"No, quite the opposite," Yun Xi said, her almond eyes growing darker. She sat back on the wooden stool and continued, "I think the old prince might be the one who was abandoned."
"Think about it, senior brother. If the old prince were really the mastermind behind everything, why would the Holy Master and the others try to kill A Yuan? When the late emperor passed away, the old prince was right there. If he really wanted to usurp the throne, the new emperor was still weak at that time. Even if the throne didn't end up in the old prince's hands, it shouldn't have fallen into the current emperor's so smoothly."
"The old prince and Concubine Qing might not be the real masterminds of the plague back then. There should be someone else who really poisoned and started the plague!"
This speculation was reasonable. Hun Yuan didn't refute it. He just asked, "If so, why did the emperor send people to watch A Yuan?"
Yun Xi was also confused. She tilted her head and said, "Maybe it's because the old prince was involved in the plague to some extent. More than a decade has passed, and recently the Holy Master and the others have come back to cause trouble. The emperor must be worried, so it's reasonable for him to send people to watch."
"The Holy Master, the plague, the emperor, the old prince... and herself... even the Shen family. What roles did they play in all this?"
It was too complicated. Yun Xi tugged at her clothes impatiently and said with a headache, "In any case, there must be many things we haven't found out yet. Senior brother..."
Yun Xi looked up at Hun Yuan seriously and said, "Maybe we shouldn't just focus on the files from fourteen years ago. When did Concubine Qing enter the palace?"
Hun Yuan thought for a moment and said, "About... twenty - one years ago."
"Good," Yun Xi nodded slightly. "Since we can't find the files from fourteen years ago, let's focus on the time when Concubine Qing entered the palace twenty - one years ago."
Hun Yuan nodded in agreement.
The two discussed for a while and decided that Yun Xi would enter the palace to check the files after exposing Yi Zhen's true face. Hun Yuan still had to go back to study the information about the Gu on Yun Xi's body recorded on the mural. Then they separated.
Yun Xi recuperated from her injuries and planned how terrible the Suji Yin on her body had become.
Everything was going according to plan, but unexpectedly, Yun Weisheng suddenly ran over excitedly after inspecting the troops that day.
Yun Xi was talking with Liu Jingyue and Jiang Ning, discussing the matter of proposing marriage to the Marquis of Changming's mansion. Yun Weisheng's voice came from outside: "I remembered! I remembered!"
"Yingying! A Yue..."
Yun Weisheng rushed in like the wind, followed by Yi Yuan who was also called.
"What did you remember that you're in such a hurry?" Liu Jingyue rolled her eyes at Yun Weisheng helplessly. She frowned slightly and scolded, "You're an old man, but you're still so unstable. If your soldiers see you like this, they'll have something to laugh at."
Being scolded by his wife, Yun Weisheng scratched his head embarrassedly. But his expression was still a bit impatient. He said, "A Yue, you don't know. I remembered where I saw the tattoos on the wrists of those people in the mural."
"It's the people from the State of Ying! The people from the State of Ying!"
"The State of Ying?" Everyone was shocked when they heard this.
Especially Yi Yuan. His calm and indifferent expression instantly turned as cold as frost. The killing intent in his eyes spread everywhere. He asked, "Uncle Yun, are you sure?"
"Sure," Yun Weisheng walked to the table and sat down. He waved his hand to signal Yi Yuan to sit down too. "Fourteen years ago, when the plague broke out in the palace, I went to the palace to ask for the imperial edict to guard the southwest. I accidentally saw it on a palace maid's hand."
"At that time, I was anxious about Yingying's matter, so I didn't pay attention. It wasn't until I set off that I realized something was wrong. All the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace were carefully selected to serve the nobles. Although it wasn't as strict as the imperial selection, there should never be tattoos on their bodies."
A palace maid? Could it be someone under Concubine Qing's command? Yun Xi secretly glanced at Jiang Ning, but neither of them said a word.
Not noticing their secret glances, Yun Weisheng's expression became more and more solemn. He slowly scanned everyone present and said, "That palace maid was either an outsider who pretended to enter the palace during the chaos, or someone with great power who managed to get her into the palace secretly."
"At that time, I had already left the capital. I was afraid that the people in the capital, who were already panicked because of the plague, would be even more scared if they knew this news. So I secretly wrote a letter to Master Qingyi and asked him to investigate."
"Then Yingying was abducted. As the plague in the palace gradually subsided, I forgot about this matter."
"But last year..." Yun Weisheng paused and looked at Yi Yuan with a bit of pity. "When Prince Chi Xuan had an accident, I led the army to support him. After the battle, when I was cleaning up the battlefield in Hengfeng City, my subordinates reported that they saw strange tattoos on two corpses and drew the pictures for me."
"That's when I suddenly remembered the matter of the palace maid many years ago. So I quickly rummaged through the letter Master Qingyi wrote to me later. The letter said that the palace maid was a spy planted by the State of Ying. He had found out the mastermind behind the scenes through the palace maid and solved the problem. He told me not to worry. He also asked me not to publicize this matter, so as not to cause unnecessary turmoil."
"So I kept this matter a secret. The State of Ying didn't invade again, so I gradually forgot about it. That's why I didn't remember it immediately when I saw the blurred tattoo before."
Yi Yuan's hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His dark eyes were like bottomless abysses, surging with pain and hatred.
Yun Xi covered his hand lovingly and comforted him silently for a while. Then she asked, "Dad, why did you suddenly remember?"
After a moment of silence, Yun Weisheng said word by word, "Because... the seventh prince of the State of Ying is about to come to our court. He intends to marry into our Great Yin Dynasty and maintain good relations."
"Ah?!" Everyone was stunned. Liu Jingyue was the first to speak. She asked, "Why did he come all of a sudden? He was still eyeing our territory hungrily last year. Why is he coming to propose marriage now? Are you sure?"
"I just received the news," Yun Weisheng replied. "Lao Hu's information is always accurate."
"I heard that there was an internal struggle among the princes of the State of Ying. Each of them was looking for a backer. The seventh prince's mother's family had no influence, and he couldn't find help from other countries. So he set his eyes on us."
"Humph!" Yi Yuan sneered. "He has a good idea."
Yun Weisheng glanced at Yi Yuan silently and said, "What if... the seventh prince's mortal enemy in the State of Ying is none other than their second prince, the one whose mother was the girl sent into the palace by Guihai Suhui, the one who led the troops to invade our Great Yin Dynasty on the Lantern Festival and caused the death of Prince Chi Xuan?"
Yi Yuan fell silent. But Yun Xi felt a sense of uneasiness.
The current emperor didn't have many children. There were a total of five princesses in the palace. The eldest princess was already married and had moved out of the palace. The unmarried ones were the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth princesses. The seventh and tenth princesses were less than six years old and two years old respectively. Although the fifth princess was already fourteen, it was said that she had an eye disease, which was caused by an accidental injury when she was a child. Her eyes looked terrifying.
The only one who was of the right age and was both talented and beautiful was... Yi Zhen.