ebookland Chapter 214 The Maid Takes the Blame
Chapter 214 The Maid Takes the Blame
At this moment, Li Jingshu was so frightened that her face turned pale and she was shaking all over. She stared at everything in front of her with her eyes wide open in disbelief. The brocade box that she had always carried with her and never left her side had been replaced with this strange Buddha statue without her knowing when! Her mind was blank, and she could not understand what had happened at all.
"This...what's going on? Where is my jade Buddha?" Li Jingshu murmured to herself, her voice trembling obviously.
Obviously, this ghost Buddha should be in Luo Lingyue's brocade box. How could the secret agent in the Prime Minister's Mansion fail in this task?
Thinking of this, Li Jingshu felt a sense of despair and helplessness. She knew what this incident meant to her. Not only could it cause her to lose her position as the Crown Princess, but it could also lead to her being killed. How could she explain this to the Queen Mother? And how could she prove her innocence?
Li Jingshu suddenly recalled Luo Lingyue's strange and mysterious smile, and her heart was shocked. A strong intuition told her that all this must be related to Luo Lingyue! You know, in modern times, Luo Lingyue is a well-known thief in the bounty hunter circle!
Li Jingshu stood up in a rage, her eyes wide open, and yelled at Luo Lingyue: "Luo Lingyue! Why on earth did you want to hurt me? You must have swapped my jade Buddha!"
At this moment, Luo Lingyue was standing elegantly among the group of noble women, but her face was full of innocence and grievance. She said with great sorrow: "Crown Princess! Although we have had some minor frictions before, they were just the little thoughts of a little girl in the boudoir. Now that you are the Crown Princess, your status is so noble, how can you make such groundless accusations!" Her voice was full of resentment and dissatisfaction, as if she had suffered great injustice.
Xiao Jinghan walked to Luo Lingyue with an expressionless face and spoke in a cold tone: "Your Highness the Crown Prince! You must discipline your Crown Princess! My future Crown Princess has not had any contact with your Crown Princess today, so how could she possibly exchange the gift she gave to the Queen Mother?"
When the Crown Prince heard that Xiao Jinghan wanted to blame him for this, his face instantly became extremely gloomy. He turned to Li Jingshu and shouted angrily: "Crown Princess! No matter who replaced the gift for the Royal Grandmother, it was all caused by your poor supervision! Hurry up and admit your mistake to the Royal Grandmother!"
Hearing the prince's rebuke, Li Jingshu came back to her senses as if awakened from a dream. She knelt down in front of Queen Mother Xue without hesitation and said anxiously: "Grandmother, please be clear! I don't know who replaced the gift that your granddaughter-in-law carefully prepared for you. Please take charge and send someone to investigate this matter thoroughly and find out the truth!"
Queen Mother Xue stared at the person in front of her with anger on her face. She firmly believed that Li Jingshu would never do such a thing. However, deep down, she was extremely disappointed with Li Jingshu. As the future crown princess, if Li Jingshu could not resist such a conspiracy, how could she lead the entire harem in the future?
The Queen Mother's eyes were full of disappointment and helplessness. She turned to look at Emperor Wen, who had remained silent, and asked sternly, "Emperor! What do you think about this matter?"
Emperor Wen sat there expressionlessly, his eyes as cold as ice. He responded indifferently: "Prime Minister, I'll leave this matter to you!" After that, he said no more.
Emperor Wen's attitude is clear as day. It is natural that you, Li Mingfu, should be responsible for dealing with the aftermath of the daughter you taught!
Li Mingfu's heart was also burning with anger. He couldn't help but feel secretly annoyed. It was a good thing that he had previously thought that it was just such a small matter and Li Jingshu would definitely be able to handle it easily and solve it perfectly!
In fact, from the beginning, Li Mingfu had been opposed to the scheme set up by the Queen and Li Jingshu. He was not willing to get involved in the intrigues between the women in the harem, but the Queen vowed that as long as she could successfully frame Luo Lingyue, she would be able to deal a heavy blow to Concubine An!
Faced with such a situation, Li Mingfu could only frown and responded helplessly: "I will immediately investigate this matter thoroughly! I will definitely give the Queen Mother a satisfactory answer!"
Within an incense stick of time, Li Mingfu brought his men and escorted two women over.
When Li Jingshu saw the two people, she was shocked. One of them was the secret agent planted in the palace by the Prime Minister's Mansion, and the other was actually her own maid Shuang'er!
Li Mingfu said to Emperor Wen with a sad face: "Only these two people have touched the gift prepared by the Crown Princess. I have found out that the elder sister of this maid worked in the Queen Mother's Palace earlier. Because she did something wrong, she was beaten to death by the Queen Mother. She was resentful and bribed the Crown Princess's maid Shuang'er to replace the jade Buddha. She wanted to use the ghost Buddha to curse the Queen Mother!"
Emperor Wen glanced at Li Mingfu and said coldly: "Drag him out and beat him to death!"
Empress Dowager Xue said, "Emperor! Today is my birthday, so it's not appropriate to see blood! How about this! Send the two men to the barracks to reward Dazhao's soldiers!"
The maid and Shuang'er kept begging for mercy, but it was no use. They were dragged away by the soldiers, crying all the way, their voices were extremely miserable! Sending them to the military camp was more terrible than being beaten to death! The maid and Shuang'er screamed miserably, and in the end they were dragged away by the imperial guards...
Li Jingshu bit her lower lip so hard that it almost bled, but she still didn't dare to move, because she didn't dare to plead for Shuang'er!
Empress Dowager Xue's eyes were extremely cold. She said indifferently: "Crown Princess! Although the matter has been investigated clearly, you are still responsible for not employing people carefully! I have decided to punish you to copy Buddhist scriptures behind closed doors in the East Palace for a month!"
Hearing this punishment, Li Jingshu's heart suddenly sank! The Queen Mother was clearly confining her in disguise! For a month, she would be trapped in this small East Palace, unable to contact the outside world... Thinking of this, Li Jingshu couldn't help but feel desperate and helpless.
After the Queen Mother's birthday banquet, Emperor Wen looked at Kong Boda with a gloomy face and asked in a cold tone: "Who dares to frame the Crown Princess?"
Kong Boda frowned, a puzzled look on his face. He replied softly, "I personally witnessed the Prime Minister's men swapping the birthday gift originally prepared by Princess Luo with that strange Buddha statue. However, what is puzzling is that this ghost Buddha statue actually appeared in the brocade box of the Crown Princess! It is really unbelievable!"
After hearing this, Emperor Wen sneered, his eyes flashed with contempt, and he said sarcastically: "I never thought that a prime minister could be played around by others! Humph! Such a stupid person is really unworthy of being of great use!"
Li Jingshu knelt in front of the prince with a pale face, tears flowing like a flood. She sobbed and cried, "Your Highness! It must be that vicious Luo Lingyue who replaced the Buddha statue!"
The prince just looked at her coldly, with a barely perceptible sneer on his lips, and said sneerily: "Hmph! Words are not enough. What evidence do you have to prove that Luo Lingyue did it? And you are so stupid that you let the secret agent in the palace expose his identity! You are such a foolish woman!" After that, he shook his sleeves fiercely and turned to leave.
As the door slammed shut, Li Jingshu's eyes widened, and the anger in her eyes became more and more intense! She gritted her teeth and secretly vowed to make Luo Lingyue pay the price. She would kill this hateful woman with her own hands! At this moment, Li Jingshu was already overwhelmed by anger, and only had the obsession of revenge in her heart...