Xiao Zhixing changed into casual clothes and waited in the study. Bai Mei led a slender figure in.
The newcomer removed her hood, revealing a beautiful face, a charming and graceful young woman, though she looked unwell.
The face looked somewhat familiar to her.
"Xiao Xuanying greets Prince Yuansheng."
"Hmm?...Princess Ning?" Xiao Zhixing immediately matched the name with the person's, remembering how he had ruined her marriage last time.
“It is He Ning.” Xiao Xuanying smiled, the curve of her lips somewhat similar to that of Xiao Zhixing.
Xiao Zhixing was completely bewildered. Xiao Xin's daughter had come to see him? What for?
Xiao Xuanying let her look him over, then curtsied again, saying, "I apologize for disturbing Your Highness, but Ning and I have no other choice but to make a deal with Your Highness."
Xiao Zhixing's mind raced as he recalled the situation regarding the Pinghou Mansion.
Xiao Xin has two wives. His first wife died early, leaving behind the child Xiao Xuanying. His current wife is his second wife, who has given him a son and a daughter, and is naturally deeply loved by him.
The life of this first wife's legitimate daughter in the mansion was neither good nor bad, consisting mainly of the affairs in the backyard.
She then thought of Xiao Xin's fear of her, and suddenly felt more at ease.
"Please sit down. It's quite puzzling that the county princess would come so late at night and immediately bring up a deal. What could we possibly trade?"
Xiao Xuanying sat down gently, his eyes gleaming in the candlelight. "I have clues about how he murdered the late Empress back then."
Xiao Zhixing abandoned his languid demeanor, his gaze sharp as a knife, sweeping across her face. "Him? Xiao Xin?"
Xiao Xuanying's face paled slightly, but she withstood her oppressive aura. "Yes, is this information enough to make a deal with you?"
Xiao Zhixing withdrew his imposing manner, "You are his daughter. If a son sells his father, this king would not dare to make a deal with you."
Xiao Xuanying breathed a sigh of relief, completely unfazed by her sarcasm, her expression serene:
"I was already on the verge of not being able to go on living. I promised my mother that I would live quietly like a resilient grass, but someone wouldn't let me live. They wouldn't even leave me a dark corner..."
Beneath the calm words lay deep-seated hatred and resentment.
Xiao Zhixing felt no sympathy; everyone's fate was tragic in different ways, and she couldn't possibly sympathize with everyone.
Ultimately, one must rely on oneself.
Considering she still had some backbone, she tapped the table lightly, "Tell me, are your clues worth trading with me?"
Xiao Xuanying coughed twice. "Back then, he accidentally obtained a secret medicine called Illusionary Beauty. It is colorless and odorless. When a woman touches it, her complexion will become radiant, but her internal health will deteriorate rapidly. If she does not notice or have an antidote within half a year, she will surely perish."
Xiao Zhixing listened quietly without interrupting her.
Xiao Xuanying smiled bitterly, "My mother and the late Empress were close friends. My mother often came to the palace to accompany the late Empress. The poison was obtained through the pearl face cream that my mother gave to the late Empress..."
“It was made by my mother herself. The late Empress liked it very much, so my mother naturally dared not entrust it to others, but because of this, she never suspected that it contained poison.”
She smiled sadly, “The pearls, the spring water, and the utensils were all non-toxic, but he would always accompany his mother to make frost, personally picking out the pearls and handing them to her.”
"His hands were covered in poison and stained with blood."
Xiao Xuanying coughed violently twice, "After the late Empress's accident, my mother was restless day and night. When I was five years old, she noticed his abnormality and went to investigate..."
"Later, I watched as he poured poison down my mother's throat, and she stared at me with her unseeing eyes to stop me from making a sound."
"I huddled in the low cabinet, watching his ferocious smile through the crack in the door, listening to his maniacal mutterings, 'Only the dead can hide secrets.'"
"Cough cough cough..." Xiao Xuanying covered her mouth and coughed urgently. "I endured for more than ten years, and finally found some clues last year. How ridiculous, because of your appearance, he was so scared that he fell ill, chanting Huan Yan Huan Yan, talking nonsense in a high fever. Others did not understand, but I knew what he was talking about."
“The poison wasn’t his. I suspect he got it from somewhere else. I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. Your Highness will have to investigate it yourself.”
Xiao Zhixing pondered for a moment, then said, "Alright, state your conditions."
Xiao Xuanying looked at her slender, veiny hands and said, "I want to leave the Pinghou Mansion, leave Shengjing, go to a place where no one knows me, live a few peaceful days, and enjoy my last days."
Xiao Zhixing knew at a glance that she had been poisoned with a slow-acting poison; her fingertips were slightly gray, indicating that she often dealt with herbs.
A thought struck him: "I will help you fake your death to escape and achieve your goal, and I can also cure you of the poison. In return, you will do me a favor."
This is a girl with a strong will to survive. She happened to have something she wanted to arrange for someone to go and keep an eye on it. She hadn't decided who to send yet, but Xiao Xuanying was just the right person.
Xiao Xuanying's eyes brightened slightly. "Alright, Your Highness, please give your orders."
"Go somewhere and live a quiet life under an assumed name. Do nothing else but record what you see and hear there. I will send people to retrieve it from time to time."
"Where?"
"Southwest, Xiaoyan Village."
After seeing Xiao Xuanying off, Xiao Zhixing summoned Yang Jueming that very night and asked him if he had ever heard of Huanyan.
As for how Xiao Yan was cured of the poison, that remains unknown, but it's possible to investigate the origin of the poison.
Yang Jueming's arrival naturally alerted Xiao Yuanshan, and the two came together.
"Illusionary Face!?" Yang Jueming frowned. "Wait, wait, I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before."
He searched his memory desperately, "Illusionary Face, Illusionary Face, ah, I remember now."
Yang Jueming slapped his thigh. "This stuff wasn't originally poisonous. It was a beauty-enhancing spice. Later, the owner improved it and made it even more effective, but it became poisonous. Hmm, what was it called again? Chen, right, it was a secret recipe from the Chen family, a famous spice family in Dongzhou."
"Before Yin, during the Qing Dynasty, Huan Yan was sought after by many concubines. Even knowing that it was poisonous, they were still drawn to it like moths to a flame, because as long as the antidote was taken once every three months, it would be beneficial to a woman's appearance, except for harming her offspring."
"It is said that the Qing Dynasty gradually declined because the offspring of those concubines were problematic. Therefore, in the early years of the Yin Dynasty, the Illusionary Beauty was banned, and the Chen family almost suffered eternal damnation because of it. The secret recipe of the Illusionary Beauty was destroyed on the spot by the head of the family."
However, some people will always remain hidden, they just won't make a big show of themselves anymore.
“The Chen family? Dongzhou?” Xiao Zhixing thought of someone.
"Yes, after that blow, the Chen family retreated to their hometown in Dongzhou and only operated incense shops within Dongzhou. Later, they gradually declined, and I don't know if we can still find their descendants now."
Xiao Yuanshan then began to recall, "Xiao Xin's deceased wife was surnamed Qu, and Qu's grandmother was a woman from the Zhang family. Zhang Rengui had to call Qu's grandmother 'aunt'."
"Your mother was of high status from a young age. To keep her company, Empress Zhang summoned many girls from her relatives' families to the palace. Back then, Consort Zhang, Lady Qu, and your mother were the closest of friends."
As a result, one of them directly stole her husband, while the other was used by her husband to poison her.
Xiao Zhixing suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for Xiao Yan.
After seeing the two off, she summoned Ying Yi and ordered, "Go and find Qian Fen's wife, Chen, immediately."
She revealed at the time that her family was a spice family, and if she was indeed a descendant of the Chen family, she was worried that she and her daughter would encounter misfortune.
Because the person who gave Xiao Xin the illusion might pay attention to her.
Hopefully, it's not too late.
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