These words stimulated Chen Ruyi's sensitive nerves like a steel needle.
She suddenly raised her hand and slapped Madam Cui hard, with such force that it seemed as if she wanted to balance the anger in her heart.
Cui was like an innocent sheep in her eyes. Such a sinister and cunning plot could not have been possible without the involvement of this old fox!
Old Madam Cui was furious and didn't care about her social status. She raised her hand and wanted to slap Chen Ruyi in the face, but Cui and Deng Xu stepped forward and stopped her.
Canaries fluttered in the corridor, and Old Madam Cui scratched Chen Ruyi's hair with one claw: "The old Duke's body is still warm, and you dare to seduce my stepson!"
Deng Xu leaned forward to block the attack, his brocade robe ripped open three times. "Mother-in-law, be careful with your words! My stepmother treats me like her own son."
"Bah!" Old Madam Cui spat, "She's two years younger than you, how can she be your mother?" She turned around and beat her daughter Cui, "You idiot! Your husband has been seduced by this vixen!"
Cui wiped her tears with a handkerchief, supporting her mother weakly. The jeweled headband was askew, revealing a red mark the size of a fingernail on her forehead—the one her own mother had accidentally inflicted during the fight.
Princess Linchuan, aided by her maid, moved toward the moonlit gate, her peony-patterned skirt sweeping across the bluestone tiles. This flower-viewing banquet was ruined. Tomorrow's impeachment memorial from the Censorate could crush the threshold of her mansion.
"Your Highness, wait a minute!" Madam Zhang stomped her cane loudly. "Adultery should be punished by caning. I beg Your Highness to uphold justice!"
Chen Ruyi suddenly knelt on the blue bricks, her plain skirt stained with blood. "Please, Your Highness, send for the imperial physician to examine me." Her face was translucent white, and her fingers dug into the cracks between the bricks. "I am willing to die to prove my loyalty."
Old Madam Cui raised her triangular eyes and said, "Everyone knows that Chen is an old acquaintance of His Highness? If you want to test her, ask the doctor outside!" As she said that, she winked at the crowd, and immediately a maid dragged a traveling doctor over.
Deng Xu clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. This doctor had clearly been employed by the Cui family for years, and two years ago, he had even helped Old Madam Cui "diagnose" a false pregnancy to win her favor.
"Your Highness!" Chen Ruyi suddenly vomited blood, staining Princess Linchuan's embroidered shoes red. "I...I am in your belly."
The itinerant doctor took the opportunity to rush over and feel the pulse, his eyes darting: "It's indeed a pregnancy pulse! More than two months!" Before he finished speaking, Chen Ruyi suddenly jumped up and pressed the silver hairpin against the doctor's throat: "Tell me! How much money did the Cui family promise you to frame this lady!"
The whole garden was in uproar. Old Madam Zhang's cane flew off her hands in shock, striking Old Madam Cui's bound feet in the embroidered slippers. With a cry of "Ouch!", Cui feigned a fall, her blood-stained menstrual belt falling from her sleeve.
Princess Linchuan looked at the filth rolling to her feet, and suddenly an idea came to her: "Quickly call the imperial physician! Call all the doctors on duty at the Imperial Hospital!" She pointed at the traveling doctor and said, "Tie him up! I want to interrogate him personally!"
Chen Ruyi staggered to her feet, blood dripping down the hem of her skirt. She glanced at the jade pendant around Deng Xu's waist—it had been tied there by the old Duke himself before his death. After all, today's scene had paid off.
Chen Ruyi slowly stood up, holding onto the rosewood chair. Her brocade skirt swept across the broken porcelain on the floor. "The Cui family's doctor?" She poked Old Madam Cui's chest with her balsam-stained nails. "I'm afraid he can even diagnose your old angina as a pregnancy pulse, right?"
Cui twisted her handkerchief and sobbed, "Mother, you are so suspicious. I am really a daughter-in-law."
"Suspicion?" Chen Ruyi suddenly ripped open her skirt, revealing the bloodstains on her snow-white undershirt. "The blood swallows you sent me three days ago, I gave to my cat to eat." She pointed at the white cat curled up by the window. "That beast is still vomiting black blood!"
The whole room was in uproar. Princess Linchuan dug her fingertips into the rosewood armrest and said, "Cheng!"
"Your Majesty is here." Chen Ruyi knelt in greeting, the nine-tailed phoenix hairpin at her temple remaining untouched. "Princess, please understand. Since the Cui family wants to use the slippery pulse as an excuse, why not ask the Ministry of Justice's coroner to examine me? Let's see if this old clam can really bear a pearl, or if someone has mixed safflower and musk into my food!"
Old Madam Cui slammed her dragon-headed cane to the ground: "How dare you! My Cui family has a long-standing reputation."
"Reputation?" Chen Ruyi suddenly sneered. "Twenty years ago, when you poured the sterilization soup into the concubine's bowl, why didn't you mention the Cui family's reputation?" She turned and looked around at the ladies. "Do you know why the Cui family hasn't had any illegitimate children in the harem for thirty years?"
"You!" Mrs. Cui blushed and was about to pounce on him, but was stopped by Mrs. Zhang.
Jiang Shu paused, her hand gripping the grapes. This old woman was quite good at picking on people—everyone in the capital knew that she and Chen Ruyi were sworn enemies. She even ripped off half of her partner's sleeve at last year's flower viewing banquet.
"Miss Jiang." Chen Ruyi suddenly looked over. "How about lending me that maidservant who's good at Qinggong?"
The teacup clanged to the ground. Jiang Shu looked at the tea stains splattered on her skirt and suddenly remembered how Chen Ruyi had publicly overturned her rouge box the year she came of age. She had saved up six months' worth of her monthly allowance for that box of conch ink, a tribute from the Western Regions.
"What? Are you afraid that the people I'm going to use on you might poison you?" Chen Ruyi stroked the jade bracelet on her wrist. "Don't worry, I'm going to ask Dr. Xue from Jishidiang." She deliberately raised her voice. "After all, Dr. Xue witnessed with his own eyes how Madam Cui regulated her concubine's menstruation twenty years ago!"
Cui suddenly screamed and fainted. As the maids were in chaos, Jiang Shu caught a glimpse of Chen Ruyi with a sneer on her lips - the same smile as when they fought in the imperial garden that year.
"Go and invite them." Jiang Shu suddenly said, "Invite Doctor Xue and his apprentice." She took off the jade pendant from her waist and threw it to the maid, "Tell Old Man Xue that if he dares to tell a lie, I will tear down the plaque of his Jishidi Hall!"
Princess Linchuan held her forehead and sighed. These two enemies, I'm afraid they will continue to scheme against each other until their death.
Jiang Shu raised her eyebrows: "Chen Ruyi, are you crazy? Aren't you afraid that I will take your life?"
Chen Ruyi leaned against the porch pillar and sneered, "The Yongding Marquis's family has been loyal and righteous for generations. If Miss Jiang wants to do something dirty," she said. Her fingertips brushed against the jade pendant on Jiang Shu's waist, "First, ask the heroic spirits of your father and brother if they agree."
The women in the garden nodded in agreement. Everyone knew the ancestral motto of the Yongding Marquisate: "I'd rather die than commit a mean act." Back then, the old Marquis, defending the border, starved to death rather than rob the people's granaries.
Jiang Shu was startled when she suddenly heard a childish voice behind her:
[Mrs. Chen probably saw that Auntie was straightforward, so even if she was going to do something bad, she would do it openly!]
"Cuiying!" Jiang Shu's pretty face flushed red, and her jade earrings trembled. "Go and ask the doctors from the three clinics!" The gold-inlaid armor almost pierced into the maid's arm.
In just half a cup of tea, Cuiying had leaped over the wall, carrying three white-bearded old men. Doctor Xu's handkerchief was askew behind his ears, two buttons on Doctor Qin's medicine box had snapped off, and Doctor Yu's cloth shoes were still stained with mud from the West Market.
"Xu from Huichuntang."
"Qin from the Miaoshou Pavilion."
"Yu from Yixintang."
The three elders took their breaths and took turns feeling Chen Ruyi's pulse. Old Madam Cui's nails, like dry claws, dug into her daughter's arm. She sweated in pain but dared not utter a word. She had seen her mother obtain the secret medicine from the Empress Dowager of the Cold Palace, and even the Imperial Hospital couldn't diagnose it.
"How strange!" Doctor Xu suddenly withdrew his hand. "This pulse condition."
Doctor Qin closed his eyes and pondered, "It floats like a gossamer thread."
Doctor Yu took three steps back and said, "This is clearly the pulse of a dying person!"
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