Rebirth: The flatterer prince I raised couldn't be so clingy

Now we are still lacking crucial evidence, and we can only wait for He Chongjin to arrest Cao He and interrogate him before we can find out whether what the master and servant said is true or false.

Seeing this, Queen Zou spoke first and suggested: "Now that things have come to this, Your Majesty should first lock these two people up here and wait for their fate, and the rest of you should go back to the main hall and not delay the ritual..."

Before she finished her words, Feng Zhanye stood up first.

"Father, I have something else to report."

Perhaps it was because of the "unprovoked disaster" he encountered today, but Emperor Yu's attitude towards Feng Zhanye was indeed much better now. He raised his eyelids and looked at him.

"You said."

Empress Zou frowned. This was the first time in all these years that Emperor Yu ignored her suggestion in front of so many people.

What on earth did Concubine De and this kid do just now? Why did the emperor's attitude change so much all of a sudden?

Before she could think clearly, she heard Feng Zhanye speak slowly: "I want to report that the maid Xian Zhi is the real murderer behind the murder of my mother."

"what?"

The concubines were in an uproar.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Xian Zhi knew that what was coming had finally come. Her face turned pale, cold sweat soaked her back, and she shook her head frantically.

"How could your highness Prince Duan suddenly accuse me so wrongly? I am just a palace maid, how dare I do anything to murder Concubine Hui!"

Han, the eunuch beside Emperor Yu, coughed twice, and everyone quieted down again, but there was still deep confusion in their eyes.

He looked at Emperor Yu's expression and asked the next question on his behalf.

"Your Highness Prince Duan, you have to have some evidence if you suddenly say this."

Feng Zhanye called over Mrs. Chen Qi, who was standing beside him. Mrs. Chen Qi knelt respectfully behind him and kowtowed to Emperor Yu.

"I pay my respects to Your Majesty."

"This person is the wife of Chen Qi, the palace guard. On the day my mother was killed, it was Chen Qi who was on duty. He took the opportunity to poison the snack box I brought into the palace and killed my mother."

"Afterwards, I sent someone to investigate and found out that Chen Qi sneaked into the harem at night and asked the maid Xian Zhi for his reward. He was killed on the spot by Xian Zhi. Afterwards, Xian Zhi left the palace and found the woman behind me, forcing her to hide the truth with the child."

Emperor Yu's eyes flickered, as if he remembered something, and ordered Han Neiguan beside him: "Go and get the certificate."

After Nei Guan Han took the order and left, Emperor Yu turned his attention back to Mrs. Chen Qi.

"You are Chen Qi's wife, so let me ask you, what do you know?"

Mrs. Chen Qi answered without hesitation: "Chen Qi is addicted to gambling. He is either in the guardhouse or in the gambling house on weekdays. He rarely comes home. But one day when he came back, a group of people suddenly came to his house. The leader called herself Aunt Xianzhi. She said she had heard of his juggling skills and wanted to ask him for help with something."

"You are slandering me! I don't even know Chen Qi, and I have never been to your house!"

In order to stop Mrs. Chen Qi from speaking any further, Xian Zhi quickly interrupted her.

"shut up!"

Emperor Yu slammed the table beside him, shocking everyone in the room. Xian Zhi didn't expect that he would make the emperor angry, so he had to keep silent for the time being.

With Emperor Yu's permission, Mrs. Chen Qi became bolder: "Your Majesty, I did not lie. If you don't believe me, you can send someone to ask my two children. One of them is eight years old, and the other is less than five years old. Children will never lie!"

Emperor Yu nodded: "Go on."

"I was driven out by Chen Qi, and I was worried so much that I could only hide at the door and eavesdrop. Then I heard Xian Zhi say that he could help Chen Qi pay off all his gambling debts at once, and asked him to poison the food on the day when Prince Duan entered the palace, kill Concubine Hui in the cold palace, and put the blame on His Royal Highness Prince Duan."

Mrs. Chen Qi was choking up while speaking, and could only tremble and force herself to continue.

"I tried to persuade Chen Qi not to agree, but he had long been blinded by money and refused to listen. He beat me up. He always beat me to death. He even tore off a piece of my scalp, and I still haven't grown any hair since then."

As she spoke, she pushed aside her hair, revealing a bald scalp with some scars that had healed but not yet smoothed out.

Some timid concubines just took a look, covered their mouths with silk handkerchiefs, and made two very quiet "tsk" sounds.

"He hadn't been home for half a month since then. One night he suddenly came back, took some money from home and left, saying he had a headache and needed to go to the pharmacy to get some medicine."

"When was it?" Emperor Yu interrupted Mrs. Chen Qi and asked.

"November 7th."

Emperor Yu nodded slightly, then asked, "Then when did you know that Chen Qi was dead, and when did Xian Zhi go to find you?"

"A month had passed since he returned home for the last time. I saw that he had not come back yet, so I went to the Guards' Court to look for him, but I found that someone else had moved into his room. His colleagues secretly told me that he was killed while working for someone in the palace and that he was long gone."

"After a few days, I came home from work in the dyeing workshop and saw the group of people entering the yard and kidnapping my children. Aunt Xianzhi told me that if I dared to reveal a word to anyone, I would never see my children again. I had no choice but to keep it a secret and live under their surveillance."

At this point, Mrs. Chen Qi's voice gradually became softer. This matter had been tormenting her like a nightmare for more than a year. Now that she had finally spoken it out, she even felt a sense of relief.

She raised her eyes to look at Feng Zhanye, and saw him turn around and nodded at her, and secretly said "thank you".

The hall fell silent. Mrs. Chen Qi's words were so sincere and heartfelt that people had to believe them.

In this case, was Concubine Hui really killed by Xian Zhi?

Everyone's attention returned to Xian Zhi again.

Cao Shuyi blocked Xian Zhi behind her and stared at Feng Zhanye and Chen Qi with hatred in her eyes: "Your Majesty, this woman followed His Royal Highness Prince Duan here, it is obvious that she is in collusion with him. Xian Zhi has no grudge against Concubine Hui, how could she hire someone to kill someone for no reason?"

Chonghe Hall was not far from the imperial study, and while everyone was confronting each other, Nei Guan Han had quietly returned.

Emperor Yu took the certificate he presented, opened it and saw that the date on it was exactly the eighth day of the eleventh month.

It was indeed the second day as Mrs. Chen Qi had said.

Emperor Yu calmly put aside the evidence and asked, "Xian Zhi, I remember that you used to be a maid of Concubine Hui?"

Xian Zhi didn't understand why Emperor Yu suddenly asked this. Although she didn't want to admit it, she had no choice but to answer truthfully: "Yes."

"You said you had no grudge against her? But you were the one who testified when Concubine Hui murdered the Seventh Prince."

Xianzhi's eyelids twitched, knowing that what was coming had finally come.

But who can give up self-protection until the last moment?

At worst, he could just blame Cao Shuyi for all the bad stuff, and maybe he could save his life.

"I was just telling the truth when I testified. If you think I wanted to harm Concubine Hui because of this, I am really innocent."

However, Emperor Yu did not respond to her words. He just looked at the confused eyes of the people around him and spoke slowly:

"I had nightmares a few days ago, so I asked Concubine De to go to the cold palace to exorcise the evil spirits. She accidentally found a piece of paper with the receipt of Chen Qi, the palace guard, for buying arsenic. The date of the letter was exactly three days before Concubine Hui was poisoned, that is, November 8th."

As he spoke, Nei Guan Han turned the receipt over and showed it to everyone.

Cao Shuyi was still worried about herself. She pinched her palms tightly and couldn't utter a word. Xian Zhi could only try harder to defend himself.

"I don't know anything about arsenic, and I have never threatened them."

"Really?" Emperor Yu suddenly smiled, as if he was tired of sitting. He changed to a more comfortable position and leaned back in the chair. "But why did the child of the Yongning Marquis family just hear you say that it was you who instigated Cao Shuyi to kill Concubine Hui?"