"Is it her?"

Zhao Xu looked at the old palace maid who was brought in with an angry expression and asked.

Princess Xu hid behind Zhao Xu, secretly revealing a pair of big black eyes and peeking out.

The little princess was timid and just glanced at the corpse on the ground. She immediately shrank behind Zhao Xu again like a frightened little rabbit.

"That's it...that's her. I still remember her fierce look when she pushed me!"

The little princess whispered in a trembling voice.

"Carry her down and arrest everyone who knows her in the palace for interrogation!"

Zhao Xu ordered through gritted teeth.

Tong Guan immediately agreed, and immediately asked people to carry the body out of the hall, while he himself went to handle the matters assigned by Zhao Xu.

"The palace has just started arresting people, and this old palace maid committed suicide. Someone must have leaked the secret!"

Zhao Bai next to him also said bitterly at this time.

Originally, he thought he could catch the real culprit this time, but he didn't expect that the culprit actually committed suicide, which meant that there must be someone else in her.

"But not many people know about this. Apart from a few of us, only Tong Guan and a few others know. Could it be that they leaked the secret?"

Zhao Xu frowned at the end.

The people who knew about this arrest operation were all the confidants around Zhao Xu. If they were really the officials who betrayed him, then Zhao Xu would probably have to clean up the people around him.

"It may not be that someone leaked the secret!"

Ning Fu suddenly stood up and said.

"Previously, the palace arrested the maids around Empress Dowager Gao, and they were all older maids. In addition, the eldest princess was also summoned to Chui Gong Hall by the officials. In this way, as long as the man behind the scenes is not stupid, he will definitely be able to

Guess what we’re looking for!”

"That makes sense. It seems we were too careless and forgot to keep it secret before!"

Zhao Bai also felt a little regretful after hearing this.

"Officials, even if the other party notices it in advance, they still need to spread the news outside the palace, and then someone outside the palace will send the news to the imperial mausoleum. Maybe the palace can investigate from this clue!"

Ning Fu suggested again.

"This... is too difficult!"

Zhao Xu smiled bitterly when he heard this.

Although the size of the imperial palace of the Song Dynasty was much smaller than that of the previous dynasties, there were still tens of thousands of people living in the imperial city. All the food and clothing for so many people had to be purchased from outside the city.

In addition, the Imperial City was also the political center of the Song Dynasty, and it needed to exchange information with the outside world. Therefore, there were too many people coming in and out of the Imperial City every day.

Even just checking the harem is a very huge project, let alone just a little bit of information, which is impossible to check at all.

"If this line is difficult to check, then we can only check it from Granny Zhou!"

Ning Fu was helpless. The Imperial Palace of the Song Dynasty seemed to be heavily guarded, but in fact it was just a sieve. All kinds of news could come out of the palace. In the past, Ning Fu often heard various rumors about the palace, and they were often not groundless.

"This mother-in-law Zhou's name is Zhou Xiu. She has been in the palace since she was a child. She was once responsible for cleaning the palace of the Queen Mother, and was later sent to clean the imperial mausoleum. She is just an ordinary palace maid."

Ning Fu looked at the information in his hand and said again.

Previously, Zhao Xu sent people to the imperial mausoleum to arrest someone, but the people they sent discovered that Granny Zhou had committed suicide.

This news was sent back to the palace, and Ning Fu immediately asked people to retrieve the information about Granny Zhou, but the other party's information was so innocent that no abnormalities could be seen at all.

"Wait a minute, did she really commit suicide? Was she murdered and silenced?"

Zhao Bai suddenly made a guess.

"Probably not. When the people were sent to find her, she was not dead yet. She had a pot of poisoned wine in her hand, and the doors and windows of the room were closed. There was no one else at all."

Zhao Xu shook his head and said.

"Guan Jia, I think it would be better to call the people who went to arrest the person for questioning!"

Ning Fu suggested.

Zhao Xu thought it made sense, so he gave the order again. After a while, he saw a capable official entering the main hall quickly.

"Liu Mu, the marriage officer of the Imperial City Department, pays homage to the official family!"

Liu Mu is in his thirties and not tall, but his words and deeds are shrewd and capable.

"No need to be polite, are you sure this Zhou Xiu committed suicide?"

Zhao Xu asked again. Although he believed that the people in the Imperial City Department would not get it wrong, he still asked again just to be on the safe side.

"I am reporting to the official family that I am very sure that Zhou Xiu committed suicide. I also asked other people that she returned to her residence after lunch. No one else left her residence until we rushed in to arrest her."

Liu Mu replied with certainty.

"This Zhou Xiu was not dead at that time. Did he leave any words behind?"

Zhao Bao also rushed to ask at this time.

"No, although this old palace maid was not dead at the time, she was already in a coma. Moreover, she took a powerful poison, which is extremely toxic and cannot even be saved!"

Liu Mu answered again.

"Then have you searched her room and what did you find?"

Ning Fu also asked.

Since this Zhou Xiu has been lurking in the palace for so many years and once tried to assassinate Princess Xu, he is probably an important member of the organization behind the scenes, so there may be some clues about where she lives.

"At that time, we called the door outside, but no one answered for a long time, so Xiaguan broke in the door himself, and then discovered that Zhou Xiu was poisoned. At that time, I felt that this person had a big problem, so I prohibited anyone from entering the room again!"

Liu Mu paused for a moment before saying this, and then said excitedly.

"And I soon discovered that there was an oil lamp burning in Zhou Xiu's room, and there were a few burnt ashes on the ground, so I guessed that someone might have sent her a message, which led her to commit suicide one step ahead.

.”

"So you were the only one who entered Zhou Xiu's room. Did you find anything in the search?"

Ning Fu was very satisfied with Liu Mu's approach, so he asked again.

"Xiaoguan did not search at all, because he felt that the matter was of great importance and did not dare to make his own decision, so he had people seal Zhou Xiu's room and only brought her body back."

Liu Mu replied again.

Ning Fu secretly laughed when he heard this. Liu Mu was really shrewd. He didn't dare to search Zhou Xiu's room. He was mainly afraid that he would find something taboo, which would affect his career. After all, even in the Imperial City Division, there are some things

It’s not convenient to intervene either.

"Brother Emperor, I think it is necessary to go to the imperial mausoleum in person!"

Zhao Bai stood up eagerly and suggested to Zhao Xu that although he could not see, he still wanted to search Zhou Xiu's residence in person.

"Guan family, I would like to accompany His Highness to the imperial mausoleum!"
Chapter completed!