The First Lackey Under The Empress

Just as Gao Lian was being executed by Zhao Du'an within the painting.

Outside the Ministry of Justice prison, a carriage escorted by imperial guards carrying torches drove from the palace and stopped outside the grim building.

Mo Chou lifted the curtain of the carriage, stepped down, and without any hesitation, led a group of people behind her into the prison.

"Lady Mo? !" Several officials, hastily arranged to oversee matters here at the prison due to Wang Chusheng's sudden death, were greatly surprised and came out to greet her: "What brings you here? Does His Majesty have any instructions?"

Mo Chou didn't bother to acknowledge them. The female official's brow was furrowed with a fierce air as she said coldly: "I want to interrogate Gao Lian."

"This…" The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice present was taken aback.

"Interrogate him alone. Take me to his cell, and no one else is to approach," Mo Chou continued, completely ignoring the other party's reaction.

The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice immediately said, "Please, this official will personally take the Lady over. Rest assured, he is being watched carefully."

Mo Chou glanced at him and said, "I said, no one else is to approach."

The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice's expression froze. Mo Chou, however, completely ignored this important figure, directly pointed to a jailer to lead the way, and then led a group of imperial guards to barge into the prison.

"Lord Vice Minister, what is Consort Mo Zhao trying to do…?" Beside him, a clerk was nervous and apprehensive. With the witness dying tonight, they were afraid that His Majesty would punish them.

"Don't interfere, don't ask! Just do your job!" The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice rebuked, staring at the latter: "If you don't want to die."

Sweat instantly beaded on the clerk's forehead.

The former waved his hand to drive away the gathered officials, turned his head to take a deep look at the prison, his expression沉凝, and exhaled heavily.

Outsiders didn't know, but he was clear that after the Xuanmen coup, when the Empress purged the palace of rebels, this unremarkable female official had stained her hands with quite a few lives.

… …

"Consort Mo Zhao, the person is ahead, held in solitary confinement," Inside the prison, the jailer fawned obsequiously, leading the group through the corridor.

Pointing to a cell door ahead, he said, "It's this one."

Then, he raised his voice and shouted, "Criminal Gao Lian? Why aren't you quickly welcoming the heavenly official!"

Silence.

An unease rose in Mo Chou's heart. She quickly walked over, the imperial guards behind her bumping the jailer to the side, gathering at the door with a clatter, the torches illuminating the scene.

Inside the cell, Gao Lian was sitting cross-legged, facing away from the crowd like a high monk, his head hanging down, motionless.

"Something's not right!"

Mo Chou's eyes narrowed: "Open the door!"

Beside her, an imperial guard drew his blade and cut the prison cell's chain, stepping inside and using the back of the blade to push him.

As soon as he touched him, Gao Lian's body slumped to the ground, his expression serene, having died peacefully without any signs of injury.

"He's dead!" The imperial guard tested his breath and said in shock.

Mo Chou was stunned, a look of astonishment appearing on her cold face.

"There are words on the ground!"

As the torches filled the cell with light, Mo Chou followed the sound and looked over, only to see a short confession written in blood on the ground in front of the body.

Mo Chou stared blankly at the scene, her expression becoming extremely strange.

She hadn't even made a move, and the person was already gone? Who had taken care of things first?

"Leave half the men to seal off the scene, the rest of you follow me out!" Mo Chou suddenly ordered, turning her head and hurrying out.

… …

… …

"Alright, you don't need to take me home, just drop me off here."

Two streets away from the Ministry of Justice, on a secluded street.

Jin Jian, holding Zhao Du'an, gently floated to the ground in an "invisible" state.

"Oh." The young female cleric was obedient and preferred to be lazy. Hearing that she didn't have to put in the effort to take someone back, she was very happy.

"Don't you want to take me back?" Zhao Du'an asked quietly, seeing her joy.

"Yeah!" Jin Jian nodded vigorously. The girl was straightforward, not faking it at all, and said with confidence: "It's tiring to fly with people."

As she spoke, she pretended to be exhausted and exhaled heavily to strengthen her persuasiveness.

Then, she stared at him with her expectant big eyes, blinking them – thanks to the crystal glasses, she had evolved from a "lifeless-eyed" Jin Jian to a "talking-eyed" Jin Jian.

For example, at this moment, her eyes seemed to be writing two big words:

Pay up!

"…" Zhao Du'an sighed, took out a silver note from his sleeve and handed it over. Only then did the latter smile and happily lower her head, carefully putting the silver note into her pouch.

"Let me tell you, this money is not given for nothing. You have to learn to forget what happened tonight and not tell anyone, understand?" Zhao Du'an instructed.

Jin Jian put away the silver note and looked up blankly: "What happened tonight?"

"…Very good, go back then."

"Oh."

Jin Jian turned into a burst of starlight and disappeared.

On the deserted street, only Zhao Du'an was left. He shook his head. He had cooperated with Jin Jian so many times and could be said to be very happy and at ease.

Although this girl looked confused, she was actually very clever and a reassuring teammate.

"Huff…"

Exhaling, Zhao Du'an walked on the quiet, deserted street, turning his head to look in the direction of the Ministry of Justice prison, recalling the scene of Gao Lian's death in his mind.

"Wouldn't this be considered putting what I've learned into practice?" He used吐槽 to relieve the heaviness after killing someone, stepping forward in the direction of the Zhao Yamen.

He was preparing to use the excuse of inquiring about news to stay at the yamen for a night, but just as he had walked out for every quarter of an hour, arriving at a crossroads, he suddenly stopped.

Under the moonlight at the crossroads, a familiar carriage with the imperial palace emblem was parked.

Beside the carriage were several imperial guards holding torches, as if waiting for him.

The carriage curtain was lifted, and with the excellent night vision of the Divine Seal Realm, he clearly saw the "I knew it was you" face of the big ice block.

Inside the carriage.

As the thick carriage curtain fell, Zhao Du'an clearly heard the imperial guards near the carriage, and even the coachman, tacitly moving away, leaving a sufficient distance, guarding the surrounding intersections.

He looked across, only to see Mo Chou lighting a small lamp for interior lighting in the carriage and putting away the flint.

The orange-yellow halo spread out, illuminating the faces of the two people.

"Why are you here?"

The two of them spoke at the same time, saying this sentence.

Then they fell silent, looking at each other.

Zhao Du'an smiled and made a gesture of invitation, ladies first.

Mo Chou looked at him coldly and said, "Don't tell me you heard about Wang Chusheng's death and went to the Zhao Yamen to see the situation."

Zhao Du'an was shocked: "Consort Zhao is extremely intelligent, Zhao admires her to the utmost."

Mo Chou sneered, with an expression that said 'Do you think I'm stupid?': "You went to the yamen on two legs?"

Is energy conservation and emission reduction not allowed? Doesn't riding a horse save on fodder? Zhao Du'an was unconvinced and retorted: "Lady Mo left the palace so late, not to see the situation at the Ministry of Justice, but to stop me, wouldn't it be to specially welcome this official into the palace to serve the Empress?"

Zhao Mouren accurately grasped the weaknesses of different people and was accustomed to using them, such as using lewd jokes to make the princess retreat again and again, and also.

At this moment, mentioning the Empress immediately made Mo Chou lose her composure. She said with a sullen face: "I just came from the Ministry of Justice prison. Gao Lian is dead. You killed him, didn't you?"

Zhao Du'an was silent.

He actually admitted it… Mo Chou was stunned. Even though she had already guessed, she couldn't help but widen her eyes: "How dare you?!"

How dare I?!

Zhao Du'an smiled and said, "As a subject, isn't it what I should do to share the worries of His Majesty? A smart subject should get things done before His Majesty even speaks."

His tone was slightly sarcastic: "Consort Mo Zhao left the palace late at night, wasn't she here to kill and silence him?"

Mo Chou was stunned, and anger welled up on her face: "What nonsense are you talking about? How could I?"

"Wouldn't you?" Zhao Du'an sneered: "But if it really wasn't, then it would be strange. How could you have happened to run into it just after Gao Lian died? What a coincidence. Moreover, your acting is a bit clumsy. When people's thoughts are exposed, they often use anger to cover it up. Your expression has already betrayed you."

Having been successfully tricked into revealing her thoughts, Mo Chou took a deep breath, knowing that she had never tasted sweetness in the many previous confrontations, so she didn't argue with him and said with a straight face: "How could you…"

"How could I know? Or, how could I think like that?"

Zhao Du'an sighed softly, leaned back on the soft cushion of the carriage, and said quietly:

"Because His Majesty needs Gao Lian to die. Isn't that obvious from the beginning?

When Chen Hong and I went out, I heard him say that in all dynasties, the most important thing for imperial envoys sent out to handle cases is not to investigate the case, but to first understand the emperor's mind.

Just like in the late Emperor's time, there was a case of corruption in the imperial examination. The late Emperor sent four waves of imperial envoys to investigate the case, dragging it on for more than a year. Why? Not because it was difficult to investigate, but because the conclusions of the case submitted by the first three waves of people were not satisfactory to the late Emperor…

Hehe, I've gone too far. In short, when Imperial Censor Chen told me, I understood that he was hinting to me that His Majesty needed a big case to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys, so as to avoid hundreds of punches…

The most difficult thing to gnaw on in the implementation of the New Deal is the interests of the families represented by the Jiangnan gentry, and Gao Lian, as expected, became the focal point of this game."

He said helplessly: "So, when I arrived in Taicang Prefecture, I mobilized troops in a big way, posing as if I was thoroughly investigating. I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate, but Gao Lian is really the backer behind the scenes. Hehe, if he wasn't, it would be my headache to find someone to bear this great crime.

If it were the late Emperor, he would probably drag him back to the capital to either directly convict him or pretend that nothing had happened, but the situation that His Majesty faces is more complicated.

His Majesty needs to be an upright and wise ruler, a sage ruler, to win the hearts of the people and crush the accusations of the rebellious party that she came to power by improper means, so she cannot act arbitrarily and can only go through the joint trial of the Three Divisions."

Zhao Du'an said expressionlessly: "But obviously, some people don't want His Majesty to be this wise ruler."