Time Travel: The actress's acting skills exploded, and she was favored by the harem

The queen was very calm and ordered: "Bring all the relevant personnel to Fengyi Palace for questioning."

"Yes, I'll go right away." Chang Qi agreed and immediately went out to do his work.

The head of the Ministry of Punishment had just been replaced when this kind of thing happened again. The emperor would surely be furious, and the empress could only try her best to find out the truth.

"Kuma's death could have been instigated by people from both sides, so we really need to investigate it carefully," Shen Zhiyao suggested.

"That's right, but in my opinion, Zheng Fuxuan is the most suspicious. Concubine Zhao is eager for Jiu Ma to speak, so why should she silence him?" Concubine Zhuang added.

After hearing the news, Concubine Zhuang rushed to Fengyi Palace as soon as possible.

The queen glanced at the two of them and said nothing.

However, Shen Zhiyao had a vague feeling that Hu Xiaoyi was the least suspicious in this matter. Who would be stupid enough to silence someone so blatantly at this critical moment?

However, for Shen Zhiyao, the person she had to deal with most at the moment was Hu Xiaoyi, so she naturally pretended to be ignorant even though she knew the truth.

After a while, all the relevant personnel were brought to the front hall of Fengyi Palace, where they stood in a line and were under centralized supervision by palace guards.

"When did this servant die suddenly? Has the cause of death been determined?" the queen asked in a solemn voice.

The eunuch in charge of the trial of Jiu Ma from the Ministry of Punishment stepped out tremblingly and said, "Your Majesty, this morning, I ordered someone to deliver food to Jiu Ma as per the rules. After he finished eating, he died suddenly within an hour. His death was... extremely tragic..."

The Queen looked sharply at Qi Tong, the head of the Ministry of Punishment, and asked in a deep voice, "Poisoning again?"

Qi Tong bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have asked the Imperial Medical Bureau to examine me. Jiu Ma was poisoned by arsenic and thunder god vine... I have failed in my duty. Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"

Qi Tong was very upset at this time. After he took office, he had completely replaced all suspicious people in the Ministry of Punishment, improved all management processes, and eliminated many loopholes. The Ministry of Punishment was almost turned into an "iron bucket formation" by him.

Even so, something went wrong and he felt ashamed to face the emperor and empress.

The queen stared at him for a long time, then said in a gentle voice, "I have seen all the efforts that Lord Qi has made since he took office. Now that the truth has not been uncovered, I will not draw any conclusions on this matter for the time being. Please fully cooperate with my investigation first."

Seeing that the queen was so wise, Qi Tong hurriedly bowed and said, "Yes, I will do my best to cooperate with you."

The Queen turned to look at Shen Zhiyao and Concubine Zhuang: "You two should also participate in the investigation. You must come to a reasonable conclusion and present it to the Emperor before the situation escalates."

"Yes." Shen Zhiyao and Concubine Zhuang bowed in response.

The incident happened suddenly, and Concubine Zhuang actually had no idea what was going on. She could only look at Shen Zhiyao with an inquiring look.

Shen Zhiyao was speechless when she looked at him, and thought to herself: You don't like me on weekdays, and now you think of me at this moment.

What can I do? It's such a hard life, I have to bite the bullet and push forward, because it's the Queen's order.

Fortunately, Shen Zhiyao has filmed many brain-burning criminal investigation TV dramas in modern times, so she has some ideas on how to deal with this kind of thing.

Shen Zhiyao walked up to Jiu Ma's chief eunuch and asked, "Tell me in detail what happened this morning, and try not to leave out any details."

"Yes." The presiding eunuch replied, and then recalled: "Jiuma was locked up alone in a dark room in the Ministry of Punishment, not adjacent to other cells. The meals were prepared by the servants in the kitchen, and then personally delivered to the dark room. No one else was involved in the process."

"The eunuchs who cook and help in the kitchen are all new and reliable people. They have been strictly checked by the Ministry of Punishment." The chief eunuch added, "Jiuma is a very cautious person. Every time the servants bring him food or even water, he dare not eat it directly."

"For all his food and drink, I first tested it with a poison-testing silver needle in front of him, and then he tested it again with the silver needle he carried with him. Only after double insurance verification would he be willing to eat."

"Originally, everything was fine in the past few days, but something went wrong today. While Jiu Ma was having breakfast, I went to the interrogation room next door to prepare for today's interrogation. It took less than an hour."

"During that time, the dark room was next door and was guarded by someone. No one visited him and Jiu Ma did not make any noise. When I went in again, I saw Jiu Ma leaning on the wooden bed, dead in his sleep..."

Everyone was amazed when they heard this. Shen Zhiyao thought to herself that this was not a good thing. Isn't this a "locked room murder case..."? It's not easy to track down...

The murderer didn't even have the chance to poison, and Jiuma was so afraid of death that he couldn't possibly commit suicide, so how did he get poisoned?

After thinking for a moment, Shen Zhiyao turned to ask Qi Tong: "Master Qi, has anyone contacted Jiu Ma during the time he was imprisoned?"

"Your Majesty, only Zheng Fuxuan's servant Yinlian came to the Ministry of Punishment to take care of things. She also met him briefly under the pretext of delivering clean clothes and bedding to Jiu Ma. No one else has ever seen Jiu Ma. I can guarantee this with my life." Qi Tong answered very firmly.

Shen Zhiyao sorted out all the clues and found a key clue: the only things that had come into contact with the food in the morning were the two silver needles used to test for poison.

A scene from a palace drama that she had filmed before suddenly flashed in Shen Zhiyao's mind. She hurriedly asked the chief eunuch, "Did you bring the two silver needles that you and Jiu Ma used to test for poison?"

"I have brought them all with me, Your Majesty, please have a look." The presiding eunuch said as he took out two purses from his lapel, opened them, and placed the two silver needles on the table.

Shen Zhiyao, the Queen, and Concubine Zhuang all came to the table to check, but saw nothing unusual.

"How do you distinguish these two silver needles?" Shen Zhiyao asked.

The presiding eunuch hurriedly explained: "The silver needles used by the Ministry of Punishment have a mark engraved on the top, while ordinary silver needles do not have this mark."

Shen Zhiyao took a closer look and found that one of them indeed had a mark.

She picked up the unmarked silver needle with her hand, examined it carefully for a long time, and suddenly laughed: "This silver needle has been tampered with. It is hollow inside and can hide poison powder. It is usually sealed with transparent wax that is easily soluble in water. After it is soaked thoroughly, the poison can enter the soup."

The queen was very surprised when she heard this, so she took the silver needle and examined it carefully. Sure enough, there was a tiny hole on the top of the needle that was extremely difficult to find.

The queen casually handed the silver needle to Qi Tong and nodded to show her agreement.

Qi Tong also saw the clue, but asked back: "This thing is indeed hidden, but if the poison enters the soup, the silver needle will also show color, how can it be so easy to fool it?"

Shen Zhiyao knew this question would come, and said with a smile: "It's very simple, because this is not a silver needle, but a specially made tin needle, which is extremely difficult to distinguish with the naked eye."

Everyone suddenly realized that although this method of committing a crime was simple, it was the easiest to make people complacent!

Who would have thought that an object specifically used to test poison could become a weapon for poisoning?

After finding out this far, the most critical issue has been clarified, and Shen Zhiyao retreated to the side of the queen and refused to step forward again. The key point is that it is not difficult anymore.

Continuing the investigation, everyone discovered that this silver needle was specially given to Jiu Ma by Yinlian from Zheng Fuxuan when she delivered clothes for self-defense, and the gatekeeper of the Ministry of Punishment testified to this.

The poisonous silver needle was not something that belonged to the Ministry of Punishment, so naturally it had nothing to do with the Ministry of Punishment. At most, it could be considered a crime of dereliction of duty by the guard.

Jiu Ma was not tortured to death by the Ministry of Punishment, so it is even more impossible to put the blame on others.

"Lord Qi, you must go to Zheng Fuxuan in person and escort Yinlian here. No more mistakes can be made." The queen said coldly.