The Changchun Palace team travels back in time to Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

Jinzhong returned to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, where the young eunuch who had gone to investigate as he had instructed was already waiting in the courtyard. Upon seeing Jinzhong, the eunuch reported, "Eunuch Jinzhong, I followed that person all the way back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The person's back view does resemble..."

He wrote the character "王" (king) on ​​his hand.

Jinzhong understood, and with a smile, he took out a piece of silver and stuffed it into the little eunuch's hand: "Alright, you helped your brother a lot today. This is a reward from Her Majesty the Empress. Let's share in Her Majesty's good fortune. But this matter is only between the Emperor, the Empress, and you and me."

The young eunuch exclaimed happily, "Hey, please come in! I've been by your side all night and haven't gone anywhere!"

Jinzhong turned around, his smile vanished, and he walked into the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

As soon as he entered the Hall of Mental Cultivation, he saw Wang Qin scolding Li Yu: "You think you're all grown up now? It's a good thing I didn't go back to my room, but you had to cause trouble."

Li Yu replied meekly, "The Imperial Concubine has fallen ill with a cold, and His Majesty has always been concerned for her."

Wang Qin said sarcastically, "You're not stupid, you're incredibly smart! You see me being suspicious, so you suddenly stab me."

He caught sight of Jinzhong entering and said coldly, "Stop! Where are you going?"

Jinzhong smiled and said, "Eunuch Wang, His Majesty is waiting for me to go in and report. What do you think..."

Wang Qin roared, "You little brat, don't think that just because you've done one clever scheme, you can climb the social ladder and rise to the top! You spineless wretch, get out of here!"

Then he said to Li Yu, "The Emperor put you in charge of the affairs of the harem, and you think you can climb up the ranks? With me here, don't even think about it!"

Jinzhong nodded obsequiously, but inwardly he sneered: I haven't even said anything yet, and you've already revealed everything. Don't blame me for that.

He entered the bedchamber. The emperor did not change his clothes and sat on the couch with his left hand supporting his head.

After Jinzhong finished his bow, he gave a detailed account of the Empress's instructions and his own actions. He concluded by adding, "When I was cleaning the body, I saw a figure through the latticed window. However, the snow was too heavy, and I couldn't make out who it was. I only vaguely saw that the person was wearing a dark red robe."

The emperor slapped his thigh in anger: "Who is so bold as to dare to spy on us!"

Jinzhong said, "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. It must have been some ignorant servant who didn't know to leave. This servant fears that if someone else had witnessed tonight's events, it would leak out..."

The Emperor pinched the bridge of his nose, pondered for a moment, and then said, "You go and investigate this matter. Also, you and Qin Li will personally handle Xiangyun's funeral arrangements."

Jinzhong accepted the order and left.

The next day, Jinzhong and Qin Li disguised themselves as peasants. Seeing that Qin Li was carrying a satchel, Jinzhong joked, "Eunuch Qin, your disguise is so realistic!" Qin Li said bitterly, "Eunuch Jinzhong, please don't tease me. Getting this job is really... I don't know how to explain it."

Jinzhong said helplessly, "There's nothing we can do. The Emperor's intention is that this matter must be kept secret, and the fewer people involved, the better. This is also because the Emperor trusts us."

Qin Li felt bitter: Why is it that the trust his master receives is for such an enviable task as rebuilding Yongshou Palace, while mine is this kind of job!

The two men personally escorted a carriage out of the Forbidden City.

The two arrived at the mass grave and were about to set up a fire to cremate the corpses when they suddenly heard a shout of "Stop!" Then they felt a chill on their necks as two knives were pressed against them.

The two men were terrified, their hair standing on end and their bodies trembling. Qin Li shouted, "I'll give you all the money! Let me go!"

Jinzhong said, "Heroes, we are only burning the body of an orphan girl in the village because she suddenly died of an illness. I'm afraid we won't get what you want. Put down your knives and let's talk."

A masked man sneered, "Is that so?"

He stepped forward and pulled back the straw mat, revealing a corpse whose face had begun to rot. He then peeled off a coarse outer robe covering the corpse, revealing the palace maid's clothes. He used the scabbard to lift the woman's chin and saw a hole in her neck, which gave him an even better idea.

He said, "Pretend this never happened. Go back and tell your families that the body has been cremated and all these banknotes are yours. Otherwise, your grandfather will take your life right now!"

Jinzhong sensed something was wrong, and noticing the masked man's somewhat shrill voice, he became suspicious. He forced himself to stall for time, saying, "This...we're afraid we won't be able to explain this..."

The masked man said, "What? Are you trying to cause trouble?"

Suddenly a voice rang out: "What kind of villain is this! How dare you rob someone in broad daylight!"

The masked man turned around and saw a scholar-like man standing a dozen steps away with a pageboy, the two of them slowly approaching, each holding a wooden stick.

The masked man cursed, "Mind your own business!" As he spoke, he turned his head, and another masked man stepped forward with a knife.

The scholar, however, remained fearless and shouted, "I am a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) during the Yongzheng era and a Shujishi (junior compiler) in the Hanlin Academy. You lowly scoundrels dare to attack me!"

This shout startled several masked men. One of them approached the leader and asked, "There's one more person now, what do we do?"

Before the masked leader could respond, Qin Li, taking advantage of the fact that everyone's attention was on the scholar, suddenly rammed into him, knocking the masked man who was holding him hostage to the ground.

Before anyone else could react, he quickly took off his satchel, pulled out a short, close-fitting musket for riding, and pressed it against the masked man's back: "Don't do anything rash! We can always go our separate ways!"

The scholar's view was blocked by the masked man, so he didn't see Qin Li raise his gun. He only saw the masked men stunned and thought they were intimidated by him. He immediately rushed forward and hit the masked man in the lead with a stick!

The masked man was struck in the chest and immediately fell backward, where he was caught by two other masked men.

Seeing that the other side had more people and guns, the three masked men immediately fled.

The two of them finally breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

The scholar, passing by, initially thought there were highway robbers. Since the mass grave was deserted and reporting to the authorities was too late, and the robbers were only three, he bravely offered his assistance. However, upon seeing the small, exquisite musket Qin Li had pulled out—not something an ordinary hunter could possess—and then noticing the female corpse dressed in palace maid's clothing behind them after the masked men dispersed, he suddenly realized: these two were clearly palace eunuchs burying a palace maid's body!

He immediately felt as if he had stumbled upon some palace secret, and shouted, "Now that those villains are gone, please make yourselves at home! We're leaving now!" He then turned to leave.

Jinzhong had initially thought this man was a bookworm, but seeing his reaction, he realized he was quite clever. So he said, "My benefactor, please tell us your name and address so that we brothers can have a chance to repay this life-saving grace."

His plan was that this person had seen everything, both what he should and shouldn't have seen. He was a Hanlin scholar who had done him a favor, so he couldn't silence him. If he knew who this person was, he could better deal with any future demands for hush money or other punishments from the Emperor.

The scholar waved his hand and said, "It was nothing, not worth mentioning!" Then he walked away quickly without looking back.

Jin Zhong and Qin Li slumped to the ground, and it took them a long time to shakily get up.

Jinzhong breathed a sigh of relief: "That was a close call." He then turned to Qin Li and asked, "Eunuch Qin, what's the deal with this musket? Did you take it from the Imperial Bird Gun arsenal?"

Qin Li patted him on the shoulder: "What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'going with the flow'? I'm just borrowing! I'll put it back later!"

As he spoke, he stepped forward and wrapped Xiangyun's body again with a straw mat, muttering to himself, "Look at this little palace maid, there's a hole in her neck, and no blood stasis around the hole. And the spots on her hands are so heavy, and her face is rotten. Look at yourself, does she look like she just died last night?"

This is practically like a ghost from a Chinese ghost story! I need to grab a gun to ward off evil spirits!

Jinzhong said, "It's really weird."

The fact that they'd risk their lives to frame Consort Xian is bizarre enough. But we can't tell Qin Li about this.

Qin Li then said, "Alright, the evil spirits we're exorcising aren't Xiangyun anymore! Eunuch Jinzhong, do you have any clues about this group of people today?"

Jinzhong already had a guess in his mind: Wang Qin was probably the one who tipped him off! In the current situation, no matter who those masked men were, they had already alerted Wang Qin. If he didn't take him down, how could he expect to have a good future under Wang Qin's command?

He then said, "What clues could I possibly have? I just saw Eunuch Wang reprimanding my master, Li Yu, yesterday because he stood up for me. I've been keeping a low profile these past few days, and even if something happens, I dare not speculate or say anything. What if I accidentally offend Eunuch Wang..."

Qin Li's eyes darted around, and the two exchanged a smile.

A few days later, the emperor received Zhao Hui's memorial.

In his memorial, Zhao Hui impeached Narbu for being incompetent and useless. Narbu's family had even severely punished a shaman for making an incorrect prophecy, ultimately causing the shaman to die from his injuries. Such a mediocre and cruel person was truly unfit for the position of Zuo Ling.

After Zhao Hui took office in the Ministry of War, he carefully examined all the officials under his command in order to appoint people based on their merits and to promote integrity and eliminate corruption. Zuo Ling Narbu came from the Ulanara clan. It was said that "the Ulanara clan had no important ministers from the previous dynasty, only women in the harem." Most of the men in the family held hereditary official positions or obtained their positions through nepotism with relatives in the harem. Therefore, most of them were mediocre and incompetent, and Narbu was no exception.

Zhao Hui was already dissatisfied with him for holding a position without performing his duties, but being cautious and meticulous by nature, she decided to investigate further and sent someone to conduct a visit. Unexpectedly, the investigation revealed that a few years ago, the Narbu family severely punished the young shaman because a shaman's prophecy was wrong, and later withheld the reward money his mother had given him for performing rituals, causing him to die from his injuries.

The Xiangyun family was a well-known shaman in the area, and the events of that year were the subject of much discussion. After Xiangyun's death, her mother also pleaded for help. However, the Xiangyun family were Han Chinese, but not Han Bannermen or Bondservants, while the Narbu family were from the Bordered Blue Banner and were hereditary fourth-rank officers. Therefore, the case was concluded on the grounds that "the master was deceived by a charlatan and ordered his servants to question him. The servants accidentally killed the charlatan." Only a few servants of the Narbu family were punished.

Zhao Hui's investigation unexpectedly uncovered this old case. After investigating the details, he felt that Narbu was not worthy of being an official because he oppressed the people so much. Although he knew that Narbu was the father of Consort Xian, he was also from a prestigious family and had no fear of the Ulanara clan, which had fallen into decline. Moreover, he was upright and honest, so he directly submitted a memorial to the emperor.

Upon seeing the details, the Emperor became somewhat irritated: Narbu was Ruyi's father, and he could not disregard Ruyi's feelings; however, Zhao Hui's proposal was reasonable and well-founded, and Zhao Hui himself was a trusted confidant whom he wanted to promote and train to counterbalance various forces. If he did not support him, he feared that Zhao Hui would find it difficult to gain a foothold among the various forces.

He asked Fu Qing, the Yunhui Envoy on duty, "Fu Qing, what do you think of Zhao Hui's memorial impeaching Narbu?"

Fu Qing replied, “Your Majesty is wise, and Lord Zhao Hui is loyal and cautious. However, this servant believes that we should still carefully examine whether the matter he reported is true, and then let Your Majesty make the final decision.”

The Emperor said, "The Empress and you are siblings from the same mother, and indeed you have similar temperaments, both being upright and dutiful."

Fu Qing said, "This servant thanks Your Majesty for the compliment."

Although the emperor wore an approving smile, there was no smile in his eyes.

These past few days, the Empress has been investigating the case of the silver rabbit hairpin, and he is also very concerned about it.

If it were said that Consort Xian conspired with Noble Lady Hai to steal the Imperial Concubine's belongings and then frame her, the Emperor would absolutely refuse to believe that his childhood sweetheart, who was always as gentle as a chrysanthemum, would do such a thing. But if it was the Imperial Concubine who framed her, her illness was not feigned, and even if Xiangyun was bribed by the Imperial Concubine, what reason would she have to use her own death to slander her mistress? Moreover, after Xiangyun's death, just as she said, not a drop of blood was shed. Could it be that her words were not entirely false?

Although the Empress has suppressed the rumors, news has still leaked due to the presence of observant individuals, inevitably placing Yanxi Palace in the eye of the storm. Jinzhong's report is even more alarming: someone is trying to seize Xiangyun's body, and these people are likely eunuchs. Who are these people behind the scenes? What are their motives? Is it related to Hongxi?

At this critical moment, Zhao Hui turned her attention to Consort Xian's father, and the emperor bit his lip in annoyance.

At this moment, Jinzhong entered, greeted the two men, and whispered, "Your Majesty, this servant has something to report."

Upon seeing this, Fu Qing immediately went out to check.

Seeing that no one was around, Jinzhong said, "This servant has already investigated and found out that Eunuch Chenghan in the Empress Dowager's palace has not been on duty these past two days, saying that he is ill."

The Emperor asked, "Are you sure?"

Jinzhong said, "When I sneaked into his room, I saw a bruise on his chest while he was changing his clothes."

Actually, Qin Li had used a potent tranquilizer that he'd somehow managed to find in some obscure corner to completely intoxicate Cheng Han, and then pulled his clothes off to check. There was no mistake about that. He didn't say this aloud.

A hint of malice flashed across the emperor's face, but it quickly disappeared. He waved for him to leave.