Chapter 88 Mutual Suspicion

The Crown Princess put down the book in her hand that she had not turned a page of, her eyes fell on her son's eyes full of worry, and her heart ached.

She was silent for a moment before she slowly spoke, "Ye'er is so thoughtful. Mother has just sent someone to Zhuoming Pavilion to inquire about Pei Shaoqing's situation."

"Really?" Chao Yunye's eyes lit up and he straightened up immediately. "How is the master? Is he seriously ill? What did the imperial physician say?"

Looking at her son, the Crown Princess felt her throat tighten, and the following words were like a red-hot iron, burning her so much that she could hardly speak.

She lowered her eyes, avoiding her son's, and a rare trace of struggle and hesitation flashed across her usually calm face.

Chao Yunye is so sharp.

His mother's silence and avoidance for a moment were like an ice-cold needle, instantly piercing the faint hope in his heart.

His hands that were holding his mother's skirt trembled slightly, and his heart seemed to be tightened by an invisible hand. An ominous premonition weighed heavily on him.

"Mother? What happened to the master?"

The Crown Princess took a deep breath, and when she looked up again, the last trace of tenderness in her eyes had been replaced by a sense of determination.

She held her son's cold little hand with her backhand, a little too hard.

"Ye'er, born in an imperial family, innocence is the most luxurious thing in the world. There are some things that your mother wanted to protect you for a few more years. But now it seems that she can't protect you anymore."

She paused, each word coming out clearly and slowly, "Pei Shaoqing, this isn't just ordinary discomfort. He's been poisoned by a foul drug."

"Dirty...drug?" Chao Yunye repeated these two words blankly, unable to understand their meaning for a moment.

He stared blankly at his mother's serious face, his mind blank. But the three words "drug poisoned" suddenly split the chaos like a thunderbolt.

He suddenly remembered the subtle trembling of Mr. Pei's fingertips when he took the cup of tea he handed over at the dinner party, and the sudden tense jaw and cold sweat on his forehead.

That cup of tea.

"Could it be the cup of tea that Yunye gave to the gentleman?"

The Crown Princess closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she nodded heavily.

"No! No way! How could this happen..." Chao Yunye suddenly retracted his hand as if he had been burned, shook his head desperately, and tears instantly welled up in his eyes, "I don't know! I didn't! Mother, I really didn't..."

He was incoherent, and the huge panic and guilt almost overwhelmed him.

"Mother knows you didn't." The Crown Princess' voice carried a strange soothing power. "Ye'er, you've been used. That cup of tea passed through your hands and was delivered to Mr. Pei. The person who drugged you wanted this result."

Exploited? By whom?

Why use him to harm Mr.

Just when Chao Yunye was shocked, the Crown Princess' voice sounded again.

"Ye'er, do you still remember the flower viewing banquet at Prince Duan's Mansion in October?"

Chao Yunye's whole body stiffened.

Of course he remembered the high fever that almost took half his life, making him dizzy and his whole body burning.

The Crown Princess's gaze was as sharp as a knife, piercing her son's face. "That time, you didn't just catch a cold. You were infected with the same foul drug of the same origin and nature as what Pei Shaoqing was infected with today."

boom.

Another thunder exploded in Chao Yunye's mind.

That high fever that almost took his life...was it also caused by someone drugging him?

"The medicine was put in the cakes." The Crown Princess's voice was icy and calm, as if she was stating a fact that had nothing to do with her. "Only four people touched that plate of cakes that day: you, your uncle the Prince of Jin, Luo Zhaohan, the girl from the Luo family, and my mother."

Chao Yunye's heart was beating so fast and wildly that it almost burst out of his chest.

He forced his chaotic mind to think: Luo Zhaohan? She was just passing by, and Uncle Jin warmly invited her to try it, so she politely took a small piece. This was a coincidence.

The uncle of King Jin also ate it at that time.

Could it be...

"Uncle Prince Jin also ate it..." Chao Yunye murmured, as if defending Uncle Prince Jin.

"Yes." The Crown Princess nodded. "He ate it, but he's fine. Luo Zhaohan also only ate a small piece, and because of her special constitution, she didn't react significantly. But you, Ye'er," her eyes pierced through people's hearts, "you were young and weak, and you ate the most, so your reaction was the most severe."

"Then mother, you..." Chao Yunye suddenly thought of something, looked at his mother in horror, and clenched his little hands again.

"Mother is fine." The Crown Princess patted the back of his hand soothingly, but her eyes became even darker. "Because Mother didn't eat the cake."

Chao Yunye was stunned.

Didn’t eat? Why?

"That cake is very sweet. Your uncle, Prince Jin, specially ordered it. He knows that your mother likes sweet food."

The Crown Princess' voice carried a subtle hint of sarcasm. "But he knows even better: as long as Mother is at the table, whenever there's sweet food, Ye'er will definitely take it personally, bring it to Mother, and urge her to taste it."

Chao Yunye shuddered suddenly, and a chill rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Yes! He has always been like this! Whenever there is something delicious, especially sweet snacks, he always thinks of his mother first.

At the flower-viewing banquet, he saw the plate of sweet cakes and immediately took a piece happily, presenting it to his mother like a treasure.

Therefore, the person who drugged him didn't care whether Uncle Jin ate it or not, nor did he care whether Luo Zhaohan ate it or not.

What he was calculating was that he would definitely deliver the cakes to his mother.

Because only his mother and he were the ones who were inevitable and close enough to share that plate of pastries.

That person’s real target is my mother!

And he, Chao Yunye, was just a tool used to harm his mother!

Who is it? Who is so vicious?

Chao Yunye thought of what Mr. Pei had taught him about the dangers of the palace. At this moment, it turned into a cold and sharp blade of reality, piercing his heart.

"Who is it? Mother! Who wants to harm you? My child? My husband?" He gasped rapidly, his voice trembling with anger. "Is it... is it those evil-hearted eunuchs? Or is it the former enemy of the Crown Prince? Or... or..."

His mind flashed back to the shocked look on Uncle Rui's face at the dinner party when he heard about Pei Ji's accident. He shook his head painfully, "Could it be Uncle Rui? But Uncle Rui at that time..."

The Crown Princess listened quietly as her son ruled out his guesses one by one, then shook her head firmly.

Not a eunuch, not an old enemy, and not Prince Rui.

The rest of Chao Yunye's words got stuck in his throat.

He looked at the sorrow in his mother's eyes, which seemed to be hesitant to speak out because she was afraid of hurting him. A name that he had never dared to think of and never wanted to believe appeared in his confused mind.

The only one who meets all the criteria.

The one who smiled so lovingly every time she saw him, picked him up high, brought him new and interesting toys, and even visited him worriedly when he was sick.

"Jin...Uncle King of Jin?" Chao Yunye's voice was as soft as a whisper, with a broken tremor.

He looked at his mother intently, begging her to tell him that he was wrong!

Uncle Jin’s love is real, it must be fake, it’s a misunderstanding!

However, under her son's gaze, the Crown Princess' lips trembled slightly, and finally, she nodded with great difficulty.

"No——!" A shrill and untunable cry tore out from his throat.

Chao Yunye suddenly staggered backwards, and his small body hit the low table behind him with a dull "clang" sound.

He was completely unaware of the pain and just stared at his mother as if he didn't know her.

Big, hot tears burst out of his eyes like beads that had broken off the string.

Not only did the uncle of Prince Jin use him to harm his mother, he also caused him to almost die of illness. Now he is using him to poison the teacher he respects the most.

…

The candlelight flickered in Luoyunxuan.

Lu Yuan knelt on one knee on the cold, smooth gold brick floor, beads of sweat oozing from his forehead. He lowered his voice to a very low level, "Your Highness, the group sent to accompany Master Pei entered the deepest and densest old forest in the northwest corner of the wintersweet forest and has not emerged since. According to the rules, the three-incense-stick limit has expired."

On the brocade couch by the window, Prince Rui Chao Yinlong's slender fingers were holding a crystal clear white jade chess piece, slowly moving it on the criss-cross red sandalwood chessboard.

Upon hearing this, the action of placing the chess piece stopped abruptly.

The chess piece hung on the fingertips for a long time without falling.

The dim candlelight cast a mixture of light and dark shadows between his deep eyebrows.

"I understand." The voice was indistinguishable from joy or anger, leaving only a cold and dead silence.

In the end, he did not drop the chess piece, but simply threw it back into the jade chess pot next to him, making a crisp and cold collision sound.

"No need to search any further. Go down and rest."

Lu Yuan bowed his head: "Yes."

He quickly and quietly left the warm room, and the heavy curtains fell, isolating the inside and the outside.

The warm room became even quieter, with only the occasional crackling sound of the silver charcoal fire in the beast-mouth copper stove.

Chao Yinlong's eyes fell on the chessboard where the previous game had not yet been closed.

The black and white pieces were fighting each other in a chaotic situation.

Pei Ji escaped.

Not only did he escape, but he also silently devoured the people he sent to explore the way deep in the wintersweet forest.

The show he had carefully prepared turned into a complete joke.

King of Jin.

The third one?

Only he has such means, such a cruel heart, and sufficient motivation.

The Crown Princess and I had long known that he had drugged someone at the flower viewing banquet. With this dirty evidence in hand, the Third Brother felt like a thorn in his side.

What if Pei Ji's actions tonight in the Plum Forest weren't a series of traps set by the Prince of Jin to take advantage of the chaos? Taking advantage of the Crown Princess's vigilance about past events to confuse the public and muddy the waters? Or even worse, to frame her and create suspicion between him and the Crown Princess?

However.

Doubts also arose.

Too straightforward.

How deep was the Third Brother's scheming? Knowing that the "drugging" incident had been discovered, he resorted to the same tactic again, exposing his own weaknesses in front of him and the Crown Princess. He was as foolish as a pig stretching its neck to be slaughtered.

This is definitely not the King of Jin's style.

Could it be that this first reaction was precisely what the King of Jin had painstakingly planned, taking advantage of his own momentary suspicion so that in the end, no matter who the blame was directed at, he would be able to completely clear himself?

If the one who took action was not the third brother, who else could it be?

It was able to silently devour his well-trained elite trackers in the depths of the heavily guarded wintersweet forest.

Such a person, or such a force...

The coldness crept up my back like an icy vine.

And who is that ghost hand that disappeared in the wintersweet forest?

Huge question marks are like heavy rocks, weighing on my heart.

At this moment, the pearl curtain was gently dragged and the rings and pendants were humming softly.

Princess Rui Zhan Ruyin slowly walked out from the softly lit inner room.

She changed into a moon-white cloud brocade nightgown, and covered it with a thin, soft, smoke-like silk gown. Her long hair was loosely tied behind her head. She had removed the luxurious makeup she wore during the day and only wore a simple jade hairpin, which made her look a little gentle and tired.

"Your Highness." Her voice was gentle and low, with just the right amount of laziness. "Meng'er was making a fuss for a while, but she finally fell asleep peacefully."

She walked lightly to the edge of the couch beside Chao Yinlong and sat down next to him.

"It's late at night. If you have any worries, it's not too late to think about it tomorrow. I..."

“Bang!”

A crisp sound suddenly broke the silence in the room.

It wasn't a loud noise. Chao Yinlong raised his arm without hesitation, and with a force that absolutely kept anyone at a distance, he decisively brushed away the hand that was almost touching his cheek.

Zhan Ruyin was caught off guard.

The jade bracelet on the wrist hit the edge of the small rosewood carved table as the hand was brushed away, making a crisp sound.

Her whole body froze, her movements frozen in mid-air.

You can hear a pin drop in the warm room.

Chao Yinlong seemed to be startled by the sound caused by his own undisguised resistance at that moment.

His eyes swept across his wife's hands frozen in the air and the thin mist that suddenly welled up in her eyes, and then swept across the tightly closed door of the inner room behind her.

Meng'er just fell asleep.

A ripple spread out in the depths of the sharp and frozen lake of the heart, almost imperceptible.

He finally relaxed his stiff and cold jawline, maintaining a tone that could barely be considered calm, and explained:

"I have some important matters to attend to in the study." His voice was low and emotionless. "You should stay with Meng'er and go to bed early."

After he finished speaking, he stood up from the couch without any hesitation.

The tall figure carried an unmistakable cold aura, and without even glancing at her, he walked straight out the door.

The footsteps gradually faded away and finally disappeared into the night in the direction of the study.

She was the only one left in the warm room.

The charcoal fire in the beast's mouth copper furnace crackled, and a faint spark burst out, which went out in an instant.

The hand that had been suspended in mid-air finally slowly descended, landing at his side, the knuckles turning bluish-white from the force applied.

Zhan Ruyin suddenly raised her hand.

Just when she was about to grab the precious blue and white lotus tea cups on the desk and throw them to the ground, an extremely faint murmur, like the lightest wind, penetrated into her ears through the gap in the inner room door.

Meng'er...

Her hand froze in mid-air, her fingertips trembling slightly from the exertion. She bit her lower lip tightly, using all her strength to suppress the overwhelming desire for destruction.

Finally, the hand dropped limply.

It was as if all the bones and muscles in the body were sucked out in an instant, and he slid down the edge of the couch like a ball of mud.

She tilted her head back, gazing absentmindedly at the carved and painted ceiling of the warm room, where intricate patterns of auspicious clouds and cranes were painted. The gold lacquer flickered in the candlelight, making her eyes sore.

Big, hot tears fell without warning.

The forced dignity she maintained during the day, the cautious responses she gave to her mother-in-law, mixed with the biting humiliation and chill at this moment, turned into a bitterness that completely overwhelmed her.

Yes, today her mother-in-law summoned her to her house and dismissed her attendants. The mask of kindness and love on her face faded a little, leaving only the shrewdness and calculation tempered by a woman in the deep palace:

"Before the New Year, take Meng'er to the palace to visit the Crown Princess. She has always been kind to Meng'er. During your conversation, ask the Crown Princess carefully if she still has any memories of our Yinlong..."

"If there is even a trace of it, it will be a great opportunity for our Rui Wang Mansion."

On the way to Zhuoyun Pavilion, she held her naive daughter Meng'er in her arms, her fingers tightly pinching the child's warm cotton jacket.