."His Majesty, your concubine..."
"You just be happy, stay at ease. Once the fetus in your womb is stable, I will let Mrs. Liu co to the palace to accompany you,"
Qin Yi cut her off and then stood up, gazing into the darkness outside the courtyard: "I don’t care what you are thinking, but now that you are pregnant, you should take good care of your pregnancy. I have specially allocated so personnel from the Palace Affairs Departnt to protect you, granted you the privilege to have your own stove, and whatever you wish to eat or drink, simply command the servants to prepare it. Be careful not to catch a cold outside."
Is this...
a disguised form of house arrest?
Liu Xuan’er clearly did not expect His Majesty to treat her this way and was imdiately shocked, her eyes widening in terror.
Protecting her seed more like surveillance.
"You just settle down here at ease. I have other matters to attend to, so I won’t stay any longer,"
Qin Yi said indifferently and then strode out of the courtyard like a shooting star.
Liu Xuan’er ca to her senses and quickly followed after him, but saw that His Majesty had sent dozens of people who ca prepared as if for battle, sealing off the entire compound tightly.
Before she could reach the courtyard gate, those fierce-looking Imperial Special Guards with large sabers in hand directly stopped her, adopting an all-business attitude.
"Lady Liu Jieyu, His Majesty has decreed that starting today, you are to properly take care of your pregnancy health within this courtyard, and not to go out and catch a cold, lest you harm the dragon spawn in your womb and beco an eternal sinner."
"Make way, let your concubine speak a few more words with His Majesty."
Liu Xuan’er was extrely anxious and tried to follow after him, but those people showed not the slightest sign of giving in.
"We hope Lady Liu Jieyu can understand the difficulty of our position and do not dare to disobey the Imperial Decree."
"You, you..."
Liu Xuan’er did not expect such a resolute response from those people and, seeing that His Majesty’s silhouette had completely rged into the darkness, stamped her foot in frustration and turned back to the courtyard, fuming.
Soon after, a series of clattering noises ca from the courtyard.
The news that Qin Yi had gone to see Lady Liu Jieyu spread quickly, even reaching Su Pan’er’s ears.
Su Pan’er had just co out from the hot spring.
Even if it was snowing right now, the water in the hot spring pool remained consistently warm. She had recently taken to swimming in the hot spring pool until her skin turned thoroughly red before getting out. When she returned to the Warm Pavilion, Qingwen eagerly reported the news to her.
"Lady Liu Jieyu is carrying the dragon spawn, it is only right for him to visit her."
Leaning casually in her chair, Su Pan’er allowed Qingwen to wipe down her black hair, squinting slightly: "In the future, assign two people to keep an eye on Lady Liu Jieyu. Should she make any strange moves, report them to ."
"Yes, Empress,"
Qingwen was relieved, as this was the response she had hoped for from the Empress.
But Su Pan’er did not know that Qingwen misunderstood her; she had arranged to watch over Liu Xuan’er simply to control whether Liu Xuan’er had any secret communications with the Liu Family.
She could not help but recall Liu Xuan’er’s face, wondering where that strange sense of familiarity ca from?
A fleeting figure suddenly dashed through her mind so quickly she didn’t have the chance to grasp it, and it soon disappeared.
Despite trying to recall the details, she could not bring them to mind.
"Empress, Empress, what’s wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?"
Qingwen, noticing sothing was amiss, hurriedly asked.
"It’s nothing, I just rembered sothing."
Su Pan’er casually diverted the topic, "Has there been any news from the people sent to the Liu Family’s Mansion?"
The original ssage brought back by the rascal pig indicated that Luo luo’s death was related to Liu Yankang. Before Su Pan’er had the chance to deal with this, the unexpected news of Liu Xuan’er’s "pregnancy" surfaced, leading her to put the matter aside for the mont.
Now that Liu Xuan’er was under strict protection by His Majesty’s people, she was curious to see how the Liu Yankang outside the court would communicate with Liu Xuan’er.
"News has already co back."
This ti it was Jiu Lan who initiated the conversation, "It’s said that on the day of Luo luo’s incident, Lord Liu did not enter the palace. And no one ca out from Shuiyan Park that day either. However, while they were investigating Lord Liu, they accidentally discovered that two other people had entered and left the Imperial Palace on that day."
"Who were they?"
"It was, it was... the Princess Consort Huainan and Mrs. Qin."
Jiu Lan seed hesitant.
This made Su Pan’er look up at her suddenly, "Mrs. Qin? You an my sister-in-law Qin Yueshi? I am well aware of their visit to the Imperial Palace that day. Could it be that they are related to Luo luo’s death?"
"They haven’t found any connection yet, but it’s said that after leaving the palace gates, Mrs. Qin was seen chatting idly with Lord Liu outside the gates for quite a while."
So that was it.
Su Pan’er furrowed her brows, finding it hard to believe that her sister-in-law would harm Luo luo and then throw it into Little Yanyan’s room to scare her, no matter what, "It’s just the death of a bird, why is it so difficult to investigate? How strange and mystifying!"
"The main issue is the location of that corridor, too many people co and go, making the investigation very difficult, so..."
Jiu Lan also found it very strange.
"Continue digging deeper, I refuse to believe there’s anything I can’t get to the bottom of," Su Pan’er decided to get to the bottom of this.
The people below naturally didn’t dare to disagree, and this ti the news ca back quickly, within less than two days.
"It was the little eunuch responsible for changing the incense at night. Originally, this eunuch’s comings and goings within the court went unnoticed, especially since he had previously taken leave to visit his family, leading no one to pay much attention to his absence. It was only when his leave had expired and he had yet to show up that soone started tracking down his whereabouts."
"Only to find that the eunuch had died a month earlier, drowned in a fire at an inn. His face was burned beyond recognition, and no clues regarding his identity were found at the scene. The governnt office, unable to determine his identity, buried him in a mass burial site as a John Doe. It was only after people in the palace followed the trail that they finally determined his identity."
"Since he was in charge of the incense, although it wasn’t his turn on duty that day, he was used to entering the side palace hall and didn’t attract anyone’s attention. It was only after a repeated investigation that it was discovered that the last ti he was seen was quite close to when the First Princess discovered Luo luo. So..."
In the palace, eunuchs and palace maids were given the opportunity to visit their families once every three years. So eunuchs and maids, by offering money to the chief eunuch or by being favored by their masters, also had the chance to leave the palace. Thus, the disappearance of this eunuch after leaving the palace to visit family did not imdiately raise concerns.
"Are you suggesting that Luo luo was killed by him?"
The death of the chatty crested myna Luo luo, at the hands of a eunuch responsible for changing the incense, was a bitter pill for Su Pan’er to swallow.
Thinking it through, even if the little eunuch was the perpetrator, why would a re incense-carrier, with no grudge against the princess, do such a thing? Besides, he had barely left the palace gates when he t his grisly water-logged death. The coincidences piled up a bit too conveniently.
"Look into the people behind him, who was instructing him, and who silenced him."
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