good season

Chapter 18 The Timid Cat
At this moment, Zhao Tingxuan came in, knelt down beside them, and said, "After you burn the paper, go and rest. I'm here."

Zhao Yunnuan asked, "Where did you go just now?"

Zhao Tingxuan: "Master Qian is here. I just went out to see him off."

Master Qian was Zhao Tingxuan's mentor. He retired and left the palace two years ago. Now that he has come to pay his respects, Zhao Tingxuan naturally has to see him off personally.

Zhao Yunnuan gave a few more instructions, then took Zhao Shiqing out of the mourning hall and went directly to the place where the servants were held.

Prince Liang received Princess Jiayi and Prince Consort Xiao using the white jade cup bestowed by the emperor.

There are six white jade cups in total, packed in an exquisite box. They are usually kept in the warehouse and taken out only when needed.

Therefore, as soon as the banquet was over, the set of white jade cups was immediately cleaned, put back into the box, and locked in the warehouse.

King Liang's attack occurred an hour after the banquet was over. Even if he had checked the white jade cup immediately, he would have found nothing. By that time, the white jade cup had already been put back into the warehouse.

It was Eunuch Zhang who took the White Jade Cup out of the warehouse, and it was also Eunuch Zhang who sent the White Jade Cup back.

Eunuch Zhang was in the dungeon at this time.

Another person who had access to the white jade cup was Eunuch Cai, who was in charge of pouring wine at the time. Eunuch Cai was also imprisoned in the dungeon.

After the banquet, King Liang returned to Shun'an Palace where he lived and drank a bowl of sobering soup. Apart from that, he did not eat anything else.

In fact, Prince Liang only drank one glass of wine at the banquet, but serving sobering soup after drinking was a common practice in the palace. No matter whether it was Prince Liang or Zhao Tingxuan, as long as they drank, the kitchen would serve sobering soup.

King Liang drank up all the sobering soup, leaving no residue in the kitchen, and the dishes had already been washed.

Now Aunt Li, who was cooking the sobering soup, the maid Qinghe, who delivered the sobering soup, and the maids Libai and Taofen, who served King Liang the sobering soup, were also in the dungeon.

On the day when King Liang died suddenly, Zhao Yunnuan ordered the six of them to be imprisoned in the dungeon.

It’s just that Zhao Yunnuan was too busy and wanted to leave them alone, so these six people have not been interrogated since they were locked up.

Although he was not tried, he suffered a lot and was beaten.

Zhao Yunnuan was worried that they would be silenced. Not even a fly could fly into the dungeon. The people in charge of guarding them were Zhao Yunnuan's confidants. Without Zhao Yunnuan's order, no one, not even Nie and Zhao Tingxuan, could come in.

When Zhao Shiqing saw these six people, she complained silently in her heart. These people were neither human nor ghost. She actually met seven of them in just one day!

There are six here and one in the villa.

Especially the two maids Taofen and Libai, they were both responsible for serving King Liang and were almost the same as concubines. Both of them were as beautiful as flowers and graceful.

But now he was unkempt and smelled terrible, which was obviously caused by not changing his clothes in time after becoming incontinent.

Zhao Shiqing's nose was extremely sensitive, so she could only force herself to ask a few questions one by one, and then she walked out of the dungeon with Zhao Yunnuan.

But just as he was about to leave, Zhao Shiqing suddenly shouted, "My cat, my cat ran away!"

The people in the dungeon wanted to go look for it, but Zhao Shiqing waved his hand generously: "Forget it, let it play here for a few days. I'll ask Lingbo to bring some food over. Remember not to catch it. It's timid and will get scared. Last time it got scared, it got seriously ill. So don't scare it. It will leave on its own when it's had enough fun here." The guards in the dungeon.
After walking out of the dungeon, Zhao Shiqing said to Zhao Yunnuan, "Sister, send someone to check their families. If the two eunuchs have no families, check their relatives and friends."

No one cared about Zhao Shiqing's cat. Everyone in the palace knew that the second young lady had been weird since she was a child.

Once, a maid saw Zhao Shiqing wearing a bracelet with a very special pattern on her wrist, and she praised it a lot. Seeing that Zhao Shiqing liked her bracelet so much, Zhao Shiqing took it off and let the maid take a closer look. Unexpectedly, the maid who was talking so much was so frightened when she saw the bracelet that she screamed loudly.

It turned out that it was not a bracelet at all, but a small snake!
So now Zhao Shiqing carries a cat with her, and no one in the palace feels strange about it. Compared to the snake, the cat is simply too cute.

However, the confidants who were sent to guard the prisoners were very worried at this time. If the second young lady's cat died in the dungeon, they would be guilty of a serious crime.

Unfortunately, the cat could neither be caught nor driven away. If it ran away and could not be found, the second young lady would still vent her anger on them.

Fortunately, Lingbo brought cat food, so they put the cat food and water in a corner of the dungeon, waiting for the cat master to come over for a meal when he was tired of playing.

But until evening, they still didn't see the cat, and they didn't know where the master was hiding.

Tonight, Zhao Yunnuan ordered not to make things difficult for these six people, and to give them space and time to think it over carefully.

So the guards locked the door and went out.

The place where these six people were imprisoned had nothing that could help them commit suicide unless they bit off their tongues.

A night passed like this. The next morning, when the guards opened the door leading to the dungeon, they saw that the six people were still alive. Although their appearance was horrible, they were definitely not dead.

What made the guards even more gratified was that the elusive cat was now lying in front of the food bowl, licking its paws lazily.

One of the guards remembered what Zhao Shiqing had said, and said to his companion, "I don't know if this guy wants to go out. How about we open the door and see if he leaves?"

The companions readily agreed that if the man stayed here for one more day, they would have to take on one more day of responsibility. The second lady also said that if it wanted to leave, let it go.

The guards opened the dungeon door, and the cat quickly scurried up and disappeared from their sight in an instant.

The guards all breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that the cat was not afraid. The Second Miss said that if the cat was afraid and got sick, it would be all their responsibility.

On the same night, the people sent out by Zhao Yunnuan also found out a lot of things.

Although Eunuch Zhang is an orphan, he has a benefactor who once fed him. However, recently his benefactor's grandson suddenly went missing, and no one knows whether he was abducted by a kidnapper.

Eunuch Cai has two younger brothers. Eunuch Cai has helped them a lot over the years. But recently, the two brothers had a fight over the land occupied by building a house, and one of them had his head broken by the other.

As for Aunt Li in the kitchen, her son is addicted to gambling and has not been home for a month.

The maid Qing He secretly got engaged to a servant in the mansion, and her mother was so angry that she wanted to beat her to death.

Taofen and Libai both have large families to support. That's right, although these two are just maids, they only serve King Liang. Their lives are not worse than those of ordinary young ladies from wealthy families. Their parents and brothers all depend on them for support.

(End of this chapter)