The next day, Grand Tutor Zhao came to Yu's study and pleaded guilty to the emperor.
He was dressed in a neat official uniform, with a serious expression and deep sorrow.
"Your Majesty, I am guilty! I am guilty!" Imperial Tutor Zhao knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly: "I was busy with official duties and lacked discipline for my family. I never thought that my wife would commit such a serious crime as slandering the Empress! I have no face to face Your Majesty. I deserve to die."
"What does the affairs of the harem have to do with you, a senior official of the previous dynasty?" The emperor sighed, "Shan Lan and Shan Hui are sisters, and they were bewitched for a while. You don't have to blame yourself too much."
"Yes, I will write a letter of divorce soon to show my loyalty to Your Majesty and the Queen." Taishi Zhao said, "Shan Hui loves Your Majesty too much, which is why she is jealous and has made a big mistake. I hope Your Majesty will punish her severely to put an end to the scandals in the harem."
The emperor just sighed and didn't say anything.
When Grand Tutor Zhao raised his eyes, he saw the Crown Prince sitting behind the desk in front of the window of Yu's study, assisting the Emperor in reviewing memorials.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince is well. I am overjoyed to hear that your Highness has recovered." Grand Tutor Zhao hurriedly congratulated him, "I congratulate your Majesty. Congratulations, your Majesty. Your Highness is smart and sharp. He has just recovered from his illness and is able to come to the study to assist your Majesty!"
"Grand Master, please stop flattering me." The emperor then smiled. "My useless son has come here for the first time to help me with something. It's rare for him to get up early."
Tai Shi Zhao observed the prince carefully and soon discovered something was wrong.
His Royal Highness always likes to wear black robes, even the inner robe is all black. He often hears his personal attendants complain that they can't tell the difference between black and white, and there is not even a plain or bright colored belt! Today, for some reason, he is still wearing a black outer robe on the surface, but inside, he is wearing a white shirt! The fabric of the white shirt is exquisite and luxurious, and it looks like Ningzhou silk. More importantly, the white shirt is a little ill-fitting, and it doesn't look like the prince's own.
At this time, Eunuch An brought the tea. The prince put down his pen, bent over and picked up the teacup. This action revealed the mystery in his collar - there seemed to be a faint red mark inside the collar.
All the signs were relatively subtle, and only someone with a keen eye like Grand Tutor Zhao could notice them.
"Your Majesty, your study is becoming more and more lively." Seeing that the emperor was in a good mood, Grand Tutor Zhao joked.
"Yes, just before Grand Tutor Zhao came, several ladies including Xu Zhaorong came to pay their respects to His Majesty and brought a lot of snack boxes." Eunuch An smiled and said, "The ladies all praised His Royal Highness for becoming more upright and prudent."
Seeing that the emperor had no doubts about him, Master Zhao felt more at ease. After saying what he had to say, he bowed and left. On the way back, he was thinking about the prince's strange outfit.
Murong Nan returned to Yuanheng Palace and threw a white lingerie to Li Yuebai.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince wore this in the study today?" Li Yuebai snatched the clothes and looked at them from left to right in his hands: "No! This is my clothes! Why are you wearing my clothes?"
"Who said this is yours?" Murong Nan raised his eyebrows and refused to admit it: "This is mine."
"Okay, okay, what's yours is yours." Li Yuebai was helpless. In fact, he himself could not recognize Yun Weizi's white clothes. They all looked the same. As long as they were white clothes, they must be Yun Weizi's.
"You said so." Murong Nan smiled, "Then I will wear it again tomorrow."
You are pushing your luck, little naughty boy!
"Speaking of which, Your Highness." Thinking of what this naughty child had done, Li Yuebai couldn't help but doubt whether his illness was real: "Today, I heard from Aunt Sun that you have been jumping around like a grasshopper since you were a child."
"Grasshopper?" Murong Nan frowned. What kind of metaphor was this? It was too ugly.
"Brother, I can't help but fall into deep thought." Li Yuebai pondered: "Why did you suddenly fall ill some time ago, and you were almost dying? How is this possible?"
"How is it impossible?"
"Did you pretend to be sick on purpose to trick me into coming to the capital?" Li Yuebai's eyes were sharp. "Besides, last time, the eunuch brought you medicine, but you refused to drink it."
"Brother Yun, don't let your imagination run wild." Murong Nan shrugged, "If I was faking illness, could I have hidden it from you?"
Indeed, looking at his coma on the first day, it didn't seem real.
"Brother would rather you were pretending and you are not sick." Li Yuebai sighed.
"Yes." Murong Nan took another step forward and pointed to his heart: "Here."
"Heart disease?" Li Yuebai was even more helpless: "Heart disease needs to be treated with heart medicine. You are basically admitting it, what a cliché."
"It's a real heart disease." Murong Nan said: "When I was young, a famous folk doctor came to examine me and said that I had a blood tumor in my heart."
"Hematoma..." Li Yuebai was half-believing and half-doubting.
Indeed, people with hematomas often have birthmarks. There was indeed a birthmark at the corner of Murong Nan's eye.
At night, Master Zhao came to Huixinyuan again.
"Your Majesty, there is one thing I don't understand." Grand Tutor Zhao frowned, constantly thinking about what he had seen today: "Today I saw the Crown Prince in Yu's study. The Crown Prince was wearing a white robe, and the material seemed to be Ningzhou silk..."
Shan Hui was stunned for a moment, then she clapped her hands and chuckled: "Grandmaster, you have done a great deed this time!"
"What do you mean?"
"That musician Yun is from Ningzhou! He likes to wear white clothes on weekdays!" Shan Hui paused for each word, with ecstasy in her eyes.
"That is to say, the prince is wearing Master Yun's clothes." Master Zhao was also shocked: "This is a serious matter!"
According to the custom of the Murong clan of the Duan Dynasty royal family, underwear must never be exchanged. If it was exchanged, it would indicate a physical relationship.
"Not only the clothes, but also the skin at the prince's collar has a red mark. The color is dark and it is impossible to eliminate it within a few days." Tai Shi Zhao added.
"The prince is young after all, and he thinks that I have fallen, so he can rest easy and act so recklessly!" Shan Hui sneered: "Tomorrow, there will be something interesting to watch!"
The second day.
The originally deserted Huixinyuan suddenly became very lively.
The emperor, accompanied by his entourage and officials from the Dali Temple, arrived at Huixinyuan in a grand procession.
The room in Huixinyuan was small and could not accommodate so many people, so they simply placed a dragon chair in the courtyard and conducted the interrogation there.
"Mrs. Shan, if you are willing to repent, just tell us everything about how you framed the Empress, and your crime will be reduced." Eunuch An consoled her kindly.
Shan Hui was dressed in plain clothes, looking very pitiful. She had already cried so hard that her eyes were wet with tears. She kept saying, "Your Majesty, I know my crime. I was bewitched for a moment and deserve death."
Shan Hui spoke for a long time with great sincerity about how much she respected and loved the emperor, which made people cry.
"I have always been very respectful to the Empress. I made such a big mistake this time, not because I was disrespectful to her, but because I was too respectful to her before. I felt that the Empress was not as respectable as before, so I hated her..."
"Your Highness the Crown Prince could have become a great ruler, but unfortunately... I was too anxious when I saw it, and that's why I made a huge mistake..."
"What a pity?" The emperor heard her evasive words and felt a hidden meaning in her words, so he asked hurriedly.
"Your Majesty, I am about to die, and I have to tell the truth." Shan Hui calmed down, raised her eyes, straightened her back, looked directly at the emperor, and said word by word: "I have framed the queen, and I deserve to die, but I did this all for the sake of the prince!"
"This is strange. How can framing the Empress make him the Crown Prince?" Eunuch An was puzzled.
"Although the Queen is wise, she made a mistake in disciplining the Crown Prince," said Shan Hui.
"How dare you! The Queen is disciplining the Prince, how could it be your turn to interfere?" the Emperor said angrily.
"I am meddling in other people's business, but I really have good intentions and cannot bear to see the prince make mistakes." Shan Hui said, "The prince is willing to harm his own body for his personal love! The queen is also very tolerant, and I really cannot bear it..."
As soon as they heard the word "noble", everyone became serious.
Everyone knows that the Crown Prince was seriously ill some time ago and almost died! This is a big deal.
"Shan Hui, explain yourself clearly!" the emperor roared.
"As far as I know, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is not ill at all! He poisoned himself!" Shan Hui spoke each word carefully, and each word was like a steel needle, piercing the listener's heart.
Poisoning oneself? Why? How can someone be so careless about his own life and harm his own body?
What's more, in this palace, everyone's life does not belong to themselves, but to the emperor. Suicide is a serious crime and is an unauthorized seizure of something that belongs to the emperor.
"Why would His Royal Highness the Crown Prince poison himself?" Eunuch An asked.
"For Master Yun!" said Shan Hui.
It’s Cloud Musician again!
"Not long ago, the Crown Prince and Master Yun reluctantly said goodbye in Ningzhou, but Master Yun refused to follow the Crown Prince to the capital." Shan Hui said, "The Crown Prince was obsessed with Master Yun, and in order to lure Master Yun to come, he poisoned himself and became bedridden. He used this as an excuse to send someone to invite Master Yun to come!"
Everyone was shocked.
From the beginning to the end, everyone thought that Master Yun was the benefactor who saved the prince from the brink of death, but they did not expect that he was actually the source of the disaster!
"Nonsense!" the emperor said angrily, "If the prince really acted like this, why would the queen ignore him?"
"I wonder if Your Majesty still remembers." Shan Hui said faintly, "The prince fell ill after drinking a bowl of soup. The prescription of the soup was written by the Empress herself!"
It was winter, and even if people in the palace were not sick, they had to drink a bowl of tonic soup every day. The empress was known for her talent and had some research on medicinal materials, so she wrote a tonic prescription herself and gave it to the Yuanheng Palace pharmacy to prepare. After the prince drank it, he fell ill and could not get up.
"Mr. Shan, you have no remorse and dare to slander the Empress!" Eunuch An hurriedly stopped him, saying, "Everyone knows that the medicines boiled in the pharmacy have to be tasted by several eunuchs! After the Crown Prince fell ill, the Emperor also sent people to investigate the bowl of medicine. There was no poison at all, and the eunuchs were safe and sound!"
"Fragrant." Shan Hui closed her eyes and uttered only one word.
"fragrant?"
"Sandalwood is burned all year round in the Empress' Yuanheng Palace." Shan Hui said, "And the tonic medicine recipe contains Cassia seed. When sandalwood and Cassia seed meet, it can almost kill a person! When the eunuchs tested the medicine, the Empress did not light the sandalwood. She only lit the sandalwood when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took the medicine!"
"Imperial Physician, please tell me." The emperor turned to the imperial physician standing beside him.
"This...it is indeed written in the medical books that sandalwood and cassia seeds conflict with each other. Taking them together is life-threatening." The imperial physician hesitated, "But since no one dares to try it, we don't know whether it is true or not."
"My concubine and Lian Xin are both willing to try the medicine on themselves!" Shan Hui said anxiously.
"I'm afraid it's not accurate for Lian Xin to test the medicine." A voice came from behind the crowd. Everyone turned around and saw that it was actually His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has fully recovered and drove back to Huixinyuan in person without any followers.
The person next to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, dressed in white and wearing a white gauze hat, is none other than Master Yun.
"The mixture of sandalwood and cassia seeds is extremely toxic and life-threatening. This is clearly written in medical books!" Shan Hui argued: "Only those who are doomed to die can try the medicine. I and Lian Xin have committed a serious crime. We know there is no way out, so we are willing to try the medicine."
"Well, let Lian Xin try the medicine!" the emperor ordered.
Eunuch An ordered someone to boil a bowl of medicine according to the Empress's prescription that day, and then lit sandalwood in a dark room and asked Lianxin to go in to try the medicine.
Lian Xin showed no fear at all. Amidst the scent of sandalwood, she picked up the medicine bowl and drank it all in one gulp. After a while, she fainted on the ground!
The imperial physician sent Lian Xin to the bedroom for treatment, and Shan Hui smiled triumphantly.
"Nonsense!" The emperor was shocked and angry: "Why would the queen poison her own son?"
"I would never do such a thing!" It was the Queen's voice. The Queen came slowly, surrounded by a crowd of people, and said with anger in her tone: "Shan Hui, you really refuse to repent!"
"The reason is very simple. The Empress is different from ordinary people. She is a person of great affection and nature." Shan Hui sneered, "The Empress does not love power or money. She only loves poetry and art, and pursues the most profound love in the world!"
Everyone was silent, and had to admit that Shan Hui was right. The empress was aloof and aloof, and only loved literature and talent, and had no concerns for the secular world.
"The Queen saw that the Crown Prince missed Master Yun, and she agreed with him in her heart, so she ignored the overall situation and helped the Crown Prince to plan such a self-torture plan!" Shan Hui said: "The Queen pursues the truest love in the world. Everything else is dust in her eyes, even the Crown Prince's life, reputation, status... all of them can be ignored!"
The emperor was silent.
"Your Majesty, I was extremely anxious when I saw all this, but I was powerless to stop it." Shan Hui's face was filled with sorrow: "Such a foolish and ignorant queen not only cannot bring the prince back on the right track, but will help him make more mistakes! In my anxiety, I only wanted to stop all this, and I also wanted to protect the prince's reputation, so I slandered the queen... I know I was wrong! I should have told the truth from the beginning!"
Although her words were shocking, they were logical and reasonable.