The queen is spoiling the king and madly criticizing him for spoiling her

"How many people have provided you with houses and women?" Xie Ci'an's cold voice sounded again.

Zhang Heng did not answer immediately.

He was not sure how much the emperor and empress knew. If they only knew about women and buying and selling official positions, it would not be enough to kill him. But if those things were also exposed, he would definitely die.

He has always done those things in secret, and he only accepted money, not women. The emperor must not have found out. The reason why the matter was discovered this time was because the unlucky sisters Lin Qi and Lin Ling were noticed by the emperor and the empress. Otherwise, the things he did would not have been exposed.

Zhang Heng looked hesitantly at the emperor and empress sitting on the high throne, and after a moment's hesitation, he said, "A total of fifteen people provided this humble minister with houses and women."

【fart.】

Xie Ci'an and Xie Qingzhi looked at Gu Jianchu almost at the same time.

They rarely saw Gu Jianchu speak out like this.

[There were clearly thirty girls, and nearly half of them committed suicide because they couldn't bear the humiliation. Some were tortured to death by Zhang Heng. He didn't dare to mention these people at all, perhaps because he felt that after they died, the emperor would have no way to investigate and there would be no evidence.]

Xie Ci'an's eyes turned completely cold. He didn't know that so many lives had been lost at the hands of the Chief Censor, including many civilians who died because of his protection.

Xie Ci'an slammed his palm on the table, and his aura instantly turned cold. Everyone at the scene was frightened and dared not say a word, especially the ministers, whose breathing became slower, for fear of being spotted by the emperor and being in danger.

The young masters of noble families and military generals who had returned from hunting stopped immediately when they saw the bloody scene. They didn't dare to move forward with their prey in their hands, nor did they dare to leave, for fear that any movement would anger the emperor and empress.

There were even people nearby secretly asking what was going on.

"Zhang Heng, I hope you will think it over carefully before you speak." Xie Ci'an's eyes were filled with strong murderous intent.

Zhang Heng knelt on the ground, his heart pounding violently, his head buzzing, and even his speech became incoherent. "I remembered it wrongly. Nearly thirty people gave me women. Some of them gave their daughters and sisters. Those who didn't have daughters and sisters bought skinny horses from Yangzhou at a high price and gave them to me. These are really all I have. I hope Your Majesty will understand."

"Shuangjiang, go check it out." Xie Ci'an ordered coldly.

Zhang Heng knelt on the ground, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a guilty conscience, and added weakly, "Your Majesty, several of the women took advantage of my inattention and secretly ran away. I'm afraid we can't find them."

A strange smile appeared on Xie Ci'an's frosty face. "Did he run away secretly, or was he secretly thrown into a mass grave?"

Zhang Heng looked at Xie Ci'an in horror. He never expected that Xie Ci'an had already found out all these.

The other ministers broke out in cold sweats, not because of the emperor's intimidating aura, but because of the emperor's methods of investigating people. Once the emperor targeted someone, there was no way to escape.

Many ministers patted their chests in relief, feeling fortunate that they had never done anything bad and were not afraid of being investigated by the emperor.

Zhang Heng ignored the pain of the stabbed wound and knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly. "Your Majesty, please be wise. They didn't run away secretly. They were thrown into the mass grave by servants. But I didn't kill them. They were just too stubborn. After knowing that their father and brother had given them to me, they didn't want to follow me and tried various ways to commit suicide. I really couldn't do anything about it. I can't keep an eye on them all the time."

"What do you mean there is no way? What do you mean we can't keep an eye on them all the time? Since they don't want to, you can just let them go. And are you really sure that they committed suicide just because they don't want to, and not because of your beast, your coercion?" Gu Jianchu's every word was precious, and his eyes were filled with cold anger as he looked at Zhang Heng.

Zhang Heng felt guilty after being questioned by Gu Jianchu. He didn't dare to look up at Gu Jianchu's eyes. He could only lower his eyes and remain silent.

Seeing that Zhang Heng chose to remain silent, Gu Jianchu said nothing more.

[You've done so many evil things, yet you still hope to escape the death penalty by saying nothing. Or do you think the Emperor doesn't know that you're protecting others? You're truly naive. If you don't want others to know, then don't do it yourself.]

Gu Jianchu turned his gentle gaze to look at Mrs. Zhang beside him.

Mrs. Zhang was still immersed in what Zhang Heng had just said, her fingers tightly pinching the handkerchief.

It was not until Ruan came out that Mrs. Zhang gradually came to her senses.

Zhu Xia followed behind Ruan, holding the menu of medicinal foods written by Ruan. "Your Majesty, the menu has been written. Please review it. Also, this is the prescription for the medicine that Madam Zhang drank to maintain her pregnancy."

Zhang Heng's mood, which had just relaxed, became tense again when he saw the prescriptions for medicinal food and pregnancy-maintaining medicine written by Ruan.

He looked at Ruan with nervous eyes.

Xie Qingzhi immediately noticed Zhang Heng's expression and asked softly, "Why, is the relationship between Master Zhang and the Ruan family very good?"

Zhang Heng immediately noticed something was wrong with Xie Qingzhi's words and shook his head repeatedly, "Ruan is the female doctor beside my wife. I just know her and we are not close."

"I noticed that there was something wrong with the way you looked at Ruan. I thought you had a very good relationship with Ruan." Xie Qingzhi's tone was filled with regret.

Gu Jianchu did not take the paper that Zhu Xia handed over.

"Please have Madam Zhang carefully review this list and make sure there are no mistakes before you present it to me."

Hearing this, Ruan's eyes flashed with panic, and her fingers under her sleeves clutched her clothes tightly, not even daring to look into Gu Jianchu's eyes.

Zhuxia handed the list given by Ruan to Mrs. Zhang.

Madam Zhang took it and read it carefully. When she saw the back of the letter, she frowned slightly and turned to look at Ruan. "Miss Ruan, are these two medicinal dishes written wrong? I remember that these are not the ones in my medicinal dishes."

Ruan came forward to take a look and said softly, "Madam, did you remember it wrongly?"

"No, there is no such thing as red dates, longan and wolfberry chicken. I remember that my medicinal food only contains wolfberry and angelica, but no longan and wolfberry." Mrs. Zhang refuted very seriously.

Ruan was afraid that everyone would notice something, so she changed her words in time and said, "Maybe I remembered it wrongly."

"And this one is wrong too." Mrs. Zhang pointed at a soft-shelled turtle and black chicken soup.

"The cordyceps and pork ribs soup at the back is also wrong. I remember there was no cordyceps in the medicinal food Miss Ruan gave me." Mrs. Zhang looked at Ruan in confusion.

Ruan immediately explained, "Cordyceps is extremely rare. I thought if the Empress wanted to eat it, she would definitely be able to find it. I couldn't find this herb in the medicated food I prepared for Madam, so I used something else instead."