Chapter 15 The Crown Prince's Medicinal Bath
Granny Qin placed the porcelain bottle directly into her palm and slowly closed her fingers, saying, "With His Highness's favor and Her Majesty's support, you can still get the position of a concubine."
Yun Kui was so shocked she couldn't speak: "A concubine?"
Granny Qin smiled and said, "If you win the bet, you'll enjoy a lifetime of wealth and honor. Even if you lose, Her Majesty will remember your service to the Crown Prince and only punish you as a warning, allowing you to continue serving him. She is the Crown Prince's concubine; I don't need to say more about what kind of future awaits her, do I?"
Yun Kui clutched the object in her hand and hesitated, "Then... is there anything Your Majesty needs me to do?"
"Your Majesty truly did not misjudge you," Qin Mama said with a smile. "Since you asked, I might as well be frank. His Highness is not Your Majesty's biological son, and with his aloof and cold nature, he has misunderstood Your Majesty for many years. Your Majesty only hopes that a mediator can help ease the relationship between mother and son. You are a smart person, and you will be able to speak up for Your Majesty in the future, won't you?"
...
When Granny Qin returned to the palace, the Empress was holding copper chopsticks and poking at the incense ash in the burner.
"She accepted that bottle of medicine?"
Granny Qin laughed and said, "The little girl is so happy that she doesn't know what to do. Her Highness coaxed her with words and she really thinks she's about to become a phoenix."
The Empress sighed, "I wonder if she can succeed."
After so many years of scheming and plotting, even the Empress has become somewhat disheartened.
Granny Qin hurriedly comforted her, "Your Highness has a discerning eye and has taken a liking to this girl. The Crown Prince has been a man who doesn't allow ordinary people to get close to him these past few years. The fact that she has served him for two nights in a row means she must have some skills. But she probably knows that her status is lowly, and that the Crown Prince only uses her as a pastime. Otherwise, why would he have her taste the poison during meals? Now that Your Highness has given her a chance to rise to the top, won't this girl seize the opportunity and climb up the ladder as fast as she can? Your Highness, just wait and see. There will probably be good news in the next couple of days."
The Empress sighed softly, "I hope so."
Granny Qin said, "In my opinion, the abortifacient is unnecessary. Not to mention that the Crown Prince is not interested in women, his body is already at its limit, how could he possibly have any relations with anyone?"
The Empress sighed, "It's better to be safe than sorry. Whether or not they served the Emperor is just their own story. Who knows what really happened once the door is closed? The Crown Prince is the only son. If he hadn't been so young back then, he wouldn't have had a chance..."
At this point, the Empress's gaze suddenly sharpened. "This empire belongs to His Majesty, and it will also belong to the second and sixth princes in the future. I have worked so hard to plan for so many years. How can I allow someone else to sit on the throne? I cannot allow his bastard child to covet His Majesty's empire!"
Granny Qin quickly replied, "Your Majesty is very thoughtful."
...
Yun Kui returned to Chengguang Palace with a heavy heart, the last words of advice from Granny Qin before she left Kunning Palace echoing in her mind—
"You must remember, the one who can protect you in this palace is not the Crown Prince, but the Empress."
The Empress told her to use a secret medicine to win the Crown Prince's favor, which is simply... outrageous and overestimating her abilities.
With the Crown Prince's vigilance and keen senses, and with guards like Qin Ge protecting him, she had no chance to poison his food.
If she were discovered, could the Empress truly protect her? The Crown Prince despises those who try to seduce him, and it's possible that before the good news even reaches Kunning Palace, she will be dead.
The palace maid who gave the crown prince the aphrodisiac that day serves as a cautionary tale.
However, if one does not comply, it would be considered disrespectful and a violation of the Empress's decree.
Yun Kui was confused for a while when she suddenly felt a dull pain in her lower abdomen. She rubbed it and realized that it wasn't her period yet, and she didn't feel the dampness that usually comes with menstruation. She decided to lie down on the couch for a while, but at that moment she heard a soft knock on the door.
Pushing open the door, a palace maid with an unfamiliar face appeared, holding a mahogany box and a palm-sized black lacquered mother-of-pearl box.
"Please don't panic, young lady. I've come to convey my master's message."
The palace maid entered and opened two boxes one after the other. "As long as you apply this box of lip rouge to the Crown Prince tonight, no matter what happens, my master will have a way to ensure your safe return. These silver notes are a small gift for you. After the matter is settled, my master will reward you handsomely."
Yun Kui glanced quickly at the stack of silver notes in the box. Due to her limited knowledge and inability to see the printed words clearly, she couldn't tell the face value for a moment, but it was certainly very thick!
Her palms were sweating, and she couldn't help but ask, "May I ask who your master is...?"
The palace maid avoided answering, only saying, "Miss, you don't need to know. Just do it, and you will naturally receive your share of the benefits in the future."
Before she could recover from the shock, the palace maid had already disappeared.
Yun Kui opened the box first, and then saw that the silver notes inside were all fifty taels in denomination, and there were as many as twenty of them!
Take a deep breath, take a deep breath...
It's a minor incident, nothing serious...
Yun Kui felt a little dizzy and unsteady.
She opened another box of lip gloss, its bright red color with a subtle pearlescent sheen. She instinctively reached out to try it, but then suddenly stopped, remembering something.
What she just said was that she should apply this lip rouge before serving the Crown Prince...
Yun Kui thought of the arsenic that Cai Ju had put in the prince's food, and then she remembered the handkerchief that had been fumigated with aphrodisiac powder that night. Could it be that the lip rouge had also been poisoned?
She immediately became very uneasy.
After sorting out her chaotic thoughts, she belatedly realized that she must have been "bribed".
The mistress who the palace maid mentioned gave her a thousand taels of silver as a favor must be trying to use her to harm the crown prince, since she is currently the only palace maid who can get close to the crown prince.
As for why she poisoned her lip rouge... she was probably certain that the prince would come at night to nibble on her lips and eat her lip rouge, thus poisoning her to death.
If it's really what she thinks, this method is even more ingenious than putting aphrodisiacs on a handkerchief.
And there's a thousand taels of silver!
If she were a qualified assassin, she would be eager to try right now.
I don't know what the rules are. I should have asked them earlier. If the poisoning fails, or if there is no chance to make a move, will I still get my 1,000 taels back?
Surely a big shot who can easily produce a thousand taels of silver wouldn't lack this much magnanimity?
Poisoning is highly unlikely to succeed.
Firstly, the Crown Prince dislikes brightly colored rouge and strong perfume scents, so he would probably be ordered to leave as soon as he entered the palace.
Secondly, it's impossible for the Crown Prince to kiss her lips. He could even resist kissing her when he was under the influence of aphrodisiacs, so it's even less likely for him to do so when he's sober.
Of course, it's not entirely hopeless—
She could take advantage of the prince's unconscious state to forcefully kiss him.
Yun Kui inappropriately thought of the Crown Prince's pale, soft lips, and her cheeks flushed slightly.
His paleness was noticeable, but as for why she knew his lips were soft, it was because when she fed him medicine with sheep intestines earlier, her fingers accidentally touched his lips.
She even saw the prince's pink and moist tongue.
She rarely pays attention to a man's lips unless they have made a strong impression on her.
For example, her cousin's lips. She couldn't even remember what her cousin looked like anymore, but she remembered that when they were little, her cousin liked to stick his tongue out at people. His lips were dry, cracked, and peeling, and he always had blisters. His tongue coating was also very thick. The image of him sticking his tongue out at her when he was a child was really unforgettable.
But the prince's lips were different; they were a light pink, thin and clean, and very tempting. They must taste very soft and chewy.
It also has its drawbacks.
The downside is that you can't eat it.
Yun Kui touched the stack of silver notes again. It was so thick, so many, she liked it very much.
The thousand taels of silver notes left her dizzy and disoriented, even forgetting the discomfort in her lower abdomen. When she regained some of her senses, the pain surged back like a tide.
On her way to the latrine, she was still thinking about what to do with the silver notes when she encountered a thin, pale eunuch in the corridor. He quietly called her behind the artificial hill and, without saying a word, slipped a bottle of medicine into her hand.
"My master asked you to find an opportunity to put this medicine into the Crown Prince's food. After it is done, my master will arrange for you to leave the palace to avoid disaster and reward you with a thousand taels of gold and a hundred acres of fertile land."
"Oh, I don't..."
Before she could refuse, the little eunuch had vanished.
Yun Kui: "..."
What a wonderful day it is today! Everyone is offering money to her to buy the Crown Prince's life!
To be honest, the conditions they offered were too tempting, and they really had her firmly in their grasp. But the question is, in their eyes, was assassinating the crown prince really that simple?
The first step is to enter the Chengguang Hall;
The second step was to poison the crown prince.
Third, the prince succumbed to poison and died, while she successfully escaped and became wealthy and powerful.
Even if she were incredibly stupid, she would know that none of this was possible.
The only possibility is that her assassination attempt failed, and her fate was like that of the palace maid who administered the aphrodisiac, or Caiju. Before anyone could come to her rescue, the Crown Prince would have already dismembered her and thrown her out to feed the dogs.
Yun Kui let out a breath.
Last time, she learned her lesson because she was greedy for those ten taels of gold, and this time she will never be so foolish.
Although mountains of gold and silver are very tempting, she has never been someone who is incorruptible by wealth and status.
If she becomes rich and powerful, she will be more licentious than anyone else.
Finally, she came up with a compromise: whenever she had a premonition that the Crown Prince would kill her, she would prepare in advance, whether it was with lip rouge, poison, or, oh right, the secret medicine given by the Empress. In any case, she would do everything in her power to drag him down to hell with her!
Yun Kui went to the restroom and didn't find any traces of menstrual fluid on her underwear. Fortunately, it didn't hurt much, so she didn't pay any attention to it.
Looking at the sky, just as I was about to go to Chengguang Hall for the lunch tasting, Cao Yuanlu's apprentice, Deshun, came to deliver a message saying that His Highness the Crown Prince was unconscious and there was no need to go for the lunch tasting at noon.
Yun Kui also wanted to rest, and couldn't have asked for more.
She had spent the entire day at Kunning Palace, surrounded by temptations of gold and silver. Her head was still spinning, as if she were in a dream.
For dinner, we had some of the food that the Crown Prince had previously bestowed upon us. I must say, even though it was leftovers, it was the best leftovers in the world, far more plentiful than the rations for the palace maids.
She had a poor appetite today, but after drinking a bowl of hot soup, the pain in her lower abdomen was relieved considerably.
She thought she wouldn't have to go to Chengguang Palace to serve him that night, but as soon as she lay down, Aunt Wei came to call for her and even smiled at her, which was rare for her: "His Highness the Crown Prince is going to Tangquan Palace for a medicinal bath tonight. You should prepare to accompany him and serve him."
What goes around comes around, and no one expected that this girl would become the Crown Prince's favorite maid. Naturally, Aunt Wei remained polite and courteous.
Yun Kui nodded, but the words "medicinal bath" spoken by Aunt Wei kept echoing in her mind.
Does that mean...she can see everything?
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