At the same time, in the inner garden of the palace, in the Queen Mother's chamber, a delicate figure jumped in. The guards and maids who saw her along the way respectfully called her "Your Highness the Princess." It was Xuan Xi.
When the Queen Mother saw her in the palace, her slightly wrinkled brows suddenly relaxed, and joy from the bottom of her heart filled her eyes.
But this trace of happiness only lasted for a moment, and was soon replaced by a deliberately gloomy look.
The Queen Mother's face also wrinkled a little.
"The sons and ministers join the mother and queen!"
Xuan Xi came to the main hall with a smile and bowed her head to the Queen Mother who was above the main hall. However, when she saw that the Queen Mother's expression did not improve at all, her heart suddenly "thumped".
The Queen Mother looked at her gently, her expression slightly gloomy, but there was a hidden smile in her eyes, and she said, "Are you willing to come back?"
Hearing this, Xuan Xi's heart suddenly sank.
"It's been more than two months since I left. Do you think you still have the appearance of being our Princess Daxuan?" The Queen Mother kept a slightly straight face, but with an extremely happy smile in her eyes, she continued, "Obviously you are still a virgin. You are a beautiful young girl in the middle of nowhere, but you are running outside all day long. How do you think you behave like this?"
"Queen mother..."
After hearing this, Xuan Xi rolled his eyes twice, and quickly put on a pitiful look, ready to act coquettishly. But he only had time to utter two words before he was rudely interrupted by the Queen Mother.
"Don't call me Queen! I don't have a disobedient daughter like you!"
Hearing this, Xuan Xi was immediately shocked. In her memory, the queen mother had never said such serious words before. It seemed that this time, the queen mother was really angry.
She quickly walked up to the main hall with a smile, took the Queen Mother's hand, and said coquettishly: "Mother, I won't dare to do it next time. Really, please forgive me this time..."
"no!"
The Queen Mother tried her best to break free from the hand held by Xuan Xi, and shook her head heavily, "Who doesn't know that this girl of yours talks nonsense? Last time, she said she would never dare to do it again, and then she ran away whenever she wanted. What you said, Queen Mother, If you dare to believe it again, I will definitely punish you this time and give you an unforgettable lesson!"
"Queen mother..."
Xuan Xi grabbed her hand again, shook it hard with a delicate tone, and said, "Please forgive Erchen this time, okay, just this time, I promise that I will never do it again in the future... Really, this is This is the last time, I promise!”
After hearing this, the Queen Mother's expression finally softened slightly, "Really?"
"Of course it's true!" Xuan Xi nodded decisively.
"Okay, then the Ai family will trust you again. If you dare to do it again next time, don't blame the Ai family for being ruthless." The Queen Mother nodded slightly and spoke.
"Hmm... I swear, I will never do it again in the future!"
Xuan Xi quickly raised his right hand and swore to the sky, but in his heart he breathed a sigh of relief, finally escaping.
However, the Queen Mother seemed to have read through her thoughts. A meaningful smile appeared in her eyes. Then she waved her hand, and several maids on the side immediately brought several scrolls.
"Mother, what are these?"
Xuan Xi picked one up out of curiosity and opened it. It turned out to be a portrait of a man with exquisite painting skills. The man in the portrait had delicate features and was quite eye-catching. Moreover, there is an unfamiliar name written in the lower right corner of the portrait, which must be the name of the man in the portrait.
The Queen Mother also took out one of these scrolls and opened it, "These...are all painted by the painters invited by the Ai family. We have outstanding young masters from the families of the princes and ministers of our court. Come, come and see if any of them are." What do you like?"
"Favorite?"
Xuan Xi was stunned for a moment, and then looked at the portrait of the man in his hand. He seemed to understand the queen's plan, and said in surprise: "Mother, you are planning to..."
The Queen Mother looked at her and smiled, "That's right... you are already quite old. It's time to find a consort to discipline and discipline you..."
"Consort?"
Hearing these two words, Xuan Xi was immediately shocked!
"But...I am only a little over eighteen this year. Is it too early to recruit a consort now?" She said hurriedly.
"Morning?" The Queen Mother shook her head, "Eighteen is already too late. Look at the women among the people. There are many women who get married at the age of fifteen or sixteen. Those who are as old as you and can't get married are already It’s a rare thing.”
"But...but..."
Xuan Xi wanted to say something more, but his mind was in chaos. He didn't know what to say. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind and he said, "But hasn't the emperor chosen a concubine yet? He is older than me." , why don’t you urge him to choose a concubine first, instead of rushing to choose a consort for me first?”
Hearing this, the Queen Mother sighed slightly.
"Do you think your mother doesn't want to urge your emperor brother to choose a concubine as soon as possible? However, our emperor Gaozu has long had an ancestral precept. Emperors of all dynasties are not allowed to choose concubines before they are twenty-five years old. They should work hard to govern and make the country stable and prosperous. So. No matter how anxious the mother is, there is nothing she can do."
The Queen Mother shook her head and looked at Xuan Xi again, "So, the Queen Mother can only find you a consort first, and wait until your brother is twenty-five years old before we talk about the matter of marrying a concubine. Come on, come on, come here quickly. See if there is anyone you like here, if not, there is someone else here."
When Xuan Xi heard this, she was speechless. Seeing the Queen Mother urging her to find a suitable person in these paintings, she felt both angry and anxious.
Finally, she blurted out angrily: "Don't look, there is no one in this that is my favorite, and not only there is not one in this, even those in your hands, Queen Mother, there is absolutely no one that is my favorite! Absolutely not!"
"You kid, you haven't looked at it yet, how do you know that none of them are to your liking?"
At this point, the Queen Mother suddenly stopped. After looking at her daughter carefully for a few times, she seemed to understand something in her heart.
After slowly rolling up the portrait in her hand, the Queen Mother asked in a tentative tone: "Could it be that...you already have someone you like?"
Upon hearing this suddenly, Xuan Xi's face turned red for no reason, and she fell into rare silence.
Seeing such an abnormal situation, the Queen Mother didn't realize that she had guessed correctly. She didn't expect that her daughter would actually have a crush on her during this trip.
In the Queen Mother's heart, what suddenly surged up was not joy, but complexity.
"Who is he? What is his family background?" The Queen Mother asked these two questions in succession, which made Xuan Xi's already slightly red face turn even redder.
"Tell me quickly...Which family is he the son of?" the Queen Mother asked.
Xuan Xi was a little overwhelmed by her mother's questioning, so she could only whisper weakly: "Oh... that's it... that's it..."
"Who is it?" The Queen Mother was a little anxious.
"That's my senior brother..." Xuan Xi's voice became smaller and smaller, and in the end it was as quiet as a mosquito, and the Queen Mother almost didn't hear it.
However, after she heard Chen Yutian's identity, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"It turns out it's him..."
…
…
Chen Yutian slowly put down the file in his hand.
Unexpectedly, during his absence, such a bizarre case would occur in the capital. The head of the deceased was cut off for no apparent reason. This is simply a wonder in the world!
"Have you finished reading?" Xuan Ye asked from the side.
Chen Yutian nodded, his eyes extremely solemn. The circumstances of this case are serious. If the murderer cannot be detected and caught as soon as possible, we don’t know how many people will be killed!
"I think you should have noticed the seriousness of this case. So I won't go into details. But now, I have one more thing to tell you, that is, in one month, there will be envoys from the Western Regions barbarians. I, Daxuan, hope that this case can be solved before then."
Xuan Ye looked solemn and glanced at Chen Yutian.
Chen Yutian nodded slightly. Although the time was a little tight for others, according to his ability, the time was considered sufficient.
"In addition, before that, you and the Jiulong Mansion's patrol will be temporarily suspended. Let's wait until the barbarian envoys leave!"
Chen Yutian nodded slightly, "I obey."
At this moment, a black shadow suddenly flew into the Taiji Hall. Chen Yutian turned his eyes and took a closer look, and found that the person who came in was the first guard around Xuan Ye, Puyang Ling.
Puyang Ling hurriedly came to Xuan Ye and knelt down, telling him some bad news.
"Your Majesty, the third deceased has appeared!"
