With the situation settled, Su Xiaoning was placed under house arrest in the Baishi Pavilion, while the emperor and others moved into the imperial palace.
The decision on how to handle Su Xiaoning was truly difficult. The Prime Minister and Su Qinghe came to see the Emperor together, both requesting to take over the matter.
"Your Majesty, the Prime Minister is very busy, so there is no need for him to worry about these matters. Please leave the matter of Su Xiaoning to me, and I will definitely get to the bottom of it."
Su Qinghe said loudly, seemingly genuinely eager to get to the bottom of things.
The Prime Minister snorted coldly and said in a chilling voice, "This old minister is just old, not senile. Whether or not there are many affairs to attend to, Your Highness need not worry about them."
Su Qinghe raised an eyebrow and said unhappily, "The matter of Su Xiaoning involves the Ninth Prince. After all, the Ninth Prince is my own brother, so this matter should be left to me to investigate."
“My own daughter has also been affected, and I also want to seek justice for her.”
The prime minister refused to back down and vowed to fight for the right to investigate the truth.
The two argued endlessly, until the emperor, somewhat weary, waved his hand and said, "Leave this matter to the Prime Minister."
After all, both Su Qingcai and Su Xiaoning had been publicly acknowledged by the emperor, and he still favored Su Xiaoning. Judging from Su Qinghe's apparent determination to kill Su Xiaoning, this matter definitely couldn't be entrusted to him.
Su Qinghe immediately became anxious: "Your Majesty..."
"My mind is made up, there's no need to say more," the emperor said expressionlessly, directly rejecting the suggestion.
Consort Zheng, standing to the side, grew anxious. She glanced at Su Qinghe, tugged at the emperor's sleeve, and said in a coquettish voice, "Your Majesty, could you please not..."
"This old minister thanks Your Majesty for your grace!"
Before Consort Zheng could finish speaking, a booming voice suddenly rang out, and the Prime Minister immediately knelt down to express his gratitude, interrupting her.
The emperor nodded; it seemed there was no turning back now.
Su Qinghe harbored resentment and walked out with a belly full of anger. As soon as she stepped out, she saw a familiar person kneeling on the steps outside the door.
Under the scorching sun, Su Qingcai knelt upright on the steps. He lowered his head and remained silent, his face pale, and the wound on his back seemed to have torn open again, oozing a blurry trace of blood.
I had previously heard that Su Qingcai wanted to see the emperor to plead for Su Xiaoning, but the emperor refused to see him. Now it seems that he is trying to force the emperor to see him by doing this.
Seeing Su Qingcai's miserable state, Su Qinghe almost burst out laughing. He slowly walked up to Su Qingcai and mocked him:
"Isn't this the Ninth Prince? Why are you kneeling here? It's really hard on you. To go to such lengths for a woman, how can you accomplish anything great? As a fellow man, I'm ashamed of you!"
Su Qingcai hung his head and remained silent, as if he didn't even have the strength to speak.
Su Qinghe wanted to say a few more sarcastic remarks, but suddenly the Prime Minister's voice came from behind him.
"They're all brothers. The Seventh Prince just mentioned the Ninth Prince. He should watch his words."
The Prime Minister stepped forward, not even glancing at Su Qinghe, and reached out to help Su Qingcai up.
Su Qingcai shook his head, refusing the Prime Minister's help, seemingly determined to force the Emperor in this way.
The Prime Minister withdrew his hand and said helplessly, "Ninth Prince, why are you doing this? You should understand the Emperor's predicament. Under those circumstances, the Emperor had no choice but to lock up Miss Su. It's no use for you to kneel here. You should find evidence as soon as possible so that the Emperor won't be in such a difficult position."
Su Qingcai shifted slightly, seemingly persuaded.
Seeing this, the Prime Minister reached out to pat him up, saying, "Get up. His Majesty entrusted this matter to an old minister to investigate, which ultimately shows that he is still on the side of the Ninth Prince."
His words were insightful and profound, seemingly hinting at something.
This time, Su Qingcai did not refuse the Prime Minister's help.
He slowly stood up, looked at where the emperor was, and revealed a thoughtful expression.
...
Su Xiaoning was confined to the Inner Affairs Pavilion for three days, and almost everyone knew about it.
Jiang Lin had something to do during the hunt that day and didn't go along. Now that he had arrived at the palace and heard about this, he immediately ran to the Inner Affairs Pavilion to see Su Xiaoning.
As soon as I entered the Inner Affairs Pavilion, I saw Su Xiaoning pulling and tugging at a fat man, and her expression was not very good.
"Don't go! Please, just let me take a look!"
The fat man seemed very anxious. He held onto Su Xiaoning's arm tightly and wouldn't let go, dragging her along and preventing her from leaving.
No matter how hard Su Xiaoning tried to shake off the fat man, she couldn't. She said, both amused and exasperated, "We'll talk about your business later. There are many other people waiting for me. What's the rush? Let me go first!"
"No! You have to let me see it first!" The fat man shook his head, looking like he wouldn't let go no matter what.
Seeing the two of them like this, Jiang Lin felt a fire rise in his heart, not to mention Su Xiaoning's unwilling look. That fat guy must be bullying her!
"stop!"
Jiang Lin shouted and ran forward, kicking the fat man away. He even raised his fist to teach him a lesson.
"Oh my god! Why did you do that?!" Su Xiaoning was shocked and quickly stopped him.
Jiang Lin glanced disapprovingly at the fat man lying on the ground groaning in pain, and sneered, "He bullied you, and you're going to plead for him?"
"Who told you he bullied me?" Su Xiaoning said, both amused and exasperated. "He just came to see me for a medical appointment and asked me to help him lose weight. There were so many people queuing outside, and I wanted him to wait in line properly, which is why we were arguing. You've misunderstood!"
As she spoke, Su Xiaoning pointed to the outer room.
A long queue had formed outside, including many nobles and dignitaries that Jiang Lin recognized. However, Jiang Lin had taken a different route and had not seen this grand occasion.
"Why are they all coming to you for treatment?" Jiang Lin's eyes widened, unable to understand what was going on.
Su Xiaoning smiled slightly: "It's nothing, it's just that the name of the Drunken Doctor is too big."
No one knows who spread the story of her apprenticeship to the Drunken Physician, but now every nobleman in the palace who feels unwell comes to her for treatment, keeping her extremely busy in the Hundred Affairs Pavilion.
Jiang Lin stood there speechless, stunned. Su Xiaoning shrugged helplessly, helped the fat man who had been innocently kicked to the ground up, and said softly, "You should go out and wait in line. It will be your turn eventually."
"Hmm..." The fat man glanced at Jiang Lin with a wronged expression, not daring to act recklessly in front of him, and had no choice but to obediently go to queue up.
Su Xiaoning felt relieved and was about to go to treat the nobles and royalty who were queuing up when Jiang Lin grabbed her arm: "I came here specifically to find you, do you really have to treat these people?"
“But there’s nothing else I can do besides treating patients…” Su Xiaoning thought for a moment with some distress, “How about this, I’ll take your pulse too? I detoxified you before, but I don’t know how your body is now.”
"Well... that's fine too." Jiang Lin had no choice but to agree, even though he felt helpless.
Su Xiaoning grasped Jiang Lin's hand, preparing to take his pulse. Suddenly, footsteps sounded outside, and Su Qingcai walked straight over.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
