Chen Yunniang trembled all over in pain, even biting her lip tightly, still trying to hold it in.
Just as the third finger was pierced by the steel needle, she could no longer bear it and screamed in pain. She pushed the person away with hatred and glared fiercely at Su Yujiao.
Su Yujiao calmly replied, "Dr. Mo's stimulation therapy is indeed very effective."
"Imperial physicians, please quickly examine the county princess and see how she is doing?"
Everyone immediately understood, and Physician Zhou took the lead: "Princess, let me take your pulse again."
Chen Yunniang had no choice but to extend her hand. After Physician Zhou finished his diagnosis, other physicians were asked to make their own diagnoses.
Ultimately, everyone reached the same conclusion: "The Lady of Fu'an County has survived a great calamity and is sure to have good fortune in the future. Your pulse is steady and strong, indicating that you have recovered considerably."
"As for the superficial wounds on my body, they will heal in a few days."
"Scars are inevitable, but they don't affect anything else."
Chen Yunniang's face turned ashen with anger. These words were a message to her that she could no longer pretend to be sick.
At this moment, Lu Ziqian walked in with a gloomy face and asked, "Imperial Physician Zhou, she had hemoptysis a while ago, is she cured now?"
"Hemoptysis?"
Physician Zhou was puzzled: "Based on my many years of medical experience, the county princess is in good health and shows no signs of anemia."
Lu Ziqian stared sharply at Chen Yunniang: "What's going on?"
How would I know?
"Are you questioning me like this because you think I'm faking illness to deceive you?"
“I did vomit blood a while ago and couldn’t even get out of bed. Even now, I still feel weak all over and dizzy…” Chen Yunniang said, making the standard white lotus gesture of putting her hand to her forehead.
The imperial physicians, not wanting to get too involved, wrote out prescriptions and left.
Su Yujiao also left, after all, she was now Doctor Su.
Inside the room, Chen Yunniang wept, her face streaked with tears, looking utterly pitiful: "Ziqian, can't you see that this is all a charade put on by my cousin and those imperial physicians?"
"These imperial physicians today all accompanied the Crown Prince to the plague-stricken areas. They know that the prescription for controlling the plague was developed by my cousin, but in the end, I stole the credit from her."
"They're standing up for their cousin!!"
"That's why I teamed up with my cousin to bully me; I just wanted to help my cousin get revenge."
Lu Ziqian's face remained gloomy. He stopped pursuing whether she was faking illness and only asked her about the abortion.
Chen Yunniang initially pretended to be confused, saying that she had been unconscious and did not know that Su Yujiao was pregnant or that she had been harmed and miscarried.
Afterwards, she cried uncontrollably and even took out the jade pendant around her neck to prove her loyalty by dying.
When Lu Ziqian saw the emerald green jade pendant, he recalled his childhood memories and finally softened.
“Yunniang, I know you are not such a vicious person.”
"Don't blame me for doubting you; the unfinished character 'Chen' really makes one suspicious of you."
Chen Yunniang cried even harder, and angrily questioned, "You only suspect me, didn't you ever suspect your cousin?"
"Didn't she deliberately drink the abortion pill and then frame me?"
"That's impossible!!" he immediately denied.
"Why is it impossible? Didn't you say she's been threatening to divorce you? She's even considering divorce, so how could she possibly still want to have your child?"
"You didn't want your child, yet you unexpectedly got pregnant. Why can't you use the child in your womb to frame me?"
"In the end, whether I was framed and killed by her, or she was able to get a divorce because she couldn't get pregnant, it was the result she wanted."
Lu Ziqian seemed to have grasped the key point: "How do you know she can't get pregnant in the future?"
“I only said she had a miscarriage, but I never said she couldn’t get pregnant in the future.”
Chen Yunniang was not flustered at all. During the days she pretended to be unconscious, she did nothing but think about how to deal with Lu Ziqian's questioning.
She went over every possible question in her mind over and over again.
"You just mentioned the 'infertility-preventing soup'."
"Before Xiaohe became my maid, she was sold to a brothel by a beggar. She said that before the girls in the brothel received customers, they would be given a bowl of infertility-preventing soup, just in case the prostitutes got pregnant and it affected their business."
"Waaah... No matter what I say, you still doubt me."
"I've been seriously ill lately, so I can't possibly go and harm people myself. Even if something happens, I'll have my maid do it."
"Xiao He and Lian'er, take them away for questioning as you see fit. I'm not afraid of being investigated!"
"If you still believe I harmed your child, then kill me."
After saying that, Chen Yunniang resigned herself to her fate and closed her eyes.
Lu Ziqian indeed had the two maids taken away for interrogation.
Chen Yunniang was somewhat flustered. Although she knew that the two maids were absolutely loyal, she was still afraid.
He tossed and turned in his study at night, unable to sleep.
He thought about Chen Yunniang's words and recalled Su Yujiao's various reactions during this period.
That night, he showed her many unpleasant things, hoping to make her face reality, but instead, he frightened her so much that she fell ill.
When she woke up from her serious illness, instead of crying or making a fuss, she asked him to take her home.
After returning home, she discovered she was pregnant. Her reaction was one of surprise; it was indeed unexpected, probably from that night on the snow mountain.
On the night of the incident, she first asked him to buy her some sour apricots, then she asked him to stay, and then she asked him to pour her tea.
She had plenty of time to do something!
Could it be that she deliberately drank the infertility-inducing soup in order to get a divorce?
To frame Yunniang while we're at it?
However, she did not mention divorce. Instead, she wanted to adopt a child from outside the family to solidify her position in the general's mansion.
Lu Ziqian tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The thought of Su Yujiao's cruel actions towards him in order to leave him, even at the cost of harming their child, made him extremely agitated.
He even kicked over tables and chairs in a fit of rage, wishing he could go to her room right now and get to the bottom of things.
But in the end, he held back. After everything they had been through, he wouldn't be as impulsive as before.
The consequence of their impulsiveness was that the two of them fell back into a freezing point, escalating to the point where things couldn't be salvaged.
But once the seed of doubt is planted, it will slowly take root and sprout, eventually driving him completely insane.
After being exposed, Chen Yunniang simply stopped pretending to be sick; she couldn't stand lying in bed all day.
Xiao He and Lian'er have returned. They didn't say anything; it was mainly because Liu Wu bribed the people in the yamen. (Liu Wu is Xiao He's lover.)
Knock knock knock!
Chen Yunniang put down her teacup and asked Lian'er to open the door.
Lian'er rushed in with a maid. The maid claimed to be a servant from the Prince of Cheng's mansion. The young princess had suddenly fallen ill, and the princess had asked Chen Yunniang to come and treat her.
Chen Yunniang felt a pang of guilt; she knew her own limitations all too well.
Logically, when the young princess falls ill, she should consult the imperial physician for diagnosis. The fact that she has been found clearly indicates that the illness is beyond the physician's ability to treat.
If the imperial physicians couldn't cure her, she certainly couldn't either.
Chen Yunniang suddenly regretted it; she should have continued to pretend to be sick.
Now she's in a bind, what should she do?
As a powerless and insignificant county princess, how could she dare refuse the princess's invitation?
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