"Hand over the Fifth Prince to me!" Ye Jingchen said in a deep voice, looking at Fang Zhi.
"No!" Fangzhi took a step back while holding Ye Jinghe, her face full of grief, and choked out, "Your Highness, Jinghe is my child. Since he is already in this state, His Majesty will not allow you to keep him. Please give him back to me!"
"No! I can't make this decision!" Ye Jingchen refused without even thinking.
This is Ye Jinghe's business, and he should decide for himself.
"Your Highness, although Jinghe is not favored by His Majesty, he is still His Majesty's flesh and blood, your own brother. He is a person, a prince, not your toy, nor a tool for you to show your benevolence. Why do you insist on keeping him in the Eastern Palace?!" Fangzhi said indignantly, a tear streaming from the corner of her eye.
These words seemed reasonable at first glance, but Ye Jingchen felt something was off about them. Besides, Fang Zhi's tear ducts were too developed; tears flowed freely.
Ye Jingchen felt that something was wrong.
As he pondered, he felt himself being watched by many eyes. When he looked up, he found that a large number of people had gathered around him, all looking at him with strange eyes.
He suddenly realized that Fangzhi was putting on an act.
The passionate speech he just gave wasn't meant for him, but rather for the audience.
This Fangzhi is not simple; she wants to use public opinion to pressure him.
"Someone come here!"
Ye Jingchen stood up and gave an order.
Two palace eunuchs trotted forward.
"Hold her down," Ye Jingchen said, pointing at Fangzhi.
The well-trained eunuchs came to Fangzhi's side, one of them holding down one of her shoulders, making her unable to move.
Ye Jingchen casually squatted down and hugged Ye Jinghe in his arms.
"Your Highness, please spare Jinghe! He is your brother!" Fangzhi cried out in anguish.
"You can shout louder and attract more onlookers. I don't care. Anyway, it's not me who's in such a sorry state right now!" Ye Jingchen said leisurely.
"By the way—if you really think I mistreated Jinghe, you can go and complain to Father. I have a clear conscience and am not afraid to confront you!"
"Back to the palace!" Ye Jingchen said, then turned away without looking at her. He carried Ye Jinghe and left in a hurry. Fangfei and the others saw this and quickly got up to follow. The two eunuchs who had been holding Fangzhi also released her and chased after them.
Fangzhi lay on the ground, watching the group from the Eastern Palace walk away, her eyes flashing with hatred.
"Oh, isn't this Consort Zhi? Why are you in such a sorry state?" Consort Chen was the highest-ranking concubine among those watching the play. After the group from the East Palace had gone far away, she swayed her graceful figure to Fang Zhi's side and asked deliberately.
Fangzhi quickly lowered her eyes, concealing the hatred in them.
"You actually dared to scheme against His Highness the Crown Prince? Are you tired of living? You're really overestimating yourself!" Consort Chen mocked.
Fangzhi remained lying there, motionless, like a dead person.
Consort Chen found it boring, snorted and left. The other concubines followed suit and dispersed with their entourage.
"Go and invite all the imperial physicians on duty at the Imperial Hospital to the East Palace!" Ye Jingchen ordered as they walked.
Although the Crown Prince has Imperial Physician Zhang, he himself said that he is not good at neurology. He still wants to recruit more imperial physicians to gather ideas and perhaps someone can give some useful suggestions.
Back at the Eastern Palace, Imperial Physician Zhang examined them first, but still couldn't find anything wrong.
Subsequently, more than a dozen imperial physicians on duty from the Imperial Hospital arrived. Ye Jingchen had them examine each of them one by one, but none of them could find anything wrong.
All they could confirm was that Ye Jinghe was unharmed, but had simply fallen into a deep sleep from exhaustion.
Ye Jinghe slept for several hours.
Ye Jingchen stayed by the bedside, looking at the information Chenxi had given him about Tao Zhi that he could find out for the time being, while waiting for Ye Jinghe to wake up.
Tao Zhi was all alone in the capital, with no family. He spent his days either on duty in the palace or resting at home, with no social life.
His small courtyard in the capital had been thoroughly searched by Chenxi's men, but apart from a pile of medical books and manuscripts on illnesses, no useful clues were found.
As for the Imperial Medical Academy, it was even cleaner, so much so that all that Chenxi presented were the recorded medical records.
When Ye Jinghe woke up, Ye Jingchen had already gone through the medical records three times.
"Brother..." Ye Jinghe murmured as he lay on the bed.
Since they became familiar with each other, this was the first time he had tried to hug or pounce on Ye Jingchen without even seeing him.
He has memories of his own moments of madness, so he knows that when he went crazy, he pushed his brother away violently, almost knocking him over.
The palace maid was right; he was too dangerous, and staying by his side might harm him.
But if he can't stay here, where can he go?
He heard everything that the palace maid named Fangcao said; no one was willing to adopt him.
Only his older brother didn't care about his identity or his illness; he was willing to take him in and treated him so well.
His brother was good to him, and he couldn't repay kindness with enmity.
Ye Jinghe used to enjoy the feeling of going crazy, but this time, his head was throbbing and he was completely unable to control himself. The feeling of almost losing control terrified him.
Someone like him doesn't deserve to stay by his brother's side.
"Is Xiao Jinghe shy? Why doesn't he want his brother to hug him?" Ye Jingchen leaned closer to him and teased him with a smile.
His attitude, unchanged from before, instantly brought tears to Ye Jinghe's eyes. He said guiltily, "Brother, I'm sorry!"
"It's not your fault, why are you apologizing?" Ye Jingchen asked with a smile.
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