Concubine Rou couldn't believe it, it was like a bolt from the blue, her whole body was cold, tears fell, "How could this happen? Judge Zhao, Han'er he...he..."
"I have done my best. Your Highness has been poisoned for several days and the poison has entered his heart and lungs..." Judge Zhao said solemnly.
What? Poison in the heart and lungs?
Concubine Rou felt a sharp pain in her heart, her eyes went dark, and she fainted from the shock.
The accompanying granddaughter doctor took Roupin's pulse and found that Roupin had also been poisoned...
It's just that her body is stronger than a child's, so the poison didn't penetrate as seriously.
The news that the Second Prince and Concubine Rou were poisoned spread, shocking the entire palace.
Everyone rushed to Zhongcui Palace.
Wu Mi, the head of the Criminal Court, immediately sealed off the palace and searched it, carefully checking each item in Zhongcui Palace.
After a while, Wu Mi presented a piece of top-grade cloud-patterned Fu ink and a stack of rice paper filled with words.
Report to the Emperor:
"Your Majesty, this cloud-patterned lucky ink is poisonous. Words written with this ink will have some poison in them. If you come into contact with it for a long time, you will be poisoned."
Upon seeing this, Wang Degui hurriedly reported, "Your Majesty, this cloud-patterned ink was sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs half a month ago. After it was stored, the imperial doctors checked it and it is definitely not poisonous."
Of the tributes sent from various places, some of the precious ones were stored in the emperor's treasury, while most of the others, such as silk, rouge, writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, were given to the concubines in various palaces by the emperor.
This year, the emperor awarded this batch of tribute ink to the heads of various palaces.
It was Wang Degui who delivered the tribute ink to the masters. He had checked it to ensure that it was non-toxic and harmless.
Wu Mi immediately investigated the palace maids in Zhongcui Palace.
A palace maid who was usually in charge of cleaning the study quickly confessed the crime when faced with the torture device:
"I didn't know the ink was poisonous... I just took the money and resold the tribute ink... I would never dare to poison the Second Prince and Concubine Rou..."
A few days ago, a young eunuch gave her a sum of money and asked her to replace the tribute ink in Concubine Rou's palace...
The young eunuch told her that he would use a lower-grade ink to replace the tribute ink and take it out of the palace to resell it.
The maid didn't know how to identify ink, and the other party patted her chest to guarantee that it would be indistinguishable from the real thing. She was greedy for the money, and then she looked at the inferior ink the other party gave her, and it really looked exactly like the tribute ink, so she replaced it...
She thought privately that Concubine Rou would not notice that Gong Mo had been replaced by someone else.
The queen is gentle and doesn't like to cause trouble. Even if she really found out, she would probably guess that it was sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs by mistake and would not pursue the matter.
She never expected that Mo Li was poisonous.
"I really didn't know that Moli was poisonous. If I had known earlier, I would never have dared to murder His Highness and the Queen!" The palace maid was also panicked at this moment.
She was just greedy for money and really didn't dare to murder the royal heirs and concubines.
After carefully checking and comparing the ink sticks, Wu Mi confirmed, "This is the tribute ink with cloud pattern and blessing character. The material is exactly the same."
Because Concubine Rou had some knowledge of poetry and literature, if it was replaced with other ink, with her sharp eyesight she would most likely notice something was wrong at the first moment.
It is safer to exchange tribute ink for tribute ink.
Ordinary palace maids naturally didn't know how to recognize it.
Wu Mi bowed and saluted, "I request your permission to check the tribute ink from each palace."
Helian Qi's eyes fell on the unconscious Second Prince, his face gloomy, "Investigate!"
…
Judge Zhao and other imperial doctors tried their best to treat him.
Various detoxifying medicines were poured into it...
The emperor looked at this scene with a gloomy face. Concubine Rou was still in a coma, and Wen Shutang was crying beside her.
The atmosphere in Zhongcui Palace was extremely solemn.
Time passes by little by little.
The expressions of the imperial doctors remained grim.
After Wu Mi checked all the palaces, he came to report, "Your Majesty, after my inspection, the tribute inks of all the ladies are new and have not been opened. Only the ink of Concubine Shun is lost."
Because Concubine Rou's tribute ink was replaced only after being used several times.
Therefore, if someone holds the replaced tribute ink at this time, there will definitely be signs of use.
The loss of Shunpin's ink was very suspicious.
Everyone looked at Shunpin.
Shunpin was also shocked. She was not good at writing, and she only touched the four treasures of the study a few times a month. After receiving the tribute ink, she would put it in the storehouse for safekeeping.
Why did it suddenly disappear?
Chunque's face was also full of panic and she was at a loss.
The tribute ink of Changchun Palace was kept in the storeroom, and she was the only one who held the key, so just now she went back to Changchun Palace with the people from the Criminal Department and opened the storeroom to check...
In the end, Gong Mo was not found.
"Your Majesty, please understand..." Shunpin's face turned pale, and she knelt on the ground and said, "I know nothing. The key to the tribute ink warehouse is in Chunque's hands. Chunque, you actually betrayed me..."
Chunque knelt down and kowtowed, "I did not betray the queen, and I don't know what happened..."
Helian Qi said coldly, "All the palace servants in Changchun Palace should be sent to the Criminal Justice Department for strict investigation."
"Yes." Wu Mi accepted the order.
Chunque shouted in panic, "My Lady, please save me, I really don't know..."
But soon, he was dragged away by eunuchs from the Prison Department.
Yao Jieyu was comforting Wen Shutang who was crying so hard, but when she saw this, she added insult to injury:
"Your Majesty, I have heard that Concubine Shun has long been dissatisfied with Concubine Rou, saying that Concubine Rou relied on raising the Second Prince to have her current status and that she is not worthy of being on an equal footing with her. She also cursed Concubine Rou behind her back that her good days would not last long..."
Shunpin hastily argued, "I didn't..."
She did say bad things about Concubine Rou behind her back. She said that Concubine Rou's good days would not last long. She meant that when the Second Prince grew up, he would definitely be close to his biological mother's family, and not to her, his adoptive mother who had nothing!
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