0p0 Chapter 336: Surname Jiang
Chapter 336: Surname Jiang
Lu Xuan was startled and quickly looked down at his hands.
Sure enough, something got rubbed against it somewhere, and a large area became black.
Following her hand, in just a blink of an eye, her eyes fell on the hand of the lying Nanny Yu.
Nanny Yu's already cold fingers were loosened, and Lu Xuan took two steps back in shock.
The thumb and index finger of her right hand were also extremely black.
Sang Luo was shocked. "What's going on? Madam was a very particular person about cleanliness when she was alive. How could she allow such a black thing to be on her hands?"
Lu Xuan calmed down for a moment, trying to convince himself to stay calm, then he took her fingers and rubbed them, then smelled them.
She frowned. "It smells like charcoal."
Sang Luo was puzzled. "After Mammy fainted at the chanting area, I sent a few palace maids to bring her back. I remember very clearly that Mammy's hands were clean. Could it be that she woke up later?"
Lu Xuan looked at Sang Luo and immediately said, "Call those palace maids in!"
Outside, several palace maids from Jingyang Palace came in trembling with fear.
Several people carefully looked at Lu Xuan and Jiang Xing's expressions, not daring to breathe.
They all heard the princess crying in the room just now, and they didn't know what had happened.
"Prince, Princess!"
The six palace maids saluted in unison.
Jiang Xing's pair of black eyes swept over like a knife, and his voice was so cold that it could penetrate people's bones: "After Aunt Yu came back, has she been unconscious all the time, or has she woken up?"
Jiang Xing's imposing presence frightened everyone so much that they dared not even breathe. Everyone was trembling with fear and didn't dare to speak. Only a petite palace maid in the far corner, seeing that everyone was silent, mustered up the courage and said in a trembling voice, "Your Highness, since we came back earlier, Nanny Yu has regained consciousness."
After she finished speaking, Lu Xuan and Jiang Xing's eyes flashed, while the palace maids around them looked at her in surprise.
"Everyone present must report everything she said and did after she woke up. Anyone who deliberately conceals anything will be held responsible for Nanny Yu's death. No one will be able to leave Jingyang Palace alive!"
Jiang Xing's words were so harsh that when several palace maids heard the word "death", their faces turned pale and they all looked at Nanny Yu's bed with bulging eyes.
That pale complexion, what else could it be but death?!
The scream was stuck in the throat. Several people looked at Jiang Xing, who looked like the King of Hell. They trembled but dared not make a sound. They swallowed the scream hard.
"I, I said..."
It was the same little palace maid from before. "When Nanny Yu came back earlier, she woke up at the palace gate. She said she was thirsty and asked us to bring her some water."
"Did you give it to her?" Lu Xuan glanced inside the room and saw no trace of water.
"Here, here we are." The maid's voice dropped for a moment. "We brought her a pot, and then we left when we saw she was feeling unwell."
"And then?" Lu Xuan's voice was just as cold.
"And then... nothing was done."
Jiang Xing's eyes flickered slightly, "Did she ever ask you for things like pens, ink, paper, and inkstone?"
The little maid frowned, "No."
Jiang Xing then asked some more questions, but didn't get any useful information.
Jiang Xing asked several palace maids to wait outside the house, and Feixing to guard them, and then closed the door of the side room.
The room was silent. Lu Xuan was heartbroken and Jiang Xing was deep in thought.
Only Sang Luo, with nothing to do, searched the house quickly with his eyes.
After looking around four or five times, her gaze fell on the table inside the room, and a bright light finally flashed in her eyes.
"There are traces of water here!" Sang Luo said excitedly, pointing at the water on the ground under the table.
Lu Xuan and the other person followed the gaze and saw water on the ground blocked by the table.
"Could it be that Madam is drinking water here? Why is it under the table?" Sang Luo was a little confused and walked towards the Eight Immortals Table.
"Click."
There was a crisp sound under his feet. Sang Luo stopped and lifted his foot, only to see half a piece of charcoal that had been broken into pieces.
Jiang Xing and Lu Xuan looked at each other. Lu Xuan was still thinking about the connection between them, but Jiang Xing reacted quickly. Various information flashed through his mind quickly, and his head had already been put under the table.
"Bring a light!"
Sang Luo handed over the lamp in a hurry.
Taking a look under the light, Jiang Xing immediately shouted, "Found it!"
His voice was a little excited, and Jiang Xing quickly squeezed out again.
"Axuan, Aunt Yu wrote something under the table!"
Lu Xuan's heart was lifted up in an instant, and he dodged and slipped under the table.
The dark area under the table was illuminated by the lantern, and then Lu Xuan and Jiang Xing's faces suddenly froze.
There was writing under the table, but they were completely unable to figure out what the word was based on the disorganized strokes.
Jiang Xing: "Could this be some unique code of your Shenji Sect? I really can't recognize it. Please recall it."
Lu Xuan shook his head. "There's no secret code inside the door. If you call it a secret code, it's more like a spell. But these contents are not spells at all."
Lu Xuan looked under the table for a long time, his neck was sore from curling up, but he still couldn't figure out what was going on.
Seeing that the two seemed a little disappointed, Sang Luo planned to take out the lantern under the table.
However, when she leaned in and accidentally caught a glimpse of the strokes under the table, she suddenly exclaimed.
“Isn’t this a person?”
"people?!"
Lu Xuan and Jiang Xing paused, frowning and looking at her in confusion.
Sang Luo pointed at the crooked strokes and said, "Yes, I haven't learned many characters, so I don't recognize them either. But to me, this is a drawing of a person. These are the eyes, this is the nose, this is..."
Before she could finish, Lu Xuan had already pulled her out.
Lu Xuan and Jiang Xing took the oil lamp and looked at the painting according to what Sang Luo described.
Sure enough, their eyes lit up.
Lu Xuan couldn't help but exclaim, "It really is a painting! There's a man in the painting, and this man has a handsome appearance. It must be Jiang Yuanfeng!"
"Your Highness, please take a quick look at who this person is in the court!" Lu Xuan's voice trembled as he tugged at the corner of Jiang Xing's clothes.
Jiang Xing was tall and was huddled under the Eight Immortals Table with Lu Xuan, barely able to turn his head.
So he pulled Lu Xuan back away from the table. With a "bang", the table in front of him rolled over and lay on the ground with its legs spread out.
Jiang Xing stood up straight, took the oil lamp and shone it over. The moment his eyes fixed on it, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
"My king, I know who he is! He is really well hidden!"
After looking around, Lu Xuan made a gesture to keep quiet in order to avoid being monitored by Jiang Yuanfeng again.
Then he looked around, took out two talismans, and set up a barrier in Jingyang Palace.
"This barrier can prevent people from eavesdropping, but as long as it doesn't attract souls, I think Jiang Yuanfeng won't be able to sense it."
Sang Luo was also happy: "Mammy used to be an expert at making clothes and shoes, so her painting skills must be quite good. Fortunately, she used painting to express this matter, so we will find the enemy soon!"
After confirming that his barrier could not be broken within half an incense stick of time, Lu Xuan looked at the painting under the table and finally asked, "Who is he?"
After waiting for the answer for two lifetimes, the time has finally come to unveil the veil.
His eyes turned cold, and Jiang Xing frowned, "Minister of Personnel!"
"Minister of Personnel?" Lu Xuan frowned and thought hard in his mind.
I don't know this person.
Jiang Xing's eyes were cold, as if filled with memories, and filled with a chill, "He came when you and I got married. When the King of Japan was married, he was so ignorant of the general situation. It turns out that from that time on, he has been hiding in the dark, observing our every move!"
He gnashed his teeth, as if filled with resentment, "It's all my fault for being so stupid. I only found this person after paying the price of Madam Yu's life!"
Lu Xuan frowned, "So, his original name in the court wasn't Jiang Yuanfeng, right?"
Jiang Xing looked at her slowly, "Yes, his last name is not Jiang, but Jiang."
"That Jiang?"
"This Jiang of mine! His name is Jiang Shaozhao!"
Lu Xuan's pupils trembled. "Mammy said earlier that he followed his mother back to the Shenji Gate and lived in a manor. He was Prince Ding's unwelcome bastard son!"
Jiang Xing shook his head. "But he's always claimed in court that he comes from a humble family in the countryside, that the emperor has shown him favor, and that his surname, Jiang, is just a coincidence. So everyone believes his story."
Jiang Xing's lips curled slightly, and a sinister look appeared in his eyes: "On the day of our wedding, I was worried that my brother would have other thoughts after seeing you, so I didn't let you go out to toast."
"But then, someone showed up, making a joke and saying he wanted to see you, but I brushed him off. The next day, I was cursed and on the verge of death. After you saved me, I ordered a thorough investigation of all guests who visited the backyard on the wedding day. On that list, the Minister of Personnel was included!"
"This man has a reputation in the capital for being a lecher. He has countless concubines and behaves erratically. Rumors in the court say that Minister Jiang has no hope of achieving anything and no chance of promotion because of his lust. But I never expected that a cunning rabbit has three burrows. I underestimated him!"
Lu Xuan was so shocked by the news that she was almost unable to recover. She nodded blankly, a look of bewilderment on her face due to the shock and fear. "So, Shen Yuanci's story makes sense!"