I have a book to play

After all, the cold palace seemed a little deserted, even in broad daylight, it was rare to see people coming and going in the front palace.

Sandalwood is burned in the Qingning Palace, and the smell is elegant.Yuan Lin came out of the hall with a medicine bowl in his hand, before he took two steps, he suddenly stood there, staring at the man walking slowly from a distance for a long time, with trembling lips, he knelt down before anyone approached down.

"Slave Yuanlin, please meet the... the eldest prince!"

There are also a few new maids in the Qingning Palace, most of whom were selected by Emperor Xihe after the Yuan Empress was abolished. They have no roots in the palace and can only rely on the children of the Yuan Empress.

These little maids and servants have never met the eldest prince, they only vaguely know that the Empress Yuan had two sons, the eldest son became a monk and the youngest son was raised by the queen.

Originally, they were a little surprised when they saw the person coming, and tried to stop him for questioning, but before they could say anything, they saw Yuan's servant who was serving by Empress Yuan had knelt down and kowtowed. The word "Eldest Prince" was like a thunderbolt, causing a headache. After a few thuds, all the maids and servants standing beside them knelt down.

Xie Chen looked at Yuan Lin, clasped his hands together, and bowed slightly: "Please ask the benefactor to report to the empress, just say Changhe and ask to see you."

The Empress Yuan was only abolished, but not reduced to common people, so the "mother" is well deserved.Just hearing Xie Chen call his biological mother like this, even though he only saw Yuan Lin in the portrait, he felt extremely regretful.

He didn't dare to delay, he handed the medicine bowl in his hand to the maid beside him, got up and ran back to the palace to report.After a while, he reappeared with a red nose: "The eldest prince, please come in! Your empress is waiting in the hall."

Due to the arrival of Xie Chen, Qingning Palace fell into chaos for a while, but inside the palace, the mother and son who hadn't seen each other for many years stood facing each other, but they were speechless for a moment.

Looking at the eldest son who had been looking forward to seeing her again, Empress Yuan's eyes were flushed, her lips trembled and she wanted to speak, but she couldn't make a sound.

The eldest son was forced to separate mother and child when he was 12 years old. For so many years, one lived in an ancient temple in the mountains, and the other survived in the cold palace.She was looking forward to seeing her child again all the time, even if it was only for one time...

Empress Yuan choked up and covered her face, until she was embraced by someone, until she heard the "A Niang" who had been waiting for more than ten years in her ear, and then she wailed loudly: "Chen'er...my Chen'er!"

She couldn't stop crying, and all the maids and servants standing in the palace had red eyes.Only Xie Chen heaved a long sigh.

By the time Empress Yuan stopped crying, a long time had passed.Knowing that their mother and son were reunited, Yuan Lin must have a lot to say, so he led the maids and servants and retreated from the palace.

"Chen'er, how are you doing on the mountain now?" Empress Yuan grabbed Xie Chen's arm, took a step back, and looked at him carefully from beginning to end. The more she looked at her, the redder her eyes became, "You have grown taller. I've grown up." She raised her eyes and looked at Xie Chen's round head, her heart ached, "If you hadn't become a monk, you should be a father at your age... It's Aniang who is useless, unable to protect you... "

Everyone knows that the reason why the prince became a monk back then was not because the so-called queen mother was seriously ill, and it was necessary for the prince to become a monk in order to live a long and permanent life.That was just an excuse, just like the Pei family was going to collapse, collaborating with the enemy or treason, it was just someone deliberately doing it.

Otherwise, how could Emperor Xihe have allowed a traitorous Pei family to be exiled to a frontier fortress like Xizhou, and how could he have abolished the Empress Yuan, but did not let Concubine Pei Xian move into this cold palace together.

But no matter what Emperor Xihe did, to outsiders, the reality is that the crown prince was deposed, the Empress Yuan was deposed, and the Pei family was exiled for thousands of miles.

No one will ponder the truth behind it, except those loyal ministers who are unwilling to live under the confinement of Shang Shuling and the royal family.

Xie Chen talked with Empress Yuan for a long time. He has lived in Buddhism for more than ten years now, and his former edges and corners have long been washed away by Buddhist sandalwood.His precious appearance is as majestic as a god and Buddha, and his every move seems to transcend the secular world.

Emperor Yuan learned from him that he entered the palace this time because many people's bones were found in the dry well of the East Palace. Emperor Xihe was furious and ordered the third envoy to conduct a thorough investigation, and invited several eminent monks from Jingming Temple to the palace to rescue the dead. She shook her head .

"The dry well in the East Palace...the person who threw the corpse back then probably never imagined that one day, someone would find a place to hide the corpse in the East Palace."

"It was also discovered by accident, I'm afraid that the person didn't expect this day at all."

Empress Yuan nodded: "Since you have returned to the palace, you will go to see Yu'er on behalf of Aniang... Chen'er, what's the matter?"

She had only spoken halfway, and she couldn't help but feel surprised when she saw Xie Chen suddenly turn his face to look outside the hall.

Xie Chen remained silent, got up and walked to the window.

The windows in the hall are closed, Yuan Lin and the others guard the outside, so there is no need to worry about the walls having ears.But as soon as he pushed open the window, before Yuan Lin stepped forward to ask, he saw a gray pigeon flying in from the window flapping its wings.

Xie Chen reached out and grabbed the pigeon, and untied a note from its wing with one hand.

There was a line of words written on the scraped note, and his expression became a little bad immediately after reading it.

Empress Yuan also came over at this time, worried: "Chen'er, what happened?"

Xie Chen turned his head, the note was rubbed between his fingers, and soon only scraps remained: "I have something to do, my son needs to go first."

*****

It was the first time that so many people from the Ministry of Criminal Justice, Dali Temple and Yushitai entered the East Palace.

Even without Emperor Xihe's will, probably no one in the East Palace would dare to approach him at this time.Xie Zhang couldn't, and the women around him naturally didn't have the guts.For a while, there was only a group of people who were responsible for thoroughly investigating the case near the dry well.

In this way, it was convenient for Sun Peng to follow to the dry well.

The Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment was surnamed Yu, who was about the same age as Sun Junliang, and beside him was Ke Shilang, who was equally expressionless as him.On the other side of the Yushitai, Yushi Zhongcheng brought a few master books, holding pens and inks, as if he was going to write a sentence and write it down.

However, this dry well is like a bottomless pit. After three complete skeletons were fished out, the further down they went, the more broken bones were found one after another.Therefore, the work originally brought in for autopsy has added another heavy task-joining the bones.

"How many bones have been found so far?"

"There are no fewer than seven."

"Seven..." Yu Shangshu and Sun Junliang looked at each other and frowned, "Do you know men and women?"

"The bones of men are white, and the bones of women are black. There should be three men and four women here."

"Know your identity?"

This question is for the accompanying master book of Dali Temple.

Sun Peng, who pretended to be the chief bookkeeper, held the roster of all the palace maids and servants in his hand, bowed and said: "The one I found earlier, with a waist card as evidence, is named □□Ying, and is a maid in charge of the imperial dining room."

Sun Junliang nodded, then asked Wu Zuo: "What is the cause of death?"

"This girl was beaten before, and her skull has a rectangular blue halo, which was damaged by an external force, with fractures and congestion. The body starts from the skull, the bridge of the nose, the two eye sockets, the two temples, and the left arm. , Ribs, crotch and tail maggots are covered with dried red blood, all of which can prove that this girl died of torture, maybe...maybe she was raped before her death."

"Where are the other ones?"

"This one is a man, but judging from his bone size, he should be a servant."

"What was the cause of death?"

"Before he was alive, he was raped, and then he died by stuffing his mouth and nose."

The two corpses in a row had been raped before, and Yu Shangshu's face had already darkened.Sun Junliang's expression was not so good either, he turned his head to look at the Golden Pavilion of Qionglou in the East Palace, and sighed a long time.

The master book of Yushitai wrote diligently, carefully recording what Wu Zuo said.He stopped writing suddenly, raised his hand and asked suddenly: "My lord, do you want to continue digging this dry well?"

The person who dug the dry well was sent by the Ministry of Industry. If he hadn't been instructed, he would have been scared out of his wits by a bone.But if the digging continues, more and more bones will be dug, and the more the matter is investigated, the more involved it will be, so what should be done.

Yu Shangshu glanced at Sun Peng, who was already squatting in front of the corpse, without any fear, instead he couldn't stop talking to Wu Zuo, and angrily said to the head of Yushitai: "Dig. How many corpses can be assembled here!"

The master was speechless, so he had to look at Yushi Zhongcheng.The latter obviously lost his temper, and said angrily, "Why didn't you dig it? If it hadn't been accidentally discovered, how many people in this dry well would have no place to rest their eyes!"

Sun Junliang pursed his lips, bent down and picked up a handful of silt shoveled up from the bottom beside the dry well, and rubbed his fingers: "If the well can't be smashed, replace someone else to dig until it reaches the bottom."

He turned his head while talking, seeing that Yu Shangshu and everyone at Yushitai were not looking this way, he pulled Sun Peng up and said, "What do you think of this matter?"

Sun Peng's mind was still full of those bones covered with cracks and bruises, and his face was a little ugly: "The East Palace is such an important place, who would have the guts to throw someone dead into the dry well of the East Palace?"

Sun Junliang said lightly, "Of course."

"Who?"

"Master of the Eastern Palace."

"But I have seen them carry the dead out of the East Palace..." Sun Peng clenched his fists slightly, "I know, most likely, he has something to do with this matter, but so many... not only Chunying and Xiaogouzi, but also There are so many people...how dare he..."

"Why not?" Sun Junliang didn't feel offended at all, and said coldly, "He is the crown prince, the master of the East Palace, and the heir of Da Chu. As long as the eldest prince does not return to vulgarity, and the third prince is adopted by the queen, no one can threaten him." His status is only to offend a few maids and servants, kill them to silence him, how dare he not."

"Father..."

"The only thing I regret now is that I couldn't send your sister to Xizhou, or twisted her hair to be a sister-in-law. It's better than being forced to marry this bastard."

While talking, a servant timidly came forward to report, saying that someone from the Empress Dowager wanted to move these bones out of the East Palace, so as not to spoil the luck in the palace and bump into the sons and grandsons of the dragon.

Although there is a ban by Emperor Xihe that no one who has nothing to do with it is not allowed to approach the dry well, but the people who come are people around the Queen Mother.Naturally, the Ministry of Justice and Dali Temple did not dare to neglect, but Yushi Zhongcheng frowned.

Censor Zhongcheng is a tough one. Over the years, Zhezi has been involved with some officials around the prince, and he never liked the queen mother who asked the former prince to become a monk to "cure" him.Seeing the seriousness of the case, but the queen dowager intervened again, he obviously started to prepare a manuscript, and planned to have the queen dowager take part in the book tomorrow morning.

"The Empress Dowager said that this East Palace is the residence of Prince Chu after all, and now there is Liangdi Fengyi who is pregnant in the East Palace, even if you want to investigate the case, you shouldn't let these dirty things collide with Longzi Long Sun, the Empress Dowager ordered the Miscellaneous Family to lead people to take all these pickled things out of the palace, how many adults agree?"

The question was for a question, but the servant who spoke had a haughty expression on his face, not to mention waiting for the third envoy to reply, he just waved his hand and ordered the guards who followed behind to go forward to remove the bones.

Sun Peng stepped forward a few steps, blocked the guards, and said: "Your Majesty has an order that no one who has nothing to do with you should not approach the dry well, or hinder the third envoy from investigating the case. The queen mother has always been kind, so why don't you know what your majesty did? I think it's you lawless dog slaves. , Falsely passing on the Queen Mother Yizhi, it is clear that he knew who was buried in the well, and wanted to take the opportunity to destroy the bones, so that the case could not be investigated!"

Sun Junliang frowned subtly, but he didn't intend to puncture his son's remarks at all, instead he said angrily: "Come here, suppress these dog slaves and send them to Your Majesty, just say that this group of dog slaves, Concealing the top and the bottom, falsely preaching the Queen Mother's edict, may be related to the case of the dead body in the dry well, please make a decision!"

The waiter thought he was used to pretending to be powerful, how could he expect such things to happen to him, so he yelled immediately.But at this moment, a voice came loudly.

"The Emperor is here—"

This cry seemed to give the servant enough confidence. Sun Peng watched him break free, and fell down in front of Emperor Xihe with a tiger, and shouted: "Your Majesty, this servant is following the Queen Mother's order to remove these bones. In order not to collide too much..."

He didn't say a word, and "Amitabha" completely blocked the content in his mouth.

It wasn't until this time that Sun Peng realized that among the people who followed closely behind Emperor Xihe, there were unexpectedly a few more familiar monks.

And Xie Chen is in it.

The moon-white monk's robe and the incense sandalwood Buddha beads are like gods and Buddhas in the world, and their eyes are like moonlight, clear and distant.

The author has something to say:

Remarks:

①About "men's bones are white, women's bones are black": This saying comes from Song Ci's book "Washing Wrongs".But this statement is actually wrong. The scientific research of later generations shows that there is no difference in the color of bones between men and women of the same age group, and they are generally light yellow or off-white.As for why Song Ci wrote it this way, the meaning in the book is that the woman's menstrual blood flowed like a river, so her bones were black, like poisoning. ==Inexplicably think of a creature...silkie...a magical species with black bones...