Chapter 428 The deception was successful
The emperor always felt that something was off about Eunuch Zhang. Although he had gradually noticed the clues about the two men last time, Eunuch Zhang had not been in the palace for those few days. How could he have realized that the two men were imposters as soon as he returned to the palace?
Could it be that he knew from the beginning that the two people were imposters?
He knew they were fake without even seeing their faces?
After much deliberation, the emperor finally came up with an answer: Eunuch Zhang knew where the real empress and crown prince were.
Once he made up his mind, he suddenly stood up.
"Eunuch Zhang knows where the Empress is?! He must know where the Empress is?!"
After thinking it over, the emperor immediately sent his trusted confidant to secretly follow Eunuch Zhang.
Eunuch Zhang was also very clever. During this period, he was careful in everything he did, for fear that the emperor would discover something amiss.
But the emperor was more patient. He sent people to follow him for three months and finally discovered something amiss on the last day of autumn.
Aside from being in the palace every day, Eunuch Zhang rarely left, but whenever he did, he would pass by Zhou's incense shop.
Every time I pass by, it's as if I'm trying to avoid suspicion by not buying anything from the incense shop.
After the emperor discovered this, he specially went on a private visit, following behind Eunuch Zhang, and arrived at Zhou's incense shop.
This time, Eunuch Zhang did not linger at the door, but went into the shop to buy incense.
The emperor was waiting for him in his carriage at the gate. When he saw him come out of the incense shop, he immediately stopped him and asked, "Eunuch Zhang, what are you doing here instead of in the palace?"
Zhang Gonggong looked surprised and quickly took out the incense pills in his hand, saying, "Your Majesty, this servant has come here to buy incense."
The emperor sized him up and asked in a cold voice, "Are you really here to buy incense?"
Eunuch Zhang nodded repeatedly and said, "That's right. I've been wanting to buy it for a while now, but I don't have that much silver on hand right now. I can only wait until I've saved up some silver before I come back to buy it."
The emperor was skeptical.
Eunuch Zhang then took out his daily accounting notebook from his pocket and handed it to the emperor, saying, "Your Majesty, look, these are all the records I kept of the silver I saved."
The emperor was relieved after hearing this.
Then Eunuch Zhang continued, "Your Majesty, I have been forgetting to tell you about the banquet that day."
"What is it?" the emperor asked.
Eunuch Zhang replied, "The fake Crown Princess last time was actually a fellow villager of Manager Zhou. At the banquet that day, Manager Zhou saw through her immediately and told me about it. He said that this fellow villager was not married and had run away from home some time ago."
"Not only that, that fake Crown Princess also tried to poison Manager Zhou that night."
The Emperor was startled. "Is that so?"
Eunuch Zhang nodded. "That's right. This old servant also determined at the time that the Empress and the Crown Prince were fake, so I immediately found that jade statue."
The Emperor breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. He finally understood everything. It turned out that Manager Zhou had recognized the Crown Princess as an imposter from the very beginning.
He didn't blame him anymore and let Eunuch Zhang ride with him back to the palace in the carriage.
After the incident involving Lord Yuan, in order to prevent court officials from taking advantage of the situation, the emperor decreed that no one, except for spies personally dispatched by the emperor, could search for the empress and the crown prince without authorization.
All news must be reported to the Emperor first; anyone who violates this order will be severely punished.
The ministers in the court gradually calmed down and actually recalled the people they had sent out to look for Granny Zhou and Zhou Ruiyuan.
The Zhou family's life returned to normal.
Inside Cheng'an, Du Wanchun continued to go back and forth between the shop and her home.
But Aunt Zhou was worried about her, so she would personally take her to the shop every day and then personally pick her up.
Fearing that she would get tired, Du Wanchun followed Tao Yaofang in and out every day.
After the two women arrived at the rice shop, they listened to the gossip of the people on the street.
They gradually learned that Tao Meiyu had been exiled for impersonating the Crown Princess.
Du Wanchun said slowly, "The news about your little sister has spread so widely, your parents probably know about it too."
Tao Yaofang nodded. "I saw my parents walking back and forth in front of my house just a few days ago."
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