svetikya Chapter 13 A skilled hunter always appears in the form of prey.
Chapter 13 A skilled hunter always appears in the form of prey.
Li Yuanke didn't have a morning meeting today. After being busy for more than ten days, he decided to reward himself by sleeping in.
At dawn, half an hour later than usual, Li Fude called out to him from outside, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, something has happened in the harem!"
Li Yuanke remained silent for a while. There was an empress in the harem, and he hadn't heard of any concubines being pregnant yet. What was all this fuss about so early in the morning? He didn't want to pay any attention.
"Your Majesty, Consort Shen has fallen!"
Li Yuanke jumped to his feet. "What happened?"
Li Fude thought to himself, "If I hadn't mentioned Master Shen, you wouldn't have woken up."
"Master Shen went for a run this morning, and some clueless person scattered mung beans on the ground. It was still dark, and Master Shen didn't see them, so he stepped on them and slipped!"
Shen Shixi got up early in the morning to run laps as usual. Bai Ping secretly told her that someone had scattered mung beans on the ground at the corner between the East Annex Hall and the Main Hall. When she ran over there, she saw the mung beans and lay down on the ground.
Bai Ping screamed like a ghost, "Master, what's wrong?"
Chen Yuxi had been waiting for news that morning, and now everyone was so shocked that they gathered around. Bai Ping hugged Shen Shixi and cried out, "Master, wake up, wake up!"
Chao En saw mung beans scattered on the ground. "Who scattered mung beans here? Chao Yu, take men and restrain everyone here. Keep them on the spot and do not allow them to move. This matter must be reported to the Emperor and Empress."
Lan Ying went to find the Empress, and Lan Tan went to find the Emperor.
The emperor and empress arrived one after the other, and the emperor entered the inner palace.
The imperial physician and the female physician were both present, their expressions somewhat grave, because they couldn't determine exactly where Consort Shen was injured.
The imperial physician couldn't get a diagnosis by taking her pulse, and the female physician found it painful wherever she touched her; it looked very serious.
The two stepped back, and Li Yuange sat down by the bed. Shen Shixi looked at him quietly, which made Li Yuange feel a little embarrassed. He took her hand and asked the imperial physician, "How is Consort Shen's injury?"
The imperial physician said, "My medical skills are limited, and I cannot determine whether there are any internal injuries at the moment, but judging from the current situation, it seems that His Highness Shen has multiple fractures."
Since there were no X-rays, the severity of the injury could only be determined by Master Shen's reaction during the examination.
When the female doctor pressed on certain areas, she screamed in pain, and it looked like she had a fracture.
Li Yuanke suppressed his anger, rubbed her head, and said, "Take good care of your injuries first. I'll go out and take a look."
"Mmm!" Shen Shixi replied obediently.
next moment.
[You bastard, if you dare not avenge me, I'll kill every single spider demon in your Spider Cave!]
Shen Shixi thought so too. She knew that the harem was a meat grinder. If you said you wouldn't participate, then you had to be like Consort Qiong, where the emperor would rather play with himself than sleep with her.
Even then, one might not escape unscathed. Sometimes, in order to frame someone, the concubines would disregard whether you were uninvolved or innocent.
Besides, Shen Shixi has just broken his craving and hasn't slept with Li Yuanke enough yet, how could he possibly do it?
She couldn't be bothered to think about who it was; she could just leave it to Li Yuanke.
Li Yuanke gave her a deep look. He didn't know what the Spider Cave and the Spider Demon were, but he could guess that they weren't good things to say.
The mung beans were still on the ground, and the crime scene was not complicated.
Li Yuanke glanced around at the concubines; everyone was calm and composed, and he couldn't tell who had done it.
"Except for Consort Shen who serves you personally, everyone in Zhaoyang Palace should be sent to the Censorate for investigation. I want the truth to come out today!" the Emperor said.
The Empress gasped. It was just a matter of a few mung beans, yet Cen Yin had to investigate it.
"Your Majesty, this is the inner palace. Is it inappropriate to let Commander Cen come in to investigate the case? Why not send Eunuch Zhang from the Censorate instead?" the Empress advised.
The Bad People were equivalent to the Jinyiwei (Imperial Bodyguards) of later times, serving the emperor. Their commander was called the Bad Commander, who was Cen Yin.
Li Yuanke was clearly in a bad mood today. He glanced at the Empress sideways without saying a word, but the warning was very clear.
Jiang Zhiyu's legs went weak and she almost fell. Chen Yuxi's face was as white as paper. She kept telling herself not to be afraid, not to be afraid. She didn't do it. She was just a suspect. She wasn't afraid. It had nothing to do with her.
Cen Yin arrived quickly. He was in his early twenties and wore a bright red robe embroidered with a qilin, which looked as red as blood spreading across the courtyard.
The Emperor and Empress had barely finished drinking a cup of tea in the hall when Cen Yin entered and said, "Your Majesty, this matter concerns two concubines in the harem. One is the newly arrived Consort Chen, and the other is Consort Jiang. I wish to speak on behalf of these two concubines. Perhaps I will have to use some means. I beg Your Majesty's permission."
"allow!"
Jiang Zhiyu fell to the ground with a thud. "Your Majesty, I'm innocent! I didn't do anything! It has nothing to do with me!"
Li Yuanke ignored it.
Seeing this, Li Fude waved his hand, and four old women came in and pulled the two of them out.
Chen Cainu didn't beg for mercy; she was so frightened that she fainted.
The details of what happened quickly became clear: Chen Cainu moved to Zhaoyang Palace and learned Shen Shixi's daily routine. Every day at 5:30 a.m., she would run laps along the covered walkway, following a fixed route.
Doesn't this give someone an opportunity to take advantage of the situation?
Knowing that Jiang Zhiyu had been demoted because of Shen Shixi, Chen Cainu wished she could devour his flesh and drink his blood. So she deliberately revealed this to Jiang Zhiyu, with the aim of making Jiang Zhiyu take action against Shen Shixi.
Jiang Zhiyu was well aware of the situation; she had someone take Chen Cainu's pearls to set a trap and frame Chen Cainu.
Chen Cainu had been watching closely, how could she let her frame her? Fortunately, Shen Shixi's small kitchen had made mung bean cakes before, so she had all the pearls replaced with mung beans.
Unbeknownst to her, Shen Shixi had witnessed this entire scene, and was simply waiting to lure her into a trap.
"By imperial decree: Consort Jiang and Lady Chen, for their heinous plot to harm a palace concubine, are hereby demoted to commoners and imprisoned in the Cold Palace, never to be released again!"
That's basically equivalent to being dead.
But that wasn't the worst of it. In front of the concubines, the emperor ordered Cen Yin to deliver an imperial edict to the court: "Consort Jiang's father is dismissed from his post; the Marquis of Zhongyong has failed in his duty to educate his daughter and is demoted one rank!"
He was demoted from marquis to earl, and lost two daughters in the palace.
The concubines gasped in shock. The power struggles in the inner palace had never affected the court before. Even when Lady Shen was just a concubine, only Lady Chen was punished after her death. Now, Shen Shixi had only stumbled, yet the court was implicated.
A deep unease rose in the Empress's heart.
From now on, anyone who wants to make a move against Shen Shixi will have to think twice.
"Your Majesty, I have also made similar mistakes. If I had known this would happen, I would not have let Chen move in. She was the one who said she wanted to get along well with Consort Shen. I thought that since we were sisters in the harem, it would be good to be close. I never expected that she would be so treacherous."
The emperor glanced at her. "Since you know you're wrong, reflect on your actions. Now, all of you, leave. Don't stand here!"
Bai Ping came out and respectfully saw the concubines off on behalf of her mistress. Everyone remained silent.
The Empress was also implicated and suffered the consequences. When she returned to the palace, she was really indignant. Shen Shixi was stupid and was framed, but the Emperor actually blamed her.
"She's become a goddess on a shrine, untouchable by anyone! Will I have to protect her from now on, and even make way for her in the future?" The Empress smashed her favorite famille rose teacup.
Granny Qu advised, "His Majesty may not have meant that. He's probably just angry. The Empress shouldn't have switched Chen Shi with him in the first place. Now that you know, just don't do it again. Between husband and wife, there are bound to be disagreements. Even teeth and tongue sometimes fight."
The Empress thought of the Emperor's pathetic state and felt a little regretful. She decided that from now on, she would just stand by and watch Shen Shixi's affairs. It would be magnanimous of her not to add fuel to the fire. As for her protecting Shen Shixi, that was impossible.