Chapter 356: Butterfly Dance Peach Killing 9
The atmosphere in the hall was solemn and quiet, so quiet that even Concubine Yao's soft sobs sounded very noisy at this moment.
Among all the concubines, only Ning Wanshuang did not kneel down.
She was closest to Xiao Jingheng, and at this moment, she came to his side, gently stroked his chest which was violently heaving due to anger, and advised in a gentle voice:
"Your Majesty, please don't be upset. Your health is the most important thing. This little eunuch keeps saying different things, so it's hard to trust him. Why don't you send someone to find his family first? That way, it will be easier to tell right from wrong."
Xiao Jingheng nodded in tacit agreement. The people in front of the emperor looked at his expression and immediately set about taking care of the matter.
Concubine Yao squatted on the ground, crying and repeatedly saying that she was wronged.
Her tears were like a dam bursting, washing away the thick and heavy gouache on her cheeks, leaving two white marks.
The acne that was originally hidden under the powder was revealed, adding a "heavy stroke" to her face that was twisted by crying, making Xiao Jingheng feel even more disgusted.
The situation suddenly changed, and Concubine Yao was more suspicious than Rong Yue.
But the more Concubine Hui looked at it, the more she found it extremely strange. After all, the Concubine Yao she knew was as stupid as a pig and there was no way she could have set up such a complicated scheme.
She was filled with doubts and started to speak up for Concubine Yao.
"Your Majesty, this matter is really very strange. As I just said, if this matter was really done by Concubine Yao, then it is absolutely impossible for the butterfly that flew out of her palace to fly to Changle Palace alive after being contaminated by the Five Poison Powder."
She still wanted to direct the spearhead towards Song Zhao, but before she could continue her attack, Xiao Yinzi came in again and said solemnly:
"Your Majesty, while I was investigating this matter in the palace, I encountered a patrol guard outside Changle Palace who had something to report to Your Majesty. He is waiting outside the palace now."
Xiao Jingheng said in a cold voice: "Bring someone in."
The guards were summoned and quickly entered the palace. After paying full courtesy to Xiao Jingheng, they said:
"I am the head servant in charge of patrolling the Changle Palace. A few days ago, I saw Fu'er, who was beside Concubine Yao, sneaking around outside the Changle Palace, so I asked my subordinates to keep an eye on her and secretly observe her every move. As a result, someone saw Fu'er take out a glass bottle from the bushes near the Changle Palace and release many butterflies from it."
After hearing the guards' testimony, Concubine Yao turned pale with horror and collapsed to the ground as if her soul had been taken away.
She did ask Fu'er to do this.
Because she wanted to use the butterfly incident that day to mix peach blossom pollen into Song Zhao's palace, secretly causing Song Zhao to suffer an attack of his illness and end up with his appearance damaged like her.
But secretly she was afraid that the butterflies would not obey her command and fly to Changle Palace, thus wasting her plan.
So he asked Fu'er to try several times in advance near Changle Palace with butterflies that had not yet dropped peach pollen, to see how to successfully introduce the butterflies into Changle Palace.
At first, Concubine Yao thought that even if someone saw her, she could let Fu'er make an excuse, saying that she saw Song Zhao liked butterflies, so she caught them and sent them to him.
However, she never imagined that the plan she thought was perfect would become the most powerful evidence against her.
Seeing that she was speechless and in a state of panic, Ning Wanshuang said unhappily:
"No wonder those butterflies could fly into Imperial Concubine Yi's palace so obediently. It turns out you had planned this all along! Imperial Concubine Yao, what are you thinking?"
Rong Yue also said bitterly: "You want to harm others, and you want to throw dirty water on me... Is this what you always say about treating me like your own sister? Your sincerity is really frightening!"
Song Zhao, who had remained silent throughout the entire process, looked as pale as death. He stared at Concubine Yao blankly, his bright eyes filled with tears as he said:
"I don't understand. When I paid my respects to Concubine Chen every day, you always talked and laughed with me, and we were very close. Why would it be you who wanted to kill me..."
Seeing that the charges were confirmed, Concubine Yao forced herself to stand up and hurriedly explained:
"No, it wasn't me! I really didn't do it!"
Concubine Ying glanced at her and said solemnly, "Then how do you explain that the guards saw your concubine Fu'er doing something sneaky in Changle Palace? It can't be that Fu'er wanted to harm Concubine Yi herself, right?"
“I…I…”
At this moment, Concubine Yao has been forced into a dead end. What else can she explain?
She couldn't say that she originally intended to use peach blossom pollen to harm Song Zhao, right?
Seeing her hesitating like this, anyone could see through the devil in her heart.
Xiao Jingheng exhaled deeply, squinted his eyes, and looked at Concubine Yao with disdain.
"You have always been close to Zhao'er, and you even lived together before. Why would you do such a thing?"
Yao Fei was in tears, kneeling in front of Xiao Jingheng and about to explain,
Unexpectedly, Yunshan also knelt down and started crying before her.
"Your Majesty, this matter is all my fault!"
She raised her hand and slapped herself twice, crying like a tearful person.
"In the past, Concubine Yao said something that she shouldn't have said to our master. I followed the emperor's order and had to slap Concubine Yao to teach her a lesson. I'm afraid that Concubine Yao is holding a grudge against our master because of this incident and has done such a vicious thing!"
Yunshan's tearful eyes met with Concubine Yao's astonished gaze, and she asked with a tearful voice:
"If you are dissatisfied with me, you can come after me, but my master is really close to you, how can you be so cruel..."
Perhaps others did not know what Yunshan said, but Xiao Jingheng did tell Yunshan that day that if anyone dared to mention the bad memories from the past to Song Zhao, then Yunshan would teach her a lesson no matter who she was.
At this moment, Xiao Jingheng frowned, not listening to a word of Concubine Yao's crying. He just asked the palace servant who served Concubine Yao in a solemn voice whether what Yunshan said was serious.
At this point, who would dare to lie to Jamel Xiao?
The palace maids who served Concubine Yao confessed the truth one by one.
"Aunt Yunshan did... slap Concubine Yao. Concubine Yao was very angry when she returned to the palace because of this."
Now Concubine Yao even had a motive to murder Song Zhao.
Under such strong evidence, she had no way to defend herself.
She was seen crawling on the ground like a pool of rotten meat, grabbing the hem of Xiao Jingheng's court dress, crying desperately in a hoarse voice:
"Your Majesty, I really didn't... Your Majesty..."
"Get lost!"
How could Xiao Jingheng have any kindness towards her?
He kicked Concubine Yao aside, then stood up angrily, pointed at her angrily and cursed:
"You vicious woman! You are so vicious!"
He panted heavily, turned to look at Song Zhao, and tried his best to straighten his expression.
"Zhao'er, she intends to kill you, so I will give you the power to deal with her. You can do whatever you want with this vicious woman!"
Song Zhao did not respond to Xiao Jingheng's words at first, but wiped his tears sadly, unable to bear it, and said:
"Sister Yaofei and I are good friends. I never thought that she would kill me just because of a slight grudge. She even wrongly harmed the Third Prince and ruined the rest of his life..."
When Concubine Hui heard Song Zhao's words, she glared at her fiercely from the corner of her eyes.
She didn't believe Song Zhao, but what else could she do?
After Princess Yao heard a glimmer of hope from Song Zhao,
Then he hurriedly crawled in front of Song Zhao, tightly grasped her hand, and begged:
"Sister Song, you have always been kind-hearted. You won't let me be wronged, right? It's not me, it's really not..."
"Good-hearted?" Song Zhao suppressed the tears in his eyes, resolutely pushed away Concubine Yao's hand, and questioned her loudly,
"Just because I'm kind-hearted, do I deserve to be murdered by you like this?!"
She stood up suddenly and bowed deeply to Xiao Jingheng.
"Xiao Lang once told me that the laws of the Qi Dynasty are strict, and the emperor is guilty of the same crime as the common people. Concubine Yao has caused Cheng Jing to be paralyzed in bed for the rest of his life..."
She slowed down, took a deep breath, and said in a resounding voice as if she had made a difficult decision:
"Then please ask Xiao Lang to perform the punishment of scalping on her, so that she can also suffer the pain of having a child!"
[Bin Xing: One of the five punishments in the Xia and Shang dynasties, also known as Yi Xing, is a punishment of cutting off the feet or chopping off the prisoner's kneecap. In history, Sun Bin was called Sun Bin because he was punished with Bin Xing.]
[I worked overtime on 7.2 for a day, and I haven't finished it since 7am. I really don't have time to update. The update on 7.3 will be in the early morning of 7.4, and I will update five more. Sorry, sorry]
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