Li Wei finally removed the mental restraints imposed on Fuman.
As the mountain-like pressure disappeared, Fuman collapsed to the ground as if he had been fished out of the water.
But he did not dare to be negligent in the slightest. He quickly stood up, knelt down in the direction of the dragon couch, and rested his forehead heavily on the backs of his folded hands.
Beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead and temples, soon forming a small puddle on the gold brick floor beneath him.
Gu Jinzhi's gaze fell on Fu Man. His voice was still weak, but it carried a chilling tone that brooked no argument. "Tell me, why did you poison the medicine?"
Fuman's body trembled violently, and he stammered, "Yes...it was the Empress Dowager's order..."
In order to survive, he explained palely, "Although the medicine is poisonous, it is a slow-acting poison and not immediately fatal..."
"Fuck!"
Li Wei opened her eyes wide and ignored the second half of his sentence.
"That old woman just sent an old eunuch with white eyebrows to force poison into my mouth, and now she's poisoning you too? Good fellow, I'm such a good fellow! She's planning to send us both away together!"
Gu Jinzhi shifted his gaze from Fuman to Li Wei, "So... you blew up Fengyi Palace..."
Li Wei scratched her head a little embarrassedly. The golden phoenix hairpin on her bun was tilted to the side by her, looking rather funny. "Oh, I just reached the sixth level, and I haven't mastered my power yet... Don't worry about these details."
After saying that, she glanced at Gu Jinzhi's frail appearance, her curiosity rising. "With you in this state, how did you withstand him pouring poison into you?"
She glanced at Fu Man lying on the ground again and said, "I think he's at least a first-level warrior. Wouldn't it be easy for him to deal with you?"
Hearing this, Gu Jinzhi raised the corners of his lips slightly, "He pretended to be loyal before, but when I told him to slow down, he didn't insist."
Li Wei blinked, becoming even more curious: "You didn't drink it, how do you know it's poison?"
Gu Jinzhi: "I don't know...so, I just tricked him..."
“…”
Fuman froze suddenly, raised his head subconsciously, and his face was dull.
Li Wei gave Gu Jinzhi a thumbs up, with the word "convinced" written all over her face.
Gu Jinzhi suppressed the faint smile on his lips, met Fu Man's stunned gaze, and continued to ask, "Are you the Queen Mother's man?"
Fu Man woke up as if from a dream, and knocked his head again with a dull "dong" sound, "Yes..."
"You heard what we said just now, right?" Gu Jinzhi's voice was cold.
"Listen... I heard..."
Fuman's voice was dry and bitter, and he thought to himself, are the emperor and empress... possessed by a demon, oh no, by a god?
And to save those who are about to perish... Ugh, what a sin, what a sin...
Anyway, Fuman didn't dare to say anything or ask anything.
He just wants to live now.
Gu Jinzhi nodded slightly, took a deep breath, and then said slowly: "I don't care who you belong to. I only ask you, do you want to live?"
Fu Man didn't hesitate at all and said firmly: "I want to!"
"Very good." Gu Jinzhi nodded again, "I ask, you answer."
After saying that, he turned his head and looked at Li Wei, his eyes full of inquiry: "Can you tell whether others are lying now?"
Li Wei nodded.
Although she did not advance step by step to the sixth level, she was not able to handle the detailed spiritual work.
But just sensing the emotional fluctuations of the weak and acting as a human lie detector is more than enough.
Then, a strange scene took place in the bedroom.
The emperor asked weakly, and the eunuch answered with sweat pouring down his face. There was also a queen sitting next to him, nodding or shaking her head at the emperor from time to time.
After more than an hour, Gu Jinzhi and Li Wei finally had a general understanding of their current situation.
The Dajing Dynasty is already in turmoil.
In the court, factions ganged up on each other and attacked each other endlessly. The empress dowager and the emperor each cultivated their own forces and hindered each other, causing the central decision-making to be almost paralyzed.
At the same time, corruption among officials and selling of official positions and titles have become the norm.
In terms of military affairs, there are constant internal and external troubles.
Internally, peasant uprisings were spreading like wildfire, one after another. The government troops were unable to suppress them all and were exhausted from running around in several northern provinces.
Externally, the wars with the barbarians in the northeast were lost year after year. In the vast land outside Fuyun Pass, except for the lonely fortress in Jincheng that was still struggling to hold on, the rest had all fallen.
From time to time, the barbarian cavalry would knock on the gate and march south, going deep into the hinterland to burn, kill and loot, causing the people near the capital to be displaced and suffer terribly.
On the economic level, the situation is even worse.
The national finances have long since collapsed, with expenditures exceeding revenues year after year.
It was common for the Nine Border Military Towns to withhold military pay, and mutinies among soldiers occasionally occurred.
During the reign of the previous emperor, in order to solve urgent problems, he issued a large number of "Dajing Baochao" without sufficient reserves.
The result is predictable. The Baochao quickly depreciated and is now no different from waste paper.
This operation was tantamount to plundering the people's wealth in disguise, causing public resentment and bringing shame to the royal family.
At the social level, the extent of land annexation has reached an alarming level.
The powerful families and noble officials owned most of the fertile land in the world. The rich had fields stretching for miles, while the poor had no place to stand. Class contradictions had intensified to the extreme.
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