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The Emperor suppressed his emotions that could erupt at any moment and nodded. "Fine, tell Zhen. Why did you look for Supervisor Zhang, and why did she end up killing herself?"
Xiao Liulang couldn't say that he was investigating a case from fourteen years ago as the timing wasn't right nor there was enough evidence.
After thinking for a moment, Xiao Liulang said, "This official was delivering something to her for someone else. This official noticed that her mood was not quite right when this official gave it to her."
This was the truth. Supervisor Zhang's mood did change when she received the broken inkstone, but Xiao Liulang didn't think too much about it at the time.
Now, after careful consideration, there might be deeper ties and relationships between Supervisor Zhang and Old Chief than he imagined.
"Who were you delivering it for?" Asked the Emperor.
"This official cannot say." Xiao Liulang replied.
Would the Emperor not guess if he didn't say it?
How many people in the world could make him personally deliver a message into the palace? And since it was related to Supervisor Zhang, the person must be around the same age as her.
It didn’t take long for a name to come out of his mouth.
"Summon Chief Huo!" The Emperor commanded.
"Let go! Do you want Zhen to summon Chief Huo to the Empress Dowager's chamber? Follow Zhen to the imperial study!"
"Yes." Xiao Liulang finally let go of the Emperor’s hand.
Old Chief was quickly summoned to the palace.
The Emperor did not give him and Xiao Liulang the chance to testify together. He immediately had Xiao Liulang taken away and began to question the relationship between Supervisor Zhang and Old Chief.
The Emperor also didn’t inform Old Chief that Supervisor Zhang had already died.
But what kind of person was Old Chief?
He could immediately guess that something had happened.
General people would try their best to distance themselves when questioned about their relationship with the palace maids, after all, profane actions against a palace maid was a serious crime. But Old Chief felt that this matter wasn’t so simple.
Without much thought, he confessed about having a past with Supervisor Zhang that was unknown to others. They even had a ‘love token’ between them. He had someone deliver the token back to her last night, as a way to put an end to their relationship.
If what Old Chief said was true, then Zhang Xiu had committed suicide for love.
The Emperor narrowed his eyes suspiciously and asked, "Why did you end it? Is it because of the Empress Dowager?"
"This official dare not! It is because… This official doesn't have much time left to live..." Old Chief began to feign illness and use all kinds of tricks to evoke sympathy from the Emperor. He started shedding tears and acting like a weak, helpless white lotus. "If Your Majesty does not believe this official, you can summon the little miracle physician. She is the one who diagnosed me with a terminal illness."
……
After coming out of the study, Old Chief met Xiao Liulang, who had been waiting for him for a long while.
"I'm sorry for causing trouble for you, Master." Xiao Liulang said apologetically.
"It's not your fault. I didn't think it through." Old Chief sighed.
"Master’s reputation..."
"I never had much of a reputation. Although my relationship with her is not as I told His Majesty, in the end… it was still I who had wronged her. . She… is my wife's younger sister."
His wife's younger sister had been adopted to another village when she was young, and they only recognized each other as sisters when they grew up.
Before his wife died, she had held his hand and asked him to take care of Zhang Xiu, her only sister, no matter what.
Zhang Xiu wanted to marry him, but he refused, which led her to enter and work in the palace in a fit of anger.
In order to avoid implicating Zhang Xiu, he did not let anyone know about their relationship while he fiercely fought against Zhuang Jinse. Otherwise, not only he would have been exiled, but also Zhang Xiu, his wife's younger sister.
After all, the former Emperor had decreed to exile his whole family.
"When she was twenty-five years old, the year she was supposed to be released from the palace, she came to me and asked if I would marry her. I said I would take care of her for the rest of my life, treating her as my own younger sister. Then she smashed my inkstone in anger. Afterwards, she deeply regretted her actions and compensated me with a new one, which is the one you returned to her. But when she gave it to me, I didn't hold it firmly and accidentally broke a piece… She laughed and said that now we were even."
When Old Chief reached this point, he said with a sigh, "Forget about the past. She definitely did not commit suicide for love. There is something suspicious about her death. I asked His Majesty for grace to send her off on her last journey. Come with me."
Xiao Liulang said, "Okay."
Old Chief and Xiao Liulang went to the Imperial Household Department with the company of Eunuch Wei.
In the previous dynasty, if someone in the palace committed suicide, it would bring disaster to their family. This dynasty abolished this law, but the deceased could not be buried in peace and could only be thrown into the wilderness.
Old Chief gave Eunuch Wei a bag of silver.
Eunuch Wei declined for a long time but eventually accepted, "I have taken care of everything. The body will be sent to the chaotic burial mound outside the west gate later. You can send someone to wait there."
"Thank you, Eunuch Wei." Old Chief thanked him.
Xiao Liulang examined the body and confirmed that Zhang Xiu had indeed committed suicide without any signs of struggle.
Then Xiao Liulang noticed something and froze.
"What's wrong?" Old Chief asked as he walked over.
Xiao Liulang didn't say anything but raised Zhang Xiu's left wrist, which had a mole on it.
Old Chief was stunned, "How could it be..."
Right.
How could it be Zhang Xiu?
Many details that were ignored last night flashed through Xiao Liulang's mind one by one.
Zhang Xiu was scared when she saw him for the first time, to the point that she almost fell down. He thought she was just like Eunuch Qin and others who believed they had seen a ghost, but upon further thought, he realized that he had never met Zhang Xiu before.
So she shouldn't know him.
Even if she did know him, her reaction was too intense.
When he told her that he was investigating a palace maid with a mole on her wrist, she knew that the truth of what happened back then had been exposed.
But she didn't know that it was mainly Xiao Liulang who was looking into it, and thought that her brother-in-law, Old Chief, was the one looking for the truth.
Old Chief was Xiao Heng's master, so investigating Xiao Heng's death was justifiable.
Perhaps she decided to go to her death with such sorrow and loneliness because she knew the truth had been uncovered.
She used her death to atone for her sins against her brother-in-law and his disciple, and at the same time, to avoid revealing the mastermind behind this incident.
What kind of emotions did she have when she framed Zhuang Jinse back then? And how did she feel when she discovered that the little Xiao Heng who she had poisoned had become her brother-in-law's disciple?
Old Chief's throat felt sore and he murmured, "It's all because of me..."
Zhang Xiu must have framed Zhuang Jinse because Zhuang Jinse was at odds with him, causing him to be exiled and almost died.
However, no one could have predicted that he and Zhuang Jinse wouldn't end up becoming enemies forever. In the end, Zhang Xiu had taken her life for nothing.
Eunuch Wei had taken care of everything, and they could take away Zhang Xiu's belongings.
Zhang Xiu's belongings were simple, a few sets of clothes and a makeup box that contained several old pieces of jewelry that were no longer fashionable. There were also dozens of silver banknotes in the compartment of the box, all written with Old Chief's name.
There was also the inkstone that Xiao Liulang had given her yesterday.
Old Chief's eyes were red.
"Master." Xiao Liulang said softly.
"I'm fine." Old Chief wiped away his tears, packed Zhang Xiu's belongings carefully, and put them in a bag. When he walked out, he stumbled.
Xiao Liulang caught him.
Old Chief's voice trembled, "I… I'm really fine."
Clang!
The inkstone fell out of the bag and onto the ground.
Old Chief bent down to pick it up.
"Let me get it." Xiao Liulang said, picking up the inkstone first. "I'll hold it."
Old Chief didn't insist otherwise.
His mood was complicated, and his mind was chaotic. He felt that he had caused Zhang Xiu's death, and also felt responsible for Xiao Heng's poisoning.
"You… Don't blame her… Blame me… It's because of me… She did it for me..." He said, choking with sobs.
Xiao Liulang sighed, "If not her, it would have been someone else. The real perpetrator is the one behind the scenes. Master, don't blame yourself. What happened in the past wasn't your fault, and what happened last night wasn't either."
Since he had planned to investigate, he would have found out eventually.
Old Chief's involvement with Zhang Xiu only accelerated the process and wouldn't have changed the outcome.
Zhang Xiu's fate was sealed when she laid a hand on an innocent four-year-old child.
Old Chief could forgive, but heaven couldn't.
Old Chief went to collect Zhang Xiu's body, but Xiao Liulang didn't follow. Forgiveness was his greatest mercy; he wouldn't prepare for her funeral.
Xiao Liulang went to Renshou Palace.
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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