No one present was foolish. Especially seeing the Imperial Guards surrounding the Eastern Palace in three layers inside and outside, not a single person failed to notice something was wrong.
At this moment, forget those who were completely unprepared like Old Madam Chen—even the Princess Consort of Zhennan, who had already anticipated this situation beforehand, was so frightened her legs went weak.
The news that had been desperately suppressed before now seemed to be revealed to them without any concealment. They all caught the scent of something ominous and couldn’t help feeling vaguely uneasy.
Empress Dowager Rongxian and the Empress took the lead walking at the front, hurriedly entering the Crown Prince’s sleeping quarters. The others dared not delay, following in the footsteps of these two most noble women in the realm as they stepped into this palace that now seemed excessively cold and desolate.
Outside the Crown Prince’s bedchamber stood four Imperial Guards wearing embroidered spring sabers. The entire room was permeated with medicinal fragrance that, mixed with these frightening fierce-looking Imperial Guards, caused even the flowers in the courtyard to wilt.
Empress Dowager Rongxian’s long train swept across the threshold. In a few steps she rushed into the Crown Prince’s bedchamber, her expression ugly as she pointed at the Crown Prince unconscious on the bed, demanding of the layers upon layers of imperial physicians: “What’s going on?! Perfectly fine—how did he fall ill to such a degree?!”
The Crown Prince lay on the bed without sound or movement. The Crown Princess, her eyes rimmed red, performed her courtesies and paid her respects off to the side, biting her lip and weeping softly.
The imperial physicians huddled together, kneeling on the ground like an avalanche, constantly kowtowing.
“What use are you?!” Empress Dowager Rongxian couldn’t control her fury: “If you cannot diagnose anything today, I will have the Emperor behead all of you!”
She had her back to the Empress, and therefore didn’t see the cold glint that flashed through the Empress’s eyes when she lowered her head to stroke the Crown Prince’s hair.
The group of noble ladies shrank in the corner wishing they had never appeared, each gripping the hands of the young girls beside them, afraid they might make even the slightest sound.
“In reply to the Empress Dowager…” A lean imperial physician with fair skin and a fine beard came forward in alarm: “It’s not that we subjects are useless… the truth is that the Crown Prince’s illness—this illness is not an illness. It seems more like poisoning!”
The Princess Consort of Zhennan felt her head buzz with a roar. She instinctively gripped Yun Xiu’s hand in hers, trembling with nervousness.
Old Madam Chen’s eyes suddenly widened—His Majesty and the Empress should have known about this long ago, otherwise what would explain these layers of Imperial Guards?
But why was it only being revealed now? Why was it the Empress Dowager speaking of it? Carrying a heart full of questions, her heartbeat like beating drums, she secretly squeezed Chen Mingyu’s palm, signaling her not to act rashly.
She vaguely felt as if she’d been pulled into a large net, yet didn’t know which fish this net was meant to catch. A pair of slightly cloudy eyes revealed an unreasonably keen light as she suddenly raised her eyes to glance at Old Madam Song.
But Old Madam Song remained composed as always. She lowered her eyes, gripping Song Chuyi’s hand just like any other noble lady, displaying nothing particularly special.
The Empress Dowager swept her sinister gaze across the entire scene, her smile suddenly vanishing: “Poisoning?! Where in this palace would poison come from?! Why didn’t you say so before?!”
She turned to look at the Empress, sternly demanding: “Empress, you manage this inner palace, yet you can’t even properly manage your own son’s Eastern Palace? The Crown Prince was poisoned in the Eastern Palace—if this spreads, the world will mock us! Looking at this scene outside, you should have known long ago that the Crown Prince wasn’t ill but poisoned, yet you still concealed it from me?!”
The Empress lowered her head, not arguing with her as usual, her tone choked with sobs: “Mother, it’s not that this subject was concealing it from you… the truth is even the imperial physicians couldn’t be certain…”
The Empress Dowager waved her hand somewhat impatiently, looking at her with a dark expression: “Now concealing it won’t work. Better late than never—why haven’t you quickly found the culprit? Are you waiting for her to harm someone else?!”
She paused, then pointed at that fair-skinned imperial physician: “Since it’s poisoning, why haven’t you quickly developed an antidote?! What do we feed the Imperial Medical Bureau for?!”
Her aggressive attitude truly looked like that of a qualified grandmother, indeed like an ordinary household’s grandmother worried about her grandson.
Seeing the Empress still not speaking up, Empress Dowager Rongxian suddenly gave a cold laugh: “No wonder poisoning could happen perfectly fine within the palace—with such a useless mother as you… if you won’t investigate, I will!”
The relationship between the Empress Dowager and Empress had never been good, but a scene like today where the Empress Dowager harshly reprimanded the Empress had never been witnessed before. Everyone felt increasingly afraid.
It was merely a routine palace visit to pay respects to the Empress Dowager and Empress—how had they perfectly fine stumbled into palace secrets? By rights, shouldn’t such matters be investigated slowly within the palace after these noble ladies had left?
The Empress Dowager’s voice echoed throughout the Crown Prince’s bedchamber. The Crown Princess, Lady Lu, and the Empress’s expressions grew increasingly dark.
Just at this very moment, someone suddenly came from outside saying that Qing Zhuo from beside the Grand Prince was seeking an audience.
Matters concerning the Grand Prince naturally couldn’t be delayed. The Empress didn’t wait for the Empress Dowager to speak, hurriedly saying: “Quickly let him in!”
Qing Zhuo still wore a Taoist’s attire. As soon as he entered, he knelt straight down in front of that group of imperial physicians, his voice carrying a rarely seen urgency: “Empress Dowager, Your Majesty the Empress, Crown Princess—His Highness the Grand Prince has lost consciousness!”
For a moment, the room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Old Madam Song couldn’t help but use more force gripping Song Chuyi’s hand, her face genuinely displaying shock without any pretense.
Song Chuyi was no better off, only feeling something explode with a thunderous boom. Had Zhou Weizhao gone mad?! He had actually truly taken poison?!
Chen Mingyu couldn’t control herself and covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes brimming with tears, looking at her grandmother both shocked and frightened. Even someone as experienced as Old Madam Chen couldn’t help but tremble slightly—with winds and clouds rising like this, one careless step could mean drowning.
The Crown Princess screamed, as if she could no longer support herself and collapsed softly against the female official beside her.
The Empress Dowager was also so shocked she couldn’t react for a moment—Zhou Weizhao? Why would he collapse at this time when he was perfectly fine?
But the Empress was already so anxious she repeatedly ordered all the imperial physicians to go to the side hall, Hanzhang Hall: “Why aren’t you quickly going to see the Grand Prince?!”
Speaking, she had already stood up first, swaying unsteadily as she supported herself on the hand of the female official beside her, asking the Empress Dowager’s forgiveness: “Mother, the Grand Prince is still young… I’m afraid we cannot delay.”
Of course they couldn’t delay. After all, he was Emperor Jianzhang’s first grandson, her own first great-grandson. If she dared suppress this and not let them go see him, she would be drowned in the spit of the world.
This unexpected complication had arisen perfectly fine. Her voice was cold to a shocking degree: “I shall go with you. Send someone to notify the Emperor.”