As the moon reached its zenith, a faint light filled the dim room. Xiao Du sat motionless in front of the candlestick for quite some time, his cheek illuminated by the flickering flames, half fiery red, half shadowed.
At that moment, someone entered through the door, and the cold draft seeped in, causing the candle flames to sway incessantly. Xiao Du quickly lifted his head and asked the newcomer, “Have you found out?”
Xia Qing felt a bit disgruntled. After all, he was the commander of the Imperial Guards, not one of Xiao Du’s spies. It was rather impolite to be interrogated without any prior notice. However, considering the person before him was his elder brother-in-law, there was no room for anger. He replied reluctantly, “Yes.”
Xiao Du was too preoccupied to notice any unusual expressions on Xia Qing’s face. He urged him with his eyes to speak quickly. Xia Qing sighed inwardly and began, “I’ve found an old palace maid who served in the Purple Chamber during the late Emperor’s illness. According to her, when the late Emperor fell gravely ill, he initially took medicine prescribed by the Imperial Hospital’s Chief Physician, but instead of improving, his condition worsened. Outraged, the Empress Dowager removed the Chief Physician from his position and replaced him with another, changing the prescription entirely. From then on, she attended to the late Emperor’s bedside every day.”
“To what extent did she attend to him? Did she even prepare and administer the medicine herself?” Xiao Du inquired eagerly.
Xia Qing didn’t expect such detailed questions, but fortunately, the palace maid provided thorough information. After a moment of contemplation, he replied, “Yes, the Empress Dowager supervised the preparation of the medicine by the palace maids and personally fed it to the late Emperor. It’s said that her devoted care during his illness became a story both inside and outside the palace.”
Xiao Du pondered over everything and then suddenly smirked sarcastically, saying, “So, the so-called deep affection between the Emperor and Empress was merely a joke.”
Perplexed, Xia Qing stared at him, waiting for an explanation. However, Xiao Du merely said, “Well, thanks for finding out. I’ll visit and thank you properly another day, and also check on Xuan’er.”
Xia Qing felt somewhat annoyed by Xiao Du’s obvious neglect, but realizing it was futile to argue, he huffed and left. Xiao Du paid him no mind; he had someone else to find.
“You want to know about the late Emperor’s illness?” Left Qiao set down his cup and sighed deeply. “When the late Emperor led the troops into battle, he fell into an ambush and inhaled a lot of miasma in the forest. Though he was rescued, that incident planted the seeds of his illness. His subsequent illness was due to accumulated exhaustion. In truth, his body was already overburdened, but he persisted for the sake of state affairs. My colleagues and I at the Imperial Hospital tried everything, but his condition didn’t improve. One day, even the late Emperor himself realized…”
His gaze began to wander, back to the conversations by the dragon bed many years ago, when the Emperor could still rise. Clad in fur robes, he sat up with a deep sense of sorrow on his face, asking, “Tell me the truth. Can this body of mine recover?”
Left Qiao was terrified and quickly knelt, tears streaming down his face. “Your Majesty is the true Dragon Emperor, divinely protected. With more medication and rest, you will surely recover quickly.”
The Emperor glanced at him askew, shaking his head. “At this point, there’s no need to deceive me.” He approached Left Qiao, helping him up slowly. “Since my body is beyond cure, why not make it useful for the state?”
Left Qiao stared at the Emperor’s face blankly, not understanding his words, but feeling a sense of dread from the sorrow and determination in the Emperor’s eyes. The Emperor patted his shoulder and said, “You’ve been loyal to me in the Imperial Hospital for these years. Now, I give you a great gift. Go and enjoy your retirement.”
“So, you were dismissed from your position by the late Emperor?” Xiao Du interjected, interrupting Left Qiao’s recollection, his expression distant. “At that time, I was in a daze and didn’t understand the late Emperor’s intentions. But later, the Empress Dowager issued an edict accusing me of incompetence and stripped me of my position. By then, I was already disheartened, with my only concern being His Majesty’s health. After my departure, someone quickly replaced me as the Chief Physician and attended to His Majesty personally.”
“And that person? Is he still in the Imperial Hospital?” Xiao Du hastily inquired.
Left Qiao shook his head, wearing a bitter smile. “That person, he’s already dead. He passed away in the same year as the late Emperor. Sometimes I think, if I hadn’t been dismissed, maybe it would have been me who died. Perhaps that was the ‘great gift’ the late Emperor mentioned.”
Xiao Du breathed a long sigh, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. At this moment, his suspicions were starting to take shape. However, if these suspicions were true, the schemes and deceptions between the Emperor and Empress chilled him to the bone.
“What? You’re saying the prescription was deliberately manipulated by the late Emperor?” Yuan Xi widened her eyes in disbelief.
Xiao Du nodded, his gaze fixed firmly on the slightly aged tiger-skin parchment in his hand. On the golden-yellow imperial paper was written a list of prescriptions, elegantly penned, obviously from a woman’s hand. This was what Master Hongyu had given him that day.
According to Master Hongyu, during the late Emperor’s illness, he had specifically dispatched a most loyal eunuch, under the guise of seeking blessings through sorcery, to summon Master Hongyu to the dragon bed. When they were alone, the eunuch carefully handed him a small sandalwood box and earnestly instructed him that, except for Xiao Du, no one, not even the future Emperor, should receive such an item.
Inside the sandalwood box was this copied prescription. Tiger-skin parchment was a type of paper exclusive to the Emperor and Empress. Xiao Du had speculated about this prescription for a long time, suspecting it might have originated from the Empress Dowager’s hand. So, he had specifically asked Xia Qing to investigate the events of that year for him and had gone to Left Qiao, eventually uncovering a startling secret.
“What exactly happened that year?” Yuan Xi couldn’t contain her curiosity and pressed for more.
Xiao Du sighed and said, “I consulted Left Qiao. This prescription contains two medicines, each beneficial when taken alone, but when combined and taken over a long period, they become a lethal poison.” He lifted his head, locking eyes with Yuan Xi. “This was the prescription the late Emperor took under the care of the Empress Dowager during his final days.”
Yuan Xi gasped, taking a moment to process before murmuring, “You mean…”
“That’s right,” Xiao Du said, gripping the paper in his hand. “During the late Emperor’s critical illness, despite various attempts by the Imperial Hospital, he understood his time was limited. However, as the Crown Prince was still young and under the control of the Empress Dowager, the late Emperor didn’t want to see the great Mu dynasty fall into the hands of the Xia clan.
So, he devised a desperate plan. He deliberately expressed dissatisfaction with Left Qiao, and since the Empress Dowager already wanted full control over his medical condition, she used the opportunity to dismiss Left Qiao and replace him with one of her trusted physicians. The late Emperor knew that, in the end, the Empress Dowager, for the sake of her future reputation and ensuring her son’s ascension, would personally attend to him and ensure the completion of this act.”
He held up the prescription and continued, “But the Empress Dowager never imagined that the person she trusted implicitly was a pawn planted by the late Emperor himself. Acting on the late Emperor’s orders, he prepared this combination of medicines, turning what was meant to be daily care into a lethal dose of poison. All her careful planning at that time ultimately led her down a path of destruction.”
Yuan Xi felt a chill run down her spine. “But if the late Emperor had such evidence, holding the Empress Dowager’s life in his hands, why didn’t he hand it over to the current Emperor that year? Why hide it with Master Hongyu until you discover it?”
Xiao Du sighed. “Because he never fully trusted the current Emperor. No matter what, the current Emperor is still the Empress Dowager’s biological son. So, he wanted to entrust this to me, to decide what to do with it. Perhaps, he still hoped that I and the current Emperor could join forces to overthrow the Xia clan.”
He looked at the yellow parchment in his hand, his heart tumultuous. This was a father, sacrificing his own life for his children’s chance, and also a monarch, hoping to exchange stability and clarity for the people and the state. But at that time, he had never imagined that, years later, his two sons would become such adversaries. Now, what should he do?