Chapter 41 (2/2)

Zhuo Qing looked towards this one side again at the Criminal Prison Division, this very unique person, red scarlet worm was obviously Qiong Yue’s distinctive poison, why was he able to answer so calmly, did not see that the two Imperial Physicians were still trembling now! He could not really be this honest ah, or he had extreme confidence in himself to be able to resolve this current’s crisis by himself?

Hearing one sentence from Dan Yu Lan that the wine was definitely poisonous, Hu Xi Ang violently roared one more time and loudly said: “Then surely there was someone who put the poison inside the wine! You all hand over that person to come out!”

Hu Xi Ang was so presumptuous, Yan Hong Tian could very much put him in prison, but what should he do at this time, would it not be more disgraceful national news to bully and humiliate a small country, if it was spread out, how could he still confront the other six countries?! Yan Hong Tian’s complexion got darker and darker, similar to the prelude of the rainstorm, the main hall sank into silence once again.

A clear, bright and gentle voice of a woman softly echoed, dissolving a trace of heavy atmosphere that made people to choke: “At the palace banquet, the wine was unexpectedly poisoned by someone, it was Ben gong’s negligence, Head Housekeeper Wu, bring the servant who touched the Princess’ wine pot to come up to Ben gong.”

This kind of situation, originally, the Empress should not speak, but as a mother of the country, the matter happened inside the woman’s palace, if she talked for a few sentences was also ok, her appearance was just in time to ease the atmosphere.

“Yes.” Looking one glance at the Emperor’s facial expression, he did not stop it, Wu Rong immediately turned around to leave.

Zhuo Qing secretly shouted ‘rotten’, Qing Ling was the one who poured the wine for the Princess ah!

Sure enough, several Imperial bodyguards pushed down three servants to the front of the palace hall, Qing Ling was also pushed to kneel down on the ground, the three servants were already frightened beyond recognition, laying on the floor repeatedly shouting: “The Queen Empress, save our lives ah, these servants were only responsible to allocate the wine to be put inside the pot, also did not know which wine pot would be given to the Princess, even if these servants were given one hundred courages, these servants would also not dare to put poison ah.”

Comparing the manner of the three servants who kissed up to beg for forgiveness, Qing Ling was kneeling straightforwardly, did not even say one word, her face was completely expressionless and cold.

The Empress slightly narrowed her eyes, looking towards Qing Ling, coldly narrated: “Qing Ling, you were the woman whom Hao Yue’s delivered as a present to enter the palace, now was demoted to be a palace maid. Did you or did you not harbor a grudge in your heart to poison Bei Qi’s Princess, or was it Hao Yue’s country who prompted you to put the poison and conspired to kill Bei Qi’s Princess, to instigate the relationship between Qiong Yue and Bei Qi?!”

Still lowering her head, Qing Ling only coldly spit out three words: “I did not.”

“You attempted to assassinate the Emperor last night, still dared to say that you did not have any evil intention?! Ben gong would give you this one opportunity, whatever you did, you should confess truthfully, Ben gong would exempt you from receiving any physical pain!”

She was always under the impression that her sisters had already died, and she was alone in this earth, what was the meaning of living also, speaking of death for her was a type of freedom, but she saw her today. She simply would not let the Empress to push the accusation to her, otherwise would surely harm them, also would harm the innocent people in Hao Yue!

For a very long time, Qing Ling finally and slowly lifted up her head, looking towards the higher up, pretending to be a woman who actually gave in for a false mercy that made people feel nauseating, with a trace of sarcastic smile, Qing Ling loudly answered: “I was not careful to smash a flower vase last night, cut the Emperor, did not fulfill and attend to my duty, the Emperor was angry, demoted me to be a palace maid. And I would stand here and serve to pour wine to Bei Qi’s Princess today, it was entirely from the Queen Empress’ order, I did not know anything before the event, if you were saying that I put the poison, then it was also the Queen Empress’ arrangement.” (Hahahaha… Gotta love the real Qing Feng also ).

“Presumptuous!” The Empress’ complexion changed greatly, originally still wanted to use affable voice, but this time was abnormally ear piercing: “Sharp teeth, sharp mouth, spouting nonsense, it seems that if I do not use torture, you will not speak the truth!!”

The Empress’ voice was trailing off, the Imperial bodyguards who were standing on the side already went up, pushed the unwavering Qing Ling to the ground.

Zhuo Qing’s heart was tightened, she could still cheer Qing Ling’s quick witted answer a moment ago, she was anxious because of her now. Looking towards Yan Hong Tian, he was still expressionless as before, did not even show Qing Ling a little bit pity, right, the Empress could also be regarded as helping him one great favor. Qing Ling was Hao Yue’s person, if everything could be pushed to Qing Ling, it was just perfect, everything was unrelated to Qiong Yue! If Bei Qi wanted to look for somebody to calculate the debt, could also look for Hao Yue!

But could she really able to let them impose this groundless accusation to her?! Looking at her being beaten? Could not! There was one continuous voice in her heart, the brain was clamoring, maybe it was the calling out from the bloodline, maybe it was Zhuo Qing’s own conscious that would not allow it, in short, Zhuo Qing knew that she could not watch with folded arms (she could not stand idly without doing anything).

Sian’s notes: Remember in chapter 15, I explained about this ti dian xing yu si (提点刑狱司) that I translated as Criminal Prison Division. The head of this division, Dan Yu Lan is back in this chapter. For consistency, I’m also using “Official Dan” whenever the other state officials call him. The actual words for his title is ‘Dan ti xing’ – (单提刑). 提 (to carry) and 刑 (punishment).

One more thing about Dan Yu Lan’s name. His last name is using this 单 character. Originally I used Shan as his last name as my dictionary showed that 单’s character for a last name was Shan. However this same character can also mean single, only, sole, etc. When this character is used other than for a last name, the pinyin word will be Dan instead of Shan. When I was reading book 3, Zazajunie actually used Dan as his last name so I asked her if his last name was Dan or Shan. She said it should be Dan. I also asked my other Chinese friend about this character and she confirmed that it should be Dan. So I decided to change his last name from Shan to Dan before I posted the chapters back then. I noticed though that the other two translators of this book were actually using Shan as his last name. I found it very interesting that this one character could be written differently in pinyin.

I was going to keep the poison’s name as ‘chi huan si chong’ instead of translating it to ‘red scarlet worm’ but decided that it would be easier to use red scarlet worm. The actual words are 赤寰丝虫.