Volume 6: Demons Rise from the East Sea Chapter 391: The Ultimate Mystery of the Iron Coffin (Part 2)
Why do I think so?
Why?
Xu Zun held the railing of the boat tightly with both hands, feeling extremely incredible.
Just now, just a flash of thought made him come up with such an extremely absurd speculation.
However, as he continued to deduce, this absurd speculation became increasingly difficult to refute.
That shouldn’t be the case, right?
Xu Zun forced himself to suppress the violent heaving of his chest, and after his emotions stabilized, he reviewed his previous deductions again.
Yesterday in Changle Palace of the Enchanted Kingdom, the prince told them a scandal of Queen Mother Lin in order to drag himself into the water:
It turns out that Empress Dowager Lin had an affair with the former imperial teacher Qiu Dingtian, and she became pregnant and gave birth to the second prince Li Yi.
This incident was the fuse for the later Iron Coffin Case.
After the rumor spread, the Queen Mother and Qiu Dingtian broke off relations and wanted to kill Qiu Dingtian, who was nearly ninety years old.
Qiu Dingtian was forced to flee to Xiazhou, and the Queen Mother secretly ordered the Ruan family of Xiazhou to kill Qiu Dingtian and transport his body back to the Holy Capital.
In order to prevent Qiu Dingtian from resurrecting his body, Ruan specially made an iron coffin to bury him and transport him.
This led to the Iron Coffin Case, which resulted in the Iron Coffin being attacked by Shen Tiande and others in Xinye County.
However, Shen Tiande discovered that there was no Qiu Dingtian in the iron coffin, but only the living dead Ku Niang who practiced magic. As a result, Qiu Dingtian's whereabouts were unknown from then on, and his life or death was unknown...
All of this seems to make sense, but it is not logical and there are even many doubts.
First of all, the Queen Mother is such a shrewd and powerful person. If such a scandal really happened, how could the rumor spread?
With the Queen Mother's methods, there probably won't be a single person left who knows the truth, right?
Secondly, Xu Zun didn’t know when the rumor started, but judging from the prince’s tone, it should have been after the death of the late emperor.
Well... Second Prince Li Yi is now over thirty years old, so considering this, this rumor is quite strange.
If it was really a palace maid who leaked the information, why didn't she disclose it when the late emperor was still alive, but had to wait until the empress dowager took power before leaking it? Isn't this clearly seeking death?
Finally, the handling of Qiu Dingtian is also puzzling. If the Queen Mother really wanted to kill Qiu Dingtian to silence him, would she have allowed him to escape to Xiazhou?
In the end, Qiu Dingtian was killed by the Xiazhou Ruan family. Why didn't they just burn the body? As long as the body was gone, there would be no need for blood test? Why did they have to take the risk of transporting the body back to the Holy City?
Could it be that the Queen Mother did not trust the Ruan family and wanted to see Qiu Dingtian's body with her own eyes? But if that was the case, wouldn't it be better to send a trusted person to take a look?
Xiazhou is far away from the Holy City. Even though it was winter, the corpse would have probably deteriorated long ago after the trip back and forth.
What is even more intriguing is that according to Ku Niang’s confirmation, Qiu Dingtian’s body was not put into the iron coffin at all!
I don’t know, was he secretly transported back to the Holy Capital by the Queen Mother, or was it that the Ruan family never killed Qiu Dingtian at all?
The former seems unlikely. Otherwise, why would the empress dowager send troops to Xiazhou under the pretext of the Yonghui ghost incident?
But if it is the latter, the probability seems not high.
Just think about it, if the Ruan family of Xiazhou was not stupid, they would not do anything to deceive the Queen Mother. After all, the arm is not strong enough to twist the thigh. Once the Queen Mother is angry, it will be easy to destroy Xiazhou. There is no need for them to give up the entire family for a national teacher.
So...what else could it be?
unless……
unless……
Xu Zun pondered over it and deliberated over it again and again, and finally came to the conclusion that it was most likely that the Queen Mother was behind this!
This rumor was most likely fabricated by the Queen Mother herself!
Wow…
Thinking of this, Xu Zun felt a chill on his back again. If he had guessed it right, then the empress dowager's scheming and tactics were truly unfathomable!
Why did she do that?
Why would he spread a rumor that was so unfavorable to him and even against the moral principles of the state at a time when he had all the power?
If there were no greater benefit, she would never do this, right?
So...what are the benefits?
acting……
The Queen Mother and Xiazhou Ruan are acting...
No, among the Thirty-Six Stratagems, there is a tactic called "playing hard to get" and another one called "creating something out of nothing". The Queen Mother is very good at using these two tactics!
If I'm not mistaken, she is using this rumor that is unfavorable to her to capture her opponent!
Just imagine, once the rumor spreads, it will inevitably bring hope to the hostile forces hiding in the dark, making them ready to take action.
So, whoever wants to make a fuss out of the rumors, whoever wants to touch the iron coffin, will be exposed in front of the Queen Mother and fall into the trap carefully prepared by the Queen Mother.
In this way, the enemies and friends will be clearly distinguished, which will be more conducive to the Queen Mother's grasp of power.
My God, what a terrible Empress Dowager Lin!
If her inference was correct, then in the Yonghui incident, she was just putting on a show to make some people more certain that the empress dowager's leverage was in Xiazhou and on Qiu Dingtian.
In fact, the Queen Mother already knew everyone's background.
At the same time, the Queen Mother used the Xuanmen founded by Li Renhe and the Crown Prince to manipulate everyone.
The heavenly calamity incident seemed to be an assassination attempt on the Queen Mother, but in fact, the Queen Mother used the Xuanmen to eliminate those dissidents and those forces that could restrain her.
Oh no…
Xu Zun thought with horror, if his guess was right, then the Queen Mother had set up so many traps and plotted so many schemes, and now the net had been closed, could it be that... she was really going to be the empress?
Isn’t this too... too awesome?
As the saying goes: People are busy scheming , and they always scheme about themselves. But could Empress Dowager Lin's ingenious schemes one after another help her eventually get to the throne?
Huh…Huh…
The more Xu Zun thought about it, the more frightened he became. His breathing became rapid and his blood boiled.
He turned to think:
So...what about Shen Tiande?
Were you also fooled by the Queen Mother?
The iron coffin completely exposed him?
Shen Qian took the opportunity to kill her biological father. Could it be... Could it be that Shen Qian was also the Queen Mother's person?
Shen Qian was threatened by the Queen Mother. In order to save the lives of her three brothers, she did not hesitate to murder Mr. Shen? Although she lost her father, she was able to save her three brothers?
But Shen Xingran said that Shen Qian was with Princess Ronghua, so...could Shen Qian be a double agent?
Or maybe Princess Ronghua simply obeys the Queen Mother?
Yes, if Empress Dowager Lin became the empress, then Princess Ronghua could become the crown princess!
this……
Xu Zun's thinking is like a high-speed rotating machine, which cannot be stopped once it is started.
He also didn't expect that an iron coffin case could hide such a profound mystery.
So...what impact will this have on me?
He quickly transferred his shocking speculation to himself. Although he had seen through the Queen Mother's mystery, would it be of any help to his future?
It seems that not only will it not help, but it will accelerate its own demise?
Just imagine, how could the Queen Mother allow someone who could see through her profound mysteries to exist? Although she needed smart people, they must not be too smart.
Tsk tsk…
So...what will the death of the prince bring to me?
Even though the Crown Prince was the Queen Mother's biggest obstacle in becoming the Empress, the more this was the case, the more she couldn't show it too obviously.
In other words, when I return to the Holy Capital to report, the Queen Mother will not reward me heavily, but will punish me severely. I will definitely be charged with the crime of protecting the Crown Prince from harm!
So...is there any way to break the impasse?
