Everyone in my harem is talented

Chapter 134 Imperial Ink

"Your Majesty, I am wronged."

Li Xihua was confined to the Yueshi Palace and was copying the palace rules with sighs. From time to time, she wondered how the third prince Qin Mingjin was doing in the Empress Dowager's palace and whether he missed her.

When she saw the palace maids from Zhaozheng Palace coming, she thought that His Majesty had lifted her house arrest. But before she could be happy for a while, she heard the bad news.

There was a problem with the birthday gift she gave. What was the birthday gift she gave to Concubine Hui?

It seems to be a set of eight paintings titled "Young Tigers Playing".

Who is framing her?

However, it's not that easy to drag her into this.

"Your Majesty, it is true that the "Young Tiger Playing Picture" is a birthday gift that I gave to Concubine Hui, but I have never touched it, and I have never even seen this set of pictures before today."

As she spoke, Li Xihua blushed, lowered her head in shame, and whispered.

"I took Mingjin to the art garden to appreciate paintings before, and saw several paintings in the garden with very novel styles and cute and childlike pictures of insects, fish, birds, and animal cubs playing.

Mingjin liked it very much when he saw it.

It just so happened that at that time I was struggling with what gift to give to Concubine Hui on her birthday.

Concubine Hui's Fourth Prince Mingyun and my daughter Mingjin were born in the same year and month. I thought that if Mingjin liked those paintings, the Fourth Prince would definitely like them too.

If he can make the Fourth Prince happy, Concubine Hui, as his mother, will certainly be happy too.

So he ordered Yueya to go to the Painting Garden to find a painter to paint a set of eight pictures of young tigers playing as a birthday gift for Concubine Hui.

"The maid Yueya beside me was careless. She only went to the painting garden to get the painting on the birthday of Concubine Hui. Yueya took the painting and sent it directly to the Suzaku Palace without wasting any time in the middle."

No matter how high-sounding the excuses are, Li Xihua's perfunctory attitude in giving gifts cannot be concealed. However, Li Xihua is now glad that he can prove his innocence.

Both the painters in the painting garden and the palace servants and eunuchs who served her could corroborate what she said.

There is one more picture in the set of eight pictures of tiger cubs playing.

Although it is still not certain that the extra painting is the poisonous one, and it is also unclear where the extra painting came from, it has nothing to do with Li Xihua.

As Shen Ningyue listened, she suddenly felt a little confused.

The poison of bitter intoxication is hidden in the scroll. It can be fixed by just tampering with the mounting. Why go through the trouble of making another painting?

Was it negligence of the planner, or was there another plot?

The painters are different, so even if the imitation is very similar, the differences can be found.

Sure enough, after being appraised by an art appraiser, it was discovered that the painting with the bitter intoxicating poison was not painted by the same person as the other eight paintings.

Even the ink used was different. The ink used by the painters in the Painting Garden was ordinary ink made by the Shaofu, which was very common in the palace. However, the ink used in the painting with the bitter intoxicating poison was unusual - it was imperial ink.

When Zhang Deli heard the painting appraiser mention that the ink used in the poisonous painting was imperial ink, he immediately knelt down.

He knelt down only because he was called upon, and he was not panicked.

He was in charge of all the things in front of the emperor, and Zhang Deli never dared to be careless about them.

After Yan Liangren ran to the emperor's presence and caused him to be punished, he became more cautious.

The management of imperial ink is very strict, and every piece of imperial ink can be traced back to its origin.

Is it ignorance, stupidity, or someone deliberately framing you to use imperial ink to draw poisonous paintings?

"Your Majesty, there is absolutely no way that the imperial ink used by Your Majesty in the palace could have been taken away by anyone. Every entry and exit of the imperial ink is recorded.

The servants also noticed how much each piece of imperial ink was worn out during use, so there was absolutely no possibility that there was a problem with the management of Zhaozheng Hall.

There is only one possibility. I would like to ask you to check where the imperial ink that Your Majesty bestowed has gone. "

"allow."

When the person who came to appraise the paintings came, Imperial Concubine Yi, Imperial Concubine Ying and other concubines also arrived. Qin Zhi simply drove them aside and asked them to sit quietly.

When Lady Jiang Lanzhi heard the painting appraiser talking about imperial ink, her heart trembled and she had a bad premonition.

(Previous story: Chapter 90: Lady Jiang)