I was a princess in ancient times

However, Ji Xinxue never expected that the first person to show his flaws due to the fake death drug was the small official of the Ministry of Punishment.

The feigned death medicine prepared by Zhu Taiyi will cause the person taking the medicine to bleed from the seven orifices within two hours, and gradually stop breathing.Keep this state for about five to eight hours, and then gradually return to normal.

This kind of medicine is not specially researched for 'fake death', it is essentially an antidote for attacking poison with poison, and it is most suitable for people who have been poisoned to the point of no cure to continue their life.

If people who have never been poisoned take this medicine and do not receive timely treatment, they will also be at risk of being poisoned to death.

It was broad daylight, and when the Jinwu guards were changing shifts, Ji Cheng came to the prison again.

He fixed his eyes on the three assassins who had been completely stiffened by the Jinwu Guards feeding them medicine.The indistinguishable color in the eyes is getting brighter and brighter, and it is more frightening than the usual irritable appearance.

The assassins who had already been shocked by what happened yesterday stiffly looked away, and were suddenly shivered by the cold wind blowing in through the crack of the door.

"Chop it up and throw it out to feed the dogs." Ji Cheng pointed at the corpse and said.

Immediately, several strong Jinwu Guards strode towards the chain, and the sound of the keys hitting the copper lock was clearly heard by everyone.

The old wooden door wailed first, followed by the sound of firm and hasty footsteps, as if the sharp blade carrying the streamer attracted everyone's attention immediately.

Ji Cheng was shocked, and subconsciously shouted, "Drag it out and hack it, don't stay here!"

what happened?

Didn't Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue tell Jin Wuwei that these people are still alive?

Jin Wuwei's blade stopped in mid-air, and in Ji Cheng's hesitant gaze, he took Liu, Shiba and 21 away like a sack.

It wasn't until the prison gate was closed again that Ji Cheng looked away absently.

He casually grabbed three numbered wooden balls from the wooden box and handed them to Jin Wuwei. He no longer had the leisure to intimidate the assassin, and hurried to find Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue.

21, [-], and [-] were taken to the torture room and held separately.

Half an hour later, the bloody Jin Wuwei left the execution room with a wet cloth bag, went to find the small officials in charge of running errands, and ordered them to throw the cloth bag to a mass grave outside the city.

Two hours later, Liu was the first to regain consciousness.

The neck is hot and the chest is stuffy.

It was as if a furry fox was pressing on his chest, clutching his neck tightly with its tail.

Liu opened his eyes with difficulty, and found that he couldn't control his numb limbs at all.

He stared blankly at the white above his head, gradually recalling all the things that happened before.

Is he dead?

Which floor of the Underworld is this?

People who have died before will still feel uncomfortable.

……

Liu would rather be completely occupied by all kinds of complex emotions than continue to recall the strongest emotions before his death.

It's a pity, if he hadn't been bewitched by Liu Shan, and he was still the captain of the camp in the suburbs of Beijing, his wife and children wouldn't have been implicated by him.

A sudden voice outside the door interrupted Liu's thoughts.

"What does Your Highness say?" The voice was tender and sharp, like a young palace maid who had just been cleansed.

"Don't worry about him, wait until he dies before sending him to the mass grave." The person who answered was very old-fashioned, and his attitude was particularly indifferent.

The person who asked the question first was silent for a moment, and his voice suddenly lowered, "What if he doesn't die, but the situation improves instead?"

"How is it possible?" The mature voice said impatiently, "This is a forbidden medicine of the Jinwu Guard's yamen. If Duke Pingguo hadn't said it himself, he wouldn't have been able to mix so many pills. It's just luck that he didn't die immediately. , it is absolutely impossible to persevere.”

"Well, it's also pitiful..."

"Are you crazy? It's an assassin! Poor bastard! Bah!"

The silence outside the door was completely restored, but Liu could no longer keep calm.

assassin?

Are you talking about him?

He's not dead yet!

Liu immediately said the words that had been hovering in his mind for a long time, "I, willing, confess!"

It's a pity that the sound of the exit was like a mosquito, not to mention the people outside the door, he himself couldn't hear it clearly.

A huge sense of gap lingered in Liu's heart. He was unwilling to give up easily when he finally encountered a chance to start again, and tried his best to hold back a louder voice, "I am willing..."

The Jinwu Guard guarding the door suddenly said, "Passed out."

The young palace man nodded repeatedly, hurriedly took out the spices from his purse and lit them, and carefully blew the smoke into the room.

Two quarters of an hour later, the palace servants and Jin Wuwei entered the door together, and put the detoxification pill prepared by Zhu Taiyi into Liuzui, who had completely lost consciousness.

This kind of detoxification pill can't completely detoxify, it can only hang the assassin's life.The assassins thought from the bottom of their hearts that they survived the poison because of their great fate.

At the same time, Ji Xinxue and Yu Heng finally sorted out the information they wanted based on the dossiers and rosters that filled the entire temporary study room.

There are a total of 150 minor officials in the entire Ministry of Punishment. If the distant relatives of the seven aunts and eight aunts are also considered relatives, among the 150 two people, no two people can be found who are not related at all.

For such a result, Ji Xinxue can only comment on two words.

'outrageous'

What's even more outrageous is that this phenomenon of kinship and acquaintance is not unique to the Ministry of Punishment, it is the case in all departments of the six departments, nine temples and five prisons.

Because of the limited time, Ji Xinxue and Yu Heng mainly sorted out the information of the small officials of the Ministry of Punishment, and then listed the most worthy of attention.

Although so far there is no direct evidence to prove that the assassin's matter is related to the family, but when sorting out the information of the criminal officials, Ji Xinxue and Yu Heng discovered many interesting details.

For example, among the small officials of the Ministry of Punishment, "the family is big and the business is big", there are several small officials with a prosperous family, and for several generations, most of them have been servants of aristocratic families.

The jailer who poisoned the assassin was not a descendant of a family servant, but his wife was adopted when her parents died when she was young.The person who adopted her was once the personal maid of Madam Zheng.

Investigating along this line of thought is like stabbing the little mouse's nest of the aristocratic family.

There are a total of 150 or two petty officials in the Ministry of Punishment, of which 120 are eight, and some of the immediate family members can be related to the family.

The proportions are astounding.

Ji Xinxue blankly flipped through the final list, pointed at the names of the hostesses and husbands of each family, and said with a sneer, "It's a good plan for them."

The aristocratic family buys a large number of maids and servants without father and mother every year, and asks them to serve their masters and masters.

Then select the best among these people and give them the dignity of first-class maids and personal servants.

When they get married, they say that they can't bear to see them as slaves for life, and prepare a lot of gold and silver for them, and specially find people from the family of petty officials to marry.

Because the small official family cannot escape the vicious circle of being an official for a day, an official for a lifetime, and an official from generation to generation, the marriage circle is extremely narrow.

Not only those with decent official status in their families looked down on them, but even businessmen and squires who had money to donate to officials or could afford to support their descendants to study avoided them like snakes and scorpions.

People who are really poor enough to have enough to eat, and small officials with little money in their hands look down on them.

That's why there are cases where two small officials are randomly found, and nine out of ten are relatives.

Over time, the servants of the aristocratic family quietly became the favorite marriage partner of the Xiaoli family.

Although he used to be a slave, he must have been a good citizen when he got married.

What's more, the members of the small official family still have to be careful in serving their former masters, so they won't dislike their future wives or husbands as slaves.

Most of these people are orphans with simple family relationships. They have their own savings in their hands and do not need to subsidize others. They have better material conditions than those who want to marry with the family of petty officials with the idea of ​​having enough to eat.

To be able to get ahead in an aristocratic family, one must either be capable or honest, at least have seen the world, and his upbringing is no worse than that of a girl from a petty official's family or a gentleman.

……

After careful consideration, Ji Xinxue felt that the choice of the Xiaoli family was not wrong.

The person who really made a big mistake was the idiot who was assigned official status when the Yu Dynasty was founded.

Yu Heng brought the teacup to Ji Xinxue's mouth, and coaxed softly, "As long as the courtiers see these documents, they will make changes immediately without you needing to say anything."

Ji Xinxue ignored the teacup, held Yu Heng's wrist and grinded her teeth, and said vaguely, "What's the use of the people at the Yushitai? All of them only know how to keep an eye on the senior officials who are above the third rank, but no one pays attention to the lower level." The situation of the petty official."

Even the petty officials don't care, can they be expected to understand the people's sentiments?

joke!

The feeling transmitted from the wrist to Yu Heng's mind was not pain, but numbness mixed with almost imperceptible itchiness, which made him feel sorry for Ji Xinxue and couldn't help but think, if Ji Xinxue was very angry in other places , what would be the reaction.

Yu Heng lowered his eyes, pressed the increasingly dangerous thoughts into the bottom of his heart, and said in a low voice, "If we can find out this matter, at least we don't have to worry about the courtiers rushing to attack the general because they can't wait for the results of the investigation of the assassin."

For the matter of assassins, Mo Yao, as the general of the Jinwu Guard, had at least one point of responsibility. General Ding Beihou of Habayashi Guard, General Rong Guang of Qianniu Guard, and General Deng Hongying of Daying in the suburbs of Beijing each took three points.

They are all the confidantes who were promoted first after Emperor Changping ascended the throne. If the scene is too ugly, Emperor Changping's prestige will also be affected.

Now that the generals made mistakes, and the civil servants could not escape the mistakes of being under investigation, both sides corrected their mistakes, and the situation became clearer.

The pressure on Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue suddenly decreased.

Even when the Great Court Assembly was resumed on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, they still failed to thoroughly investigate the process of the assassin's assassination and the people behind the scenes, and the civil servants and generals did not have the intention to embarrass them.

The original choice of two out of five has had enough time to become all of them.

Ji Xinxue nodded, and before turning her head to drink tea, she realized her conscience and subconsciously licked the place where the teeth marks were left.

Feeling the warm touch, Yu Heng immediately forgot what he was going to say, and stared fixedly at the person who was sipping tea, the irritability lingering in his heart increased at an unprecedented speed.

Back then when he and Ji Cheng, Li Jinhuan and Zhang Siyi went to Wenquan Zhuangzi to play, when he heard Axue's complaints, his idea was to wait until he married A Xue before taking Axue to Wenquanzhuangzi to play.

Although there have been many changes in these years, he still remembers the unspoken promise back then.

If there were no assassins, his long-cherished wish would have been fulfilled whether he and Axue went to Hot Spring Zhuangzi years ago or after the New Year's Eve banquet.

Ji Xinxue drank the tea, and suddenly found that Yu Heng's wrist with the teeth marks was still hanging in place, guilt flashed in her eyes.Especially when Yu Heng looked at him with deep and dark eyes, it was really unsettling.

"Does it hurt?" He asked cautiously.

Yu Heng suddenly came back to his senses, just thinking about whether it would hurt, but the picture book he had read a long time ago suddenly appeared in his mind, and the voice that came out changed unexpectedly, "You kiss it and it won't hurt."

The guilty conscience in Ji Xinxue's eyes immediately turned into disbelief.

What is this... a fairy tale?

The two looked at each other for a while, Yu Heng blushed, immediately withdrew his hand, and said nonchalantly, "In another day, June, 21 and [-] will be interrogated, they..."

An irresistible force came from the palm, followed by a strange but familiar touch on the wrist.

Yu Heng looked down, only the shadow of Ji Xinxue could be accommodated in his pupils.

The moment Ji Xinxue licked the teeth marks, unspeakable regret emerged in Ji Xinxue's heart.

He finally belatedly thought of possibilities other than fairy tales, maybe the kiss after being bitten in Yu Heng's script is a love story?

After all, Yu Heng is a man who owns the warehouse of Qionghua Courtyard, and he is no longer the stuffed vegetable bun.

It's a pity that Ji Xinxue's awakening came too late. Even if she got out in time, she still couldn't escape the "punishment" of being pressed on the table and kissed. Her wrist was like a molar bone held by a wolf. .

It seems that there are voices asking 'does it hurt' from all directions.

This gave Ji Xinxue an indescribable illusion, as if they were doing something else.

"Are Feng Lang and His Highness here?"

Ji Cheng's impatient voice was as loud as a rooster crowing at dawn, and Ji Xinxue immediately came back to her senses in shock, trying to pull out the red-stained wrist from Yu Heng's hand.

Yu Heng let go of his hands like a gracious, and then took advantage of Ji Xinxue's unguardedness, and stuck the corners of her lips that were still blush.

"In" Jin Wuwei is as concise as ever.

Ji Cheng was not born again, but his footsteps immediately became heavier.

Ji Xinxue's heart rate changed according to Ji Cheng's footsteps, and she suddenly had the absurd idea of ​​being caught rape.He wants to push Yu Heng away, but also feels that Yu Heng has a sense of propriety and will let him go before Ji Cheng enters the door.

Forget it, it's okay if Yu Heng doesn't let go.

With the hearing power of the Jinwu Guard, what can't be heard outside?

It's not the first time for Ji Cheng... Ahem.

Ji Xinxue couldn't bear the oppression from Yu Heng's pressing step by step any longer, so she held Yu Heng's back tightly and bit down fiercely.

Ji Cheng stopped in front of the door, with hesitation in his eyes.

He suddenly remembered that the last time he was in a hurry to find Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue, he accidentally broke them in broad daylight...

Now that the sun has completely set, aren't they even more unscrupulous.

Ji Cheng arched his knuckles and knocked on the door, and said loudly, "Feng Lang?"

Yu Heng let out a chuckle, more like laughing at Ji Cheng's innocence than Ji Cheng who was outside the door.

Ji Cheng didn't get a response, and subconsciously turned his head to look at Jin Wuwei.

He whispered to the Jinwu Guard like a thief, "Is Feng Lang inside, or are Feng Lang and His Highness inside?"

"They're all there." Jin Wuwei replied.

Ji Cheng suddenly showed a toothache expression, and heaved a long sigh, "Then I'll wait, they probably won't be free now..."

"No time for what?" The closed door suddenly opened, and Yu Heng showed up with neat clothes and ironed hair, which was quite different from the frivolous appearance last time.

Ji Cheng stepped back and shook his head like a cat whose tail was suddenly stepped on, "No, no, nothing!"

"Yeah." Yu Heng nodded absently, hinting, "Do you have anything else to do?"

Now it is only decided to rectify the small officials in the next year, and no specific breakthrough has been found.

The assassin who took the fake death drug will not be able to re-interrogate until the day after tomorrow.

He and A Xue can relax a little today.

"Yes!" Ji Cheng immediately returned to Yu Heng and whispered, "Someone is going to check the assassin's 'body'."

The official of the Ministry of Rites who was in charge of dragging the 'chopped' assassin's corpse to the mass grave was quite honest.

However, after nightfall, someone immediately went to the mass grave, as if they had seen a map in advance, they found the bag containing the assassin's body without any hindrance.

"And then?" Ji Xinxue asked immediately.

Ji Cheng grabbed his neck silently, and repeated Jin Wuwei's words with a pale face, "When they saw the... things in the bag, one of them fainted from fright, and the other vomited until he lost all strength."

Before he finished speaking, Ji Cheng had retched several times.

Seeing this, Yu Heng immediately poured tea for Ji Cheng.

Ji Xinxue explained dumbfoundingly, "That's not the corpse of an assassin, but chopped up other animals into minced meat, and then poured it with chicken blood."

Although there are no bones, it is still suspicious, but with the reputation of the Jinwu Guard for being brutal, it is not completely impossible to explain.

Anyway, he and Yu Heng just wanted to fish with the 'assassin's corpse'.Knowing that the people behind the scenes still care about the assassin's life and death, and once again testing out the unreliability of the little official, the goal has been achieved.

In the past half a day, Ji Xinxue and Yu Heng found someone who the people behind the scenes really cared about.

It is the assassin numbered fifteen, the second batch of lucky ones selected by Ji Cheng

When his 'companion' fell into a semi-consciousness, he vomited a few mouthfuls of black blood.

After receiving the news, Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue rushed to the place where Shiwu was detained.

Imperial Physician Zhu stayed in the Ministry of Punishment in the name of Ji Xinxue and Yu Heng's dedicated imperial physician, and rushed to Fifteen's side faster than Ji Xinxue and Yu Heng.

He carefully checked Fifteen's pulse, collected black blood that had not yet completely coagulated for examination, and finally came to the conclusion that if there was no fake death medicine, Fifteen would die suddenly in two days at most.

Ji Xinxue clenched the center of her brows and hit the nail on the head, "When did he start being poisoned?"

Doctor Zhu lightly stroked his beard and pondered for a while, then checked the pulse for Shiwu again.

"About a month ago." Imperial Physician Zhu said, "This poison is called lunar eclipse. Young people can diagnose this kind of poison before the onset. However, there are no very special circumstances, and we will never diagnose the pulse of an assassin in the prison of the Ministry of Justice."

He shook his head, "The disadvantage is that the time must be strictly followed, and the poisoning should be done three times, with an interval of ten days between the two poisonings. If the time of one poisoning is wrong, the person who took the poison will show signs of poisoning, and can no longer achieve Silent effect."

Lunar eclipse, as the name suggests, counts the time from the first poisoning, and when exactly one month has passed, the poisoned person will die suddenly.

"You're lying!" Fifteen, who was limp on the bed, suddenly jumped up, glaring at Imperial Physician Zhu with a ferocious expression, "That's not a lunar eclipse, it's a fake death pill!"

Relying on the fact that the assassin was being held tightly by the Jinwu Guards, Imperial Physician Zhu glanced at the assassin's eyelids, and sighed, "It's okay, the brain hasn't been poisoned."

"The lunar eclipse medicine has excellent efficacy and strong secrecy, but the smell is weird and can't be covered up by any means, and it can be removed at any time before it reaches the whole month, so it is difficult to be used as a drug for assassination." Imperial Physician Zhu issued Quirky laugh, "Unless the person has no taste or a bad brain."

Fifteen didn't know if it was because he couldn't bear the cynicism of Zhu Taiyi, or because he couldn't accept the fact that he was deceived, but he struggled more and more violently.

Ji Xinxue turned around and ignored the farce at the bedside, and calculated forward according to the diagnosis of Imperial Physician Zhu.

Today is the fifth day of the first lunar month. If the assassin should have died suddenly on the seventh day of the lunar month, then the last time the assassin took the medicine should be on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month.

At that time, he and Yu Heng had officially taken over the interrogation of the assassin, and ordered the Jinwu Guard to detain the assassin instead of the small official of the Ministry of Punishment.

The second time the assassin took the medicine was on the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month. At that time, the assassin had just been imprisoned in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice for three days.

The assassin took the medicine for the first time on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

However, the news of the ancestor's appearance during the ancestor worship in the imperial mausoleum was not transmitted back to Chang'an until the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

If he remembers correctly, Fifteenth is a registered soldier of the Habayashi Guard. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, he must be on duty normally and will not appear around the imperial mausoleum.

So... even if there is no treasure given to Emperor Changping by Emperor Jianxing, there will still be assassins?

Yan Meng entered the door quietly, strode towards Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue who were standing side by side, and said in a low voice, "Someone who claimed to be the uncle and cousin of the county king gave me a seal, and wanted to meet the county king at the restaurant .”

Yu Heng held Ji Xinxue's hand to take the token, and carefully rubbed the flat surface with his fingertips, one place was obviously softer than the surrounding area.

He whispered, "Press down hard."

Ji Xinxue moved in response, staring at the seal that was only the size of a finger inquisitively, and immediately felt the changes in the writing below.

Originally 'Jiangnan'

Now it has become 'Jiangnan Yu'

There was sarcasm in Yu Heng's eyes, "He's in a hurry."

From the two letters with unclear meanings, to Yu Feng's special greeting letter and solemn gift to Yu Heng, to the fact that Yu Feng and Yu's husband came here in person... It's so stupid that it doesn't look like a family that has been passed down for nearly a thousand years.

Ji Xinxue and Yu Heng have long studied in detail why the actions of the Yu family are full of disobedience.They thought about it and thought there were only three possibilities.

The Yu family has been away from the power center for many years, and is no longer the Jiangnan Yu family.

The Yu family's internal opinions are not unified, and they are not completely divided, so they frequently make stupid moves.

The Yu family wanted to plot against Yu Heng, deliberately showing his stupidity, and seducing Yu Heng to be fooled.

Because Shiwu's physical condition and emotions could not support the interrogation, Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue decided to see Yu Feng first.

However, when they walked out of the punishment department, they were blocked by Qi Baixuan who was coming towards him.

"How do you know that I'm looking for you?" Qi Boxuan rubbed his drunken eyes and looked at Yu Heng and Ji Xinxue in surprise.

Ji Xinxue smiled without saying a word.

He suspected that the British government already knew that people from the Yu family had come to look for Yu Heng, and asked Qi Boxuan to block them, but he had no evidence.

Yu Heng asked perfunctorily, "What does Aye want from me?"

Qi Boxuan puffed up his chest, and said in a preaching manner, "The family understands that you are busy with errands, and did not ask you to go home for the New Year. As a junior, you can't completely ignore the elders."

Yu Heng looked up at the figure shaking the fan by the window of the restaurant, and responded perfunctorily, "Aye said so."

Qi Boxuan didn't even look at Yu Heng out of the corner of his eye, so naturally he didn't notice Yu Heng's distraction. He took out a few postcards from his sleeve pocket and stuffed them into Yu Heng's hands, and said with a natural attitude, "I heard that you are Qi Mei I found a good marriage. Your thirteenth sister is also at the age of marriage, and she is also the eldest daughter of the eldest son. She was raised in front of your grandmother since she was a child, and she is many times better than Qi Mei. As an elder brother, you can't be partial."

Ji Xinxue looked down at the invitation in Yu Heng's hand.

Ji Cheng, Li Jinhuan... Several major generals who were born in northern Xinjiang and never married, even had an invitation card for Huo Yu.

The husband-in-law Lin Zhao chose for Qi Zhu's younger sister was only the second son of General Zuowei Zhonglang of the princess mansion.

The British government did not ask Yu Heng not to be partial, and clearly wanted to use Yu Heng to 'choose a concubine' for the noble girl of the first wife.

Where is the face?