Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1443 A Maid's Fate 16
There was a disturbance in front of the Prince's mansion. As the gatekeeper, he couldn't afford to fail in handling it properly, or he would be in trouble. So, he naturally had to quickly explain the situation to the Prince, letting him know that it wasn't that he didn't want to deal with it, but that the government offices in the capital weren't listening to him, and that the Prince should take care of the government offices in the capital.

Prince An is currently speaking with the emperor in the palace.

Having said his piece, he came out, preparing to go home. Then he heard the chief eunuch of the Prince's mansion, who was waiting outside, tell him that he had just received news that someone was causing trouble in front of the Prince's mansion. The gatekeeper had called people from the capital's government to handle it, but the people from the capital's government did not handle it and said they had to go back and ask their superiors for instructions, which was very strange.

Prince An frowned upon hearing what the chief eunuch said.

He may have a mild temperament, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care if someone bullies him. It's just a matter of having the yamen runners patrolling nearby drive the person away. Why are they making excuses and showing him no respect?

Just as they were about to speak, they heard voices coming from the other side of the palace they were passing through: "...What's going on? Consort Fang's life is so bad. She's so favored and even pregnant with the emperor's child, how come she's fallen ill?"

"This illness is so strange. I have headaches and chest pains all the time. What's wrong with me?"

Upon hearing this, Prince An stopped in his tracks.

Headache and chest pain—isn't this the reaction of Consort Wang and Consort Zhou when they were poisoned by Lady Chu a while ago?
Could it be that Consort Fang was poisoned because she was favored by the emperor and pregnant with his child, and was therefore feared by others?
However, due to family matters, Prince An did not immediately return to tell his elder brother about the situation. He planned to wait until tomorrow to enter the palace to tell his brother what he knew, and also bring the doctor who could cure the poisoning into the palace so that he could examine Consort Fang.

What was the story behind the conversation that Prince An overheard? It was naturally arranged by Linlang.

It wasn't a real discussion; it was just that a robot wearing an invisibility talisman sneaked into the palace, disguised itself as two people talking in the next hall, and was overheard by Prince An who happened to be passing by.

Instead of dealing with the Zhou family, it would be better to strike at their root and take down the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion, the very power behind their aggression in the capital. Then, she wouldn't even need to contend with the Zhou family; once they saw their backer had fallen, they would be terrified and run away.

The last time Consort Wang caused trouble, Prince An did not realize that it was the Zhenguo Duke's mansion that was behind it. Although Linlang did not react at the time, she was already planning to deal with the Zhenguo Duke's mansion.

In fact, even if the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion didn't cause trouble for Linlang, she would at least have killed the Duke of Zhenguo's heir's wife because of the fact that she had killed the original owner of the body.

Later, the heir of the Duke of Zhenguo also got involved. Together with his wife, they arranged for Consort Wang to cause trouble for Linlang. Linlang then decided to kill the entire Duke of Zhenguo's family. After all, the Duke of Zhenguo's family had given poison to Consort Wang in the palace, which had also killed many concubines and princes. They deserved to die anyway.

Compared to trying to deal with the wife of the Duke of Zhenguo's heir separately, it is obviously easier to take drastic measures and bring down the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. After all, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion has committed serious crimes, making it easier to deal with.

Originally, Linlang planned to slowly deal with the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, letting it experience despair little by little through repeated setbacks.

But seeing that the Duke of Zhenguo's son and his wife were causing trouble and now they had brought in the original owner's family to cause more trouble, Linlang could no longer tolerate it and decided to deal with the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion first.

Consort Wang did indeed arrange for someone to poison Consort Fang. In fact, the emperor originally had more than this many princes; many were killed by the concubines harming each other, some by others, and some by Consort Wang.

This time, Consort Fang was poisoned, and it was Consort Wang's doing. Of course, the symptoms wouldn't normally appear so quickly; they were fake symptoms arranged by Linlang, just to help resolve the matter of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.

If it weren't for the matter of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, Linlang would never have cared about who in the palace poisoned whom. After all, it wasn't her business, so she didn't need to interfere. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to handle all the illegal and criminal activities in the world.

When Prince An returned, the Zhou family members were still at the entrance of Prince An's residence.

Prince An frowned upon seeing this.

He immediately sent someone with a letter to the government office in the capital, asking them how they were handling things and how they could allow the Zhou family to cause trouble at the gate of the Prince's Mansion.

The prefect of the capital had already received the message from the yamen runners and was immediately in a bind. After all, he couldn't afford to offend either the Prince An's Mansion or the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion.

If he offended the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, Consort Wang could whisper sweet nothings in the emperor's ear and he would suffer the consequences; but if he offended Prince An, who was the emperor's closest brother, if Prince An got angry and said something to the emperor, he would lose his official position. He was truly caught in a dilemma.

Seeing that Prince An had personally sent a letter to question him, he feared that if he didn't deal with it, Prince An might say something to the emperor, and he would lose his official position. So he made excuses and handed the matter over to the Five Cities Military Command.

He then told the Prince An's residence that the troublemakers should be arrested by the Five Cities Garrison, and that the Five Cities Garrison had already been notified to handle the matter.

The commander of the Five Cities Garrison was of a lower rank than the prefect, only a sixth-rank official, and dared not handle this thorny matter. For the time being, he could only try to persuade the Zhou family to leave the gate of the Prince An's Mansion and settled them in an inn. Once settled, they assured him that they would find a way to help them with the rest of the matter.

It was only because the people from the Five Cities Garrison gave their assurances that the Zhou family, at the behest of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, agreed to temporarily withdraw. However, as long as the people from the Five Cities Garrison didn't give them an explanation, they would definitely continue to cause trouble with the support of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.

But the officers of the Five Cities Garrison are only of a high rank; how could they possibly handle the affairs of the Prince An's residence?

Fortunately, the Five Cities Garrison Command was under the Ministry of War. The commander of the Five Cities Garrison Command went to his superior, the Vice Minister of War, to ask for advice.

The Vice Minister of War was only a fifth-rank official, and he didn't have the ability to handle this matter, so he could only report it to the Vice Minister of War.

Just as the people from the Five Cities Garrison were reporting their findings up the chain of command, Prince An came over to ask Linlang for her thoughts.

"So the Zhou family members aren't really your family?"

To be honest, Prince An didn't think the Zhou family would be so stupid as to impersonate Linlang when they weren't her relatives. After all, if they were caught impersonating someone, the whole family would lose their heads. Unless someone was stupid, who would dare to do something that would cost them their lives?

Since they shouldn't be imposters, why doesn't Consort Zhou acknowledge them? You know, most women would love to have family members to rely on.