Being mistaken for a homosexual by one's own mother is truly unbelievable.

Tang Ze and the others laughed until their cheeks hurt.

Xie Jingyan looked at Shen Wan and said, "Didn't you want to ask Lu Cheng some questions?"

Shen Wan shook her head. "No need to ask."

She originally wanted to ask if Lu Cheng was behind the strange events that happened between the Yun and Li families last night, and what his true feelings were for Yun Rui. Now that she knew Lu Cheng had successfully persuaded Marquis Xuanping and his wife to come and propose marriage, there was no need to ask anymore.

Without disturbing their conversation, Shen Wan led her maid back to her room.

Xie Jingyan and the others stayed in the study for a while, and then the dishes prepared by Chef Li were delivered from the outer courtyard.

Twelve dishes and one soup.

They were all making Chef Li's signature dishes.

Everything that flies in the sky, runs on the ground, and swims in the water is there.

Even though Prince Yanping and Tang Ze were of noble status, they didn't often get to eat imperial cuisine. They could only taste it when attending palace banquets, but palace banquets mainly served cold dishes. Once the dishes were cold, they lost some of their flavor and couldn't compare to the freshness of the dishes that were just cooked.

They'd barely started eating when they already made plans to come back for another free meal.

While Xie Jingyan and the others were having dinner in the main hall, clinking glasses and laughing, Shen Wan was having dinner in the inner room. The food was naturally prepared by Chef Li, but there weren't twelve dishes, since it was just for her alone. He chose six dishes that Shen Wan liked and sent them over.

Even Liu Dao Chen Wan couldn't finish it; half went into her stomach, and the other half went into Yin Shuang and Hai Tang's stomachs.

As a maid, to be able to eat imperial meals with your master—how many lifetimes must one have accumulated to have such a blessing?

The sun was hottest at noon, so after finishing lunch, Shen Wan didn't go out for a walk. She walked around the house for a while, then sat on the small couch reading. Feeling sleepy, she prepared to go to bed for a nap.

Just as she reached the bedside, Haitang came in and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince of Cheng has collapsed and vomited blood at Huguo Temple..."

Shen Wan was startled.

Didn't Xie Jingyan send people to guard Huguo Temple? How come the Crown Prince of Cheng was still harmed?

Feeling uneasy, Shen Wan turned and went out. Xie Jingyan and the others, having finished eating and drinking, came out of the main hall. Seeing Shen Wan's worried face, Xie Jingyan said, "I'm going to Huguo Temple."

The Emperor entrusted Xie Jingyan with the task of finding the poisoner for Prince Cheng's heir. Since Prince Cheng's heir was in trouble, he would definitely have to go and inquire about it.

Not only Xie Jingyan was going, but he also had to take Doctor Tao with him.

After watching Xie Jingyan and the others leave Moyuxuan, Shen Wan returned to her room. She had been feeling very sleepy, but the interruption had dispelled her drowsiness.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

Shen Wan couldn't understand how she could still fall victim to the poisoning even with Xie Jingyan sending people to watch her and the Crown Prince of Cheng knowing that someone was trying to harm her. She wondered how powerful the person who poisoned her must be to be so cunning and difficult to guard against.

Unable to guess, Shen Wan stopped guessing, closed her eyes and cleared her mind, and fell asleep after a while.

She fell asleep and woke up in the evening. Before Shen Wan got up, Xie Jingyan returned.

Seeing him come in, Shen Wan quickly threw off the covers and got out of bed, asking, "Is the Crown Prince of Cheng alright?"

Xie Jingyan told him, "He's fine. He was just faking it by vomiting blood and fainting."

Shen Wan, “…???”

"Pretending?" Shen Wan's lips twitched.

"Why would the Crown Prince of Cheng do something so frightening out of the blue?"

She was worried when she heard the news that the Crown Prince had vomited blood and fainted, let alone the Princess Consort and Princess Yong'an, who cared about him.

Shen Wan thought the Crown Prince of Cheng was quite annoying, when she heard Xie Jingyan say, "His act of vomiting blood and fainting wasn't in vain; we've caught the one who poisoned him."

Shen Wan, "..."

Shen Wan silently retracted her words that she thought the Crown Prince of Cheng deserved a beating, and asked, "Who poisoned the Crown Prince of Cheng?"

Xie Jingyan sat down, poured himself a cup of tea, and then said, "Today, the Empress Dowager sent someone to Huguo Temple to visit Prince Cheng's heir, bringing some pastries..."

The Crown Prince was sent to Huguo Temple by the Empress Dowager. Xie Jingyan and Eunuch Yuan went to see him and told the Crown Prince to be careful about what he ate at Huguo Temple and not to eat anything he could avoid. Although he didn't say it explicitly, the Crown Prince could guess that his weakness over the years was not only due to his birth but also because someone was trying to harm him. He wanted to live like a normal person so badly that even though he didn't like the vegetarian food at Huguo Temple, he forced himself to eat his fill at every meal.

He remembered Xie Jingyan's instructions and refused to eat even the pastries that his mother, Consort Cheng, brought, even though they were his favorites.

The palace maid sent by the Empress Dowager today was the same one who usually went to Prince Cheng's residence to see him in place of the Empress Dowager. Prince Cheng was wary of the pastries, but not of the palace maid. However, the palace maid kept saying that the Empress Dowager cared about her and had specially asked the imperial chef to make the pastries he liked. When she saw that he didn't eat any, she even took a piece and handed it to him herself.

The Crown Prince became suspicious. The palace maid was only there to see him on behalf of the Empress Dowager. Whether he ate the pastries or not would not affect the palace maid's return to the palace to report. However, she insisted that he eat them. He hadn't thought anything of it before, but after Xie Jingyan reminded him to be careful about what he ate, he couldn't help but become suspicious.

The Crown Prince accepted the pastry, gave a wink to the servant beside him, took a bite, and the servant then spoke to distract the palace maid, allowing him to spit out the pastry.

Seeing that he had eaten the pastries, the palace maid prepared to return to the palace. However, the Crown Prince said he needed to write a letter to the Empress Dowager, so the palace maid had no choice but to wait for him.

The Crown Prince picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and had only written half a letter when suddenly he spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the letter red.

The palace maid turned pale with fright, and the entire Huguo Temple was thrown into chaos.

The Crown Prince of Cheng is no ordinary person. He is the son of the Emperor's younger brother, the only son of the Emperor. He was sent to Huguo Temple by the Empress Dowager to recuperate because he was interested in the blessed land of Huguo Temple. If anything were to happen to the Crown Prince of Cheng at Huguo Temple, the entire temple would suffer.

Huguo Temple quickly sent someone to inform Prince Cheng and Princess Cheng that they knew. The person sent by Xie Jingyan did not know that the Crown Prince of Cheng was pretending, and felt that he had failed in his duty, so he quickly sent a message to Xie Jingyan by carrier pigeon.

Shen Wan exclaimed in shock, "The Empress Dowager dotes on Prince Cheng so much, how could she possibly poison him?"

The Empress Dowager sent someone to visit Crown Prince Seong and bring him food. No one would suspect that there was something wrong with the food, but the person who could instruct a palace maid close to the Empress Dowager to murder Crown Prince Seong must have been someone from the palace.

To instigate someone close to the Empress Dowager to murder her own grandson—that's incredibly audacious.

Shen Wan was eager to know who this person who had borrowed courage from heaven was, so she asked, "Have you been able to find out who instructed that palace maid?"

Xie Jingyan's eyes were dark. When he arrived at Huguo Temple, King Cheng had already arrived. King Cheng was interrogating a palace maid in the meditation room and had people guarding the outside of the meditation room. Xie Jingyan's men could not get close, so Xie Jingyan could not answer Shen Wan's question.

He only said one sentence: "King Cheng broke the palace maid's neck."