As expected, after basins of hot water were sent in, basins of blood-red water were soon brought out.
Just by looking at the amount of blood loss, one could guess that the person wouldn’t survive!
Dowager Princess Chu couldn’t bear such a scene. Feeling dizzy, she was escorted by Li Mama to rest in her chambers. Cui Fu’s heart also tightened.
As a sister, she naturally knew how much her brother Xingzhou loved Miantang.
If Miantang truly died from a difficult childbirth without medical assistance, it would be a devastating blow to her brother.
Moreover, His Majesty had been poisoned after consuming the tiger penis tonic presented by Xingzhou. It was unclear who had perpetrated this evil deed, and whether Xingzhou, now detained in the palace, could emerge unscathed.
The Huaiyang Prince’s residence was truly experiencing a string of misfortunes. With no solution at hand, Cui Fu could only clasp her hands together and pray to the gods and Buddha for the young couple’s safety.
While the inner court was in chaos, someone quietly opened the back door of the outer court and whispered to the imperial guards sealing the rear gate, “Report to the master that the one in the inner court is done for. Several basins of bloody water have been sent out. It looks like hemorrhaging…”
One of the squad leaders immediately mounted a horse and galloped towards Prince Sui’s residence to report.
Prince Sui was waiting with several trusted advisors for news from the palace. Upon hearing that Princess Huaiyang was near death, he finally felt at ease.
He had been waiting for this day for a long time. Initially, the Gong family had agreed to support Liu Yu’s ascension to the throne because Liu Yu was sickly. When he escaped from the Eastern Palace, the toxins in his body hadn’t been eliminated, leaving lasting effects.
Supporting such a short-lived emperor would make it reasonable for Liu Pei to later secure the throne for his grand-nephew.
Unexpectedly, after Liu Yu ascended the throne, though still sickly, he proved quite prolific in producing heirs. Moreover, Shi Yikuan was adept at maneuvering, and as the emperor’s father-in-law, he was thriving, his power gradually expanding beyond Prince Sui’s control.
Now, Liu Yu had also brought in Prince Huaiyang.
If Liu Yu were allowed to further establish his roots, even if the Gong family made a move, it would be difficult to shake his position.
Liu Yu had many beauties in his harem, but he only loved and respected the Empress. The other concubines inevitably harbored jealousy and resentment. So, Prince Sui, through his subordinate alchemists, provided Consort Yun with a secret drug that would make her incompatible with Liu Yu.
Not only Consort Yun but two other consorts had also received this drug.
As long as Liu Yu was close to them, even without intimate contact, just sleeping in the same bed would be enough to affect him.
However, unexpectedly, Consort Yun had applied it to her skin early on. Due to her sensitive skin, it caused ulceration, revealing the toxicity prematurely.
Sun Yunniang, furious and humiliated, naturally wanted to confront him.
Prince Sui wasn’t afraid of her discovery. After all, her intentions were impure. If Liu Yu learned that she had been seeking unsavory drugs to scheme for the imperial heir, he would certainly despise her.
So, Prince Sui decided to go all in, threatening Consort Yun to use her connections in the Imperial Medical Academy to add the remaining secret drug to the tiger penis tonic presented by Prince Huaiyang.
Sun Yunniang felt she had made one mistake after another. If she didn’t comply, Prince Sui would surely expose her secret. The skin ulceration on her body wasn’t healing, and she couldn’t hide it for much longer.
Moreover, Prince Sui’s actions aimed to frame Prince Huaiyang. Now that Liu Yu’s intention to distance himself from her father was obvious, having punished and demoted him without reinstating him, she faced the prospect of growing old and dying in the palace as her beauty faded.
Yunniang was unwilling to live such a life. Initially, she had admired Liu Yu more for his ability to fulfill her dream of becoming Empress.
Now that her dream was shattered, only endless nightmares remained. Prince Sui had promised that once successful, he would certainly elevate her father’s position, allowing her to leave the palace with dignity.
Though Yunniang didn’t trust Prince Sui’s words, she was eager to frame Prince Huaiyang. After all, she had previously harmed Miantang by severing her hand and foot tendons.
Although Miantang had lost her memory and didn’t recall the details, leaving this couple alive would always pose a potential threat to her.
So, after weighing the pros and cons, Sun Yunniang added the drug to the tiger penis being ground. However, she didn’t want Liu Yu to perish, so she secretly instructed the imperial physician to reduce the amount of ginseng in Liu Yu’s medicine, using the excuse that His Majesty had been feeling feverish lately.
This way, even if the poison took effect, it wouldn’t be fatal. Then, Yunniang could use Prince Sui’s arrangements to eliminate the Prince and Princess Huaiyang.
For a time, this adoptive father and daughter each harbored their schemes, making their arrangements. However, they were united in their desire to frame Cui Xingzhou and Liu Miantang.
Although the inner court of the Huaiyang Prince’s residence had been personally cleaned up by Liu Miantang, with any suspicious individuals expelled, the outer court had many menial workers that she couldn’t thoroughly vet.
Today, as soon as Liu Miantang went into labor, the news spread from the outer court. Liu Yu’s tonics were all arranged by the Imperial Medical Academy, and today the tiger penis soup was presented. When Liu Yu showed signs of poisoning, the Grand Empress Dowager immediately set out for His Majesty’s chambers, personally issuing an imperial edict to interrogate Prince Huaiyang.
This led to the earlier scene.
This time, Prince Sui was determined to tarnish Cui Xingzhou’s reputation. Otherwise, with his heroic military achievements in defending the Northwest and his popularity among the people, if not handled properly, it might instead burden Prince Sui with the infamy of harming a loyal minister.
Once Prince Huaiyang was confirmed to have committed treason by poisoning His Majesty, coupled with using his wife’s childbirth to cause her death by hemorrhage, Prince Huaiyang would be seen as disloyal, inhumane, and unjust, deserving universal condemnation!
Prince Sui had planned for a long time, and now that he could succeed in one night, he was naturally in high spirits.
However, one advisor harbored doubts: “Your Highness, how do you know that Liu Miantang will have a difficult labor and hemorrhage?”
Prince Sui smiled smugly: “That Liu Miantang comes from a common background and always likes street food. Although the prince’s residence is well-guarded, there’s a gap outside. The fried cake shop and several small food stalls she loves to eat from have all been arranged by my people to use specially prepared animal fat-containing drugs to enlarge the fetus. It’s generally undetectable by poison tests. As long as the baby is large and Liu Miantang has no doctor to assist, how can she deliver the child? Her difficult labor perfectly aligns with the earlier rumors in the capital, letting people know that Prince Huaiyang is a ruthless person who can harm even his wife and child!”
The advisors, while breaking out in cold sweat, all admired Prince Sui’s meticulous planning, setting such an inescapable trap for Prince Huaiyang.
Prince Sui smiled slightly: “If it weren’t for the idea from my adopted daughter, how could I, a man, know about such devious methods of inner chamber disputes? My beloved daughter has been hoping for Liu Miantang’s death for quite some time. This time, her wish will be fulfilled…”
Now that Prince Huaiyang is detained in the palace if he learns that his beloved wife couldn’t survive childbirth, he would surely be devastated, his words becoming frantic and incoherent. At that time, the senior officials and censors summoned by the Grand Empress Dowager could serve as witnesses, proving that Prince Huaiyang harbored ill intentions, was dissatisfied with the royal family, poisoned the emperor, and intended to rebel!
Thinking of this, Prince Sui stood up and said: “Since the joyous event at Prince Huaiyang’s residence has turned into a funeral, I should also enter the palace to bid farewell to Prince Huaiyang!”
Perhaps heaven was on his side. These past few days, the city guards had been rotated, with Prince Huaiyang’s troops sent out of the city for training. The palace guards were all from the Gong family’s forces.
As long as Prince Huaiyang was detained within the palace gates, he would be a caged beast, at their mercy.
How could Yunniang’s little scheme escape his eyes? Did she think reducing the amount of ginseng would save Liu Yu’s life?
Liu Yu, this shield, was now useless. Even if he remained barely alive, what use would it be? A pillow could easily suffocate a consumptive.
Once Prince Huaiyang’s crimes were confirmed, the new emperor would certainly pass away by dawn.
He, Liu Pei, having caught the treacherous minister for the new emperor and stabilized the state for Great Yan, could then ascend to the throne flawlessly, with universal support, becoming a wise ruler of Great Yan, recorded in history!
Liu Pei had waited so long for this day that when he stepped into the palace gates, his heart trembled slightly with excitement.
By now, night had fallen deeply, and palace lanterns hung high, casting dim and hazy halos among the high eaves and intricate corners.
With His Majesty in a coma, the palace servants were as quiet as cicadas in winter, each shrinking back to their positions.
In the main hall, the Grand Empress Dowager, who had long abstained from worldly affairs, sat with a gloomy expression, staring directly at Prince Huaiyang kneeling before her. In front of all the senior officials, she asked bluntly: “Prince Huaiyang, the Emperor has always treated you well, even promoting you from Zhenzhou to hold an important position in the Ministry of War. But you, insatiable, actually poisoned the Emperor to harm him. What punishment do you deserve?”
Prince Huaiyang raised his eyes to look at the Grand Empress Dowager before him, his thin lips curling in mockery as he said: “The tiger hunted that day was not privately brought by me. It was raised in the western hunting grounds. I used the bow and arrow provided by the palace eunuchs, and after shooting the tiger, it was the accompanying imperial guards and hunters who skinned and butchered it. Afterward, the tiger penis was handed over to the Imperial Medical Academy for processing into medicine. Not only can it not be definitively stated that the tiger penis was poisonous, even if it were, what does it have to do with me? Although the Grand Empress Dowager is concerned for His Majesty, isn’t this accusation a bit too hasty?”
Cui Xingzhou’s features were handsome and captivating, but when he showed a mocking expression, his thick eyebrows slightly raised, the disdain in his eyes was unmistakable. Anyone could see that he was being quite disrespectful towards the Grand Empress Dowager.
Those senior officials, upon hearing that the Emperor had been poisoned and fallen into a coma, regardless of whether they had personal connections with the new Emperor Liu Yu, were all in tears, displaying a devout appearance as if they would gladly die in His Majesty’s place.
But in contrast, this Prince Huaiyang seemed completely unconcerned about His Majesty’s life or death and even spoke back to the Grand Empress Dowager. The face of a treacherous minister was truly exposed!
At once, the senior officials, not even bothering to wipe their nearly overflowing noses, angrily rebuked Prince Huaiyang for his malicious intent and disrespectful speech.
Prince Huaiyang leisurely looked at this group of old fossils, waiting for their scolding to subside before asking: “May I ask if His Majesty has passed away? You’re all crying and wailing as if you’re mourning for His Majesty.”
The senior officials were stunned by the question. According to the imperial physicians, His Majesty was only unconscious and hadn’t breathed his last. But their earlier crying had indeed been a bit too dramatic.
“His Majesty has always been frail. How could he withstand another bout of severe poisoning? Prince Huaiyang, with such malicious intentions, how dare you criticize the unwavering loyalty of these officials to His Majesty?”
At this moment, Prince Sui suddenly entered the hall and spoke out in rebuke.