Bang!
The door to the main bedchamber was flung open with great force. Ziqing, who had been keeping watch beside the bed, whirled around at once. “Who’s there!”
“Your Highness the Princess!”
“Your Highness, you’ve finally come!”
Imperial Physician Gu and Yingzi rushed in one after the other, and upon seeing Ziqing, the two of them dropped to their knees at once!
Ziqing was startled—she hadn’t expected Madam Gu to release them so quickly. She hurried forward to help them up. “Imperial Physician, Yingzi, please get up. You two have suffered these past days!”
But neither of them rose. Instead, they spoke in unison, “We beg Your Highness to see justice done for us, to fight for the prince’s honor!”
“Whatever it is, get up first and then speak, both of you!” Ziqing said hastily. This was the first time she had exchanged so many words with the physician and Yingzi, and she found herself somewhat at a loss.
“Your Highness, Prince Yao has been poisoned by a drug! And whoever administered it, Madam Gu cannot escape being the first suspect!” the physician said fiercely.
Ziqing was startled. “Get up and tell me properly, quickly!”
“Your Highness, if you will seek justice on our behalf and the prince’s, this humble servant will kneel here without rising!” Yingzi threatened.
Finally, faced for the first time with these two kneeling before her in such a formal show of respect, at a loss for what to do, Ziqing suddenly barked, “This princess commands you to rise!”
Fierce—truly fierce. So fierce that the physician and Yingzi didn’t dare make another sound and obediently stood up.
Ziqing looked the two of them over, pursing her lips slightly, feeling a bit awkward herself, and said flatly, “Both of you, sit.”
The physician and Yingzi obediently sat down. Though the two of them had been imprisoned in the cells at the foot of the mountain, they had only been deprived of their freedom—they hadn’t actually been harmed, and had even had people attending to them.
Ziqing sized the two of them up, already having a sense of the situation, and said flatly, “Imperial Physician, tell me—what exactly happened?”
The physician immediately grew animated, recounting in detail everything that had happened since their arrival at the Gu clan that hadn’t been in the letters, with Yingzi chiming in from the side.
“Your Highness, we had only just discovered that our master had been poisoned when Madam Gu immediately had us confined, claiming it was to send us out to gather herbs! I’m certain she meant to conceal the poisoning!” the physician speculated—having no idea what had happened since Ziqing’s arrival, it was little wonder he guessed this way.
“The day you two were taken away, I had already arrived at the Gu clan,” Ziqing said helplessly. She had sensed something was wrong with Madam Gu partway up the mountain, but she hadn’t connected it to the fact that the physician and the others were being taken away at that very moment.
This Madam Gu… rather than wrapping fire in paper, why hadn’t she simply refused Gu Meiting from the start?
Taking away the physician and Yingzi had likely been meant to avoid conflict, to prevent them from complaining—she was probably not the one who had administered the poison.
Ziqing briefly recounted what had happened to the physician and Yingzi, and the two of them listened, stunned, taking a good while to recover.
“Your Highness, since that’s the case, we should press our advantage while we can—we mustn’t let Madam Gu off easy! Indulgent mothers raise ruined children, and ruined children have indulgent mothers! Madam Gu has been guarding against us on Meiting’s behalf all along. Now that things have already come out into the open, we might as well see it through to the end. Our prince doesn’t necessarily need the Gu clan anyway!” Yingzi said angrily.
It was clearly Madam Gu who had ordered their imprisonment, and now that they’d been released, she had found Old Li to take the blame, claiming he had falsely issued the order and imprisoned them on his own authority.
Who would believe such an excuse?
The matter of the imprisonment alone was more than enough grounds to sever ties with the Gu clan entirely! It was more than enough to confirm that Madam Gu, at heart, had no real intention of seeing their master wake up.
They were not in the wrong here—not in the slightest!
In the face of Yingzi’s impassioned outburst, Ziqing merely glanced at him and immediately had him sit back down, saying mildly, “Your Highness… this is truly unbearable.”
The physician’s expression was grave. “Your Highness, setting everything else aside, this poison in the prince—even if it wasn’t Madam Gu herself, it was certainly someone within the Gu clan. This place isn’t safe. Now that we have good reason to leave, why not simply leave?”
Ziqing didn’t answer that directly, instead asking flatly, “Imperial Physician, can you determine what kind of poison this is?”
The physician glanced toward the figure on the bed and shook his head helplessly. “All I know is that it’s a drug-poison. If this drags on, our master won’t wake up, and if we wait too long, it will certainly become a threat to his life!”
“Imperial Physician, take a look at this herb—if consumed in large quantities, would it have any effect?” Ziqing said, producing a stalk of a red, yang-natured herb.
The physician frowned as he examined it, then bit off a few leaves and chewed them, a thoughtful look crossing his face.
Neither Ziqing nor Yingzi dared to interrupt. After a long while, the physician finally spoke. “Your Highness, are you asking about this particular category, or this specific type?”
“This category.”
“Yang-natured herbs, red in color.”
“Yes!”
“Your Highness, how… how do you know about this category of herbs?”
“Why do you ask?”
The physician smacked his own forehead. “How did I not think of this!”
Ziqing’s heart gave a small start—so that irritating scholar hadn’t lied to her after all.
“Judging by the herb’s properties, this is almost certainly the antidote—it’s a tonic-nourishing medicine. There’s no harm in trying it!” the physician said, delighted.
Ziqing let out a small breath of relief and quickly ordered Shiliang and Guxi to go down the mountain to find the herb. “Remember—don’t buy it in large quantities, and don’t alert anyone!”
A drug-poison like this wasn’t something one simply stumbled upon—whoever had administered it would naturally know how to counter it. She meant to turn the situation to her advantage and draw the snake out of its hole.
“Your Highness, now that we know the antidote, we might as well go straight to the patriarch! Having him root out the inside culprit would be far easier than us doing it ourselves!” Yingzi said earnestly.
But Ziqing merely laughed coldly. “Do you two think I gave Madam Gu a way down out of the goodness of my heart?”
At these words, both the physician and Yingzi were startled. What did she mean by that?
“If Patriarch Gu is a reasonable man, if he truly wishes to resolve the conflict between Madam Gu and her daughter and myself—or more precisely, the conflict of interests between the women of the Gu clan and Beiyue—then even though I gave them a way to step down gracefully, he ought to show the bearing of a true head of household, a fair and just one, and have Madam Gu come apologize properly. That would be the real way to resolve this conflict,” Ziqing said seriously.
As things stood now, the patriarch had found a scapegoat for his wife—but what good would dodging this crisis do? Everyone already knew the truth in their hearts, yet they all pretended to know nothing. That would only leave a lingering knot in everyone’s heart.
Far better to let Madam Gu explain her concerns herself, to come discuss openly how to maintain good relations within this family, within this household.
But instead, not only had they failed to come clarify the truth—even after finding a scapegoat, they hadn’t even dared to personally deliver the physician and Yingzi back, hadn’t even dared to come apologize on behalf of their subordinate!
This chance to step down had merely been a test on Ziqing’s part. And the patriarch had truly disappointed her.
“Imperial Physician, Yingzi—things have already come this far. If we push Gu Jun too hard now, he won’t hold back on my account just for Beiyue’s sake. There’s something I want on Liuxian Isle, and I don’t wish for things to end in mutual destruction, nor do I want to leave,” Ziqing said seriously.
“Your Highness, what is it you want…” Yingzi asked, puzzled.
“The Bai clan’s divine wood—Fusang,” Ziqing said in a low voice, a glint of cunning flashing in her eyes.