Looking at the two concubines whom he had not noticed for a long time, Yongchang Bo suppressed his emotions and said, "This is Lord Zhen, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture. Whatever Lord Zhen asks you, you must answer truthfully. Do you understand?"

The gentle concubine Chunmei glanced at Earl Yongchang greedily, knelt down to greet Zhen Shicheng and Earl Yongchang, and said "I know" in a very proper manner.

Chaoyun didn't look at anyone, just bowed along with Chunmei, with a blank expression and not saying a word.

"Where do you two live?" Zhen Shicheng asked.

"I live in the east wing." As if knowing Chaoyun would not say anything, Chunmei took the initiative to say, "Chaoyun lives in the west wing."

"What time did you go to bed last night?"

"I fell asleep as soon as the hour of midnight arrived." Chunmei said with a hint of self-mockery, "There's nothing to do."

Day after day, long nights, without children or a man to keep by my side, what else can I do but sleep?

Chunmei thought so and couldn't help but glance at Earl Yongchang out of the corner of her eye.

When the lady was pregnant, she heard that a concubine would be chosen for her uncle, and she was almost overjoyed. Even though her uncle and the lady had already made it clear that a concubine was not allowed to give birth to children, she still persuaded her parents to postpone the marriage that was originally planned and became her uncle's woman as she wished.

When she was young, she never gave up. She thought that with her beauty and considerate nature, she would be able to warm her uncle's heart sooner or later. In the future, if she had a boy or a girl, her children would also be the masters.

But after a long time, I realized that the reason why the uncle took in concubines was just to have someone to warm his bed when his wife was not feeling well. In his uncle's mind, they were probably not much different from cats and dogs.

As the years go by, that spirit has long been worn away. I may feel unwilling, but I don't regret it.

Those sisters who married servants back then did not live a more comfortable life than her. Many of them were beaten by men every day or worried about their livelihood. She lived quietly in a big house and at least had no worries about food and clothing. Her parents and brothers also benefited a lot from it...

"Where is the maid who serves you?"

Soon two maids came forward to greet Zhen Shicheng.

"Did you help Auntie to sleep last night?"

A maid in green clothes said, "I was on duty last night, so I rested at your feet."

The Earl of Yongchang never gave his two concubines the title of aunt, but his sons had grown up, and the servants referred to the Earl's two concubines with the respectful title of aunt, and no one was surprised.

"Has there been any movement along the way?"

The maid in green clothes said without hesitation, "No. I was in a light sleep and slept at your feet. If there was any movement, I would have known. Your aunt didn't wake up until the morning. It was you and Taohong who made the water for you to wash your face."

Another maid immediately nodded in agreement.

Zhen Shicheng opened the roster and flipped through it, and found out that the two maids serving Aunt Mei were named Taohong and Liulu. Both maids were transferred to the East Cross Courtyard to serve Aunt Mei three years ago.

Three years ago——

Zhen Shicheng couldn't help but look at Earl Yongchang.

This was exactly the time when Chaoyun became pregnant and had an abortion. Based on experience, we can conclude that this was no coincidence.

Yongchang Bo glanced at Chaoyun and whispered, "At that time, I felt that the people in the back house were restless, so I replaced all the maids and servants who served them."

Chao Yun got pregnant for no apparent reason, and Earl Yongchang suspected that she had bribed the maids to replace the contraceptive soup. In order to prevent this from happening again in the future, he simply replaced all the servants.

He never wanted to experience the heartache of personally ordering someone to have his blood removed again.

"The two maids were selected by my wife. They are all family-born girls. Their words should be trustworthy."

Zhen Shicheng nodded after hearing this.

Since the two maids were family-born children selected by the Lady of the Bo family, their family members must be useful to the Lady of the Bo family. Therefore, the possibility that they helped Aunt Mei to murder the mistress or concealed Aunt Mei's crimes was extremely low.

Zhen Shicheng looked at Chaoyun and asked the same question: "What time did you go to bed last night?"

Chao Yun was silent for a long time before he said, "The hour of midnight."

There were also two personal maids serving Chaoyun, but when Zhen Shicheng asked them about helping their aunt fall asleep, they looked at each other in confusion.

Earl Yongchang snorted coldly.

The two maids lowered their heads and said in unison: "My aunt slept alone last night."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's eyes turned toward Chao Yun with subtlety, and many people even thought of Chao Yun's abortion three years ago.

The two concubines had not made any movement for many years. When the news of Chaoyun's pregnancy spread, everyone in the mansion was talking about it. They thought that Chaoyun had finally made it and that a concubine could not escape. However, the lady fell ill at the same time. The uncle was afraid that the lady would be upset, so he ordered someone to abort Chaoyun without hesitation.

Tsk tsk, since then, Chaoyun’s crying could be heard from the west wing from time to time. She must have been holding a grudge and killed the lady.

Xie Qingyao had grown up to be a very sensible person three years ago. Thinking of all this now, she could no longer hold back and stepped forward to ask, "Auntie Yun, did you really kill my mother?"

Chao Yun looked at Xie Qingyao expressionlessly without saying a word.

"Speak!" Xie Qingyao raised her voice, "My mother has always been kind to you. Now that she has died so tragically, don't you want to say a word?"

"I didn't." Chaoyun was not sure whether Xie Qingyao's words touched her or she knew that she couldn't avoid it in front of so many people, so she finally spoke.

These three short words seemed a little powerless when heard by everyone.

"Auntie, do you always sleep alone?" Zhen Shicheng was not affected at all and asked again.

A maid said, "My aunt has not been able to sleep well in the past two years and doesn't like us to be with her."

Zhen Shicheng stroked his beard and said, "So, you didn't know whether Auntie had slept in the room last night?"

The two maids looked at each other, and the one who had just answered shook her head: "I don't know, but I didn't hear any sound either."

She always slept so soundly that she couldn't even hear thunder, let alone anything else.

The other maid became suspicious.

"Why, did you hear anything?" Zhen Shicheng asked immediately.

"Maid——" The maid quickly glanced at Chao Yun.

Yongchang Bo immediately shouted, "Just tell me what you have to say. Let's see what she does. Could it be that Aunt Yun is giving you a monthly stipend?"

The maid kneeled down involuntarily, her head buried very low: "Auntie...Auntie should be burning paper at night..."

"What paper are you burning?" Earl Yongchang was furious when he heard this.

The maid lowered her head even lower: "Paper burned for the unborn little prince..."

It turned out that ever since Chaoyun lost her child, she would burn paper for the unborn child on the day of the abortion every year. The maid had seen it the first year. Although she didn't hear anything last night, she found some ashes left in the corner of the yard this morning.

"When did you run into Auntie burning paper money the first year you went to the West Wing? What time was it?"

The maid recalled for a moment and said, "It was early morning."

A maid exclaimed in surprise: "Oh, I remember now, Madam Yun's child is born at the hour of Mao every year on this day!"