Was Yi Qing waiting at the Xie family's place at this pace, waiting for the assassin to come and kill Duke Xie?
After waiting for a while longer, the Xie family members finally came in. At the head was Madam Xie. A group of servants carefully inspected the room warily. Only then did Madam Xie slowly move forward.
"How is His Grace the Duke?" Madam Xie told the butler to go and check.
"His Grace the Duke is fine," the butler said with a sigh of relief.
"Hurry and report this to the authorities. We must catch the assassin," Madam Xie ordered.
"Yes," the butler bowed and withdrew.
Madam Xie walked to the bedside. From this angle, Xiao Jinghan and Yi Qing could just see her expression. Why did it seem that Madam Xie looked a bit disappointed?
Indeed. Now everyone outside was saying that Duke Xie was dead, but here he was still lying in bed. If it really came to confrontation, the Xie family wouldn't be in the right.
The two of them waited until late at night. The city guards had come and were protecting the place outside. Only then did the Xie family calm down.
Just as Xiao Jinghan was about to leave, he found that the black - clothed man who had left earlier had come back and was trying to feed medicine to Duke Xie again.
From this distance, Xiao Jinghan directly drew the sword beside the bed and killed the man.
The black - clothed man only showed a pair of eyes and looked at Xiao Jinghan in disbelief.
Without waiting for the black - clothed man to react, Xiao Jinghan pushed the sword forward and grabbed the man's hand to hold the hilt. He felt around in the man's bosom and took out a medicine bottle. Then he directly pulled out the dagger from the man's leg binding.
"Assassin!" Xiao Jinghan shouted.
This time, they took advantage of the chaos and left.
"Even a fool would know there's someone else after what you did," Yi Qing asked Xiao Jinghan when they were far away from the Xie family.
"They have to be able to find them," Xiao Jinghan said indifferently.
Yi Qing thought it made sense. "Why did you take that man's dagger?"
"It's a Japanese dagger," Xiao Jinghan took out the dagger and looked at it.
"Japanese?" Yi Qing looked at the dagger. "We've encountered quite a few Japanese people recently."
The people who tried to assassinate Song Zhiyu last time were Japanese, and now the ones trying to assassinate Duke Xie were also Japanese. How many Japanese people were there in the capital? Or was there any connection between the Japanese people in these two assassination attempts?
"Take a look at this medicine," Xiao Jinghan handed the medicine to Yi Qing.
Yi Qing took it and smelled it. "This smell..."
"What?"
"Let's go home and take a good look," Yi Qing didn't dare to make a hasty conclusion.
When the two of them got back to the room and closed the door, they heard a series of knocks on the floor. Yi Qing was a bit angry. Xiao Jinghan went over and opened the secret passage.
"Where did you two go? You made me wait for so long," the emperor came out of the secret passage and started to complain. Then he saw that they were both wearing night - clothes and immediately shut up.
Gan Chengyou didn't come with him today. What if Yi Qing decided to kill him? The Jin Dynasty would have to change its dynasty.
"The secret guards reported today that the Xie family gave medicine to Duke Xie. I took Qing'er to check it out," Xiao Jinghan saw the emperor pretending to be very vigilant.
"So what if the Xie family gave medicine to Duke Xie?" The emperor thought it was normal for Duke Xie to take medicine since he still couldn't get out of bed.
"They gave Duke Xie a large amount of the same medicine he took before," Yi Qing said directly.
"What?" The emperor now knew why Duke Xie had suddenly fallen into a coma. If it weren't for Yi Qing, he would have died. He was a bit incredulous. "Is the Xie family trying to kill Duke Xie?"
"The secret guards have already replaced the medicine. But when we got there, we encountered an assassin. The assassin tried to give medicine to Duke Xie. We stopped him and killed the assassin," Xiao Jinghan saw the emperor's expression.
"Who wants to harm Duke Xie?" The emperor never expected that so many people wanted Duke Xie dead.
"I don't think their purpose is to harm Duke Xie," Yi Qing crushed the pill and smelled it carefully. "After my treatment, Duke Xie no longer needs to take the previous medicine. The Xie family gave Duke Xie a large amount of the previous medicine just to make his death look the same as before, to prove that I didn't kill Duke Xie. And the main ingredient of this medicine is the fruit of the Cerbera odollam tree. After taking it, the death will be similar to that of a sudden cardiovascular disease, almost the same as the result of taking that medicine."
The emperor and Xiao Jinghan looked at Yi Qing. But they knew it was normal not to understand what Yi Qing was saying.
"What is the Cerbera odollam tree?" Xiao Jinghan had never heard of it.
"It's a tree from overseas. The whole plant is poisonous, and the fruit is the most poisonous," Yi Qing didn't expect there to be a Cerbera odollam tree here. But according to the climate, there wouldn't be any in the territory of the Jin Dynasty.
"Overseas?" The emperor thought this matter was getting a bit out of hand.
"By the way, the person who went there was Japanese," Xiao Jinghan reminded.
"It seems that everyone wants to use Duke Xie to kill me now," Yi Qing's gaze turned gloomy.
The emperor and Xiao Jinghan looked at each other. It seemed that this was really the situation now.
"Why did Your Majesty come here?" Xiao Jinghan suddenly realized.
"Oh," the emperor then remembered his purpose. "Now the solution proposed by the ministers is for you to divorce Yi Qing. Then you'll have nothing to do with this matter, and I don't have to punish you either."
"Absolutely impossible," Xiao Jinghan didn't even think about it.
The emperor of course knew it was impossible. "I'm under a lot of pressure."
Xiao Jinghan looked at the emperor. "Duke Di is coming back. If it really comes to that, I'll let you go to Li City for two years."
Hearing what the emperor said, Yi Qing thought the problem was very serious. "Since it's like this, we can't back down even more."
The emperor knew that Yi Qing usually avoided trouble. Why was she being so stubborn this time? "It's good for everyone like this."
"You always want to smooth things over, but in the end, nothing will be clear," Yi Qing didn't give in.
The emperor thought about it and indeed it was so.
"At worst, Your Majesty can hold a palace banquet to celebrate Duke Xie's recovery. Then everyone can see that Duke Xie is alive. Let's see who will still make an issue out of this," Yi Qing thought this wasn't a big deal. But because there were always people confusing the public and the Xie family members deliberately didn't explain, it had become like this.
"This..." The emperor was a bit embarrassed.
"Deng Xiao has gone to investigate Duke Xie. Let's wait for Deng Xiao's result," Xiao Jinghan suggested.
The emperor thought about it and could only do so.
After the emperor left, Xiao Jinghan and Yi Qing changed their clothes. Xiao Jinghan pulled Yi Qing into his arms. The two of them looked at the pill on the table, thinking that Duke Xie was the only breakthrough in this matter.
"Come on, let's sort things out again," Yi Qing said and was about to get up.
Xiao Jinghan pressed Yi Qing down. "You usually avoid trouble. Why are you so stubborn this time?"
"Do you know why Baozi came back?" Yi Qing looked at Xiao Jinghan.
Xiao Jinghan hadn't thought about this matter. "Why?"
"Someone said that if there was no explanation for Duke Xie's matter, Yunyang Academy would be leveled." And the core of this matter was Yi Qing. Even though Baozi didn't care about others, he couldn't not care about his mother.
Hearing what Yi Qing said, Xiao Jinghan's eyes turned icy cold. "The Mu family!"
"Although we don't know why the Mu family is doing this, even if it's the Mu family, I won't back down," Yi Qing said firmly, looking as if she would fight to the end even if Xiao Jinghan didn't care.