23 Chapter 23
◎You are busy discussing marriage with Miss Zhao.◎
On the way back to the palace, Nanzhi was worried.
"What's wrong?"
Xu Qinghe was leaning against the carriage with a soft pillow behind him, resting his eyes, but he could always feel Nanzhi's eyes looking at him, so he decided to ask clearly.
The princess was quiet all the way, and Nanzhi finally had the opportunity to ask her what happened when she was horse racing with Miss Cen San.
Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Miss Cen San's miserable appearance was not an accident, but was clearly man-made.
She went into the woods with the princess, and the princess became the biggest suspect.
Miss Cen San was born into the Cen family of the Shangshu Mansion. Shangshu Cen was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel and was in charge of the appointment of officials in the court. His important position was self-evident.
"I didn't force Cen San to behave like that. She just fell into her own trap. What does it have to do with me?"
Xu Qinghe looked nonchalant, but Nanzhi was a little anxious. "That's what I said, but I'm afraid some people don't see it that way."
Of course, she knew that her princess was a person who would not offend others unless they offended her, but the empress dowager in the palace did not care who wanted to harm whom. She only looked at the results.
The Cen family intended to marry into the Wei family, but Queen Mother Wei rejected it because of Wei Ming's feelings. Now that Miss Cen San has become like that again, she will definitely be punished by the Queen Mother again when she returns to the palace.
Nanzhi couldn't help but sigh heavily. She looked out the window. The wilderness was gone, and what reappeared were the bustling streets and noisy voices.
Further ahead is the increasingly austere imperial city.
When will these days of being helpless and walking on thin ice end?
Unlike Nanzhi, Xu Qinghe didn't have the energy to think so much. He leaned against the wall of the carriage and slept almost the entire way, only waking up when he arrived at the palace gate.
As soon as I entered the palace, another nanny beside Empress Dowager Wei was already waiting.
The other person's face was not good. With a cold look, he glanced at Xu Qinghe and his servant, then saluted with a rather arrogant attitude and said, "The Empress Dowager is waiting for you in the flower hall."
Xu Qinghe followed her to the flower hall without saying a word. When they entered the hall, Empress Dowager Wei's face looked even worse, and Mrs. Cen, who also had a gloomy face, was sitting next to her.
Mrs. Cen came from a prominent family. Although she had a deep affection for Minister Cen, she only gave birth to one son and one daughter.
Because her son was already married, she was particularly partial to her only daughter.
Today my daughter went out happily and beautifully, but when she came back she was dirty and smelly, and even her leg bones were broken.
She immediately went to the palace to ask the best imperial physician to save her daughter, and then hurried to the Empress Dowager's palace to confide all the grievances of the Cen family.
Just as Nanzhi expected, Queen Mother Wei was not willing to investigate who had harmed whom in the forest. Just because Madam Cen came to her crying, she immediately admitted that it was Xu Qinghe's fault.
When Xu Qinghe was led into the flower hall, Queen Mother Wei slammed the table and shouted angrily, "Kneel down!"
All the palace people who followed Xu Qinghe out of the palace this time followed her to the door together. In the end, only Nanzhi followed her in. The two of them knelt down one after another. Xu Qinghe's eyelids drooped slightly, and she was unwilling to lower her head.
Queen Mother Wei angrily said, "You little girl, you actually harmed the third daughter of the Cen family because of your own selfishness. Do you know your crime?"
Xu Qinghe raised his chin and gradually moved his gaze upwards from the ground, inch by inch, along the Queen Mother Wei's luxurious dress, and finally met her cloudy eyes.
"Qinghe doesn't know."
This girl has always been well-behaved in front of him and has never been so presumptuous.
Queen Mother Wei was furious for a moment, but she couldn't think of how to teach her a lesson. Instead, she was shocked by her clear conscience.
She was furious and stunned for a long while. After she calmed down, she angrily said, "Third Miss Cen invited you to race. If you don't want to, then don't go. Why did you force yourself to get on the horse and then hold a grudge against her, secretly pushing that girl off the horse? She's so young, can you afford it if her leg is broken?!"
Xu Qinghe sneered in her heart. She never had any expectations of Queen Mother Wei, but she couldn't help but laugh at the Cen family's words.
"Is this how Madam Cen complained to the Empress Dowager? Not to mention that I'm not sure if I can even make it to the outskirts of the capital today. The pit where Miss Cen III fell from her horse was over ten feet wide, and there was filth thrown into it. If it was really me who caused Miss Cen's downfall, why would I have arranged all of that?"
After hearing this, Mrs. Cen's crying gradually stopped.
She actually didn't know what happened today, but she just repeated to the Queen Mother what her daughter said.
She was so concerned about her daughter's health that she had never thought about the logical relationship involved.
Queen Mother Wei was obviously also stunned by Xu Qinghe's question. She was stunned for a long time before she glared and asked angrily, "Are you saying that the third daughter of the Cen family framed you?"
Xu Qinghe simply said, "Whether it is true or not, the Queen Mother will know once she investigates."
Queen Mother Wei naturally did not want to take the trouble to investigate. She did not want to get involved in the little quarrels of a girl.
However, the Cen family had always been neutral in the past, and when they wanted to rely on her, they were frustrated because of Ming'er's marriage. Now that Mrs. Cen came to her crying to complain, she should at least show some attitude.
Her attitude was naturally to severely punish Xu Qinghe and give the Cen family an explanation.
So he said, "I will investigate this matter carefully. Who set the trap and what the purpose was? I will find out everything.
"But you, little girl, have not cleared your suspicion, and you didn't help Miss Cen in the woods. No matter what, you should be punished!"
Xu Qinghe lowered his eyes again and knelt silently on the ground. Although he didn't say a word, it was obvious that he had accepted the result.
Queen Mother Wei looked at Madam Cen beside her, then at Xu Qinghe. After a moment's thought, she made a decision: "Then I will punish you by having you confine yourself to contemplation for a month, kneeling in front of the Buddhist temple for an hour every night. At the same time, everyone in the bedroom will be fined three months' salary. Do you accept this?"
There was no expression on Xu Qinghe's face, neither sadness nor resentment, he just remained in the same posture without moving.
Mrs. Cen came here to seek an explanation for her daughter. Now that the explanation was about to come, she wiped away her tears and said goodbye to Queen Dowager Wei.
Queen Mother Wei was annoyed by the noise, and after she left, she sent Xu Qinghe back.
After this commotion, when I returned to the bedroom, it was already dusk.
After Xu Qinghe had dinner, he went to the Buddhist temple under the supervision of the nanny.
Less than half an hour after kneeling, there were bursts of thunder outside. Lin Xiao remembered that Nanzhi did not bring an umbrella for the princess when she left, so he hurriedly brought two umbrellas and sent them over.
When they arrived at the Buddhist temple, they saw Nanzhi standing outside the door with red eyes, and Xu Qinghe was kneeling alone on the cushion, her slender and tall back was cast in a warm light by the dim candlelight in the hall.
She was still wearing the same riding clothes she wore during the day, but she didn't have any of the heroic spirit she had on horseback during the day.
She was like a bird with its wings clipped, trapped under the square sky by an invisible gate, unable to escape no matter what.
A few more loud thunders were heard, and rain began to fall outside the eaves.
Nanzhi then realized Lin Xiao's existence. Seeing Lin Xiao stunned, she remembered the questions she had asked the princess when they first met, and couldn't help but speak.
"Now you understand the princess's situation, right? There's no such thing as royal hospitality, no such thing as unparalleled dignity. No matter what others do, good or bad, they have their parents and relatives behind them to support them, but what about the princess?
"Alone and helpless, how much punishment has she endured in secret over the past five years? How much injustice has she endured? How much suffering has she endured? But what can she do? In the past, not to mention the prince and princess, even General Xie would never let the princess suffer such injustice."
She lowered her voice so that only Lin Xiao could hear it, but as she spoke, her vision became blurry.
Looking at the princess's back, thinking about her past recklessness and current grievances, I couldn't help but choke up and shed tears.
Lin Xiao was still standing there, in the same posture as before, but he was stunned and a little dazed.
Later, when she heard Nanzhi's "Thank you, General", her thoughts finally came back to her.
She has been in the palace for so long, but only today did she know about the princess's situation. Do General Xie and Prince Wei know about it?
**
Wei Che knew nothing about this.
Since that day when he revealed his true identity to Lin Xiao and learned the truth behind Meng Chen's perjury and the location of the secret letter, he asked Fu Zongying to secretly survey the situation in Wei Mansion and draw a map.
It was a secret letter that Lin Xiao saw with his own eyes being handed to the Minister of Justice, but for many years afterwards, Minister Wei never revealed a single word about the letter.
Then there is only one reason, the secret letter was hidden by Wei Shangshu himself, and he refused to overturn the case for the Xie family.
In this case, the secret letter is most likely not in the Ministry of Justice, but in the Wei family.
He spread the layout map of the Wei family drawn by Fu Zongying on the table, studied it carefully for about half a minute, and finally circled several study rooms of the Wei family with a pen.
Today, the Wei family has three generations, including the retired Grandpa Wei who is the elder brother of Queen Wei, the Minister Wei who is in charge of the Ministry of Justice and his four brothers, and his descendants, the Wei Ming brothers.
Old Master Wei has retired, and the Wei Ming brothers have no official positions, so the secret letter is most likely to be in the study where Minister Wei works.
"The Wei family's house takes up almost half the street. I discovered this when I was investigating. Their house has nothing but a lot of study rooms, one next to the other, and one separated by another. It's dizzying to look at."
Fu Zongying returned from work and lay down on the couch in the outer room. Seeing the fruit on the table, he said to Wei Che, "Hey, Master, give me one of those oranges."
Wei Che didn't even look at him, still staring at the picture on the table. He raised his hand and waved at the fruit plate, and several apples and oranges flew towards Fu Zongying's face like a machine gun.
Fu Zongying quickly jumped up to avoid them, and then picked them up one by one in his arms.
He glared at Wei Che and said unhappily, "I worked so hard to draw the pictures for you, and it's ok that you didn't even say thank you, but you actually plotted against me."
Wei Che circled the most likely study rooms and replied, "Do you think I'm free?"
"Yes, yes, of course you are not idle either. Aren't you busy discussing marriage with the daughter of the Zhao family?" Fu Zongying smiled at him a few times and lay back on the couch.
Wei Che finally came back to his senses from the map, looked up at Fu Zongying, and glared at him, "You——"
The two of them moved their ears at the same time, and heard someone walking hurriedly towards Wei Che's yard not far away.
Wei Che quickly hid the picture, and Fu Zongying disguised himself as a servant again, standing respectfully by the side.
"My Lord, are you in there?"
Judging from the voice, it was the head nanny beside the wife of the Duke of Fuguo.
Wei Che's heart sank. He had probably guessed her intention, and there was some impatience in his voice when he spoke.
"What is it?"
The nanny replied, "My Lord, my cousin is ill, and my lady has sent you to see her."
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