Prince Shao’s expensive silk garments were taken out from the chests one by one, soaked in silver basins filled with water for testing.
At first, almost no changes were visible, but after continuously soaking three or four pieces in the same basin of water, there was a clear demarcation line between the silver beneath the water surface and above it. The toxin was present in minute amounts—enough to poison a sparrow, but for a robust young man who could gallop across polo fields, it required daily accumulation through skin contact.
Recalling the initial stages of Prince Shao’s illness, he had only felt slightly fatigued and had headaches. Later, as the poison accumulated, his condition gradually worsened—he could barely swallow food, couldn’t sleep at night, and suffered all manner of torment until he was critically ill.
After witnessing the changes in the silver basin, everyone’s faces turned ashen with rage, but since this matter involved the western courtyard, they all remained silent, waiting for their master to speak. Yuan Shaobo’s deputy, Song Yinghui, was personally stationed at the western courtyard supervising the excavation of the seepage well. Before he could retrieve the evidence, news came that the Princess Consort’s wet nurse, Madam Xu, had attempted suicide.
After forcibly rescuing her, Madam Xu prostrated herself and confessed her guilt, admitting that she had poisoned Prince Shao as an individual act unrelated to others. The truth was about to emerge.
In her panic, Madam Li ordered all bedding that Prince Shao could come into contact with to be removed and temporarily replaced with her own belongings. After wiping down his entire body, Li Yuanying wrapped himself in a brocade quilt and sat on the couch, expressionless, waiting for developments.
Huo Qi Lang stood beside him, secretly celebrating that her intuition had been correct. Otherwise, showing disrespect to their master in public would have earned her at least twenty strokes of the rod. She had never practiced the Prajna Repentance, so beatings would still hurt quite a bit.
“You only needed to say a word earlier, and I would have removed the clothing myself.” Recalling the earlier embarrassing predicament, Li Yuanying said with displeasure.
Huo Qi Lang smiled apologetically: “Those who practice martial arts—their bodies react faster than their minds. At that moment, I felt the Prince was in danger, so I acted directly.”
The two remained silent for a long time, each pondering in their hearts. It turned out that the truth behind “warding off evil” was simply that during their nighttime pleasures, Li Yuanying had removed his clothing, and Huo Qi Lang, being too lazy to dress him again, had let him sleep like that.
Therefore, out of twelve hours in a day, he had at least six hours without contact with the poisoned clothing, which was why his condition had improved. When the two were temporarily apart, Li Yuanying wore the poisoned clothing all day, doubling the toxin dose, causing his condition to significantly worsen.
Huo Qi Lang thought to herself that fortunately Bao Zhu had hired the young master Qiluo to deliver the message, and she, coveting his beauty and eager to have her way, had forcibly stripped off his clothes after knowing him for only a few days. Otherwise, even if the three top experts of the Setting Sun Courtyard—the Scholar in Green, Dong Zhenzi, and the Pipa Demon—joined forces, they couldn’t have saved Prince Shao’s life. Or if she had patiently tried to seduce him slowly, waiting for him to be moved, he would probably be ready for burial clothes by then.
A fortunate coincidence, hitting the mark by mistake. Once the root cause became clear, there was something laughably absurd about it that left one speechless.
Li Yuanying was momentarily speechless, staring absently at the mountain landscape on the screen before him. After a long while, he reminded her in a low voice: “Aren’t you going to take it off?”
Huo Qi Lang was startled and poked her head out to look, seeing his confidants discussing in low voices at a distance of about thirty feet.
She found it hard to believe and asked in a suppressed voice: “Do business now? In front of them? Well, it’s not impossible—quite thrilling…”
Li Yuanying glared at her with an angry expression: “What exactly is in your head? I’m ordering you to change out of my undergarment!”
Huo Qi Lang finally understood, and her face couldn’t help but show an embarrassed expression: “Has the Prince already discovered?”
Li Yuanying said angrily: “I chose not to speak, not because I’m blind.”
Huo Qi Lang thought that he had seen it long ago. Wearing someone else’s undergarment wasn’t exactly honorable. Perhaps because he felt he had many clothes, he didn’t want to point it out and embarrass her, so he pretended not to know.
After a while, she told the truth: “I’ve washed this piece more than ten times. Whatever severe poison there was has long been washed clean. I’ve never felt any abnormality wearing it. This poisoning method targeted only the Prince. In the entire Prince’s mansion, only the Prince’s clothing was never washed—worn once and discarded, always brand new poisoned garments.”
This simple reasoning that the straightforward Huo Qi Lang could deduce, how could Li Yuanying not think of it? It was just that thinking of the perpetrator’s identity and viciousness was truly unbelievable.
Prince Shao’s discarded clothing, being quite valuable, was always burned and buried by designated personnel to prevent theft by servants. The perpetrator not only had an extremely secretive poisoning channel but could also use reasonable procedures to have unknowing people dispose of the evidence—truly meticulous beyond measure.
The guards’ ostentatious well-digging and evidence-gathering should have alerted everyone involved in the case. Madam Xu’s rush to commit suicide was precisely to protect the real culprit behind the scenes. This matter had to be faced directly.
Li Yuanying commanded: “Go find some safe clothing to substitute temporarily. I cannot conduct investigations wrapped in a quilt like this.”
Huo Qi Lang went to her own chest and pulled out the coarse cloth undergarment and black short combat outfit she had worn before entering the mansion. In terms of body measurements, her clothes were most suitable for him.
Li Yuanying looked at these crude fabrics he had never touched before with slight hesitation. Huo Qi Lang said bluntly: “If the Prince doesn’t want to wear them, I can only go ask Huang Xiaoning and Yuwen Rang for theirs. They don’t wash clothes as conscientiously as I do—just a casual scrub with water, all original flavor.”
Hearing this, Li Yuanying immediately felt his skin crawl. With the slightest imagination, he felt poisonous insects crawling all over his body. He quickly grabbed her clothing, shook it out, and put it on.
Huo Qi Lang smiled as she helped him tie the sashes. Once properly dressed and looking him up and down, she felt he had a distinctive charm—beautiful people look good in anything. When she agreed to deliver the message, who could have imagined such an adventure, actually exchanging clothes with a prince?
Just as they finished dressing, they suddenly heard Deputy General Song Yinghui’s tense voice from outside: “The Princess Consort requests an audience!”
Everyone’s expressions turned grave. Although everyone suspected who the culprit was, Cui Lingrong’s current status was still Prince Shao’s primary consort, the mistress of the household. Until their master spoke, no one could do anything to her.
Li Yuanying stepped out from behind the screen and sat in the main seat, saying: “Perfect timing for an uninvited visit. Please invite the Princess Consort in.”
Madam Cui then slowly walked in from the main entrance, her demeanor still elegant and dignified, without a trace of panic, followed by a maid with an ashen face carrying a large umbrella.
Li Yuanying glanced at the large oiled paper umbrella and said softly: “Even the crow knew early on, yet I was completely oblivious. I truly was blind despite having eyes.”
Cui Lingrong looked up to see Li Yuanying wearing commoner’s clothes, with colorful silk garments piled messily on the ground beside him, knowing in her heart that the situation was decided.
“Your consort Lingrong pays respects to the Prince. The Prince’s health has finally improved these recent days,” she said matter-of-factly.
Li Yuanying said expressionlessly: “Thanks to the Princess Consort’s blessings, I can be considered to have narrowly escaped death. The Princess Consort worked tirelessly day and night sewing garments for me—such meritorious service.”
Cui Lingrong glanced at Huo Qi Lang standing beside him and said coldly: “If this person hadn’t disrupted the plan, your consort would already be leisurely now, slowly sewing mourning clothes for herself.”
In the quiet room, only breathing could be heard. The atmosphere was as heavy as a mountain, making it hard to breathe. With these words, the umbrella-holding maid behind her, unable to bear the fear, fell to the ground with a thud.
Madam Li’s face changed dramatically, unable to restrain herself from cursing: “Venomous woman! What a poisonous heart! Your entire family betrayed their word, yet the young master still treated you well, and you actually…”
Li Yuanying raised his hand to stop his wet nurse’s angry rebuke and said calmly: “Calculating when I first fell ill, it was about two or three months after arriving in Youzhou. It seemed like acclimatization issues from relocating, and also like the hereditary headache condition of the Li family—everything arranged quite properly. I wonder when the Princess Consort began planning this?”
Cui Lingrong, with her serene and gentle face, said coldly: “It began several years ago. It’s just that Madam Li’s meticulous care meant that everything you consumed was tasted two or three times before you ate it, leaving your consort without options. Only after coming to Youzhou, without the Palace Clothing Bureau and Dyeing Office supplying clothes, did your consort have the opportunity to sew close-fitting garments for you. The Prince should be grateful for his wet nurse’s protection—otherwise, you would have long ago joined your beloved sister underground.”
Li Yuanying’s expression changed, and he said coldly: “No need for your concern. I will join her sooner or later.”
Huo Qi Lang, observing this husband and wife’s veiled conversation, felt they were unnaturally calm. If they were people of the martial world meeting their enemies, no one would have the patience for so much talk—after a few exchanges, they would start fighting.
Recalling that first meeting with Princess Consort Cui, her surprisingly intense gaze that day was actually not jealousy at all, but hatred for the martial artist delaying Prince Shao’s poisoning.
That day when Princess Consort Cui sent Madam Xu to summon her to the western courtyard, when she accidentally revealed her undergarment sleeve, the Princess Consort’s excessive reaction was not jealous rage from discovering an outsider’s intimate relationship with Prince Shao, but terror that the murder plot might be exposed.
Huo Qi Lang couldn’t help but sigh. She had been quite confident in her ability to perceive others’ emotions, yet had been completely wrong about Princess Consort Cui. Not only because she was stuck in old thinking, but because such intensely passionate emotions as love and hate were truly too similar.
Madam Li calmed her agitated emotions slightly, suppressing her towering rage, and spoke: “This old servant was negligent, allowing the young master to suffer so much. Women’s needlework—whether spinning, embroidery, or sewing—all pursue soft, delicate hands, as rough hands would snag and fray fabrics.
Your hands became like this because of frequent contact with poison. Fearing harm to yourself, you repeatedly washed your hands, didn’t you? When the western courtyard consumed large amounts of soap beans and hand cream, I should have noticed something was wrong. Even the most virtuous mistress of a household wouldn’t work herself to exhaustion with washing and mending.”
Cui Lingrong, hearing this, rubbed her own chapped, reddened hands and showed a bitter smile: “Even the most perfect plan will always have flaws and accidents, won’t it?”
Deputy General Song Yinghui quietly entered and handed a white jade rouge box to his superior, whispering a few words. Yuan Shaobo then passed the jade box to Prince Shao, saying in a low voice:
“It’s arsenic, found in the Princess Consort’s cosmetic case.”
Li Yuanying opened the lid and glanced inside, seeing some pale red powder, then asked: “Who instructed you? Uncle or elder brother?”
Cui Lingrong said calmly: “Though the men of the Qinghe Cui family are short-sighted and narrow-mindedly opportunistic, they lack the courage to murder imperial offspring. Your consort is the mastermind.”
Li Yuanying exchanged glances with his confidants, pondering whether Cui Lingrong’s words were truth or, like her wet nurse Madam Xu, she was sacrificing herself to protect the real culprit behind the scenes.
Li Yuanying asked: “What was the motive? Without descendants, even if I died, you couldn’t inherit the Prince’s mansion—you could only take your dowry. When I proposed divorce, I already said those were your own possessions. Or is it that person…”
Cui Lingrong’s eyes suddenly filled uncontrollably with tears. She raised her proud neck, forcibly holding back the tears.
Li Yuanying immediately noticed this subtle change in expression and said: “When we married, you told me your heart already belonged to another. I had no intention of competing with a strange man. No one can refuse an imperial marriage decree, but afterward, whether divorce or severing ties, you could do as you pleased and return to find your lover anytime—I had no intention of obstructing you. What would be the point of eliminating me?”
Everyone heard of this matter for the first time and were secretly shocked, finally understanding why the couple had always been as cold as strangers.
Cui Lingrong showed a tragic smile: “Because your consort can never go back.”
The guards dragged away the unconscious maid to be confined with the other servants from the western courtyard. Princess Consort Cui faced everyone alone, smiling as she said to her husband:
“The person in my heart is called Li Ciyin.”
Li Yuanying frowned in confusion: “I’ve never heard of this person.”
Cui Lingrong said frankly: “You naturally wouldn’t know her given name. Li family, Cui family, Xu family… we women of the inner chambers all end up with surnames but no names, sacrificial offerings for family heads to trade. But Ciyin’s title was bestowed by your father and known throughout the realm. She was the imperial clan woman sent to Tibet for political marriage as a substitute for Princess Wangshou—Princess Dongyi.”