It was in Jingyang Palace.

When Gu Yunxi was back accompanied by Honour Guards, there was blood in her body. Besides, many guards with broadswords went in and out. Seeing that, two chief maids thought there must be a bad thing.

"Your Grace... Are you okay? What happened?"

Lei threw his horsetail whisk, seeing blank Gu Yunxi in the bed.

Gu Yunxi stared at the concretionary blood in her hands with blank eyes, slowly shaking her head. She said in a low voice.

"Sakata Aki was killed, but the lethal hairpin belongs to me... I was trapped by someone and fainted in Book Hall. When Huanan Xin and other people arrived, the hairpin was clasped by me."

"So, my mother's book was taken away. I... I can't prove my innocence anyhow."

Hearing that, two chief maids were nervous and confused.

Zhiqi directly kneeled on the ground, trembling and holding Gu Yunxi's cold palm with blood. She cried and spoke.

"You will never kill people. You must be trapped by someone."

Lei was stressed and nervous.

"But what can we do now? After you went out with the book, His Majesty once let people ask us. At that time, we didn't know what happened. Just in accordance with your requirement, we said we had never seen you."

"Now the thing had happened, so what we said must make them suspect us!"

Seeming to fall into an abyss, Gu Yunxi felt dazzled. As waves fiercely flooded in her stomach, she felt a wave of hot blood was stirred. Suddenly, she covered her chest with a hand, violently gasping.

"Your Grace! Your Grace! There is something wrong!" Xiuyu anxiously rushed into the palace, appearing pale and nervous.

"Your Grace, Honour Guards closed our door. Later, will they take us away? I prefer to die rather than leave you!"

Xiuyu burst into tears. All of a sudden, the atmosphere in the palace became more stressful.

Gu Yunxi slowly closed her eyes, sighing and saying.

"Just as an old saying goes: A good thing happens to be bad..."

Outside the palace, it was noisy now. Liang Zhen's apprentice, Gan Tai, came and would take redundant eunuchs and maids away in Jingyang Palace.

Before the truth was known, unless Huanan Xin ordered, the door of Jingyang Palace couldn't be opened. Therefore, Gu Yunxi didn't need too many servants.

According to the rule, she could only let one or two people serve her, and other servants must be taken away.

Gu Yunxi was quiet for a while, and then a light flashed in her eyes.

Suddenly, she violently slapped Lei and shouted.

"What a bad servant! I haven't been completely beaten, but you should dare to be so lazy!"

Xiuyu was astonished and sobbed.

"Your Grace... What's wrong with you?"

But what answered her was the sound of plates and bowls falling and breaking.

When Gan Tai led Honour Guards into the hall, he saw Gu Yunxi pointing at Zhiqi and cursing as her delicate face became anxious and mad.

"Quickly! Take those bad servants away! I don't want to see them anymore!"

Gan Tai couldn't understand that as he didn't know what bad things those steady servants had done, which should make Huanan Xin's beloved concubine Gu Yunxi so anxious.

But Zhiqi had already understood, kneeling together with Lei and crying.

"Your Grace! Your Grace!"

Gu Yunxi was sad but she tried to be firm. As her scarlet eyes were widened, she coldly and firmly ordered.

"Go out of Jingyang Palace! I don't want to see you anymore!"

Gan Tai frowned and gestured to let Honour Guards take Zhiqi and Lei away.

When the red door was slowly closed, Gu Yunxi burst into tears.

She said in her heart.

"Zhiqi, Lei, thank you for loyally accompanying me. But I might confront more difficulties, so I don't want to let you be involved."

...

It was in the Ninth Prince's Mansion.

While receiving the oral message from Leshuang, Huanan He was anxious.

When Emperor Jingxiao was still on the throne, as Commander-in-chief in the Eastern Depot, he met many bad things together with Gu Yunxi. But he had never met such a chaotic situation before today.

Just now when he happily prepared to disguise and slide into the Palace, Zhiqi anxiously ran to stop him from meeting Gu Yunxi.

He felt there must be something wrong. Then Leshuang secretly let people send the concrete message about the murder case in Palace and Gu Yunxi's being arrested in her palace.

"No! In the evening, I will go to the Palace. Only when I see Yunxi could I become relaxed."

Huanan He eventually stopped walking, anxiously saying. But the words were immediately opposed by Gu Di.

"Just be calm. Now except for Le Xiaobei, there were no people more clearly knowing the current situation in the Palace than us. Now that he let someone send the message to you, he must be not willing to let you take risks again."

The eunuch, who sent the message, was about 12 or 13 years old, standing by and nodding.

"Yeah! Your Highness, Bingbi had already warned that now the Nine Gates of the Palace are all closed. In each tower, Honour Guards hold weapons and guard. You shouldn't try to take risks at this time."

Huanan He frowned as his eyes became sad and blank.

"Now Yunxi in Jingyang Palace should be in the most helpless moment, but I can't accompany her. Brother, I owe her so much."

Gu Di deeply sighed and patted his shoulder.

"She is firm and steady. Just for the sake of you, she will never let herself be hurt. So for her, you should keep calm and be as proud as those days."

The eunuch who delivered the message raised his fists to salute them.

"Now time is up, so I must go into the group that is responsible for carrying water in order to smoothly come back to the Palace. Your Highness, I just leave."

Gu Di saluted, "Thanks for your delivery. Thank you."

At night, the eunuch quickly left the Ninth Prince's Mansion and hustled to go to the place destined by the chief eunuch of the group that was responsible for carrying water.

When he carefully turned a street around, two or three figures suddenly rushed from an array. They stunned him and put him in a sack.

―

It was in the second evening when General Yuancang was summoned by Huanan Xin to come into the Palace again.

After the case happened, the manager of Court of Judicial Review came into the Palace and cooperated with Imperial Guards to investigate the thing. After seriously checking the corpse of Sakata Aki and investigating the place, they reported to Huanan Xin. Those things cost a whole day.

According to the investigation, the lethal wounds of Sakata Aki were all concentrated on his upper body. The man's key acupoints were stabbed by the people with sharp-edged tools so that he bled to death.

The murderer had a good command of acupoints all over the body and quickly acted. All of his actions were quick, precise, and violent. So he must be a person with Kungfu.

Besides, the furniture in the place was not damaged, which suggested that the murderer must be familiar with Sakata Aki. Only in this way could the murderer kill him when Sakata Aki didn't defend himself.

The conclusion made Huanan Xin relaxed.

Evidently, the evidence could make him directly tell General Yuancang that the murderer was not Gu Yunxi.

However, who was the murderer?

The murderer could freely go into and leave the Palace to kill an envoy, and then he stole the book The Exquisite Collection of Delicacies most cherished by Gu Yunxi. What was his goal?

He had been staying up for a whole day and a whole night so that Huanan Xin's eyes ached. After resting for a while, Huanan Xin bathed and wore a new garment, going to Chengtai Hall to meet General Yuancang and his wife.

In order to prove Gu Yunxi's innocence, Huanan Xin particularly ordered the manager of Court of Judicial Review Pang Yin and Ritual Minister Wang Can to accompany him.

At that time, General Yuancang came into the Palace in spite of any dignity and etiquette. When he saw Huanan Xin going into the hall, he just squinted with a cold face. Then he directly required.

"Your Majesty, he says before long he will lead his team in going back to his homeland. And he requires to take Concubine Yun away..."

"What?"

Immediately, Huanan Xin sat up straight. With a hand holding his dazzled head because of stay-up, he anxiously shouted.

"Concubine Yun is my rank-second concubine. How can she casually go out of the Palace and show up together with the people on a small island?"

Wang Can was embarrassed and continued to translate.

"He says Concubine Yun is the person who killed Sakata Aki. Now that she kills the great official of Ying Emperor, she should meet Ying Emperor in person and ask of the pardon."

"Ridiculous! How can their Emperor have the right to punish my woman!"

Huanan Xin became anxious, leaning and pointing at General Yuancang. He shouted as loudly as thunder, which made the roof ornamented with gold and pearls move and sound.

"Pang Yin, you immediately tell him the truth people in Court of Judicial Review have found. You can't omit any words."

"Wang Can, you translate!"

The two people followed his order.

After hearing Wang Can's translation, General Yuancang sneered. Rubbing a wisp of his moustache with his fingers, he raised his eyes and stared at Huanan Xin.

Then what he said made Wang Can astonished.

"What? What has he said?"

Seeing Wang Can ceaselessly wiping sweat, Huanan Xin was confused.

Wang Can hesitated.

"Your Majesty... He says the murderer must be Her Grace, Concubine Yun. As... As Sakata Aki happened to know her secret, he was killed by her..."

"Secret?"

Huanan Xin was astonished, blankly looking at proud General Yuancang.

"What's the secret? You continue to say!"

General Yuancang with a moustache sneered and mocked, looking at Huanan Xin with his cold eyes. He said so slowly.

Before Wang Can translated, General Yuancang who sat on the chair suddenly convulsed.

He looked pale and purple on his face. With hands violently scratching his throat, he gasped and breathed.

When a flood of black blood was spat out of his mouth, he fell to the ground and didn't move anymore.