The maid lowered her head and cried and said, "Ye, Ye Ningxiang is new to Zhaoyang Palace, she must be very unfamiliar with things at work, we will definitely be able to find fault with it!"

Hearing the maid say this, Mei Zhaoyi withdrew the whip, but her eyes were always full of malice.

"Okay, this matter will be left to you, if you can't do it, you know very well what the consequences will be!"

"Yes, yes, the slave will do it with all her might. ”

Late at night, Ye Ningxiang came to a very inconspicuous stone in the imperial garden without anyone noticing it as before, took out a small bamboo tube from the gap in the stone, and carefully opened the bamboo tube, which contained a small note.

Through the faint moonlight, Ye Ningxiang could barely read the words on the note: The list of secret rooms has been known, be careful in everything.

The list in Mu Xize's secret room that Ye Ningxiang discovered some time ago thought that it had been passed to Xiao Qingyu's hands, and Xiao Qingyu should have known the relationship between those people and Mu Xize, but he didn't talk to Ye Ningxiang in detail.

In the next half a month, Zhaoyang Hall was very calm, Ye Ningxiang was seriously groping and learning every day because of her new job, and now she can be said to be handy at work.

During this time, Ye Ningxiang didn't hear the slightest news about Mu Xize, and the Queen Mother was angry and said that she wanted Mu Xize to move to her palace to live with her, but it was not implemented. However, in the past few days, Ye Ningxiang has heard a more important news: Mu Jingyuan is ready to accept the queen concubine.

Originally, the emperor was not allowed to marry when the emperor died less than 100 days ago, but this Mu Jingyuan's throne is not secure, although Concubine Li is the princess of the turtle beard, the aunt of the current turtle beard monarch, but it is far from being able to solve the near fire, and the court still needs to seek strong power to consolidate Mu Jingyuan's position.

So ten days ago, the Queen Mother asked the most famous painters in the palace to paint the unmarried ladies of those high-ranking officials and important ministers, and then submitted them to the Queen Mother and the Emperor. In the end, the queen mother and the emperor selected the candidates for the queen and concubines.

The portraits of these eunuch ladies may not have been seen by others, but she Ye Ningxiang doesn't know how many times she has seen them, because she is in charge of the documents, and these portraits will pass through her hands every day.

If there is no one, Ye Ningxiang will look at the girls in these paintings one by one, and then pick out who is good-looking and who is not, just like the queen mother and the emperor, watching no one find out their arrogant behavior, Ye Ningxiang laughed out loud in the library several times.

On this day, Manager Liu led the two little eunuchs to run into the library where Ye Ningxiang was very eager, panting and saying anxiously: "Girl, go and find the pictures of the show girls that were handed over to you for safekeeping, and the Queen Mother is ready to hand them over to the emperor to make a final decision, and the final result will be announced in the court tomorrow." ”

Ye Ningxiang didn't expect the queen mother to be in such a hurry, so she found the remaining show girl pictures without a moment's delay, and carefully handed them to Manager Liu, "Manager Liu, all the remaining show girl pictures that have not been eliminated are here." ”

The two little eunuchs opened a very clean wooden box that they carried with them, and carefully put the pictures of these show girls into the box. Seeing that everything was going well, Manager Liu sighed slightly, and his originally anxious mood eased somewhat.

Then Manager Liu didn't talk to Ye Ningxiang any more, so he hurriedly went to the residence of the Empress Dowager of Guan Ju Palace.

Mu Jingyuan sat in the Guan Ju Palace with a gloomy face, and it seemed that every moment in the Guan Ju Palace was extremely uncomfortable. But the Queen Mother seemed calm, picked up the teacup and took a leisurely sip of tea, and then said to Mu Jingyuan with a smile: "Manager Liu will be here in a while, you can take a good look and determine the final candidate." ”

Mu Jingyuan sneered, and didn't even bother to look at the Queen Mother again, "Isn't the Queen Mother already decided, and you still come to ask me what to do?"

The Queen Mother was not annoyed when she heard this, and continued to smile and said: "I have already decided on the queen's candidate, but I have selected the other concubines by you, and I sincerely hope that you can choose a few favorite women so that you can give birth to an heir as soon as possible, so that your throne can be considered stable." ”

Mu Jingyuan closed his eyes and didn't speak, and seemed to have a grudge against the matter of choosing a concubine.

After about a quarter of an hour, Mr. Liu entered the Guan Ju Palace out of breath, and then carefully took out the remaining pictures of show girls from the wooden box and presented them to Mu Jingyuan very respectfully.

"Your Majesty, these are the remaining pictures of show girls, and I hope that the emperor will make the last final election. ”

"Let's put it aside for now, I'll see in a moment. ”

Then, Mu Jingyuan first took a sip of tea, then sat idly for a while, and finally slowly opened a picture of a show girl. When he opened the show girl picture, Mu Jingyuan's originally indifferent face suddenly turned pale with shock, and he couldn't even speak.

And the Queen Mother, who was originally calm and relaxed, also widened her eyes at this moment, different from Mu Jingyuan's horror, the Queen Mother's face was full of anger, "Who took care of the picture of the show girl, and let this picture be stained with black ink?"

Mu Jingyuan then quickly opened the remaining pictures of the show girls, and without exception, these pictures were also stained with black ink. The faces of the women in these paintings have been completely ruined by black ink, and even their names have been obscured by ink. In other words, it is impossible to see who these eunuchs are selected and who is lost. It took ten days of hard work to choose a concubine, and it was in vain because of this strange ink stain.

The Queen Mother was even more annoyed and said, "Manager Liu, who did you tell the mourning family to take care of the show girl?"

A trace of uneasiness flashed on Manager Liu's face, then he sighed and replied reluctantly: "Back to the Queen Mother, it's Ye Ningxiang." ”

When the Yulin officers and soldiers rushed into the Zhaoyang Palace, Ye Ningxiang was sorting out the chapters in the emperor's study, and she was still thinking in her heart about which slave had committed such a serious crime and would provoke so many Yulin officers and soldiers to arrest her. What she didn't expect was that these officers and soldiers were actually coming towards her.

The officers and soldiers led by him had cold faces and shouted sternly: "You are Ye Ningxiang?"

Ye Ningxiang didn't know why, nodded obediently, and saw the officers and soldiers behind her take out the rope and tie her up as quickly as possible, and then dragged her out of the Zhaoyang Palace.

It was not the first time that Heng Xiang had been arrested, Ye Ningxiang didn't have much fear, and asked very calmly: "Brother Sir, Ning Xiang wants to know why you arrested me?"

The chief officer at the head sneered and said, "Why? You defiled all the remaining pictures of the show girl with black ink, so that the work of selecting concubines for more than ten days was in vain, and you still ask why you were arrested?"

Ye Ningxiang has been cautious and cautious these days, and when the picture of the show girl is handed to her, she will put it in the library and lock it as soon as possible, others can't do anything at all, who framed herself?

Because of the escape of King Riduan from prison some time ago, the guards of Dali Temple are obviously stricter, and all the prisoners are chained, and Ye Ningxiang is naturally no exception. Probably because she won the emperor's trust and aroused too many people's eyes, the jailer specially put ten kilograms of shackles on her on the grounds that she was a serious offender, making her every step extremely difficult, and blood was oozing out from her ankles from time to time.

In the end, Ye Ningxiang simply stopped moving, lay down on the dead grass relaxedly, and then curled up to reduce the loss of heat in her body.

But her thoughts never stopped, because of her new job, Ye Ningxiang was always cautious and cautious these days, for fear of being found wrong, and she herself had never made a mistake. She can be sure that before going to bed last night, the door of the library was locked by herself, and the key was always worn by herself, if someone entered the library at night, then that person knew how to open the lock, but who was this person?

Just as he was thinking about it, a figure suddenly appeared in front of Ye Ningxiang's cell, and the person slowly turned around, and it turned out to be the masked killer who had helped him when he rescued King Duan that day.

The man didn't have the slightest sympathy when he saw Ye Ningxiang's tragic situation, and he even smiled funny, looking very happy when he saw others suffering.

"Yu Gongzi asked me to tell you, tell you not to worry, tomorrow's trial, he will let you get away with it. ”

Then he threw a small medicine bottle at Ye Ningxiang, and said in a cold voice: "This is the gold sore medicine that Yu Gongzi asked me to bring, he said that you will need it." ”

After speaking, the masked man once again disappeared in front of Ye Ningxiang with imperceptible speed.

Early the next morning, Ye Ningxiang was taken out of the prison, and then escorted to the main hall of Zhaoyang Palace. The emperor and the queen mother were already sitting on the main seat, and the one sitting on both sides was Xia Qingqing, and the other was Mei Zhaoyi, who was scolded by Mu Jingyuan half a month ago.

Probably the two women canonized by the emperor, the Queen Mother didn't like either of them, and Ye Ningxiang, who didn't like it very much, was kneeling below at the moment, and the Queen Mother always had a gloomy face, and she didn't even bother to say a word.

The first to speak was Mei Zhaoyi, "Sister Ning Xiang, how can you be so careless, even if you admire the beauty of those good families, you can't destroy all their show girl pictures!

After speaking, Mei Zhaoyi also looked at Mu Jingyuan worriedly, pretending to be pitiful, as if she was really worried about Mu Jingyuan because of this matter.

Ye Ningxiang straightened her body and replied neither humbly nor arrogantly: "Your Majesty, the slave maid has never used black ink to defile the picture of the show girl, and there is no disrespect at all, and I hope that the emperor will see it!"

Knowing that Ye Ningxiang was framed, Mu Jingyuan was extremely worried, but at this moment, seeing Ye Ningxiang's haggard face and blood stains on her ankles, she was even more angry in her heart, and she just wanted to find the culprit who framed Ye Ningxiang as soon as possible, so that they would not die well.

But what is lacking now is evidence, if you can't find evidence that Ye Ningxiang was framed, this is a big crime of disrespect, Ye Ningxiang will be confirmed, even if he is the emperor, there is nothing he can do. Thinking of this, Mu Jingyuan subconsciously rubbed his temples, revealing a tired look.

The Queen Mother asked in a cold tone: "You said that you didn't do it, but is there any evidence to prove your innocence?"

Ye Ningxiang was not flustered, and replied calmly: "No." However, the key to the library has always been kept by me, and if the person who framed me wants to sneak into the library, he must know how to open the lock. ”

At this time, Xia Qingqing, who had not spoken for a long time, stood up respectfully, with a look of difficulty on her face, as if she had something to say, but she felt that it was difficult to speak.

Mu Jingyuan said very gently: "Qingqing, what do you want to say, but it doesn't hurt to say it." ”

Xia Qingqing first looked at Mei Zhaoyi, and then knelt respectfully in front of the emperor and the queen mother, and said: "The night before, Qingqing had insomnia, so she wandered outside, but she saw the palace maid in Mei Zhaoyi's palace sneakily coming out of Zhaoyang Palace, and she didn't know what to do. ”

Hearing this, Mu Jingyuan was furious and said loudly: "Mei Zhaoyi, what Qingqing said is true?"