"Your subordinate remembers clearly. Although your subordinate was drunk last night, I still had my wits about me. After Brother Qin sent someone to escort your subordinate back, I noticed someone quietly entering my courtyard and blowing sleeping incense through the door and window into my room. The small hole is still there in the door of the room where your subordinate stayed, and Your Ladyship may send someone to inspect it. This is the smoking pipe left behind by the intruder outside the door."
Seeing the smoking pipe that Du Chen handed to Chu Qinghuang, Jiang Nanzhen—who had been weeping constantly on the bed—shrank her gaze upon seeing the small smoking pipe. How could she have forgotten this thing? What was she to do now? Chu Qinghuang took the smoking pipe from Du Chen's hand, glanced at it, and sniffed it. It was just an ordinary bamboo tube, but the sleeping incense inside was of the most potent variety. Not to mention a human being, even a spirit beast would likely have been knocked out cold upon smelling it.
Chu Qinghuang glanced at the pitiful-looking Jiang Nanzhen. This item could not possibly have been obtained within Qixia Palace; it must have already been in her possession when she arrived. It seemed this had been prepared well in advance.
Chapter 324