"Imperial Physician Zhou, please treat the Second Princess immediately. Bring down her fever quickly, lest the child become seriously ill," Changning said coldly, emphasizing that healing her daughter was the priority.
As for the others, none of them will be spared.
Yinzhen and Changning exchanged a glance, both understanding each other's thoughts. This most honorable couple in the Qing Dynasty would never allow anyone to harm their child. How dare someone be so audacious as to provoke them?
Yinzhen also felt that he had been too lenient as emperor. If he had acted like his father in his later years, killing half of the inner court at the drop of a hat, who would have dared to interfere?
He clenched his fist tightly. He would show these people what it meant for the emperor's wrath to cause the deaths of millions.
"Su Peisheng, investigate. Mobilize the entire Sticky Rod Office and imprison everyone involved in this matter in the Imperial Prison. I will absolutely not let them go."
Su Peisheng looked serious, bowed his head in response, and turned to walk outside. The eunuchs outside all nodded slightly to him, taking him as their leader.
Su Peisheng sneered. He was just a knife in the Emperor's hand; wherever the Emperor wanted him to plunge it, he would plunge it there.
Those bastards from the Imperial Household Department are truly blind. I don't know where they ate their shit, but they're so audacious as to plot against the imperial heirs. They have absolutely no regard for His Majesty.
Since that's the case, we don't need to be polite. Those who have already resorted to violence, just wait and see.
Zhang Qilin followed behind him silently, like a ghost hidden in the night, but Su Peisheng knew he was there.
Let's go.
As expected of the head of the Imperial Medical Academy, Physician Zhou pondered for a while before preparing the prescription. After Emperor Yinzhen checked it, he personally went to brew the medicine.
This time, Changning was on high alert, and had Baishu, Granny Zhang, and others check everything belonging to Hutuli and the other children one by one. They checked not only the sachets, but also other items such as fan pendants, clothes, hand warmers, teapots, vases, pillows, walls, and even the flowers in the courtyard.
Granny Zhang knew how serious the task was, but it was a huge undertaking. Fortunately, she had trained a number of young palace maids, a total of twelve. They were originally intended to be promoted after the senior palace maids around Changning became female officials, and now they could be put to use.
In addition, she specially invited Granny Xiu, Granny Bai, Granny Liu, and other familiar people. These were all people from the Fucha clan, and their identities and backgrounds could be trusted.
She knew that the most important thing now was to find someone she could trust.
The Imperial Household Department is a complex and intertwined power structure. Once the information is leaked, who knows what kind of trouble they might cause.
The palace servants were inspecting everywhere outside, making a great commotion. Several children had also woken up and were confused by the commotion. Changning told them that they had only found some dirty things and that everything would be fine after the inspection.
However, Hongyan and Hongzhao were very clever. Seeing that their father and mother were staying with their sister, they knew that something must have happened to Hutuli. Both of them insisted on going to see their sister.
Changning was at a loss because of their pleading eyes. Anyway, this matter couldn't be kept secret, so it was good to teach them a lesson. In the future, no matter who sends something, they should check it before they can feel at ease.
Especially under the protection of Changning and the others, the children had not yet witnessed the power of palace intrigue and were quite naive. They simply thought that there were more rules in the palace and that things involving the change of imperial power were more frightening.
Little did they know that even the smallest things, even the palace servants they used to look down on, could cause them to suffer a major setback.
Hutuli's recent illness serves as the best lesson learned.
The same applies to Changning.
Seeing their once vibrant and willful older sister lying there weak and pale, with a persistent fever and delirium, Hongyan and Hongzhao felt an indescribable sorrow.
Hongzhao's heart softened even more, and he almost cried as he tightly gripped Changning's sleeve, asking pitifully, "Mother, will my sister really be alright? Will she wake up?"
Changning gently patted his head and comforted him, "It's alright. Think about it, isn't your sister usually very strong? She practices martial arts and runs every day, so she's in great shape. This time, she was just tricked. But she's a lucky person, and she'll definitely get through this safely."
Hongzhao's face showed indignation: "Those servants are so audacious! Mother, you must find them and punish them severely!"
Changning nodded: "Of course, if they dare to make a move, they should pay the price."
Hongyan felt uneasy as well: "Mother, now that my sister's fever has gone down, she should be alright, right?"
"Physician Zhou has already prepared the medicine and just fed me a bowl. We'll see how it goes tonight, and if it doesn't work, we'll change the medicine. You all have to go to the Imperial Study tomorrow, so why don't you go back and rest? It's good that your mother and father are here."
Hongyan and Hongzhao both shook their heads, refusing to leave.
The family of four had no choice but to stay here together.
Yinzhen was somewhat moved by the deep brotherly affection among the children, but he was still feeling resentful. He turned to Hongyan and asked, "Hongyan, what do you think of this matter?"
Hongyan pondered for a while, but still decided to tell the whole story.
"My son knows that Mother wants to rebuild the system of female officials, so he has made a big show of reforming the inner court and cleaning up the corrupt officials in the Imperial Household Department, all in order to restore a clean and strict environment."
At this critical moment, my sister was murdered. It must have been a counterattack carried out by those people in the Imperial Household Department.
They dared not actually harm the imperial heir, fearing the consequences for the lives of their entire clan, so they sought out the Andrographis paniculata.
They probably found this out of the prescription for my second sister's health from the Imperial Hospital.
Even without the mosquito-repellent sachet sent by their mother, they would have found other ways to deliver the Andrographis paniculata to their sister.
As for why the older sister was chosen…
Hongyan pursed his lips: "My younger siblings are still young. If something really happens to them and they get sick, they might not be able to make it through."
The son and Hongzhao were older, but they were still princes, so they dared not make a move.
They only dare to target the princess…
At this point, even Hongyan and Hongzhao felt that their mother's plan to reshape the system of female officials was absolutely correct and brilliant.
If even princesses are not respected by those people, what status do women in the world have?
Even the empress was coerced. In the end, it was simply because they felt that women had a low status. So what if she was the empress? She still had to listen to the emperor.
What they were betting on was that the emperor only cared about the princes and only had a superficial relationship with the princesses.
It can only be said that they didn't keep their eyes open enough.
In the Emperor's heart, Hutuli's status was absolutely the same as Hongyan's.
The gloom that had hung over Yinzhen's heart after this incident eased slightly because his son was intelligent and perceptive enough.
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