Traveling through ancient times: daily life on the run

Chapter 335 The Legend of the Dragon

The legend of the dragon has long spread throughout the capital.

Ciyuan Hall.

When the Queen received the letter from Lightning, her hands couldn't help shaking.

Concubine Ying has already returned, and it was Yao Zhangshi, the imperial master beside the emperor, who went in pursuit personally. What on earth is going on?

The identity of Concubine Ying is becoming more and more confusing, and now the legend of the dragon has appeared inexplicably. The Queen's irritability and anxiety are not much better than the Emperor's.

She said to Xiaoyue, the senior palace maid beside her, "Can you please help me find out the true identity of this Concubine Ying? Why would the Emperor want to recruit her back to the palace?"

Although Xiaoyue is a senior palace maid, she is also a top spy privately trained by Duke Anguo. Her skills and professional qualities are not comparable to those of ordinary palace maids.

The Empress learned from a letter sent back by the secret guards that the Emperor was unaware of the identity of the pursued Miss Bai within the palace. Furthermore, the information she had sent back from Jiang Qiuning's ancestral home was inaccurate. Concubine Ying was not Jiang Qiuning herself. So, who was she, exactly? Could she be trusted? The Empress felt uneasy and unwilling to accept her fate.

The dragon reappears, and the sky will change its master.

However, the little prince Zhu Haoxun is still young, and he has seven older brothers, plus several young uncles, all of whom are obstacles.

The Emperor's health has indeed shown some signs of not being well in the past six months, but the Empress Dowager has shown great concern for him and often sends him some elixirs and supplements. Who knows what the Empress Dowager's intentions are?

For the first time, the Queen felt like she was in a huge cage. There was no roof above her so she could see the sun, and the cage was sealed tightly on all sides...

Inside the Cifu Hall.

Empress Dowager Lin tasted the Mengding tea, which was said to be the best tea in the world. The tea was good, but the rumors about it did not seem good.

Nanny Zhang beside her brought the newly served snacks to the Empress Dowager's table, then picked up a small piece with silver chopsticks and put it in her mouth to chew for a while.

"Madam Zhang, this hawthorn cake was Zhihe's favorite when he was little. Every time I see it, I think of how naughty he was when he was little. Now he's grown up so much!"

Nanny Zhang followed the Empress Dowager into the palace when she was young and was the closest nanny to the Empress Dowager.

"The Queen Mother is right. His Royal Highness Prince Ning has already arrived in Liangzhou. I believe he will be able to come to the palace to visit you soon!"

The Queen Mother couldn't help but sigh, and there was a hint of uneasiness under her dignified and virtuous face.

"I was always worried that he wouldn't marry and have children. Now I've received a letter saying there's a girl he wants to marry, but it doesn't say whose family this girl is from. Do you think I should support this or not? If the girl is from an ordinary family, it wouldn't be a big deal for his brother. However, they're not a good match. How can a prince marry a girl from an ordinary family?"

"The Queen Mother is worried. But now the rumors are spread all over the city. I believe the Emperor has heard about it. It would be a good idea for the prince to return to the capital with an ordinary girl."

"Alas, I heard that he actually followed a girl to the mountains of the southwest. A girl from the mountains, what kind of background can you imagine? How could she have bewitched him so much? What kind of beautiful girls and talented girls hadn't she seen? Even if he went to those brothels to see beauties, I would never stop him. I just wanted him to see more and not be easily seduced by random women."

"I believe that the girl that His Highness likes must be very pretty and very intelligent."

"Well, I hope so."

The Queen Mother took a sip of the hawthorn cake. The sour and sweet taste didn't change much, but she felt like something was missing when she put it in her mouth.

"By the way, how is the emperor? Is he in good health recently? I haven't seen him come to pay his respects to me in the past few days."

"Replying to the Queen Mother, the Emperor is in poor health. The imperial physician said he is too weak and needs more rest. He must have been angry and sick because of the rumors he spread these days."

"Before it was the White Tiger, and now it's the Divine Dragon. These rumors are just getting more and more ridiculous."

"Empress Dowager, I heard that the Emperor's elixirs become more potent the more they are consumed. The Empress advised him to consume less, but he actually got angry at her several times."

"This alchemist is quite capable. I wasn't feeling well back then, but I recovered after taking the elixir a few times. Although elixirs are said to prolong life, I think they're still useful for healing the body."

"I heard that the prince recommended this alchemist to the queen mother. The prince is truly the one who respects you the most."

"If it weren't for the emperor's poor health, I wouldn't be willing to give the old Taoist priest to the emperor. Alas, I only hope that the Buddha will bless my son to recover quickly."

In the courtyard, a crabapple tree bloomed exceptionally beautifully, like clouds and rosy clouds. The breeze blew away the petals, and they fell to the ground.

*

Of course, the second branch of the Bai family was unwilling to admit their crime.

Mr. Bai is about thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old. He has a tall figure and a handsome appearance, but there is an unknown viciousness and cruelty in his eyes.

Mrs. Bai Er was even more imposing. Even though His Royal Highness Prince Ning, Envoy Yao and two prefects were sitting in the court, she still refused to bow her head and kneel.

Mr. Bai secretly pulled her skirt several times. My mother always said that marrying this woman would sooner or later be ruined by her arrogance and domineering behavior. I guess she saw it today.

Regardless of whether they are guilty or not, it won’t kill them if they kneel down to show some respect to these big shots.

Lord Shi believed that in Muzhou Prefecture, Lord Cao should be the one to uphold justice. He only needed to act as a bystander and escort the witnesses who needed to be taken into custody. He felt much more relaxed.

After Fang and Bai Lingyi came up, Mrs. Bai's arrogance instantly disappeared by half. Her eyes changed from sharp to evasive and then to furtive glances, which was definitely a sign of guilt.

Qin Bingrui and Luo Yu, who were hiding behind the scenes and peeking, whispered to each other: "Sister, what's going on from the look in Second Madam Bai's eyes? The eldest madam didn't suffer so badly and looked in good condition. Oh, why didn't they kill them all at the time? What a bunch of losers they found."

Luo Yu rolled his eyes at him and said, "So you are the main strategist and you know everything."

Fang tearfully recounted the entire incident, her voice choking several times as she reached the crucial point. Bai Lingyi calmed himself down and recounted the entire story of how they had been bullied by the bandits that day and how Ma San had betrayed them.

Young Master Xiaobai recounted the story calmly and without emotion. Everyone felt as if they were there, as if the horrific scene of that day was vividly before their eyes, a scene that was both thrilling and heart-wrenching.

Luo Yu secretly sighed that Xiao Yi had really grown up in just one year.

Among the crowd of people watching outside the government office, Xia Liang took the lead and shouted: "If this really happened, the person behind this is despicable and shameless, and he should be executed by slow slicing."

The anger of the crowd was aroused, and they shouted: "Yes, death by slow slicing! Death by slow slicing!"

Mrs. Bai Er only then felt her legs becoming weaker and weaker, and Mr. Bai Er immediately pulled up the hem of her skirt and made her kneel beside him.

Lord Cao slammed the gavel and shouted, "Second Master Bai Yunjiang, Second Madam Bai Deng, do you two plead guilty?"

Mr. Bai kowtowed repeatedly, but refused to admit defeat. "My Lord, I don't understand how the Bai family's first branch's misfortune has any direct connection to our second branch. This must have been planned by their groom, Ma San, who was greedy for money. Besides, Ma San originally served on the First Madam's side. What does her misfortune have to do with us?"

"Call Ma San to the classroom..."

Ma San's legs were shaking. He didn't dare to offend anyone, but that meant he offended everyone, didn't it?

Hesitate between saying and not saying.

I don't know who gave Lord Cao the advice, but he handled the case so quickly and decisively.

He directly ordered his men to bring the bones of Bai Fengchu and the maid to the court, including all their belongings.

Mrs. Bai Er was so frightened when she saw the two skeletons that she screamed.

Ma San shifted his gaze, not daring to look any further.

Lord Cao asked Ma San: "Do you still remember what Bai Fengchu and her maid were wearing that day?"

Ma San thought for a moment, then nodded, "I remember that day, the young lady was wearing a lotus-pink brocade skirt, embroidered with patterns that looked like either peonies or lotus flowers. Oh, and there was a special hairpin on her headdress, a simulated peach blossom. That hairpin was quite expensive back then, worth several hundred taels of silver."

It seems that people who are greedy for money are still useful. Once you see any precious item, you will never forget it.

Mrs. Bai Er snorted coldly: "So you, a villain, were tempted by wealth and murdered the eldest wife of the Bai family. Now you want to put the blame on us, right?"

Ma San kowtowed repeatedly to the adults and said, "I dare not, I dare not. It's just that I took a closer look when I was personally carrying the mare's stool to the carriage that day, and it left a deep impression on me. I dare not think of anything on the mare's person."

Mr. Bai's eyes were filled with venom. He looked up at Ma San and said viciously, "You bastard, do you still want to slander our Bai family's second branch?"

"I don't dare, I don't have it."

Lord Cao slammed the gavel.

"No casual insults are allowed in court."