his fist hard on the door frame.
"Yesterday, the Sixth Prince returned to the capital and was immediately taken to the palace to see Consort Hui. We all hoped that he could get something out of Consort Hui, but... until he left the palace, there was no news from the palace. This morning, however, news came that Consort Hui had passed away by hanging."
Xu Jinyu said in a deep voice.
Gao Zheng slowly nodded, walked to the table, and sat down: "It's a grave taboo for a concubine to commit suicide. Isn't she afraid of implicating the He family?"
Qi Jingxuan scoffed: "Not only is she not afraid of me, but she'd love to drag the He family down with her. I heard that when the sixth prince left, she was still shouting at him not to trust the He family. Her voice was so loud, she didn't try to hide it at all, and people several palace walls away could hear her."
Xu Jinyu nodded and added, "I heard that on the night of Ah Xuan's wedding, Grand Tutor He was urgently summoned to the palace. At that time, Consort Hui only said one sentence, which was to question Grand Tutor He about what she had done to wrong the He family. It seems that Consort Hui must have fallen out with the He family recently."
"It was because of this incident that she made up her mind to kill Lin Si, and afterwards she didn't care about the life or death of the He family, and directly hanged herself in the palace."
Although Qi Jingxuan felt the He family deserved it, he was still somewhat puzzled: "The He family is her maternal family, and Grand Tutor He is her biological father. What could have caused them to make such a fuss?"
Gao Zheng and Shen Yan didn't know much about these powerful families in the capital and couldn't explain it. Xu Jinyu, who was standing to the side, spoke up: "I have an idea, but I don't know if it's right."
"Didn't the news of the He family splitting up a couple of days ago? Although it's not finished yet, each branch has already started making plans for their future."
"Two of the families made no attempt to conceal their intentions and went straight to the Crown Prince. Whether the Crown Prince responded or not is still unknown, but their intention to pledge allegiance is obvious."
"I thought that some people from the other branches would definitely go after Prince Ning, but after observing for two days, there has been no movement at all, which is really strange."
"What's so strange about that?" Qi Jingxuan said. "They split up the family to avoid trouble. Since that's the case, they naturally need to carefully plan their next move. They can't just act rashly."
Gao Zheng shook his head from the side: "That's not right."
"The reason they're in such a hurry to divide the family is, frankly, that they don't want to put all their eggs in one basket. If that's the case, they naturally want to divide it into several baskets, and they need to find the strongest basket. Right now, besides the Crown Prince, Prince Ning is the strongest one, and you could say he can rival the Crown Prince."
"Given the He family's status, it's one thing for them to be picky about others, but how could they dare to be picky about the Crown Prince and Prince Ning? If they could see their hesitation, why would they be willing to accept them?"
"If I were a member of the He family, I would immediately send some to the Crown Prince and Prince Ning to ensure our safety."
"They didn't do that, which means..."
He paused here, and habitually turned to look at Shen Yan.
Shen Yan continued, "This means that some of them had already sought refuge with the authorities, but the results were not good, so the others dared not make a decision easily."
Gao Zheng nodded: "That's right. If they have already sought refuge there and the results were good, then those who follow need not worry and can simply go with them, depending on whether the other side is willing to accept them. But now it's not that Prince Ning's side is not accepting them, but that they haven't gone at all, which means that those who paved the way didn't get any good results, and they dare not try this path again easily."
"This means that our previous speculation was correct, and the person behind it is most likely Prince Ning."
Xu Jinyu meant it that way, and seeing that they agreed, she felt a little relieved.
Qi Jingxuan was confused, but seeing that the others had reached a consensus, he didn't say anything more.
Xu Jinyu, however, kept thinking about it and began to have doubts. She stroked her chin and muttered to herself, "If that's the case, His Majesty shouldn't know nothing. We can think of these things even without any clues, so His Majesty must know more about the He family's movements. He should be able to guess that it's related to Prince Ning."
As he spoke, he nudged Qi Jingxuan beside him with his elbow: "Hey, Ah Xuan, why don't you go to the palace and ask His Majesty what he thinks? If he thinks the same way we do, then things will be much easier. Let him send someone to investigate, and we'll definitely be able to find something on Prince Ning much faster."
In the past, Qi Jingxuan would have responded at this time, patting his chest and assuring everyone that he would take care of it. But today, he was unusually silent, and his expression even looked somewhat dejected.
Xu Jinyu was puzzled and turned to look at him: "What's wrong? Did you quarrel with His Majesty?"
Qi Jingxuan remained silent, but his lips were pursed even tighter, clearly showing his displeasure.
Xu Jinyu was about to press for more information when Gao Zheng chuckled and said, "Looks like he's not stupid; he's already figured it out."
"ah"
What do you understand?
Before Xu Jinyu could react, Gao Zheng said, "Lin Si was imprisoned in the palace for half a month. Whether the interrogation yielded anything is up to the palace to decide, and we have no way of knowing. Now that he has suddenly died, His Majesty doesn't seem very anxious and is even trying to keep it from Sister Shen and the others. If we hadn't guessed it ourselves, we don't know when he would have told us."
"Today, Prince Jing'an entered the palace, but I heard that he did not go to see His Majesty. Instead, he was taken directly to Consort Hui's palace. It doesn't seem like he was asked to help get something out of Consort Hui, but rather that he was asked to see Consort Hui one last time."
Otherwise, the Emperor should at least meet with Prince Jing'an first to determine if he is involved in this matter. If he is not, then give him a few more instructions, telling him what to ask Consort Hui after meeting her.
But none of this was true. According to what they knew, Prince Jing'an didn't even know what had happened before he entered the palace.
Xu Jinyu wasn't stupid; she quickly understood, her mouth gradually opening wide in disbelief.
"You mean...you mean His Majesty knew it was Prince Ning all along? Then why didn't he tell us? Why didn't he tell Ah Xuan...?"
He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, his heart sinking.
He was on good terms with Qi Jingxuan and knew that Qi Jingxuan was the emperor's most favored son, without exception.
But the title of "most favored" only means he didn't favor his other sons.
Among the many princes, apart from Qi Jingxuan, Prince Ning was the only one who received the emperor's favor. Therefore, it is not surprising that the emperor wanted to conceal something about him.
After all, although Qi Jingxuan was framed, he was not seriously harmed. Now that he has married Shen Yan, the storm has gradually passed. Bringing up the Prince of Ning now would only cause another incident; it's better to let things slide...
Xu Jinyu understood that this was the best course of action for the emperor, but he still couldn't help feeling disheartened for Qi Jingxuan.
Based on the clues they currently have, Prince Ning intended to kill Ah Xuan, but he failed.
If someone intends to kill someone and actually does so, but the person they wanted to kill luckily escapes, can they simply pretend nothing happened?
Xu Jinyu cursed inwardly, but didn't say much. She could only gently pat Qi Jingxuan's shoulder and comfort him, "Don't overthink it. His Majesty doesn't know about the handkerchief or that Prince Ning wants to get rid of you. If he did, he certainly wouldn't let it go so easily."
Qi Jingxuan twitched the corner of his mouth, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
He understood his father's situation and didn't blame him for protecting the fourth son. If it were him, and his two children were fighting and threatening to kill each other, he wouldn't be able to make a completely fair judgment and would punish the other according to the law just because of one of them.
Even if the Emperor couldn't be completely impartial, and even if he didn't want things to escalate and become too ugly, he should have told him the truth and let him know who had harmed him, instead of stopping the investigation after realizing the suspect might be another son, or even intentionally letting the clues die out and pretending nothing had happened.
This way, a big problem was minimized and a small problem was avoided. Not only did the suspect escape punishment, but he also didn't know who to be wary of in the future and would still foolishly treat Lao Si as a brother.
This was a chance he earned after dying eight times. Will he have such luck next time?
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