Xiao Tianchi supported her elbow, stopping her movement. With a hint of unyielding toughness, he helped her stand up.
"Lingji, there's no need for this between you and me."
Shen Lingyun's eyelashes drooped slightly. She broke free from his hand and took a step back. "I'm just a discarded woman. I should keep a distance from Your Majesty and abide by the boundaries."
Xiao Tianchi was familiar with her personality and knew that she wouldn't easily accept the current situation. He changed the topic and asked,
"Have you been waiting for a long time, Lingji? It's windy outside. Come in and talk. If you want to find me, just send someone to tell me next time. You've just recovered from an illness. You should rest well in the Jiaofang Palace."
Shen Lingyun looked up at him.
She had indeed waited outside the door for a long time, so she vaguely heard the topic of the argument among the people in the room just now.
When the ministers left just now, she clearly heard them angrily sighing.
— The Xiao brothers are making such a big fuss for a woman. This woman is really a disaster.
A disaster?
Men fight for the world for power. What does it have to do with women?
Without her, there would be other reasons. She was just a fig leaf to cover up the fight between the brothers.
She knew very well that Xiao Tianchi was no longer the high - spirited young man he used to be, and she was no longer the young girl waiting to be married.
She was indeed touched by him in the past and hoped to marry him and grow old with him.
But fate played a cruel joke on her. She had no choice.
The past twenty - odd years had not only changed their appearances but also their stances.
She could never be Xiao Tianchi's queen.
"No need," Shen Lingyun said coldly. "Your Majesty mentioned the corpse brought back from Dongli Town yesterday. I'd like to go and take a look."
Xiao Tianchi's gaze fell on her face.
Shen Lingyun had returned to her former cold and aloof self. It seemed that she didn't care whether the person standing in front of her was Xiao Tianye or Xiao Tianchi.
Xiao Tianchi said, "Okay, I'll take you there."
There were guards standing guard outside the Wenshou Hall.
When they saw Xiao Tianchi and Shen Lingyun coming, they quickly knelt down and saluted. "Greetings to Your Majesty. Greetings to... Her Majesty the Queen."
Now the whole palace knew that Xiao Tianchi still intended to make the Shen family from Hexi the queen, so the way they addressed her remained unchanged.
Shen Lingyun was actually quite helpless. She couldn't correct everyone one by one, so she had to keep a cold face and step into the hall with Xiao Tianchi.
The Wenshou Hall was a mourning hall in the palace specially used to place corpses. Usually, it was used to place the bodies of concubines or imperial heirs who died suddenly. Now, there was only an ice coffin there.
Cold air was emanating from the ice coffin. As soon as they entered the door, a cold wind blew towards them.
Someone had already prepared cloaks. Father Wang winked at Biwu. The two of them put cloaks on Xiao Tianchi and Shen Lingyun respectively, and also put on cold - resistant gloves and special masks to prevent the stench of the corpse for them.
The guard pushed open the lid of the ice coffin. A stench rushed out of the ice coffin, making people want to vomit.
Xiao Tianchi stepped forward first, then turned around and reached out his hand to Shen Lingyun.
Shen Lingyun ignored him. She lifted her skirt and stepped onto the steps. She supported the edge of the ice coffin with one hand to steady herself. Xiao Tianchi paused for a moment, then retracted his hand indifferently and said to her,
"This is the corpse found on the river beach."
The corpse in the ice coffin was about nine feet tall. The clothes on his body were full of scratches, blood, and mud. Sealed in the ice coffin, the corpse still looked almost the same as when it was first found, except that it was much thinner and paler.
There were many wounds on the face and the exposed skin of the corpse. Because of being soaked in water, these wounds were curled outwards, showing the rotten flesh inside. The stench in the air came from there.
Seeing the clothes on the corpse, Shen Lingyun's heart trembled violently. She almost lost her balance.
This set of clothes was indeed Xiao Jingcheng's.
Before he set off, she went to the Eastern Palace and specifically checked his luggage. This set of clothes was among them.
But she immediately realized that this corpse was not Xiao Jingcheng.
A mother and son were connected by heart. If it was really him lying inside, how could she not have felt it?
Her gaze passed over the corpse's badly - damaged face, his body, hands, and feet.
Shen Lingyun said firmly, "This is not Jingcheng."
The boulder that had been hanging in her heart for many days finally fell completely. Her eyes were slightly moist. Calmly, she analyzed to Xiao Tianchi, "Jingcheng's ears have three curves. Look here, there are only two."
"Look at the wounds on his face. The front part is more serious and the back part is lighter, and the incisions are neat and delicate. This is obviously the mark of being cut by a weapon." Shen Lingyun's voice was slightly cold. "And there is no blood oozing from the wounds, which means that his face was cut after he died. The purpose was to destroy his appearance so that people couldn't tell his real identity."
Xiao Tianchi nodded slightly. "Anything else?"
"His cause of death should be suffocation," Shen Lingyun said. "His lips are purple and his eyes are bulging. This is a sign that he was covered over the nose and mouth before he died."
"Moreover, his hands are extremely rough, with thick joints and calluses on his palms, which are completely different from Jingcheng's hands."
She walked around to the back of the ice coffin, stretched out her hand to make a comparison, and said more firmly, "And his feet are one inch bigger than Jingcheng's. There are also many calluses on the soles. This should be an ordinary farmer. Because he often works in the fields, he is relatively burly, and his hands and soles are very rough."
Xiao Tianchi had been looking at her. Seeing her calmly analyzing all this, his heart felt slightly warm.
This was the real Shen Lingyun, not the one who always sat in the Jiaofang Palace like an ice - carved statue, watching others come in front of her to show off their imperial favor.
She, Shen Lingyun, never needed that.
"Exactly," he said. "I could tell at a glance that this was not the body of the crown prince.可笑的是, as soon as Bu Hua saw this corpse, he insisted on its identity. Even the coroner he invited told me that it was the crown prince."
"Bu Hua?!" Shen Lingyun was shocked. "It's understandable that the coroner in Dongli Town couldn't recognize it. But Bu Hua is the right guard of the Eastern Palace and Jingcheng's confidant. How could he not recognize that this is not Jingcheng?"
Xiao Tianchi smiled slightly and said, "Lingji, this is the most thought - provoking part."
"Do you know what I heard in Dongli Town after I arrived there?"
Shen Lingyun asked, "What did you hear?"
Xiao Tianchi looked at the unknown corpse in the ice coffin and said, "Bu Hua, under the guise of searching for the whereabouts of the crown prince, acted boldly and recklessly in Dongli Town, ruining the crown prince's reputation and arousing the resentment of the people."
"The people in Dongli Town said that since the soldiers of the Eastern Palace are so domineering, the crown prince may not be a good person either. If the future of the Great Sheng Dynasty is handed over to such a person, there will surely be chaos sooner or later. It would be better for him to die and choose a new crown prince."