Thousands of Mountains

After interrogating Qi Yanzhi, Yin Cen had no choice but to let him go. He did not have the right to arrest first and report later, and if he really wanted to "behead first and report later", the confession in his hand would have to be handed over to the palace overnight. A move of chess, this is an arrow that cannot be turned back once the bow is fired, he must be foolproof.

Qi Yanzhi exchanged all the secrets for Zhao Lun and himself to be immortal. Their exchange agreement did not include submitting all the confessions that had been interrogated. After all, as Yin Cen said, what he wanted was the empress. But the cabinet still needs Qi Yanzhi.

Qi Yanzhi believed it, so what if he didn't believe it?

But what he didn't know was that Yin Cen, from the beginning of planning the Shiying Bureau, was thinking of "returning the rascal's body by the way of a rogue", and talk about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust at any time.

Yin Cen is also anxious, every day that time drags on, there will be more uncertain factors, Qiu Yiren will definitely not be content with herself at the moment, the Spring Hunting case hurt her vitality, but it also made her want to target Yin Cen even more , the bitten prey is the most dangerous. Yin Cen can imagine her bloodthirsty and crazy appearance now, and he can't let this crazy woman take the lead. He thought anxiously that if Shen Cang couldn't come back, he couldn't wait to start. acted.

------

The next night, Shen Cang rushed back to the capital city with the rain in the early summer. He was accompanied by a disguised peasant woman. However, the city gate was closed at night, so Shen Cang had to wait outside the city with his people. , In the early morning, the sky was about to brighten, and as soon as the city gate opened, they couldn't wait to ride their horses into the city.

All the way straight to Pai'er Hutong, this morning Yin Cen seemed to have a telepathy, and was waiting in the front hall early, when he heard a knock on the door with a hint of urgency but still calm, he was overjoyed, knowing that someone had brought him Certainly not bad news.

At this time, there was still a little while before the court, and everyone gathered in the front hall, and Shen Cang asked the woman he brought back to briefly talk about the events of the year.

This disguised peasant woman is naturally Zhuoxiang, but she is not the fair-skinned and almond-eyed beauty that Eunuch Ai said at all, but half of her face seems to have been burnt and wrinkled, her face is scorched black, the only one who can match her name. There was only a small gap near the ear, and because of this, Shen Cang was able to confirm that this person was the only court lady who knew the inside story and had a narrow escape from death.

Although these years, in order to hide people's eyes and ears and avoid being chased and killed, she has already destroyed her appearance by herself, and she has lived the life of a peasant woman in the mountains for many years, but Zhuoxiang's gestures, walks and seats will still unintentionally reveal the shadow of her previous life in the palace. The 16-year-old Chen Ji, Zhuo Xiang couldn't help crying. She covered her mouth for a long time before she lost her composure, and then said succinctly after bowing down again.

"I started to serve my empress when she was still the crown princess. My empress lived a simple life. Until I became a queen, there were no more than ten maids by my side. Because I had been with you for a long time and did things carefully, my empress later promoted me to become a big lady. Maid."

"The relationship between the empress and the emperor was indeed very good at the beginning. Later, after the jade concubine gradually gained power, the emperor came to the empress's palace less and less. I only heard that the jade concubine found a lot of novelty and fun things, and Some Taoists cultivating immortals, the emperor is so fascinated by these, no matter how much the empress persuades them, it is useless."

"And then that happened... On the day of your empress's birthday, the emperor stayed overnight in the empress's bedroom, and a court lady tried to strangle the emperor to death with a white silk in the middle of the night. Of course she failed...but the emperor was overly frightened that night and came back to his senses. Afterwards, he was furious, thinking that it was the empress who secretly instigated it, the emperor thought that the empress was against him everywhere, but now this trouble, the emperor wished he could abolish the empress on the spot."

Chen Ji couldn't help asking, "Did you find out what happened to the court lady who committed the crime that night?"

Zhuo Xiang raised her head and looked at Chen Ji, shaking her eyelashes, "I had a guess until after the empress passed away, but there was no evidence, because that night, the court lady who committed the crime was bestowed to death by the emperor."

Chen Ji asked again, "What do you guess?"

Zhuo Xiang said, "Concubine Yu must have bribed her, and she didn't want her to kill the emperor at all. How can a woman who has no power to restrain a chicken kill the emperor... Concubine Yu did this just to frame her for marriage. It’s just the Queen of Misfortune, and she has really achieved her goal.”

Chen Ji clenched his fist tightly, and Yin Cen walked to his side, gently stroking his shoulder.It seems that Qiu Yiren used to use this trick, it was the same for Empress Chunhui, and it was the same for Yun Jianqing.

Yin Cen glanced at Zhuo Xiang and motioned for her to continue.

"Although the emperor was furious that night, he did not really abolish the empress afterwards. We all thought that the emperor would send someone to investigate the murder case and would not make a judgment lightly, but the emperor did nothing... It took more than half a month On this month, the empress received a box of red jade pills from the emperor as a reward."

Yin Cen was in a bad mood and asked, "Has the emperor ever rewarded the empress with pills before?"

Zhuo Xiang said, "No, the empress has always opposed the emperor's indulging in alchemy, and she also advised the emperor to take pills. Although the emperor often takes pills with the concubine Yu, he has never done this with the empress, so we saw it at the beginning. When it comes to that box of pills, I don’t even know what it means.”

"It was Mr. Gao Rengao who sent the pills. He said that the emperor was not to blame for the murder that happened in the empress's palace, but I hope that the empress will no longer object to obstructing him from practicing alchemy. If the empress accepts the pills, it will prove that .”

"The empress looked at the box of red jade pills and was silent for a long time. Eunuch Gao Ren stood in front of him and did not leave. He had to watch the empress take it. The empress finally raised her head and smiled, asked someone to serve tea, and gave the box of balls a piece. After eating one piece in his mouth, Eunuch Gao turned around and left."

"As soon as Eunuch Gao left, we found out that the empress was already in tears, but she was crying silently. We didn't know what was going on. Didn't you just say that the emperor let the past go by... The empress only let us be one year old. Many princes came to hug him, and the empress just hugged the prince and wept all night."

"Following the night, Empress suddenly became ill, and the cry woke us up. When I saw Empress, I saw her face was blue..."

Zhuo Xiang stopped at this point, she glanced at Chen Ji, Chen Ji squeezed the handle of the seat tightly, and gritted his teeth, Yin Cen continued, "Did Niang Niang die that night? Did you call?" Physician?"

Zhuo Xiang said, "At that time, everyone was panicked when they saw the empress, so I rushed out to see the imperial physician, only to find that the palace was surrounded by the Imperial Army, Master Xin was guarding the door, I said, the empress suddenly fell ill, and I wanted to inform the imperial physician , but Mr. Xin said that this is the source of the outbreak of disease in the palace, he has received orders to surround it, and no one in the queen's bedroom can go out tonight."

Yin Cen pressed Chen Ji's shoulder even tighter, but felt him trembling.

"Little Yuanzi next to the empress wanted to rush out to find the imperial doctor regardless of the obstruction, and Mrs. Xin killed him with a single knife in front of everyone. Now we all know that we really can't get out tonight... I watched the empress gradually ...and can't do anything..."

Yin Cen waved his hand and didn't let her continue talking. He was shocked in his heart. He originally thought that the death of Empress Chunhui must be related to Qiu Yiren. Finding the person who knew her back then would reveal the root of her evil heart. However, ...It never occurred to me that it was the emperor who caused the death of Empress Chunhui!

However, knowing this level, everything seems to make sense again. Chen Ze bestowed the death of Empress Chunhui in a disguised form, but he couldn't face the guilt and pain of destroying the one he loved with his own hands, so he treated the prince Chen Ji as well. Ruthlessly alienated, he retained the crown prince's position, but he could no longer face him unconcernedly. Seeing Chen Ji's face, which looked more like Chunhui's, always reminded him of nightmare memories.

When all the things were connected, Yin Cen felt that he gradually saw the whole picture. Empress Chunhui died at the hands of the emperor. Although Qiu Yiren's perpetrator was the tea tax corruption, Chen Ze was an out-and-out accomplice, and even later evolved into The most greedy hand, as for the massacre of the seven guards in Kansai, if the emperor hadn't done nothing himself, how could he have raised a cabinet and military department with their elbows turned outward...

Yin Cen was silent, and for the first time doubted whether everything he did was useful. He already knew that getting rid of Qiu Yiren, Qi Yanzhi, Zhao Lun, Gu Cheng, Mao Yingtai, etc., would not solve the problem at all.

Unless he gets rid of the emperor.

------

This morning Chen Ji didn't go to the court for the first time, after listening to what Zhuo Xiang said, he couldn't face Chen Ze anymore, so Yin Cen ordered the people from the Prince's Mansion to go to the palace on leave.

Yin Cen didn't go to Dongyuan to check the house that day, Shen Cang went back to Shizi's mansion, and when he returned to Yin Cen's mansion, Yun Jianqing followed behind him.

In normal times, Chen Ji might be curious and skeptical about why General Yun, Shen Cang and Yin Cen are so...familiar, although they have dealt with each other because of the Spring Hunting case, they definitely won't look like they are now. He seemed to understand it, but he didn't care about it at all at the moment. Zhuoxiang's words pierced his heart like a long sword. He always thought that his mother passed away due to illness, and Chen Ze's indifference and alienation towards him was just because of touching the scene. He worked hard to make himself meet the standard of becoming a crown prince, and let Chen Ze see his hard work... But unexpectedly, everything was a bloody betrayal, and he was the ignorant witness of this betrayal.

Yin Cen was quietly by his side, full of pity and anxiety in his heart, and now he doubted himself whether everything was worth it, and whether everything was still meaningful.

Unexpectedly, Chen Ji finally opened his mouth, and Yin Cen did not expect that at this moment, he also saw his own hesitation. "Pingshan, this world is already rotten. Even if we can't change the world, even if we hit a stone with a pebble, we have to try our best. It doesn't matter who we have to deal with. Isn't it all for our ideals?"

Yin Cen raised his head suddenly, ideal...he has not heard this word for a long time, this word does not belong to this world, let alone this world, he once told Chen Ji, what is an ideal, reincarnated in this world, he just He was just an ordinary person who still had a bit of justice and blood in his heart. He once thought that being a top assassin who had dreamed in his previous life but died halfway was his ideal, and then somehow he thought about fucking|turning over the world step by step.

He looked at Chen Ji, yes, everything started with this stupid but brave prince, for him, the world should not be such a mess.

Yin Cen said, "Okay, the last arrow has been drawn and stringed."

Yin Cen came to the study with others, studied ink and began to write a memorial to reveal all the secrets. His last arrow is called "death impeachment" where he fights with his wealth and life.