Upon hearing this, Wu Fang asked doubtfully, "Having gained your trust, I'll use you to investigate what happened back then?" After a long pause, Ji Xingzhi looked up at Wu Fang and said in a deep voice, "Summon Xie Jingnian." "Yes," Wu Fang replied, withdrawing and addressing the palace maid guarding the door, "Summon Xie Jingnian to see His Majesty." Upon hearing this, the palace maid immediately ran outside Shaohua Palace to have the eunuch in charge of messengers deliver the message. Not long after, Xie Jingnian hurried over. Arriving at the entrance to Shaohua Palace, he carefully adjusted his appearance and took a deep breath before entering. "Your servant greets His Majesty." Upon entering, Xie Jingnian knelt on the floor, his hands touching the ground, his head bowed in deep respect. Ji Xingzhi was not in a hurry to ask Xie Jingnian to stand up. Instead, she slowly played with the hair hanging on her chest. She pinched a handful of hair in one hand, and clenched the other hand into a fist, circling the end of the hair with her index finger. She looked nonchalant, but her words were to the point: "Xie Jingnian, who is Xie the midwife who delivered my mother sixteen years ago?" When Xie Jingnian heard this, his body stiffened obviously, as if hesitant and afraid of something, and he did not answer for a long time. Wu Fang, who was standing next to Ji Xingzhi, saw that Xie Jingnian had not answered for a long time, frowned slightly, and said in a loud voice: "Xie Jingnian, the emperor is asking you a question, why are you in a daze?" After these words came out, Xie Jingnian seemed to come back to his senses, his body shook, his hands pressed to the ground trembled slightly, and his voice trembled a little: "Yes, it's my mother." Ji Xingzhi nodded slightly, put down the hair in his hand, and stared at Xie Jingnian: "I ask you again, do you know what the earth's heart grass is?" Before he finished speaking, Xie Jingnian had already kowtowed to the ground. Without Ji Xingzhi asking again, he had already confessed everything: "The earth's heart grass was brought by eunuch Wang, who was asked by my servant to go out of the palace to purchase it for Beigong. I know I was wrong, and I beg the emperor to spare my life!" Hearing Ji Xingzhi ask this, Xie Jingnian knew that Ji Xingzhi must have found out something to ask him this, so he confessed everything without hiding anything. Telling the truth might give him a glimmer of hope. The whole story was clear. Just as Ji Xingzhi had suspected, Xie Jingnian had indeed intended to harm her. He then played the hero, gained her trust, and then whispered in her ear, asking her to investigate the murder of a hundred people in that village sixteen years earlier. Xie Jingnian's plan was undoubtedly a brilliant one; he lacked the ability himself, so he used others to do it. However, his method was rather ruthless, leaving numerous loopholes. "What have you found?" Ji Xingzhi asked, stroking her chin with amusement and curiosity. Xie Jingnian, pausing to move, remained silent, his head bowed. He replied, not daring to conceal anything, "I have only discovered that those executed by the Retired Emperor sixteen years ago died on the same day as the Emperor's birth. Furthermore, most of those who perished were members of the Empress Dowager's harem." Ji Xingzhi was startled by this. Something flashed through her mind, something she tried to grasp but couldn't, leaving her feeling distraught. Suddenly! Ji Xingzhi was suddenly startled, and her thoughts went back to when she first came to the Dixi Continent. At that time, her scumbag father inexplicably said to her, "You should be glad that you are a girl", and then inexplicably announced that she would be the crown prince...
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