since Yingyu is fake, then what about the little maid who suddenly screamed and said someone was dead, attracting everyone's attention?
At that time, everyone was gathered in the backyard, and the other few servants were also guarding their positions - where did this little maid come from?
The most suspicious thing is that among all the servants who were arrested and imprisoned in the Duke's Mansion, there was no trace of this maid.
No one claimed to know her.
Qiu Che immediately realized that she was not the only one who disguised herself and sneaked into the Duke's Mansion that day.
At this point, Li Qingwu already knew.
This is a big situation.
"You just asked why the fake Yingyu wanted to lead you there," Qiu Che said, "Think about how many forces are involved in this case from beginning to end?"
"Yaotai, the Queen and the Commander of the Jinwu Guard," Li Qingwu frowned and said softly, "The Duke's Mansion, me, and... you."
The appearance of the fake Yingyu made Li Qingwu's testimony no longer reliable.
Moreover, the real Yingyu later died in the pond, and Li Qingwu, the last one who claimed to have seen her, was also suspected of murder.
Although in this era where human life is worthless, the death of a maid is actually insignificant.
But after all, the other party is the head maid beside the queen, and it happened in public, and it also involved the commander of the Jinwu Guard.
If you don't give an explanation, it will be hard to justify.
But it has always been "evidence to prove it", no one can prove it.
Li Qingwu can't provide evidence to prove her innocence, so she can only bear this black pot.
And now they are already a legitimate "husband and wife". In the eyes of outsiders, if Li Qingwu gets into trouble, it means Qiu Che gets into trouble.
How could a princess who has never left the house for many years do such a thing for no reason?
At this time, someone will definitely take this opportunity to attack Qiu Che, saying that it was definitely instigated by Li Qingwu's "husband".
By that time, the matter has become a big deal, and it doesn't matter whether they are innocent or not.
The important thing is that one of them must be pushed out to take this black pot.
The more Li Qingwu thought about it, the more frightened he became.
"No, it's not just that," Qiu Che raised the corner of his lips, "and... Prime Minister Wu."
Qiu Che briefly mentioned the old story of the Prime Minister's Mansion that she had told the emperor before to Li Qingwu again.
"From the discovery of Yuan Fu's affair, to the sudden appearance of the little maid later, and finally the appearance of the Jinyiwei - it seems to have nothing to do with Prime Minister Wu."
"But it happened that he was the one who reported to the emperor that there was a Southern Yi spy in the Duke's Mansion."
"And when the Jinyiwei followed the clues and investigated Ying Yu's death, they happened to find these two bodies that should have been in the Prime Minister's Mansion."
It was as if he deliberately wanted to expose this case.
Li Qingwu was puzzled: "This... Could it be that he wanted to expose this matter? But exposing it doesn't seem to be good for him. Besides, he was the one who reported it, but he didn't find any traces of Southern Yi spies. Father will definitely question him."
"This is also what I am most confused about." Prime Minister
Wu is only interested in profit, and it is impossible for him to do such a thing that harms others and does not benefit himself.
But it happened that he was the one who reported it.
"Then there is only one possibility: Prime Minister Wu himself was also kept in the dark."
Li Qingwu stuttered, "You mean, he didn't know that the two bodies were in the Duke's Mansion?"
"Yes," Qiu Che nodded, "Excluding all impossibilities, the remaining one, no matter how outrageous, is the only answer."
"Before he reported it, he didn't know that he would be dragged into the water - the person who revealed to him that there was a spy from the Southern Barbarians in the Duke's Mansion, perhaps only told him what would happen in the Duke's Mansion, but didn't tell him that the two bodies would eventually appear."
Wu Rusheng might have thought that the emperor would pay more attention to Rosemary's reappearance, or maybe he just wanted to watch them fight each other while he sat on the shore and watched the fire.
But he didn't expect to be stabbed in the back.
"The person who told him the news must have reached some kind of cooperation with him... or someone he trusted very much."
Otherwise, with Wu Rusheng's shrewd mind, how could he expose himself to this case.
Li Qingwu hesitated.
Qiu Che caught her emotions and immediately asked, "What's wrong?"
"There is another possibility," Li Qingwu whispered in the face of Qiu Che's encouraging eyes, "He has something on the other party."
Qiu Che pondered for a moment and shook his head, "It's unlikely. If Wu Rusheng had something on the other party, he wouldn't show up so rashly. Instead, he would be extremely cautious. Even if he had to show up in person, he wouldn't use the reason of discovering a spy from the Southern Yi." If
you're not careful, you'll be held accountable.
Li Qingwu thought about it and pursed her lips, saying embarrassedly: "Just treat it as my nonsense."
"It's okay, it's good to have an idea," Qiu Che comforted her, and then said, "Why I said that Prime Minister Wu is suspected of treason - because of this."
"In the case of the Imperial Garden, it was Rosemary planted by Prime Minister Wu behind the scenes," Qiu Che was silent for a moment, and continued, "I thought he got it accidentally - but this case is actually related to him again, and it just so happens that... Rosemary appeared again."
Li Qingwu looked at her, his eyelashes trembled inexplicably, and he didn't dare to say anything else.
Qiu Che observed her expression calmly, and seeing that she didn't react, he sighed again, and then said: "Do you remember the news that Yang Qiu brought us at that time?"
Li Qingwu nodded, and his thoughts gradually became clear: "He said that Prime Minister Wu had contact with the Southern Yi people."
"So I guess he probably cooperated with the Southern Yi people."
But Wu Rusheng didn't expect that the other party was so bold, and he wanted to drag him into the water after trapping so many people.
There are only two possible results for this case, one pointing to Wu Rusheng, the other pointing to Nanyi.
In any case, they are bound to tear their faces with Wu Rusheng.
In this case, the most innocent are Yingyu who died, and Yaotai who was forced to "have an affair".
But looking at Yaotai, it seems that she doesn't care much about being forced.
After talking to this point, the two of them almost had a bottom line in their hearts.
Li Qingwu asked her: "What are you going to do?"
Qiu Che said: "Go to the imperial prison tomorrow, take a few Jinyiwei, and go to the Duke's Mansion."
"If you can find substantial evidence, it would be great." If
you can't find it, it's not difficult for Qiu Che to convince the emperor to believe her with her sophistry.
It's just hard to shut up the ministers.
But Qiu Che has no choice.
If Qiu Che didn't take over this case today, it's unknown when the truth of the case will be revealed, and since she took over, she must give an explanation to the emperor.
In any case, for Qiu Che, it's actually a thankless task.
Now it can only be considered that, because of the right time, right place and right people, it just happened to resolve the crisis of being smeared.
Qiu Che reflected that he still had to be vigilant - no matter who it was, no matter where he went.
When going in and out of the door to wash, Qiu Che suddenly called Li Qingwu again.
She said: "You once told me that a drug you used was called Broken Bone Grass. But that is something only found in Nanyi."
Li Qingwu's back froze slightly as he left.
"Can you tell me where this drug came from?"
Li Qingwu didn't answer for a long time.
After a long silence, she said softly: "It's just something I got by accident... Sorry, but I can only say that I have nothing to do with Nanyi."
Qiu Che didn't say whether she believed it or not.
Neither of them spoke again.
Li Qingwu closed his eyes, pushed the door open and went out.
After the wooden door closed again, Yaotai came out from the screen behind, looked at the closed door with her, and teased: "It seems that your wife doesn't completely trust you."
Qiu Che lowered his eyes and said lightly: "It's normal."
Since the last time he learned that Li Qingwu was deliberately teasing her appetite and making her mistakenly believe that Li Qingwu still liked her, Qiu Che knew it.
This girl is not an easy person to deal with.
All the harmlessness and fragility she showed on the outside were just her disguise.
Maybe she was not strong enough, but she had a heart of gold.
Qiu Che never underestimated her.
Even allies had secrets between them.
After spending a few days with Li Qingwu, Qiu Che had figured out her personality. She might hide something, but whatever she said must be true.
Qiu Che didn't care about Yao Tai's teasing, and asked back: "If I hadn't noticed that you were here, I would have hit you with a palm when I entered the door just now - why are you coming to my place instead of going back to your Ye Ming City?"
Yao Tai shook her head: "City Lord Qiu is really too violent. Go back? You forgot that it's all your territory. If I want to go back, I can only go back to Hong Xiu Zhao."
"Besides, after all, it's about my innocence," Yao Tai blinked, "I'll stay and listen for a while. I want to know who hurt me. Is it too much?"
Qiu Che glanced at her: "I advise you not to touch Wu Xiang first. Even if we all know that he is the one who did it, it's hard to do anything to him without substantial evidence."
Yao Tai leaned against the windowsill, squinting lazily, playing with the bracelet on her hand: "I know, I know, City Lord Qiu acts cautiously, I will definitely not cause trouble for you - hey, by the way, don't you feel that something is wrong?" Qiu
Che paused.
In fact, she also had this feeling, but it was vague and could not be described.
Yaotai smiled and said, "Right... aren't all these speculations a little too smooth?"
As expected, on the second day, Qiu Che personally led the Jinyiwei to search for evidence and examined Yingyu's body. Apart from finding out that she was poisoned and dumped in a pond, no other clues were obtained.
The person who closed the case handled it very cleanly.
A few days later, Qiu Che compiled the case into a file and reported it to the emperor.
But unfortunately, her speculation impressed the emperor who was determined to weaken the power of the prime minister, but failed to impress the old ministers who had already regarded her as a thorn in their eyes.
The morning court of this day was again full of excitement and spitting. Whether they were openly affiliated with Prime Minister Wu's party or secretly affiliated with Prime Minister Wu's party, they all seemed to have made a private appointment.
From "It is not proper to let the tutor handle this case" to "You are so arrogant to slander the prime minister without any evidence"...
In short, all they said was to express that even if the prime minister's old case was not handled honestly, it was his family matter and could not be linked to treason.
Qiu Che, who was standing in the middle, was almost drowned in saliva.
Even Prime Minister Wu refuted her a few words vaguely, implying that she was young and ignorant and could only act on her imagination.
He admitted the crime of killing his son and concubine to silence them, and he could ask for a few months' salary to be reduced, but he would never bear the charge of treason.
The emperor's face was naturally not very good after hearing this - saying Qiu Che was ignorant, then he who agreed with Qiu Che's opinion was even more ignorant?
But Prime Minister Wu probably gave up on showing loyalty to the emperor and didn't care.
And no matter how others condemned and doubted, Qiu Che always stood tall and straight in her position, as still as a mountain.
Until someone suddenly stood up and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking frankly. This case is too strange. Lord Qiu has no evidence, but he is so anxious to close the case - I'm afraid there is something else going on."
"Yes," another minister stood up and said, "I know you appreciate Lord Qiu, but Lord Qiu is young after all. I'm afraid that closing the case so hastily will not convince the public."
"I second the motion."
"I second the motion!"
Amid the voices of seconding, a censor stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to say, which is a folk rumor. I don't know whether I should say it or not."
Li Shi said with a headache, "Say it."
"I heard that the biological mother of Her Royal Highness the Princess is a spy from the Southern Barbarians."
The censor's words shocked everyone, and then he asked passionately, "I wonder if this is true?"
Li Shi frowned, as if he had thought about it for a moment, and then nodded half a beat late: "...It is true."
Qiu Che looked up suddenly.
She only knew that Li Qingwu's mother died in the cold palace, but she didn't know that she was sent in for such a reason?
The look on Li Qingwu's face when he hesitated to speak a few days ago flashed through her mind.
She has nothing to do with Nanyi - meaning, her mother is the one who has a relationship with Nanyi?
There was an uproar in the court and the public, and the censor was even more arrogant. He glanced at Qiu Che triumphantly, and then said: "In this case, in my opinion, the so-called rosemary may have been personally done by Her Royal Highness the Princess, who murdered the poor maid again."
"Everyone knows that the prince consort advertised that he was looking for that rattan grass to cure the princess's foot injury, and maybe he just happened to get some rosemary - besides, the prince consort and the princess are so affectionate, it is understandable that he is anxious to close the case in order to cover up the princess's mistake."
After these words came out, Li Shi couldn't help but frowned tightly, and was speechless for a while.
Qiu Che replied with a half-smile: "Your Excellency said that I am anxious. I wonder which eye saw that? In my opinion, you are the most anxious one."
"Since Your Majesty knows about this, you must have your own thoughts. Your Majesty has not said anything, why are you in a hurry to convict me?"
Li Shi also came back to his senses immediately and realized that this was not a good time to question Qiu Che, so he looked at her deeply and said: "Yes, I already knew this, but I know Le He's character very well. That's why I didn't think of this."
The censor shook his beard and wanted to say more, but Qiu Che stepped forward and quickly blocked him with words: "You said I have no evidence, but you have no evidence to accuse Her Royal Highness the Princess of murder, right?"
"It is true that I asked someone to look for the vine, but this was approved by His Majesty himself. Whether it was found or not, and whether more rosemary was found, His Majesty knows much more than you do."
She said lightly, "Slandering a princess of the royal family is a serious crime punishable by beheading... I advise you to think twice before you act."
The censor glared at her.
But seeing that the emperor had his eyes closed, he looked very tired and didn't want to listen anymore, so he finally shut up angrily.
A court meeting ended unhappily between the monarch and his ministers.
This was the first time Qiu Che and Prime Minister Wu confronted each other head-on, and neither of them ended up well. Prime
Minister Wu could not be convicted, but because of the scandal in his family, his salary was cut for several months.
On the way back to the princess's mansion, Qiu Che heard almost all the rumors about "Prince Wu killed his son and concubine to silence them" and "The eldest princess' mother was a spy from the Southern Barbarians."
She said nothing, nor did she ask Li Qingwu about the situation. Instead, she went straight to the study and wrote another memorial.
Just as she was about to put down her pen, she heard a knock on the door.
"Come in."
Li Qingwu's figure appeared at the door.
She hesitated, her face a little pale, as if she didn't know whether she should come in.
Qiu Che looked up at her: "What's the matter?"
Li Qingwu held the handkerchief, lowered his head and whispered: "What happened in today's court meeting..."
"You heard about it too?" Qiu Che reacted calmly and said lightly, "Don't worry, they are guilty and dare not hold on to this matter."
"I will explain the situation to His Majesty, but there may be some gossip among the people because of this matter, you don't have to take it to heart."
Li Qingwu said, "I know."
He stared at her blankly for a while and said, "Don't you want to ask something else?"
Qiu Che raised his eyelids: "What do you mean?"
Li Qingwu licked his lips and lowered his voice again: "Just... about me, my mother's past."
Qiu Che smiled: "What does your mother's past have to do with me?"
Li Qingwu hurriedly said: "No, I mean..."
Qiu Che said seriously: "If you are willing to talk, I can naturally listen. But if you don't want to say it, as long as this matter does not affect me, then I won't ask."
She walked out with the memorial, and when she passed by Li Qingwu, she paused slightly, tilted her head, and added: "Just like the other day-don't think too much."
At that time, Li Qingwu didn't say anything, but Qiu Che didn't ask.
She shook the memorial in her hand again and said, "I have something else, let's talk when I come back."
"...Okay."
Li Qingwu stood there and heard the door of the study being closed again. After a long time, he came back from his daze.
She slowly lowered her eyes and looked at the handkerchief embroidered with lotus in her hand, with a bit of bitterness in her eyes.
This was the first time someone told her that she didn't need to think too much, everything depended on her willingness.
No one blamed her for hiding it, nor did he get angry about it.
He even told her calmly that he would solve it, so she didn't need to worry.
At this moment, Li Qingwu heard the sound of her long-lost heartbeat.
It overlapped with the deafening heartbeat when she first met Qiu Che.
Qiu Che wanted to bring the memorial into the palace, but halfway through the carriage, it bumped into the sedan chair of the eunuch who was delivering the imperial edict.
Li Shi not only did not demote her because of this to appease the anger of the ministers, but promoted her instead.
From the fifth-rank tutor to the fourth-rank Dali Temple Shaoqing.
Another promotion across levels.
Qiu Che was filled with thoughts in an instant, and before leaving, he stuffed two pieces of silver into Fu Zi, who was delivering the imperial edict... Well, the silver was taken from the princess.
Fu Zi told her that after the court session today, the queen had visited Jingyang Palace.
He only mentioned this sentence, and Qiu Che immediately understood that her promotion was largely due to the Queen.
Perhaps to express gratitude to Qiu Che for not exposing her affair with the commander of the Jinwu Guards, and perhaps also for deterrence, she whispered in the emperor's ear - there are many benefits to letting Qiu Che get promoted.
For example, although Wu Xiang could not suppress her, he could improve Qiu Che's status, and imply that the emperor actually believed in Qiu Che's case conclusion, and that Wu Xiang had better be careful and behave himself.
For another example, promoting Qiu Che's position and letting her transfer from the reading attendant to the Dali Temple, so that she would not work in front of the emperor, seemed to be a promotion, but also had some meaning of demotion.
Even if the ministers thought it was outrageous, they could not point at the emperor's nose and scold him for being stupid.
If they had to scold him, they would scold Qiu Che, who had given the emperor a drug of love and made him so fond of her.
Of course, this was also good for the Queen herself -
she could do Qiu Che a favor and tell her that your promotion was my credit. It was also a hint to her that she had better keep her mouth shut and not spread the affair.
Qiu Che had been transferred out of the palace. By then, it was hard to say whether the Queen's whispers would be quicker or she, a small official of the fourth rank, would be impeached faster.
But she seemed to be helping Qiu Che, but in fact Qiu Che herself saw clearly that at this time when public opinion was at its peak, her promotion would put herself in a more dangerous position.
From ancient times to the present, there has never been anyone like her who won the first place in the imperial examination at the age of 18 and was promoted from the seventh rank to the fourth rank in less than half a year.
She could almost imagine how those ministers who disliked her would gnash their teeth in private.
ââThis promotion was a happy one for everyone.
Except for Wu Xiang and others.
Qiu Che sighed secretly, knowing that it was urgent to cultivate her own power.
This was only the first confrontation, and there would be many such situations in the future.
She got on the carriage and asked Yu Yan to drive the carriage back to the princess's mansion.
At the entrance of the alley not far away, a black figure stood for a moment and soon disappeared.
Yang Qiu wrote to inquire about the situation - as a minor official of the seventh rank, he could not attend the court to discuss matters, and he did not know what happened today.
Qiu Che simply wrote back to explain what happened. She sat in the study for a while and sorted out the manuscript of the second draft.
When she came back to her senses, it was dark again.
It was Li Qingwu who knocked on the door again, and this time he brought lotus root and pork ribs soup.
Qiu Che said, "Thank you, leave it here, I'll drink it later."
Li Qingwu said, "You said the same thing last time."
Qiu Che blinked and looked up: "But I drank it last time too."
Li Qingwu said calmly: "I drank it cold, and then I had a stomachache the next day."
Qiu Che: "..."
She didn't expect that Li Qingwu had known about this for a long time, and she was speechless, so she had to bring the soup over and drink it mouthful by mouthful.
"The cooking skills of the princess's mansion's chef are much better than those of the Qiu's mansion," she said with a smile as if to make conversation, "I just feel that there is not enough salt, but it tastes very good."
Li Qingwu said, "Hmm": "I'll ask the chef to improve it."
Qiu Che finished drinking, put the bowl aside, and was about to take it away himself. Seeing Li Qingwu still standing there, hesitantly asked, "Is there anything?"
Li Qingwu blinked and said softly, "I should ask you, is there anything else?" Qiu Che
thought for a while and said, "I have almost finished processing the files. What's the matter?"
Li Qingwu pursed his lips, sat down at the table next to him, and said, "I've thought about it, and I still need to be honest with you."
Qiu Che realized something a little late: "Hmm?"
"We are allies - this is what you said, so I think you also have the right to know about some things." Li Qingwu said slowly.
Qiu Che thought for a moment, and looking at her expression, he probably guessed what she was going to say: "If it's inconvenient, you don't have to say it."
"It's not inconvenient," Li Qingwu said softly, "I don't have much affection for my mother, and I don't know much about her. I don't even know how she came to Daxia and became my father's concubine."
"It's just that one day when I was a child, I discovered the existence of 'Broken Bone Grass' among her belongings. And by some strange coincidence, I knocked out the guards, and with the help of the palace maids, I escaped and played for an afternoon - I told you."
Li Qingwu paused, probably thinking of the palace maid who died tragically again. He lowered his eyes a little hastily and said:
"Her belongings were all a bunch of messy herbs. She had been in the cold palace for a long time, and she often fiddled with these things."
"But since I knew the efficacy of Broken Bone Grass, and that the medicine was called Broken Bone Grass and came from Nanyi, I dared not rummage around anymore."
"I'm not hiding anything from you, because apart from my mother's identity as a Southern Yi, I really don't know anything about her past."
Li Qingwu looked up at her and said seriously, "I was afraid you wouldn't believe me, and I thought it might not matter, so I was hesitant about whether to tell you..."
"I didn't mean to hide it from you, but if I had said it earlier, maybe you would have been prepared and wouldn't have been harassed at the court meeting today."
"Anyway... I'm sorry."
"I seem to always be a burden to you."