Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1636 Substitute Bride 40
Ding also asked the Grand Secretary if he could find out who had sent the letter to him.

The more she was kidnapped and held hostage, the more Ding hated the person who delivered the letter. After all, if it weren't for this person, she, a person with special abilities and a reborn destiny, would never have ended up in this state. Therefore, she was determined to find that person and tear him to pieces; otherwise, she would not be able to quell the hatred in her heart.

When asked by Madam Ding, the Grand Secretary naturally shook his head.

Didn't he want to find out who sent him the letter? He wanted to know who the sender was, but he couldn't find out.

The main problem was that the letter was delivered so mysteriously that it was impossible to find a trace of it.

He investigated the third prince's maternal grandfather and other people who received the letter, but found no clues about who received it.

Speaking of which, the unidentifiable person behind the scenes always made him feel that no matter what he did, there was always a pair of eyes watching him, making him feel that everything he did was like that of a clown.

This gave him a bit of a creep, so like the others who received the letter, he kept trying to find the person in the shadows and get rid of the unsettling feeling in his heart.

When Ding heard from the Grand Secretary that they hadn't been able to find out who sent the letter, she was quite upset.

Even if she escapes from the Prime Minister's office in the future, she will still feel uneasy if the real murderer is not found.

Ding immediately asked the Grand Secretary to think of a way to find the messenger.

It's no wonder that Ding pinned her hopes on the Grand Secretary. The Grand Secretary is such a high-ranking official—the fact that he asked her to help brainwash the chief eunuch around the new emperor naturally revealed his identity. Otherwise, how could she brainwash him without mentioning his name? If even he couldn't find out the mastermind, she would be even less likely to find out the culprit after she left the Grand Secretary and tried to investigate on her own, given her power and abilities.

Although she has special abilities, accumulating energy is too slow, making investigations very difficult.

Therefore, she naturally had to rely on her opportunity with the Prime Minister to try every means to get him to help her find out who the mastermind was.

The Grand Secretary also wanted to know who the messenger was, so he had no objection when he heard about Ding's request.

While he was investigating, the new emperor in the palace suddenly passed away.

The new emperor is the second prince, and his health is much better than that of the first prince. The first prince is still alive, so how could the new emperor have died?
At first, he thought that someone was trying to harm the new emperor, such as the empress's family. If they wanted their child to ascend the throne as soon as possible, it was possible that they would kill the emperor. But in the end, he realized that it was not the case.

It turns out that after the new emperor ascended the throne, he no longer needed to cultivate favor with the late emperor, so he let himself go and spent his days indulging in the harem.

But doing this too often is too much for the body. So, in order to regain his virility and boost his energy, the new emperor inevitably ate all sorts of strange things, many of which were gifts from his sycophants. These things, unlike modern medicines, have not undergone clinical trials and reviews. Who knows if they have side effects or can be taken long-term?

To put it nicely, the new emperor was a guinea pig for drug testing. He only died after two years of taking the drugs, which means he was in pretty good health.

The new emperor died suddenly after taking a potent aphrodisiac. His death was so sudden and without explanation that the capital was thrown into chaos. Of course, only the upper echelons were in turmoil; ordinary people didn't need to worry, since no one was leading troops into the capital. If someone had led troops, the common people would have been worried about being robbed by the soldiers.

However, this is not entirely impossible. Once the capital is in great chaos, some forces might mobilize troops from the surrounding areas to enter the capital, which would be troublesome. After all, soldiers are like castrated casts. They might not dare to lay a hand on the wealthy and powerful, but they might dare to lay a hand on ordinary people. In that case, people would suffer losses of property and even women.

So while ordinary people aren't worried for the time being, some slightly smarter people are starting to worry, fearing that someone might lead troops into the capital, which would be detrimental to them. As a result, some families have already begun arranging for their members to evacuate to the suburbs.

In general, people from the capital city either own their own estates or have relatives in the suburbs, so they can hide from the outside world if they want to.

If troops were to enter the capital, they would only plunder within the city, not in the villages on the outskirts. This is because there is definitely more money in the city, making it easier to rob, while the outskirts are full of poor people, so how much could they possibly steal?

However, now the new emperor has an empress, and the empress has a legitimate son, so it's a bit better, since the legitimate son of the empress can rightfully become emperor.

There was also a prince born to a concubine, but he did not have such a legitimate claim to the throne.

The current chaos is simply because the Grand Secretary wants to install the prince born to this concubine on the throne and is making underhanded moves—that is, trying to eliminate the Empress's legitimate son. The Empress and her family certainly won't let the Grand Secretary succeed, and they also need to persuade the court to support their son's ascension to the throne, hence the great commotion in the court.

Because there is a legitimate son of the Empress, his succession to the throne is legitimate. Before he is killed by the Grand Secretary, no faction will bring troops into the capital. Firstly, it is unnecessary, and secondly, they are afraid that bringing troops into the capital would be difficult to control, and it would be bad if a large-scale looting occurred in the capital.

Therefore, there is no chaos in the capital for the time being.

The new emperor's eldest son was, after all, the legitimate son of the empress, so after a period of infighting among various factions, the legitimate son of the empress still successfully ascended the throne.

But this did not mean that things would be peaceful, because the Grand Secretary had always wanted to kill the young emperor and then install the younger, less influential prince on the throne so that he could control the power.

He had no choice but to do this because if the Empress's son ascended the throne, she and her family would definitely appoint her family or the forces that followed them as prime ministers, leaving him with no chance.

Given their extremely intertwined interests, it would be virtually impossible for him to brainwash the Empress and her family into not taking his position as Grand Secretary.

Moreover, it's impossible to brainwash either the Empress or her family; it would definitely require brainwashing both sides, and Ding's influence might not be enough at that point.

As for killing these two groups, that would be even more difficult.

Therefore, the only feasible solution is for him to send someone to kill the young emperor and install a prince from a concubine in the new throne. This would be the best solution for him.

Even after the young emperor had ascended the throne, the chief minister did not give up on the idea.

There was no other way. When the late emperor was on the throne, although he also wanted to replace him, it wasn't a very strong desire, and brainwashing could still be successful. Now, it was the Empress and her family who had a strong desire to replace him. Even if they brainwashed or killed him, it wouldn't be as simple as just brainwashing or killing the new emperor before. They would also have to brainwash or kill the Empress and her family, which was too troublesome. So the best way was to kill the young emperor and end it all, so that they could no longer cause any trouble. He wouldn't need to brainwash or control so many people, which would be much more convenient.