After having sex with a fake eunuch, I became the queen

That day in Fengyi Palace, after Fan Mingchu "admitted" that he was the one who asked Qiao Wan'er to embroider the mandarin duck handkerchief, he never came to Mingxin Palace again.

Qiao Wan'er became restless when she thought about this.

She had made up her mind that day to never admit it. Even if the old woman had her face smashed or even her head blown up, she would insist that she had only embroidered the handkerchief for fun and would never give Fuzhi away.

But no one expected that someone would come out to take the blame. Lord Fan came over and "explained" that it was he who invited her to get the mandarin duck handkerchief.

The reason why Lord Fan was willing to save her at such a disregard for his dignity was probably because of the little emperor Ji Ning, because last time he had risked his life to change his birthday for his majesty.

He is so loyal and brave that he is willing to risk his life for the young emperor.

But it was not worth it to save a little palace maid like myself.

Although Lord Fan did not receive any punishment, his reputation in front of the Empress Dowager had been ruined. Moreover, when he confessed the unfounded "affair" that day, he did so in front of several servants.

She herself doesn't care. For someone who has been to the guillotine, even his life is gone, so what does his reputation matter?
Moreover, the more you value reputation, the more it will be like a mountain pressing down on your head, making it impossible for you to stand up straight.

If you don't take it seriously, it's lighter than straw. For example, what kind of reputation can Xu Shixin have? He has done so many bad things, but he is still appreciated by his master and can still make things happen in the palace.

But Qiao Wan'er felt that Lord Fan was different from Xu Shixin and should attach great importance to reputation because she had heard that he had reported that the concubines of the previous emperor had shown interest in him.

It can be seen that the young emperor likes Lord Fan very much.

Qiao Wan'er also had a very good impression of Fan Mingchu. It is said that a man of culture is naturally elegant. The impression given to her by this well-read man was completely different from those greasy-haired and powdered eunuchs she was used to seeing in the palace. He always had a unique temperament.

When Qiao Wan'er was little, she admired a teacher in the village. Although the teacher's family was also very poor, he would read books and write articles every day. He looked different from other poor people. No matter how thin he was from hunger or how ragged his clothes were, he always gave people a feeling of immortality. People with knowledge have their own character. The teacher also taught her to read and write for free, telling her that women should also be knowledgeable.

Therefore, Qiao Wan'er has great respect for people who are knowledgeable, like to teach, and can talk eloquently, like teachers.

Moreover, Lord Fan did not look down on her just because she was a woman. Sometimes he even taught her more seriously than he taught the little emperor. This reminded him of the teacher he once admired.

That day, Qiao Wan'er returned from Fengyi Palace with a swollen face. Naturally, she could not escape the sharp eyes of the young emperor Ji Ning. Under Ji Ning's repeated questioning, Qiao Wan'er told him everything that happened in Fengyi Palace, because she felt that this matter was not only related to herself, after all, it also involved Lord Fan, and it was necessary to inform His Majesty.

After hearing this, Ji Ning naturally felt a great fear. Although he was not very old, he still knew the intentions of some of the Royal Grandmother's actions. He also naturally knew that the Royal Grandmother did not like palace maids who got too close to her.

Besides the fear, he also felt a little surprised. Although Qiao Wan'er repeatedly said that Lord Fan did that in front of the Queen Mother in order to save herself, Ji Ning disagreed. He thought that Lord Fan must have fallen in love with Qiao Wan'er, and his efforts to help others were not in vain, but actually reaped rewards.

It was almost the end of the year, and Qiao Wan'er promised Ji Ning to make him a new coat. Ji Ning was tired of wearing a yellow robe and wanted to wear something new, so he asked "mother" to make him a colorful coat that children in the folk wore during the New Year. Of course, he couldn't wear it in public, he could only wear it in private.

This was no problem for Qiao Wan'er. After working for several days, she was almost done with a colorful coat for a child with exquisite embroidery. When she was about to put the finishing touches on it, she found that she had run out of colored thread, so she had to go to the storehouse of the Clothing Bureau to get more.

Since the threads that were missing were some special colors, Qiao Wan'er naturally didn't trust others to do the errand, for fear that they might get the wrong colors, so she decided to go there herself.

And because he was in a hurry to finish the work and didn't want to wait until the next day, he went to the Clothing Bureau after dinner.

Before leaving, she told Ji Ning not to rush to bed, and that she would come back as soon as she got the thread, and that the jacket would be finished after embroidering a few more flowers. She could let him try it on before going to bed.

Ji Ning was very excited at the thought that he would be able to try on the colorful gown today. He had been waiting for Qiao Wan'er to come back in the bedroom of Mingxin Palace. However, she never came back no matter how long he waited. During this long period of time, he had to run back and forth from Mingxin Palace to the Clothing Bureau four or five times.

Thinking of the incident in Fengyi Palace a few days ago, Ji Ning felt more and more uneasy, so he sent several people to look for her. Those who went to the Clothing Bureau came back saying that Aunt Qiao had already taken the colored thread back to Mingxin Palace. Those who went to Fang Palace came back saying that the princess had never seen Qiao Wan'er, and even sent someone to ask Lord Fan, but there was no news. Not only that, Ji Ning also had the courage to ask the Empress Dowager.

The people sent to Xunfang Palace to inquire naturally alarmed Ji Wei. Ji Wei felt something was wrong when he heard it. After carefully asking about the specific situation, he found an excuse to leave Xunfang Palace. He had always been worried that Xiao Qian might do something to Qiao Wan'er at any time. When something like this happened, he naturally thought that it might be related to Xiao Qian.

Matters involving human lives must not be delayed. If the best opportunity to find the person is missed, even if the young emperor mobilizes all the people in Longchang Palace to search, it will be of no avail.

Since Qiao Wan'er didn't go anywhere and disappeared on the way back to Mingxin Palace from the Clothing Bureau, she must have encountered something on this road, so valuable clues must be on this road. So Ji Ying raced against time to survey the only way from the Clothing Bureau to Mingxin Palace.

Holding a night light, he focused on checking several dark and hidden places on the road, because such locations are very convenient for people with premeditated intentions to act covertly.

Even though he was so anxious that he almost got angry, he still tried to be as meticulous as possible when checking, not missing any useful clues.

Finally, Ji Yin found several footprints and some dragging marks on the ground at the corner of a palace wall. At the same time, his keen sense of smell also caught a peculiar smell - it was a mixed floral scent, very similar to the smell of sachets worn by many palace servants in the palace.

Ji Ying's five senses have always been sharp, and his sense of smell is not bad either. Of course, it is definitely not as good as Wang Bingyu's dog-like sense of smell.

Then he walked forward a few steps following the fragrance and made a new discovery. He saw that there were a lot of dried flowers scattered on the stone road not far from the traces. The fragrance was released by these scattered dried flowers.

And the dried flowers were not just in that one place. If you walk a few steps forward, you can see a small handful scattered on the ground. If you walk a few more steps forward, you can find another small handful - the dried flowers were scattered all over the place, and it was obvious that they had just been scattered not long ago.

Ji Wei had worked in the Horticulture Bureau. The bureaus that needed dried flowers were the Shangshan Bureau, Shangyao Bureau, and Shangyi Bureau. The Shangyi Bureau needed dried flowers, which were usually used to make the cores of sachets or pillows. This road was the only way to the Shangyi Bureau, so these dried flowers were likely related to the Shangyi Bureau. And based on his intuition as a spy, he felt that this was also likely to be a clue related to Qiao Wan'er.

He quickly searched along the place where the dried flowers appeared, but he saw nothing where the dried flowers were interrupted. Ji Ying, who was very familiar with the terrain, immediately remembered that there was an abandoned old well nearby. His intuition told him to go there and check it out.

When I walked near the well, I actually heard a faint cry for help from the well.

So he rushed to the edge of the well as fast as he could, and peered into the well with a lantern, and saw that the person in the well had just sunk...

It turned out that when Qiao Wan'er went to the storehouse of the Clothing Bureau to get colored thread, she saw several baskets of dried flowers hanging in the storehouse. Those dried flowers were specially used by the Clothing Bureau to make sachets cores, so she put a handful of them into her clothes pockets, naturally intending to take them back to make sachets.

Maybe this girl who was born in junior high school really was not destined to die. After she was attacked, she was dragged to the edge of the well. The dried flowers in her clothes pockets were scattered all the way, and eventually became the clue for Ji Ying to find her.

*
This year's New Year's Eve was probably the quietest one in Longchang Palace - the Queen Mother banned fireworks and firecrackers, and even the entire Lin'an Prefecture banned the use and sale of fireworks. It is said that this was to prevent thieves from attacking the city, because fireworks and firecrackers can be made into explosives and signal flares, and the sound when they are set off can cover up thieves' sneak attacks.

Not only that, but they also announced early that the "Golden Guards will not ban night patrols" around the Lantern Festival would also be canceled. With the city's defenses being tightened, many people are actually busier during the New Year than usual.

This year is the first New Year after the young Emperor Qizhen ascended the throne. It should have been a grand occasion, but it was not only deserted but also very sloppy. The only celebration was on the first day of the new year, when the young emperor showed up in the Golden Palace in a gorgeous dress - of course not the colorful coat made for him by Qiao Wan'er - and the ministers congratulated the Empress Dowager and the young emperor, wishing them a long and secure reign and a long life.

After the celebration, the court began to discuss matters of state, and continued to discuss endlessly how to eliminate and suppress the rebels and traitors who were spreading everywhere.

It can be seen that the Empress Dowager and the civil and military officials were in no mood to celebrate the New Year.

No matter how the imperial court was paranoid and how it struggled to take various precautions, the date of the Restoration Army's general attack on the 17th day of the first lunar month remained unchanged and was getting closer day by day.

Just after the eighth day of the first lunar month, Lu Yi heard a piece of news: Fan Mingchu had "rewarded" a young eunuch with a whipping because the young eunuch accidentally called him "Eunuch Fan" and ordered him to be expelled from the palace. However, because the young eunuch was the only servant in Xunfang Palace and was deeply "loved" by the princess, in the end, despite the princess's obstruction, the young eunuch was not expelled and continued to stay in Xunfang Palace.

The news frightened Lu Yi, and he found an opportunity to meet his lord.

(End of this chapter)