The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 32: The Needle

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》Yanxi Gonglue

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 32: The Needle

   “Lord Fucha, you are here, come on, this way, this way, His Majesty has been waiting for you for a long time!”

   Fucha Fuheng stepped into the Yangxin Hall study with a puzzled look on his face.

   “Liyu what's going on here?” He looked at the door behind him and asked with some curiosity, “I don't usually see him this enthusiastic ...”

   The eunuchs, like every brick and tile of this Forbidden City, all belong to the Emperor.

   Especially a Grand Eunuch like Liyu, who knew that he had all the glory and favor of the emperor and therefore he only pleased the emperor and did not need to and did not want to please foreign ministers.

   Fucha Fuheng felt uncomfortable with the sudden uncharacteristic warmth towards him.

   “If you had come, he wouldn't have had to be beaten by me on the board.” Hongli, still buried in his folding notebooks, said without looking up, “I asked him to find someone but he hasn't found him for months, what a useless servant.”

   Fucha Fuheng was even more curious.

   “His Majesty, what person are you looking for?” Fucha Fuheng asked, would this Majesty before him actually be interested in something other than a zoan, or a person, a man or a woman, someone from the palace or someone from outside the palace?”

   “Never mind, let's not mention her.” Hongli suddenly tossed the folders in his hand and said, “Look at this.”

   Fucha Fuheng lifted his hand and took the memorial and when he looked down at it, his brow immediately furrowed and he said: “This is ... Zhong Yongtan's impeachment of the commander of the infantry, E Shan, for taking a bribe of ten thousand taels of silver ...

   “It's not just E Sun.” Hongli crossed his hands in front of his lips and said, “He also sued Zhang Tingyu! And you didn't notice anything?”

   “Zhong Yongtan is a disciple of Lord Ertai.” Fucha Fuheng, who was so intelligent, immediately perceived the deep meaning in the letters and said with a smile, “So, this impeachment letter is Ertai's declaration of war against Zhang Tingyu and they still want to borrow your sword!”

   Hongli sneered.

   “These two men were important ministers of the late emperor and that is why I tolerated them so much but what have they done?” Hongli said in a deep voice, “Last year Liu Tongxun had impeached Zhang Tingyu, saying that the two surnames of Zhang and Yao in Tongcheng accounted for half of the red gentry and I thought he was overstating the case but now it seems that the words were extremely pertinent! As for Ertai, his second son, Eshu, soon after the death of his original spouse, quickly married the daughter of Gao Bin, a university scholar and became related to Noble Consort Gao. What do you think he wants to do!”

   His voice grew louder and louder, like the first clap of thunder, stretching for a thousand miles, showing that he was really angry.

   When an emperor is angry, blood is spilled over a thousand miles.

   “His Majesty is in a hurry, I know.” Fucha Fuheng hastened to reassure him, saying, “But nowadays the Han people are mostly attached to Zhang Tingyu, while the Manchus are leaning on Ertai, not to mention the great officials of the court and even the local governors are taking sides! To move Ertai and Zhang Tingyu, we must wait for the right moment.”

   “I've waited long enough!” Hongli suddenly stood up and with such a great movement, he accidentally overturned the tea bowl on the table, pouring a bowl of Biluochun all over him but he did not notice it and only said coldly to Fucha Fuheng, “Capture the thief first, I want to summon First Rank Prince Yi, First Rank Prince He, Grand Maester Ertai, Zhang Tingyu, Xu Ben and Shang Shu Nefeng to be tried together in public and take off E Shan's head first! Fuheng, you take care of this!”

   One is a monarch and one is a minister.

   Although he wanted to advise, Fucha Fuheng, as a subject, had already made up his mind, so he could only say: “Yes!”

   After venting his anger, Hongli's chest rose and fell for a moment and after the hot fire in his heart was extinguished, he gradually felt a coolness and looking down at his regular clothes, which were wet with tea, he frowned and shouted: “Liyu!”

   “I'm here.” Liyu pushed the door in and saw Hongli's clothes were wet, he was astonished and immediately waved to the outside, a few small eunuchs trotted over and trotted away again, in a short while, they came back with a tray in their hands, holding a bright yellow regular dress.

   Liyu himself carried the garments and changed them for Hongli.

   Hongli opened his hands, enjoying his service as he should but suddenly frowned and raised his hands to cover his neck.

   When the hand covering his neck was slowly lowered, he saw a bead of blood in his palm.

   Liyu's face turned white to the naked eye and his legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees and said: “Your Majesty, His Majesty ...”

   Fucha Fuheng was also startled and took a few steps forward to stop Hongli, his eyes looking around warily as if trying to find the assassin who had dared to assassinate the Emperor from tables, chairs, benches, cracks in the walls and any other place where he could hide.

   “There is no assassin.” Hongli's voice came from behind him and said, “It's this ...”

   Fucha Fuheng turned around and saw that Hongli had pulled off the uniform he had just changed into and that a long, thin silver needle was twisted between his fingers, which always smelled of ink and brush.

   The murderous aura between his words is obvious to anyone who can hear it.

   Fucha Fuheng, with his heart in his mouth, advised: “This was a moment of carelessness on the part of the Office of the Director, not a deliberate attempt to harm ...”

   Before he could finish, Liyu had already crawled to Hongli's feet and was kowtowing like a garrote: “His Majesty forgive me, His Majesty forgive me! These minions of the Office of the Secretary of State have made such an unbelievable mistake, which shows how carelessly they have acted.

   Boom!”

   The Embroidery Workshop’s doors were suddenly thrown open.

   A large group of people, led by Wu Shulai, all with murderous faces, poured in at the door.

   “Who is it?” Wu Shulai looked around with the coldness of a butcher selecting lambs for slaughter.

   The court ladies in the Embroidery Workshop stopped what they were doing and looked at Wu Shulai anxiously and every time Wu Shulai's gaze lingered a little longer on a person's face, that person seemed to be strangled, turning blue and barely able to He could hardly breathe.

   “... It's her.” Zhang Momo held out a finger helplessly.

   The crowd followed the finger ...

   It's Linglong's white on blue face.

   “Take her down!” Wu Shulai raised his hand and the two eunuchs behind him immediately pounced.

   “No, no, let go of me!” Knowing that she would die if they took her, Linglong immediately struggled, her body twisted like a snake, knocking over many tables and embroideries along the way, crying, “What did I do wrong, why did you arrest me! Manager Wu, you can't do this, you have to give a reason!”

   “Reason?” Wu Shulai laughed and said, “I asked you to make His Majesty's garment but you were so careless that you missed a silver needle in the collar! Do you know what this is called? If one mistake is made, it will become a crime of treason and we will all lose our heads!”

   “Silver needle? What silver needle, I don't know! Wait a minute ...” Linglong's eyes were confused but then she suddenly figured something out and snapped back to stare at the crowd behind her.

   The only one in the jittery crowd was calm and collected.

   As if he had anticipated such a situation, he was watching the developments with a smile on his face and relish.

   “It's you!” Linglong said with fear and anger, “It's you, Wei Yingluo!”

   In that moment, she felt as if she were a poor worm that had fallen into an elaborate spider's web and the more she struggled, the harder it was to break free.

   “Manager Wu, I didn't make that dress, Wei Yingluo did!” Linglong dared not continue to hide the fact that things had come to this stage and immediately shouted at Wu Shulai that “She was careless, no, she deliberately left a needle on the dress to set me up!”

   Wu Shulai frowned and looked towards Wei Yingluo.

   Compared to the little palace maids shaking like quails next to her, she did seem a little too calm and collected.

   “Don't talk nonsense!” Zhang Momo, who was standing beside him, suddenly scolded, saying, “You brought me the regular clothes yourself and said you made them, how come they are now made by Yingluo?”

   “Zhang Momo, you ...” Linglong was double cornered.

   She finally reacted to the fact that she was caught in a conspiracy.

   It's fine for other people but who is Zhang Momo?

   The embroidery was as recognizable to her eyes as each person's handwriting.

   She would not have been unable to see that the dragon on the regular dress was actually embroidered by Wei Yingluo but without saying a word, she took the dress and offered it up as if it had been embroidered by Linglong.

   “You're all in this together!” Linglong screamed hysterically towards Wei Yingluo and even almost broke away from the eunuch's hand and jumped on top of Wei Yingluo.

   How could the eunuch allow her to do such a thing in front of Wu Shulai's eyes and immediately increased the force of his hand, holding her down to the ground with half her face pressed to the ground and half her face turned sideways towards the crowd as Linglong stared at Wei Yingluo with one bloodshot eye.

   “Look, she's doing it again.” Wei Yingluo looked down at her from above, her voice very calm, calm as if she had already prepared this speech and said, “Earlier, she was trying to get away with it and now she's trying to get at Zhang Momo and when she gets to the imperial court, she'll probably try to get at Manager Wu, saying that you didn't even check the imperial uniform properly and should be punished with the same crime! You should be punished for the same crime!”

   As soon as Linglong heard this, her eyes went black and she nearly passed out.

   Even if there was a way out for her, now that Wei Yingluo has said this, there is no way out for her.

   Wu Shulai stared at her with suspicious and suspicious eyes and said coldly: “Such a sinister and poisonous thing, it is really impossible to keep her, take her away!”

   Linglong kept reaching out along the way, grabbing everything she could, pillars, chair legs, even human legs and her closest palace maid was quick to kicking her away and ducking back, as were the rest of them, like the ebbing tide of the sea, away from her.

   “Help! Help me!” Linglong shed tears and cried out like Dujuan crying for blood saying, “I was wronged!”

   Behind her, Wei Yingluo smiled as she watched her leave, then slowly squeezed the hanky in her hand.

   It was a hanky with a stain left at the edge.

   The color of the stain is red and brown, as if it were air dried blood.

   That's ... Jixiang's birthday present.

  

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS