Chapter 555: The Imperial Physician Betrays

Qin Yuwei refused to give in, glared at Li Yao and accused:

"You are just getting carried away because His Majesty has temporarily entrusted the Crown Prince to your care.

Don't think I don't know you have ulterior motives. I'm afraid you are just hoping that the prince will make a mistake so that your own son can have a chance!"

When Qin Yuwei said this, the concubines around her were all shocked and even forgot to cry.

Discussing the crown prince in front of the queen's spirit is too outrageous even if the emperor is not here now!

Several concubines who had a good relationship with Qin Yuwei even changed their expressions slightly. They looked at each other and no one dared to speak.

Concubine Qin usually doesn't speak without thinking like this. What happened to her today?

Zheng Changzai kept winking at her, but Qin Yuwei seemed to be blinded by anger and continued to scold Li Yao. Every word she said was revealing her desire to become the crown prince.

Li Yao couldn't stand this anger. She was so angry that she pointed at Yan Ning who was kneeling on the ground and blurted out:

"Coveting the position of crown prince? Haha, him?

A bastard, do you think you are worthy enough to compete with my son?"

In an instant, the entire hall fell into deathly silence; even the sound of breathing stopped at the same time.

Only Qin Yuwei and Dong Zhu exchanged glances calmly.

…

The atmosphere in Fengyi Palace was suffocatingly depressing.

Yan Xiuyun sat on a chair with a gloomy face, Li Yao knelt in front of him, and the other concubines were present.

Li Yao tried to remain calm and explained:

"Your Majesty, I did not slander the Queen and the Crown Prince.

The prince is indeed the bastard born to the queen and Xiao Yuan. If you don't believe it, you can use blood test to verify your paternity!"

Qin Yuwei sneered beside him, her tone was sarcastic:

"Noble Concubine Rong has really been in the harem for too long and has become closed-minded.

Don't you know that several years ago, the Imperial Censor Zhu Lan had proved in front of His Majesty and all the civil and military officials that the blood test was unreliable?"

Yan Xiuyun looked at Li Yao with an even colder gaze, filled with anger.

Li Yao hurriedly shouted: "Your Majesty, I am not talking nonsense, I have witnesses!"

"Your Majesty, do you remember that when the Queen was pregnant in the East Palace, the doctor who took her pulse was named Ju Yuanqing.

You were not in the capital at that time. It was the Queen who had an affair with Xiao Yuan and got pregnant with a bastard. Then she bribed Ju Yuanqing to lie about the birth month of the baby and pretend that it was your child!

After the Queen gave birth to the Prince, Ju Yuanqing left the capital. I have sent people to find him.

You can find out if you summon Ju Yuanqing to ask him whether what I said is true or not! "

Seeing Li Yao's confident words, the concubines present also showed surprise and doubt on their faces. No one dared to say anything, and they just secretly looked at Yan Xiuyun's expression.

The muscles on Yan Xiuyun's cheeks twitched slightly, and after a long while he suppressed his emotions and said:

"Bring the man up."

Li Yao breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

As long as Ju Yuanqing tells Yan Xiuyun everything he told her, the affair between the Queen and Xiao Yuan will be exposed to the world!

The most important thing is, as long as it can be proved that the prince is a bastard, then wouldn’t his own son be the legitimate crown prince?

She could no longer suppress the smile on her face and looked up at Qin Yuwei as if to show off.

When I ascend the throne of queen, I will trample her under my feet and humiliate her every day!

And that little bitch Yan Jing, we can't let her die so easily.

If we could find a way to abolish her status and give her to a eunuch as a slave, we would see how miserable both mother and daughter would be...

Just thinking about it makes me want to laugh out loud.

Qin Yuwei lowered her eyes and met Li Yao's gaze intentionally or unintentionally.

Her expression still carried the sadness that one would expect when keeping vigil, but deep in those cold eyes—

But it was a smile that was a thousand times more terrifying.

…

A middle-aged man in his fifties was brought up.

"I, Ju Yuanqing, pay my respects to Your Majesty."

Yan Xiuyun asked him to look up, and sure enough, he looked familiar. It was the imperial physician who had taken Dong Lanxin's pulse that year.

Li Yao said to him:

"Ju Yuanqing, please tell His Majesty the truth about what you said to me last time."

Ju Yuanqing nodded in response.

"I used to work in the Imperial Hospital. That year, Your Majesty was sent away from the capital by the late Emperor. The Empress came to me privately to diagnose her pulse. When I took the Empress' pulse, I found out that she was... pregnant..."

A sound of people gasping for air was heard in the hall!

Yan Xiuyun's face turned pale, his eyes were like knives, and thousands of emotions were surging in his chest.

"You mean, the Queen got pregnant while I was away from the capital, and she asked you to keep it a secret for her?"

Yan Xiuyun suppressed the trembling of his body due to anger and confirmed with Ju Yuanqing.

"yes……"

Li Yao raised her eyebrows proudly.

Ju Yuanqing continued with the previous word, and suddenly bowed his head and said:

"It was Concubine Rong who told me to say this!"

Li Yao's smile froze and she looked back at Ju Yuanqing in disbelief.

Ju Yuanqing prostrated himself on the ground, aggrieved:

“Your Majesty, I left the Imperial Hospital many years ago. A few days ago, I returned to my hometown in Jiangzhou to pay respect to my father, but… I was captured by Concubine Rong’s people.

They threatened me with my family, so I had no choice but to do what they said... But the Queen is kind and benevolent, and she is the mother of the country. I really don't want to submit to the murderer who killed the Queen and framed her!

I am willing to die to prove the innocence of the Queen, Your Majesty, please understand!"

Li Yao was shocked and rushed forward without caring about her manners, grabbed Ju Yuanqing and asked him if he was crazy.

Yan Xiuyun keenly caught the information, narrowed his eyes and asked:

"You just said, the murderer who killed the queen?"

Ju Yuanqing said, "Your Majesty, I dare to ask if the Queen died of poisoning after eating dishes containing turtles?"

Yan Xiuyun's pupils shrank slightly.

Among the confessions of the concubines in the harem submitted to the Dali Temple, only Li Yao's testimony mentioned the turtle!

Those confessions were confidential files. Apart from myself, only a few senior investigators from the Dali Temple had read them.

Ju Yuanqing was outside the palace and there was no way he could know the contents of the confession in advance.