Chapter 296: Chapter 297 - The Antidote

At four o’clock in the morning, the crown prince served the exhausted Emperor Xianjia going to bed and then walked out of the bedroom cautiously without any noise.

Outside the bedroom, the eunuch Xun Ying who had served Emperor Xianjia for more than thirty years quietly stepped forward and let his hands hang by the sides. “Your Highness.”

“Father has fallen asleep.” The crown prince pinched his brows and gestured for Xun Ying to follow him out.

Xun Ying winked and ordered two young eunuchs to enter the bedroom to serve the emperor. Then he followed the crown prince.

The two came to the winding corridor outside. The crown prince didn’t speak at once but swallowed continuously. After a while, he said, “Lord Xun…”

“Your Highness, please restrain your grief.” Xun Ying’s flat and simple words made the crown prince breathe deeply all of a sudden.

The mistress of the Xifu Palace, Consort Cui, his biological mother had died?

Although the crown prince had known this result when he begged for mercy yet was refused, he still felt indescribably sad and depressed after Xun Ying confirmed the news.

After quite a while, the crown prince finally calmed down but asked about another person. “What about…Beautiful Lady Nuan?”

“His Majesty hasn’t given orders, and I don’t dare to take the liberty. I have to ask two maids to stay with Beautiful Lady,” Xun Ying said emotionlessly. “Your Highness, do you want to send a message to her?”

He intentionally stressed the words “send a message” just to remind the crown prince tactfully that the emperor’s concubine especially who was beautiful and several years younger than him was somebody that he shouldn’t be concerned about before dawn.

“I see.” In fact, when the crown prince asked this question, he realized that he forgot his manners, but he couldn’t calm down. A moment ago, soon after Emperor Xianjia finished talking with Empress Su, he summoned the crown prince.

The father and son just exchanged greetings, and then Beautiful Lady Nuan came in to serve the emperor taking medicine. After Emperor Xianjia just took a sip, Xun Ying who broke into the bedroom in haste overturned the medicine bowl.

It was because Xun Ying got a message that somebody had seen Beautiful Lady Nuan put something in the medicine bowl.

However, after the director of the Imperial Academy of Medicine came over in a rush, he found that there was poison in the medicine bowl indeed, but there was antidote added which was not harmful. As for the source of the antidote, the director found the trace that it had been put in the Beautiful Lady Nuan’s sachet.

At the moment, Beautiful Lady Nuan finally confessed that a spy arranged by Consort Cui in the Palace of Xuanming told her to see her in the Xifu Palace secretly the other day, and Consort Cui indicated euphemistically that she hoped that the beautiful lady would do something to the emperor’s medicine with the advantage as she could serve him.

Because Beautiful Lady Nuan was afraid that she couldn’t leave the Xifu Palace after she refused, she could only pretend to agree. Several days had passed, but Consort Cui didn’t do anything, so Beautiful Lady Nuan thought that she had changed her mind. After knowing that Emperor Xianjia had woken up tonight, Beautiful Lady Nuan rushed to the Palace of Xuanming and knew that he was talking with the crown prince, so she went to the place where the medicinal herbs were decocted.

“I recognized that a person who guarded the stove with the others worked for Consort Cui, so I was suspicious of that bowl of medicine, but I don’t know medical skills, and I don’t know if there is something wrong with the decoction.” Beautiful Lady Nuan explained why she had doubts yet didn’t tell anybody. “Moreover, I have a pill of antidote I got when I was in Wuhuan, and it can detoxify any poison, while a person who isn’t poisoned won’t be harmed after taking it, so I put the antidote in it secretly on the way when I brought it here. I thought that I did it in secret, while somebody still found it.”

She might be not thoughtful to do that, but there was no ground for blame in her position. She was a lonely princess of a country which had been destroyed and had been always bullied these days, so it was better to keep out of the business.

The problem was…Emperor Xianjia asked on the spot, “Why didn’t you report this matter to the empress after you left the Xifu Palace a few days ago?”

Not to mention that she should expose somebody trying to murder the emperor after she knew it, she had been following Empress Su in the past few months. She shouldn’t keep such important information from the empress.

“When Consort Cui summoned me that night, she had indicated, but I have no evidence.” Beautiful Lady Nuan was trembling with fear. “Moreover, the empress paid attention to you wholeheartedly then. I…I was afraid that I would disturb her.”

Anybody could find something wrong in her words. Firstly, Empress Su and Consort Cui racked their wits about how to support their sons in taking the throne. If Empress Su knew Consort Cui’s intention, she could find evidence even if she didn’t have. Secondly, because the empress paid attention to the emperor’s safety, once somebody tried to murder him, she would figure out a way to find the murderer to prevent hidden trouble.

However, Emperor Xianjia and the crown prince knew Beautiful Lady Nuan’s hidden meaning of saying so. She was afraid that Emperor Xianjia would be in danger.

At that time, the empress was in charge of the Palace of Xuanming, and she hoped that her son Prince of Zhao would take the throne. If she knew that Consort Cui had the plot to murder the emperor and arranged spies in the Palace of Xuanming, she would meet trick with trick and let Consort Cui’s subordinates “successfully” kill Emperor Xianjia. Then she would expose Consort Cui’s crime. In that case, even though the crown prince was chosen by Emperor Xianjia, how would he take the throne?

Beautiful Lady Nuan had nobody to rely on, and her only value was that Emperor Xianjia liked her to accompany him, while because of this, the empress was willing to take her as a follower. If Emperor Xianjia died, what could she do for the empress? So even though she followed the empress, she didn’t hope that there was something wrong with the emperor.

With this consideration, of course Beautiful Lady Nuan wouldn’t tell Empress Su that Consort Cui attempted to murder the emperor.

After hearing that, Emperor Xianjia didn’t say more but told somebody to take her away. Then he continued to investigate the servants who decocted the medicinal herbs. Then he found Meilyu and Consort Cui. After confirming that Beautiful Lady Nuan told the truth, the emperor ordered somebody to deal with Consort Cui in the Xifu Palace, and he found excuses to persuade Empress Su to have a rest in the side hall as she found something wrong and came to ask. The crown prince had complex feelings for Beautiful Lady Nuan and was at a loss. Should he thank her for putting antidote in the medicine which made Emperor Xianjia have no problem even after taking medicine? Or should he hate her as what she did exposed Consort Cui’s plot to murder the emperor and caused his biological mother’s death in the imperial palace?

The crown prince waved his hand in a fret, to show that he had nothing else to ask Xun Ying. Then he loosened his collar and stood in the wind at night for a while. He lost his wits and walked to his bedroom. Emperor Xianjia’s attitude was clear. He would handle Consort Cui and the others in secret and cover up the plot to murder him, in case that it influenced the crown prince’s position as the heir to the throne.

His father tried every means to consider for him. How could he bear to let him down?

After the servants in the Xifu Palace found that Consort Cui had died of an illness, he had to play a role as a good son who just got the sad news tomorrow.

However, the crown prince didn’t know that in the warm chambers in the east, Jian Xubai grabbed a jade hairpin with bamboo joints in his hand in a room not far away from his. Jian Xubai exerted internal force and the hollow hairpin was smashed to powder in silence.

“Your Highness?” Ji Su was stunned to see that. He was Jian Xubai’s trusted subordinate, so he certainly knew that this jade hairpin with bamboo joints looked ordinary, but there was a secret hidden in it. In one hollow joint of the hairpin, there was a pill of antidote which could detoxify any poison hidden in it all the time.

After Jian Xubai was poisoned in Wuhuan that year, Elder Lady Duanmu sent Aunt Yun to cure him and specially told her to give it to him. It was produced by Jinxiu Hall secretly and used for emergency. This time he entered the imperial palace to serve the emperor, and he could hardly predict whether he would have good luck or bad luck, so he certainly should bring it just in case.

However, Ji Su thought that the emperor had woken up, so why would he use it? Seeing that the jade powder scattered between Jian Xubai’s fingers, he knew that the antidote was not inside.

His heart beat fast. “Did somebody harm you…”

“Somebody put poison in His Majesty’s medicine, so I put the antidote in it.” Jian Xubai shook his head and explained simply, “But it was said that Beautiful Lady Nuan put the antidote in it. In order to prevent the imperial doctor from suspecting, I told her to put the antidote in her sachet and pinch it before putting it in the medicine. Now the secret of this hairpin can’t be revealed to anybody, so I can do nothing but ruin it.”

While speaking, he had ruined the whole jade hairpin and thrown it into the small pond outside the window casually. Then he waved his wide sleeve, and there were ripples on the water in the pond. In an instant, the powder floating on the water surface disappeared.

Ji Su ignored the hairpin and asked in shock, “Who is so bold as to murder His Majesty?”

When he asked, he turned to the side hall subconsciously, where Empress Su had a short break now.

“Consort Cui in name.” However, Jian Xubai replied in a strange tone. “But in fact, it’s His Majesty.”

Ji Su was shocked to hear that somebody attempted to murder the emperor, and now he almost jumped up. “His Majesty?”

“If His Majesty didn’t permit, could Consort Cui do something in the Palace of Xuanming?” Jian Xubai sneered. “The empress is the mistress in charge of the imperial harem system, but she can’t order the people in the Palace of Xuanming if His Majesty wasn’t unconscious this time, let alone Consort Cui. His Majesty has been on the throne for a long time. If he can’t even restrain the people in his residence, he may have died for many times when he fought for the title of heir to the throne then. Unfortunately, the empress knows this matter, yet Consort Cui was ignorant. Oh, perhaps it is not that she didn’t know, but she wanted to be the Empress Dowager too much and was blinded by lust for power.”

“But His Majesty’s health worsened day by day since the beginning of the year, so perhaps the people in the Palace of Xuanming want to consider for the future?” Ji Su thought that it was inconceivable. “Otherwise, if His Majesty wants to depose the crown prince, he only needs to say one word. Why did he make a detour and start with Consort Cui?”

Jian Xubai snorted after hearing that. “Depose the crown prince? If His Majesty wants to depose the crown prince, he doesn’t need to bother to do that. The problem is that he doesn’t plan to select another prince as the heir to the throne but is determined to let the crown prince take the throne. Then how would it be easy to deal with Consort Cui?” Seeing that Ji Su looked confused, Jian Xubai smiled. “After all, to His Majesty, the crown prince is more important than Aunt Daiguo, who is more important than Consort Cui.”

“His Majesty plans to give the throne to the crown prince, while he also wants to protect Grand Princess Daiguo?” Hearing that, Ji Su finally understood. “But once the crown prince takes the throne, Consort Cui will be the Empress Dowager, and then she will enjoy glory because of her son and get back at Grand Princess Daiguo, who will be unlucky then. So His Majesty plans to deal with Consort Cui before the crown prince takes the throne?”

After all, although the crown prince was Consort Cui’s biological son, he seldom stayed with her since childhood, and the love between them was not as deep as that between him and his father, so if Emperor Xianjia punished Grand Princess Daiguo’s family before he died and asked the crown prince to give them a way out in the future, the crown prince would agree.

And the precondition was that there was no Empress Dowager Cui who insisted on wiping them out.

Otherwise, even if the crown prince kept his promise, the people who wanted to flatter the Empress Dowager would resort to every conceivable means to take actions against Grand Princess Daiguo’s family then.

It meant that if Emperor Xianjia wanted to protect his sister, Consort Cui had to die.

Under this situation, the simplest way was to select another prince as the heir to the throne, but the emperor didn’t care about the life and death of the crown prince’s biological mother, nor did he want to choose another heir to the throne, so he had to make Consort Cui die reasonably after reaping the fruits of her actions, while the crown prince couldn’t say anything.

Especially he couldn’t blame anybody that the emperor wanted to protect, such as Grand Princess Daiguo.

Then what crime was more suitable than murdering the emperor?

According to the law, it was guilt beyond forgiveness, and according to personal feelings, the crown prince was closer to the emperor than to Consort Cui. If he had to choose one between his parents, he would surely choose the emperor. According to the ethical code, a woman who murdered her husband should be sentenced to death.

While thinking, Ji Su had cold sweat all over and couldn’t help but swallow. He tried to calm down before asking, “But…won’t the crown prince think that Consort Cui wouldn’t have made such a stupid move if Grand Princess Daiguo hadn’t forced her?”