Chapter 53
"What's going on!" Shen Yanzhi's eyes were like knives, sweeping across the room full of trembling servants.
Chun He fell to her knees with a thud, pointing at Steward Wang and Chef Zhang and crying, "Your Highness! It's all their fault! There's something wrong with the dinner they prepared. My aunt took two bites and complained about the fishy smell, and then... she got a stomachache! Your Highness, they must have been ordered by someone to murder the little prince!"
These words were like a thunderclap, exploding in Shen Yanzhi's mind.
He remembered Cui Jingyue's words, "If anything goes wrong in the future, I hope Your Highness will remember that today's decision was made by you personally," and a nameless anger suddenly rose up in his heart.
He personally waived the inspection process, and now something went wrong!
He was furious and kicked Steward Wang in the chest: "You bastards! I gave you Madam Wen's meals, and this is how you handle it? Come, drag these two dogs away and give them forty lashes!"
Manager Wang and Chef Zhang were so frightened that they pissed and shit themselves, and begged for mercy, but were held down by the guards who rushed in.
At this moment, a cold voice came from the door: "Your Majesty, wait a minute."
Everyone turned around and saw Cui Jingyue, Luzhu and several maids walking in slowly.
She still had that calm expression, as if the chaotic scene before her was just a farce on the stage.
"Princess, you've arrived just in time!" Shen Yanzhi was furious, his tone very unfriendly, "Look at the servant you've been managing! How dare you tamper with the food and murder the prince! I want to see how you, the princess, can handle this!"
Facing his thunderous rage, Cui Jingyue didn't even raise an eyebrow. She walked to the bedside, first glanced at Wen Yue who was sweating profusely in pain on the bed, and then turned to Shen Yanzhi.
He spoke calmly, "Your Highness, please calm down. If you rush to beat someone up before the truth is fully understood, you might force him to confess, and the real culprit will go unpunished."
"Is there any need to investigate? We have both witnesses and evidence!" Shen Yanzhi pointed at the plate of sea bass on the table that had barely been touched.
"Oh?" Cui Jingyue walked to the table, picked up the silver chopsticks, picked up a small piece of fish, put it to the tip of her nose to smell it, and then carefully examined the color. She didn't even use the silver needle to test it, just took a look and put down her chopsticks.
“Your Majesty,” she turned to Shen Yanzhi, her eyes clear as a mirror, “This fish is fine.”
“You…” Shen Yanzhi was choked with anger.
"I know Your Majesty doesn't believe me." Cui Jingyue ignored his anger and turned to Lu Zhu, saying, "Go, invite Doctor Hu from the mansion and Doctor Zhang, who we invited from the palace to help Concubine Wen with her pregnancy.
Also, bring over this month's purchases for the main kitchen and the entire purchase list for the small kitchen at Qingxin Cottage."
Her voice was not loud, but it carried an authority that brooked no room for questioning. The servants subconsciously obeyed her orders and left.
Wen Yue was lying in bed. Seeing Cui Jingyue so calm, she suddenly had a bad feeling in her heart. She grabbed Shen Yanzhi's sleeve and cried even harder: "Prince...I am in so much pain...You must make a decision for me and my child..."
Shen Yanzhi patted her hand soothingly, but his sharp eyes were fixed on Cui Jingyue. He wanted to see what tricks she could come up with.
Soon, both doctors arrived. Doctor Hu was an old man from the palace, while Doctor Zhang was a master in the palace. They took turns taking Wen Yue's pulse. After the examination, they looked at each other with a strange look on their faces.
"How?" Shen Yanzhi asked anxiously.
Imperial Physician Zhang was the first to respond, "Your Highness, Madam Wen is fine. The fetus is a little unstable, but the foundation is solid. As for the abdominal pain, it's not a sign of miscarriage, nor is it a sign of poisoning. It seems more like... a disharmony between the spleen and stomach, or food stagnation."
"Food stagnation?" Shen Yanzhi was stunned.
"That's right," Doctor Hu agreed. "Judging from your pulse, Auntie has been eating too much rich and greasy food lately, and it seems... she's also taken some tonics. These things combined would be difficult for an ordinary person to digest, let alone a pregnant woman. This abdominal pain is simply a warning from your stomach that it can't handle it."
As soon as these words were spoken, the room fell into silence. Chun He's face turned pale.
Cui Jingyue seemed to have anticipated this result. She took the two account books handed to her by Luzhu and walked in front of Shen Yanzhi.
"Your Highness, please read this." She flipped open the first volume. "This is the main kitchen's account. Ever since Your Highness waived the inspection process, Madam Wen's meals have been cooked daily according to the recipes prescribed by the imperial physician, using the finest ingredients, without any mistakes. Every single entry is recorded clearly here."
She flipped open another thin booklet and said, "This one is the purchase list for the small kitchen at Qingxin Cottage.
Your Highness, look, three days ago, I bought two taels of 'Blood Clams from Outside the Pass'; yesterday, I bought a box of 'Deer Placenta Cream'; and today, I bought the ginseng roots of 'Changbai Mountain Old Ginseng'.
These things, when viewed individually, are all very nourishing, but if eaten with river fish like sea bass and drunk with iced sour plum soup, they will clash with each other, causing stagnation of qi and blood and abdominal cramps. This is a taboo in medical texts."
With every word she spoke, Chunhe's face turned paler and her body trembled like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind.
Cui Jingyue slowly shifted her gaze to her. Her voice remained calm, yet it carried a tremendous force. "Chunhe, I remember your family ran a pharmacy. You should understand these simple pharmacological principles, right? Or did Madam Wen come up with this wonderful 'tonic' recipe herself and ask you to buy it?"
"I...I..." Chunhe was so scared that she couldn't say a word and just kowtowed desperately.
The truth has come to light.
There was no poisoning, no murder. It was all Wen Yue's own haste to achieve success, his careless use of supplements, which backfired, and he staged a farce of the thief crying "stop thief".
She wanted to use a "small accident" to blame the kitchen, so as to completely prove Cui Jingyue's dereliction of duty. Unexpectedly, Cui Jingyue easily tore off all her disguises.
Shen Yanzhi's face turned red and white, and finally turned ashen blue.
He felt like a fool being played. For Wen Yue's "grievance", he did not hesitate to confront Cui Jingyue and gave her supreme honor and power.
So, this was how she repaid him? Using such a clumsy method, she had caused unrest in the entire palace and nearly wrongly accused a loyal servant!
His gaze shifted from Cui Jingyue's calm, almost mocking face to Wen Yue, who was still pretending to moan on the bed.
The little bit of pity and guilt that was left was completely swallowed up by shame and anger at this moment.
"Good, very good!" He laughed in anger, pointing at Wen Yue on the bed, his voice as cold as ice.
"I really underestimated you! To win your favor, you even sacrificed your own body and the child in your belly! You are truly capable!"
Wen Yue was so frightened when she saw the truth that she even forgot the pain.
She struggled to get out of bed and apologized: "Your Majesty, I...I didn't mean it! I just...I just wanted the child to grow stronger...I was wrong, Your Majesty, please forgive me this time!"
"Enough!" Shen Yanzhi interrupted her harshly. He felt disgusted even looking at her for one more second.
He turned to Cui Jingyue, his expression still grim, but his tone had softened a lot.
He even carried a barely perceptible embarrassment: "Princess, today's events... were caused by my own confusion. I leave these two servants to your disposal."
Cui Jingyue nodded slightly and said to the two cooks and the steward who were almost paralyzed on the ground with fear, "You two can get up. You have done your duty faithfully, and there is nothing wrong with that. Just be more careful in your work from now on."
The two men retreated tumbling and crawling as if they had been pardoned.
Finally, Cui Jingyue's gaze fell on Chunhe, who was trembling, and Wen Yue, who was pale on the bed.
She spoke slowly, her voice not loud, but clearly reaching everyone's ears: "Madam Wen is delicate and doesn't understand pharmacology, so the people around her should naturally take better care of her.
Chun He, as a personal maid, knowingly broke the law and nearly caused a disaster. She was dragged away, given 20 strokes of the cane, and then exiled from the mansion. As for Concubine Wen..."
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