"Master, Wu Youcai has arrived." Su Peisheng stood at the door and, seeing that the head nanny had brought Wu Youcai, bowed and reported.
Upon hearing this, everyone's spirits lifted, and they all turned to look at the doorway, as if the person they were about to see was the key figure who would control everything.
"This servant Wu Youcai greets His Highness, His Highness, His Highness the Princess Consort, and all the other princesses!" Wu Youcai knelt as soon as he entered the room. He was still under the custody of the head nanny and had not regained his freedom, which meant that the Fourth Prince had tacitly approved of Consort Niu's actions.
"Wu Youcai, go check the bedding and pillows for any lily of the valley pollen. Check carefully. If there are any more problems, you might as well consider whether you can even leave the Fourth Prince's residence." The Fourth Prince naturally disliked Wu Youcai. He was responsible for taking the Third Prince's pulse, but what kind of pulse was he taking? First, he hadn't noticed anyone tampering with the Third Prince's medicine; second, he hadn't detected the lily of the valley poison in the Third Prince's body in time. As a physician in a prince's residence, he had utterly neglected his responsibilities. If the Fourth Prince hadn't been unaware of the full story, he would have wanted to have him beaten to death immediately.
Wu Youcai naturally knew that he could not afford to make the slightest mistake at this moment, otherwise even if the Fujin pleaded for him, the Fourth Prince might beat him to death in a fit of anger.
"Yes, this servant will do his utmost to investigate." He trembled slightly, then slowly got up. Su Peisheng found two long benches, and then Cui Niang laid the bedding and pillows on them one by one.
Wu Youcai started by checking the bedding one by one, then used small scissors to cut open a corner of the bedding to check if there was anything inside, and then smelled it, but did not smell anything strange.
While he was doing these things, Lanqin would intentionally or unintentionally glance at the faces of Madam Yin, Madam Wu, and finally the Fujin, but she did not find any nervousness in them. This made her a little puzzled and uneasy.
However, the only thing the Princess Consort gave to the Third Prince that could be used to hide poison is this. If not here, then where?
Not only Lanqin, but even when the Fourth Prince was watching Wu Youcai inspect the bedding and pillows, he was also glancing at everyone present out of the corner of his eye. He noticed that Madam Yin's expression changed slightly, while the Fujin remained calm, and the others were left with only surprise and doubt.
After checking the bedding, Wu Youcai seemed to find nothing, and then he began to check the pillow.
At this moment, the Fujin's eyelids twitched a few times. In truth, she was also very nervous, but she maintained a calm demeanor. This was a demeanor she had maintained for ten years, so it was difficult for Lanqin and the Fourth Prince to discern what the Fujin was truly feeling inside.
The moment Wu Youcai turned the things out of the pillow, the Fujin felt as if her heart had been struck several times, the pain almost making her turn pale.
Lanqin, Song Shi, and the others saw that Wu Youcai hadn't noticed anything, and their confidence gradually crumbled.
As Wu Youcai shook out the contents of the pillow, the Fujin's heart clenched. Yin Shi secretly glanced at the Fujin a few times, a slight smile playing on her lips.
Lanqin stared at Wu Youcai's hands, watching him carefully feel the cotton fibers. Gradually, the certainty in her heart began to crack like ice floes under the scorching sun.
Finally, after Wu Youcai had searched through all those things, he said to everyone present, "Your Majesty, this servant did not find any lily of the valley pollen here."
How could this be? It's impossible! How did she poison him? Lanqin felt like her brain was about to explode from all this.
"I don't know what the concubine said, but she summoned us all to the prince's presence. Now, I'm finally cleared of suspicion." Although the prince didn't know where things had gone wrong, the current situation was undoubtedly in her favor. It was she who had put lily-of-the-valley pollen into the pillow's wadding. That substance was extremely fine; every day, the Third Prince slept on it, and the pollen inside would slowly rise with the pillow's movement, being inhaled by him. That's how she slowly, bit by bit, poisoned him. But Wu Youcai couldn't find that pollen in the pillow now. Had it all turned to dust and dissipated?
"Impossible, Cui Niang, are you sure these things haven't been submerged in water?" Lan Qin couldn't help but ask.
Cui Niang understood that the situation was extremely unfavorable for Lan Qin, but she hadn't actually put these things into the water when she found them, so she could only shake her head at Lan Qin.
Lanqin felt all eyes in the room were on her. She didn't know how to explain it all. She looked at Wu Youcai and said to the Fourth Prince, "Please go out and invite another doctor in to insist. I don't trust Wu Youcai. He has been taking the Third Prince's pulse all this time, but he has never found anything wrong. I suspect that he has been bribed and is deliberately covering up for someone."
The First Lady's eyes flashed, and she said sternly, "Second Lady, your words clearly imply that there must be something wrong with the bedding. If you insist that there is no problem, then the doctor is the problem. Will you only think the doctor is right when someone has a problem?"
Faced with the Fujin's sophistry, Lanqin did not want to argue with her. She walked to the bed and examined it carefully.
"May I ask, Madam, were the bedding and pillows you gave to the Third Prince all made of the same pattern and from the same piece of fabric?" Lanqin asked as she looked at them.
"Of course, how could I use different fabrics for what I made for the Third Prince? They are all made of the finest Suzhou satin with auspicious cloud, ruyi, and longevity flower patterns." The Princess Consort didn't know what Lanqin meant by asking this question, so she could only reply.
"Master, there's something wrong with this pillow. It seems to have been tampered with. This pillow isn't a matching set at all." After hearing what the Fujin said, Lanqin finally showed a relieved look of understanding.
What?
Everyone was taken aback by Lanqin's question and stared at her in bewilderment. The Fujin's heart skipped a beat, and she was momentarily at a loss for words at this sudden turn of events.
Fourth Master suddenly stood up, strode over to Lanqin's side, and asked, "What?"
Lanqin pointed to the pillow and said, "Master, look. Although the fabric of this pillow is also Suzhou satin, and it looks the same as the one on the bedding, if you look closely, the pattern is not the auspicious cloud, ruyi, or longevity symbol. This ruyi and gold treasure pattern is very similar to the ruyi and longevity symbol, but there are only slight differences here. If you don't look closely, they really are the same."
A few glints flashed in Madam Yin's eyes, but she quickly suppressed them.
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