Wu Chang Jie

75+76

Chapter 75
The words "good intentions" and the eerie look on his mother's face when she said them made Zong Zi Heng stand in the middle of the hall with no support. His mind replaying them over and over again. There was a sharp, cold seed that sprouted in his heart.

The investigation of this assassination eventually evolved into a protracted conflict.

The empress, who had lost her only son, became hysterical and no longer needed even the last veil of hypocrisy, insisting that it must have been Shen Shi Yao or Chu Ying Ruo who had poisoned Zong Zi Mo, and that they were the only ones who had wished her first son dead most.

Such accusations were too sensational and exaggerated, but the Empress had the support from Wuliang Sect, while Consort Shen and Consort Chu had no one to depend on, so Zong Ming He had to order a thorough investigation of the harem. A large number of guards entered the Qinghui Pavilion and the Bailu Pavilion, turning them inside and out, not even sparing their personal clothing.

Looking at his mother crying in pain from the humiliation, Zong Zi Heng was angry and heartbroken, regretting that he had actually doubted his mother. In fact, if he thought about it carefully, he should understand that such a thorough plan and meticulous action could not be done by a woman who was always in the deep palace. Although his mother's cultivation level was not bad among the imperial concubines, she could not even leave the Wuji Palace, so how could she get the poison and assassinate an imperial son under heavy defence?

Zong Zi Xiao was equally furious and trembling, and was about to have a fit when Zong Zi Heng yanked him aside.

"Let go of me." Zong Zi Xiao wrenched his big brother's hand away with force and fury, "They even want to touch my mother's bed! How dare they!"

"This is never the time to bring trouble to yourself and let the Empress hold something against you." Zong Zi Heng's hand pressed against the back of his brother's head, "Bear with it."

"We also want to find out who harmed Second Brother, but she suspects our mothers without any evidence!" Zong Zi Xiao said viciously.

"I know." Zong Zi Heng said in that calm, warm voice in his brother's ear, "Bear with it."

The guards went through Bailu Pavilion and again found nothing suspicious. As Chu Ying Ruo watched her boudoir in disarray, she sobbed in a small voice. That weeping beauty's appearance made people take pity on her.

"Mother, don't cry." Zong Zi Xiao, who was already a little more than half a head taller than his own mother, put his arm around her and comforted her softly.

Shen Shi Yao also went to Chu Ying Ruo's side and said with red eyes, "Sister, don't be sad. If this can prove our innocence, we will acknowledge it. Sister will help you clean up."

Li Xiang Tong, however, refused to let the matter rest. In fact everyone knew that what she really wanted to investigate was Zong Zi Heng and Zong Zi Xiao, but because of their status, she could not brazenly rise in revolt, so she proposed her own father and brother to re-interrogate everyone who was in the Wuji Palace that day.

This angered Zong Ming He. He also wanted to find out who had poisoned his son, but he would never let the people of the Wuliang Sect run amok in his palace. In the end, with a compromise between the two sides, he allowed Li Bu Yu to be involved in the investigation.

And so, the whole winter, including the New Year, Daming City has passed time under the enveloping dark and gloomy clouds.

Zong Zi Xiao has always hated Li Bu Yu, and Li Bu Yu, who's sad and haggard from the death of his cousin, did not bother to be falsely polite to Zong Zi Xiao. Even when he looked at him, his eyes seemed to have a deeper meaning.