The abandoned concubine who transmigrated woke up shouting "Long live the widow!"

Jingxue nodded slightly after hearing Ye Muchen's words and said, "Thank you! I will."

Ye Muchen knew she was in a bad mood, so he didn't linger any longer; he also needed to investigate.

After saying that she was unlucky, Jingxue began to use her supernatural abilities to observe the people in the courtyard, mainly the palace maids and eunuchs from the former Yichun Palace.

After lunch, she saw the eunuch Fu Lai carrying two food boxes out.

This guy named Fulai is very active. He's the one who usually handles all the reporting when people come and go, and he seems to have more opportunities to go out than others.

Logically, as the head eunuch of this palace, the task of fetching meals and delivering food boxes could have been assigned to a junior eunuch, but he was the one who went out more often.

Jingxue had seen Fulai carrying a food box out twice before, but she hadn't paid any attention to it.

Today, her special ability led her to the main kitchen with Fu Lai.

After delivering the food boxes, she saw Fu Lai looking around as if he was waiting for someone, but she waited for a long time without seeing him interact with anyone.

In the end, Fu Lai returned to Yichun Palace dejectedly.

Fu Lai was incredibly nervous all morning. In fact, ever since Cheng An told him that Consort Li wanted to find someone to help her with some things, Fu Lai's mind had been racing.

At first, he was excited because Cheng An said that Consort Li had said that she would give him more benefits this time. As long as the matter was handled, he would be given 100 taels of silver regardless of whether the matter was successful or not. Fu Lai thought that if he could earn 100 taels, he could pay off all the money he owed at once.

But Cheng'an said the next day that this matter was difficult to handle and somewhat risky, and that they had not yet found a suitable person.

Fu Lai tried his best to persuade Cheng An to recommend him to Consort Li. When Cheng An finally agreed, Fu Lai waited anxiously for two days without receiving a reply from Consort Li.

The two eunuchs who owed him money came to him asking for it back, which made Fu Lai even more eager for Consort Li to agree to use him.

Finally, on the fourth day, Cheng An gave him something similar: a small box containing poisonous snakes, and told him what to do with it.

When Fu Lai first heard about the task, he wanted to refuse, but Cheng An said that since he already knew about it, if he didn't do it, he would die, but if he did it, he could live and get money. Even if he reported it, no one would believe his side of the story, and he would be accused of framing a nobleman.

In this way, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it in order to survive.

Cheng An clearly told him that the target was the Princess Consort's younger brother, that he couldn't give any other children a hundred taels of silver, and that he only had three days.

Fu Lai observed that of the children brought by Princess Zhan, the eldest little girl went to class with Princess Zhan every day, while the other three children would come out to play for a while every morning when the sun was shining.

The only opportunity was that time. Today, he timed it perfectly and, taking advantage of the moment when no one was looking, released the sleeping snake into the snowdrift.

When Jingze went to the snowdrift to play with snow, he didn't touch the snake the first time, but he did startle it. The second time, the snake opened its mouth and bit Jingze.

When Fu Lai heard Jing Ze crying, he was the first to run to the yard to help.

By the time the War King returned and began interrogating the servants, Fu Lai was no longer so afraid; he was already fantasizing about receiving the silver.

However, to his surprise, it wasn't until evening that he saw Cheng'an on his way back to Yichun Palace from the main kitchen. Cheng'an didn't chat with him as warmly as before; he simply gave him a hundred-tael silver note when they greeted each other and then left.

Fu Lai clutched the silver note and walked back normally, but he was very excited. This job was really good; the child was not in danger, and he had completed his mission.

But when he pushed open the gate of Yichun Palace, he saw the Prince of War and his wife, along with the male guards and high-ranking guards that the wife had brought, all standing in the courtyard. Fu Lai was startled and instinctively wanted to turn around.

But then they heard the War King shout, "Seize this eunuch for me!"

Fu Lai didn't see a man in black appear out of nowhere. He grabbed Fu Lai by the collar and dragged him into the yard. Then he kicked Fu Lai in the back of the knee, and Fu Lai knelt on the ground.

"Search him!" Jingxue said.

The man in black quickly searched Fu Lai's body and found the hundred-tael silver note, which he then handed to Jing Xue.

Ye Muchen glanced at the silver notes. "Tell me! What have you done?"

Fu Lai knelt nervously on the ground. "Your Highness, this servant did nothing. I just went to the main kitchen to deliver food boxes and came back!"

Jingxue asked, "Why did the eunuch you met on the road give you money?"

"Your Highness, that's money Cheng'an owes this servant!"

"Hmph!" Jingxue snorted coldly, taking a box from behind her. "Do you recognize this box? It was found under the stone slab under your bed in your room. There are snake scales inside. How do you explain that?"

Fu Lai was startled, because as the head eunuch, he lived in a suite. He had put the box in that morning. He was in a panic after releasing the snake, so he couldn't have noticed the tiny scales.

How did Princess Consort Zhan find out?

"This servant...this servant doesn't know!" Fu Lai knelt on the ground, his body trembling violently.

"Do you think you can get away with it by saying you don't know?" Ye Muchen's voice was even colder than the weather outside.

"Since you say that Cheng An owes you money, then I, the Princess Consort, ask you, which palace does Cheng An belong to, and who is his master? Surely you know that?" Jingxue asked.

Fu Lai had no choice but to answer this question: "Cheng An is from Consort Li's palace."

Upon hearing this, Jingxue understood immediately. That was Prime Minister Zou's own daughter; they were all in cahoots.

"Fu Lai, I'm giving you one last chance. If you still don't confess, don't blame me for being ruthless. I have a hundred ways to make you talk, but if you take the initiative to talk, I might let you off the hook..." Jing Xue didn't say she would spare his life.

However, Fu Lai interpreted it as meaning that he could be spared the death penalty.

"This servant will speak, this servant will speak," Fu Lai kowtowed repeatedly.

"Alright! Go ahead and say it!" Jingxue exhaled and took a step back.

“Since the day after the nobles moved into the East Palace, I ran into Cheng’an at the entrance of the main kitchen. Since we used to work in the East Palace, I chatted with him for a while, and after that I saw him almost every day.”

“He told me that Consort Li was very kind to the servants and often gave them silver as a reward. Later, he even took me to see Consort Li, and Consort Li indeed gave me two large silver ingots as soon as we met.”

"Then, later, Cheng'an told me that Consort Li wanted to find someone to do something, and that she should be able to get a lot of money afterward. I also wanted to earn money, so I asked what it was. At first, Cheng'an refused to say."

"Later, I asked several more times, and Cheng An finally said that Consort Li had a grudge against Princess Zhan and wanted to find someone to take revenge on her and scare her brother. I thought this was easy and would be profitable, so I said I wanted to do it, but I was just following orders!"

Jingxue didn't want to listen to his rambling anymore and asked directly, "Did Cheng'an give you that snake?"