"Your Majesty, please calm down!" Zhao Ruhai knelt on the ground with a plop and pleaded for Zhen Yongtang, "It is still the period of mourning for the Queen Mother. It is not appropriate to see blood. Please think twice!"
"Forty strokes of the cane!" Zhong Zhiheng said impatiently and kicked Zhen Yongtang away.
"yes!"
Zhao Ruhai hurriedly called two guards in and dragged Zhen Yongtang out. Then, the sound of "crackling" of hitting the board came from outside.
As soon as Jiang Bairen entered the palace, he saw Zhen Yongtang being carried out with his skin torn and flesh exposed. He was terrified and hurried over to ask Zhao Ruhai in a low voice: "Eunuch Zhao, what happened?"
"The Emperor is already very angry, and Lord Zhen is a stubborn person, so he is in a rage now, isn't he?" Zhao Ruhai said in astonishment. At the same time, he kindly reminded Jiang Bairen, "Commander Jiang, please be careful with your words. Don't add fuel to the fire."
"Thank you, eunuch." Jiang Bairen said, taking a breath, and then walked up the stairs towards the imperial study.
…
Imperial study.
"I asked you to investigate this matter. How's the investigation going?" Zhong Zhiheng asked Jiang Bairen with a serious face.
"Your Majesty, I was ordered to investigate the former head of the Imperial Hospital, Lu Guinian. I went to Lu Guinian's hometown, Dezhou, and found that his family tree had been lost, which was very strange. I thought someone did it on purpose, so I had to secretly visit and investigate the relatives and neighbors in Lu Guinian's hometown. I found that Lu Guinian was not from Dezhou, but his mother was an outsider with an accent that sounded like she was from Beijing. She brought Lu Guinian, who was two or three years old, to Dezhou. The mother and son depended on each other for life. It was said that the life of an orphan and a widow was like this. "It must have been very tight, but according to neighbors, Lu Guinian's family was well-off and lived a comfortable life. They could even hire a famous local doctor, which showed that they had no worries about making a living. Later, Lu Guinian was recommended to work in the Imperial Hospital," Jiang Bairen said, "By the end of the previous emperor's life, Lu Guinian had already been promoted to the position of director of the Imperial Hospital. When His Majesty ascended the throne, because of Lu Guinian's contribution to Empress Zhenxian's pregnancy, His Majesty directly promoted him to the position of director of the Imperial Hospital. But when he was at the peak of his career, Lu Guinian retired the next year and returned home."
"Tell me something I don't know," Zhong Zhiheng said impatiently, "You just said that her mother was from the capital. Have you found out what her mother's background is? Does she have any connection with the aristocratic families in the capital?"
"Your Majesty, I was just about to report this," Jiang Bairen said hurriedly, "That year when Lu Guinian's mother brought Lu Guinian to settle in Dezhou, the Cui family in the capital had bad news. Cui Youan's sister Cui Manting died suddenly of smallpox. Because smallpox was a very terrible and highly contagious disease at the time, the Cui family cremated Cui Manting's body as soon as Miss Cui died, and did not perform any funeral ceremonies, but just hastily buried Cui Manting."
"You mean..." Zhong Zhiheng frowned suddenly, "Cui Manting is not dead, but fled to another place with her...her illegitimate child?"
"Your Majesty, Cui Manting was engaged at the time, but if she had given birth to a child with Stone, then the marriage would naturally not be possible. It is not impossible that the Cui family staged a fake death to save face," Jiang Bairen said, pausing, as if he remembered something, and suddenly said, "Oh, Your Majesty, there is another more coincidental thing. It was the governor of Dezhou who recommended Lu Guinian to the Imperial Hospital, and the governor of Dezhou and Cui Youan were close friends at the time. After Lu Guinian resigned, he died suddenly a few years later. The governor of Dezhou did not live long either. It is said that he met a villain on the road and died."
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