There was no expression on Haitang's face, and she was naturally calm, as if she really believed the story told by Zhou Wenjun.
But deep down in her heart, she knew clearly that there had never been any sister to Concubine Xu Xian. Concubine Xu Xian was the second concubine who entered the palace as a concubine. She was already a married woman when she became a palace attendant of Queen Mother Zhou. The reborn Hai Jiao can prove this. Many people know the truth about Queen Mother Xu's second marriage in her previous life. Even a low-level spy like him knows it all. Emperor Deguang did not deny it, and the new emperor who succeeded him did not deny it. Even Empress Dowager Xu herself admitted it. She also deliberately gave preferential treatment to her ex-husband's relatives, pampering them as if they were real royal relatives. Otherwise, how could the second wife of the Jin family have enjoyed so many years of glory?
Since Jin Juren is actually Concubine Xu Xian's ex-husband, not her sister's husband-in-law, what is the version Zhou Wenjun told?
Did the Empress Dowager Zhou make up lies to her family members, or did the Duke of Zhen and the old military advisor think the facts were too shocking, so they made slight embellishments and distorted the truth?
But no matter which one it is, this version of the Jin family story seems to be more easily accepted by the world. There is no king seizing his minister's wife, nor abandoning husband and son. There is only the brotherhood between a poor sister who died young and her sister who suddenly gained honor through the king's favor.
Jin Jiashu's identity is no longer embarrassing, but he looks more innocent and pitiful. What's wrong with him? He lost his mother before he was even one year old, and then his father married his stepmother. It seemed that he also lost his father. He struggled to grow up so big. Although he had a distinguished aunt, his life was in danger because of his aunt. He had lost all his relatives, and even his clan members were no longer reliable. He was left alone to nurse his injuries in a strange place, without any friends. He only has his aunt as a relative, but she is thousands of miles away from him, and he has to rely on others in the palace. How can she help him? Now, all he can count on is probably his aunt's benefactor, the Empress Dowager Zhou, who pointed out the Zhenguo Palace where his father, Jin Juren, came to seek refuge.
When Haitang listened to Zhou Wenjun and Zhou Yijun talking about the discussion between Zhen Guo Gong's wife and several daughters-in-law, they all felt that Jin Jiashu's situation was a bit troublesome now. He was injured and had difficulty moving, so he could not move to Chang'an City to recuperate. But the Jin family The funeral affairs need to be handled by others.
Someone suggested that someone from the second room of the Jin family be brought in. Since the Zhou family was watching, there was no need to worry about them being harmful to Jin Jiashu.
But some people think that the second brother-in-law of the Jin family betrayed the Jin Juren family and had bad behavior and should be arrested and punished. How can they be allowed to attend to the funeral of the victim?
Some people think that since Queen Mother Zhou wrote a handwritten letter back to her parents' home, asking Zhen Guo Gong and his wife to take care of the Jin family, then Zhen Guo Gong's government should come forward to help Jin Jiashu handle the affairs that he can't handle for the time being. As for what arrangements he will make after he recovers from his injury, he can just write a letter to the capital to ask the Queen Mother and Concubine Xu Xian about their intentions.
But at the same time, a small group of people feel that Jinjiashu is a hot potato and needs to be treated with caution. If he was in danger again in Chang'an, or if he was injured and left disabled, would Concubine Xu Xian resent the Zhou family? Although she was born as a member of the Cining Palace, she was not a daughter of the Zhou family after all. However, she was now a virtuous concubine and gave birth to the emperor's only surviving son according to etiquette. She would definitely become the next generation of the Holy Mother Queen Mother in the future. The Zhou family couldn't really offend anyone, so they had to be very careful when arranging for her to marry her nephew.
Because of the ancestral precepts they had strictly followed, the Zhou family had offended Emperor Deguang and suffered for many years, which also affected the northwest frontier army. They can't afford to offend another new monarch—Xinjun's mother to be precise—and let the northwest suffer decades of injustice!
The discussion between Zhen Guo Gong's wife, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and others has been fruitless, while Zhen Guo Gong and his sons are still busy interrogating Zhang Pinggui, the assassin of the Sun family. Zhou Wenjun could only overhear some information, or get some gossip from her cousins, but there were still many secret things that they refused to reveal to her. She could only turn to Haitang for help, hoping that Haitang could find out more inside information from Xie Wenzai, the confidant of Duke Zhen Guo.
Haitang promised Zhou Wenjun that she would find a way to get more details from her cousin Xie Wenzai and then tell him later. But right now, she still had to tell Zhou Wenjun the information she already had in exchange for the information currently available within the Zhenguo Palace.
"Although I don't know how the killer knew in advance which way the Jin family would take, they have been waiting on the road leading to Lao Lao Zhuangzi to ambush the Jin family..." Haitang told how her family rescued Jin Jiashu. He also mentioned that his brother Hai Jiao "discovered" a secret message in Jin Jiashu's robe. She deliberately lowered her presence in the entire story and put all the credit on her brother as much as possible. Then she skipped the content of the secret letter and directly talked about how the killers were arrested for the second assassination.
Zhou Wenjun and Zhou Yijun only felt that the story was climaxing and exciting. From time to time they let out small exclamations. When they learned that Haijiao had chased Zhang Pinggui for several miles, fought with him several times, and almost caught him, they were even more stunned. Take a breath. When they learned that Zhang Pinggui had been rescued, and that the person who rescued him used some kind of special arrow, they all showed meaningful expressions.
Obviously, the two Zhou family daughters had heard about the origin of the arrow and knew that Du Boqin played a disgraceful role in the whole thing. The image of a good son-in-law he had created in the hearts of the Zhou family had completely collapsed.
Haitang also told her what Hai Jiao told the two Miss Zhou about the fact that the veterans of the Zhou family and government officials searched the summer resort town but failed to find Zhang Pinggui and his accomplices.
Zhou Wenjun immediately thought: "I returned to Chang'an around that time, so I also heard about... a Du family's carriage, which almost hit someone on the front street. It was obviously the other party's fault, but the Du family's carriage driver She had no intention of pursuing the case at all. Instead, she took the initiative to apologize to people and paid the money, and then left in a hurry." She turned to look at Zhou Yijun, "The carriage is going in the direction of your third room. Some people are talking about it privately. , when did Commander Du have such a good relationship with the third room? Why did he send people to the third room? I thought they were wrong. Commander Du is the son-in-law of the seventh room, and the carriage should be going to the seventh room. But. Now that I think about it, they were not wrong at all..."
Zhou Yijun swallowed: "It must have been around the same time. Zhang Pinggui came to our house at that time... but he claimed to be the son of his second uncle's old tribe, and everything related to him was handled by the old lady. My grandmother did not dare to ask more questions. …”
Haitang also told Zhang Pinggui's complicated relationship with Zhou Shuyi and the Sun family, as well as the past events of Zhang Pinggui's parents, and then mentioned the speculations of her brothers and sisters: "They may want to make arrangements in advance and let their great-uncle take care of things for the Yingchuan Hou Shizi. Relationship, decide where to go for future training, and then send Zhang Pinggui there in advance, so that when Prince Yingchuan meets him in the future, he will not be suspicious of his identity. It will be more convenient for him to make a move. Yingchuan The Hou Mansion later investigated and found only the third bedroom..."
Haitang basically told everything that could be said about the situation he knew, and naturally did not mention what could not be said. Although she had no evidence for some of her speculations, they seemed very credible with various facts to back them up.
Zhou Yijun recalled what she learned in the third room and nodded frequently, indicating that Sister Hai was telling the truth.
Zhou Wenjun let out a long sigh of satisfaction: "I see... No wonder my grandparents were not willing to let me know. My aunt did such a thing, which is really chilling..." She paused, " My great-uncle knew that something was wrong, but still allowed my great-aunt to betray her family. I wonder what my grandfather and grandmother will do with her this time?"
(End of chapter)
