Sui Axi wasn’t very confident: “This servant will try their best.”

It was precisely because he was familiar with drug properties that Sui Axi felt the poison Shen Xihe requested would be difficult to create. However, as this was Shen Xihe’s first assignment to him, Sui Axi still wanted to make an effort. Though the final result wasn’t ideal, he hadn’t managed to create exactly the type of poison Shen Xihe wanted.

“Princess, this poison causes no harm when applied to the skin, but once it enters a wound, the toxin will lie dormant in the body. After three days, the person will experience fever and weakness similar to heat exhaustion. If they take Zixue Dan to reduce the fever, it will trigger the poison.”

The palace had countless fever-reducing prescriptions and medicines. Whether someone would use Zixue Dan specifically was an uncertainty.

“Medical Official Huang from the Imperial Medical Office favors using Zixue Dan for fevers, and the heat symptoms induced by the medicine align well with Zixue Dan’s properties,” Sui Axi added.

Although he had previously worked in the medicinal garden, he had extensive contact with the Imperial Medical Office and was very familiar with the treatment habits of various imperial physicians.

Shen Xihe raised her eyebrows as she looked at Sui Axi standing respectfully to the side: “You are very clever.”

From beginning to end, she had never told Sui Axi who this poison was meant for, but when Sui Axi delivered the scented balls, she investigated their destination without hiding it from him, and Sui Axi was able to deduce who she was targeting.

Thinking of how Sui Axi had managed to hide Bian Xianyi in the medicinal garden that day, Shen Xihe felt it was normal that he could figure it out.

“Thank you for the Princess’s praise.” Sui Axi’s joy showed on his face.

“Princess, shall I go make arrangements?” Mo Yuan felt somewhat threatened.

Shen Xihe thought for a moment: “No, using our people would be too risky.”

After all, death by poisoning couldn’t be concealed, and once the poison took effect there would be a thorough investigation. Shen Xihe stood up and went to the kitchen to prepare a large batch of dumpling filling. She wrapped a hundred dumplings and stored them in the ice room to freeze. The next day, she went to see Xiao Huayong.

When Xiao Huayong saw the bowl of cooked dumplings Shen Xihe placed before him, he was quite pleasantly surprised: “Princess…”

“Payment.”

Xiao Huayong: …

Why couldn’t she sweet-talk him a little? He was very easy to sweet-talk!

Even if it was a lie, he could believe it!

Somewhat between laughter and tears, Xiao Huayong ate two bites first: “I wonder how I might be of service to the Princess?”

Seeing that he had eaten two dumplings, Shen Xihe then asked: “Is Your Highness not afraid that Zhaoning will give you trouble?”

“I hope the Princess will give me some trouble,” Xiao Huayong said as he happily ate another dumpling. After feeling somewhat satisfied, he continued, “The Princess is upright in character. When she rarely seeks help from others, it’s certainly not for troublesome matters.”

After a pause, Xiao Huayong added: “Even if it were truly troublesome if I refused, the Princess wouldn’t force me just because I ate some dumplings.”

Shen Xihe smiled slightly. She discovered that while Xiao Huayong wasn’t the same type of person as Xie Yunhuai, she felt equally at ease when interacting with him.

“There is one matter.” Shen Xihe didn’t beat around the bush. “Three days from now, if Noble Consort Liang calls for a physician, I hope Your Highness can arrange for Medical Official Huang to attend.”

Xiao Huayong felt this was a simple matter upon hearing it: “Just need to ensure the person sent is Medical Official Huang, with no other instructions?”

“No other instructions needed.” Shen Xihe nodded.

A person’s habits were difficult to change. As long as it was the right medicine for the symptoms unless it wasn’t available, there wouldn’t be any variables.

Even if Noble Consort Liang truly had some luck and there were variables, Shen Xihe would simply find another method.

“Princess, rest assured. Leave this matter to me, I’ll ensure it goes perfectly,” Xiao Huayong agreed.

“Your Highness, I want Noble Consort Liang’s life.” Shen Xihe didn’t want Xiao Huayong to be careless, lest the investigation after the poison took effect would implicate him and cause him to lose personnel.

She didn’t care if Xiao Huayong knew what kind of person she was. Since they would be spending time together in the future, it was better not to harbor empty, beautiful illusions about each other.

Xiao Huayong was very pleased. He liked how candid she was with him, his eyes flowing with threads of silvery, luminous smile: “I understand.”

I understand.

Just four words, without asking why she wanted to kill Noble Consort Liang, or feeling that her methods were ruthless and completely lacking in feminine virtue and gentleness.

She spoke of killing someone, and he accepted it so easily.

Shen Xihe was quite gratified. She stayed in the Eastern Palace talking with Xiao Huayong about many things. Xiao Huayong occasionally looked at her intently, as if seriously listening to her words, yet also as if carefully examining her countenance.

“Has the Princess’s complexion improved?” After Shen Xihe left, Xiao Huayong asked.

He couldn’t see colors now, so he could only judge her physical condition from Shen Xihe’s spirit and demeanor, calculating that she had been using the medicinal soup for some time.

“The Princess has truly transformed, with rosy cheeks and bright, beautiful eyes,” Tian Yuan also marveled at Shen Xihe’s transformation.

After hearing this, Xiao Huayong’s lips curved upward, habitually touching the small black mole at the corner of his eye with his little finger: “This is worth it…”

Life in the back palace was dull and monotonous. The Emperor had gradually lost interest in the back palace, and in recent years had stopped recruiting new people into the palace and rarely visited the back palace. Thus, the lives of the imperial consorts were simple, and many people developed fixed habits.

For instance, Noble Consort Liang would be doing certain things at certain times each day, all of which were easy to track. This was why Shen Xihe had “coincidentally” encountered her before. She had another habit of personally delivering evening meals to her cats daily and playing with them for a while.

Today, as usual, she went to deliver the evening meal, placing it before the cat and reaching out to touch the cat as it lowered its head to eat. Unexpectedly, the cat suddenly scratched at the back of her hand, leaving three scratch marks before she could react.

The pain made Noble Consort Liang grimace, and she immediately had people investigate why the cat had gone wild. They eventually found the cause was a new hand cream she had started using, whose fragrance had agitated the cat.

The wounds weren’t deep, so Noble Consort Liang didn’t take them seriously. After three days, she suddenly developed a fever. Thinking she had caught a chill at night, she sent for the Imperial Medical Office. Medical Official Huang came to check her pulse, and finding it was a common fever, prescribed Zixue Dan as usual.

No one expected that Noble Consort Liang, who had taken Zixue Dan and gone to bed that night, would be found by her palace maid the next morning when she went to wake her. Upon lifting the gauze curtain, they found her face purple-blue. The palace maid’s terrified scream shocked the entire back palace, and Noble Consort Liang’s death by poison in her sleep made everyone in the palace fear for their safety.

The Youning Emperor was particularly enraged. One of his consorts had been silently poisoned to death in her palace chambers – if the true culprit wasn’t found, wouldn’t he too be silently poisoned to death one day?

However, this thorough investigation was destined to be disappointing, as no suspicious persons were found.

Misfortunes never come alone. Before the cause of Noble Consort Liang’s death could be determined, news came from Tianshan that the Sixth Prince Xiao Changyu had fallen off a cliff and died, with no remains found.

With bad news coming one after another, the Youning Emperor decided to go to Xiangguo Temple to pray for blessings before the autumn hunt.

“Something’s not right,” Shen Xihe frowned.

“What’s not right?” Biyu anxiously asked.

“The Dai Wang Manor’s reaction isn’t right,” Shen Xihe’s gaze was deep and contained. “Noble Consort Liang’s servants couldn’t possibly suspect me at all, and the Dai Wang wouldn’t react at all after hearing about it.”

All the preparations she had made hadn’t been needed at all.