When the Queen Mother arrived, Emperor Qin Huan and Bai Yuzhi had been in this position for a long time. Because the fire was so big and the Queen Mother was old, the servants did not dare to report it, for fear that the Queen Mother would have to rush over like Emperor Qin Huan. If they were not stopped then, things would only get worse.
When the Queen Mother saw that only Emperor Qin Huan and Bai Yuzhi were in front of the palace that had collapsed into ruins, and the servants were all trembling with fear, she understood everything at once, and her eyes went dark and she was about to faint.
Fortunately, Kang Qi, who followed, was useful and caught the empress dowager and prevented her from falling to the ground.
"Where's my grandson, huh? You useless bunch, where's my Hu'an?"
"Slave deserves death!"
The Queen Mother broke the dead silence, and the guards and eunuchs who were in charge of search and rescue and fire-fighting all apologized tremblingly, and Emperor Qin Huan also came to his senses.
He was immersed in the grief of Hu An's disappearance, but he was not a fool. The fire came so strangely, someone must have deliberately harmed Hu An.
It was a chaotic place just now, but because of the fire, all the palaces and halls were closed, so the arsonist had nowhere to escape and must still be nearby.
Emperor Qin Huan, who had lost his only son, was now a madman. With tears in his eyes, he spoke word by word, "Everyone, go, search for me. Drag out everyone outside and investigate them one by one!"
The Queen Mother broke down and burst into tears, looking around in disbelief among the ruins, hoping to see Hu An pop out as happy and lively as usual in the next second, and then call her the Imperial Grandmother and ask for cakes in a lovely way.
The guards were doomed to die for their failure to put out the fire, and now when they heard Emperor Qin Huan wanted to search, they searched desperately, dragging away anyone they saw, in the hope that Emperor Qin Huan could find the real culprit and spare their families' lives.
Soon, the eunuchs and palace maids outside were brought before Emperor Qin Huan one by one.
They didn't know the tragic news that Crown Prince Hu'an disappeared in the fire and was suspected to have died. They were dragged to see Emperor Qin Huan for unknown reasons. Seeing that Emperor Qin Huan looked like he could no longer control himself and wanted to kill people, they were all frightened and weakened.
A young eunuch could not help but tremble, crawling on his knees and confessing his guilt: "Your Majesty, please forgive me, Your Majesty, please forgive me. I was, I was absent from my post to put out a fire. Your Majesty, please spare my life!"
Bai Yuzhi quickly grasped the key point of the young eunuch's words and repeated, "Abandoning your post without permission? Which palace are you from? You said you wanted to put out a fire?"
The young eunuch thought he could be saved, so he dared not hide anything from Bai Yuzhi and explained everything one by one.
"I am the one guarding the deposed Empress Su in the Cold Palace. But for some reason, a fire broke out in the cold palace today. Fortunately, the fire was small. I and others were afraid that Your Majesty would blame us, so we put it out ourselves without making a sound."
The young eunuch was still a little frightened when he said this, but he continued when he saw that Bai Yuzhi had no intention of pursuing the matter.
"The servants put out the fire, but when they turned around, they saw that the deposed Empress Su had somehow escaped from the cold palace! That's why the servants came out to look for her!"
The cold palace caught fire and the deposed queen fled. It was definitely not a coincidence that all this happened at the same time as the fire in the Purple Palace.
Originally, Emperor Qin Huan wanted to sentence the deposed Queen Su to death after Hu An was born, but Bai Yuzhi discovered that Concubine Rong's attitude towards Su was very abnormal. In order to observe, she persuaded Emperor Qin Huan to spare the deposed Queen's life. Unexpectedly, it would come in handy today.
"Your Majesty, the cold palace is located in the shade. It is impossible for it to catch fire for no reason. There must be something fishy going on!"
Bai Yuzhi had just finished speaking when the empress dowager, who had been wandering around the ruins, actually picked up a golden hairpin from the edge.
"Emperor, look at this!"
The Queen Mother also heard what the young eunuch said and then saw the golden hairpin.
This gold hairpin was a popular style three years ago. High-ranking concubines in the palace no longer used it. The women's jewelry that appeared in the Purple Palace could only be made of white jade, but this gold hairpin was obviously not!
"Deposed Empress Su," Emperor Qin Huan hated her to the core. Now he only regretted that he hadn't killed this vicious woman when he discovered her witchcraft. "Send the imperial guards into the palace, dig three feet deep to find this bitch for me!"
Servants were digging around the Purple Palace, trying to rescue the people trapped under the rubble. The main reason was that they still held on to a glimmer of hope that Prince Chongshun might still be alive.
Suddenly someone dug up something and removed the wood covering it, and was shocked.
The person who was dug out had a hideous face covered in black ash, and half of her body was burnt. She was lucky enough to wrap herself with a piece of cloth and saved her life.
But after this person wiped the stains off his face, who else could he be but the deposed Empress Su?!
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty! The deposed Empress Su, the deposed Empress Su is here!"
Emperor Qin Huan, Bai Yuzhi and the Queen Mother all hurried over and found that this person was indeed the deposed Queen Su.
Bai Yuzhi personally took the bucket of water handed to him by the servant and poured it on Su without mercy. Her wounds were soaked, and she opened her eyes after letting out a hoarse scream.
The first person that the deposed Queen Su saw was Emperor Qin Huan. Seeing how distraught he looked, she actually managed to laugh out loud despite the severe pain.
Her throat had been damaged by the smoke, and her voice was hoarse and mocking: "Hahahahahahaha, Your Majesty, Your Majesty! You have come to this day. That little bastard is dead. Are you utterly despairing?"
This is a disguised admission that she was the one who set the fire.
The Queen Mother could not bear such stimulation and rushed forward without caring about her own body, wishing to tear Su to pieces.
"You vicious woman! If you have any grudges, you can just come to me. Why did you want to harm Hu An? He just turned three!"
Su's throat made a hoarse sound: "Empress Dowager? Who do you think you are? Even if you die, the Emperor won't feel the heart-wrenching pain. Only that bastard, that bastard!"
Emperor Qin Huan pulled away the empress dowager who was crying so hard that she couldn't catch her breath, and kicked Su's burned waist, causing her to scream immediately.
"Su, where is Hu'an?"
The servants dug for so long but didn't find Hu An. No one saw him alive, and no body was found after he died. Emperor Qin Huan didn't believe that the child had died like this, so he forced Su to confess.
But Su was determined to take revenge and insisted that Hu'an had been burned to ashes: "Hahahahahaha, Your Majesty, your most beloved child is dead! Died in the fire, he was in pain, he kept screaming, asking you to save him!"
"And that bitch Bai Yuzhi, Your Majesty, you know why I want to kill him. It's because he's the bastard child of that bitch Bai Yuzhi! If you want to blame someone, blame your Majesty for not being able to judge people. You actually favored such a bitch and turned a blind eye to me!"
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