Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1811 My Aunt is the Empress 18
Zhou Erniang was inexplicably engaged before Linlang, her eldest sister, and then locked up, which naturally made her unhappy. But since she was already locked up, there was no use in expressing her dissatisfaction.

Speaking of which, wasn't she envious of Linlang having a courtyard all by herself before? Now, she has a courtyard all by herself too.

With the problems of Zhou Erniang and Qingcao resolved, many of the major threats around the original owner of this body were eliminated.

Actually, among the maids around the original owner, there were others who had also been bribed by several princes. This is quite normal, as everyone would want to have spies around the original owner to know her every move.

However, those maids weren't Linlang's personal maids, so even if they were bribed, they wouldn't keep an eye on Linlang all the time, which was better. Therefore, Linlang didn't deal with them for the time being. After all, if she removed these spies, those people would definitely send in new ones, so it was better to keep them and deal with them together when the other party and their mastermind caused trouble.

After all, what's the point of just dealing with the bribed maids if the people behind these maids aren't dealt with? We need to get to the root of the problem.

For example, the Fifth Prince also bribed the maids around Linlang.

To be precise, it wasn't the Fifth Prince who bribed them, but rather his mother, Consort Cai.

However, the Fifth Prince knew this, since Consort Cai was in the palace and it was difficult for her to communicate with people outside, so the person who communicated with her was the Fifth Prince's own people.

Then the Fifth Prince received the news and told Consort Cai.

Speaking of which, the Fifth Prince is quite cautious. Apart from having other women, Linlang hasn't found anything wrong with him yet, which is comparable to the Third Prince.

That's true. Fools like the eldest and second princes are relatively rare. Most people are quite honest before they get the throne. After all, even people like Yang Guang and Hu Hai were very honest before they got the throne. Especially Hu Hai, who would have thought he would be so cruel after he got the throne?

So this fifth prince probably doesn't have anything really wrong with him, and it might be difficult to bring him down by finding out what illegal or criminal things he did.

This is quite normal. Since he wants to compete for the top position, he naturally wouldn't leave any leverage for others in this regard.

Even if he did, it was someone else's scheme against him, not that he intentionally wanted to break the law or commit a crime.

Should she resort to the leg-breaking method, breaking the Fifth Prince's legs and making him a lazy prince? Otherwise, Master Zhou is pressuring her more and more every day, and she has to deal with this matter.

However, this was only a last resort, so Linlang decided to look around and see if there was a better way to resolve the matter.

Finding nothing wrong with the Fifth Prince, Linlang then thought of his mother, Consort Cai.

Even someone like Consort Cai, who is outside the palace, has spies planted outside her. Linlang doesn't believe that Consort Cai doesn't engage in underhanded tactics while inside the palace.

So Linlang began to investigate Consort Cai.

If Consort Cai did anything that harmed the other concubines, as long as they told the other concubines, they could either secretly deal with Consort Cai themselves or report it to the emperor. If Consort Cai was in trouble, the Fifth Prince would also suffer the consequences, because the inner palace and the court were sometimes one and the same.

It must be said that Linlang is perceptive; Consort Cai is indeed not a clean person.

Linlang quickly uncovered a lot of dirt on Consort Cai.

Sure enough, anyone who could successfully give birth to and raise a son in the palace was either skilled at protecting themselves or had harmed others; Consort Cai was no exception. Linlang not only discovered that Consort Cai had harmed the children of other concubines, but had even harmed the Empress, poisoning her.

In fact, Linlang had long felt that it was strange that the original owner's aunt had never had children.

It should be noted that, on the surface, the emperor still respected Empress Zhou. Perhaps this respect was due to the power and influence of the Duke of Zhongguo's family, but at least it was respect. He would always visit the Empress's palace on the first and fifteenth of each month to spend the night, giving her ample face, unlike some emperors who would not even visit the Empress's palace on the first and fifteenth of each month, the days they were supposed to spend the night with.

Under these circumstances, it was very strange that Empress Zhou did not have any children.

Linlang had been speculating whether the emperor didn't want the Zhou family to become too powerful, so he took action against Empress Zhou. After all, when the eldest prince was with Qingcao, he had said to Qingcao that the Zhou family was too powerful and that he would not let the original owner get pregnant so that the Zhou family would not continue to grow stronger. In the previous life, after the third prince ascended the throne, he also killed the original owner and destroyed the Zhou family.

Even the eldest and third princes think this way, so Linlang believes that the emperor might not think otherwise.

No emperor would want his maternal relatives to become too powerful.

It's possible that the emperor did indeed administer a sterilizing drug to Empress Zhou. Moreover, this would be more humane than the Third Prince killing the original owner of the body and wiping out the Zhou family. After all, Empress Zhou's wealth and status were preserved, which would be a fair sacrifice for her.

For this reason, she even kept an eye on the emperor for a period of time.

But nothing seemed amiss.

That makes sense. Now that the Empress is old, even if the Emperor visits on the first and fifteenth of the month, he won't sleep with her. They'll just chat under the covers. She can't have children anymore, so she definitely won't do anything underhanded. Even if the Emperor keeps an eye on her, he won't be able to find out anything.

Now, she's figured out something from Consort Cai.

It turns out that Consort Cai had given Empress Zhou a sterilization drug so that her child could have a chance to rise in rank.

It's likely that she wasn't the only one who did it; other concubines did as well.

After all, Consort Cai's child was the fifth in line, which is not high in the ranking and makes it difficult for her to rise in rank. If she could poison someone who was not high in the ranking, she would definitely poison someone who was higher in the ranking.

It's also because the medical skills in this world are too poor. The imperial physicians failed to notice that Empress Zhou had been given a drug to sterilize her, and only assumed that she was infertile.

Linlang guessed that Empress Zhou also knew that she must have been tricked by someone, but she didn't know who it was. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so indifferent to the princes. She knew that one of the princes' mothers must have harmed her. Given that, it would be strange if she were still enthusiastic towards the princes.

It's impossible that all the princes' mothers had drugged her, so she couldn't show disrespect to all the princes. Besides, she had no children, and if she offended these princes, her life would become difficult if one of them ascended the throne. So, while she wasn't enthusiastic, she wasn't offending them either; she simply maintained the proper etiquette without being overly enthusiastic.

She has always maintained the demeanor of an empress, so it's normal for her to be unenthusiastic; others can't detect her aloofness.

But Linlang could tell, because every time Linlang went to the palace to see her, she was very warm to the girls from her maternal family, which showed that she was not a cold person, but only cold to others.

Now that Linlang has discovered that Consort Cai had drugged Empress Zhou, she thinks it's time to tell the concubines who harmed her children about what this woman did, and let them work together to get rid of this woman, which would be a way to avenge Empress Zhou.