Chapter 63 Chapter 63 Aigu followed...
Aigu followed behind her father and the witch doctor, sighing with relief and casting a grateful glance at Jiang Wan. Jiang Wan also relaxed, only then noticing that Aigu's clothes were soaked with sweat.
Yao Ji's deeds were exposed, and she shed her mask of weakness and indignation. "You damned girl, you're actually an envoy from the Great Zhou. That fire, and the people I deliberately instigated, didn't even stop you."
Jiang Wan glanced at her lightly and said, "Instead of arguing with me, why don't you think about it carefully? What will you do if the queen wakes up and your king finds out about what you've done?"
"Who knew you were carrying an antidote? That bitch was doomed to die!" Yao Ji tore off her hypocritical mask and said viciously, "But it doesn't matter if we save her. She's just a useless woman."
She laughed and looked at Aigu: "She gave birth to a useless son. Even if she is saved this time, she will still die when my son becomes the crown prince."
"Pa!" A red slap mark appeared on her face.
"You dare to hit me?" Yao Ji stared at Aigu in disbelief.
Before she finished speaking, Aigu slapped Yao Ji twice, then left the stunned Yao Ji and dragged Jiang Wan to her mother's bedroom.
Seeing him remain silent and bowed his head, Jiang Wan consoled him, "It's okay. Now that the witch doctor has gone, the queen will be well again."
Aigu hung her head. "Although I knew the royal family's kinship was weak, I always thought we were all family and didn't want to fight with them. I thought as long as I stayed away from the power struggle, they would leave me and my mother alone. But now it seems I was wrong."
"Miss Jiang, I originally thought that after my mother recovered from her illness, I would go to Wudang Mountain to learn martial arts and become a great hero. Hero Li even agreed to take me up the mountain... But I found that I would be even less able to protect my mother if I left the palace."
He looked confused and sad. Jiang Wan suddenly thought of what the "White Guard" said to Wen Shen before his death on the Wusun Ancient Road.
"If you still want to keep your sister's position as queen, then be a coward and go back to your little Fangpan City!"
Wen Shen was clearly a master of martial arts, a fine calligrapher, and the emperor's uncle. She had always wondered why such a man would be content to stay in a remote county, and why he would allow others to accuse him of idleness and debauchery. This was one of the reasons she had never guessed his true identity.
But facing Aigu at this moment, she seemed to suddenly figure it out: Maybe Wen Shen did this because he had relatives he wanted to protect?
In her previous life, she was alone and couldn't understand this behavior. But after traveling through time and having a family and ties, she seemed to understand it a little.
But she disagreed, so she persuaded Aigu: "I understand how you feel, but simply retreating won't win the perpetrator's sympathy. Some people have a conscience, some don't. We can't gamble our lives on someone else's conscience."
"People like Yao Ji and your father are not worth your gamble."
Aigu blinked blankly and said softly, "Let me think about it. Let me go see my mother first."
As they walked outside the palace, Jiang Wan suddenly heard the sound of a night watch. Twelve times, representing the midnight hour.
The system's mechanical voice sounded in my ears:
"The [Life-Extending Pill] used by the host has expired."
Immediately afterwards, the sound of chaotic footsteps, the urgent calls of the witch doctor, and the cries of the maids were heard in Princess Qingrong's bedroom.
Jiang Wan's face changed drastically.
Seeing that she looked unwell, Aigu was startled and asked quickly, "What's wrong? Did something happen to our mother?"
"The life-extending pill has expired..." Jiang Wan muttered with a dull look in his eyes.
"What!" Aigu screamed in horror and rushed into Princess Qingrong's bedroom regardless of anything.
Jiang Wan followed Aigu blankly for a few steps before stopping outside the palace. At this point, she had done everything she could and couldn't do. She only hoped the witch doctor in the shop would act quickly and save the princess before the poison entered her brain.
The bedroom was becoming increasingly chaotic, with cries, the footsteps of maids and palace servants, the sound of water being brought, and shouts continuing non-stop.
But it ended with the sound of a deep death knell.
There are nine beatings in total, representing the death of the Queen of Loulan.
Jiang Wan stood there in a daze. She didn't react at all as the palace servants came in and out around her.
For what? For two months, she had handed over her newly built shop to someone else, reluctantly leaving her beloved family behind. She had endured hardships and dangers in the deserts of the Western Regions, exhausting all her energy. She had risked her life impersonating an envoy, embroiled in political disputes, and even received her first point deduction from the system for doing so...
Yin Cong got it, persuaded the king, and used the life-extending elixir, but it was a few minutes too late to save the person.
She clenched her fists, her knuckles cracking.
A familiar emotion surged in his heart. It was the emotion that Jiang Wan, the business leader in his previous life, occasionally had. It was the anger of a person in power who felt things were out of his control, and it was also the unwillingness of a strong woman who rarely failed to see her hard work go to waste.
Yao Ji, if I can't make you and your son pay the price, I won't be called Jiang Wan!
The surroundings became quiet. All the palace servants left Princess Qingrong's bedroom and knelt neatly in front of the jade steps. Only the king and Aigu and his son were left in the bedroom.
Jiang Wan stood for a while, waiting for his emotions to calm down before slowly stepping into the hall.
There was dead silence in the hall.
The King of Loulan stood before the bed, his hands behind his back, sighing. Aigu knelt beside the bed, her head buried in the quilt.
Jiang Wan covered his mouth with his left hand and coughed lightly.
The King of Loulan heard the voice and turned towards her, saying in a heavy tone, "The princess did not survive. It is my fault. After you have seen the princess's remains, please come to the imperial study to have a conversation. I have something to ask you."
Jiang Wan didn't even glance at him.
The King of Loulan hit a snag, but he didn't dare to get angry, so he had to touch his nose and go out.
Jiang Wan came to Aigu and squatted down, put a thick cloak on him, and patted his shoulder gently.
The young man in front of him raised his head, revealing a tearful face. His hair and clothes were disheveled, his eyes and nose were red, and he looked like a wronged little rabbit.
The snot mixed with tears made her pretty cheeks look unbearable to look at, but she bit her lips tightly and didn't make any cry.
Jiang Wan handed him a handkerchief.
"Cry if you want to," she whispered.
Aigu stared at Jiang Wan for a while, then suddenly stretched out her arms to hug her neck, and then burst into tears.
Tears and snot soaked his clothes, bringing a slight chill. Jiang Wan froze for a moment, then hesitantly raised her hand and gently patted his back as if to coax a child.
The night was long, and there were only the two of them in the empty hall.
She didn't know how long it had been before she felt the crying of the people around her gradually subsided, and their bodies, which were trembling from sobbing, calmed down.
"Ayigu?" Jiang Wan called out twice but got no response, so he pulled his arm away to look.
Then I found that the other person seemed to have fallen asleep due to crying.
Yes, he had been tense for so many days. He had just seen Yao Ji's ugly face and his father's coldness, and experienced his mother's departure. He was really exhausted.
Jiang Wan helped Aigu lean against the bed and tucked his cloak in. Just as she was about to stand up, he grabbed her wrist.
Aigu opened her eyes, her gaze was clear, firm, and with a hint of aggression.
He said, "I've thought about it."
"Miss Jiang said before that simply retreating won't earn the perpetrator's sympathy. We can't gamble our lives on someone else's conscience."
"You're right, but it's too late for me to realize it. Now that my mother is gone, I have nothing to fear." Aigu's eyes were blazing. "I will stay here, take the throne of crown prince, and then send Yaoji, her son, and my father, all to hell."
Jiang Wan: "Once you embark on this path, there's no turning back. Have you made up your mind? Are you going to stop being a hero?"
Hearing the word "hero", Aigu showed some yearning, but shook her head: "I've made up my mind. As for Hero Li, please apologize to him for me. If I'm born into an ordinary family in my next life, I will definitely become his disciple."
Jiang Wan agreed, "Yes. Making Yao Ji and her son pay the price is also my goal. I will do my best to help you."
Aigu tugged at her sleeve and said, "Can you open a shop in the city? That way, even if you return to the Great Zhou, I can still find your people. I don't trust anyone in this palace except you."
"This... the Great Zhou regulations require permission from the Lin'an court to open a shop in the Western Regions," Jiang Wan said. "Wait for me. I'll come find you after I get the permission back in the capital."
An hour later.
Jiang Wan changed her clothes and went to the imperial study as requested by the King of Loulan.
From a distance, I could hear the king scolding Yao Ji:
"You bitch, how dare you poison the queen! Now that the queen is dead, all the clues point to you. What else do you have to say?"
"Your Majesty, please spare me! Your Majesty, please spare me! I have absolutely no intention of harming the Queen. Someone must have framed me..." Yao Ji's voice sounded weak and innocent. "It was all because of my ignorance that I was taken advantage of by the wicked and implicated the Queen. I deserve death, but I beg Your Majesty to spare me this time for the sake of the Third Prince!"
Then there was the sound of porcelain smashing to the ground, and the King of Loulan roared, "Ignorant? I think you're quite vicious! You've been by my side for over twenty years, entering the palace even before the Queen, and yet I never realized how vicious you are! Get out of here! Go to the Buddhist pagoda in the city and contemplate your sins. Copy prayer flags to pray for the Queen. Come back to me after you've copied ninety-nine and eighty-one scrolls!"
The door to the imperial study opened, and Yao Ji stumbled out. Her headdress had been knocked askew by the impact of the porcelain, and her face had several more red marks. Two guards carried her towards the pagoda.
The eunuch who was pointing the way said with a smile, "Your Majesty is punishing Empress Yaoji. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Your Excellency."
Jiang Wan glared at him coldly, his eyes so fierce that the young eunuch was so frightened that he dared not speak.
She went straight into the imperial study and said sarcastically, "Much ado about nothing. Your Majesty, is this a play you performed just for me?"
Princess Qingrong was killed by Yao Ji, and the relationship between Da Zhou and Wusun eased. It seems that these two things finally made the King of Loulan feel scared.
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