Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 789 - 0740: Power_2

At this moment, everyone’s face turned even paler.

"Please, Empress Dowager, make the decision!" Empress Cui knelt again before the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager looked at everyone in the room and spoke solemnly, "In that case, the investigation of the poisoning is entrusted to the Empress for a thorough investigation!"

"Thank you for your grace, Empress Dowager." Empress Cui bowed and thanked her.

Princess Consort Yu Wen bit her lip, her eyes flickering incessantly.

.

Everyone who entered the inner hall was ordered by the Empress Dowager not to leave, except for Empress Cui, who was to investigate the poisoning.

Everyone was in a state of panic, crying in varying tones.

Pretending to cry for Emperor Li Can, truly crying for their own fate.

After Prince Xiangyang, who served as a Deacon in the Royal Ancestral Affairs Office, entered the palace, the Empress Dowager entrusted him with full responsibility for the Emperor’s posthumous affairs.

By seniority, Prince Xiangyang was the cousin of Emperor Li Can.

His branch could be traced back to the bloodline of the Grand Ancestor’s brothers.

Due to being far from the Imperial Power, it had always been this branch handling the Imperial Family’s affairs.

Prince Xiangyang, at forty, was thin and small in stature, and looked timid and fearful.

.

In the palace, Li Yuwen and Li Yuzhu had not yet left, waiting for Empress Cui to return.

The news of Emperor Li Can’s sudden demise had already reached the Empress Palace, and Li Yuwen sneered, saying, "He deserved it."

Li Yuzhu, however, did not laugh.

Because Empress Cui had not returned for a long time, and Mu Yuanxiu and Pei Shenyan were also absent, she vaguely felt something was amiss.

"We need to find out the situation, we can’t just sit here," Li Yuzhu looked at Li Yuwen, "Elder sister, do you have any acquaintances in the palace?"

Li Yuwen was dozing off.

The child in her belly was growing, and she was getting sleepier, needing a nap every morning, every afternoon, and sleeping from night till dawn.

She covered her mouth with a fan and let out an ungraceful yawn.

"Acquaintances? Let me think..." Li Yuwen tilted her head in thought, "It’s been years, I don’t know if those people are still in the same positions."

After thinking for a while, she recalled a few people.

Li Yuzhu, uneasy about her going out alone, accompanied her to find them.

Most people in the Empress Palace recognized Li Yuwen, and no one dared to stop her.

Li Yuwen took Li Yuzhu and swaggered out of the Empress Palace to look for acquaintances.

Familiar with the way, Li Yuwen quickly found an old eunuch she had dealt with in the past at the Imperial Eunuch.

The person was surprised to see Li Yuwen, "Great...Great Princess?"

Li Yuwen gave him a silver ingot, "Long time no see, Eunuch Wu."

Eunuch Wu thanked her and accepted it, "The Emperor is gone, does the Great Princess know?"

Li Yuwen nodded, "I know, I was just at the Empress’s place, but Empress Dowager never returned. My husband and my third sister’s husband, who entered the palace with me, are both missing. Can Eunuch Wu help inquire?"

Eunuch Wu nodded readily, "This old servant will inquire immediately."

Li Yuwen said, "We won’t move from here, we’ll wait for the eunuch."

This was in the palace alley next to the late Emperor’s palace, rarely visited.

Eunuch Wu agreed and left quickly.

Li Yuwen and Li Yuzhu couldn’t move around in the palace freely, but Eunuch Wu, a seventh-rank eunuch and the second manager of the late Emperor’s palace, could move around at will.

After waiting for more than a moment, Eunuch Wu returned running.

He relayed the information he had gathered to Li Yuwen, "Both the Great Princess’s husband and the Third Princess’s husband are in the Emperor’s Tianming Palace. The Emperor died of poisoning. The Empress Dowager is furious, and no one can leave the palace, including the Great Princess and the Third Princess."

So that’s how it is...

Li Yuwen said, "I understand."

She and Li Yuzhu returned to Empress Cui’s palace.

At this time, Empress Cui had also returned.

Li Yuwen asked her about the situation at Tianming Palace.

Empress Cui sneered, "Has Princess Consort Yu Wen failed to hide now? She’s holding onto Pei Wulang and Mr. Mu, claiming they poisoned the Emperor. Fortunately, Mr. Mu is clever. They didn’t meet the Emperor, didn’t stay in Tianming Palace for a moment, and left again, so the blame can’t be pinned on them."

Li Yuwen was concerned about the two of them, "But they haven’t returned? Could something happen?"

Empress Cui said, "Yuwen need not worry, they will be fine. Not only have they not left, but the Imperial Physicians also haven’t left. Only I have left."

Li Yuwen and Li Yuzhu exchanged a glance, speechless.

Neither anticipated things would escalate so suddenly; Li Can unexpectedly died abruptly.

Li Yuzhu feared there might be a major conspiracy involved.

She further asked Empress Cui about what the Imperial Physicians had discovered regarding Li Can’s poisoning.

"It’s arsenic, that’s what the Imperial Physicians said. But who exactly poisoned him is still unknown. I volunteered to the Empress Dowager to investigate this matter." Empress Cui sneered, "Just as well, I can investigate who secretly poisoned me!"

.

The assassination of Emperor Li Can shocked the court and country.

Some were concerned about who assassinated Li Can, while others were concerned about who the next Emperor would be.

The country could not go a day without a monarch.

The courtiers gathered outside the palace gates demanding an audience with the Empress Dowager.

Finally, the Empress Dowager had several esteemed veteran ministers invited into the palace for consultation.

Among them, Marquis Zhongyi Yu Wenbo was the first to speak about the successor, recommending Prince Xiangyang’s grandson for the next new Emperor.

Yu Wenbo’s reasoning was that Prince Xiangyang was an honest man, and his grandson, being only two years old, could be brought into the palace for better upbringing.

The other veteran ministers, worried that a powerful new Emperor might strip them of their current powers, immediately supported Yu Wenbo’s proposal.

The imperial concubine sent a message to the Empress Dowager, endorsing the veterans’ proposal.

She also expressed her willingness to recognize Prince Xiangyang’s grandson as her son and raise him.

The Empress Dowager pondered momentarily and did not oppose, agreeing.

Adopting a child would mean she remained the Empress Dowager.

But if someone else became the master of this palace, her position as the Empress Dowager would be impossible to maintain.

·

Prime Minister Pei, whose health had just slightly improved, was waiting to enter the palace the next day to meet Li Can and talk about the matter of Prince Luling.

Suddenly he learned that Li Can had died, and Yu Wenbo’s faction, which opposed him, had already selected a new Emperor; he was so frightened he nearly lost his breath.

If the new Emperor ascended the throne, he would never be able to return.

Prime Minister Pei could care no more, called for Chang Sui, wrote a letter by his own hand, and ordered Chang Sui to immediately send it to Zhen An Prefecture, notifying Prince Luling’s family to hasten to the Capital.