"Someone has mixed musk into the chestnut cake. Humph, once your hands have touched musk, the smell won't dissipate easily. Smell your own hands!"
Ah Xiang looked at her coldly, grabbed her hand and made her smell it.
"Didn't the person who told you to poison them tell you that?"
"If you come into contact with musk, you must wash your hands thoroughly with cypress leaves to remove the smell."
Over the years, Ah Xiang has been by Yun Duoduo's side, gaining a deeper understanding of these Chinese herbal medicines and learning many principles of mutual generation and restraint.
Qiu'er gritted her teeth, furrowed her brows, and kept her lips tightly closed, looking as if she were prepared to die and would not utter a word.
"Hmph, you're not going to talk?"
"Qiu'er, I didn't realize you had two faces!"
"He doesn't talk much usually, but he has a very sound mind!"
Ah Xiang sneered, pulled a silver needle from her sleeve, grabbed Qiu'er's hand without hesitation, and stuck it into Qiu'er's fingertip.
"If you won't talk, I have plenty of ways to make you talk!"
"ah!"
A piercing scream came from the kitchen.
Ah Xiang showed no pity whatsoever, still coldly and disgustedly looking at the palace maid curled up on the ground in pain.
She would fight to the death with anyone who dared to harm the princess.
"Speak! Who exactly is trying to harm the princess?!"
Ah Xiang squatted on the ground, pinching the palace maid's chin. She was very strong, her knuckles turning white, and the palace maid's forehead veins bulged in pain.
"If I don't teach you a lesson, it seems you don't know the price of betraying your master!"
Ah Xiang took out a row of silver needles and picked out the longest and thickest one.
"Hold her down!"
As Ah Xiang spoke, the two eunuchs who had dragged her from Fu Shuang Palace pressed down on Qiu'er's shoulders, making her lie on the ground unable to move.
Ah Xiang pricked the palace maid's back with needles one by one.
At first, Qiu'er only called out softly, but later, because of the pain, she called out louder and louder.
The two newly arrived eunuchs from the Imperial Prison guarding the gate shrank back in fright, not daring to look back.
The two of them tacitly closed the doors and windows and stood guard outside.
"The princess has treated you all so well, yet you want to harm her?"
“Look at those masters in the palace, they all treat us servants like dogs. But the princess always thinks of us when she has something good. When winter comes and it’s cold, she even made cotton gloves and hats for us.”
Have you lost your conscience?
...
Before long, Ah Xiang came out with a satisfied smile on her face.
The two eunuchs guarding the gate mustered their courage and peeked into the room. They saw that the palace maid's clothes were stained with blood, and she was on the verge of death.
"Take care, Aunt Xiang."
Both the Palace of Fortune and the Palace of the Palace of the God of Fortune are formidable individuals; they must not be offended.
"Keep a close eye on her, don't let her die."
"If I die, none of you will live either," Ah Xiang said before leaving.
The two eunuchs were so frightened that their legs trembled.
"We can't let her die... Quick, find a handkerchief and stuff it into her mouth, we can't let her bite her tongue and kill herself."
A young eunuch realized what was happening and quickly went inside to check.
"Yes, yes, and also, tie her hands and feet up, and there can't be any sharp sticks in the house."
Another eunuch went in to help. When she tied Qiu'er's hands with a rope, she was surprised to find a large lump on her wrist, which was raised high and looked quite terrifying.
...
Ah Xiang quickly returned to Fu Shuang Palace and told Yun Duoduo what had happened.
"Princess, the palace maid who poisoned the chestnut cake has been identified."
"It was Qiu'er who washed the princess's clothes in the backyard."
"Qiu'er?"
Yun Duoduo pondered, recalling Qiu'er's face. They hadn't spoken much, and in her memory, Qiu'er seemed to be a very introverted and quiet person: "So it was her."
"Have they all been confessed?"
"He confessed."
Ah Xiang handed a piece of paper with her fingerprint on it to Yun Duoduo.
"Consort Chen?"
Yun Duoduo looked at the paper that confessed to the crime. It said that Consort Chen ordered her to poison and murder Princess Rui and her unborn child, and then frame Yun Duoduo for it.
[Consort Chen...]
Yun Duoduo recalled the events of the past years. When the Buddhist hall caught fire, a palace maid under Consort Chen lured the eldest prince to the vicinity of the Buddhist hall, intending to frame him.
This method of framing and slander sounds like something Consort Chen would do.
only……
"Take me to see her."
Yun Duoduo sat up from the soft couch, put on her shoes, and went outside.
"Go see Qiu'er?" Ah Xiang was a little confused.
"Does the princess suspect something amiss?"
Yun Duoduo nodded.
Upon arriving at the Shenxing Division, the eunuch guarding the gate bowed to Yun Duoduo.
"Greetings, Princess Yourong."
"Open the door, let this princess go in and take a look."
Two eunuchs opened the door and said hesitantly, "Princess, there's some blood in there..."
"It's alright."
After saying that, Yun Duoduo lifted her leg, stepped over the stairs, and walked to Qiu'er's side.
"Qiu'er, I didn't expect you to be so good at currying favor!"
"Consort Chen? Hmph, do you think I'm stupid?"
"Consort Chen is a good-for-nothing. She appears arrogant and domineering on the surface, but in reality, she is just a pretty face with no brains."
If the eldest prince falls, the second prince will naturally be the first to rejoice, and his ascension to the throne will be imminent.
However, she knew that her second brother was proud and upright, and that he would never accept the position of crown prince through such means.
"If you say that Consort Chen is good at sowing discord, framing others, and shifting blame, she may be good at talking, but she probably doesn't have the guts to harm people and kill two lives!"
“Yesterday, Xiao Liu helped you send a large sum of money to your family.”
The palace maid Qiu'er's body trembled violently.
A gust of wind blew in through the crack in the door, and Qiu'er felt a bone-chilling cold rush from the soles of her feet to her head.
Who gave you this money?
Yun Duoduo leaned down and whispered in Qiu'er's ear. Her voice was very soft.
The child's voice, yet the tone was chilling.
Do you still want to see your family?
Qiu'er trembled all over. She looked at the six-year-old child in front of her in disbelief. The child had an angelic face, but her voice sounded like it came from hell—eerie and terrifying.
"Knowing that you have a serious illness and don't have many days left to live, you thought that before you died, you would give your younger brother a large sum of money so that he could get married and have children to continue the family line."
"Actually, you're not on the verge of death."
"Do you want to live for yourself for once?"
"Princess, what do you mean by that?"
The palace maid looked timidly at Yun Duoduo. Yun Duoduo had always been lovely and gentle, and she had never seen the princess so cold and frightening.
"Did the doctor say that the lump on your hand is hopeless?"
Yun Duoduo's gaze fell on Qiu'er's hands.
"You've been in Fushuang Palace for so many years, you know that I, the princess, have the ability to save you."
"Your life or death is entirely in your own hands."
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