The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 679

Chapter 679: 322 The Truth Revealed (Double Update)_3

If what the old ritualist said was true, then Zhang Xiu committed suicide for love.

The emperor squinted suspiciously, "Why end it all? Was it because of the empress dowager?"

"I dare not! I am because... my life will not last much longer..." The old ritualist began to feign illness and misery, resorting to all sorts of tearful and pitiful tactics, "... If your Majesty does not believe me, please call Little Physician, she was the one who diagnosed me with a terminal illness."

...

When he came out of the Imperial Study Room, the old ritualist met Xiao Liulang who had been waiting for a long time.

"I’m sorry to have implicated you, teacher." Xiao Liulang apologized guiltily.

The old ritualist sighed, "It’s not your fault, it’s my lack of consideration."

"Your reputation, teacher..."

The old ritualist waved his hand, "I never had much of a reputation to speak of. My relationship with her wasn’t like I told his majesty, but in the end... I still wronged her. She... was my wife’s sister."

His wife’s younger half-sister had been taken in by another village from a young age, and the sisters only recognized each other after they grew up.

On his wife’s deathbed, she had grabbed his hand and made him promise to take care of her only sister, Zhang Xiu, no matter what.

Zhang Xiu wanted to marry him, but he didn’t want to marry her. As a result, she impulsively entered the palace.

He was fiercely against Zhuang Jinse, to avoid implicating Zhang Xiu, he never let anyone know about their relationship. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been only him who was exiled that year. Zhang Xiu, his sister-in-law would have been exiled too.

After all, the late emperor’s edict was to exile his entire family.

"She came to see me when she was twenty-five and could leave the palace. She asked me again if I was willing to marry her? I said, I would take care of her for the rest of my life, treating her as my own sister. Then she smashed my inkstone. Later, she regretted it greatly and gave me a new one, the one I asked you to return. As she gave it to me, I didn’t hold it steady and accidentally broke a part of it... She laughed and said it was even now."

The old ritualist sighed as he recounted this, "Forget it, let’s not bring up the past. She definitely didn’t commit suicide for love. Her death was suspicious. I begged the emperor for graciousness to see her off for the last time. You should come with me."

Xiao Liulang: "Okay."

The old ritualist and Xiao Liulang went to the Shanggong Bureau accompanied by eunuch Wei.

In the previous dynasty, suicide in the palace was usually a curse that befell the entire family. This clause was abolished in this dynasty, but the deceased could not be given a peaceful burial, they could only be thrown in the wilderness.

The old ritualist gave eunuch Wei a bag of silver.