Unfortunately, she was trapped inside, unable to get out, and could only glare at Jiang Xinyue through the wooden bars: "Even if you are the Empress, everything requires evidence. You have no evidence, yet you’ve locked me up. Do you think the Emperor’s harem is your personal domain?"
Jiang Xinyue looked at her as if she were a fool: "Someone accused you of poisoning Consort Liang, and a palace maid saw your maid, Hui Yuan, interacting with Huang Yanyu. What does that have to do with me? I’m just following the rules to ensure justice for Consort Liang. Why are you blaming me for everything?"
The maid who saw Hui Yuan and Huang Yanyu crossing paths wasn’t one of Jiang Xinyue’s people; she served in Consort Liang’s palace.
Huang Yanyu was a newly entered palace maid, assigned to Consort Liang. If she were Jiang Xinyue’s person, she would have been presented to the Emperor long ago. Why would she be a maid?
So, these accusations had nothing to do with Jiang Xinyue.
"Empress, we’ve found something in the side hall of Yanqing Palace."
The Investigative Bureau guards presented a wrapped package. Jiang Xinyue didn’t rush to take it. Instead, she addressed Leader Du: "To prevent Consort Ru from throwing mud at me, I won’t touch this. Leader Du, you serve the Emperor. Please examine it and see if I’ve wronged her."
"Gulp!"
The maid, Magpie, clearly heard Leader Du swallow hard before the guard handed him the oil-paper package.
Leader Du opened the package, dipped his finger into the powder, and sniffed it. He then looked at Consort Ru in shock.
What an idiot! How could she leave such crucial evidence in her room for anyone to find?
Did she think the Investigative Bureau was full of fools who wouldn’t trace it back to her?
Consort Ru frowned, not understanding why Leader Du was looking at her like that.
"Someone, inform the Emperor that the person who poisoned Consort Liang has been found. Ask him how to proceed."
After all, Consort Ru was the Emperor’s consort, and the Investigative Bureau had no authority to punish her privately.
But since the Empress was present, she technically had the final say.
Leader Du was clever. To prevent Consort Ru from making wild accusations again, he sent someone to seek the Emperor’s orders.
Shunan Palace—
The second princess’s heart was pounding as she grabbed Consort Shu’s hand: "Will… will we be discovered?"
Consort Shu’s expression was stern: "Relax, we’ve been very careful. Nothing will go wrong."
"I was afraid the Investigative Bureau wouldn’t find anything, so I hid a few packages under Consort Ru’s bed and in her wardrobe."
Consort Shu nodded: "Well done. That vile woman dared to harm the Crown Prince, thinking she could get away with it by pinning all the blame on Zhang Wanrong. Hmph! Now that she’s in the Investigative Bureau, the Empress will make sure she suffers."
The second princess asked curiously: "But even Father didn’t figure out that Consort Ru was the one who caused the Crown Prince’s allergy. How did Mother know?"
"At first, we didn’t either…"
But later, the Empress mentioned that the walnut oil used for the Crown Prince had been sent to the palace by the Jiang Family’s shops.
After the Crown Prince turned one, the Empress ordered the imperial kitchen to prepare his meals, and since there was no walnut oil in the palace, she personally wrote to the Jiang Family, asking them to procure the finest walnuts from Jiangcheng, press them into oil, and transport it back to the capital.
Due to seasonal constraints, the Jiang Family shipped two entire carriages of walnut oil to ensure there was enough.
From harvesting to shelling, pressing to bottling and transportation, the entire process was overseen by the Jiang Family, with no outsiders involved.
With so much walnut oil, how could Zhang Wanrong and a single eunuch have secretly replaced it all with peanut oil?
Moreover, the Internal Affairs Department kept detailed records of all expenditures and inventory. The storeroom was a heavily guarded area, accessible only with the chief eunuch’s permission.
They would have had to transport peanut oil from outside to replace it, and doing so quietly in such a short time—or even at all—would have been impossible for one person.
So, the Empress concluded that Zhang Wanrong wasn’t the only one involved. There was a hidden hand behind it all.
The Emperor agreed that it was best not to alert the culprit, allowing them to think they were safe before launching a secret investigation.
Initially, they planned to interrogate the eunuchs who had assisted Zhang Wanrong, but those eunuchs turned out to be spies. Before they could even be sent to the Investigative Bureau, they bit their tongues and committed suicide.
This further confirmed that Zhang Wanrong was merely a pawn.
When the Emperor ordered the secret investigation, he didn’t use the Investigative Bureau. Instead, he entrusted the task to a few trusted captains of the Imperial Guards, who assigned their most loyal subordinates to search the eunuchs’ quarters.
Finally, in one of the eunuch’s partially burned undergarments, they discovered the national flower of Goguryeo—the Wuji flower.
Beneath the flower, a name was embroidered in Goguryeo script.
After consulting an expert, they learned the name read "Shen Hanping."
Jiang Xinyue speculated that this was the real name of the eunuch who had committed suicide.
The surname "Shen" was rare in The Great Yan Dynasty but common in Goguryeo, leading them to suspect that the true mastermind behind the Crown Prince’s poisoning was Consort Ru.
The eldest princess sat by Consort Liang’s sickbed, listening to their conversation, unable to believe that so much had happened in the less than two weeks since she had been married off.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
Consort Liang, half-reclined on the bed, coughed painfully, her chest aching with each breath.
She winced: "That Huang Yanyu… damn it… it hurts so much…"
Consort Liang had woken up a few days earlier, and it was then that Jiang Xinyue had sought her permission to use this opportunity to bring down Consort Ru as well.
The eldest princess quickly stood up, handing Consort Liang a cup of hot tea: "Mother, please calm down. The Empress has gone to the Investigative Bureau. She’ll surely bring you justice."
Consort Liang struggled to even open her eyes, her throat feeling as if it were being sliced by tiny knives. She took a sip of the hot water, and the eldest princess gently wiped the droplets from her lips with a handkerchief.
Noble Consort Ye helped by taking the teacup from the eldest princess and placing it on the table: "The Empress is still at the Investigative Bureau, and they’ve already found the poison in Consort Ru’s palace. She won’t escape, and neither will Huang Yanyu."
The only regret was that Consort Ru’s crime wasn’t harming the royal heir but poisoning a consort, which was slightly less severe.
While Consort Liang’s life was valuable, the Crown Prince’s was far more precious.
If Consort Ru had been convicted of harming the Crown Prince, the Emperor would have had her body sent back to Goguryeo.
