The Princess Wei Yang

o Chang Qing, speaking to him: “You can carry out a detailed investigation, one step further to narrow down this down, since Duke's Furen was poisoned, that means that the culprit is has the opportunity to come in contact with her, half of the people in this hall can be eliminated, because they cannot enter the inner house, much less poison Duke's Furen’s food or items that she come in contact with.”

Yao Chang Qing nodded and said: “Indeed so, after narrowing it down, we will focus on investigating the maids around Duke's Furen and see if we can find any clues from them.”

At this moment, Tan Xiang cried out in alarm: “Da Xiaojie, are you alright?!”

Everyone immediately looked at Li Chang Le but all they saw was Li Chang Le extremely pale, her entire body leaning on Tan Xiang as if she would faint any moment, Jiang Lan knows her from a young age and consider to be close, hurried forward and asked: “Chang Le, are you alright?”

Jiang Da Furen frowned and quickly said : “Chang Le’s body has always been frail, today Lao Furen who have always adored her has suddenly passed away, I’m afraid she could not withstand the blow, hurry and help her inside to rest!”

Jiang Lan thus ordered Tan Xiang: “Help your Xiaojie to Xiu Lou where I previously lived in!”

“No need for the trouble, I will go rest in the guest room for a bit.” Li Chang Le, looking extremely frail, was about to leave the main hall with Tan Xiang when she suddenly saw Li Wei Yang stood up and said with a slight smile: “Da jie, this… perhaps is not appropriate.”

Everyone looked at Li Wei Yang and saw an expression of difficulty on her face, Jiang Lan frowned and said: “What’s not appropriate about it?”

Li Wei Yang’s line of sight fell on Li Chang Le, her tone calm: “Grandmother has just passed away, not of one us are not sad, the matter here has not been cleared up, therefore I feel that Da jie should bear a little longer, at least until we get to the bottom of the matter, besides, you care so much about grandmother, why wouldn’t you wait until the culprit is caught before leaving?”

Li Chang Le’s body swayed, a look of disbelief on her face, said: “Therefore what Third Sister meant is that even if I don’t feel well, I must remain here?”

Jiang Lan, with a trace of frost on her beautiful face, turned to stare at Li Wei Yang and said: “Anping Xianzhu, you being like this…it’s a bit too harsh towards your older sister.”

“Consort Lan feels that I am too harsh?” Li Wei Yang repeated “too harsh” these four words, as if unexpected but quickly her expression became serious and said: “I just have rational doubts.
Before getting to the bottom of things, everyone is suspicious, Crown Princess, wouldn’t you say?”

Hearing this, the Crown Princess was surprised, having never thought that Li Wei Yang would ask her, looking at her astonished, Li Wei Yang said calmly: “Even though this is the Jiang’s residence, the most respected is Crown Prince Dianxia, since even the Crown Princess is here, this matter, naturally we need to respect your opinion, why don’t you say, should we let someone along leave this hall to go rest?”

The Crown Princess looked at Jiang Lan coldly, she can see that Li Wei Yang and the Jiangs are against each other, similarly, Jiang Lan and her are against each other, the enemy of an enemy is a friend, since Jiang Lan want to protect Li Chang Le, why can’t she protect Li Wei Yang? A woman’s rationale is this simply, just now she felt that Li Wei Yang is nothing much, but now she immediately felt that she has turned into someone whom she must become close with, she couldn’t help revealing a cold look and said: “Consort Lan, this is the Jiang’s residence, we must respect their thoughts, we can’t just randomly butt in.
Besides, this matter involves Duke's Furen’s death, this is simply not a small matter, of course my words are not because I am suspicious of Li Da Xiaojie, it’s just that… Xianzhu is correct, everyone is a suspect, and we cannot easily indulge in them.
Li Da Xiaojie need rest, of course she can rest in this hall, someone, give her a seat.”

Li Chang Le has never thought that the Crown Princess would cut in, her expression becoming even uglier, she can only force herself to give thanks for the seat, just as she was about to walk over to the chair, it seems as though she accidentally staggered, Tan Xiang was unable to support her by herself, just as she was about to fall down, a hand came forward and helped steady her.

Turning back, she saw that it was Li Wei Yang.

Li Wei Yang said warmly: “Da jie, you must be careful.”

Li Chang Le simply hate this person to death but doesn’t dare to flare up in front of everyone, she glanced around weakly, but Li Xiao Ran’s face is solemn, Li Lao Furen’s indifferent, her uncles and cousins are discussing the funeral arrangements, Consort Lan cannot go against the Crown Princess’ words… in the end, she could only stare at Li Wei Yang with hatred and turn her head: “Thank you.”

Her voice was extremely stiff while at the same time she quietly took a step back.

Li Wei Yang looked the revengeful expression on her face, smiled lightly, as if nothing has happened and said: “You’re welcome.”

After this interlude, everyone in the hall can only dispersed to sit in their own seats, naturally the guests who can enter this hall are people with positions and power while the common guests are already under control outside.
But for these people to just sit here, it is really painful, thus they prefer to stand up and observe the gifts that were originally offered to Lao Furen.

Tuoba Zhen’s gaze fell on a special gift, he stood up and walked in front of the lacquer screen and inspect carefully.
This lacquer screen has four panels in total, a delicate picture carved on each panel.
The picture, covered in gold, silvers, jadeites, pearls, agates, is without a doubt a precious antique.
He couldn’t help saying: “Imperial brother, this is your gift right?”

The Crown Prince was momentarily surprised and then walked over, took a look at the beautiful screen and couldn’t helped saying with a sigh: “Yes, this gift was prepared by Consort Lan on my behalf for three months, originally it was to let Lao Furen be happy, who knew that before she could see this screen, she is already gone, wasting Lan er’s efforts.”

Having touch upon this sore point, Jiang Lan could not help wiping her tears and said: “Dianxia, I grew up under grandmother’s knee, and is extremely close to her, for my sake, please give justice for grandmother!”

Jiang Second Furen’s expression became stiff for a moment but she quickly lowered her eyes, as if she heard nothing, Li Wei Yang saw all of this but didn’t find it weird, everyone knew that the Jiangs place importance on the distinction between legitimate born and concubine born, the sons have a lot of concubines but very few concubine born children.
This Jiang Lan, is the only female amongst the Jiang’s grandchildren, and also the only one born of a concubine, her position extremely awkward and delicate, yet Duke's Furen actually took her to raise her by her side, afterward send her into the Crown Prince’s residence, that people can’t help sighing.
Now, looking at Jiang Second Furen’s expression, Li Wei Yang is more certain, Jiang Second Furen do not like this Jiang Lan, and what’s more, is really don’t like her.
Of course, this is not the main point that she is concern about so she quickly moved her gaze, as if she didn’t feel anything.

At this moment, a guard quickly came in, everyone’s eyes widen immediately, waiting for the result of their investigation.

Yao Chang Qing hurried asked: “Just what has happened?”

The guard spoke loudly: “Replying to the various officials, this subordinate has discovered a special item in the small parlor of the room where Duke's Furen entertains guests.
On the tray are this year’s newly offered jujubes, the rest are common snacks such as lotus cake and butterfly cookies, there are also some seeds, preserved fruits, nothing that seems out of the ordinary, who knew that underneath the tea table, we found a dead rat along with a half bitten jujube on the floor, after questioning the yatous in the parlor, we find that someone would sweep the room every day, therefore if there is a dead rat, it would definitely be discovered and not left there until now, therefore this rat has to have died recently, we let the coroner dissect this rat, the result is that we found…”

Jiang Xu rushed ahead to ask: “What did you discover?” After asking, he immediately realized that bypassing both the Minister of Justice and Yao Chang Qing to question this matter is inappropriate, but the one who died is his mother, therefore no one blamed him for that, Yao Chang Qing also nodded and said: “Continue!”

The guard continued speaking: “After the coroner dissected the rat, we actually found some jujube flesh in its stomach, thus becoming suspicious of these jujubes, we turned back to inspect the remaining jujube on the floor and finally discovered with the poison came from.”

Since the incident has happened, the third young master of the Jiang, Jiang Hua, who has been silent this whole time couldn’t help feeling his heart moved: “Are you saying that the culprit put poison in the jujube?”

The guard immediately responded: “Yes, after this subordinate discovered that the jujube has poison, I immediately command the coroner to investigate carefully, and discovered that amongst the other 13 pieces of jujubes, there are two that has poisons in it, thus it can be seen that there was not enough time for the culprit to act thus he cannot put poison on each jujube, of course, this also proves that this person is close to Duke's Furen, thus having this opportunity.”

Jiang Hua slowly shook his head and said: “He doesn’t need to put poison on every jujube, just need to be sure that the poisoned one has been consumed by my grandmother is enough! This person is very cruel!”

When they spoke of the jujubes, Li Wei Yang’s expression has already changed, this change is very minute, aside from Li Min De beside her, no one else has noticed this.

The next instance, the originally frail Li Da Xiaojie suddenly stood up, a face white like the snow on the branch, slightly stumbling, Tan Xiang besides her hurriedly steady her, she said chokingly: “Third Sister, why did you harm grandmother!”

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Translator: Angela

Editor: Erica