Rebirth of the High Family's Beloved

Yan Ci recalled the man he met in the Yongding Marquis Mansion, who was decadent but aggressive.

"The one who killed the fake Yuxiu?"

Xie Chengyin nodded, "It was him. He refused to say a word during this period of time, no matter if he was threatened, bribed, or tortured. Until yesterday, when Qicun reported to me about the New Year's Eve palace banquet, he suddenly spoke."

Not only Xie Chengyin was surprised, Yan Ci was also extremely surprised, "He cares about the New Year's Eve palace banquet, could it be someone in the palace?"

"I thought so too, so I read the list of names for the palace banquet to him. The names on the list were all well-known people from the previous dynasty and the harem. I thought that if he was familiar with the people on the list, he would definitely react when he heard the names. Guess whose name he reacted to?"

Yan Ci glanced at Xie Chengyin. How could she guess? There were so many people on the palace banquet list, and she might not even know how many of them were on it.

But since Xie Chengyin asked her, it means that she knows the person who moved Ding Si.

Yan Ci recalled in her mind the people she knew in the previous dynasty and the harem, and then connected them with the people who murdered Jiang Yun, and the person with the greatest suspicion appeared.

"Is it Empress Xiao or Concubine Qiu?"

Xie Chengyin raised the corner of his mouth slightly, revealing a meaningful smile: "Neither."

"No? Then who is it? Apart from the queen and the imperial concubine who have children, who else can Jiang Yun be a threat to if she takes the position of the crown princess?"

Xie Chengyin said: "Perhaps Ding Si killed the fake Yuxiu to cover up the truth of murdering the Crown Princess, but the person who made him speak was definitely not the one."

Yan Ci was even more curious about what could make Xie Chengyin so sure, "Who is this person?"

Xie Chengyin no longer kept the secret, he stared at Yan Ci seriously and said slowly: "It's Yan Tonglin."

Hearing this, Yan Ci's breathing stagnated, his eyes widened in shock, and his face was full of disbelief.

"Yan Tonglin? Are you sure?"

"No, not only that, I also found out that he didn't say anything not because he wanted to keep the secret for the person behind him, but because he simply didn't remember it."

"How could he not remember? If he doesn't remember who his master is, then who is he working for?"

Xie Chengyin is very patient. He used to be impulsive and impatient, but after starting over again, he discovered that many things cannot be solved in a hurry.

For example, the matter of Ding Si.

He asked Qicun to check his background and origins, but found nothing. However, he discovered something abnormal about Ding Si, and through this, they found clues.

Xie Chengyin poured two cups of tea for himself and Yan Ci, and said as he drank, "Do you remember the day when Ding Si suddenly convulsed? I thought he was sick, so I asked a doctor to see him, but he couldn't find anything wrong with him. My brother said he had seen this symptom before, and it wasn't a disease, it was a poison."

"Bewitched?"

"Yes, he was poisoned, that's why he forgot a lot of things."

Yan Ci pondered for a moment, "As far as I know, Gu has been extinct in our Daxing. In the early years, the witch tribe used Gu to harm people, and the previous emperor had already issued an order to ban Gu."

Xie Chengyin naturally knew about the ban on Gu, "But we did find a Gu worm in Ding Si's body, and it was a child Gu from a mother-child Gu."

The mother-child Gu, as the name suggests, is a combination of a child and a mother Gu. The person who casts the Gu holds the mother Gu in his hand, and then places the child Gu on the person he wants to control, in order to make the person work for his own purposes.

Xie Chengyin continued, "As the time a person is controlled by the Child-Mother Gu gets longer and longer, he loses more and more of his memory, until he completely loses his self-awareness and becomes a mindless puppet, used only by the Gu caster. But judging from Ding Si's situation, he is obsessed with his past memories deep in his heart, so the Gu caster was not able to completely erase his memory."

"Then why does he remember my father? Could he be an old friend of my father's?"

Yan Ci was thinking about it, and suddenly she remembered what Ding Si said to her when she met him that day. Ding Si said that he felt she was familiar.

I remember Yan Tonglin and she seemed familiar to me. Could she also be a member of the Yan family?

It’s a pity that she is not the real Yan Ci, otherwise she would have some impression of the people of the Yan family anyway.

"The situation is still unclear, so we should try to find a way to cure him. Maybe we can find some new clues."

Regardless of whether he was an enemy or a friend, Yan Ci felt that since he had spared her, out of humanitarianism, she would remove the poison for him as a reward. After all, those who controlled people with poisonous insects were not good people.

Xie Chengyin also had this plan, and he had already made inquiries in advance. "I will go to Tanta Country after the New Year. I heard that they still have wizards who raise Gu there. Maybe they know how to remove Gu."

After the two of them finished discussing it, it was already late. Xie Chengyin drank the tea in one gulp and stood up to leave. Thinking of the palace banquet tonight, he reminded them, "The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess will be at the palace banquet today. I'm sure Empress Xiao will not miss this opportunity. You must be careful."

Yan Ci watched Xie Chengyin's figure disappear in the vast snow, and then he realized that his clothes had dried. However, thinking of the palace banquet in the evening, he got up and went into the inner hall to change clothes before leaving.

Chonghua Palace.

Crown Prince Shen Zhaoyong walked out of the inner hall holding Jiang Yun's hand.

Shen Zhaoyong was wearing the prince's dragon robe, with a four-clawed golden python coiled in front of his chest, and colorful auspicious clouds under his four claws. Even though he was frail, he looked much better against the backdrop of the bright yellow dragon robe.

A dark cloak covered the bright yellow prince's attire, adding some nobility and solemnity.

He turned around, took the thick cloak from the maid and put it on Jiang Yun beside him. After making sure that they were all wrapped up tightly, they went out together.

Jiang Yun had just become pregnant and the baby was not yet fully developed, so Shen Zhaoyong originally had no plans to attend the palace banquet.

But the New Year's Eve palace banquet is an annual festival banquet. As the crown prince of a country, it is okay for him not to attend ordinary small banquets, but it would be unreasonable if he did not show up at such a banquet again.

Moreover, this was the first New Year's Day after Jiang Yun married into the Eastern Palace. Their attendance together was also a way of explaining to the royal family and all the civil and military officials.

The two of them supported each other as they walked on the thick snow, all the way towards the Fengtian Hall.

The civil and military officials attending the palace banquet had already arrived at the Fengtian Hall and took their seats in their corresponding seats.

Yan Tonglin and his wife Jiang Qingqing greeted their familiar colleagues and then sat down. However, when they were led by the palace maid to the third table, he stopped in a daze.

He couldn't help but ask, "Is this a mistake?"

The maid knelt politely and saluted, "Sir, are you the Minister of Revenue, Lord Yan?"

Yan Tonglin nodded reluctantly, "That's right."

The palace maid smiled sweetly, "That's right, this is Master Yan's seat, please take a seat, Master and Madam."

The palace maid left leisurely. Yan Tonglin looked at the position so close to the front and he would be lying if he said he was not nervous.

Although he was promoted from the fourth rank to the third rank, his seat was too far to the front. He clearly saw that the Guanglu Temple officials with the same official rank as him were sitting at the fifth table.

Yan Tonglin stood in front of the table, not knowing whether to sit or not.

As more and more officials came in, they couldn't help but cast puzzled glances at Yan Tonglin who was standing there.