I kicked out my vicious husband and married his great-uncle

Seeing Gao Mingche again, Cui Shuyan carefully observed his appearance, trying to find any similarities between him and the Queen on his face.

However, it did not.

Judging from his appearance alone, Gao Mingche has sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, and handsome cheeks, and looks more like Emperor Zhaowu.

"Fifth Prince, I have something here that I need your help to investigate." Cui Shuyan went straight to the point and directly stated her request.

"Princess, please speak."

"Check the people who served your birth mother Xiao Da Ying in the cold palace before and after your birth. See if anyone among them has evil intentions."

Gao Mingche was slightly surprised: "After so many years, why is the princess investigating this?"

"This is my business. Just think of it as me trying to use this incident to see what Your Highness is capable of."

Gao Mingche suppressed his surprise and said, "Okay."

Two days later, Gao Mingche presented what he had found to Cui Shuyan and Princess Heshuo.

Back then, Xiao promised to be demoted to the cold palace, and she was served by someone.

The one who served her was a young palace maid assigned from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, named Lu Rui.

Lu Rui was extremely loyal. Even though Xiao Da Ying had beaten her many times, she still served Xiao Da Ying wholeheartedly and without any slackness.

This service continued until Gao Mingche was born.

Although Gao Mingche was born in the cold palace, he was a prince after all. He was taken away to be raised as soon as he was born. The person who came out of the cold palace to serve him was Lu Rui.

Lu Rui continued to serve Gao Mingche until she turned 25 and left the palace.

"Your Highness, how do you think Lu Rui treats you?"

When Lu Rui left the palace, Gao Mingche was already seven years old and he still had some memories of it.

Speaking of Lu Rui, Gao Mingche's usually cold face softened a little: "Aunt Lu Rui was very good to me. At that time, the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs often deducted our rations, and we didn't even have much to eat. But she never let me go hungry. She herself, on the other hand, became thinner and thinner."

In contrast, Xiao Da Ying was restless even in the cold palace. After giving birth to Gao Mingche, she killed an old concubine in the cold palace, which angered Emperor Zhaowu and he ordered her to be executed.

When Cui Shuyan first heard this, she just treated it as a story.

But after listening to it again this time, she had some different opinions.

After Gao Mingche left, Cui Shuyan said bluntly: "Senior Sister, have you ever seen a woman who dares to be so arrogant as to kill someone after being sent to the cold palace?"

"No."

Generally, people who are sent to the cold palace have committed serious mistakes.

Even though Xiao promised to give birth to the fifth prince and have her own son, the child had already been taken away, leaving her with no hope.

A woman who was banished to the cold palace, whose children were not around and whose emperor could not even remember her, should not have been so arrogant under such circumstances.

Perhaps, Xiao Da Ying was too arrogant before, so when she killed someone in the cold palace, no one else thought it was abnormal.

But now that I think about it carefully, it still seems a little abnormal.

After Xiao agreed to become pregnant, she dared to beat to death three palace maids because she felt that she was pregnant with the prince and would be able to rise to great heights in the future.

But in the cold palace, with no hope at all, how could she be so bold as to kill a concubine?

Although she was a concubine in the cold palace, she was still a concubine after all, and her status and rank were higher than Xiao Da Ying.

Even after she became pregnant, she only dared to beat and kill palace maids. How could she kill the concubine dowager after she gave birth and could not even have a son?

After listening to Cui Shuyan's analysis, Princess Heshuo suddenly understood: "So, someone wants to use this incident to make Xiao Yingda shut up completely?"

"I think this is the only possibility."

Only the dead can keep a secret for long.

This means that when Xiao promised to give birth, she had already been controlled. They just had to wait for the Queen to get angry, then use drugs to make Xiao promise to give birth to a dead baby, which would then be secretly sent to the Queen's palace.

Of course, this is just her speculation and there is no evidence.

Right now, the only hope lies in those who have left the palace, to see if we can find a breakthrough from them.

But, three days later, the people sent by Cui Shuyan came back one after another to report: whether it was Lu Rui or the people released by the Queen's Palace that year, either they did not exist or they died in various ways.

Lu Rui, after getting married, gave birth to a child, but died of complications during childbirth.

The other palace maids were either not accepted by their families after leaving the palace, and ended up wandering outside, completely disappearing.

Or, they were sold to a brothel by their families and died of a serious disease.

The ways of dying are different, but the final result is the same.

After hearing this news, Princess Heshuo was very discouraged: "I have been investigating for so long, but it's all in vain."

"No, it can't be in vain. They are all dead, no one is alive, which is very abnormal. At that time, the only concubine who could reach out was that one."

To put it bluntly, the only person who was capable of replacing the queen's child with a dead baby in the palace and taking the lives of these palace maids in various imperceptible ways after they left the palace was Concubine Xian.

Princess Heshuo smiled helplessly: "So, we have found out until now that it was done by Concubine Xian, but we don't have any evidence."

Without evidence, there is no way to prove that what happened back then was related to Concubine Xian, and there is no way to prove that the Fifth Prince is the Queen's child.

Cui Shuyan patted Princess Heshuo's hand to comfort her: "Don't worry, at least we have noticed something. Besides, the person behind the scenes dared to do this, so he must have made perfect preparations. They are well prepared. We have just started to investigate, so it is normal that we can't find any evidence. Don't be discouraged, there is a long way to go, and there may be opportunities in the future."

Seeing that Cui Shuyan was not panicking at all, Princess Heshuo couldn't help but look at her a few more times: "Who is the emperor's sister-in-law's child? Have you guessed it?"

Cui Shuyan asked back: "You have guessed it, right? How about this, let's write on the table with water and see if we are writing about the same person."

"Okay." Princess Heshuo agreed happily.

Afterwards, they each covered their eyes with their left hands, dipped their hands in the water in the cup and wrote a word on the table.

After taking her left hand away, Cui Shuyan looked at the word written by Princess Heshuo - five.

This is also the word she wrote.

Instantly, Princess Heshuo covered her mouth: "Ah, no way?"

She was just guessing and wasn't sure.

However, seeing that Cui Shuyan's guess was the same, Princess Heshuo felt that it was most likely the Fifth Prince Gao Mingche.

Instantly, Princess Heshuo was overjoyed: "I will go to the Queen's sister-in-law and tell her about this!"

Cui Shuyan grabbed her and stopped her, saying, "Don't go."

"Why? You should have told the Imperial Sister-in-law about this earlier. She will definitely be very happy when she knows."

"But where is the evidence?"

As she spoke, Cui Shuyan's eyes lit up and she looked at Princess Heshuo intently.

In an instant, Princess Heshuo was deflated.

Yeah, where's the evidence?

After all, since it concerns the legitimate son, it is not a simple matter.

"Are you going to tell the Imperial Sister-in-law nothing? Although it's just our guess, it's still a guess with evidence, isn't it?"

Cui Shuyan pinched her brows and said, "Let me think about it."

However, before she could figure this out, she saw Lan Xin coming in from outside and reporting, "Princess, Princess, the Fifth Prince has angered the Queen and is being punished!"