At dusk the next day, the Queen Mother's carriage left the palace with light clothes and returned to her parents' home on the grounds of visiting her relatives.

The Xiao family mansion in the middle of Kuishou Street is located directly opposite the Lu family. Like the Lu family, it is just a temporary place for the children of the family who entered Beijing. Strictly speaking, it is not a serious prime minister's mansion.

The Empress Dowager got off the carriage in front of two stone lions and brought the palace maids into the mansion. Because of her identity, even the elders of the family who should have been called uncle had to come out to greet them.

However, Xiao Ting, the Empress Dowager's baby nephew, hid at this time, and no one in the whole mansion could find anyone.

The Empress Dowager came here this time and naturally did not ask Xiao Ting to vent her anger. After a few polite words with the housewife, she came to the residence in the rear, the residence of Prime Minister Xiao Chuyang.

The Xiao family has been worshipping ministers for three dynasties, and their status is unparalleled, but it is not as luxurious as the merchants and princes and the family education is extremely strict, and it is even a little simple. There are no messy treasures of mountains and seas in the mansion. Once the school and residence are abandoned, there will be no places to visit.

Xiao Chuyang's official rank has always been unmistakable. He has gained some reputation as a teenager. Because he was the second son of the Xiao family, he was released as an official like other Xiao family children and slowly climbed up from the bottom.

At first, Xiao Chuyang was just a county magistrate in a small place near Lingnan. He could not even run away from the poor mountains and rivers. Xiao Chuyang walked around the steep mountains in the county. Because of his medical skills, he carried a small medicine box to treat the poor people who were short of medical treatment.

There are many children of the Xiao family, and there are many others with the surname Xiao. Xiao Chuyang never revealed his background during his tenure as a county magistrate. Even his direct superiors did not know that this barefoot county magistrate was actually the legitimate son of the Xiao family in Huainan.

Later, Xiao Chuyang's father and elder brother suffered from stubborn diseases one after another, so they called Xiao Chuyang back from another place and became prime minister directly when they entered Beijing, until today.

The courtyard where Xiao Chuyang lives was only his first wife and two old servants. Most of the rooms were empty, and the remaining rooms were various books and files. Because it was getting darker, only a light was on in the study.

The Empress Dowager is Xiao Chuyang's youngest sister and is very familiar with the courtyard. After letting the accompanying palace maids wait outside, she entered the courtyard alone and knocked on the door outside the study.

"Second brother?"

Soon, Xiao Chuyang, wearing a Confucian shirt, opened the door, first raised his hand and bowed according to the rules: "See the Empress Dowager." Then he turned around and walked back, sat down behind a large desk, picked up half of the file he saw, without even raising his eyebrows:

"Why are you back? Can't stay in the palace?"

As the saying goes, "The elder brother is a father." The age difference between the Empress Dowager and Xiao Chuyang is very different, so as a younger sister, I was naturally a little scared. At this time, I entered the study with a straight posture and closed the door, walked to the chair next to the desk and sat down, and hesitated for a moment:

"I'll come back and take a look... Well, the emperor seemed to have to set up a ten martial masters a few days ago. The warriors are already powerful, and all the vassal kings and generals all have heavy troops..."

"Personal courage has nothing to do with the overall situation. Shi Wukui is nothing more than appeasement of martial arts practitioners in the city. He fights secretly all day long. He dares to do anything to gain fame. It is better to give them a name to fight for it."

"oh……"

The queen mother nodded, thought for a while, and chuckled, "Xu Buling's martial arts skills are good, can she rank it in?"

Xiao Chuyang said calmly: "Eunuch Jia admires Xu Buling very much and originally wanted to rank him tenth. However, the son of a vassal king and the martial arts fight for the sects of the martial arts, so he directly made a decision and made the warrior dissatisfied. If Xu Buling had this intention, he could just fight for it himself."

The empress dowager smiled and recalled: "Xu Buling was hit by the Dragon Lock Gu, and his martial arts skills were not enough. It was a bit difficult to compete for the Ten Martial Arts. I don't know when I could get rid of the poison... By the way, I remember that the Baiyue camps were pacified by my grandfather, and it was the bandits whom my grandfather led his troops to wipe out. The Dragon Lock Gu is rare in the world. Did my grandfather leave some at that time?"

After saying that, the Empress Dowager carefully observed Xiao Chuyang's face.

But what the Empress Dowager didn't expect was that Xiao Chuyang was as calm as ever, turned the book over a page and said casually:

"At that time, one was left in Huainan, just a poisonous insect. I didn't find any methods to raise the gu, so it was useless."

“!!!”

The Empress Dowager was stunned for a long time before she came to her senses and said with a little confusion:

"Well... Xu Buling was poisoned, and the court has been checking the Dragon Lock Gu. It won't be related to my Xiao family, right?"

Xiao Chuyang shook his head: "Originally, I was just kept at home. When my father was still there, bandits were rampant in the world. In order to prevent too many people from losing their hands, I secretly used them several times. Until the spring of the second year of Zhaohong, the imperial court was frightened by iron eagles and deer, and the masters still couldn't do anything to Zhuchou Mountain. The Cui family in Youzhou and my Xiao family were family friends. They were military advisors with grandfather. When they knew about this, they came to borrow the Dragon Lock Gu from me. Due to their affection, I wrote a letter to your sister to hand over the Dragon Lock Gu to the Cui family."

"ah?"

The queen mother's eyes showed a bit of seriousness: "Is it possible that it was the poison caused by the Cui family?"

Xiao Chuyang sighed lightly: "After Zhu Chushan was sentenced to death, he was surprised on the way back to transport the Dragon Lock Gu. There was no news about the Dead Warrior and Dragon Lock Gu. There was no news yet."

The Empress Dowager was anxious when she heard this: "Why don't even know about this? If the Dragon Locking Gu in Xu Buling came from my Xiao family, if he didn't explain it clearly in advance..."

Xiao Chuyang closed the book and shook his head: "When the Baiyue period defeated the soldiers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties, Emperor Xiaozong issued an imperial order to clear out such poisonous substances, and his grandfather left behind without permission was equivalent to disobeying military orders. When outsiders learned that it would inevitably ruin his grandfather's reputation for his life.

Moreover, the Dragon Lock Gu is not the only one in my Xiao family. Before the Dragon Lock Gu was lost, there were cases of death in the world of people who died of the Dragon Lock Gu. There must be ways to raise the Dragon Lock Gu. Xu Buling is difficult to determine which Dragon Lock Gu was. He said it in advance and not only damaged his grandfather's reputation, but also caused trouble for nothing.

Secondly, my grandfather and father have been studying it for half a lifetime. The dragon locking pot of my Xiao family has no medicine to solve. If the dragon locking pot of my Xiao family is really the dragon locking pot of my Xiao family, it will be a useless person if he doesn't die. Even if he confesses, he will be angry. How can you tell me that I will confess?"

The Empress Dowager's heart sank, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Can we know who was the Dragon Locking Gu?"

Xiao Chuyang frowned slightly, tapped the table with his fingers, looked at the direction of the imperial city, and shook his head again:

"If Xu Buling's one of the Xiao family members is involved, it may be very important, and I will not be able to see through the situation... Don't spread this matter, it will have harm but no benefits."

"If it is finally found out by the Master or Xu family..."

"The poison is not something that my Xiao family can do. Even if I finally pull my Xiao family into the water, I have my own way to deal with it, just wait and see what happens."

"oh……"
Chapter completed!