Chapter 231: Please Respect Yourself
The assassins were quickly eliminated, and the few remaining figures escaped from the palace and fled into the mountains, where they were searched for by the Royal Guards.
Inside the palace, several imperial physicians were sweating profusely as they tried to detoxify Prince Ding Xiao Nanchen.
Outside, Empress Wei, who had severely injured Prince Ding, was filled with grief and looked dazed. "I don't know what happened. I can't remember clearly. I... I injured the Seventh Prince..."
Queen Wei held her head in pain.
Beside him, Emperor Jiaping frowned as he looked at the director of the Imperial Medical Bureau who was taking the empress's pulse.
The court envoy withdrew his hand and sighed, "The Queen has also been poisoned, perhaps her mind has been bewildered."
As she spoke, Queen Wei spat out a mouthful of blood.
In the inner room, Shen Ning gave Xiao Nanchen acupuncture and then stepped back. The Imperial Hospital's director then continued to detoxify Xiao Nanchen...
His face was still an ominous blue-black color, and he was unconscious.
The envoy said that if Xiao Nanchen had not seized the opportunity and sealed several of his acupoints, he would have been in danger by now.
But even so, this poison is rare in the world and it is very difficult to detoxify.
At this time, a palace maid outside whispered to Shen Ning's ear and told her that someone from the Imperial College had come, saying that they were delivering a message for her brother.
There was a commotion in the palace before, and Shen Qingbai's residence was still outside the city. Shen Ning hurriedly asked Qiyue to go and see it, but the assassin was being hunted at that time, and the palace was under martial law and no one was allowed to move around.
Shen Qingbai could naturally think of it, and he must have sent the message as soon as he was able to move.
Shen Ning asked Qiyue to go out and check, while she stayed by Xiao Nanchen's bed... At this moment, she saw him suddenly spit out a mouthful of black blood.
The court official withdrew the thick silver needle that had pierced his chest and heaved a sigh of relief: "We're out of danger."
Shen Ning's mind suddenly relaxed, and she realized that her legs were weak.
Next, Xiao Nanchen had to be given a medicinal bath to remove the poison. Shen Ning wanted to go outside, so she turned around and went out to chase Qiyue to see how Shen Qingbai was doing.
Those are students of the Imperial Academy. There is no point in others killing them, and there won't be much danger.
But when she followed Qiyue out of the hall and saw that the person coming was not Shen Qingbai but Pei Yuanzhou, Shen Ning's breath still stagnated and she hurried forward.
"How's Qingbai?"
She thought of Mu Yao.
She was a lunatic, so it was not impossible that she attacked Shen Qingbai for no reason.
Pei Yuanzhou hurriedly said: "Qingbai is fine, there is no need to panic..."
Then Shen Ning realized that there was also chaos in the Imperial College last night. It was attacked by a large group of bats. Shen Qingbai was bitten on the face by a bat when he was driving away the bat.
"I've consulted the imperial physician, and he's fine. He's just a little swollen and can't be shown to others. I'm here to tell him to rest assured, my lord."
Shen Ning finally breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that you're okay."
At this moment, she suddenly heard a cry of surprise from behind her: "Your Highness..."
Shen Ning turned around and saw Xiao Nanchen staggering and holding the door. He glanced at her, then coldly withdrew his gaze, turned around, and walked to the other side of the hall with the help of the palace servants to take a medicinal bath.
Shen Ning was stunned.
Why did I feel that there was something wrong with Xiao Nanchen's eyes just now...
After a while, the medicinal bath was over. After Xiao Nanchen had cleaned up, Shen Ning went in immediately.
"Anan, how do you feel?"
But as soon as he finished speaking, he met Xiao Nanchen's cold eyes.
"Do you still remember your identity as the future Princess Ding?"
Xiao Nanchen sneered, "Weren't you just chatting animatedly with that old friend of yours?"
Shen Ning was stunned: "Are you talking about Pei Yuanzhou?"
"Oh."
Xiao Nanchen sneered: "Otherwise, oh, by the way, you have more than just that Pei old friend..."
At this moment, Shen Ning was very sure that something was wrong with Xiao Nanchen. She turned her head to look at the Imperial Hospital Director who was walking out while wiping his hands, and asked in a low voice: "Sir Director?"
The court attendant winked at her and said, "My lady, please excuse me for a moment."
Shen Ning looked at Xiao Nanchen and met his extremely cold eyes. After a pause, she turned around and walked out with the courtyard envoy.
"His Royal Highness Prince Ding must have been poisoned by the Southern Xinjiang Gu poison. It's not only poisonous, but also contains Gu."
The court official frowned, "It is said that the poison in Southern Xinjiang has long been lost, and those thieves don't know where to find it."
Poison?
Parasite?
This was an area Shen Ning had never encountered before. Thinking of Xiao Nanchen's appearance just now, she suddenly became anxious: "Is it very dangerous?"
The court official said in a deep voice: "Poison, poison, there is poison and there is poison. Now the poison in His Highness's body has been cured, but the poison is still there, and it has obviously affected his mind."
The court official pointed to the head and said, "I once read a book about the poison in southern Xinjiang, but it was very brief. It only said that the poison was very complex and toxic. Even if you were lucky enough to find an antidote, it would still be extremely difficult to deal with. Some poisons would make the person infected become suspicious, cruel and bloodthirsty. Some would make people mistake their loved ones for their own, or turn love into hatred... and some would turn the person into a puppet, obeying the poisoner's orders..."
Shen Ning immediately thought of the cold and suspicious look Xiao Nanchen had given her just now. She took a deep breath and asked, "What should I do now?"
The court envoy shook his head. "The remaining poison isn't fatal in the short term, but Your Highness's mind is confused, and I'm afraid his temperament may change drastically. My Great Xuan Dynasty is not familiar with the poison in Southern Xinjiang. If we want to remove it, I'm afraid we'll have to send people to Southern Xinjiang."
Both of them fell silent.
The court official sighed, "His Royal Highness Prince Ding was injured while rescuing Xiangjun, which shows how much Xiangjun means to him. But judging from his Royal Highness Prince Ding's demeanor just now, I'm afraid his words and actions towards Xiangjun will be different from before. Xiangjun, please don't mind, that's not his true intention."
Chen Ning shook her head: "I know how he treats me, so I naturally won't take his words and actions to heart at this time. It's just that this Gu needs to be resolved as soon as possible... By the way, does he know that he is infected with Gu?"
The court envoy shook his head. "This is the power of the Gu worm. Those who are poisoned will never realize or admit that they are poisoned. This is the Gu worm's self-protection. Your Highness will probably not send anyone to find a cure."
Shen Ning pondered and said, "Prince Ding has the Changning Guard under his command. There are many masters in the Changning Guard. I will try to ask if I can go to Southern Xinjiang to take a look."
The court envoy nodded solemnly: "Then I will go and report to His Majesty first."
"Take care."
Shen Ning watched the envoy leave, but after taking a few steps, he stopped and looked back at her. He seemed a little hesitant, but finally said, "If the Queen sends someone in the next few days... the county lord should pay more attention."
After saying that, without waiting for Shen Ning to speak, the court envoy turned around and strode away.
Shen Ning realized something almost instantly.
The queen was also poisoned and said that she didn't know what had happened before. The court envoy also confirmed that the queen was poisoned. However, the degree of poisoning varies. The court envoy reminded her in that way because he was probably suspicious.
The poison that the Queen was poisoned with would not make her lose control to that extent, but poisoning was a fact. He could not insist on arguing that the Queen was not seriously poisoned and might be pretending. That would be simply courting death.
But this reminder is enough to tell the truth.
The queen was not unconscious, she knew what she was doing... It was she who personally stabbed the hairpin soaked in poison into the body of her own son.
The Queen had calculated Xiao Nanchen's plan to be foolproof: she knew that Xiao Nanchen would risk his life to protect her, and she also knew that even if they wanted to protect her, Xiao Nanchen and the secret guards around him would not be able to attack the Queen. Therefore, Xiao Nanchen had only one choice, which was to sacrifice himself.
The queen successfully planned everything, and the premise for all these plans to succeed was that Xiao Nanchen was her biological son and would not harm her as his biological mother.
How can people be so cruel and vicious?
Shen Ning took a deep breath and turned back into the house.
Xiao Nanchen was listening to Chengying's report beside him. In front of his subordinates, he seemed to be the cold and decisive Prince Ding as always. But the moment he saw Shen Ning, his expression suddenly became cold and hard.
He gestured for Chengying to go down first. When they were the only two left in the room, Xiao Nanchen said in a deep voice with a blank expression, "Don't you have anything to say to this prince... my future princess?"
Shen Ning felt a little uncomfortable, but she didn't mind his expression. She smiled and said, "I'm glad you're okay. Does the wound on your arm still hurt?"
She took two steps closer and raised her hand to see how his wound was bandaged, but just as she stretched out her hand, she saw Xiao Nanchen take two steps back and look at her as if he were facing a great enemy.
"Respect yourself! Don't think that just because you're deliberately seducing me, I'll forget your previous flirtations with my ex-lover."
Shen Ning was a little dumbfounded: "Where did this old lover come from? Besides, when did I ever seduce you?"
Then, His Royal Highness Prince Ding sneered, "You looked up at me like that just now, hoping to entice me to kiss you... But your efforts will be in vain. I hate fickle and undisciplined women the most, and I hate being seduced by others the most."
After saying this, His Royal Highness Prince Ding turned coldly and walked out: "Give up that idea. This prince now knows what kind of person you are and will never give you a second glance. If you still want to keep your position as Princess Ding, then you better take care of yourself and don't let this prince catch you in any trouble again."
Xiao Nanchen strode away without even looking back, while Shen Ning stood there numb and dazed.
How on earth had he figured out that she was trying to seduce him?
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