The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 679 - 679 322 The Truth Revealed (Double Update)_3

Chapter 679: 322 The Truth Revealed (Double Update)_3 Chapter 679: 322 The Truth Revealed (Double Update)_3 If what the old ritualist said was true, then Zhang Xiu committed suicide for love.

The emperor squinted suspiciously, “Why end it all? Was it because of the empress dowager?”

“I dare not! I am because… my life will not last much longer…” The old ritualist began to feign illness and misery, resorting to all sorts of tearful and pitiful tactics, “… If your Majesty does not believe me, please call Little Physician, she was the one who diagnosed me with a terminal illness.”

…

When he came out of the Imperial Study Room, the old ritualist met Xiao Liulang who had been waiting for a long time.

“I’m sorry to have implicated you, teacher.” Xiao Liulang apologized guiltily.

The old ritualist sighed, “It’s not your fault, it’s my lack of consideration.”

“Your reputation, teacher…”

The old ritualist waved his hand, “I never had much of a reputation to speak of. My relationship with her wasn’t like I told his majesty, but in the end… I still wronged her. She… was my wife’s sister.”

His wife’s younger half-sister had been taken in by another village from a young age, and the sisters only recognized each other after they grew up.

On his wife’s deathbed, she had grabbed his hand and made him promise to take care of her only sister, Zhang Xiu, no matter what.

Zhang Xiu wanted to marry him, but he didn’t want to marry her. As a result, she impulsively entered the palace.

He was fiercely against Zhuang Jinse, to avoid implicating Zhang Xiu, he never let anyone know about their relationship. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been only him who was exiled that year. Zhang Xiu, his sister-in-law would have been exiled too.

After all, the late emperor’s edict was to exile his entire family.

“She came to see me when she was twenty-five and could leave the palace. She asked me again if I was willing to marry her? I said, I would take care of her for the rest of my life, treating her as my own sister. Then she smashed my inkstone. Later, she regretted it greatly and gave me a new one, the one I asked you to return. As she gave it to me, I didn’t hold it steady and accidentally broke a part of it… She laughed and said it was even now.”

The old ritualist sighed as he recounted this, “Forget it, let’s not bring up the past. She definitely didn’t commit suicide for love. Her death was suspicious. I begged the emperor for graciousness to see her off for the last time. You should come with me.”

Xiao Liulang: “Okay.”

The old ritualist and Xiao Liulang went to the Shanggong Bureau accompanied by eunuch Wei.

In the previous dynasty, suicide in the palace was usually a curse that befell the entire family. This clause was abolished in this dynasty, but the deceased could not be given a peaceful burial, they could only be thrown in the wilderness.

The old ritualist gave eunuch Wei a bag of silver.

Eunuch Wei declined for a while but failed: “Everything has been arranged. Later, the body will be sent to the chaotic burial mound outside the west city gate. Just have someone wait there.”

“Thank you, eunuch Wei.” The old ritualist thanked him.

Xiao Liulang examined Zhang Xiu’s body, it was indeed a suicide, without any signs of struggle or fight.

Then Xiao Liulang discovered something, and he stopped.

“What’s wrong?” The old ritualist came over to ask.

Xiao Liulang didn’t say a word, but raised Zhang Xiu’s left wrist. On it, there was a brown spot.

The old ritualist was completely stunned: “How could it be…”

Yes, how could it be Zhang Xiu?

Details from last night that had been overlooked, now one after another flashed through Xiao Liulang’s mind.

When Zhang Xiu saw him for the first time, she was so frightened that she almost fell over. He thought she was scared like eunuch Qin and others who thought they had seen a ghost, but on reflection, it seemed that he and Zhang Xiu never met before.

She shouldn’t have recognized him.

Even if she did, her reaction was too big.

When he told her that he was investigating a palace maid with a mole on her wrist, she knew that the events from that year had been exposed.

But she didn’t know that Xiao Liulang was the one doing the investigation, she only thought that the person seeking the truth must be her brother-in-law, the old ritualist.

The old ritualist was the teacher of Xiao Hen, so his investigation into Xiao Hen’s death was also reasonable.

The reason she left so desolate and despondent was probably because she had decided to do die at that moment.

She chose to atone for her sins to her brother-in-law and his disciple with her death, and also used death to avoid revealing the person behind the scenes who reported the matter.

What kind of sentiment did she harbor when she framed Zhuang Jinse back then? And what kind of sentiment did she harbor when she found out that the young Xiao Hen who she had poisoned might someday become her brother-in-law’s apprentice?

The old ritualist had a lump in his throat: “It’s all because of me…”

Zhang Xiu must have framed Zhuang Jinse because Zhuang Jinse was at odds with him, causing him to be exiled, jeopardizing his life.

But who could have predicted that he and Zhuang Jinse would not become archenemies, instead, Zhang Xiu had lost her life for nothing.

Eunuch Wei had already arranged everything, they could take away Zhang Xiu’s belongings.

Zhang Xiu’s belongings were simple, a few sets of clothes and a cosmetic box. In the box were several pieces of jewelry, old that they couldn’t be older, and in the hidden compartment in the box, dozens of silver notes bearing the name of the old ritualist.

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