Chapter 63
"If I don't scare her, how could she lose her composure?" Song Qingyuan walked to the basin and began to wash the paint off her face. "What I said just now has already been like a poisonous sting, piercing her heart.
From now on, she will be restless day and night, will doubt everyone around her, and will do everything she can to silence me."
She washed her face, revealing a beautiful yet pale face.
She looked at her reflection in the basin and whispered, "The bait has been cast, and the fish have been spooked. Next, it's time to pull in the net."
While the farce was unfolding in Furong Garden, in a remote corner of the palace, a man dressed as a servant was whispering something to Lin Feng.
"...The most favored maidservant around Madam Wen is called Madam Zhang. We found out that she has a nephew who owed a large sum of money at a casino in the south of the city two months ago. He was about to have his hand chopped off, but suddenly someone paid off his gambling debts for him.
We followed the clues and found that the person who paid the money was the steward of the Second Prince's house."
Lin Feng's eyes were stern: "Second Prince?"
"Yes." The man nodded. "Also, when we raided the residence of the old eunuch who sold fake medicine, we found a letter in a secret compartment. In the letter, the eunuch promised that after the matter was completed, he would be allowed to leave the capital and enjoy his old age in peace.
At the end of the letter, there was a small mark, a plum blossom.”
Lin Feng's breathing stagnated.
Among the prince's brothers, only the second prince Shen Yanzhao, nicknamed "Mr. Plum Bone", loves plum blossoms the most and often uses plum blossom seals.
A jealous dispute within the inner court had actually involved the dispute among the princes in the imperial court! This matter was much deeper than they had imagined.
Lin Feng didn't dare to delay and rushed to the study immediately.
After listening to the report, Shen Yanzhi remained silent for a long time.
The study was eerily quiet, with only the soft "crackling" sound of his knuckles clenching.
He had long thought that Wen Yue was not capable of such great things. It turned out that the person behind it was his good second brother.
They wanted to use a case of poisoning a woman in the inner chamber to destroy his princess, mess up his backyard, make him overwhelmed and unable to take care of other things, so that they could attack him in the court. What a trick of "the backyard is on fire, the front yard is lost"!
"Your Highness," Lin Feng asked in a low voice, "This matter involves the Second Prince. Should we... report it to the Imperial Clan Office?"
"Report it?" Shen Yanzhi sneered, "What should I report? A gambler's debt, an unsigned letter? My good second brother is very meticulous in his work. This little thing won't move him at all, and it will only alert the enemy."
He stood up and paced back and forth in the study. Outside the window, the wind was blowing harder.
He now faces a dilemma.
If Wen Yue were to be exposed now, at most she would be charged with the crime of murdering the mistress, and the Second Prince would not be implicated at all.
But if I don't expose it and let Song Qingyuan go "crazy" in Furong Garden, what if something unexpected happens...
When he thought of Song Qingyuan's eyes, which were covered with paint but still clear, he felt annoyed.
Just then, a servant rushed in in a panic, "Your Highness! This is bad! Madam Wen... Madam Wen has been vomiting and having diarrhea since she returned from Hibiscus Garden, and she's got a rash all over her body. The imperial physician examined her and said...she's been possessed by an evil spirit, contaminated by something unclean!"
Shen Yanzhi stopped abruptly, his pupils suddenly shrinking.
He understood immediately.
This is Song Qingyuan's back-up plan! It's her counterattack!
She wasn't crazy at all. Everything she had done was for this moment today! Not only did she want to scare Wen Yue crazy, but she also wanted to make her feel "seriously ill" in a way that no one could catch her!
"Good... what a good Song Qingyuan!" Shen Yanzhi almost squeezed out these words from between his teeth, but an extremely complicated smile slowly blossomed on his face, with amazement, appreciation, and a hint of... indulgence that he himself had not noticed.
He strode out quickly and ordered Lin Feng, "Go, invite the best doctors in the capital to Madam Wen's courtyard! Tell them to cure Madam Wen at all costs!"
He wanted to see how powerful his princess's "witchcraft" was.
More importantly, he had to personally add the most crucial fuel to this drama.
Wen Yue's yard was in chaos for a while.
The imperial doctors came in and out, all of them with worried looks on their faces.
The maids and old women were carrying bowls of medicine and hot water, walking hurriedly, but their faces were filled with unconcealable fear.
Wen Yue was lying on the bed, his face pale, covered with a thick quilt, but he was still shaking.
The red rashes on her body were extremely itchy. She couldn't scratch them, and she couldn't not scratch them either. It made her extremely painful.
What frightened her even more was the ghost in her heart.
Song Qingyuan's crazy look and the words "You are the most poisonous person" lingered in her mind like a curse.
As soon as she closed her eyes, she saw the clay figurine with branches stuck in it and Song Qingyuan's strange eyes. She felt cold all over, as if she had been cursed by that crazy woman.
"How is it? Have you found out what the disease is?" Shen Yanzhi stood by the bed, his voice unrecognizable as either happy or angry.
Doctor Zhang, the leading doctor, wiped the sweat from his forehead and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, please forgive our incompetence. Madam Wen's pulse...is sometimes rapid, sometimes weak, but there are no signs of poisoning."
But the rash and vomiting and diarrhea on your body are strange. In my opinion... it doesn't seem like an illness, but more like... more like a great shock, a loss of mind, which has attracted evil spirits into your body."
"Evil spirit entering the body?" Shen Yanzhi raised his eyebrows. This statement was exactly what he wanted.
"Prince...Prince..." Wen Yue, who was lying on the bed, trembled even more violently when she heard these four words. She struggled to grab Shen Yanzhi's sleeve, as if she had grabbed the last straw. "Prince, it's her! It's that bitch Song Qingyuan! She's crazy! She practiced witchcraft and cursed me in Furong Garden! I...I became like this because I saw that unclean thing! Prince, you have to make the decision for me!"
She cried bitterly and spoke earnestly, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
The servants around them turned pale with fear when they heard the words "witchcraft". This was a heinous crime in the royal family!
Shen Yanzhi looked at her with deep eyes, slowly pulled back his sleeves, and said lightly: "Oh? Is this true? How did she curse you?"
"She…she made a little clay figurine, wrote my birth date on it, and pierced it with a needle! She also said…she also said…" Wen Yue was halfway through her sentence when she suddenly stopped. She couldn't say that Song Qingyuan mentioned "Hehuanxiang" and "Qianji"; that would be like admitting guilt.
She could only speak vaguely, "She also said a lot of crazy things, saying that she would not let us go even if she turned into a ghost!"
"Birthdate?" Shen Yanzhi asked calmly, "Are you sure she wrote down your birthdate?"
"I...I saw it with my own eyes!" Wen Yue said through gritted teeth to increase credibility.
"Nonsense!" A clear shout suddenly came from the door.
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