The princess regretted it.

Chapter 401 Xiao Xing

Eunuch Fuquan narrowed his eyes and glanced at the three of them sharply, "Are you living in the same room with Xiaoxiang?"

"Yes, Eunuch Fu!" the three answered in unison.

"Tell me, you live in the same room, have you noticed anything unusual about Xiaoxiang?" Eunuch Fuquan asked coldly.

The three of them lowered their heads and quietly sized each other up. One of the maids, who looked older and was dressed in a green palace maid's uniform, stepped forward and bowed. "My dear, Xiaoxiang has indeed been acting strangely lately. After receiving a letter from home at the beginning of the month, I noticed she was hiding and crying. When I asked her, she said it was because her brother was seriously ill and had been treated for a long time with no improvement. Her mother sent a message saying that the family had no money left to buy medicine and still owed money to the pharmacy."

She paused, as if thinking, and then continued, "It's just that in the past few days, she hasn't been secretly wiping away tears like before, but she has become less talkative and always worried. She works hard all day and often stares blankly at the window at night..." At this point, she secretly raised her eyes to look at Eunuch Fuquan and said cautiously, "At the time, I just thought it was because of her brother's matter, so I didn't think much of it."

Jin An sat on the threshold of the hall, her fingertips gently tapping the heater lid, the gilded phoenix pattern gleaming coldly. Serious illness, letters from home, lack of money—these words connected a suspicious trajectory like a thread. She glanced at the green-clad palace maid who had spoken, but her demeanor didn't reveal anything amiss. However, one of the two silent people nearby seemed a little nervous, the small pendant on the butterfly-shaped silver hairpin tucked into her drooping bun trembling constantly.

Apparently, Eunuch Fuquan had suspected Xiaoxiang might have been bribed. Upon learning she had disappeared, he dispatched a search of her residence, but found nothing. Her belongings were neatly arranged, with not even a single suspicious scrap of paper to be found. Now it seemed this was premeditated, and they must have cleaned up the mess.

"Is what you say true?" Eunuch Fuquan's voice was shrill and heavy, and his heart was heavy. He had basically concluded that this person would never be found. Now it all depended on whether the person who had been sent to investigate at the palace gate would bring back any information.

"Replying to Eunuch Fu, what I said is absolutely true." The green-clothed palace maid quickly replied, "Not only do I know this, Xiao Xing also knows it."

"Xiao Xing?" Eunuch Fuquan frowned, "Who is Xiao Xing?"

Among the other two people standing behind the green-clothed palace maid, the one in the moon-white gown trembled all over when she heard Eunuch Fuquan's sudden call of her name, and the small pendant on her head shook more obviously.

The palace maid in green tilted her head to look at the person behind her, and the palace maid in moon-white gown knelt down with a thud and lay on the ground without saying a word.

"Are you Xiao Xing?" Eunuch Fuquan looked at the person kneeling on the ground coldly and asked coldly.

"My lord, it is me." Xiao Xing asked in a trembling voice, lying on the ground without raising her body.

"You! Come forward and answer!" Jin'an's sudden voice interrupted the question that Eunuch Fuquan was about to ask. He turned around and looked at Jin'an, and looked in the direction of Jin'an's finger, and saw that Jin'an was pointing at the little apricot on the ground.

Xiao Xing's body stiffened, and she lowered herself even lower. After a moment of daze, she trembled and said, "Princess, I know nothing."

"Ha!" Jin An laughed. "I haven't even asked anything yet, and you're saying you know nothing? Do you know what I'm going to ask?"

Fuquan was puzzled by this. It seemed the princess suspected Xiao Xing knew something. He gestured to his two eunuchs, who bowed in understanding, then stepped forward and dragged the maid out of the main hall.

The maid in green saw this sudden change and her expression changed. She looked at Xiao Xing who was being dragged away with some disbelief. Xiao Xing was usually very honest and diligent in everything she did. There was nothing unusual about her.

When Xiao Xing was thrown to the ground by the two eunuchs, she quickly climbed up and knelt, lying flat on the ground. "Princess, please understand. I really don't know anything."

"What's your name? Where are you from? How long have you been in the palace?" Jin An ignored Xiao Xing's words and asked directly in a cold voice. "What's your relationship with Xiao Xiang?"

Xiao Xing was shaking like a sieve. "I, I, I, Princess, I am Xiao Xing, a native of Bianzhou. I entered the palace when I was seven years old, and it has been nearly ten years." She was shaking as she spoke, not knowing whether it was more from fear or cold.

Xiao Xing stopped talking at this point, and Jin An remained silent, just watching coldly. The scene suddenly became unusually quiet, with snowflakes swirling and landing freely in the courtyard. Xiao Xing, lying on the ground, felt even more panicked.

At the same time, outside the Cuiyu Pavilion, a young eunuch, hunched over, hurried inside. After passing through several corridors, he reached the door of a wing room, looked around, and knocked several times with varying degrees of force. The door opened from the inside, and the young eunuch quickly slipped inside. The door closed gently again.