Chapter 71

Song Zhao looked at Bao Xia who had stopped breathing, and couldn't help crying:

"Bao Xia was truly wholehearted..."

Consort Chen raised her eyebrows and looked at her, speaking gently:

"If you hadn't rushed forward recklessly just now to pull This Palace first, I'm afraid This Palace wouldn't have lived to see Bao Xia's loyalty today either."

She got up, took a deep breath, and murmured softly:

"Thank you."

Song Zhao quickly said: "This concubine, how could I stand by and watch when the Empress was in mortal danger?"

In fact, Consort Chen's attitude surprised Song Zhao as well.

She had always felt that Consort Chen was a woman with a vicious heart, cold and arrogant,

But today, whether it was her attitude towards Bao Xia, or the "thank you" from her mouth just now,

It was the first time Song Zhao saw her humane side,

And she felt a little unaccustomed.

Consort Chen asked Ying Xiang to properly arrange Bao Xia's aftermath, then went back to the main hall with Song Zhao.

The Empress helplessly sighed: "What happened today came suddenly. Fortunately, my sister was not injured."

"An accident?" Consort Chen suppressed the anger in her heart, looking sharply at the Empress, aggressively questioning:

"Does the Empress think it was an accident that there was a snake on a winter day? Or does she think snakes don't fear people was an accident? Or... does the Empress think it was an accident that when This Concubine was retreating, someone deliberately tripped me?"

As she spoke, she narrowed her eyes and looked around at the concubines in attendance.

Although she didn't say a word, her aura was extremely terrifying,

Scaring everyone so much that they didn't dare to speak or look her in the eye,

Afraid that as soon as their eyes met, they would be suspected. And Consort Chen's eyes lightly glanced over one person.

That person was naturally Song Zhao, who had just risked her life to save her.

At that time, Song Zhao was sitting in the position near the door, watching the atmosphere in the hall become more and more tense with composure.

She thought to herself, the good show has finally arrived.

In fact, when the accident happened in Plum Garden just now, how could she be willing to save Consort Chen?

If she had really been bitten by the snake, it wouldn't have been a joke.

But she had no choice but to save her.

The accident happened suddenly. In just a flash, Song Zhao had already figured it out.

Consort Chen didn't stumble early or stumble late, but happened to stumble when she passed by her. What does this mean?

It means someone wanted to harm Consort Chen, of course,

But thinking deeper,

How could that person not want to shift the blame to Song Zhao, so that everyone would think Song Zhao had deliberately tripped Consort Chen?

Rather than pleading innocence to no avail later, why not take a gamble.

So there was the brave scene of Song Zhao shielding Consort Chen at all costs just now.

At the moment, Song Zhao carefully recalled who was around her when chaos broke out just now.

She lowered her head, and inadvertently glanced at the concubines in attendance from the corner of her eye,

Concubine Xiao was there, and Concubine Liu was there, Qing Yue, Concubine Shu's maid, it seemed there were also two unfamiliar palace maids, but Song Zhao couldn't remember who they were.

Facing Consort Chen's questioning, the Empress' expression also became solemn,

"Does my sister mean that what happened today was someone deliberately trying to harm you?"

Consort Chen's face darkened suddenly, her words thorny: "This Concubine doesn't know. This Concubine only knows that today's plum appreciation was invited by the Empress."

"Absurd!" Upon hearing her slanderous words, the Empress, who rarely got angry, was furious, "Appreciating plums on the thirteenth day of the tenth lunar month is a rule laid down by the ancestors. What do you mean by saying this? Are you implying that the person who wanted to harm you was This Palace? "

Consort Chen sneered and raised her eyebrows at the Empress:

"This Concubine hasn't said anything yet, why is the Empress annoyed already? Fortunately, the disaster was avoided this time and the one unfortunately injured by the viper was This Concubine's Bao Xia. If the Empress had been injured, wouldn't that have been a sin?"

She straightened her back and put on an aggressive stance, enunciating word for word:

"Someone wanted to harm the Empress, this matter must not be left alone, it should be reported to His Majesty and let the people from Ministry of Justice come into the palace to investigate!"

With a few words, Consort Chen immediately escalated the severity of the situation.

The Empress argued that this was an accident, and at worst, it was just the death of a palace maid, so the incident would not become big. But Consort Chen pointed the spearhead at the Empress, saying that this incident was very likely to be someone trying to harm the Empress, then the nature of this incident has become attempted rebellion.

The women in the palace are good at listening for information. Everyone knows what Consort Chen meant by saying this.

She made it clear that she suspected that everything that happened today was a plot by the Empress to harm her.

However, the Empress claimed to have a clear conscience and was not afraid of shadows, and said fearlessly:

"What Consort Chen said is reasonable. Shuang Ruo, report this matter to His Majesty immediately and see if His Majesty has time now."

Shuang Ruo agreed with a bow. Just then a gust of wind blew through the hall, and the Empress, who was sitting opposite the host seat, shuddered slightly.

So Shuang Ruo said, "The Empress Mother's soup warmer has cooled down. This slave will go change it for you."

The Empress casually handed the soup warmer to her, and she took it and went downstairs.

About half an hour later, Shuang Ruo came back to Yonghe Palace with Jiang Deshun.

Jiang Deshun gave the Empress a deep bow and said, "His Majesty is discussing affairs with the Minister of Revenue at the moment and can't get away for a while. He sent me to understand the situation first."

He waved his horsetail whisk forward and summoned a palace maid from outside to come in and introduced her to the Empress:

"This is Xiao Sui Zi from the Bureau of Flowers and Birds who has done a lot of research on snakes and insects."

Xiao Sui Zi paid her respects to the Empress and then said: "Reporting to the Empress Mother, at this time of year, pit vipers should be hibernating, so suddenly coming out and attacking people means it probably smelled something it shouldn't have. As for whether the snake didn't hibernate itself or someone deliberately released it in Plum Garden, that's hard to tell... I only know pit vipers are everywhere in the capital, but I've never seen one in the palace before."

"A smell it shouldn't have smelled?"

Consort Chen saw that most of the concubines today were wearing fragrance sachets that Consort Xiao had given them yesterday. Although she didn't wear it herself, Consort Yin who was sitting next to her did.

So she directly reached out and pulled the fragrance sachet from Consort Yin's waist.

Consort Yin was annoyed and said angrily: "What are you doing?"

Consort Chen completely ignored her, only handed the fragrance sachet to Xiao Sui Zi and said: "See if there's anything wrong with this."

From the corner of her eye, Song Zhao saw that the moment Consort Chen handed the fragrance sachet to Xiao Sui Zi, Consort Xiao's expression had already become unnatural.

Xiao Sui Zi opened the fragrance sachet and quickly discovered the snake weed inside, so she immediately said:

"Replying to Consort Chen, this fragrance sachet contains a snake weed that snake catchers specially use to lure snakes!"

Everyone in the hall was shocked when this was said.

The concubines wearing fragrance sachets hurriedly took them off and threw them aside. Xiao Sui Zi examined them one by one and confirmed that all the fragrance sachets contained snake weed, and then said: "If all this amount of snake weed is added together, it is possible to stimulate pit vipers and make them extremely aggressive!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the concubines looked at Consort Xiao in astonishment.

Concubine Xiao was frightened and her face turned pale. She hurriedly got up from her seat and ran to the middle of the front of the hall, kneeling down to the Empress to explain in panic:

"Empress Mother, please discern clearly! This matter has nothing to do with this concubine!"