Emperor Hengde handled most of the official business in the imperial study, and Shen Bai stood next to him for most of the day.

At first she was able to stand as straight as a little poplar, but before long she was humming and chirping, squirming and twisting, as if there were fleas biting on her body.

Emperor Hengde didn't pay attention to her, and looked at his own twists and turns, Shen Bai couldn't speak, knowing that Emperor Hengde was deliberately trying to sharpen his temperament, and he didn't dare to say with a shy face that he couldn't stand.

Standing like this for a long time, Shen Bai felt that his back was sore, his brain was buzzing, and he was even more tired than practicing all day in the lieutenant's camp.

In the evening, Sun Yuehai came to remind Emperor Hengde that it was time for dinner, Emperor Hengde still had a few books on hand that he hadn't finished reading, and he was not in a hurry to answer, Sun Yuehai was also waiting beside him, but his eyebrows were lowered, and he consciously didn't look at Shen Bai.

Shen Bai didn't eat breakfast and lunch, he was so hungry and panicked at this time, he even wanted to swallow saliva when he thought of the meat porridge he was tired of eating before, and his stomach screamed loudly twice, which was particularly abrupt in the royal study with a sound on the ground.

Shen Bai rubbed his stomach pitifully, Emperor Hengde put down the fold, and said lightly: "Have dinner in Ci'an Palace today." ”

Sun Yuehai immediately responded, and went out to let the palace people go to Ci'an Palace to inform the Queen Mother that His Majesty was going to have dinner in a while.

Finally able to move, Shen Bai couldn't wait to go out, and flatteringly picked up the umbrella at the door to help hold it.

After a day of heavy snowfall, a thick layer of snow accumulated on the ground and branches outside, and the red walls and green tiles turned into red walls and white tiles, and the whole world became quiet and peaceful, and it was too beautiful to say.

Shen Bai waited under the eaves with an umbrella, and when Emperor Hengde came out, he immediately held an umbrella to meet him, and most of the umbrellas were biased towards Emperor Hengde.

The snow wasn't that big anymore, only small snowflakes the size of dandelions were falling.

Zhao Che's height inherited Emperor Hengde, Shen Bai could barely reach it on tiptoe, Emperor Hengde glanced at her, Shen Bai immediately grinned, saying that he was not struggling at all, and he could keep up.

Emperor Hengde didn't speak, and strode forward, he wanted to see how much ability this young man had.

The snow was up to his ankles, and there was a clattering sound when he stepped on it, Shen Bai carefully followed Emperor Hengde, walked out of the imperial study, and bypassed a long corridor just in time to see Gu Hengzhou rushing here.

Although the snow is already very small, it is easy to get wet when walking in the snow like this, Gu Hengzhou did not hold an umbrella, and the black hair on the top of his head was already wet.

Shen Bai twisted his eyebrows and looked behind him, the back was empty, and there was not even a palace person to guide the way, so it was no wonder that he didn't use an umbrella.

Gu Hengzhou walked in front of Emperor Hengde and saluted: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is staying in the palace tonight, and the people from Dali Temple who happened last night also assisted in the investigation, and Weichen was ordered to protect His Majesty." ”

Emperor Hengde walked over and patted Gu Hengzhou on the shoulder and said, "Good boy, you've worked hard for the past few days. ”

Gu Hengzhou bowed his head and said: "Don't dare, it is the duty of Weichen to serve His Majesty." ”

Emperor Hengde was very satisfied with Gu Hengzhou's answer, and seeing that his clothes were wet, he said to Sun Yuehai, who was following behind: "His Royal Highness the Prince of the World's clothes are wet, take him to change into clean clothes first." ”

Gu Hengzhou did not refuse, and went to change clothes with Sun Yuehai, and Shen Bai first went to Ci'an Palace with Emperor Hengde with an umbrella.

Emperor Hengde has not come to Ci'an Palace for a long time to eat, the palace people in the palace are all happy, as soon as Emperor Hengde enters the door, immediately a palace person stepped forward and handed him a hot cloth to wipe his face and hands.

Shen Bai took the umbrella before coming in, and as soon as he entered the house, he was hit by the steaming heat all over the house, and the cold around him instantly subsided, and his head was a little swollen with heat.

Charcoal was burning in the house, but the windows and doors were closed, and the Queen Mother was old, but even then she was dressed very thickly, and she did not feel uncomfortable at all, and said to Emperor Hengde happily: "Emperor, come and sit down to eat." ”

It is said that the next generation is close, but the queen mother and the four imperial grandchildren are not very close, after the death of the first queen, Concubine De only came to Ci'an Palace in accordance with the rules in the morning and dusk to set the province, and at other times the entire Ci'an Palace was deserted and there was no one, and finally there was a Lu Xiu to accompany her to talk, these days the Queen Mother of the Winter Gui Festival also let her go to the palace to live, she was feeling lonely, and she was naturally very happy when she heard that Emperor Hengde was coming to eat.

Emperor Hengde walked to the Queen Mother and sat down, Shen Bai didn't dare to sit, so he walked to Emperor Hengde and rolled up his sleeves to help with the dishes.

The Queen Mother saw Shen Bai last time, and she was still quite impressed by Shen Bai, and when she saw her coming over with Emperor Hengde, she raised her eyebrows and asked in surprise: "Why did the emperor bring a little tail?" Isn't the Winter Laurel Festival still being held on these two days? ”

The Queen Mother is old and can't be frightened, and the assassination of Zhao Chou has not yet reached Ci'an Palace, so naturally she doesn't know what happened in the palace.

Emperor Hengde smiled gently and said, "This child was raised in Shuxian Palace, and I saw that Rui Xuan was quite close to him, so I summoned her over to talk." ”

The Queen Mother didn't like to hear people mention the first queen, a trace of unhappiness flashed in her eyes, and she automatically ignored the first queen, and said with a smile: "Rui Xuan has a good relationship with him, the last time the mourning family asked Ruzhao to come over with him to talk, and just sat down, Rui Xuan hurried over, for fear that the mourning family would eat them." ”

The Queen Mother's tone was calm, but she was making a small report that Zhao Che was fighting against her for Wei Ruzhao and Shen Bai.

Emperor Hengde also heard about this, sighed, took the queen mother's hand and said: "Queen Mother, when Shuxian passed away, Ruzhao was just a ten-year-old child, he was young and ignorant, and he made a mistake on impulse, and now he has corrected it, so don't worry about him in the future." ”

Emperor Hengde was still excusing Wei Ruzhao, as soon as this topic was mentioned, the Queen Mother's face suddenly changed, and she shook off Emperor Hengde's hand and said coldly: "The emperor said lightly, if he was older at that time and his strength was greater, Zhaoling was afraid that he would have been messed up a long time ago!" ”

Few people in the palace know that before Uncle Wei Ruzhao went to Yunshan Temple to lead the practice, he had secretly stabbed Emperor Hengde, using the phoenix hairpin left by the first queen, and the phoenix hairpin was inserted straight into Emperor Hengde's left chest.

In order not to let others know, Emperor Hengde took the injury and pretended to be nothing, his face was much worse, and others only thought that he was too worried because of the death of the first queen, if it wasn't for Concubine De who found out that something was wrong when she was sleeping, everyone would have been kept in the dark.

After the queen mother knew the truth, she was furious, and she was going to cut off Wei Ruzhao's head and destroy the Wei family, but she was finally stopped by Emperor Hengde and sent Wei Ruzhao to Yunshan Temple to practice, but in the past ten years, if there was no deliberate suppression by the queen mother, the Wei family would not have fallen to the point where it is now.

Now that Emperor Hengde mentioned this matter, the Queen Mother was still angry.

If he had seen the Queen Mother like this in the past, Emperor Hengde would have automatically moved on to the next topic, but today he just looked at the Queen Mother quietly, and waited for the Queen Mother to calm down before saying: "Queen Mother, why did Ruzhao treat me so well back then, you should know the reason very well. ”

The Queen Mother's eyebrows rose, and she looked at Emperor Hengde for some reason: "What does the emperor mean by this?" ”

Emperor Hengde raised his hand to screen the retreat from the palace, Shen Bai hesitated, and was about to retreat, Emperor Hengde said in a deep voice: "Shen Bai, you stay." ”

Shen Bai stood still, waited for all the palace people to withdraw, closed the door, Emperor Hengde looked at the Queen Mother and said word by word: "What I mean is that Shuxian did not die of illness back then, and the Queen Mother also knew about this matter, and it was the royal family who was sorry for Shuxian and the Wei family first." ”

This secret has been concealed for more than ten years, and the Queen Mother thought that she would not be known to the world until she died, but she didn't expect that Emperor Hengde would say it in such a calm tone in front of an outsider today.

The Queen Mother looked at Emperor Hengde and then at Shen Bai, her heart swelled with unease, and she instinctively denied it: "Emperor, what are you talking nonsense?" At that time, the imperial doctor said that she was ...... at all."

Emperor Hengde's hand hanging on his knee clenched his fist, and then said in a deep voice: "Shuxian is not a disease, before she was buried, I asked people to secretly examine the body, her bones were blackened, and she died of moderate and chronic poison, but the poison was very similar to ordinary pain." ”

The Queen Mother opened her mouth, unable to speak, and her lips trembled uncontrollably.

Emperor Hengde would secretly have an autopsy on people, indicating that he suspected from the beginning that the first empress did not die of natural disease.

And since he found out that the first queen was poisoned and died, he will definitely not stop there, and will investigate other things.

The Queen Mother's breathing was a little shorter, like a fish suddenly thrown to the shore, about to suffocate to death.

Emperor Hengde continued: "I secretly asked people to check Shuxian's eating habits over the years and the origin of the palace people used in the palace, these things have not changed much, but after she gave birth to Rui Xuan, the queen mother transferred a grandmother named Gui Xiang from Ci'an Palace to help her take care of Rui Xuan, the queen mother did not sleep well in the past few years, and Shuxian also personally learned from Mama Gui to prepare soothing incense for the queen mother to sleep. ”

Emperor Hengde mentioned Anshenxiang, and the Queen Mother's face suddenly changed greatly.

Although he had known the truth for a long time and saw the Queen Mother react like this, Emperor Hengde still felt bitter in his mouth, he paused for a moment, suppressed the dark and burning emotions in his chest, and said: "The raw materials for making soothing incense are mixed with the incense that Shuxian uses on weekdays, and it will form a chronic poison, and Mama Gui explained before she died that the incense used by Shuxian was also given to her by the queen mother, does the queen mother have anything else to say?" ”

This is something that Shen Bai didn't know in her previous life, she was very surprised, she didn't expect that the Queen Mother would have the idea of murdering the first queen when she just gave birth to Zhao Che.

The first queen is dignified and virtuous, born in a famous family, and has a deep relationship with Emperor Hengde and his wife, why does the queen mother dislike her so much and must put her to death?

Emperor Hengde should have figured it out what Shen Bai couldn't understand, he took the queen mother's hand again, sighed and said: "Queen Mother, the person who knows the truth of this matter has been executed by me, and there will be no fourth person who knows about it from now on, and I don't want to pursue this matter anymore, so please don't hold on to Ruzhao in the future, okay?" ”