543 Came To The Door
The next day, the Queen, who had rested in the palace for a night, returned to her manor. When she recalled the joke she had made in front of everyone, she was so angry that her heart hurt. Apart from being angry, she also felt endless embarrassment. She had never been so embarrassed in her life. Who was harming her?
The royal bounty had already been posted. Because she could not be sure that the person who stole the holy artifact was the same culprit as the one who poisoned her, they had split up the bounty to pursue the matter. The palace’s guess of the first culprit was the Gu Supremacy. She did not agree with this. She knew the truth better than anyone. The holy artifact was only stored in the treasure vault. As long as one’s martial arts were high enough, they could avoid the guards’ line of sight. It actually had nothing to do with knowing Gu techniques.
As for the second culprit, the palace’s guess coincided with hers—the guards in the palace were even tighter than the Queen Manor and the State Preceptor Hall combined. To be able to silently infiltrate and tamper with the phoenix crown that the Emperor and Empress had given her, his qinggong had already reached the realm of perfection. To practice such a qinggong, even if he had started practicing martial arts since he was born, he would need at least twenty years. And after practicing martial arts for so long, his figure must be abnormally tall and muscular.
Sentries were set up everywhere in the Capital and they began to investigate them one by one.
Two palace guards also came to the candied hawthorn shop. They captured a few martial arts practitioners and interrogated them. The three little black eggs licked their candied hawthorn and looked at them adorably. They didn’t know what had happened. They didn’t do it, right?
“Go away, go away. We’re investigating a case! Whose children are they! Don’t delay us from catching the culprit!” The guard chased away the little black eggs whose faces were covered in sugar.
Today, Fu Ling and Zi Su brought them out. The two of them were worried that the little masters would be squeezed by the crowd, so they hurriedly held their hands and left.
The culprits who poisoned the Queen had left under the guard’s nose just like that!
An hour later, the carriage arrived at the Queen Manor. The Queen alighted from the carriage with a tired expression.
She tossed and turned for the entire night, thinking about how to salvage her losses. Being grounded was a small matter. How to salvage her dignity and find the holy artifact was the most important thing. Back then, when the holy artifact was stolen, they discovered it in time and chased the other party all the way into the Great Zhou. However, after that, the other party disappeared like mud flowing into the sea.
Such a matter could not be investigated with great fanfare. She had no choice but to find a martial arts sect in the Great Zhou. Fortunately, that sect was indeed capable and really obtained the holy artifact. Unfortunately, a person called Yu Zigui lost the holy artifact again.
After that, there was no more news of the holy artifact. She was not afraid of losing it. After all, she could find it. She was just afraid that the holy artifact had already recognized its owner. A Gu King like the holy artifact would only recognize its master once in its life. If it recognized someone else, the lie that it had recognized its master would be broken.
The Queen shook her head. That was impossible. If the holy artifact could casually recognize its master, why would she have to work so hard? The holy artifact must be waiting for her somewhere. The owner of the holy artifact could only be her!
While she was thinking, she arrived at the Flowing Light Pavilion. The Queen collected her thoughts and rubbed her throbbing forehead. She raised her eyebrows and entered the room. The Prince Consort sat in front of the window and looked at the courtyard full of flowers.
The Queen walked over gently. “Prince Consort.”
The Prince Consort turned around and said, “You’re back.” He didn’t look very interested.
The Queen sat down beside him and said in a low voice, “About last night…”
The Prince Consort nodded. “I know. You were poisoned.”
“Am I embarrassing?” she asked aggrievedly.
“It’s not your fault,” said the Prince Consort.
The Queen looked at the Prince Consort’s tolerant expression and did not know how to react for a moment. She thought for a while. If it were the Prince Consort who was poisoned, what would she do? She would be angry from embarrassment and would want to kill that person. It would definitely not be the Prince Consort’s calm appearance.
The Prince Consort did not mind her embarrassing herself, or did he actually not care about her?
“Prince Consort?” She gently leaned on his shoulder. “Do you care about me?”
The Prince Consort thought for a while and said, “Yes.”
The Queen said, “Then hug me.”
The Prince Consort hugged her.
The Queen breathed in this man’s aura and felt the viciousness in her heart suppressed. No matter what she lost, at least she could keep him. She was born the Princess, and everything in the royal family originally belonged to her. It was what she deserved and a responsibility she could not push away. This man was different. She had worked hard to obtain him, and her heart was given to him.
“Prince Consort, will you leave me?”
“No,” the Prince Consort said with a smile.
The Queen closed her eyes in satisfaction. “That’s enough.”
No matter how difficult it was, as long as this man could be by her side, she could grit her teeth and endure it.
… .
The Queen did not tell him that the holy artifact might be in the Great Zhou. Back then, when Prince Cheng of the Great Zhou and the princess of Xiongnu were getting married, the Emperor did not receive the invitation and did not plan to do anything. It was the Queen who took the initiative and suggested visiting the Great Zhou. Firstly, she wanted to restore diplomatic relations with the Great Zhou, and secondly, she wanted to investigate the alliance between the Great Zhou and the Xiongnu. Back then, in order to clear her name, the Queen recommended several ministers who were on bad terms with her.
If the Emperor found out that the holy artifact had entered the Great Zhou early on, it would not be difficult to guess that the Queen’s proposal to visit the Great Zhou was fake and the true objective was to secretly search for the holy artifact. Among those envoys, most of them had conflicts with the Queen, if he eliminated them, the relationship between the State Preceptor and the Queen would easily surface.
If the Queen did not say anything, the Emperor would naturally think that the thief who stole the holy artifact was still in the jurisdiction of the Imperial Capital. In that case, the Emperor hit the jackpot.
The Emperor mobilized the disciples of the State Preceptor Hall as well as the royal guards and Gu Masters, asking them to bring the Gu bead to investigate from house to house.
This investigation led them to the Helian family. It was the royal guards and two disciples of the State Preceptor Hall who came. They investigated from the back and knocked on the door of the West Manor first.
Madam Li was recuperating in her room. The ones who went to deal with the disciples of the State Preceptor Hall were the Helian brothers.
Helian Cheng frowned. “Who asked you to come? Don’t you know that this is the Divine General Manor? How can our family hide thieves?”
One of the disciples said, “We’re under the Emperor’s orders to investigate no matter whose manor it is. Young Master Helian, please call everyone in the manor out.”
“Do I have to call them just because you want to?” Helian Cheng had been very angry recently and was worried that he had nowhere to vent. These two disciples of the State Preceptor Hall had bumped into his gun.
What he did not expect was that as soon as he finished speaking, the royal guard behind the disciple grabbed him and pressed him to the ground.
The disciple said to Helian Yu, “Time is tight. Please cooperate with the investigation.”
When Helian Yu saw that the other party was so rude and unreasonable, he immediately did not dare to act rashly. He called everyone in the West Manor to the reception pavilion, including Madam Li, who was lying in bed recuperating.
Not only did they investigate the person, but they also investigated the entire West Manor. There were no accidents in the outcome. The West Manor was innocent.
“Hmph! I told you it wasn’t here!” Helian Cheng rolled his eyes.
“That’s…” The disciple pointed to another manor adjacent to the garden.
Helian Cheng snorted. “That’s the East Manor! Where my uncle lives! Do you dare to search!”
This was not a matter of whether they dared or not, but the Emperor had ordered them to search every inch of the Capital. As a sign of respect, the group still took a detour to the entrance of the East Manor.
“Aiya, not good, not good!”
Yu Wan was drying the herbs in Xixia Garden when Old Cui ran over.
“What’s wrong?” Yu Wan dried the cut panax notoginseng on the dustpan.
Old Cui was extremely anxious for her when he saw that she looked fine. He grabbed her wrist and said, “Stop doing this! Hurry up and find a place to hide! That group of people has searched the door!”
“Who is it?” Yu Wan asked.
Old Cui said anxiously, “The people searching for the holy artifact! Isn’t the holy artifact with you?”
“How do you know?” She had only told Ah Wei’s family about the holy artifact being with her and not Old Cui.
“Ahem.” Old Cui cleared his throat.
The serious old Grandma was actually a fan of acting. In order to listen to Old Cui talk about the opera, he accidentally sold his little Wanwan again. Old Cui promised Grandma that he would keep it a secret, but when he turned around, well, Grandma was also sold…
“Oh, Grandma.” Yu Wan guessed and her face darkened.
Old Cui stomped his feet and said, “Aiyaya! Now is not the time to talk about this. Hurry up and hide. If they find out that the holy artifact is with you, you’ll be finished!”
Unfortunately, it was too late. Just as Old Cui pulled Yu Wan out of the courtyard, he bumped into the two disciples led in by the butler.
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