When the Third Prince came out, his clothes and dinner were ready. The Fourth Prince was talking to someone in the front yard and had already sent someone over to tell him not to wait for him.
Lanqin thought it was perfect, with Fourth Master present, there were some things that were difficult to say.
"Third Prince, come here quickly. Your favorite dishes, as well as the tomatoes and peppers you picked yourself, are all ready. Come and have a taste!" Lanqin had already sat down at the table.
The Third Prince slowly sat down opposite Lanqin. He had just taken a bath and was already very hungry. Looking at the table full of his favorite dishes, the Third Prince couldn't help but have a hearty appetite.
"Here, try this fish piece, it's very good." Lanqin placed a piece of grass carp, seasoned with rose petals, on the Third Prince's plate. She had made it herself. The sweet and salty flavor, combined with the texture of the fish, was highly praised by the Fourth Prince.
The Third Prince silently ate the food that Lanqin had put on his plate. Although he thought of what his wife and Lady Yin had said, he still couldn't bring himself to hate the woman in front of him who was so kind to him.
Perhaps a seven-year-old child's hatred will never be that intense, because he is still just a child.
Lanqin noticed the Third Prince's mood and slowly served him food, gently asking him about his studies.
The Third Prince ate while answering questions, and the two of them looked somewhat like a mother and son.
"Third Prince, are there people saying that your mother's death was related to Consort Niu, or even that Consort Niu caused it?" Lanqin decided to ask directly. There was no need to tease or test a child like the Third Prince.
The Third Prince was eating a piece of eggplant when he was suddenly asked this question by Lanqin. He was very surprised and quickly swallowed the food in his mouth. He coughed and looked at Lanqin with some surprise, but did not know how to answer.
Lanqin smiled slightly, and from the other person's surprised expression, she naturally understood that her guess was correct.
“Third Prince, I know you must be very confused too. Why don’t you just say what you want to ask? It’s better to be alone and not be guessing and struggling.” Lanqin said, though she already had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"I, I..." The Third Prince began to stammer. Perhaps he didn't know how to answer Lanqin's direct question, or perhaps he hadn't thought of how to ask it yet.
"Third Prince, I don't care who told you what, now listen to me. You may not understand yet, but I don't want you to be deceived at such a young age," Lanqin said. Since she didn't know how the people hiding behind the Third Prince were plotting against her, she decided to take the initiative and seize control of the situation since she was already in a passive position.
“First of all, your mother was confined to her room by your father because a witchcraft doll that cursed Princess Yu was found in her room. You know about this. Whether the witchcraft doll was actually your mother's, or whether it was a frame-up, Aunt Niu doesn't know, and your father hasn't found out yet either. So he only confined your mother. But what happened later was that in the first month of this year, your mother suddenly committed suicide. The news from the Fujin's side was that Li Shi committed suicide out of fear of punishment.” Lanqin emphasized the last sentence.
“Mother is innocent. Mother would not commit suicide. Someone must have forced her!” The Third Prince was indeed agitated.
"Third Prince, whether that witchcraft doll is actually your mother's or not has never been clearly determined. As for her later suicide, although Aunt Niu doesn't know if she was forced, Aunt Niu can tell you something," Lanqin said.
"What?" the Third Prince asked, staring at Lanqin.
At this point, Lanqin was completely certain that the Fujin (wife of the Third Prince) or even Lady Yin (wife of the Third Prince) might slander her in front of the Third Prince, probably making him resent her and think that she was related to his mother's death.
"Was your mother seriously ill before she committed suicide?" Lanqin asked.
The Third Prince remembered that before his mother committed suicide, she was indeed seriously ill and lay in bed unable to get up.
“Yes, I remember visiting her. Her illness seemed to have come on suddenly. She was perfectly fine before, but suddenly she became as sick as a landslide. Just as I was thinking about how to tell Father to find a doctor to treat Mother, I received the news that she had committed suicide. I remember that Mother had told me to study hard, saying that Father would lift the ban on me soon. But why would she suddenly commit suicide?” the Third Prince said.
"Third Prince, I can tell you that your mother is not sick, but poisoned. It's a very slow-acting poison that accumulates slowly in her body. When it reaches a certain level, it will suddenly erupt and leave her in critical condition," Lanqin said.
This time, the Third Prince stared at Lanqin as if he had heard something impossible and asked, "How could you know so much, Aunt?"
Lanqin knew that the Third Prince was probably even more suspicious of her now. If she couldn't produce more compelling evidence, the Third Prince might suspect that she was the one who killed Li Shi, and how could she even know about her poisoning?
“Because I almost got poisoned too. I should say I just inhaled less than your mother, and then I realized it, so I didn’t end up like her,” Lanqin said.
Seeing that the Third Prince still looked confused, Lanqin had no choice but to say, "Do you remember that Aunt Niu was confined to the house along with your mother?"
The Third Prince nodded and said, "But the difference is that Mother died, while Father untied your feet."
Lanqin looked at the Third Prince, sighed, and felt a little sad: he must have believed them to some extent after all.
“Yes, your father untied my feet. But before that, someone brought me some charcoal, and I also know they brought some to your mother. I suspected the origin of that charcoal, so I only used it for a few days and then stopped. Later, your mother committed suicide. At that time, I suspected there was something wrong with that batch of charcoal, so I took a few pieces and burned them, and asked a doctor to check. Sure enough, it was poisonous. Later, I thought that your mother might have been poisoned by this kind of poison, but unfortunately, everything in her house had been taken away, and we couldn't find any of the poisonous charcoal she had used,” Lanqin said.
After Li's accident, she asked Nianxue to go to the East Courtyard to look for the charcoal, but to no avail. Everything inside had been either sealed up or moved away.
"Then why don't you go and tell Father?" the Third Prince asked, staring at Lanqin.
Upon hearing this, Lanqin revealed a look of guilt and said, "I regret it too. I should have spoken to Fourth Master before your mother was buried and asked him to investigate your mother's charcoal. I just didn't think of it quickly enough. By the time I did, everything was already set in stone."
Lanqin explained that she herself was still in a difficult situation at the time, and she couldn't get over her feelings about the Fourth Master. Although she thought about the carbon issue, she ultimately didn't investigate it.
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