Chapter 298: Chapter 299 - The Inside Information (2)

Beautiful Lady Nuan certainly knew that Jian Xubai was the crown prince’s follower.

So after she said that, Jian Xubai asked her knowingly, “What do you want?”

After all, once the news that Consort Cui attempted to murder Emperor Xianjia was revealed, even the emperor couldn’t keep the crown prince’s title as heir to the throne. Any people who hoped that the crown prince would take the throne definitely had only two choices after knowing this news, killing her to keep the secret, or buying her over.

It was outside the emperor’s bedroom, and the emperor was talking with the crown prince inside then. Even though it appeared that there was nobody outside the bedroom, Jian Xubai wouldn’t do anything to Beautiful Lady Nuan. Moreover, even though he didn’t have feelings for the beautiful lady, they were old friends. As long as Beautiful Lady Nuan’s offer could be discussed, he preferred to buy her over.

However, after Beautiful Lady Nuan heard that, tears fell from her eyes all of a sudden somehow. She stated in a sobbing voice, “I don’t dare to murder His Majesty, so after I came back from the Xifu Palace, I always avoided seeing Consort Cui’s people, yet how would she let go of me so easily? I almost go crazy these days. After hearing that His Majesty woke up just now, I was afraid that Consort Cui would kill me to erase the evidence against her, so I came over in a rush. Fortunately, the eunuchs at the door didn’t make things difficult for me but let me in directly.”

When she was speaking, fear was shown on her face evidently. “But now the crown prince is inside. If I go somewhere else and get caught by Consort Cui’s people…”

Looking at Jian Xubai’s handsome yet peaceful face, Beautiful Lady Nuan spoke out her request with shyness. “Can you go in and report to His Majesty for me or let me wait here, too?”

“If you come in now and report this matter to His Majesty, you will die sooner!” Hearing that, Jian Xubai knew that Beautiful Lady Nuan didn’t want to threaten him but tried to ask for help.

He sighed in secret and thought about it. In the end, he decided to help her, so he whispered, “His Majesty has pretended to be ill all the time in the past half a year, and you don’t need to ask about why he did it. Anyway, Consort Cui has a plot to murder him because he intentionally misled her or even guided her in order to ensure that the crown prince won’t intentionally take actions against Aunt Daiguo for his biological mother after he takes the throne.”

Seeing that Beautiful Lady Nuan turned pale with fear, he pondered quickly and took off the jade hairpin on his pink gold hat. Then he took out the antidote and gave it to her. “Since you have been to the Xifu Palace, no matter if you agreed to Consort Cui’s requirement, somebody will report it to His Majesty sooner or later, and it’s impossible for you to deny it. You’d better confess now.”

Jian Xubai mentioned confessing. Of course, it was not to make a confession to Emperor Xianjia in private after the crown prince left. In that case, Beautiful Lady Nuan would die soon.

After all, if Emperor Xianjia wanted to keep the crown prince’s position as heir to the throne, he must keep Consort Cui’s plot to murder him a secret.

It meant that such an insider like Beautiful Lady Nuan would surely be killed.

Hearing that, Ji Su couldn’t help but cut in. “However, your arrangement couldn’t conceal that Consort Cui forced Beautiful Lady Nuan to murder His Majesty.”

“Haven’t you said that even if the crown prince doesn’t bear a grudge against His Majesty because of Consort Cui’s death, he may vent his anger on Aunt Daiguo?” Jian Xubai smiled. “How can His Majesty not consider what you are worried about? But he can’t ask this question. After all, the crown prince is just magnanimous not stupid. If His Majesty asks, even if the crown prince doesn’t suspect now, perhaps he will think of it someday after he steels himself in the future.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly. “While Beautiful Lady Nuan is a person selected to test the crown prince.”

Beautiful Lady Nuan served Emperor Xianjia taking medicine in front of the crown prince, and it caused Consort Cui’s death directly, yet after Emperor Xianjia took a sip of medicine, nobody was sure about what would happen to him if Beautiful Lady Nuan didn’t put a pill of antidote rewarded by the king of Wuhuan in it.

Therefore, to the crown prince, Beautiful Lady Nuan had saved the emperor, while she had killed his biological mother indirectly.

The crown prince’s opinion about dealing with this imperial concubine was his attitude toward Grand Princess Daiguo’s family in the future. To him, this grand princess was Emperor Xianjia’s sister whom he favored and indulged, and she was his aunt who had bullied Consort Cui all the time for many years and was hostile to him.

“If the crown prince asks to punish Beautiful Lady Nuan, it is fine, while if he asks to be lenient to her, His Majesty won’t worry about Grand Princess Daiguo’s family, but will he spare Beautiful Lady Nuan so easily?” Ji Su pondered for a moment and expressed his confusion tactfully. “After all, His Majesty hopes that the crown prince will take the throne.”

Once what Beautiful Lady Nuan knew was revealed, it would be a fatal blow on the crown prince.

Especially “Beautiful Lady Nuan followed the empress all the time in the past.”

“If the empress sincerely protected Beautiful Lady Nuan, how could Consort Cui summon her to the Xifu Palace?” Jian Xubai shook his head. “Although I didn’t ask carefully why she went to the Xifu Palace that night, from this point, we can confirm that she is not loyal to the empress, so as long as somebody can let her get rid of the empress’s control, she doesn’t need to take a risk for the empress.”

Then he continued, “Moreover, even though Beautiful Lady Nuan knows Consort Cui’s plot, does she have evidence? Since she has no evidence, as you said, she is still the empress’s follower on the surface. If she says that Consort Cui attempts to murder His Majesty, how many people do you think will believe her? What’s more, Consort Cui took actions after His Majesty woke up. Everybody knows that His Majesty loves the crown prince most, and after he wakes up, it’s only helpful to the crown prince. Logically, Consort Cui wouldn’t murder His Majesty at the critical moment.”

Ji Su muttered, “I understand. Beautiful Lady Nuan is alone and weak and probably can’t cause trouble after she knows some secrets, yet if she can’t give a hand, in case of any mishap, His Majesty won’t mind killing her. However, after you gave instructions, Beautiful Lady Nuan can test the crown prince for His Majesty…so His Majesty will leave her alive.”

After saying that, he asked, “But do you think that the crown prince will spare Beautiful Lady Nuan, Your Highness?”

“Of course yes.” Jian Xubai was indifferent. “Because after daybreak, I will remind the crown prince that although Beautiful Lady Nuan is merely his father’s concubine, she refused to murder His Majesty even under the pressure of his biological mother, and she saved His Majesty indirectly. Even though she did something wrong, she made contributions. Since the crown prince begged for mercy for his biological mother who attempted to murder His Majesty wholeheartedly, if he is anxious to see his father’s concubine die or indifferent to this matter, it will show that he just loves his mother yet ignores his father. Won’t he hurt His Majesty’s feelings? How can the crown prince bear to do that?”

Ji Su suddenly turned pale. “Your Highness, as you said that, I think of something. You have known Consort Cui’s plot to murder His Majesty today, and both His Majesty and the crown prince are clear that you know it, so it may not be something good. Please forgive me if I say something rebellious. The crown prince needs your help now and His Majesty protects him, so he is pure and magnanimous. Even though he is clear that you know such a secret, he may not do anything to you, while in the future…”

After the crown prince took the throne, becoming the ruler and decision-maker in the future, he would change. Then if he remembered that Jian Xubai knew such a big secret, could he feel happy and relieved?

If the emperor wasn’t happy or relieved, what Jian Xubai would end up with could be imagined.

“I had no choice. Perhaps what Beautiful Lady Nuan told me outside the bedroom could be hidden from the secret guards, but she brought medicine into the bedroom and then Xun Ying caught up with her and overturned the medicine bowl. Later, they sent for the imperial doctors and traced the assassins…” Jian Xubai smiled. “I was outside the bedroom then. After I saw so many things happening, shouldn’t I help and ask? How would I know nothing?”

“Beautiful Lady Nuan is really vicious.” Ji Su didn’t have a bad impression of Beautiful Lady Nuan in the beginning. Although he didn’t agree that Jian Xubai had anything to do with her, it was because he was afraid that some people would comment on Jian Xubai and his future and fame would be ruined. After all, the eunuchs were men, so they would inevitably admire and feel pity for a great beauty, but now he wished that Princess Feinuan from Wuhuan had died earlier and didn’t enter the imperial palace of Great Rui. “If she didn’t tell you about the secret that might cause your death outside His Majesty’s bedroom, how would you be in such a difficult position?”

“She didn’t know His Majesty’s arrangements.” Jian Xubai’s eyes blinked, and he added in a casual tone, “I guess that it was just a pretense that she asked me for help. After all, the Palace of Xuanming is not mine, and she is His Majesty’s concubine. If she wants to await instructions outside the bedroom, I have to avoid suspicion and go away. Can I kick her out? Perhaps she was afraid that if the crown prince lost power, I would have a bad ending, and she couldn’t bear to see that, so she wanted to check if I had a plan to satisfy both sides. Even if I didn’t, she could remind me in advance.”

When he was stopped by Beautiful Lady Nuan in the courtyard that time after he just entered the Palace of Xuanming to serve the emperor, he noticed that she still had feelings for him.

Although he had no plan to react to her and thought that such feelings were dangerous and irrational, Beautiful Lady Nuan told him frankly out of kindness, while Jian Xubai didn’t want to owe her a favor. He knew well about his wife Song Yixiao. She generously said that it would be cheerful if there were more women in the mansion, yet once he really had feelings for another woman, Song Yixiao could kill him even if he didn’t take the woman back home.

Madam Liu, Cui Jianlian, Madam Jin…they were all previous cases, and Jian Xubai didn’t want to suffer the same.

So he would return Beautiful Lady Nuan’s favor earlier if he could, and they could walk on their own ways in the future.

While speaking, he glanced at the sand clock in the corner. “Go and have a rest first. Pack up after daybreak. Yesterday, the crown princess asked the empress for me to let me go back home today. It’s said that after she left the imperial palace, she would send the message to my mansion. Let’s go back as early as possible, in case that the people in the mansion wait for long.”

Ji Su asked in surprise, “Can we go back tomorrow after so many things happened tonight?”

“Why can’t we go back?” Jian Xubai asked casually. “His Majesty has woken up and will be in charge of the Palace of Xuanming in person. Can anybody make trouble? As for what happened, it won’t be revealed to outsiders, so it is the same as nothing happening. The only message that will spread is that Consort Cui has died of an illness, but she is not my uncle’s official wife. What does it have to do with me? I will just make preparations according to the rules after going back home. Should I go to the Xifu Palace to mourn her death with the crown prince?”

In fact, he helped Beautiful Lady Nuan because he wanted to cause Consort Cui’s death earlier through her hands.

After all, although Consort Cui vowed solemnly that she had let Cui Jianlian’s case pass, this consort had incited Emperor Xianjia to guard against Grand Princess Daiguo in the early years, and she had been exposed this year that she arranged spies around the grand princess, so it could be seen that she was not frank and forthright.

The Empress Dowager was worried that Consort Cui wouldn’t spare her beloved youngest daughter after becoming the Empress Dowager, and Jian Xubai was also afraid that Consort Cui would aim at his wife Song Yixiao in the future.

So after Jian Xubai confirmed that Emperor Xianjia would kill Consort Cui tonight, he felt a great weight taken off his mind, and he pondered over how to ask his wife to reward him after returning home.

As expected, it was peaceful next morning.

After Jian Xubai got up and washed up, he went to see the crown prince and advised him to leave Beautiful Lady Nuan alive. Even though the crown prince was still sad for his mother’s death, he was not unreasonable, and he didn’t plan to kill Beautiful Lady Nuan. After hearing that, he sighed. “Xubai, you are right. After something like this happened last night, the saddest person is Father. Although Mother is not Father’s official wife, she had been his concubine for many years and accepted his favor, but unexpectedly…”

While speaking, the crown prince was choked in sadness. Jian Xubai hurriedly poured a cup of tea for him. The crown prince received the tea cup and took a sip to moisten his throat. Later, he composed himself and then expressed in low spirits, “I will beg for mercy for Beautiful Lady Nuan later and apologize to Father by the way. I really hurt his feelings last night.”

Jian Xubai wished that Consort Cui would die earlier. Since he had achieved his goal, he wasn’t in the mood to comfort the crown prince for his loss. After he said something to show his politeness, he bade farewell with the excuse that he would return home. “Yesterday, the crown princess suggested me going back home and told my family for me. If I don’t go back today, I am afraid that my family will be worried. Moreover, although they have sent messages from home recently that everything is fine, the crown princess suddenly said that, so perhaps she got some news and it was inconvenient for her to tell me directly. Your Highness, you know that my wife is pregnant now, and there is nobody else in the huge mansion, so I am worried inevitably.”

The crown prince knew why Jian Xubai entered the imperial palace to serve the emperor, so he looked guilty after hearing that. “I am sorry to tire you. Xisu was messing around. Now both of us are busy, and it’s inconvenient for your wife to go out. After your baby is born, my wife and I will hold a banquet to apologize to you.”

“Your Highness, what are you talking about?” Jian Xubai talked with him in a polite formula for a while and then left the warm chamber, going to Emperor Xianjia’s bedroom. As expected, he was stopped outside. Xun Ying explained, “His Majesty hasn’t fully recovered, and he is still asleep.”

Emperor Xianjia had been laid up for several days. After he woke up last night, he was energetic, yet he did a lot of things after Consort Cui’s plot to murder him was exposed, so he fell asleep.

Jian Xubai knew it after he checked the time last night, so he said something to show his concern about the emperor and then told Xun Ying that he would leave the imperial palace. The eunuch expressed that he understood it. Anyway, it was not that Jian Xubai must stay for now. The Empress Dowager, emperor, empress and crown prince were always tolerant to Jian Xubai and protected him, so Xun Ying wouldn’t go against him without permission. He had to say, “But it’s better not to disturb His Majesty now.”

“I will tell Her Majesty!” Jian Xubai said goodbye to Xun Ying and then went to see Empress Su. The empress was in a fret and wasn’t in the mood to talk with him. She nodded and stated, “Take some nutritious medicinal materials back home. The kid is in the mansion alone all the time these days. I don’t know if she has thinned down.”

After expressing her concern about his wife, the empress let Jian Xubai go.