C49

"Nothing happened." Yin Lin pretended to be calm and said.

Xiao Ruyue frowned.

As soon as they spoke, the palace maid dressed in light green quickly knelt down. "Greetings, esteemed empress."

The palace maids behind the fake mountain all ran out, looking shocked at Xiao Ruyue. "The Empress is blessed."

"Alright, get up."

Xiao Ruyue called for them to get up, but none of them dared to.

"Servants, I dare not."

"What are you all kneeling for? I did not punish you to kneel. "

"This servant dares not." The palace maids did not even dare to raise their heads.

Xiao Ruyue looked at Yin Lin, who was beside him, and also lowered her head.

From their conversation just now, it wasn't hard to tell that something had happened to Jing Yu. And it's not a small thing.

Those palace maids' words were extremely unpleasant to hear, and one couldn't tell at a time that they were those kind of people. Their words were even more outrageous than those of beasts, making them unrecognizable. 'Could it be? '

"What is the empress doing?" Why are they even punishing a few young palace maids by kneeling? "

Just as Xiao Ruyue was about to ask Yin Lin, a voice suddenly burst in.

Xiao Ruyue looked towards the direction of the voice. The one who spoke was the Imperial Concubine who desired to stir up trouble, Ye Haitang.

"Imperial Consort, you're in a good mood. Do you want to take advantage of the beautiful weather to take a walk around the garden?" Xiao Ruyue smiled gently.

Ye Haitang gave a big bow to Xiao Ruyue, then said with a smile: "The flower garden's spring color is just right, if you don't look, the entire flourishing garden will fall. "Chenqie will naturally take advantage of a good time to take a look around."

But her voice paused, her gaze turned and landed on the few palace maids kneeling on the ground: "What happened to these few servants? Did he make the empress unhappy by doing something wrong? "If you want to commit a crime, just hand it over to the secret court."

Xiao Ruyue: "Mhm." "Understood."

He turned to look at the small palace maid dressed in a light green palace dress, "What's your name?"

"This slave servant Ripple."

"Canvass sandalwood, place the river in the west, the river clear and rippling, ripples?"

"This … My parents casually mentioned it when they were making a name for themselves. There's no need to be so particular about it." Ripple said timidly.

The corner of Xiao Ruyue's mouth slightly rose, and she instructed Yin Lin: "From now on, Ripple will invite the Phoenix Palace to serve us. The rest of you can leave now. "

The palace maids looked at each other in dismay. They had thought that the empress had heard them gossiping and would be severely punished, but the emperor had ordered them not to be casually mentioned in the palace. Whoever committed the offense would be severely punished.

But he never would have thought that it would be all right like this. I'm glad.

Just when the palace maids expressed their gratitude, they heard Xiao Ruyue say: "Go to the Concealed Court and receive your ten punishments. Remember to come to the Phoenix Palace after receiving your medicine. "

The palace maids were stunned for a moment before quickly kneeling down to express their gratitude.

The young palace maid called Ripple was so scared that she stood there stunned. If it wasn't for Lu Yi and Cai Yin pulling her, she wouldn't even know how to walk.

Then, Xiao Ruyue left without even looking at Ye Haitang.

Ye Haitang kneeled in accordance to the rules, symbolically speaking, she said in a clear voice, "We send the empress off."

However, his gaze was fixated on the small palace maid, Ripple, who was taken away by Xiao Ruyue. What did Situ Min want to do by taking away a small palace maid for no reason?

Returning to the Invitation Phoenix Palace, Xiao Ruyue first had Huan Zuan, Cai Yin, take Ripples down to change clothes.

Her light green attire was that of a lowly palace maid. After entering the Phoenix Invitation Palace, she naturally couldn't dress up like this anymore.

Xiao Ruyue was the only one left, and asked: "What happened to the Minister of Rituals' Lord Xiao? "Your Majesty didn't allow me to tell you, and you even ordered me not to be mentioned in front of you, didn't you?"

Yin Lin did not utter a word.

Xiao Ruyue knew it was.

How could Yuwen He possibly hide things from her when Jing Yu was in trouble? Could it be that he had already seen through her true identity?

It seemed like this matter could not be delayed any longer.

Xiao Ruyue focused her mind, stared at Yin Lin and asked: "I heard the words of those palace ladies were rather disrespectful, tell me in detail what happened to Lord Xiao."

"The Empress has already guessed it." Yin Lin heaved a sigh of relief, and smiled at the same time. The Empress was extremely intelligent, based on those words, and the attitude of the people in the palace, they should have already guessed it right.

"Guessing and knowing the specifics are two different things. "Tell me."

Yin Lin knew that she could no longer hide anything, so she explained everything in one go.

So it turned out that when Xiao Jingyu was invited to be a guest at marble temple's residence yesterday, he drank a few more cups of wine or had actually molested a beautiful concubine of marble temple's palace.

News of this matter had already spread throughout the city, and everyone was aware of it.

Everyone knew about it, but she was kept in the dark. From the looks of it, Yuwen He wanted to hide it from her.

The news had spread this morning, and he should have known last night.

Yuwen He unreasonably trusted her, wholeheartedly doted on her, and probed her everywhere. Now, he was also concealing information about Jing Yu from her, which meant that he had long known of her true identity!

He knew it all!

Because he knew of her, Xiao Ruyue, he probed her with the past and mentioned the youth who was saved all those years ago.

Because he knew that she was from the Xiao family, he was afraid that she would protect Jing Yu for the sake of their blood relation and drag her into it.

But, how could Yuwen He know?!

Xiao Ruyue clenched both her hands into fists, her mind was in a mess and her thoughts were in a mess.

She couldn't see how ugly her face had turned, nor did she notice that she had bitten her tender lower lip to the point where it bled.

Yuwen He, how exactly did you know about this?! How do you know all this?

Who exactly are you?

"Empress, why do you have such an unsightly expression?"

Yin Lin's voice brought Xiao Ruyue back to reality and she was stunned. She unconsciously licked her lips and the smell of blood spread through her mouth.

Only then did she come to her senses.

"How is Lord Xiao doing?"

"marble temple naturally would not let this matter rest. Lord Xiao kept on claiming that they were wronged, but the evidence was conclusive.

"Where does Your Majesty keep Lord Xiao?" Yin Lin hesitated as she did not know whether she should say it or not, but Xiao Ruyue quickly interrupted her and cut straight to the point.

"In the sky, the Celestial Prison." Yin Lin felt that she wouldn't be able to catch up to the Empress's train of thoughts.

The Empress' brain was spinning too quickly and too quickly.

"Celestial Prison" Xiao Ruyue muttered, as though she had thought of something, and a smile appeared on her face.

It was the Sky Prison, not the Ministry of Justice or the marble temple Prison.

The Celestial Prison was not allowed to be trespassed, let alone casually interrogated. If they were in the marble temple or the Ministry of Justice's Prison, Jing Yu would have fallen into the hands of the Lord Liu.

Yuwen He wanted to protect Jing Yu.

After coming to this conclusion, Xiao Ruyue was secretly happy. However, this joy was quickly washed away by her worry.

Regardless of whether or not Yuwen He had the intention to protect Jing Yu, it was already certain that her identity would be exposed in front of him. Also, if the person who framed Jing Yu could not be found, even if Yuwen He had the intention to protect her, it would be useless.

After thinking about it, Xiao Ruyue decided to pass on the message to the palace maid called Ripple.

While they were talking, this little girl was still standing by Jing Yu's side. She didn't care about anything else and jumped out to argue with him.

He might be able to find some clues to save Jing Yu from her.

This was the first time the little palace maid saw the Empress. She was so nervous that she didn't even know how to speak, nor did she even know where to put her hands. Her head was lowered in silence.

"Ripple, don't be afraid. I'll just ask you a few questions. Just answer truthfully."

Xiao Ruyue was very clear that there was no use in comforting her at this point of time.

The most useful words were about the Xiao Shang Shu she was most concerned about.

Back in the Imperial Garden, Xiao Ruyue had heard everything that Ripple said clearly: This little girl was wholeheartedly protecting Jing Yu — — She and Jing Yu were direct, so it shouldn't be just some ordinary relationship.

Ripple replied with a trembling voice, "Yes." Then it was quiet again.

Xiao Ruyue raised her tea cup, gracefully took a sip, and slowly said: "Ripple, how did you get to know Xiao Shang Shu, and why did you insist on saying that he was innocent when everyone was saying that he had done something shameless? Do you have any proof? "

"Lord Xiao is innocent!" Ripple said loudly, he suddenly raised his head to look at Xiao Ruyue's eyes, and anxiously lowered his head: "This servant, does not have any proof."

Ripple bit her lower lip. Her stubborn look was very cute, she had already forgotten to be nervous and was only thinking about the Lord Xiao she cared about the most.

"I, believe him. Lord Xiao is not that kind of person. " He didn't know whether to say it to her, or if she was afraid that her voice was too loud.

Xiao Ruyue's eyes flashed with an elite light, her face was still smiling: "Everyone thinks that he is inferior to beasts, you are the only one who trusts him. Then tell me, what kind of person is Lord Xiao in your eyes. "

"I …" Ripple bit his lips and raised his eyes to look at Yin Lin, Lu Yi, and Cai Yin who were present. He seemed to be saying: There are so many people, I don't dare.

"No worries, everyone here is a member of my sect. I can assure you that every word that you utter will never leak out a single word that they hear. " As she said that, her sharp gaze swept towards the youngest Cai Yin.

Cai Yin trembled, and immediately shouted for her to leave, "I, I, I'm afraid that if my mouth is opened, I'll leave immediately."

"Listen here." Xiao Ruyue said indifferently, but her words were filled with unquestionable firmness.

Cai Yin hid behind Lu Yi, covering her ears and not daring to listen. Xiao Ruyue was almost amused by her, but when it came to Xiao Jingyu, she quickly calmed down.

"That was last year's Qiu Shou. Your servant also followed me out to the enclosure. My other sisters told me to fetch some water, and I accidentally fell into the stream. My entire body was drenched. The river was quite far away from where I was camped. I had wanted to go back and change my clothes … At that time, a certain lord had drunk too much alcohol, so when he saw me, he would have let me go. If it weren't for the Lord Xiao, I wouldn't have been able to protect my innocence … "

Ripple faltered, looking extremely embarrassed.

So it turned out to be such a difficult thing to say.

Xiao Ruyue's face sunk, she roughly understood something, "The Lord who drank too much, is marble temple's?"

When Ripple heard this, her eyes widened. Her incredulous expression seemed to be asking, "How did the Empress know?!"

Xiao Ruyue's eyes sunk with deep thought. In that case, the matter could be matched.