“My lord, the evidence against Li is irrefutable. We only need to drag these servants away and torture them, and they will surely confess the truth!” Seeing that the fourth prince remained silent, the princess consort was afraid that he would be swayed by Li, so she quickly said.
"Is the Fujin trying to force a confession out of me?" Seeing the Fujin's tightly closed door, Li was furious, but unable to find a reason to defend herself, so she could only retort.
"My lord, let's put Li's matter aside for now. As for the safflower that Yan Yu was poisoned with, there's still no conclusion. Until we find this person, Yan Yu and the child in her womb will not be safe." The Fujin suddenly changed the subject, which surprised Li. She should have been pressing her for an answer right now, so why did she suddenly change her tune?
In truth, the Fujin (principal wife) knew that Li Shi was unlikely to escape punishment this time. The fact that the Fourth Prince had ordered the head nanny to search her confirmed his suspicions, and it was only a matter of time before her guilt was confirmed. While there was still no concrete evidence to prove that Li Shi was responsible for the First Prince's affair, the Fujin believed that she was definitely involved.
This time, she was determined to kill Li Canlian to comfort the spirit of the First Prince in heaven.
"Does the Lady mean that the safflower wasn't placed by Lady Li, but by someone else?" Fourth Prince asked, raising an eyebrow.
"At this moment, I think that's possible. After all, we haven't found a trace of safflower in Li's courtyard," the Fujin said.
Li sat slumped on the ground, racking her brains for a way to escape her predicament. When she heard what the Fujin said, a thought suddenly struck her: Could she use this incident to get rid of two people at the same time? Besides me, who is the other one?
“My lord, I remember now. That night, all the sisters in the courtyard were with me, except for Madam Yin, who was under house arrest. If a red flower was to be awarded, it could only be one of the sisters. I do recall one person who left my courtyard and didn’t return for an hour.” Madam Li suddenly understood the Fujin’s intention. When she spoke these words urgently, she suddenly felt that the Fujin’s gaze had softened considerably.
"Who?" the Fourth Prince asked coldly. He had actually begun to suspect Li Shi since the time the First Prince had his accident, but he had no evidence until one day he heard a sentence from the Third Prince in his sleep, which made the Fourth Prince bring that matter back into the scope of the investigation.
“It was Consort Niu. After the New Year’s meal, she left with her maid. All the sisters present at the time can testify to this. Moreover, she and Yan Yu have always been at odds. Even when they were dining at my place, Consort Niu and Yan Yu had quite a few arguments,” Madam Li continued.
"My lord," the concubine said, "I know that Sister Niu has only been in the household for less than a year. She is still innocent and kind, without any scheming thoughts. She would never do anything to harm your offspring. However, she is the only one who has left Li Shi's courtyard. She has also been seen entering and leaving the manor before, which makes her a suspect in buying safflower. Could we summon her here for questioning? It would be better than making wild guesses here." The Fujin knew that the Fourth Prince was biased towards Lanqin, but her long-planned scheme to kill two birds with one stone had already been laid out. Now, one bird was already in the net, and only the other was missing.
Fourth Prince did not want Lanqin to get involved in this struggle, but now both the Fujin and Li Shi are convinced that Lanqin is highly suspicious. Even he cannot blindly protect her, otherwise it will backfire.
"Su Peisheng, go and invite Princess Niu to come here for a talk!" Fourth Master thought for a moment and then said to Su Peisheng, who was standing at the door.
Meanwhile, Lanqin was sitting by Song's bedside, talking to Song while holding Fubao and smoothing its fur with her hands.
"You like dogs so much?" Mrs. Song was much better, but still a little weak.
"Yes, I've wanted to have a dog since I was little, but my mother and father wouldn't allow it. They said dogs have a lot of problems and I wasn't allowed to touch them." Lanqin was actually referring to her parents in the 21st century, who had absolutely no relation to Anjia and Lingzhu.
"Look at you, little sister, you've finally gotten what you wanted. The way you treat it is like it's your own child." Song's slightly pale face now showed a doting expression, which was quite charming and exceptionally beautiful.
"Yes, I treat it like my son. In the summer, I bathe and wash its fur almost every day, feed it good food every day, and take it for walks every evening. Its quality of life is even higher than mine." Lanqin couldn't help but tease Song Shi when she saw her smile.
"Little sister, you want a child, don't you? Why don't you have one yourself? They're much cuter than a dog." Madam Song couldn't help but reach out and stroke the dog's head. The dog's two purple grape-like eyes were staring at Madam Song.
"Let nature take its course. I do want to, but my belly hasn't shown any signs of pregnancy," Lan Qin said, sticking out her tongue and feigning nonchalance. Actually, Lan Qin didn't really want to, after all, the original owner of this body was only fourteen years old. In the 21st century, that would be considered a minor.
“My sister is still young. It’s not too late to wait a couple of years until she’s fully recovered,” Madam Song comforted her.
"Yes, sister, do you miss the eldest princess? Doesn't the master now have the eldest princess come to your place often to learn needlework?" Lanqin saw a trace of loneliness in Song's eyes and knew that she missed her daughter, so she couldn't help but ask.
“But how often will the Princess Consort send the eldest princess over? Alas, I didn’t raise her myself. Even if I gave birth to her, now it’s better to raise her than to give birth to her,” Song said helplessly. But she immediately added, “Sister, don’t worry. If you have a child, the Fourth Prince will probably let you raise it yourself out of consideration for you.”
"Sister, this is why I don't want to have children right now. If I do have them, I can't even raise them myself. What kind of rule is this? It's simply inhumane!" Lanqin said indignantly. She had always been annoyed by these rules of the Qing Dynasty, but she just had to transmigrate to this place.
"You can't say that outside. This is a rule set by our ancestors. How dare you insult our ancestors?" When Song heard Lanqin say this, she was so shocked that she covered Lanqin's mouth with a handkerchief.
"Our ancestor, Ran Dao, never makes mistakes. Every rule he sets is an inviolable golden rule!" Lan Qin continued indignantly.
“What you say makes some sense, sister. But the rule that a princess cannot raise a child started with the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty. Even noble ladies in the palace cannot raise their own children.” Although Madam Song kept talking about the rules of the old matriarch, she actually agreed with Lanqin’s words, but she did not dare to say it out loud.
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