Heavy snow covered the sky, making the journey particularly difficult for those traveling far away.
Although she seemed very calm on the surface, Wu still stood on the high tower and did not move for a long time.
It was not until the team escorting Jin Ying to Nanjing completely disappeared that she followed Zhu Qiyu and the two of them went down from the tower to Jingyang Palace.
By this time, the sky was already slightly dark.
The lights reflected on the thick white snow, appearing flickering.
The attendant this time was still Wu's eldest maid Qingzhu.
Seeing Wu descending from the tower, she quickly stepped forward, handed over the hand-warming stove that had been prepared, and directed people to bring over the soft sedan that had been warmed.
When they arrived at Jingyang Palace, they were greeted by the eunuch Wang Cheng.
He was also one of Zhu Qiyu's newly promoted eunuchs. After Shu Liang took over the Dongchang, he was transferred to Jingyang Palace as the eunuch in charge.
Like Cheng Jing, Wang Cheng is also a person who handles things properly.
Although Zhu Qiyu came over without notifying him in advance, he quickly prepared dinner.
Perhaps because of Jin Ying's incident, Wu obviously didn't have much appetite. After a little while, she put down her chopsticks.
The snow outside the window has not stopped, and even though the servants walking around are very gentle, there is still an unavoidable "crunching" sound.
Twisting a string of Buddhist beads in her hand, Wu took a sip of tea, her expression seemed a little relaxed, and she spoke.
"Now that Jin Ying is gone, it will not be so convenient for the Sun family to make friends with outsiders. It is inevitable that there will be mistakes in the internal and external contacts. You need to be more careful these days."
Zhu Qiyu nodded and said.
"Mother, don't worry, Shu Liang has integrated Dongchang. These days, Dongchang is secretly watching all the people who come in and out of the palace. As long as there is any movement over there, my son will be able to kill them one by one. Find them all out."
The reason why it took so much effort to capture Jin Ying.
Here's why.
The so-called centipede insect is dead but not stiff.
Although the Wu family had already purged the eunuchs in the palace before.
But after all, Queen Mother Sun has been operating in the palace for so many years, and it is not easy to completely eradicate her influence.
Those who were obviously her die-hard loyalists had indeed been beaten to death and expelled from the palace.
However, the relationship in the palace is complicated after all. It is not easy to keep track of how many people are still secretly working for the Sun family.
It's a long time trying to find them one by one, so we can only check them slowly.
This is why Wu is determined to capture Jin Ying.
Jin Ying was the eunuch in charge of the ceremony and had many government affairs to deal with, so it was very convenient for him to travel out of the palace.
With him here, Empress Dowager Sun didn't have to think about the work of liaising with foreign ministers.
Moreover, because he had to interact with many ministers every day, there was no way to determine what they communicated.
But after Jin Ying was captured, at least the eunuchs in the palace who had the power to come and go freely could be guaranteed to be Zhu Qiyu's people.
In this way, if anyone other than them makes friends with foreign ministers without authorization, it will be easy to identify whether they are Queen Mother Sun's people.
Unless the Queen Mother Sun gives up her actions and stays in the palace to take care of herself.
Otherwise, the little foundation she has in her hands will be worn away one by one in a short time.
Seeing that Zhu Qiyu was confident, Wu felt relieved, slowly moved the beads in his hand, and continued.
"Speaking of which, these days, in addition to secretly fiddling with these matters, Sun's security in Cining Palace has also become much tighter."
"It is said that every meal and drink comes from the chef in her palace, and must be inspected before she dares to eat it. It seems that she is afraid that the Ai family will poison her..."
As she spoke, Wu couldn't help but have a trace of ridicule in her eyes and said.
"I never thought that after all these years of favoring the Sixth Palace, she would now be afraid of such low-level tactics."
Wu has been in the palace for so many years, so she has seen all kinds of underhanded tactics.
However, among so many methods, poisoning was the most despicable and the most despised by her.
If nothing else, just because things like poisoning are too easy to prevent.
At large palace banquets, everything you drink and eat is strictly inspected, and it is impossible to be tampered with.
As for daily meals, you only need to let people taste them in advance to isolate themselves from this method.
What's more, the imperial hospital is not just for free. The nobles in the palace have to ask for Ping'an Pulse every three days and record the medical records.
If there is anything wrong with your body, it will be detected immediately.
In the harem, there are many ways to harm someone. In comparison, poisoning cannot guarantee the success rate, and it is easy to leave evidence.
After all, as long as you are willing to investigate food and drink, you can easily catch evidence by following the clues from the person who handled it to the servants who came into contact with it.
Once he succeeds in harming others and is caught, he will definitely cause trouble in the palace.
Not to mention that Wu didn't want to do anything to Sun now, even if he had the intention to target her, he would not use such methods that could easily be manipulated by others.
Wu originally said these words as a joke, but when Zhu Qiyu heard the words, he smiled bitterly and said.
"Mother and Concubine, speaking of which, this matter has something to do with me. If you guessed it correctly, the reason Sun is so nervous is not because she is guarding against Mother and Concubine, but me!"
Many days have passed since this incident, and Zhu Qiyu himself almost forgot about it.
At the beginning, when it was still the battle of Zijin Pass, he suspected that there was some connection between Queen Mother Sun and Ren Li.
Before the war, in order to prevent the Empress Dowager Sun from having bad ideas and to test Jin Ying, he deliberately used Zhu Jianshen to manipulate the Empress Dowager Sun once.
Come to think of it, it was from then on that Queen Mother Sun became more vigilant.
She herself has been in the palace for many years, so she naturally knows that Wu will not use poison on her, which is shameful and easy to be caught.
But when it comes to the prince, she doesn't dare to take any risks. She would rather believe it, but also have to take extra precautions.
After telling Wu what happened that day, Wu suddenly realized and said.
"No wonder, Sun's side has suddenly become tense these days."
After pondering for a moment, Wu seemed to be hesitant, but after hesitating, she still asked.
"Since the prince is mentioned, there is something the Ai family has wanted to ask you for a long time. Now that you have succeeded to the throne, what are your plans for the East Palace?"
Zhu Qiyu was stunned and said without much hesitation.
"Why did the mother and concubine say this? When the son ascended the throne, the East Palace had already established a prince. Everyone in the government and the public knew about this, so why do we need to make any more plans?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Wu looking at him with a half-smile.
This look made him seem to be back to the scene where he had a deep conversation with Wu when he just woke up.
Zhu Qiyu smiled bitterly, hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand to repel the palace attendants around him.
After everyone had left, and there were only two or three confidants serving in Nuan Pavilion, Zhu Qiyu spoke in a deep voice.
"Don't worry, mother and concubine, just like I issued an edict to the ministers before ascending the throne, if the East Palace does not lose its virtue, I will not touch the East Palace lightly!"
After the words fell, Wu's brows furrowed visibly, and she looked at her son with a somewhat hesitant expression...
