Looking at Tai'an from the full moon

After the old woman was brought back to Prince Yun's Mansion, Xiao Zuochen asked Yan Luo to find a clean guest room for her to stay in. After all, she was old and had been stabbed by Chu Yao, so she would probably be unconscious for several hours.

"But you made me do it!"

Chu Yao was afraid that Xiao Zuochen would blame him, so he quickly distanced himself from him.

Xiao Zuochen glanced at him and said nothing, but Chu Yao continued talking to himself.

"Tell me, I won't beat her into amnesia, will I? After all, she is old. Or, will she know that we are investigating what happened back then and fight back desperately? Or..."

"Not so much. You'll know when she wakes up."

After Xiao Zuochen arranged for the servants to look after the old woman, he went back to his room to sleep.

The next day, he could not remember how many days it was since he woke up early to practice. When Xiao Zuochen was practicing as usual, Chu Yao suddenly reached out and held his pulse.

"Show me again."

Xiao Zuochen obediently let him feel his pulse, although he didn't know what he was going to do. Chu Yao frowned while feeling his pulse.

"Your body is really weird."

"what happened?"

"The old man clearly said that practicing Qinggong can really help strengthen your body, and your coughing symptoms are indeed gone. But why do I feel that your tendons are getting weirder the more you practice? It feels like the healthier you are, the less able you are to practice martial arts."

"What do you mean?"

Xiao Zuochen didn't understand.

"To put it simply, you may have been poisoned. This poison changes with your physical strength. The better your physical condition, the stronger the poison will be, making it impossible for you to practice martial arts."

Xiao Zuochen frowned. It was obvious that someone had poisoned him to prevent him from practicing martial arts. However, he had been weak since childhood, and everyone in the palace knew this. Was the person who poisoned him afraid that he would start practicing martial arts when he got better? That was too much of a precaution. Could it be the queen?

Xiao Zuochen thought about it and realized that the only person in the palace who wanted to harm him was the Queen, but wasn’t this too simple to think about?

"Is there an antidote to this poison?"

Chu Yao shook his head.

"I don't know. I'm not sure if it's poison. I just feel like there's something in your body that's blocking the flow of your Qi. But the last time the old man treated you, he didn't find that you were poisoned~"

"Then I'll have to let the old man see it one more time."

Xiao Zuochen wiped the sweat from his face. Coincidentally, the servant came to report that the old woman had woken up.

"Let's go and see what she wants to say."

The two men came into the old woman's house, and Yanluo had already prepared breakfast for three people.

"Who are you? Where is this place?"

The old woman pointed at the unfamiliar surroundings with a trembling hand.

"Don't be nervous. This is Prince Yun's Mansion. No one will hurt you. Have breakfast first."

The old woman couldn't eat it.

"This is Prince Yun's Mansion, so who are you, His Highness Prince Yun!?"

"Exactly."

The old woman's hands shook even more violently.

"Your Highness Prince Yun, please pity me for my age and let me go!"

Xiao Zuochen paused with the chopsticks in his hand, a puzzled expression on his face.

"I don't quite understand what you mean by that. I asked you to come here just because I have some questions for you. I don't want to hurt your life. You don't need to be so nervous. I am different from my father."

Xiao Zuochen's words seemed to be to comfort the old woman, but also to test her, to see how she would react. Sure enough, after hearing what His Royal Highness Prince Yun said, the old woman suddenly fell silent, as if she was thinking about something.

"Don't worry, think about it carefully first. You know, the people back then are no longer around, and you don't know when they will attack you."

The old woman was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly.

"Your Highness Prince Yun probably doesn't know who is behind this, otherwise he wouldn't keep saying such ambiguous things. Forget it, I am a worthless person, but I feel sorry for my daughter, who did something bad for others and was killed. If Your Highness Prince Yun can bring the criminal to justice, I will sacrifice my life for him!"

Xiao Zuochen was silent for a moment, thinking that this matter must be related to his father. But no matter what, this matter must be investigated. If it is really his father...

"You tell me, I'll do my best."

The old woman nodded.

"I think Prince Yun has already investigated my identity, so I won't say more. My family was poor before, and in order to ease the family's life, my little daughter entered the palace as a maid before she even reached the age of marriage. She is pretty good-looking and seems to be well-behaved, so I think she can please the nobles in the palace.

I thought she could only leave the palace when she was 30, but one day 11 years ago, she suddenly appeared at home with a box of gold in her hand. At that time, I thought she had done something bad and was about to take her to the police, but a eunuch appeared in front of me and said that my daughter was doing things for the emperor, so she was rewarded with these.

I thought this was a good thing. My daughter received a reward and left the palace early, so she could be married to a good family. But the father-in-law told me and my family to leave here and live somewhere else. As for my daughter, he would treat her as dead and told us not to return to Tai'an City forever.

"Then why did you come back?"

"Because my daughter is really dead! I left originally, but the father-in-law didn't allow us to contact our daughter, but we kept in touch secretly. I knew my daughter opened a pharmacy, and that she got married and had a child, but she suddenly stopped contacting me some time ago, so I had a bad feeling. Unexpectedly, she was really dead! That father-in-law must have killed her! It must be!"

The old woman suddenly became excited and even stood up and wanted to rush out to find the man, but was finally held down by the servant beside her. She suddenly turned her head and stared at Xiao Zuochen.

"The Emperor is also involved in this matter!"

Xiao Zuochen pursed his lips and said nothing. Chu Yao continued to ask.

"Do you know anything else? Like what they did at the time?"

"They? What they?"

"The incident your daughter was involved in back then involved several people from the palace, so the serial murders some time ago were committed by this group of people. So if you have any other details about that time, you'd better tell us everything so that we can know why they died."

After hearing this, the old woman was stunned for a long time and then uttered something.

"I don't know, but when she came back, she gave me this hairpin and asked me to wear it all the time."

After the old woman finished speaking, she took off the hairpin on her head and handed it to Xiao Zuochen.

Xiao Zuochen took it and saw that it was not an ordinary wooden hairpin, but a mechanical one. He handed it to Chu Yao, who took it and looked at it from left to right. Suddenly, he thought of something and took out a cloth bag from his arms. In the bag was a thin key shape made of iron wire. He pulled out the wooden stamen on the hairpin, inserted the key in it and twisted it gently. With a "click", the petals of the wooden carving suddenly opened, and in the middle, there was a small rolled-up note.