Chen Ce returned to the Dali Temple, took a look at Mother Zhang's body, and asked the coroner, "Are you sure she committed suicide by taking poison?"
"Yes, my lord!"
"Come here! Send him to the mass grave outside the city! No, send him to the mass grave near Zhangjia Village, and go to Zhangjia Village to inquire about the Niu family."
"yes!"
It was almost evening when the Dali Temple officials arrived at the mass grave near Zhangjia Village with Mother Zhang's body.
The officers randomly found a place, dug a pit of neither too deep nor too shallow, and buried Mother Zhang hastily.
Qingxu in the dark watched all this and turned away.
Not long after, another group of people came and dug Zhang's mother out.
An hour later, in Xiaojiazhuang, outside Beijing.
"Sir, the person hasn't woken up yet. Could he really be dead?"
A middle-aged man with a scar on the corner of his eye reached out to feel for Mother Zhang's breath. Not detecting a single breath, he reached out and pressed the muscles on her arm. "She's soft. She's not dead yet. The drug hasn't worn off yet. Let's wait and see."
A quarter of an hour later, Mother Zhang woke up gasping for breath.
"Are you awake?"
The princess really believed her, she was still alive. Mother Zhang looked at the man with a scar on his face and asked, "Where are you? Are you the princess's men?"
Xiao Deng, the personal guard of Duke Xiao, nodded and said, "This is Xiao Family Manor. I am Xiao Deng, the head of Duke Xiao's personal guard. Now that you are awake, you will stay here quietly. You can only leave when the person behind the scenes surfaces."
"good."
"Oh, by the way, did you see the man who came to silence you last night?"
Mother Zhang said: "He grabbed my neck from behind and quickly stuffed a pill into my mouth. I only saw his arm, which had no obvious features.
Mother Zhang is still trembling with fear when she thinks of what happened last night.
If she hadn't taken the antidote pill in advance, she would have been poisoned to death.
Someone actually came to kill her to silence her!
"He left after I vomited blood and collapsed. Not long after he left, I took the fake death medicine given by the princess."
Xiao Deng was very surprised that his princess not only taught herself medicine, but could also prepare medicine!
It’s getting more and more powerful.
The Empress Dowager only learned the next day that Mother Zhang had been silenced in the Dali Temple. "If I had known the clues would be lost, I might as well have ended her life myself!"
Fu Xuan quickly comforted her: "The Queen Mother has not lost the clue. The Emperor has ordered Chen Ce to find out who is behind this within three months."
"Where do we start after three months? All the clues are gone now?"
"The Niu family disappeared for no apparent reason. As long as they are still alive, the people from the Dali Temple will be able to find them."
Lin Fang said, "Queen Dowager, please forgive my audacity. I was able to murder the prince and wanted him dead, not to have any offspring. My goal was nothing more than to secure the position of crown prince. If the prince's murder was successful, the one who would benefit the most would be the Third Prince..."
The third prince?
The Queen Mother frowned in disdain when she thought of her third grandson. "It can't be her. Cui Wan is a very likely person."
Her little grandson looks exactly like the emperor when he was a child.
And her son didn't care about Yu'er, and he repeatedly obstructed Princess Xiao's return to the capital.
The Empress Dowager had to suspect that her eldest son did not want her eldest grandson to have a good life.
She had a hunch that Emperor Qianyuan was hiding something from her!
"Now that I've been out of the palace for so long, it's time to return. Otherwise, Cui Wan will forget about my mother-in-law."
"Then Queen Mother, when will we return to the palace?"
"Yu'er will have his last treatment tomorrow. I'll accompany him to dinner and then return to the palace. Ah Fang, you go back to the palace first and make arrangements."
"Yes, Queen Mother."
＊
"Xu Mo, Butler Hu, has Qinglian done anything unusual these past two days?"
"There's nothing unusual about them."
Feng Jinyu: "Grandmother, Princess Xiao, and Prince Shun will all leave tomorrow. We will readjust our defenses and focus on defending Xiaoyun Pavilion and Quchen Pavilion. All other locations will continue to defend as normal."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The next day, after Xiao Tianci had breakfast, he brought Su Ningjie and Su Ningwen to the eldest prince's mansion.
When he arrived at the second gate, Su Ningwen saw a group of palace maids and eunuchs surrounding a graceful and elegant old lady coming from a distance.
"Great-grandfather." Su Ningwen quickly tapped Xiao Tianci's palm, "Is that old lady the Empress Dowager?"
It would have been better if Xiao Tianci hadn't looked. When he did, he was shocked. The Empress Dowager looked at him with a half-smile.
He quickly walked over, holding the two children by the hand. "This old minister greets the Empress Dowager. May the Empress Dowager be blessed with good health."
"May the Empress Dowager be blessed with good health." The two brothers greeted cautiously.
"Mr. Xiao, are these two children your uncle's adopted sons?"
"Exactly."
"Raise your head quickly and let me see."
The two brothers straightened up and raised their heads obediently.
When the Empress Dowager saw the two children's faces clearly, she once again sighed that Su Xingyi was very good at picking up children and raising them. These two children were very blessed.
The Empress Dowager saw that Su Ningwen looked familiar and asked amiably, "What's your name?"
Su Ningwen was initially nervous, worried about being impolite in front of the Empress Dowager. However, the Empress Dowager's gentle tone dissipated his inner uneasiness, and she replied in a serious tone, "Your Majesty, I am Su Ningwen, the third in command."
"Who is your biological father, Meng?"
Xiao Tianci frowned. Why was the Empress Dowager checking the household registration for no reason?
Go ahead and check, his son-in-law has his Xiao family standing behind him.
"To the Queen Mother, my father is Meng Zilu, the eldest grandson of the Meng family in Huayang Commandery..."
The Empress Dowager was shocked, "Who is Meng Gaoyang to you?"
"He is Cao Min's great-grandfather, Meng Xuewen is his grandfather, and Meng Zihe is his second uncle."
The Empress Dowager took a deep breath. The Meng family is a noble family!
Fortunately, it’s just the Meng family.
The Empress Dowager looked at Su Ningjie again, looking at the red mole at the corner of his eye. Su Xingyi not only knew how to pick them up, but also picked up handsome ones!
"And you?"
"I'm Su Ningjie, the second child in my family..." Without waiting for the Empress Dowager to question him, Su Ningjie revealed his family background. "My biological parents were the eldest son and daughter-in-law of the Lu family, a small merchant family in Huayang County. They've both passed away. I still have an elderly grandfather and two older sisters to support."
The Merchants’ House is the least powerful and is easy to control!
That little girl can't have a very great family background.
Now it seems that Su Xingyi dares to disobey the imperial order and relies entirely on the young Prince Fu.
"Is Lord Xiao bringing the children to take Xiao Yu'er back to the Duke of Huguo's Mansion?"
"Yes, Queen Mother, Yu'er's grandmother is very worried and asked me to take Yu'er back home as soon as possible to take good care of her pregnancy."
"No hurry." The Empress Dowager had not yet discussed her opinion with Su Xing. "You and your entire family should have lunch with me before you go back."
Su Xingyi learned that the Queen Mother was going to have lunch with them, and for some reason he didn't want the Queen Mother to see his true face.
Pulling Xiao Lingyu into the inner room, he said, "Xiaoyu, you are best at using rouge and powder to cover up your appearance. Can you give me some nice makeup? I don't want to expose myself like this."
Xiao Lingyu carefully examined his appearance and said, "Okay, teach me. I will make sure they can't see your true appearance. Since the three children are here, I want to draw them together to avoid the Queen Mother's suspicion."
"Okay, I'll do as you say."
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