"Your Highness, because Consort Fucha also cooked bird's nest in the main kitchen, Sister Hongqiao has to fetch it every day," the servant said. He knew that Consort Nian had been poisoned, but he didn't know what it had to do with the bird's nest and snow frog he was in charge of. He was guarding them closely, and there was no way anyone would poison them in the kitchen.
When Cui Ling heard this, she was shocked. She didn't even know that Fucha's maid would go ahead of her. She glared at the little servant with resentment, for not letting her know anything.
"So, you're watching over two furnaces all by yourself?" Fourth Master asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Yes, the stoves are all close together, so I don't need to be in two places to look after them, and therefore I haven't left. Basically, Sister Hongqiao always comes first to get the bird's nest." The little servant secretly glanced at the Fourth Master and found that he was staring at him, so he quickly lowered his eyes and said.
"Oh, right next to each other? Does Hongqiao always go first?" Fourth Master pondered these words carefully, trying to detect something unusual. That Fucha woman actually had so many schemes. She had done a few foolish things before, but he didn't expect her to do these little tricks in secret. He couldn't help but feel even more disgusted with her.
"Go and bring me the blood swallow's nest from the Fucha clan," the Fourth Prince said.
"Your Highness, I'll go with him this time," Cui Ling said quickly, having learned her lesson.
Fourth Master waved his hand, signaling Cuiling to follow the servant to retrieve the blood bird's nest from the Fucha clan.
After they left, Lanqin helped Sihua arrive. Sihua hadn't managed to find Hongqiao's body that day, which had bothered Lanqin for days. She had heard that Physician Yang had come again, so she came specifically to see him.
"Why are you here?" Fourth Master asked, slightly surprised to see Lanqin enter, as he sat in the main seat of the main room.
"Imperial Physician Yang came today, and I wanted to see how Consort Nian is doing," Lanqin said. She knew that Nian Gengyao had already left the mansion, and she knew that the Fourth Prince must be feeling a bit unsettled.
"Come here and sit next to me!" Fourth Master was indeed somewhat flustered. He had hoped that the Nian family and the Fucha family could coexist peacefully, at least for the time being, but what the Fucha family had done had far exceeded the scope of peaceful coexistence, which gave him a headache.
Lanqin walked over to Fourth Master and sat down next to him.
"Your Highness, I just heard someone from the kitchen go and fetch Lady Fucha's bird's nest. What's going on?" Lanqin had just reached the door when she overheard the conversation between the Fourth Prince and the young servant.
The Fourth Prince then recounted Physician Yang's diagnosis of Lady Nian to Lanqin, and then mentioned that both Lady Nian and Lady Fucha had been drinking bird's nest soup. Only then did Lanqin understand what had happened.
"Your Highness, do you now suspect the poison is in that blood swallow's nest?" Lanqin asked after listening to the Fourth Prince's account. In truth, the Fourth Prince was already fairly certain that Lady Fucha was responsible, but he couldn't act without evidence, so he needed to find proof. But even if he found evidence, would the Fourth Prince be willing to punish Lady Fucha now? Would the Nian family let it go?
"You may all leave!" Fourth Master said to Nian's maids.
"Your Highness," Lanqin said, "the Fucha clan is a powerful family. They wouldn't abandon their family's interests for a ruthless woman. If Your Highness is the popular choice, they wouldn't dare to disobey the trend. If there's evidence against the Fucha clan, keeping such a cunning woman in the inner quarters would be a disaster for Your Highness." The fact that Hongqiao died so mysteriously shows how ruthless the Fucha clan is; they're capable of anything for themselves.
Fourth Master nodded, and a moment later, the bird's nest that Lady Fucha had been taking, along with her medicine pot, was brought over.
After inspection, there was nothing wrong with Fucha's bird's nest, which made the Fourth Prince very puzzled. Could it be that his intuition was wrong and that this was not Fucha's doing?
Hongqiao is dead, and no one can answer whether she put anything in the blood bird's nest.
"Your Highness, this medicine pot is exactly the same as the one our concubine uses!" Cui Ling exclaimed. When she followed the young servant to fetch Lady Fucha's bird's nest soup, she was astonished to find that her medicine pot was exactly the same as the one she used to stew bird's nest soup for Lady Nian.
"Oh, really exactly the same?" Lanqin asked, intrigued by her words.
“It’s exactly the same. I was also surprised when I saw it just now.” Cui Ling confidently placed the medicine pot in front of Fourth Master and Lan Qin.
"Your Highness, Consort, these two jars are actually the same. When Hongqiao brought Princess Fucha's things here, I said the two jars were identical and easy to confuse. Hongqiao then suggested that I make a mark on Princess Fucha's jar so that we wouldn't get them mixed up. I didn't think much of it at the time, and I didn't dare ask her to change it, so I just followed her advice and made a not-so-obvious mark on this jar. It's just that it's not easy to notice unless you look closely." The young servant said, pointing to a spot on the jar for the Fourth Prince and Lanqin to see.
After Lanqin examined it herself, she indeed found a small mark. Cuiling looked closely in that direction and found something different, so she grumbled in dissatisfaction, "How could I possibly have seen such a tiny mark?"
Lanqin smiled slightly and said, "Even Cuiling couldn't tell, so the others in the kitchen certainly couldn't either, right?"
Knowing he was in trouble, the young servant nodded quickly and said with a tearful face, "Every time Hongqiao sees us, she either slips us silver or gives us things, which makes everyone in the kitchen like to see her and lets her come and go as she pleases."
"So Hongqiao always appears before Cuiling and then takes away Fucha's bird's nest?" Fourth Master asked.
The servant nodded and said, "It's basically always like this. It's strange, though, because they always take it first."
Lanqin said, "Did you see clearly whether she was referring to the blood swallow's nest of the Fucha clan or the one from the Nian family?"
“It’s Princess Fucha’s. How could she have made a mistake? She was the one who suggested making a mark on Princess Fucha’s jar,” the servant said. In fact, he was already unsure when he said this, because he couldn’t be sure whose snow swallow Hongqiao had mentioned.
“But Physician Yang has already examined it, and there’s nothing wrong with the blood swallow,” Fourth Master said.
"Let me see that jar." Lanqin always felt that Fucha's thoughts were beyond what ordinary people could predict. She must have done something that ordinary people could not know.
Lanqin held the jar and examined it carefully. She asked someone to bring a candlestick and shine it into the jar, trying to see what secrets were inside.
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