Chapter 1219 - Chapter 1219 Consort Dowager Qing Enters the Palace
Chapter 1219 Consort Dowager Qing Enters the Palace
Chu Qing came back from Marquis Xing’s Mansion in a hurry and went straight to the courtyard of Consort Dowager Qing as soon as possible. When he sat down, he picked up the warm water on the table and gulped down half a cup before putting the cup down heavily.
“How did it go?” Consort Dowager Qing asked. There was no one else in the room except for her and her son.
“This bitch refused to come back and said that she needed to accompany the Old Madam of Marquis Xing, who had a stroke,” Chu Qing said angrily. He had never expected that Shao Jie’er would stay in Marquis Xing’s Mansion so decisively.
Something had happened to the Old Madam of Marquis Xing’s Mansion, which made it reasonable for Shao Jie’er to stay there. If he insisted on her coming back, it would be a little too much.
Consort Dowager Qing said with a sneer, “I told you at the beginning that Shao Jie’er was not a good person, but later you were bewitched by her and thought that she was nice. Look, such a thing happened. She must have secretly sent some news. I heard that she was friends with Lord Wen who came to the mansion that day when they were young. They were childhood sweethearts.”
Without outsiders around, she became much fiercer instead of indifferent. With her long and narrow eyes, she looked even more vicious than Chu Qing. She didn’t look like a woman who would train in peace in the Buddha Hall at all.
“Mother, what’s the point of talking about this now?” Chu Qing said impatiently. If he had known that Shao Jie’er might have ruined his plan, he would have killed her back then, so as not to have so many accidents.
Not long after Shao Jie’er left, the officials of the Ministry of Justice came to the mansion again to investigate, which caught Chu Qing off guard. Although he was unhappy, he could do nothing about it. He could only watch the junior officer’s body found in his mother’s Buddha Hall.
A junior official of the Ministry of Justice was dead.
This official was also related to the death of the Madam of Marquis Xing, Madam Jiang.
Later, the officials of the Ministry of Justice also found that this junior official might have entered the room where Madam Jiang was detained at that time. That was to say, if Madam Jiang didn’t commit suicide, she might have been killed by this junior official.
In the end, this official showed up in Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion.
With so many things mixed up, Chu Qing felt greatly troubled and just wanted to find out the truth.
When he found the junior official, it was when the men in black had just left that someone found him. At first, Chu Qing thought the official was one of the men in black. After interrogation, he found that the official knew nothing at all. He was knocked out and sent here on the way back to his place.
After understanding this, the only thing Chu Qing could think of was that he was framed. Someone framed him. He put a lot of effort into interrogating the junior official, who then mentioned Shao Jing’s name. Chu Qing learned that Shao Jing had sent someone to tell the junior official to kill Madam Jiang and create the facade that she had run into the wall and died.
Then, the official mentioned someone faintly. Others might not know this person, but Chu Qing did. On the surface, this person worked for Prince Cheng.
That was to say, there was a connection between Prince Cheng and Shao Jing. Prince Cheng even helped Shao Jing deal with Madam Jiang, who was in his way. The relationship between them became even more unusual.
Chu Qing accidentally killed the junior official during the interrogation. He had planned to find a way to take the body away after some time, but he hadn’t expected that the officials of the Ministry of Justice would find the junior official. He would’ve been in great trouble if his mother hadn’t put the blame on the assassination at the last moment by saying that the people of the Ministry of Justice were the mysterious assassins in black.
Even so, the entire Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion was now under close surveillance.
Someone must have told the Ministry of Justice about the junior official. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for them to come back again and find him after repeated searching.
Consort Dowager Qing and Chu Qing looked into it again and again and felt that Shao Jie’er was the most suspicious one.
However, Shao Jie’er had returned to Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Chu Qing immediately took his men to Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Although he claimed that he was going to invite Shao Jie’er back, in fact, he was going to catch her.
Unexpectedly, Shao Jie’er had been well-prepared. Something terrible had happened to Marquis Xing’s Mansion. It was said that the Old Madam of Marquis Xing had a stroke, so Shao Jie’er stayed there to take care of her seriously ill grandmother.
At this time, Chu Qing no longer suspected Shao Jie’er but was certain that she was the one who dropped the dime on Wen Xichi.
“Mother, what should we do? Does this bitch know anything else about our mansion? It will be a bad thing if she tells others!” Chu Qing said coldly.
At this time, if he saw Shao Jie’er, he would definitely kill her with a knife.
“I don’t think so. I’ve been keeping a close eye on her and won’t let her get close to me. I’ll ask her to go back whenever I need to deal with the important things. At most, she knows that I don’t like her, and it’s impossible for her to know anything else.” Consort Dowager Qing shook her head. Under the light, her face looked gloomy, but there was something strange in it from time to time.
Chu Qing thought for a moment and said, “Will the Ministry of Justice believe what you said?” Although Wen Xichi of the Ministry of Justice had left, Chu Qing was still worried. He always felt that this matter would not be settled easily.
Consort Dowager Qing gritted her teeth and said, “I’ll go to the Palace to see the Empress Dowager tomorrow.” Wen Xichi was really difficult to deal with. It seemed that he was stubborn and would not let go of Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion so easily.
“Mother, are you going to the Palace tomorrow?” Chu Qing exclaimed. He knew that his mother hated entering the Palace the most.
Consort Dowager gritted her teeth and said, “Yes. I have to visit the Empress Dowager after entering the Palace. I heard that she is ill!” When she left the Palace, she had been looked down upon. Therefore, she had made up her mind that she would definitely come back, and when she did, she must ask her servants to carry the carriage through the main entrance into the Palace.
But now was not the time to do so. She would not be obsessed with taking revenge whenever she got the chance to do so. Otherwise, she wouldn’t get to give birth to her son back then.
“Mother, please be careful tomorrow,” Chu Qing said worriedly.
“Don’t worry. We have our men in the Palace,” Consort Dowager Qing said with a cold smile. Her sarcasm was obvious.
In the end, Consort Dowager Qing did not enter the Palace the next day, because the Empress Dowager had gone to the Huaguang Temple to worship the Buddha. Shao Wanru went with Empress Dowager.
In addition to the Empress Dowager, the Empress also went there, followed by Shao Wanru, Princess Chen.
There were not many of them, but all of them had extremely noble status, except for Shao Wanru.
When they arrived at Huaguang Temple, Shao Wanru chatted with Empress Dowager and the Empress for a while.
Since what had happened before, the Empress had been much kinder to Shao Wanru. She also smiled when she saw Shao Wanru as if they had always got along well with each other. They flattered Empress Dowager with every word, which made her laugh from time to time. The atmosphere was very harmonious.
After talking for a while, Empress Dowager was a little tired, so she asked the Empress and Shao Wanru to go and enjoy the scenery by themselves. They didn’t need to stay with her.
Nanny Wei repeatedly promised to look after Empress Dowager.
The Empress and Shao Wanru came out of the yard. “Princess Chen, you can have a rest if you are tired.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Shao Wanru saw that the Empress didn’t want her to accompany her, so she excused herself with a smile. She didn’t want to accompany the Empress. It was best for them to enjoy the scenery separately.
The Empress nodded and watched Shao Wanru leave silently. The smile on her face slowly faded away.
The palace maid who came to serve the Empress said softly, “Your Highness, let’s go there to enjoy the scenery. I heard that the purple bamboo of Huaguang Temple looks great. You rarely go out of the Palace, so you should relax.”
The Empress turned around and asked in a low voice, “Is Prince Zhou here?”
“Yes!” the palace maid said in an increasingly low voice, which could only be heard by the Empress, who was close to her.
Hearing that her son had come over, the Empress took a deep breath. She had been locked up in her place these days, and it was not easy for her to even meet her son. This time, she had thought of a way to get the Empress Dowager to agree to go out. She had something to discuss with her son and could not let others know.
“Did anyone discover him?”
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. His Highness Prince Zhou is very careful. He just pretends to be an ordinary noble childe and didn’t come in with his real identity,” the palace maid said.
The Empress nodded and was quite satisfied with Chu Liuzhou.
Although she had been locked up, her son did a good job. He was much more sensible than before when she helped him whenever he was in trouble.
Shao Wanru didn’t expect to meet Madam Wen and Gu Xishu here.
The banquet held in the Mansion of the Prime Minister was postponed because of what had happened to Madam Jiang.
Marquis Xing’s Mansion and the Mansion of the Prime Minister were on the same side. It would be strange and unreasonable if the latter held a blind date banquet while the former just had one of their people dead and was going to hold a funeral. After thinking about it, Madam Wen changed the date of the blind date banquet so that it would not clash with Madam Jiang’s funeral.
“Who is this?” Madam Wen saw Shao Wanru coming from a distance and asked Gu Xishu, who was supporting her. She found that the one who was coming didn’t look like a member of an ordinary family.
“This girl is so beautiful that my son will definitely like her.”
In order to make her youngest son get married, Madam Wen had taken great pains. However, he didn’t care about it at all. Madam Wen got greatly anxious.
“My son should be willing to marry this woman, right? I’ve never seen such a beautiful Young Madam from an aristocratic family.”
“Aunt Wen, she’s Princess Chen.” Seeing the amazement and desire in Madam Wen’s eyes, Gu Xizhu knew what Madam Wen meant. She gritted her teeth with hatred. “I’m the closest one to Aunt, but why can’t she take me into her consideration?”
“Is this Princess Chen?” Madam Wen stopped. She didn’t know Princess Chen before, so she didn’t care about greeting the woman who was coming. Since she knew her, she had to greet her. When Old Prime Minister Wen returned to the mansion, he privately told her about Prince Chen and asked her to pay more attention to Princess Chen.
Shao Wanru also saw Madam Wen. She had wanted to leave because she didn’t want to see Madam Wen, but since the latter had stopped, it was not convenient for her to leave.
Shao Wanru took a few steps forward and looked gracefully at Madam Wen opposite her.
In her last life, they were mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, but in this life, they seemed to be strangers. There were not many things in the world that could be traced. Shao Wanru could only thank God again for giving her the chance to be reborn.