Chapter 153 Finding the Roster
Ling Chan instructed Fu Lu to take good care of Xiao Heng, while she and Xiao Jin prepared to leave the palace.
The two of them walked slowly in the palace, both of them seemed to have something to say but didn't know where to start.
"You..." Xiao Jin was about to say something.
Suddenly, someone came up from behind, "Prince Rui."
Xiao Jin stopped and turned around, and a palace servant caught up with him.
"Prince Rui." The palace attendant panted, "The Concubine Dowager, the Concubine Dowager summons you..."
Concubine Dowager? Ling Chan looked at Xiao Jin. Concubine Dowager Xi? His mother.
"Ling Chan..." Xiao Jin must go to see her.
"Go ahead." Ling Chan said.
Xiao Jin ordered the palace servants, "Send the Marquis of Zhenbei to the carriage."
This palace maid is from Xi Lingyue Palace and can be trusted.
Xiao Jin went to Xi Lingyue's palace alone, "Mother, it's so late, why haven't you rested yet?"
Xi Lingyue's face was pale, and she was still coughing lightly, "Ahem, tonight...with so many things going on, how can I sleep?"
Xiao Jin helped her sit down at the table and poured her a cup of tea. "Mother, what happened in the front hall has nothing to do with you. Just rest assured."
Xi Lingyue held his hand with her backhand, "But I heard that the emperor was held hostage..."
"Is the Emperor alright?"
"The emperor is fine." Xiao Jin replied.
Since my mother knew that the emperor was being held hostage, how could she not know that the emperor was fine?
Xiao Jin looked at Xi Lingyue's expression and asked, "Mother, do you have something to say to me?"
In short, it is impossible that he just wanted to ask the emperor if he was okay.
Xi Lingyue coughed a few more times and drank a cup of tea, and the itchy feeling in her throat subsided.
"It's about your biological mother."
Yunshu was just a palace maid beside the empress dowager until her death and had no title. Xi Lingyue called her Xiao Jin's mother, which was a respect for her and an affirmation of Xiao Jin's identity.
Xiao Jin touched the teacup, "What's the matter..."
"Your mother's death..."
"Now that the Queen Mother has passed away, there are some things I should tell you."
Xi Lingyue held Xiao Jin's hand. When this child first came to her, his little hands were only a tiny bit big, but now they have become big hands that can hold the world in their hands.
"Jin'er, your mother has never been shy about her identity."
Xiao Jin nodded. It was true. He had known since childhood that his mother was not his biological mother. His mother never avoided the issue and even let him pay tribute to his biological mother.
In his mother's words, his biological mother did not give birth to him for wealth and glory, nor because of her love for the late emperor.
His mother gave birth to him at the risk of her own life in such a difficult situation because she loved him.
"She is a very strong woman." Xi Lingyue raised her eyes as she spoke.
She was thinking about the woman in her memory...
Back then, when the Empress Dowager said that Yunshu seduced the late Emperor, Xi Lingyue didn't believe it.
"Your mother did not seduce the late emperor. In fact, it was the empress dowager who sent your mother to the late emperor's bed."
"The late emperor must have been drunk that day. Afterwards, the emperor wanted to confer a title on your mother, but the empress dowager stopped him."
"But because the late emperor had this idea, the empress dowager asked your mother to work outside the palace to prevent her from having the chance to meet the late emperor again."
"But it is precisely for this reason that your mother was able to keep you."
"Your mother's death was strange..."
"It was the Queen Mother who used poison."
Xiao Jin sighed, "I know."
Xi Lingyue looked up in surprise.
"The Queen Mother used the Ice Heart Poison, and she herself was poisoned by the Ice Heart Poison before she died."
After a pause, he said, "Now..."
"The Emperor has also been struck by Bing Xin."
Xi Lingyue stood up suddenly, "What?!"
"Mother." Xiao Jin pulled her to sit down, "Please sit down first..."
Xi Lingyue sat down slowly. "How could the emperor be poisoned? That poison..."
"Only the Queen Mother has it."
Xiao Jin told her, "Zhenbei Hou also has it."
"How could she have it?" Xi Lingyue frowned. "This poison...only the Queen Mother has it. It was specially made by Imperial Physician Ge."
Xiao Jin didn't know why Ling Chan had the Ice Heart Poison, and he didn't care.
"Mother, please come back with me to live in Prince Rui's mansion."
The emperor has been poisoned by the Ice Heart Poison. Although the amount is not much, he probably won't live long.
When the new emperor ascends the throne, Xi Lingyue will no longer feel comfortable living in the palace.
Xi Lingyue covered her mouth and coughed lightly, "Ai Jia..."
Nanny Wei spoke at the right time, "Madam Dowager, let's go to Prince Rui's Mansion."
The look in her eyes when she looked at Xi Lingyue was full of reluctance, which made Xiao Jin have bad thoughts in his heart.
Xi Lingyue glanced at Nanny Wei, then looked at Xiao Jin, "Okay."
"Tomorrow, I will tell the emperor."
Xiao Jin nodded, "Okay, once the emperor agrees, your son will come to pick you up."
He stood up, and Xi Lingyue followed suit. "Jin'er, you...you have to be careful."
Xiao Jin nodded repeatedly, "Don't worry, mother, I'm fine."
After he left, Xi Lingyue couldn't help coughing.
Wei Ma Ma complained to her, "Queen Dowager, why didn't you tell Prince Rui?"
Recently, Xi Lingyue's health has been deteriorating. She coughs constantly and often coughs up blood in the middle of the night.
Just as she was thinking about it, Xi Lingyue coughed again. She took away the handkerchief covering her mouth, revealing a bright red stain on it.
"My Lady Consort." Nanny Wei was shocked. "I'll go get the imperial physician right away."
Xi Lingyue held her back and said, "Don't go."
"Those imperial doctors only say those words... and then just give me medicine... I don't want to drink it anymore."
"I have lived long enough..."
Nanny Wei shook her head. "What did the Concubine Dowager say?"
"The Concubine Xian and the Concubine Hui are both doing well, so the Concubine will surely be well too."
Xi Lingyue sat back on the bed and waved her hand, "Qingwan, go down."
Nanny Wei looked at her helplessly. Recently...the imperial concubine liked to call her by her maiden name.
The next day, Xi Lingyue went to see Xiao Heng in person and expressed her desire to move to Prince Rui's Mansion. Xiao Heng did not object and agreed directly.
Upon receiving the news, Xiao Jin went into the palace personally to pick up Xi Lingyue and settled her in the backyard.
Xiao Heng was depressed for a long time, and many decisions during this period were made by Ling Chan.
She wrote a letter in Xiao Heng's tone, then asked Xiao Heng to copy it, stamped it with the imperial seal, and sent it to Dahe by an envoy.
The general meaning is that the Wolf King Da He secretly brought people into Da Qi and has been captured by Da Qi. All the people he brought have been killed. If Da He wants to negotiate peace, he will send a new delegation. If he does not want to negotiate peace, the Da Qi soldiers will continue to advance northward.
Ling Chan didn't care about Xiao Heng's depression.
Now she only wanted to promote the peace talks between Daqi and Dahe. If Dahe didn't care about the life or death of the Wolf King, she would rush to the border to help.
As long as Xiao Heng doesn't cause any big trouble, it'll be fine.
As for whether he would send someone to kill him, or find a master to detoxify him...
She doesn't care!
But what she didn't expect was that Xiao Heng actually arranged a marriage for her, and the person she chose was Xiao Jin.
Fu Lu held the imperial edict and didn't dare look at Ling Chan.
He also advised the emperor not to do this...but the emperor didn't listen.
The current emperor is crazy and does whatever he wants.
He didn't attend the morning court and refused to see anyone, even King Huai.
He no longer handled state affairs, leaving them all to the ministers and Xiao Jin.
At this time, there were rumors that the Dahe people were released by the emperor.
Besides this, there is another theory that Ling Chan, the Marquis of Zhenbei, poisoned the emperor...
But both of these claims cannot be verified.
Moreover, the people reacted differently to the two pieces of news.
Everyone said that they would rather believe that the Dahe people were released by the emperor than believe that the Marquis of Zhenbei would poison the emperor. It was very hypocritical.
"My Lord..." Fu Lu held up the imperial edict, "Please accept it."
Accept the order?!
Ling Chan grabbed the imperial edict and said, "I'll pick up his sister."
"When Prince Huai and I broke off our engagement, didn't the Emperor allow me to decide my own marriage?"
Fu Lu glanced at her and thought, that was before. Now... the emperor was poisoned by you, so he must be unhappy and wants to annoy you... which is normal.
Ling Chan saw the meaning in his eyes and asked, "Does Prince Rui have it?"
Fu Lu shook his head. It was obvious that the Emperor was trying to annoy Ling Chan...
Ling Chan grabbed the imperial edict and prepared to go find Xiao Heng.
"My Lord." Someone came to Ling Chan, "The Wolf King refused to reveal where the list is."
Ling Chan frowned in annoyance. She had sent people to search the Wolf King on the day he was imprisoned, but the list of spies she was looking for was not on the Wolf King at all.
After being interrogated for so many days, he still refused to speak.
"Let's go and take a look."
Before entering the prison, Ling Chan put the imperial edict into the space.
The Wolf King, imprisoned for so many days, had lost his former might. "Marquis Zhenbei... could you please come in person?"
Ling Chan shrugged, "There's nothing I can do. The Wolf King won't cooperate, so I have no choice but to come here myself."
"It's the same even if the Marquis of Zhenbei comes in person. I won't tell anyone."
Ling Chan laughed, "It doesn't matter, I have my own way."
Facing the wolf king's eyes, Ling Chan shot the hallucinogenic needle directly into his forehead.
Ling Chan's eyes gradually became confused as she looked at the Wolf King, but soon became clear again.
His willpower was much stronger than Xiao Heng's, but it was useless. Under the influence of the drugs, he could only surrender.
Ling Chan waited for five or six minutes, and the Wolf King's eyes completely lost focus.
"The Dahe people are really smart. They actually planted spies under Daqi a long time ago..."
She began to guide.
The Wolf King snorted, "We, the Great He people, are the smartest beings in the world."
"The people of Daqi are just pedantic people. How can they compare with us Dahe?"
"How can they own so much arable land? That should belong to us, Da He."
The more he spoke, the more proud and complacent he became... He didn't even need Ling Chan's guidance.
"The purpose of every Wolf King in Da He is to train spies for Da He, and I am the most powerful of all the Wolf Kings."
Ling Chan was too lazy to listen to his boasting. "Where is your spy list?"
Hearing this, the Wolf King's brows furrowed, and he shook his head from side to side. "Roster...what roster?"
"Roster... roster..."
Ling Chan stared at him, anticipating his next words.
But he kept repeating... "Roster...Roster...? What roster?"
“The roster is too important to give to someone else.”
“The roster is too important to give to someone else.”
“The roster is too important to give to someone else.”
He kept repeating, "The roster is too important to give to others."
Ling Chan clicked her tongue. Could this be... the creed that all successive Wolf Kings must abide by?
"The list can't be given to others, but you should know it yourself, right? Where is it?" she asked.
"exist..."
The wolf king's brows shrank and relaxed, shrank and relaxed again... After several times, he was finally unable to resist the drug.
“In the Sifang Pavilion…”
Ling Chan was impressed. He actually put the list in Sifang Pavilion...
"Where?"
The Wolf King stopped talking... just stood there dumbly, "The list cannot be told to anyone else."
Ling Chan didn't ask any further questions. She left the prison and went to Sifang Pavilion.
Now that you know the location, are you still worried about not being able to find things?
When she arrived at the Sifang Pavilion, she released the drone to scan the entire Sifang Pavilion.
The drone transmits information about the Sifang Pavilion to the glasses...
Ling Chan controlled the drone to aim at the room where the Wolf King lived, and finally found a booklet on the beam easily.
This booklet is very thick, like a brick.
After opening it, each page recorded a list of twenty people, with a numerical code in front of the name and age and household registration behind the name.
She flipped through it casually and found that some names were crossed out.
There are also some newly added names, and the code names in front of the names are the same as those that were previously crossed out.
Ling Chan guessed that the parents must have died and their children took their place.
With this list, she can send people to catch all the fish that have slipped through the net.
Holding the list, Ling Chan first scanned a copy in the space as a backup, and then took the original copy to find Luo Nanfeng, Jiang Chenyang and others who lived in Ling Mansion.
"Are these all spies from the Dahe tribe in our Daqi?" Luo Nanfeng flipped through the pages a few times. "So many..."
But thinking about the 20,000 people who showed up that night... "They should be mostly dead, right?"
Ling Chan also knew that they were almost dead, but as long as there were still some fish that had escaped, she could not take it lightly.
"I still hope that the seniors can send disciples to investigate further."
Luo Nanfeng took it and said, "Okay."
They didn't think about rewards anymore, "We'll leave the capital now."
The Emperor of Dahe attached great importance to the Wolf King. After receiving the letter, he immediately arranged for an envoy to come and negotiate peace.
They offered to cede He Yun Mansion and the surrounding farmland to Da Qi, and were willing to cease fire with Da Qi for twenty years, only asking Da Qi to release the Wolf King.
This time the peace talks went very smoothly. After everything was settled, Ling Chan asked Xiao Heng to escort the Wolf King back to the border.
Xiao Heng wanted to refuse, but didn't dare.
Hearing that she was going back to the border, Xiao Jin immediately asked to go to the border with her, but was rejected by Xiao Heng.
Xiao Heng asked Xiao Jin to stay in the capital, saying that he was not feeling well and wanted Xiao Jin to help him handle state affairs.
There was no choice, Xiao Jin could only stay.
On the day of going to the border, Hongdou, Gong Lan, Gong Yu, Liu Huaiyu, and Ling Chan left together.
It was winter when she left, and heavy snow was falling. Ling Chan looked back at the capital and bid it farewell silently.
She thought at the time that she never wanted to come back in this life and she was willing to stay at the border forever.
She never thought that she would come back here just one year later.
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