An Xin entered the hall with her head bowed and eyes lowered. Although her eyelashes were lowered, she felt countless gazes, each with a deep meaning, falling on her. The smile on her lips came out naturally.
"Your subject An Youwei greets Your Majesty and Your Majesty the Empress Dowager. Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empress Dowager!" After saying this, An Youwei knelt down and kowtowed. An Xin was momentarily stunned, and then An Youwei pulled her back. An Xin suddenly came to her senses and said, "This commoner greets Your Majesty and Your Majesty the Empress Dowager." After hesitating for a moment, she still knelt down.
For the sake of my parents, there is nothing I cannot endure, not even this grand ceremony of kneeling in worship.
"An Xin, do you know your crime?" A dignified and serious voice suddenly came, and everyone present changed their expressions slightly.
An Xin's eyes flickered, and she said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Your Majesty, I do not know what crime I have committed."
The Empress Dowager said, "Disobeying an imperial edict is a capital offense. What, are you breaking the law knowingly, or are you deliberately breaking the law?"
An Xin said calmly, "I did not disobey the imperial decree. The Emperor ordered me to investigate the case of Fengxian Village. I not only investigated it, but also solved it brilliantly. I deserve to be rewarded for my merits."
The moment those words were spoken, the entire audience was stunned!
---Aside---
I'm not feeling well, so it's a bit late. (Group chat)
Chapter Sixty-Three: Let's talk about the Right Chancellor.
--
Hearing that the Empress Dowager was accusing her from the start, An Xin no longer bothered to feign a smile and simply said indifferently, "Since Your Majesty has brought this up, then I will dare to say something: the lake on Duanfeng Mountain is a potentially deadly hidden danger at any time. Once the lake waters turn sour, none of you here will be any better off than the villagers of Fengxian Village!"
"Insolence! How dare you compare us all to those lowly commoners from Fengxian Village!" A sharp rebuke suddenly rang out. An Xin glanced at the person who spoke and saw it was Ling Tian.
An Xin sneered and said, "Isn't Lord Ling a human being?"
Ling Tian's face suddenly darkened as he stared coldly at An Xin: "An Xin, being sharp-tongued never ends well!"
"Mind your own business and it usually doesn't end well." An Xin was taken aback; before she could even say those words, someone else had already said them.
It was Yan Zhen.
His eyes sparkled, yet he glanced at Ling Tian with a cold indifference, casually shielding An Xin behind him.
Ling Tian's expression changed slightly, then he smiled coldly: "The Right Vice Minister is quite protective of my daughter-in-law!"
An Xin was disgusted. She glanced at Ling Tian and sneered, "I have certainly experienced firsthand how shameless Lord Ling can be!"
Ling Tian's face darkened: "What did you say about me?!"
"Enough!" the Empress Dowager shouted in a deep voice, and everyone's expression changed. However, the scene unfolding before them was dramatic and full of endless gossip to be discovered, so everyone held their breath and watched with excitement.
"An Xin, you said there is a major hidden danger on Duanfeng Mountain, but you have never explained what the cause of this hidden danger is! I heard that the murderer is the lake, just an inanimate object, how could it be the murderer?" The Empress Dowager frowned and glanced at Ling Tian, then turned her gaze to An Xin.
Huang Yixuan said, "I am also curious. Anxin, moving seawater is a major event. You need to explain it clearly before you can convince the officials!"
An Xin frowned slightly. It wasn't that she was being mysterious; it was simply that in ancient times, people were not enlightened and believed in gods and ghosts. If she were to tell the truth, it would undoubtedly be a fantasy. But if she didn't tell the truth, how could she convince the public?
"Could it be that she doesn't know the truth at all and is just fooling everyone?! Even if there's something strange in the lake, what use is the seawater?" came the sarcastic voice.
"What strange thing could possibly affect fifty miles? Even though the treasury of my Great Yi Kingdom is abundant, it can't withstand such an ordeal."
"Besides, such a large lake, how much seawater would be needed? It takes so long to use it even once. If it is used several more times, who knows how much silver it would cost! Hehe... I think this is not feasible."
...
Opposition arose from all sides. The gazes directed at An Xin contained mockery, doubt, and a variety of other indescribable emotions.
An Xin disagreed, saying, "Your concerns are well-founded. In that case, I will leave the case of Fengxian Village to the Emperor and Empress Dowager to decide."
An Xin's words startled everyone slightly, and then they fell silent.
"Miss An, why be angry? The ministers' concern for the country stems from their sincere desire to serve the nation. Miss An, why don't you tell them the truth? Perhaps they will agree with you after knowing the truth." A soft laugh drifted over, and An Xin glanced over to see an extremely beautiful woman. Her demeanor was gentle and dignified, and her laughter was appropriate. Even her words were both considerate of the overall situation and resolved the awkwardness among the crowd, immediately winning their praise.
"Ruoyi is so sensible. Anxin, our Dayi values etiquette the most. It's one thing for you to be disrespectful to a high-ranking official in the main hall, but the murder case in Fengxian Village could be related to the safety of our Dayi. How can we just shove it away?" The Empress Dowager said calmly. "An Youwei, what do you say?"
An Youwei trembled and hurriedly said, "Your Majesty is absolutely right. It is my fault for failing to properly educate my daughter..." He then looked at An Xin and said in a low voice, "Xin'er, why don't you tell me the whole story from beginning to end without missing a single word?!"
An Xin said calmly, "Do you gentlemen all have trouble breathing every day?"
Upon hearing this, everyone's expressions darkened: "If someone isn't breathing, they're dead! How can you talk like that, young lady?!"
An Xin raised her eyelashes and glanced at everyone, her lips slightly raised, but she did not refute, "So what will happen to you gentlemen after you are under the influence of the sleeping potion?"
The question was so stupid that even Jing Lan couldn't help but raise his eyelashes and glance at An Xin. In fact, this was the first time he had looked at An Xin since she entered the palace, and his gaze paused slightly.
"What else can happen if someone is under the influence of sleeping potion? Even a three-year-old knows that being under the influence of sleeping potion will cause them to faint!" someone said irritably.
Yan Zhen gently shook his folding fan, then said, "Xin'er means that the thing in the lake might be something like a sleeping potion, capable of causing people to die mysteriously through breathing?"
An Xin looked at Yan Zhen and smiled knowingly, saying, "That's exactly what I meant. There's a poison in that lake, colorless, odorless, formless, and intangible. It spreads through our breath, like a sleeping potion. Once ignited, it permeates every corner. And once the lake's calm is broken, the poisonous gas will seep out. I think you all know that some survivors from Fengxian Village said that before someone died, they heard a strange sound of water. I've always been curious about where that sound came from, and I don't understand what the death of people had to do with the sound of water. It wasn't until that day when I saw the strange man's corpse on the top of Duanfeng Mountain and saw that huge lake that I began to have a suspicion. But what really makes me suspicious is that birds in the sky inexplicably fall to the ground and die. If the murders were committed by someone, how could they..." How did the bird in the sky manage to kill it? Among those present, who could kill a bird without harming its body? Clearly, even with exceptional lightness skills, it wouldn't be easy. Only the spread of poison gas could cause the bird to suddenly fall and die. Once this problem is solved, all other questions are answered. While the strange man wasn't the mastermind, he was the catalyst for this event. In fact, someone knew the secret of Broken Peak Mountain; that person was Qin Shou, who killed the strange man. Qin Shou may have inadvertently noticed the ripples on the lake and the subsequent animal deaths, thus devising a method to kill the strange man. He then used a trick to lure the strange man to the summit of Broken Peak Mountain. The Left Prime Minister can testify that Broken Peak Mountain is steep and not easily climbed. How did Qin Shou and the strange man manage to reach the top?
An Xin suddenly mentioned the Left Prime Minister, and everyone was stunned for a moment. Jing Lan's eyes flashed, and he smiled lightly, "What Miss An said is right. The top of Duanfeng Mountain is extremely steep. Miss An used up a lot of strength when she climbed the mountain. If I hadn't been there, Miss An would probably have broken her bones."
Everyone's eyes darted around, remaining silent but their gossipy nature was stirring.
Left Prime Minister and An Xin?
Seriously? An Xin and the Left Prime Minister are so close they've gone hiking together? There's a conspiracy going on!
"The Left Prime Minister's martial arts are unparalleled, so it's already a relief that he was able to get up there. But Qin Shou and that strange man don't seem to have any martial arts skills. How did they manage to climb up?" Huang Yixuan couldn't help but ask.
An Xin said calmly, "There's another secret passage leading to the mountain peak. That passage makes the path up the mountain much steeper, and ordinary people can easily climb it. However, the slope is extremely well hidden, and ordinary people wouldn't notice it unless they were paying attention. I only discovered it by chance while examining the stone Qin Shou threw down the mountain. Qin Shou lured the strange man to the top of Broken Peak and then tried to drug him. Of course, he wouldn't directly cause the lake water to ripple, because that would also kill him on the mountaintop. But how could he kill the strange man without him noticing? It must be said that Qin Shou was very clever; he thought of using..." Using the stones surrounding the lake's summit—stones eroded by wind and rain over the years, easily disturbed if moved even slightly—Qin Shou carefully placed a small, thumb-length, severed twig—about the thickness of a piece of wood—below a crucial stone. Naturally, the twig couldn't withstand immense force and was in danger of breaking at any moment. If it had broken, Qin Shou wouldn't be alive today. Unfortunately, he was incredibly lucky; the twig didn't break, and Qin Shou successfully descended the mountain and left Fengxian Village to hide. Of course, his goal wasn't to kill the entire village, but merely to kill the strange man. However, he never expected that his seemingly insignificant action would cause a huge disaster. As Qin Shou predicted, the small branch quickly broke under the weight of the stones, and the crucial stone fell off. Then, the stones collapsed completely, like the last straw that broke the camel's back. The huge stones fell into the lake, causing a huge ripple, and poisonous gases from the lake spilled out. However, the ripples on the lake surface did not last long, and the poisonous gases released from a single ripple were not enough to destroy the entire village, but they still killed many livestock, which led to the death of the first villager. The deaths were inevitable. However, the good times didn't last long. Soon, a second massive collapse began. Stones were violently thrown up, and terrifying poisonous gas spread. It was the dead of night, and the villagers of Fengxian Village had gone to bed early. By the time the poisonous gas reached the village, it had become a tiny fraction, but even this tiny fraction killed more than five hundred people in Fengxian Village overnight! "An Xin's eyes suddenly turned cold. "I've checked. The stones around the lake have been weathered. They might suddenly collapse one day. Once those boulders around the lake fall into the water, the capital will become a giant dead city!"
Everyone stared in shock.