Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 174: Legend of Zhen Huan 46

However, Li and Hongshi had different identities. After all, Li was just a concubine who had never been favored, while Hongshi was a real prince and grandson of the emperor. Even if the emperor did not have any high requirements for Hongshi, he could not sit idly by and watch Hongshi become notorious for murdering his brothers.

That's right. The emperor knew that Hongli was poisoned probably because Hongshi was used by someone, so even though all the evidence pointed to Hongshi, he felt that Hongshi didn't have the brains to do it.

In Concubine Duan's view, it didn't matter whether the emperor trusted Hongshi or not. She didn't intend to ask the emperor to punish Hongshi anyway. She just wanted to prove that the snacks that Hongshi brought to Hongli today were poisonous.

After all, even if Hongshi did not poison and had nothing to do with this matter, it was enough for the emperor to see Hongshi's stupidity.

Wang Qin couldn't think of so much, but he was very good at reading people's faces. Seeing that the emperor was very unhappy, he didn't say anything about Hongshi and just stayed quietly aside.

Soon, near evening, Xia Qian came to report with the information he had found out. The emperor had returned to the Qianqing Palace, but Concubine Duan was still staying in the prince's residence. Hongshi had been sent back and would go to school as usual tomorrow.

Yi Xin had a hunch that the poisoning of Fourth Prince Hongli would implicate her, so as soon as she returned to the palace, she asked Zhang Deshun and Xizhu to secretly investigate Chengqian Palace inside and out, and must not give anyone else any opportunity to take advantage of it. She herself checked the system to replay and see if anyone had acted alone recently.

After hearing the news, Concubine Yu also started to investigate herself. After all, apart from the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince in the palace, her Fifth Prince was relatively older. And although she did not like close contact with people, she could not avoid going out often, so there were many opportunities for others to make a move on her.

Concubine Duan turned around and suspected the Queen, because she didn't believe that the death of Queen Chunyuan had nothing to do with the Queen. She had inquired about the remains of the Second Prince who died at birth, and she also controlled one of the midwives. The midwife was sure that the Second Prince had many blue marks and spots on his body, which showed that he did not die of natural causes. There was a high probability that he had been exposed to some poison in the womb.

As for the baby that Queen Chunyuan gave birth to, it was the Queen who took care of her almost from beginning to end, so she was the only one who had the best chance to do it without leaving any trace.

Moreover, Concubine Duan believed that the Empress Dowager must have cleaned up the mess for the Empress, because if Empress Chunyuan was gone, the Ulanara family would have to push the Empress to the throne in order to gain benefits, so that the Empress could not have any stain on her. Therefore, Empress Chunyuan was forced to death by her own sister and family.

In this way, the Queen set her sights on Yi Xin, and Concubine Duan set her sights on the Queen. However, after knowing that Concubine Duan intended to take action against the Queen, Yi Xin suspended her thoughts and actions of directly eliminating the Queen, and gave up her position to Concubine Duan to see how she would perform.

The records that Xia Jian gave to the emperor did show clues pointing to Yi Xin, and the dessert was poisoned by oleander, so the queen's original idea was to let Hongli eat the poisoned dessert through Hongshi's hands. What Hongshi got happened to be one of the non-toxic desserts. As long as she followed Hongshi's habit of taking things, she could avoid Hongli getting the poisoned dessert or coming into contact with the poisoned dessert.

The reason for using oleander poison was to comply with Yi Xin's long-standing habit of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth in the palace.

Therefore, the Queen designed a series of coincidences, just to give the Emperor a... Yi Xin found that Hongshi was not respectful enough to her, and also harbored hatred towards Hong Sheng, so she simply poisoned Hongshi with oleander. As a result, Hongshi just wanted to show brotherly love to Hongli, so Hongli became the one who was hit by the mistake.

Without any definite news, the emperor did not believe that Yi Xin would do anything to the princes or princesses, because even though Hong Sheng was now valued by him, he was still too young after all. And the impression that Yi Xin had always given the emperor was not that of a person who was greedy for power. After all, even now, the power in the palace in her hands was said to be in her hands, but in fact it was the two maids in charge who were in charge of it.

Yi Xin had said before that she was only in charge of the overall matter, and it was true. She only checked the accounts once a month, and the rest of the time she would only come out to take care of things when the two housekeepers were unsure and Concubine Jing refused.

Xia Qian also felt that everything he had investigated so far must have been carefully designed by someone. After all, he had a good impression of Yi Xin, and based on the surveillance results he had been conducting, Yi Xin was a rare innocent person in the palace.

The emperor was very angry after reading the results of the investigation. After all, the palace had undergone at least two purges, but there were still people who dared to use the prince to frame others. Therefore, the emperor directly ordered Xia Qian to arrest all the people involved and interrogate them with the Flying Guillotine. In particular, the relatives and friends of all the people involved should be assigned to investigate and control them quickly. This cancer in the palace must be eradicated.

Xia Qian took the order and left, but Yi Xin noticed something else and quickly asked the people from the Dong and Xia families to be quiet and dormant. Not all of the people from the Fucha family were handed over to Yi Xin, so Yi Xin naturally only managed the people under her command and could not manage others.

Soon, all the palace maids and eunuchs felt insecure. Concubine Duan also quickly retreated, and the Queen even hid herself before Hongshi brought snacks to find Hongli.

However, as a result, the news of Hongli's poisoning still reached the previous dynasty. Ma Qi was the first to stand up and petition the emperor to severely punish the man behind the scenes, because since this person intended to poison the prince today, he might be able to extend his evil hands into the Qianqing Palace tomorrow!

After hearing what Ma Qi said, the others naturally had no choice but to agree. After all, this was a matter concerning the emperor, so they had no choice but to do so.

Hongli was unconscious for seven or eight days before he woke up. When he woke up, he saw the haggard Concubine Duan washing him. His handsome face immediately blushed, and Concubine Duan took him directly into her arms.

Concubine Duan was really crying with joy. She had planned to become Hongli's adoptive mother in the beginning in order to use Hongli's identity as a prince to seek a higher status for herself, but she was also concerned about Hongli as a prince. Moreover, even though Hongli was young, he seemed to be a good person, so the two of them really had some mother-son relationship.

"Does Fourth Prince still remember what happened that day?"

Hongli was frightened at this. He remembered the situation on that day very clearly, but he subconsciously concealed the fact that Hongshi also ate a piece of dessert. He only said that he was very happy to see Hongshi coming to talk to him with dessert, and he asked someone to bring a pot of good tea. While the two brothers were chatting and laughing, he picked up the dessert closest to him first. He took only one bite and felt a sharp pain in his stomach like a knife. He spit out a mouthful of blood, but before he could notice what the blood looked like, his eyes went black and he knew nothing.

Concubine Duan quickly told Hongli all the news of the past few days without leaving any trace. She did not mention anything about Yi Xin. Instead, she mentioned that even though the empress was imprisoned in Jingren Palace, she still cared about the third prince Hongshi. Hongli immediately understood how to talk to the emperor when he met him.