Transmigrated Female Official

197 homing pigeons

Faced with the Empress's barrage of questions, Ji Qili first sighed heavily, then replied expressionlessly, "No one instigated this; it all stemmed from my personal grudges."

Hearing him say this, the Empress frowned and asked again seriously, "Do you know what the consequences of such an answer will be?"

Ji Qili seemed to have made up his mind. He nodded and said, "Qili knows."

"So you still insist on carrying this burden alone?!"

“This is indeed none of anyone else’s business. Your Majesty, Qi Li should take responsibility for what he has done.”

The Empress glared at him indignantly and said coldly, "You really have guts! You've clearly done something evil, yet you still put on an act of calmly facing your execution! Anyone who didn't know better would think I'd framed you!"

"...That's not what Qi Li meant." Ji Qi Li kowtowed and said, "Qi Li has no other intentions but to ask Your Majesty for a quick death!"

After the ambush on the Sixth Princess failed, he knew that no matter how magnanimous the Emperor was, the Sixth Princess and her allies would not let him off easily.

"You still want a quick death?!" The Empress scoffed as if she had heard a ridiculous request, "Lock him up first, and we'll interrogate him another day!"

As soon as the Empress spoke, people came forward and took Ji Qili away. The Sixth Princess subconsciously glanced at Chu Qingluo… Chu Qingluo simply bit her lower lip and remained silent. Until Ji Qili revealed the mastermind, she hoped Chu Qingluo could remain calm.

The Empress leaned back on her phoenix throne, propping her forehead with one hand, and said, "Anyang, you can continue."

It was rare to see the Empress so exhausted after attending court for so long. It seemed that the infighting among her children had truly worn her down, and her silver hair appeared to have grown longer than before they left for the Yuezhi Kingdom.

"Is Your Majesty feeling unwell?" The Sixth Princess noticed this detail and immediately asked with concern.

The Empress waved her hand and said, "It's alright, let's continue with the important matter."

Seeing that the Empress had said this, the Sixth Princess continued, "The other attack occurred after we left the border city of Yuezhi..."

Because the attack yielded many clues, even implicating Princess Narcissus of the Yuezhi Kingdom, the Empress's face turned pale and then dark as she listened, and her headache worsened.

Even more flustered than the Empress was the Fourth Princess, who was already drenched in sweat.

The Sixth Princess first brought in the bandit leader and Sixi to give their confessions. When all the blame pointed directly at Brother Ma, she brought him in as well.

At this moment, the Fourth Princess's face had turned completely ashen. She was unaware that Brother Ma had been secretly captured, so she was extremely guilty the whole time and didn't dare to look back at him even once.

Although Brother Ma didn't confess right away, everyone could guess that if a commoner wanted to murder a princess who had no grudge against him, there must be a bigger master behind him instigating it.

The Empress first asked him whether the operation to send bandits to assassinate the Sixth Princess was related to the Fifth Prince, Ji Qili.

Ma Ge initially denied it outright, but then suddenly changed his story, saying that he was acting on the orders of the Fifth Prince. However, when asked how Ji Qili had relayed the orders to him, he hesitated and couldn't answer...

When the Fourth Princess saw that Brother Ma had smeared Ji Qili, she thought she could secretly breathe a sigh of relief. However, he stammered and could not explain himself, which made her continue to be worried.

Just as Brother Ma was thinking about how to spout nonsense, Princess Liu suddenly burst into laughter.

The Empress asked, "Anyang, why are you laughing?"

The Sixth Princess replied with a smile, "Your Majesty, do you remember what Anyang said before, that these two attacks were carried out by different people?"

The Empress's phoenix eyes swept over Ma Ge, who was kneeling before her, and she asked, "Are you saying that this person is currently deceiving the Emperor?"

“Exactly,” the Sixth Princess said with certainty. “And his master must also be someone from this palace.”

"How did Anyang confirm this?"

“That’s easy, Your Majesty, please wait a moment.” After saying that, the Sixth Princess nodded to Zhi Jun, who then turned and went out of the palace.

When Zhi Jun returned, he was carrying two carrier pigeons, each with a distinctive black mark on its leg.

The Sixth Princess explained, “Your Majesty, these are carrier pigeons brought back from Brother Ma’s courtyard. Since Brother Ma and his master use these carrier pigeons to deliver messages, we only need to release these two carrier pigeons on the spot… whichever palace they fly back to, it will be obvious who the culprit is.”

"Alright!" The Empress nodded, signaling her to release the carrier pigeons, and then sent people to each palace to await news.

This waiting process was like being boiled in a cauldron for the Fourth Princess! It was like her heart was being cooked in scalding water!

Before long, a servant returned carrying the two pigeons with special markings. He reported that the two carrier pigeons had flown and landed in the courtyard of the Fourth Princess's palace with great familiarity.

Suddenly, with a 'crack', the memorials that were in Chonghuan's hands were flung away by the Empress, all of them hitting the Fourth Princess!

"How dare you!" the Empress roared in fury.

The fourth princess was so frightened that she immediately knelt down on the ground and cried out, "Your Majesty, Fulin really doesn't know what's going on! Those pigeons weren't raised by Fulin! Someone is maliciously framing me, Your Majesty!"

"Fourth Sister, it's not difficult to prove who owns the pigeons," said the Sixth Princess. "Just feed the pigeons on the spot, and you'll know who their owner is. If a stranger feeds them, the pigeons will want to eat but won't dare to come close, but if the owner feeds them, they'll immediately come over and swarm to grab the food."

"Try it immediately!" The Empress gestured for someone to bring up the grains and cereals, and had the Fourth Princess feed them to her on the spot.

The Fourth Princess's palms were sweaty. Under the Empress's intimidation, she forced herself to grab a handful of grains, but her mouth trembled as she said, "Your Majesty... this is not fair."

Without a word, the Empress had Chonghuan grab a handful of grains from beside her before saying, "Now it's fair, feed them!"

Chong Huan first scattered the mixed grains in his hand, and the pigeons just watched but did not come close to eat.

The fourth princess hesitated to move, and the empress roared again, forcing her to scatter the grains in her hand... At this moment, two pigeons approached without fear and began pecking at the grains on the floor.

"What else do you have to say now?!" At this moment, the Empress's face was filled with utter disappointment!

"This...this must have been pigeons that were originally kept in Feixia Palace!" The Fourth Princess was completely flustered and only wanted to find excuses to exonerate herself.