Chapter 157: Seeing Through But Not Saying It Out
This time, Xiao Yu and Xu Chuchu did not respond, but just frowned and looked at the prince as if he were a monster.
The prince couldn't help but laugh when he saw the two of them had the same expression: "I knew you would accept this statement."
"Is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also a cultivator?" Xiao Yu asked directly.
The prince shook his head again: "No, I know nothing about it."
"Then how did His Royal Highness determine that the Queen had been dead for some time?" Xiao Yu asked, "How can a normal life be possible after death?"
The prince said, "My fourth brother was not at the vigil just now, so he doesn't know..."
"Your Highness, please do not address me like that."
"Alright." The Crown Prince smiled helplessly. "First of all, as you just discovered, the Queen's physical changes after death are not normal. You saw that her body didn't go into rigor mortis, but in fact, rigor mortis had already appeared during the time my second brother and I were keeping vigil, but it disappeared quickly."
"At the same time, corpse spots continued to appear on her body. The emperor was furious when he saw this and reprimanded the officials in charge of the burial. The officials had to apply makeup several times to cover up the corpse spots."
Xu Chuchu reacted: "Your Highness is saying that the Queen's body changes faster than that of an ordinary person?"
"That's right." The prince nodded. "If I'm not mistaken, the physiognomist also found something abnormal when he examined the internal organs just now, right?"
Xu Chuchu glanced at Xiao Yu and saw him nod slightly, so she said to the Crown Prince with confidence, "Yes, the Queen's internal organs have begun to shrink and rot. It doesn't look like someone who has just died half a day ago. Instead, it looks like she has been dead for four or five days."
"How can you be sure that someone tampered with her body before she died?" Xiao Yu asked. "Perhaps someone mixed in with the crowd of people carrying the body and burying it and did it."
The prince gently stroked the edge of the jade coffin: "Two years ago, the queen gave up the harem and focused on dealing with me in the former dynasty. She planted several of her spies around me..."
"Oh, of course, I also placed people around her and the Second Prince." He spoke openly to Xiao Yu about this. "But starting half a year ago, the people she assigned to me have all disappeared one after another. It's not that she no longer needs to observe me, nor that she doesn't plan to deal with me, but it just stopped very suddenly... It really puzzles me."
"Four months ago, urgent news arrived from the border, and I went to the Yangxin Palace to request an audience with my father," the prince continued. "The palace servants told me that my father and the empress were talking and asked me to wait, but I was anxious and barged in. The emperor wasn't in the palace, and there were no servants either. Only the empress sat alone in her seat... motionless, her eyes fixed."
"Dead?" Xiao Yu's eyelids twitched.
"Yes." The prince said in a deep voice, "No breathing, no pulse."
"My first reaction was that someone was setting me up, so I kept quiet and secretly climbed out the window, pretending I hadn't seen anything to avoid having to explain myself." A strange look crossed his face. "But when I went outside the palace to wait for my father, and then entered the palace with him, the empress... unexpectedly came back to life. She stood up to greet us, spoke normally, and even made tea for my father herself."
Xiao Yu and Xu Chuchu looked at each other and asked, "Are you sure you didn't see it wrong?"
"Absolutely not," the prince said. "You know I've been to the battlefield. I can tell whether someone is dead or alive at a glance."
"I didn't listen to a word my father said to me that day. After I came back, I started sending people to monitor the queen. I found that she did appear to be in a daze from time to time, and it was becoming more and more frequent."
Xu Chuchu thought for a moment and asked, "Didn't the Queen's servants notice anything?"
"Of course I noticed it, and I even told the imperial physician, but he simply said the Empress was overly worried," the Crown Prince replied. "Over time, I began to doubt myself, but after what happened today, I'm convinced that my judgment was correct. The Empress's health has long been in trouble."
Xu Chuchu suddenly remembered the Queen's daily schedule that Shao Mingjie had found out during interrogation today: "No wonder her daily routine is so regular. When to read and write, when to summon the concubines, it's like... it was arranged in advance!"
"Indeed, I speculate that the Queen may have died six months ago. Someone has preserved her body from decay and manipulated it to appear alive," the Crown Prince sighed. "Poor father, sleeping with a dead body, completely unaware of it. I don't know what to say."
Xu Chuchu felt a chill again. Lying in bed with his dead wife at night was a truly chilling scene.
But thinking about the whole thing, the prince's speculation does make some sense. At least for now, she can't think of any other possible reasons for this phenomenon.
So why did the mastermind manipulate the Queen into drowning in the pool? Was it because he couldn't control it and used the power of the pool water to cover up the past?
Also, does it have anything to do with Xiao Yu appearing nearby?
"Do you have any idea who did it?" Xiao Yu asked the prince.
"If I were to say I suspect something..." The Crown Prince lowered his eyes, "Of course I would first suspect the Grand Master. They know how to manipulate the dead the best."
"But from what I've heard, I discovered that when the Empress died and came back to life, the Grand Master wasn't in the capital at all, and neither was his disciple, Shen Zhaozhi." He continued, "Of course, I don't know if they could have controlled the Empress even when she was away, but they never interfered with the fight between me and the Second Brother over the years, so there's no reason for them to suddenly get involved in this mess now."
"So I'm more inclined to believe that... there's another faction within the court that also possesses this technique, using the powerful Empress to stir up trouble." His gaze fell on Xu Chuchu. "What do you think, Minister Xu?"
Anyone else? Asked, Xu Chuchu began to think seriously.
"Hmm... At today's banquet, I only noticed that the Grand Master and Shen Zhaozhi had cultivation abilities; no one else did," she said. "But cultivation abilities can be hidden, so it's possible someone is hiding."
But she thought that it was impossible that there was no connection between physiognomists. If there were other officials in the court who also practiced this art, the Grand Master should know about it with his level of cultivation.
"He's asking if it's you." Xiao Yu said suddenly.
"Huh?" Xu Chuchu finally realized that she hadn't understood the prince's hidden meaning and said awkwardly, "It's not me. My cultivation hasn't reached that level yet."
Xiao Yu raised his hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and said with a smile, "It's indeed not her. She came all the way with me from Tailing County and has only been in the capital for a few days."
The prince also smiled bitterly: "If you didn't hear it, forget it. I saw it but didn't say it out loud."
"You are the one who talks too much." Xiao Yu said bluntly.
"Okay, I'm a jerk." The prince said good-temperedly, "If we want to get to the bottom of this matter, I think we should ask the Grand Master."
"But you..." He paused, "Do you have any conflicts with Shen Zhaozhi? You two have been at loggerheads so many times today."
"Yes, there are some." Xiao Yu also said frankly, "But it should not be closely related to this matter."
The prince nodded without asking any more questions: "Then I will contact them here. I will send someone to inform you if there is any news."
"Okay." Xiao Yu glanced outside, "It's getting late, let's all go back today."
He nodded to the prince and walked out the door with Xu Chuchu, but heard the prince sigh again behind him: "Fourth brother, come back, the court needs you, and the emperor needs you too."
"I told you not to call me that. I have no intention of going back." Xiao Yu stopped and glanced at Xu Chuchu again. "Besides, she doesn't like an environment full of intrigue."
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