The room was in a flurry of activity, but Wei Zheng worried that everyone crowding around the bed would block the airflow and make it difficult for the mother and daughter to breathe. So he asked everyone to disperse and retreated to the window himself.
Seeing an opportunity, Ziqiao stepped forward and whispered, "Master, should we send someone to inform Uncle about Madam and Miss fainting?"
After the Emperor granted Sun Xingjian the title of Duke, Sun Xingjian took Xue Lun back to Pingyang County. After all, it was the mansion his father had left him, and there were some things he had to handle personally. Before leaving, he specifically told him that if anything happened in Shengjing, he should be informed immediately, as the Wei family had suffered many misfortunes recently, which kept him constantly on his mind.
Wei Zheng hesitated for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "Let's wait for the doctor to arrive and hear what he has to say. If it's just a common ailment, there's no need to worry Xingjian. You should go outside to greet him first."
"Yes." As Zi Qiao withdrew, her gaze swept over the window.
The area was clean and empty, but she vaguely remembered something falling on the ground when she lifted Wei Shuwan. However, she hadn't paid close attention in her panic.
Stepping outside, Ziqiao saw Miaoxiang peering anxiously out of the courtyard, waiting for the physician to arrive. She casually asked, "Miaoxiang, do you remember if something fell to the ground when we were carrying the young lady earlier?"
Miao Xiang snapped out of her reverie and thought for a moment, “It seems to be a sachet.”
"The sachet... but where did it go?"
"Perhaps someone saw it and picked it up."
Miaoxiang didn't take it seriously, but Ziqiao felt something was off. Everyone in the room was busy and worried about the lady and the young lady. Who would go out of their way to pick up a sachet?
Unable to help with the situation inside the house for the time being, and still unwilling to give up, Zi Qiao asked each of the servants who had entered the house earlier. Sure enough, none of them noticed the sachet, and no one picked it up.
As Zi Qiao was analyzing the matter, Miao Xiang suddenly exclaimed, "The doctor is here!"
Zi Qiao couldn't care less about those trivial matters for the moment. She and Miao Xiang quickly stepped forward to lead the doctor into Wei Shuwan's room.
"Master, the Sheng family's doctor has arrived!"
Upon hearing this, Wei Zheng's tense face finally relaxed slightly. He hurriedly went to the door, cupped his hands, and greeted the physician, "Thank you for your trouble!"
The physician returned the greeting with a slight bow, and without pausing, went straight to the bedside. He first observed the complexion of the mother and daughter on the bed, then examined their eyelids, before taking out a pulse pillow to take their pulses.
The physician's expression was serious, and Wei Zheng's eyes were fixed on his face, trying to deduce his wife and daughter's condition from subtle expressions. Suddenly, he saw the physician's brows furrow, and Wei Zheng's heart jumped; he could no longer remain calm.
"Are the mother and daughter alright?"
The imperial physician slowly exhaled, "Lord Wei, please rest assured, your wife and daughter are not in mortal danger, but..."
"Just what?"
"Oh, Lord Wei, could you please ask the servants in the manor what your wife and daughter ate or drank before they fainted? It would be best if you could send over some of the leftover scraps."
"Okay, okay, I'll go ask right away."
After saying this, Wei Zheng ordered all the people from the kitchen and Fukangyuan to be summoned to Fuquxuan. After questioning them one by one, he placed all the dishes and utensils that the mother and daughter had touched that evening on the table.
The physician took out several items from his medicine box, examined them carefully, and then shook his head: "There's nothing there."
At this moment, Wei Zheng had a guess in his mind: "Could they have been poisoned?"
"It's too early to say for sure, but the signs do seem to indicate poisoning. However, Lord Wei, there's no need to panic. The poison isn't very potent and won't kill you; it will only cause you to fall into a coma. As long as we can find the method of administration and the poison, I can prepare an antidote for them."
"What will happen to them if there is no antidote?"
The physician sighed and said truthfully, "He will be in a coma for a long time, ranging from several months to several years. I can't say for sure what will happen in a short time."
Hearing this, Madam Wei was deeply shocked and spoke with an unusually heavy tone: "Even if it's not a deadly poison, there is such a treacherous person in this mansion. If we can't find him in time, wouldn't it be a huge disaster? The lives of dozens of people in the entire mansion are all in his hands."
Wei Ping chimed in, "Who says otherwise? This person might be right in front of us right now. It's terrifying to even think about!"
Since the royal physician had discovered that the mother and daughter had been poisoned, Cai Die seized the opportunity to shift the blame eastward: "Grandmother, do you think it's possible that someone outside is jealous of Third Sister's marriage and has bribed the servants in the mansion to sabotage it?"
After thinking about it, Wei Wenshi realized that it was not impossible. After all, if someone really wanted to harm others, they wouldn't use such a drug. It seemed more like they were trying to delay things to stop something.
Although Madam Wei was old, her mind was no less sharp than that of a young person. After scanning the room, she said, "It's not enough to just check the food. We also need to check all the spices, incense balls, and incense ash in this room, and empty the contents of the soft pillows to take a look!"
These were things Wei Zheng hadn't considered. He admired the old lady's meticulousness and quickly gave the orders.
However, after the physician carefully examined all of these items, he still found nothing.
"Could it be that it's not poisoning, but just ordinary fainting?" The physician began to doubt his previous judgment. Even if the reactions were similar in all aspects, he couldn't find the source of the poison anywhere. How could they have been poisoned?
The physician took Sun Lurong and Wei Shuwan's pulses again, and then made a decision: "Regardless of whether they have been poisoned, the lady and young lady are not in immediate danger. I will prescribe two doses of mild tonic soup to prevent any damage to their internal organs due to improper diet. I will come back to check on them again tomorrow morning. If they have not been poisoned, they should wake up on their own."
Wei Zheng nodded: "That's the only way."
Since there was no major danger, Wei Zheng felt relieved and had his servants carry Sun Lurong back to Fukangyuan, so that he could easily take care of her at night. As for his daughter, he entrusted her to Ziqiao and Miaoxiang, instructing them to take turns looking after her at night, ensuring that someone was always by her bedside.
Next, everyone rested and observed. They gradually left Fuquxuan. To make it easier to take turns at night, Ziqiao told Miaoxiang to go to sleep first so she could take her place later.
Even though Miaoxiang was on tenterhooks and couldn't sleep at all, she still followed her advice and went back to the side room.
*
At midday, Zhuque Street was bustling with pedestrians. The carriage of the Prince of Qiaochuan slowly passed among the carriages and pedestrians. When it passed Gongchen Street, a voice suddenly came from inside the carriage: "Stop the carriage."
Yuan Que personally drove the carriage, and upon receiving the order, pulled over to the side of the road. He turned around and asked, "Young Prince, what is it?"
Li Qingchen rested his hand on a basket of jackfruit, a reward he had just received from His Majesty.
Shengjing, located in the northern part of Daye, experiences harsh winters and has very little fresh fruit. However, Qiongzhou, located in the far south of Daye, enjoys warm sunshine and gentle breezes, and its jackfruit is ripe and at its sweetest. The governor of Qiongzhou dispatched a messenger to transport two jackfruits to Shengjing by fast horse in an ice chest to present to Emperor Pingjia.
One piece was given to the concubines in the harem, another to the crown prince and the other princes, and Li Qingchen, the adopted son, also received a large piece.
Li Qingchen handed the basket containing jackfruit out of the carriage curtain, his tone flat: "Send it to the Wei family."
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