Emperor Jingming was indeed a soft-hearted person.
Everything has two sides. He was not a cruel monarch. He was loved by his subjects for his peaceful temperament. Naturally, he could not be as hard-hearted as iron.
Yu Jin watched Lady Chen enter the house with cold eyes and did not warn her.
In this situation, it would be wrong to remind him, and it would also be wrong not to remind him. He couldn't tell which was better. In this case, a thousand words were not as good as one word of silence, so he decided to just watch with Asi.
Yu Jian is well aware of the principle that overdoing something is worse than underdoing it.
He and Jiang Si had just gained enough limelight, and it was time for them to keep a low profile.
Miss Chen went in and didn't come out for a while.
Emperor Jingming felt something was wrong and walked inside.
Because the palace maids had all come out to welcome the emperor, the hall was empty, with only the sound of slight coughs, which revealed a sense of oppression.
The cough had the tenderness that is unique to young girls.
"Father, is that you?"
Emperor Jingming raised his eyebrows, signaling others to stay in the hall, and walked in with the empress accompanied by Pan Hai.
The room was covered with curtains and because there were no windows open, it was filled with a strong smell of medicine.
A young girl was leaning against the head of the bed, and when she saw Emperor Jingming and the Empress coming in, she wanted to get out of bed to greet them.
The palace maidservant serving on the side had already knelt on the ground, not daring to make a sound.
"Why don't you help the princess lie down?" Emperor Jingming frowned.
The palace maid hurriedly stood up and held down the Fourteenth Princess.
Only then did Emperor Jingming see the Fourteenth Princess's appearance clearly.
A girl of fifteen or sixteen is at the prime of her beauty, but the girl in front of me has sunken cheeks and a sickly face, without any spirit of a young girl.
Emperor Jingming couldn't help but feel a little pity.
"You are so seriously ill, haven't you called the imperial physician?"
"I have been invited." The Fourteenth Princess' eyes turned and she said with difficulty, "I am an unfilial son and have troubled my father and mother to come and see me. But just now my mother went to pick me up, why didn't she see me?"
When she was ill, she was naturally thinking about her biological mother who held her in the palm of her heart, rather than Emperor Jingming and the Empress whom she rarely saw for several months.
Emperor Jingming remained expressionless and said in a gentle voice, "Father has something to ask your mother. Queen, please accompany Fourteenth. I remember she was fine a few days ago. How come she is so ill all of a sudden?"
"Don't worry, Your Majesty."
Emperor Jingming strode out, and immediately a eunuch whispered, "Your Majesty, I and others checked the west room, and the window was open. Concubine Chen must have jumped out of the window and escaped..."
"Escape? Where can she escape to?" Emperor Jingming walked into the west room, staring at the wide-open window with a cold tone.
He allowed her and her daughter to say goodbye to each other out of pity, but he never expected that this bitch would be so bold.
The sun was shining brightly outside the window, and the green banana trees were swaying their leaves lazily.
Of course he couldn't escape. There were so many eunuchs guarding outside the courtyard. How could he hide in the backyard?
Even if there is such a place, it can be found by turning it inch by inch.
Emperor Jingming waited with his hands behind his back, and what he received was another piece of bad news.
"Your Majesty, Lady Chen has hanged herself from a tree in the backyard."
"This bastard!" Even though Emperor Jingming had a good temper, he finally couldn't help but get angry.
Yu Jin rolled his eyes silently.
She is angry now, why didn't she do something else before? If he had just grabbed that woman and slapped her twice, she would have been stunned. Let's see what tricks she can play.
She wants to find the murderer of her most beloved daughter, but she cannot bear to see her other daughter frightened. It is impossible to have the best of both worlds.
The queen came over without knowing when.
"What about Fourteen?"
"Fourteen couldn't hold on any longer and fell asleep."
The anger in Emperor Jingming's heart turned into a question: "Empress, why do you think Concubine Chen wanted to commit suicide?"
The Queen looked back and said softly, "Maybe he's afraid of getting his daughter into trouble."
Emperor Jingming's eyes flashed with coldness: "So, Concubine Chen's murder of Fuqing is related to the Fourteenth?"
He blurted out these words after hearing what the Queen said. After he finished speaking, he and the Queen looked at each other, and both saw astonishment in each other's eyes.
Miss Chen would rather choose to commit suicide than confess, and even gave up the opportunity to see her daughter for the last time and rushed to her death. It is very likely that she knew that once the truth was revealed, it would be detrimental to her daughter.
Is Princess Fourteen an insider?
The emperor and empress looked in the direction of the Fourteenth Princess at the same time.
The image of the sickly girl flashed through Emperor Jingming's mind.
"Your Majesty, this matter must be thoroughly investigated!" the Queen said solemnly, her hands hanging at her sides shaking constantly.
If it weren't for the Prince of Yan's careful investigation to find the dancer, and the Princess of Yan's pointing out the similarities between the herb and the vine, who would have thought that a little beauty would harm Fuqing?
This is so terrible that she won't be able to sleep at night unless she gets to the bottom of it.
"I understand." With the death of the dancer and Concubine Chen, Emperor Jingming no longer had the heart to keep things quiet. "Pan Hai, thoroughly investigate every person who served Concubine Chen and the Fourteenth Princess. If there are any more mistakes, don't come to see me."
Time passed slowly, and Emperor Jingming sat by the wide-open window, drinking cup after cup of tea, until finally Pan Hai came to report.
"Did you find out anything?"
Pan Hai knew that Emperor Jingming's patience had reached its limit, so he did not hesitate at all and said, "Lady Chen had a nanny whom she relied on the most. She died of an acute illness yesterday. That nanny must have worked for Lady Chen and was killed by her."
Some people in the palace are extremely valuable, while others are like grass.
The nanny beside a little beauty was not even qualified to call an imperial physician when she fell ill, and if the person died, she would be wrapped in a straw mat and carried out immediately.
In this way, the number of people who are sent out every year will decrease by about a dozen, and no one will care.
"So, once Concubine Chen and her confidant died, there would be no one else who knew the truth?" Emperor Jingming felt a splitting headache.
But if he had to do it again, he would probably still allow Miss Chen to see his daughter for the last time as if nothing had happened.
"A palace maid accidentally heard the conversation between Lady Chen and her trusted nanny."
Emperor Jingming immediately became alert: "Bring that palace maid here."
"Father, let me take the princess outside and wait." Yu Jin took the opportunity to say.
Knowing too much about some things is not a good thing.
Emperor Jingming waved his hand, indicating that they could do as they pleased.
Soon a palace maid was brought in.
"Tell the Emperor what you know."
The maid was lying on the green bricks, trembling as she said, "Once, when I was cleaning the study, an eardrop fell into the crack of the bookshelf. When I reached out, I touched something. After a noise, a secret door appeared next to the bookshelf. At that moment, footsteps were heard outside the door, so I had to hide in it in a hurry. Unexpectedly, two people walked into the secret room soon, one was a beauty, and the other was her trusted nanny..."
This coincidence was obviously not a pleasant memory for the palace maid.
She knelt tremblingly, her face pale as she continued, "I heard the beauty say that Princess Fuqing's eyesight had recovered, and the Fourteenth Princess would definitely meet with misfortune... The nanny advised her not to worry, but the beauty said, she said -"
"What?" This time it was the queen who asked in a sharp voice.
"She said she didn't believe it at first, but when Princess Fuqing went blind, Princess Fourteen recovered. Princess Fourteen and Princess Fuqing were born on the same day, month and year, and their fates were linked. She couldn't help but believe it..."