In the years of famine, I led a comfortable life with my husband

Su Peizhi was chatting with his classmates as usual. It was originally an academic conversation, but somehow it turned to family matters.

Su Peizhi has always been very secretive about his family matters, and many of his classmates are particularly curious about his family.

Su Peizhi had always dodged it cleverly, but this time he seemed to be being watched. People kept asking him questions. With so many questions, Su Peizhi's answers would inevitably have some flaws. Inadvertently, he still exposed his father's identity. When he said that his father was Su Mingcheng, he suddenly froze, his whole body tensed to the extreme, blood flowing backwards, his brain crashed for a moment, and then he quickly looked around to make sure that no one looked strange, and then he felt a little relaxed. However, in the following discussion, Su Peizhi did not speak again.

However, in a corner that he didn't see, a classmate's eyes flickered. After school, someone deliberately caught Su Mingcheng mentioned by Su Peizhi to investigate, and unexpectedly, he actually revealed Su Zhizhi's identity.

The man presented the results of the investigation to the emperor and used them to impeach Su Zhizhi and Xie Chengjin.

The emperor looked at the thing in front of him with a face full of surprise. He had never doubted Su Zhizhi's identity, and he had never thought that Su Zhizhi was actually the daughter of a criminal, regardless of whether Su Mingcheng was wronged in the beginning.

However, the families of exiled criminals were not allowed to enter the capital without an imperial edict. Su Zhizhi's action was a direct disobedience to the imperial edict. In serious cases, they would be executed directly.

The emperor did not reveal anything, but asked the minister to keep the news secret. If he made it public, he would lose his head.

The minister did not expect that the emperor was still protecting Su Zhizhi and Xie Chengjin at this time, and he could not help but change his opinion of Xie Chengjin. But what surprised him most was that this crime could not drag Xie Chengjin into the water, which shows the status of Xie Chengjin in the emperor's heart.

After the minister left, the emperor fell into deep thought. Su Zhizhi's true identity was still under discussion, and the emperor even suspected that someone was maliciously slandering her.

However, once this incident happened, if the emperor wanted to dispel his doubts, he secretly sent his confidant to investigate.

In fact, it is not that difficult to investigate Su Zhizhi's identity. As long as we go to the place where the Su family was exiled, we can get a general idea.

The emperor's men acted very quickly. In just three days, Su Zhizhi's entire life story was laid out before the emperor. The emperor had not expected that Su Zhizhi was so bold. In these materials, even Xie Chengjin was mentioned. In other words, the emperor knew that Xie Chengjin was the one who knew Su Zhizhi's true identity.

As a result, the emperor fell into deep thought. Su Zhizhi's identity was very troublesome, and the emperor must get rid of it, but the person who bothered the emperor the most now was Xie Chengjin.

After much deliberation, the emperor sent someone to secretly call Xie Chengjin into the palace late at night.

This kind of situation had happened before, so when Xie Chengjin received the emperor's summons in the middle of the night, he didn't think anything was wrong. After comforting Su Zhizhi for a while, he got up and went to the palace.

Late at night, in the Yangxin Palace, Xie Chengjin was brought here directly. The emperor was sitting in front of the table with his eyes lowered, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you." Xie Chengjin's voice of greeting rang out from the huge and quiet Hall of Mental Cultivation, and the emperor came back to his senses.

The emperor stared at Xie Chengjin with sharp eyes for a long time, but still did not speak. Xie Chengjin had no choice but to kneel there. He could feel the weird atmosphere around him, but he still said nothing.

After an unknown amount of time, the emperor finally spoke slowly, "Stand up and talk."

Xie Chengjin then stood up from the ground. His numb legs almost gave him no strength and he staggered a bit, but Xie Chengjin quickly steadied himself and pretended nothing had happened. He stood aside and waited for the emperor's orders.

The emperor pondered for a moment and waved his hand. The other eunuchs and palace maids in the Hall of Mental Cultivation retreated one after another. Soon, only Xie Chengjin and the emperor were left in the hall.

"Xie Chengjin, don't you have anything to say to me about your wife?" The emperor said in a deep voice.

As soon as these words were spoken, Xie Chengjin's heart skipped a beat. He realized that the emperor must have known something, but Xie Chengjin was not sure how much the emperor knew.

After pondering for a moment, Xie Chengjin said cautiously: "I am not sure what Your Majesty is talking about. Please clarify."

The emperor snorted coldly, "Thank you, my dear minister. I don't know what else you don't know."

"I deserve to die. I hope Your Majesty will calm down." Xie Chengjin knelt on the ground without saying a word.

"Forget it, since you don't want to say it, then I will say it, Xie Chengjin, your wife Su Zhizhi... is the eldest daughter of the guilty minister Su Mingcheng." The emperor's voice was not loud, but when it reached Xie Chengjin's ears, Xie Chengjin felt it was deafening.

"Your Majesty, let me know about her..." Xie Chengjin's face was pale, his fists were clenched tightly, and his whole body was tense to the extreme.

"Thank you, my dear minister, there is no need to say more. Think carefully before you speak. I know much more about the life experience of Su Zhizhi, the daughter of a guilty minister. Are you sure you want to continue deceiving the emperor?" The emperor completely exposed his royal majesty in front of Xie Chengjin.

"I dare not." Xie Chengjin lowered his head and uttered these words with difficulty.

For a moment, the palace was once again filled with silence. Looking at Xie Chengjin, who lowered his head and remained silent, the emperor sighed deeply and said, "My dear Xie, you should know what kind of crime it is for the daughter of a guilty minister to enter the capital without permission. I am not an unreasonable person. This matter can be left to you to resolve, but there is only one thing you must know: there are only two paths before you."

Xie Chengjin suppressed the murderous intent in his heart and replied, "I hope Your Majesty will make it clear."

"You can only choose one between your official career and Su Zhizhi's life." The emperor left this sentence and turned to walk towards the inner hall.

Then, the eunuch beside the emperor came to Xie Chengjin with a tray in his hand.

"Thank you, sir. This is something given to you by His Majesty. I believe it will be useful to you." As he spoke, the eunuch lifted the cloth on the tray, revealing only a white porcelain bottle on it.

Xie Chengjin's pupils suddenly shrank. He was very familiar with that porcelain bottle. It contained highly concentrated arsenic. Such a porcelain bottle could easily be used to make a pot of poisonous wine.