Chapter 29

"The wine shop smells bad, you might vomit." Hui Lin was a little hesitant.

Qi Xinglan pondered, "Then let's ask the shopkeeper if there are any empty private rooms in the restaurant that we can book."

They arrived at a very coincidental time. When they went to ask the shopkeeper, he was recording the remaining empty rooms.

When he heard they were asking about a private room, he hurriedly said, "You two gentlemen, what a coincidence! There is only one room left, and the waiter is cleaning it up."

"Go upstairs and turn left. It's the second room."

"Okay, I'll pay, Lan'er, you go up first."

Just as the shopkeeper said, the table in front of that private room must have left not long ago. When he arrived, a waiter from the restaurant was wiping the table.

"Sir, please wait a moment. We will be done soon."

Qi Xinglan was not in a hurry. She found a stool and sat down.

"Don't worry, I'm not in a hurry either."

"Are you here alone?" The waiter was talkative and he instinctively wanted to start a conversation as soon as he saw someone.

"No, my husband is still downstairs."

As he was talking, Hui Lin came in. He didn't rush to sit down. He looked around first, and felt relieved when he saw that the environment was good and there was no strange smell.

"You two look so good together, we can tell at first glance that you are a couple!" He said as he packed up his cleaning tools and was about to leave. "I'm done cleaning here, I'll leave first, call me if you need anything."

As soon as this person left, another person came and asked them, "What would you like to eat, my dear guests?"

As he said that, he brought the menu over. Qi Xinglan took it and took a look. It even listed the recommended dishes and best-selling dishes.

Qi Xinglan only ordered the braised pork elbow for herself, and the rest were what Hui Lin thought the pregnant man could eat, so there were only four or five dishes in total.

After everyone left, Qi Xinglan said to Hui Lin, "This restaurant looks pretty good. Each job has a clear division of labor, so everyone can do their own thing without worrying about confusion."

Hui Lin nodded, "The boss looks like a very organized person."

The dishes were all freshly made, so they were served very slowly. Huilin was fine, but Qi Xinglan was very sleepy because she had gotten up too early.

Qi Xinglan just yawned, and when she looked back at Lin, his eyelashes were still wet.

"If you are very sleepy, why don't we go back early today?"

Qi Xinglan still propped herself up and sat up straight, saying, "No, I'm already here!"

Lin was helpless and could only say: "Okay, but it can't be too late."

Qi Xinglan knew that Hui Lin would get used to him, so she agreed.

"Sir, sorry to have kept you waiting. The food is here!"

The waiter who just took the menu and asked us to take orders came again, this time with the dishes. Maybe one person couldn’t carry all the food, so another person followed him.

They both laid out the dishes.

"Thank you, you have worked hard." Qi Xinglan said as she asked Hui Lin to help pass the plate.

"No, no, we're leaving first. Call me if you need anything."

"good."

"Eat quickly, we still have to continue shopping after eating." Qi Xinglan urged.

Hui Lin glanced at his body and said, "Why don't you rest here for a while? Can you handle it?"

Qi Xinglan refused to admit defeat and took the initiative to ask, "You don't want to take me with you? You don't think it's annoying for me to have you follow me all the way, do you?"

Hui Lin quickly shook his head, "Absolutely not!"

He compromised and negotiated, "Then can we return to the royal court half an hour earlier?"

Qi Xinglan was sleepy anyway, so she agreed to the conditions easily.

......

Over at Lanquan Palace, Prince Ning took advantage of the fact that the chief steward was selecting palace maids to be sent to Lanquan Palace to trim the flowers and plants, and sent the one he had been carefully cultivating in there. It was easy to do something while Qi Xinglan and Hui Lin were not in the royal court.

"You went to the Lanquan Palace today, which is equivalent to having a lifetime of glory and wealth. I'm sure you have heard about how good Her Majesty the Queen is."

"That's all I have to say. It's up to you whether you do it well or not."

"Go ahead."

"Yes." Several people said in unison.

The woman standing on the far left is named Yunqi, and is the most favored maiden in the palace by the Grand Eunuch.

On the other side, Fu Wen was watching the stove. Qi Xinglan sometimes suffered from morning sickness, so the imperial physician prescribed a prescription for treating loss of appetite during pregnancy, to be taken every other day.

The general manager sent in new people. Fu Wen thought they were just a few people trimming the flowers and plants, so she didn't pay too much attention to them, although she didn't go to see them.

Her Majesty the Queen and the King will not be back for some time, and the medicine will not be effective if left for too long, so Fu Wen boiled the medicine only recently.

Now that Her Majesty the Queen is pregnant, Fu Wen dare not leave even a step away from the food that is about to be taken.

Yun Qi, who had just arrived at the door, found out after asking that Fu Wen was boiling medicine in the side hall. He was waiting for her to leave, but she never did.

Also, thinking that there were so many people around, even if I waited until then, I wouldn't be sure that I could successfully tamper with the medicine.

Looking at the lush flowers and plants, a hint of unknown meaning flashed in her eyes.

That night, an inconspicuous ophiopogon appeared among the lush flowers and plants, but no one would notice this place after dark.

The two returned in the dark, and as soon as Qi Xinglan entered the hall, Fu Wen stuffed a bowl of medicinal soup into her mouth.

He had drunk this medicine several times, and he had never been able to drink it without showing any expression. He glanced at Hui Lin, but unexpectedly he did nothing. Qi Xinglan gritted her teeth, pinched her nose and drank it all.

Fu Wen quickly handed over a plate of sour apricots, "Your Highness, please eat something to relieve the pain, otherwise it will be too bitter."

Qi Xinglan pushed Hui Lin aside and sat on the bed, "Fu Wen, is there anything unusual today?"

Fu Wen hesitated for a moment and shook her head, saying, "No, it's just that the chief steward replaced a group of palace maids who were responsible for trimming the flowers and plants. There were only four of them in total, and no one approached the main hall."

"Well, let's wait and see."

"This is the only way. After all, the enemy is in the dark. Your Highness, I will go down first."

"Fu Wen, you said a group of palace maids came to trim the flowers and plants?"

Fu Wen was stopped by Hui Lin and was stunned for a moment, "Yeah, that's right."

He waved his hands and said, "It's okay, you can go down."

After Fu Wen left, Qi Xinglan asked, "Do you think... Prince Ning's people would target flowers and plants?"

"You have to be on guard." Hui Lin told him again, "Lan'er, don't go there too much. Even if the flowers and plants are poisonous, you won't be able to find them."

"I know everything," Qi Xinglan remembered, and picked up the pajamas beside her. "I'm going to take a shower, you can do whatever you want."

......

The next day, Qi Xinglan had nothing to do again, so she went back to her old ways of entertaining cats and dogs.

Fu Wen was still watching, lying on the recliner with Qi Xing Lan, watching Fu Tuan chasing butterflies.

Qi Xinglan was chatting with Fu Wen, and when she stopped looking at Fu Tuan, she disappeared.

Qi Xinglan looked around, "Futuan? Where's the cat?"

Not far away, from among the lush flowers and plants came the sounds of cats calling and soil being turned.

After a while, Fu Tuan brought an inconspicuous white flower to Qi Xinglan as if it were a treasure.

"What is this?"

Qi Xinglan was puzzled and was about to reach out to pick it up when Fu Wen stopped her, "Your Highness!"

"What's wrong?"

Fu Wen walked over, picked up the flower through her handkerchief, and after examining it for a moment, she said, "Your Highness, this is a Penglai flower."

Qi Xinglan didn't understand these things, so she just asked, "Can I have an abortion?"

Fu Wen's face was heavy, "This flower has the effect of activating blood circulation."

Qi Xinglan's baby was too young to be born, so it was very easy to abort him.

Fu Wen also knew that this was definitely not a coincidence, and someone must have done it on purpose, but the good thing was that the candidate could be narrowed down to those four people.

"Your Highness, do you want to arrest everyone first?"

Qi Xinglan shook her head and said, "Tell Hui Lin first, and then make plans."

"yes."

Qi Xinglan looked at Fu Tuan rolling on the ground, reached out and picked him up, and stroked his chin, "Fu Tuan is really smart, I will reward you with a delicious meal today."

Hui Lin learned about this in the afternoon and dropped all his official duties and hurried over.

The moment he learned the news, he ordered all four people to be detained and had their backgrounds carefully investigated.

"It's the palace maid named Yunqi."

Qi Xinglan inquired about the result and Hui Lin said with some regret, "Although the person was caught, she swallowed the pills before she could be tortured."

Qi Xinglan was anxious: "So what did you do?"

Lin An comforted him, "It's okay. I thought about the evidence you mentioned, but before our people could fake it, they really found the token in her room. It was someone under King Ning's command, not him."

He added: "So we can't just arrest him right now."

Qi Xinglan said: "Then..."

I only heard Hui Lin speak out his thoughts word by word: "It's very anxious now. I'm afraid we have to wait until Liang Yin arrives at the royal court tomorrow before we can decide."

Prince Ning was indeed quite efficient in his work. He did not put any suspicion on himself at all, making it impossible for people to find any fault with him.

"Liang Yin? Hasn't he only been in office for a year?"

Since the last time he presided over the examination, he was assigned by Huilin to go to the local area to inspect the next round of examinations.

Normally it should take three years.

"Yes, I called him back and chose a trustworthy man to replace him."

"You also know who the chosen person is," he answered without waiting for Qi Xinglan to ask, "Wu Yizi."

Qi Xinglan was relieved, "That's good, as long as there is someone available."

"It seems that the implementation of the imperial examination is still useful. The previous situation of no one available will not happen again."

......

The next day, Hui Lin returned early in the morning and sat in the Zichen Hall waiting for Liang Yin who had come from afar.

"Your Highness, I, Liang Yin, present my greetings to His Majesty."

"My dear, please get up quickly."

Liang Yin didn't hesitate and sat down aside.

"I've been there for a year, how do you feel about it?"

Liang Yin pondered for a moment and said everything he thought: "I think that the imperial examination system in Xiyuan can be slightly adjusted. After all, Xiyuan is different from Dazhou. The palace examination there is held every three years. After investigation, I think... Xiyuan can implement a palace examination every two years."

"At the very least, it should be once every two years within ten years."

"How come?"

"Your Majesty, we in Xiyuan are short of talents. In the past few years, due to the monopoly of the nobles, many talents have been buried, which also resulted in not many available people in the court."

"The ministers who are given important positions are either those who have been employed by the previous king, or they are minor officials you have recruited from various places, such as me."

"And then..."

Liang Yin listed the reasons and explained them to Hui Lin one by one. He thought for a while and said, "I think it is feasible. Also, do you think it is useful to open a school in the local area?"

Since last year, the court has started to use public funds to open schools in local areas in order to improve the problem of a disproportionate number of children from noble families being selected due to their good education.

“The effect that can be seen in one year may not be significant, but I think it is useful.”

Hui Lin nodded: "That's good."

After finishing talking about this topic, it’s the next one’s turn.

"I just remembered that I called you back this time because of Prince Ning's matter."

Hui Lin briefly described the situation, and Liang Yin roughly understood what he meant. "Your Majesty, do you mean to leave him alone for now?"

Hui Lin snorted coldly, "Uncle Wang is an old fox with shiny fur. He is really hard to catch."

Liang Yin chuckled, "How difficult is that?"

"Since we can't shake him, we'll cut off his supporters."

"Bring down his followers, first make him lose his position in He Fei's heart, and isolate him in Xidu, and then get rid of him step by step like boiling a frog in warm water."

Liang Yin thought again that he wanted to get rid of the baby in the queen's belly and the king's heirs, and the ministers would not tolerate his cronies staying in the court.

"Your Majesty, why don't we use the fact that the queen was almost murdered to thoroughly investigate the court? I just heard you say that you found a token from one of King Ning's ministers. It would be best to use this as an excuse!"

Hui Lin thought about it and felt that it was not impossible.

Liang Yin was still waiting for his answer, but he suddenly smiled and said with relief: "My dear minister, you are really smart. I never thought there would be such a method that could make him more helpless than killing him."

Liang Yin was stunned for a moment before he slowly said, "It's not that Your Majesty can't think of it, but because you subconsciously don't want to involve Her Majesty the Queen in this matter."

"Really?" Hui Lin thought for a moment and smiled, "It seems to have some effect, but it's also true that my dear is smart."

Liang Yin only then showed some of the demeanor of a man in his twenties. He rubbed his head shyly and said, "Thank you for the compliment, Your Majesty. I haven't yet congratulated you and the Queen on the birth of your child."

"Well, the matter has been resolved. If Your Majesty has nothing else to do, I will go home first."

Hui Lin wanted to persuade him to stay, "Leaving? Are you going to stay in the royal court for a while before you leave?"

Liang Yin blushed again, "No, I met a woman when I took office, and we got married half a year ago. She... is pregnant, and I want to go back and take care of her."

Thinking carefully, Liang Yin was already 26 years old, and it was normal for him to have a wife and children. Hui Lin did not try to persuade him to stay, but rewarded him with something and let him keep it.

He thought of the pendant he bought last time. "A few days ago, I went out of the palace with Lan'er and picked out a few pendants. I still have one left. I'll take it back with the other things and give it to the child."

Liang Yin was overjoyed, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After Liang Yin left, Hui Lin thought about how to completely resolve the issue of Prince Ning. As he was thinking, he thought of Shen Tinghan who was far away in the Great Zhou.

So I picked up my pen and started writing.

Liang Yin acted very quickly and collected almost all the evidence in just a few days.

The two agreed to announce it the next day when they went to court.

"My queen, who was alone and pregnant, was framed by someone using the Penglai flower trick a few days ago and almost had an abortion."

"What's even funnier is that after checking, it turned out that the person who did it was a well-known minister in my court."

If we say that when the first sentence was uttered, the change in everyone's expression was not too big, after all, nothing serious happened to Her Majesty the Queen, but when Hui Lin uttered the second sentence, the whole place was disturbed.

It was done by the officials of the current dynasty!

As ministers, who among them does not want the king to have many children and grandchildren? Who would set his sights on getting Her Majesty the Queen pregnant?

Then it can only be someone who poses a threat to his own status.

The only people who can pose a threat to him nowadays...

Everyone turned their eyes to King Ning's back. He was already sweating profusely.

Hui Lin looked at the actions of the people in the audience and also looked over.

When Prince Ning looked up, he saw Hui Lin staring at him. He took a deep breath, straightened his back and looked him in the eye.

After all, he knew very well that he didn't have any evidence against Hui Lin. The Yunqi incident was done by someone who had always followed him, and he handled it relatively cleanly.

Hui Lin didn't care what he was thinking and gave a look to Liang Yin who was not far away. The latter immediately understood and stood out from the crowd.

"I have something to report."

"Please speak, my dear."

......

Every person whose evidence was presented was undoubtedly Ning Wang's man, and even his ministers knew it clearly.

He who dares to touch Her Majesty the Queen's child will bear the consequences himself.

They said they didn't know that Her Majesty the Queen was as important as the apple of the King's eye. They had all heard that the Hengyi Palace where the King was supposed to live had been abandoned and uninhabited for a long time.

The king stayed in Lanquan Palace with Her Majesty the Queen almost every day and night.

They all came to watch the excitement, but King Ning was different. Every name that was read out was that of his subordinates.

This good nephew is really smart. If he wants to kill him, he knows to kill his left and right arms first.

Liang Yin finished reading after a long while, and then he said to Lin slowly, "Are you done, my dear?"

"yes."

He glanced at the audience again, "Is what Mr. Liang said just now true?"

No one answered.

He then asked, "Why? The people involved are not present?"

A few timid ones then stood up tremblingly.

"Your Majesty...Your Majesty is here."

"Did you hear what Lord Liang accused you of?"

"Your Majesty, I heard..."

"What do you think?"

Hui Lin felt extremely oppressed when he spoke. He saw the man being questioned had his back shrunk more and more, until he knelt on the ground and said loudly: "I...I am ashamed of the king and the people."

Hui Lin ignored what he said and looked at the others, "What about you? Do you admit your mistakes? Or... do you think you are not wrong?"

They looked at each other, and saw some struggle in each other's eyes. After a long while, they said in unison: "We... plead guilty."

Prince Ning, who was at the front, closed his eyes in frustration. The voices of them sounded familiar. They had even gathered together a while ago to discuss how to kill Hui Lin and take the throne, or even the future emperor.

result...

Prince Ning felt that his death was not far away.

He didn't realize it before, but now he realizes how painful it is to be boiled like a frog in warm water.

"Well, since you have confessed your crimes... then -"

"Someone come!"

"I'm here." Several guards came in from outside the hall instantly, holding swords in their hands.

"Pull him out." Hui Lin said lightly.

"yes."

"Dismiss the court." Hui Lin left first with a wave of his sleeves.

Qi Xinglan was leaning on a recliner, listening to Fu Wen's real-time report on the "grand situation" in the court.

"Just... drag them all away? Were they killed or locked up?"

"They should be killed. They are guilty of serious corruption."

"Fuwen, have you heard what Prince Ning's expression was like?"

Fu Wen couldn't help laughing when she heard this. "I really heard that Prince Ning was so angry that he was shaking and almost fell down the stairs."

"He deserves it. Why don't you piss him off to death?"

"Why hasn't Huilin come back yet? I'm still waiting for him to tell me. Is it so far from where he holds court?"

"What did Lan'er ask me to do?"

The voice came from behind, and even Fuwen didn't see anyone coming. When she heard the voice, she quickly bowed and said, "I'm here to see your Majesty."

"Well, get up and go down."

"yes."

Qi Xinglan was particularly excited to see him coming, "You are finally back, tell me how you and Liang Yin killed so many people?"

"I never feel involved when I listen to Fu Wen. If I had known that I would go to court with you, I would have stood in the back and eavesdropped. I have never seen you angry."

Hui Lin smiled and said, "What's so good about this? But the cronies of Prince Ning are really cowardly. I thought they were all strong men, but they knelt down in fear after I asked them a few questions."

"Uncle Wang looked at me without showing any pain or reluctance. I didn't expect him to be such a heartless person."

"What's that expression on his face?"

Hui Lin thought about it and the adjective in his mind was really funny, "Scared? Maybe people are really afraid of death when they get older."