I traveled through time and space to become the mistress of a royal palace. My daily routine is to a

A few days later, the body of Qiu Rong's maid Zhuier was found by the river. The coroner determined that Zhuier had drowned.

However, Song Qingwan felt that the matter was not that simple. Since Qiu Rong was taken away from the mansion by someone, how could Zhuier have drowned?

So Song Qingwan took the initiative to find Shen Jingyi this time, wanting to perform the autopsy herself.

"Princess, do you think this is suspicious? But Zhuier did drown. I have personally seen it and there is no way I am wrong."

Shen Jingyi said it in a firm tone. He could not accept making another mistake in such a simple case. Where would he put his face then?

"Why is Lord Shen so excited? I have no doubts about the cause of Zhuier's death. I just want to check some things that will not damage Lord Shen's reputation."

"In that case, Princess, please go ahead."

Shen Jingyi felt relieved. He was still willing to help Song Qingwan, which also gave him a sense of accomplishment.

Song Qingwan came to the backyard of the Dali Temple. The bailiffs were already accustomed to Song Qingwan's arrival and opened the morgue on their own initiative.

The only regret of the yamen runners was that Song Qingwan did not marry their master. After all, the daughter of the prime minister's mansion and the chief judge of the Dali Temple, who was the legitimate son of the marquis's mansion, were a perfect match with equal talent and appearance and family backgrounds. Who wouldn't support this couple?

So, it’s best not to pair up randomly.

As usual, Song Qingwan brought Zhuier's body into the space. She checked the cause and found that he was indeed drowned, but strangely there was no sign of struggle.

How could a healthy person not struggle when falling into the water? So Song Qingwan suspected that Zhuier was most likely unconscious when he drowned.

Song Qingwan examined the abdomen of the corpse and found that Zhuier's intestines had similar lesions to Song Changbai's. Could it be?

Song Qingwan quickly took out a syringe and extracted some body fluids for analysis. Sure enough, Zhuier's body also contained the same unknown component as Song Changbai's.

This explains why she showed no signs of struggling in the water, because she fell into a deep coma before falling into the water and was unable to struggle.

Song Qingwan took the corpse out of the space and returned it to its original place, then walked out of the morgue.

"Princess, how is it? Have you found anything else?"

Song Qingwan looked at Shen Jingyi and suddenly didn't know how to explain, because she didn't know whether Shen Jingyi could be trusted.

"Lord Shen's judgment is correct. The person did drown. However, there are some things I still need to verify."

"Then I will draw a conclusion directly. I will keep my mouth shut about the autopsy performed by the princess today."

"Thank you, Lord Shen."

Song Qingwan actually has an indescribable sense of closeness to Shen Jingyi. This feeling has nothing to do with gender. She feels that the relationship between her and Shen Jingyi is more like that of confidants.

Shen Jingyi saw her dilemma and was willing to keep the secret for her, and he would definitely do it.

As soon as Song Chengfeng got the news, he went to find Shen Jingyi. Zhuier has been found, but is there any news about Qiurong as well?

"Please forgive me, Prime Minister, for my inability to find Madam Song's body."

"Then please, Lord Shen, hand over Zhuier's body to me and I will take it back to dispose of it."

"I cannot obey your order. This maid drowned in the river, not in the Prime Minister's residence, so this is a murder case. Until there is evidence to prove that she fell into the water by herself, her body can only be kept in the Dali Temple."

"Shen Jingyi, do you dare not listen to me?"

"Although my position is lower than that of the Prime Minister, I only take orders from the Emperor. If I make a mistake, the Emperor will personally order the punishment."

"You... Shen Jingyi, don't be so arrogant!"

As a first-rank official in the imperial court, when had Song Chengfeng ever suffered such humiliation in the officialdom?

But he forgot that Shen Jingyi was the legitimate son of the Yongyi Marquis and the Minister of Dali Temple, and the Yongyi Marquis was the maternal family of the Empress Dowager.

According to seniority, Shen Jingyi is the emperor's cousin. With this background, how could Shen Jingyi be afraid of Song Chengfeng?

"Master Song, please go back. I will send the body back after the case is closed."

Shen Jingyi simply waved his sleeves and left, leaving Song Chengfeng, with a gloomy face, sulking alone.

Of course, it’s not that no one paid attention to Song Chengfeng. After all, he was the prime minister, so naturally there would be people who would curry favor with him.

Ever since Pang Lingyan and Li returned to the Pang family, the Duke of Chu's Mansion smelled an opportunity. Song Chengfeng's move was to draw a clear line between himself and the Pang family and the Prince Huai's Mansion.

In this case, the Lan family began to think about winning him over.

So after learning that Mrs. Song Chengfeng was missing and might have drowned, Lan Cheng'an followed his father's wishes and immediately sent the two daughters from the Lan family's side branch to the prime minister's residence.

In fact, this kind of thing was not unique to the Lan family. Officials in the court had also sent gifts before, but Song Chengfeng refused them all out of consideration for the Pang family and the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

But things are different now. Song Chengfeng happily accepted the two daughters of the Lan family, but he did not marry them as his principal wives but took them as concubines.

One of them, Lan Miaomiao, was called Aunt Miao, and the other, Lan Tingting, was called Aunt Ting. They were both placed in the backyard of the prime minister's mansion.

As for why they were only given the title of concubine, Song Chengfeng explained that the two had failed to expand the Song family, so he would wait and see how they performed.

As soon as these two concubines entered the mansion, they restored Jiang Jingshu's status as a concubine. After hearing this, Jiang Jingshu just smiled disdainfully.

Belated affection is cheaper than grass, not to mention that this is just done to disgust the Lan family. What difference does it make whether the status is promoted or not?

When the Duke of Chu heard about Song Chengfeng's arrangement, he was so angry that he almost broke the table.

"What does this surname Song mean? Even though the girl we sent over is from a branch family, she is still a legitimate daughter and a virgin!"

"Father, calm down. I will go talk to Song Chengfeng and ask him to give my two nieces a proper status."

Duke Chu looked at his son and was so angry that he didn't want to talk. This was so stupid! He couldn't understand Song Chengfeng's obvious intention!

"What did you say? Do you think Song Chengfeng really cares about the issue of offspring? He doesn't care about this little benefit, he wants more!"

"My son is stupid, please teach me, father."

"Song Chengfeng accepted the girl we sent over because he was interested in cooperating with us, but the bargaining chip was not big enough and he was not satisfied."

"My son understands. His father is wise."

"Humph! Even though Song Chengfeng doesn't have any roots in the capital, he is the prime minister after all. We are definitely not the only ones who have given him women."

It has to be said that age is always more valuable. Although the Duke of Chu is not an outstanding official, he is indeed very cunning and scheming.

The fact that he selected Zhao Yuanrui, a treasure among many princes, was enough to show that his vision was extraordinary.

Now that he is old, there is no one in the Lan family who can be his successor, which has also led to the fact that Duke Chu has been unable to retreat to the second line.

As he grew older, the health of the Duke of Chu gradually deteriorated, and he fainted several times without any warning.

For the sake of the old man's health, the Lan family employs almost as many doctors as the imperial physicians in the palace, just to prevent him from collapsing suddenly.

However, such a huge price cannot make him immortal. How many more years can he last?