Chapter 171 Underground Palace
The emperor's brows were twisted into a knot.
Shen He's words accurately hit the doubts in his heart.
Yes, why?
Why did the Queen hate Xue Minglan so much? Why did the Xue family indulge him so much? Why did they ignore their own children?
There must be some hidden secret behind this that he doesn't know!
"Chen He!"
The emperor's voice was filled with a hint of suppressed irritation.
"Just tell me the reason!"
"I forgive you for being innocent!"
Upon hearing this, Chen He knelt slightly and saluted with a humble attitude, but the words he said were earth-shattering.
"Your Majesty, I dare not speak rashly. I just want to tell you about a strange thing I heard in the cold palace."
"During the days when I was imprisoned in the cold palace, in the dead of night, I could always faintly hear the sound of a woman crying."
She raised her head, a hint of just the right amount of fear and confusion in her eyes.
"That crying sounded so sad and plaintive."
"I was timid at the time and thought it was just a ghost from the cold palace crying out for its grievances."
Everyone in the hall felt their hair stand on end when they heard this. The words "cold palace" and "wronged soul" put together always evoke endless imagination and fear in people.
Shen He ignored everyone's reactions and continued.
"Later, I was fortunate enough to be released, and I accidentally mentioned this matter to Lord Zhou Yan'an of the Ministry of Justice."
She looked at Zhou Yan'an who was standing solemnly beside her.
"Lord Zhou told me..."
"He said he didn't believe in ghosts and gods."
"If there really are wronged spirits in this world, they must be living people pretending to be ghosts."
There was an instant of dead silence in the hall.
Shen He took over the conversation: "Yes, Your Majesty."
"After hearing what Lord Zhou said, this humble servant broke out in a cold sweat."
"What kind of place is the Cold Palace? If there really is a living person..."
She spoke each word with great emphasis, but her eyes vaguely swept across the queen's pale face.
“So, doubts began to arise in the heart of this servant.”
"Is there some unspeakable secret hidden behind this?"
Without waiting for the emperor to ask, Zhou Yan'an, who had been silent as iron, finally stepped forward and bowed to report.
"His Majesty."
"On the way here just now, I remembered what Miss Shen mentioned, and the more I thought about it, the more strange it seemed."
"So he took it upon himself to send two capable subordinates from the Ministry of Justice to the cold palace to investigate."
His voice was steady, yet filled with undeniable strength.
"Just now, a subordinate sent a letter via carrier pigeon."
"The crying sound in the middle of the night was indeed coming from a dry well."
Dry well!
Everyone was startled.
Zhou Yan calmed down for a moment and then dropped an even more shocking bomb.
"My subordinates used a rope to explore the bottom of the well and discovered that there was something else hidden inside."
"There's a man-made secret passage on the wall of the well!"
"And that secret passage leads deep into the cold palace, to a place that has never appeared on any palace blueprints... an underground palace!"
Underground Palace?!
As soon as these two words came out, the whole court was in an uproar!
Inside the imperial palace, at the feet of the emperor, in the cold palace, there is actually a hidden underground palace!
How audacious this is!
The emperor's face suddenly became so gloomy that water seemed to drip out of it. He suddenly looked at the queen, his eyes as sharp as a knife.
The queen trembled violently as if struck by lightning, and all the blood drained from her face.
The underground palace is exposed!
Subconsciously, she hurriedly turned around and, with all her strength, gave an urgent and fierce look to the most inconspicuous personal nanny behind her.
Quick! Get rid of it!
When the old lady received the signal, her heart suddenly sank and her face turned pale in an instant.
She did not dare to hesitate, and hunched her body, trying to slip away quietly, little by little, from the shadows of the crowd.
She walked so lightly that the sound was almost inaudible, like a guilty mouse.
But just as she took two steps, a cold voice sounded slowly, as if exploding in her ears like a ghost.
"Madam, where are you going?"
Shen He didn't even look back at her, but a cold arc appeared at the corner of his mouth.
The old lady was so frightened that she froze in place, her legs went weak and she almost fell to her knees.
"I...I...old slave..."
She stammered, her eyes rolled around, and she couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time.
With this look, what else is there to not understand?
Zhou Yan'an snorted coldly and stared at the queen with a sharp gaze.
"Your Majesty, there's no need to rush to send someone to destroy the evidence."
"I have sent people from the Ministry of Justice to completely surround the dry well and the entrance to the underground palace. Not even a fly can escape."
He turned to the emperor, bowed, and spoke in a sonorous and powerful voice.
"Just wait for your Majesty's order and we'll send people down the well to rescue the people inside!"
The emperor's chest heaved violently, his anger almost bursting through his head.
Under his nose, in his harem, such dirty deeds were hidden!
Secret passage! Underground palace!
And the queen looks like she is guilty and eager to kill to silence the witness!
Everything proves that everything Zhou Yan'an said is true!
The emperor's gaze fell back on Shen He again. Although he still didn't know what the connection was between this underground palace and Xue Minglan's life experience, looking at Shen He's determined and calm expression, he knew that this matter was definitely not simple!
Behind this, there must be a shocking secret that is enough to subvert everything!
"Someone come!"
The emperor roared, his voice shaking the hall.
"Li Dequan!"
The commander of the imperial guards, Li Dequan, immediately stepped out and knelt on one knee.
"I am here!"
"I order you to immediately lead a team of imperial guards and follow Zhou Yan'an to the cold palace!"
"Pry open that well for me, open that underground palace! I want to see with my own eyes what kind of monsters and demons are hiding inside!"
"As you wish!"
Li Dequan accepted the order, stood up and was about to leave.
At this moment, Xue Minglan, who had been standing in the hall like a statue, felt his heart suddenly tighten.
The heart that had long been numbed by poison and hatred suddenly began to ache uncontrollably.
Cold Palace... Dry Well... Underground Palace...
He knows.
He always knew.
The person imprisoned there was his biological mother.
And there is also his biological sister who has never seen the light of day since she was born!
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