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Chapter 480 Be My Concubine

"It's indeed interesting and it took some thought." The Queen Mother nodded slightly, still wearing the Buddhist beads on her wrist.

After saying this, the Queen Mother stood up with the help of Aunt Chenxiang, and Haoyue immediately stepped forward and put on the dark red phoenix cloak for her.

Shen Shuyi walked around the courtyard of Funing Palace with the Queen Mother.

Without waiting for the Queen Mother to ask, Shen Shuyi took the initiative to speak: "I found a letter and a gold medal of immunity from death in the tomb of the Second Prince in the Imperial Mausoleum."

The Queen Mother was slightly startled: "Gold medal for immunity from death?"

"Yes, the name of His Highness the Fourth Prince Xiao Zeduan is written at the end. It must be the one that the late emperor gave to the Gong family."

The Queen Mother stopped and frowned, "The Gong family has always been at odds with my family. Although Huai Jin supported her bastard, the Gong family would not be so generous as to give this gold medal to Huai Jin."

"What does the letter say?" the Queen Mother asked.

Shen Shuyi presented it to the empress dowager with both hands, and the empress dowager couldn't wait to open the letter.

When she saw it, a line of words brought her to tears...

"Huai Jin...this is to leave this gold medal to Cheng Zhang..." The Queen Mother was in a daze for a moment, her body somewhat unstable.

"I don't recognize the handwriting of the Fourth Prince, but this letter was indeed found in the imperial mausoleum, so I think it can't be wrong."

"If Huai Jin is willing to leave this gold medal to Cheng Zhang, I think Cheng Zhang will more or less let go of the grudges from the past." The Queen Mother murmured to herself.

Shen Shuyi was silent for a moment: "I dare to ask you what happened that caused the Second Prince to turn against your Majesty."

The Queen Mother stared at her for a long while, then said slowly, "You are indeed daring!"

Shen Shuyi said immediately: "I think that with this gold medal of immunity from death and the letter, although His Majesty will be grateful for the brotherhood and willing to make the Second Prince the king, if the estrangement is not eliminated and the misunderstanding is not cleared, he will always be worried."

In her previous life, she spent a lot of effort to find this gold medal and the letter, and she had no chance to find out what happened that year.

In this life, it was still early and she had plenty of time to check.

However, before investigating, one must always get the Queen Mother's nod.

The Queen Mother sighed, "In fact, I don't know how they got to this point. I only know that Huai Jin, Cheng Zhang, Concubine Rou, Concubine Xiang, and Miss Yin grew up together and have a close relationship."

"Cheng Zhang and Xiang Fei were childhood sweethearts, Huai Jin had a secret crush on Miss Yin, and as for the girl Rou Fei, she was just a young girl who knew nothing about the world back then."

Listening to the Empress Dowager reminiscing about the past, Shen Shuyi found it hard to believe that Concubine Rou, who disregarded the lives of ordinary people, caused the tragic deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers, and embezzled a large amount of official silver for disaster relief, could be the pure and innocent girl in the Empress Dowager's words?

"But Cheng Zhang was drunk that day, perhaps he was drugged. Somehow, he slept with Miss Yin at the birthday banquet of the late emperor, and everyone knew about it..."

Shen Shuyi had already made some guesses, and after hearing this, she said softly, "I found a painting of playing in the snow in the study of the former Second Prince. Uncle Zhong said that this painting was the Second Prince's favorite."

The empress dowager was a little dazed. Since entering the palace, it was difficult for her to step out of the palace at will. Occasionally, when she had some thoughts, she could only go to Huai Jin's palace to take a look.

But she always had to take her living son into consideration, so she naturally went there less often, and she had no idea what Huai Jin had been through...

"The picture on that..."

"The picture shows the Second Prince playing with His Majesty, Concubine Xiang, Concubine Rou, and Miss Yin." Shen Shuyi replied.

The Queen Mother remained silent.

After a long time, a eunuch hurried over and said, "Your Majesty, the palace banquet is about to begin. We are just waiting for you and His Majesty."

The Queen Mother came back to her senses, looked at Shen Shuyi and said, "If you want to investigate, then continue to investigate. If you can find out the truth, I will reward you handsomely."

"Yes, thank you for your grace, Madam."

"Let's go. It's time to go to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Chenxiang, bring my sapphire golden phoenix hairpin to the Princess of Changning County."

"Yes."

Soon, Aunt Chenxiang came forward with a tray. On the tray, there was an extremely exquisite red gold hairpin. The hairpin was golden all over, but there was a huge sapphire in the mouth of the golden phoenix.

Because it is a sapphire, it is not ostentatious, but it has its own dignity, making it hard to ignore.

"Wear it. You and I get along well."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Shen Shuyi took off the flower hairpin on her head and replaced it with a hairpin. The girl's grace began to show.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Shen Shuyi entered the Hall of Supreme Harmony with the Queen Mother.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony was filled with veiled curtains and looked magnificent. At a glance, there were probably three to four hundred tables.

Seeing the Empress Dowager and the Emperor appear, all the ministers greeted them.

Since Shen Shuyi was following the empress dowager, she didn't need to greet her again. She looked around the seats in the audience calmly.

Soon, he saw that there was a strange woman among the concubines in the harem today.

The woman was gentle and kind, with a hint of coldness between her brows, and she seemed to seldom smile, but Shen Shuyi could still recognize her appearance when she was young from her face - Xiang Fei.

Because he had never seen this "favored concubine" who never left the house, Shen Shuyi paid more attention to her and observed her more closely.

What surprised Shen Shuyi was that Concubine Xiang was wearing a set of white jade headdress with fine texture and warm color, which looked soft and beautiful among the golden hair accessories.

But what Shen Shuyi was concerned about was the quality of the jade used for the headpiece.

Although she was not an expert on head jewelry, she had been exposed to it a lot in her previous life and had some understanding of it.

The white jade is flawless, clear and moist, a rare and beautiful jade. More importantly, the jade is permeated with a layer of warm and soft light, which can reflect a unique charm.

Most importantly, it reminded Shen Shuyi of the girl who died in Xiao Heyu's hunting ground...

Before the girl died, she stuffed a jade pendant tightly into her hand.

Shen Shuyi still hasn't figured out what she didn't finish saying, but the quality of the jade pendant is quite similar to the white jade on Xiang Fei's body.

At the end of the Daqian year, border commanders from all over the country received the imperial edict and returned to Beijing, and envoys from various countries came to pay their respects.

Shen Shuyi stood beside the Queen Mother, looking at the people below the stage, and for the first time he truly felt the taste of power.

This is not the court, but it is better than the court.

Not long after, Emperor Qianwu announced the start of the banquet, with singing and dancing to liven up the atmosphere. All the ministers presented their gifts, each with their own thoughts.

At this time, the envoy of the Luo Kingdom stepped forward and said, "I have long heard that the warriors of Daqian are wise and brave. Your Highness, the prince of the Luo Kingdom, would like to come forward to ask for your advice today."

"What do you mean by this, Luo Kingdom? The new year is approaching, yet you want to go to war at this time. I think you are deliberately trying to stir up trouble!" A court official stood up and scolded.

The Luo Kingdom envoy said: "Daqian claims to be a country founded on military power. We Luo Kingdom came here with sincerity. Are you afraid?"

The courtier wanted to say something else, but Emperor Qianwu raised his hand to stop him: "I have no reason to be afraid. The prince of Luo has come from afar. How can I be disrespectful and let His Royal Highness return home disappointed?"

The prince of Luo Kingdom stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty is straightforward! But if Luo Kingdom wins, I would like to ask for a prize!"

"Speak." Emperor Qianwu said sternly and solemnly.

The prince of Luo looked at Shen Shuyi and said, "If my country of Luo wins, I want the woman next to the Queen Mother to be my concubine!"