After the two of them finished their meal, Xu Xian and Ziyun cleaned up the things and then left the room.
Si Kongting, who was originally going back to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, stayed behind. Qin Huaiqiu yawned. He didn't know what Si Kongting was still doing here, but he just wanted to sleep after eating. His eyelids were already starting to droop.
Si Kongting seemed to be hesitating about something. Seeing that Qin Huaiqiu was getting sleepy, he nudged him and said, "Concubine De, don't sleep yet. I have something to tell you."
Qin Huaiqiu propped his head up with one hand, looked at him, and motioned for him to speak quickly.
Si Kongting said, "Liu Zhen returned to the palace today. He has investigated those who tried to assassinate us in the Fengquan Hot Spring that day. I checked the shape and strength of the arrows with them, as well as the attack methods. Then, based on the investigated content, I asked your father, Qin Feng. We've confirmed one of the assassins."
Qin Huaiqiu became interested and raised his eyebrows, asking, "Who is it?"
Si Kongting said, "Yazebu, one of the four warriors of Loulan. You should know that he is also the leader of the Loulan mission to the capital this time, right?"
Qin Huaiqiu pondered for a while and said, "I know him."
Si Kongting continued, "Before the spring hunt started, Dou Yuan noticed traces of Yazebu's activities in the capital. Immediately afterwards, he carried out the assassination during the spring hunt. I'm sure that his coming to the capital as the leader of the Loulan mission must have other motives. I know that the people of Loulan want me dead, but you made them suffer a great loss in the Fengquan Hot Spring last time. So, when Yazebu enters the palace, I will send troops to the Kunning Palace."
Qin Huaiqiu said, "Is Your Majesty afraid that he will take revenge on me?"
Si Kongting nodded and said, "Yazebu is well - known for his vindictive nature. Not to mention that you are Qin Feng's... daughter."
Qin Huaiqiu naturally knew how much the people of Loulan hated their Qin family. Moreover, he had long known that those Loulan people were targeting him, after all, they had already made a move against Qin Lan.
"The three Loulan soldiers who injured your maid are already dead. Liu Zhen has no way to investigate further," Si Kongting said. "As for what Qin Lan said about 'being called over by a certain eunuch', she didn't even see the eunuch's appearance clearly. I've had all the maids and eunuchs who were near Qin Lan at that time interrogated, but so far, no suspicious targets have been found."
"All" interrogated?
Qin Huaiqiu was a bit stunned. If Qin Lan, as a maid, was framed, there was no need for such a big - scale operation. Did Si Kongting care so much because Qin Lan was his maid, or because he believed Qin Huaiqiu's veiled reminder that there might be a traitor in the palace?
Qin Huaiqiu wasn't sure, but he never expected Si Kongting to find out anything anyway. After all, regarding the matter of Qin Lan, he hoped to take revenge with his own hands.
Seeing that he didn't say a word, Si Kongting thought he was unhappy and quickly said, "Don't worry. I've entrusted this matter to Liu Yun. He will continue the investigation."
Qin Huaiqiu nodded and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
Si Kongting originally wanted to stay a while longer, but seeing that Qin Huaiqiu seemed uninterested and remembering the strategy of "knowing when to stop" that Dou Yuan had given him, he had to stand up, sigh, and say, "Then, I'll leave first."
Qin Huaiqiu looked at him and softly said, "Your Majesty, take your time."
Si Kongting looked at him affectionately for a moment, then turned and left.
Speaking of which, Si Kongting had been much more well - behaved these days. At first, Qin Huaiqiu was a bit unaccustomed to it. Compared with the previous Si Kongting who would kiss and grope him without hesitation, the current Si Kongting always stopped at the right moment. While leaving enough space for the two of them to get along, it also gave Qin Huaiqiu a chance to breathe.
It had to be said that the relationship between Si Kongting and him was quite delicate now. This delicate relationship carried a bit of ambiguity that Qin Huaiqiu could hardly detect, making him feel that getting along with Si Kongting was not as annoying as before. Instead, it was a bit comfortable.
After all, he could tolerate Si Kongting's occasional flirting or touching, but he was still very resistant to more in - depth contact for the time being.
"?"
No, no. Why was he thinking about his relationship with Si Kongting? Was he crazy?
Qin Huaiqiu reached out and slapped his own cheeks, then shook his head.
These days, he and Qin Lan had bribed the eunuchs who patrolled at night and recorded the patrol times in front of the Consort Shu's palace. Every day when it got dark, Qin Lan would, according to Qin Huaiqiu's instructions, wait in the Xiesyuan Garden not far from the gate of the Ningfu Palace. There was a well - grown maple tree in it. By climbing onto the branches and hiding in the shady leaves, one could clearly see all the movements at the gate of the Ningfu Palace.
The matter of Qin Lan's arrest was full of doubts.
He had analyzed it with Qin Lan before:
Who told those Loulan people the false news that he was still in the Yushan Palace?
How did they take Qin Lan out of the palace and into the mountains while she was unconscious?
Just these two doubts made Qin Huaiqiu almost certain that there was an insider in the Yushan Palace.
As for why there was such an episode, assuming there was an insider in the Yushan Palace, Qin Huaiqiu had thought about almost everyone in the court, but finally affirmed his previous speculation. That was, besides Consort Shu, no one else had the motive to harm him.
Moreover, Consort Shu had been unusually quiet recently.
The reason why he asked Qin Lan to secretly monitor Consort Shu instead of entrusting this matter to Si Kongting was, firstly, because he was worried that Consort Shu's father, Liu Cheng, had many party members in the court. Secondly, he learned from the Concubine Xian that Liu Zhen was actually Consort Shu's distant cousin. Although according to Concubine Xian's description, Liu Zhen was born to a concubine in the Liu family. When he entered the palace, the Liu family didn't help at all. Instead, it was Qin Huaiqiu's father, Qin Feng, who discovered Liu Zhen, who had run away from home and joined the army without permission, in the army. Later, because there was a vacancy for a cavalry general, Qin Feng recommended him to enter the palace.
But even so, Qin Huaiqiu didn't want to trust him. Si Kongting had asked Liu Zhen to assist the大理寺 in investigating this matter. If it really involved Consort Shu, Qin Huaiqiu wasn't 100% sure that Liu Zhen wouldn't show favoritism to her. After all, even though Qin Feng had sent him into the palace and given him great glory, Liu Zhen still had the blood of the Liu family in his veins. Moreover, since Liu Zhen had become a cavalry general, with Liu Cheng's cunning nature, he couldn't have not tried to curry favor with him. Although in Qin Huaiqiu's opinion, Liu Zhen was a bit dull - witted, who knew what other deals there were between them.
So, after discussing with Qin Lan, they decided to investigate on their own.
So far, Qin Lan had been waiting in front of Consort Shu's palace for several days. During the day, he could learn from the bribed eunuchs who had gone to the Ningfu Palace. There were only a few people coming and going, and Qin Huaiqiu and Qin Lan had investigated them one by one and found that they were not the suspects.
So they pinned higher hopes on the night.
Now Qin Lan was still sleeping in the room to catch up on sleep. After the two of them had dinner later, Qin Lan would set off.
Si Kongting had come to have lunch with him every day these days. Moreover, since the spring hunt, the rumor that the emperor doted on Concubine De had spread in the palace. Qin Huaiqiu originally thought that Consort Shu would take some action, but after Qin Lan had been waiting for so many days, Consort Shu seemed to be very calm and there was no sign of any movement.
Since that was the case, he was going to come up with a way to provoke Consort Shu.
He was going to make Consort Shu expose that eunuch.