It was Ling Jingshu’s voice!
The Crown Grandson started, instantly snapping his gaze toward the Crown Prince.
He saw the Crown Prince’s face full of shock and astonishment, saw the eunuch standing at the Crown Prince’s side, saw the eunuch’s chilling smile. He saw the eunuch’s hand, holding something unknown, thrusting toward the Crown Prince.
Alerted by that cry, the Crown Prince had already sensed the danger and stepped back, kicking the eunuch with full force. The eunuch was sent flying several meters, landing on the ground with an anguished cry.
However, it was already too late.
A faint pain stung the Crown Prince’s waist — he had already been struck by the poisoned needle.
His blood roiled within him, and a layer of dark, sickly color quickly spread across his face.
What a vicious poison!
The Crown Grandson’s entire body shook violently, his handsome face draining of color in an instant. “Father!”
The disaster had unfolded too quickly, too fast for anyone to react. The Emperor was still gazing down at Prince Yan, whose bleeding had not yet been stopped, while Wei Yan and Imperial Physician Zhou bent over him, working to save him.
Ling Jingshu’s and the Crown Grandson’s cries of alarm reached everyone’s ears one after the other. In the span of an instant, dark color had already spread across the Crown Prince’s face, and he swayed, on the verge of collapse.
A slender figure rushed forward, catching the Crown Prince’s body before he fell, and with the utmost speed pulled a porcelain vial from within her robes, poured out several pills, and pressed them into the Crown Prince’s mouth.
The poison on the needle was far too potent and overwhelming — the Crown Prince’s consciousness had already grown hazy, his vision darkening. He only heard a sweet, melodious young woman’s voice urgently ring out by his ear: “Your Highness, this is an antidote pill. Take it quickly.”
Fortunately, she happened to be carrying this vial of antidote pills — at this life-or-death moment, it might just be enough to wrest the Crown Prince’s life back from the hands of death.
With the last shred of consciousness he had left, the Crown Prince summoned all his strength to swallow the pills.
Then he lost consciousness entirely.
Only now did everyone finally react.
The Emperor’s face turned ashen, utterly drained of color, and his voice trembled. “Wei Yan, go save the Crown Prince! Quickly!”
Though Prince Yan’s chest wound was severe, it was not life-threatening. But the Crown Prince, struck by such a potent poisoned needle, might well not survive.
Without the slightest hesitation, Wei Yan answered, handed over Prince Yan’s treatment to Imperial Physician Zhou, and swiftly moved to the Crown Prince’s side.
The Crown Prince remained unconscious, kept from collapsing only by Ling Jingshu’s desperate effort to hold him up. The Crown Grandson strode over and took hold of the Crown Prince’s other arm.
Wei Yan glanced at Ling Jingshu, tense and pale-faced, with a look of both heartache and tenderness. But the situation was far too urgent to spare even a single word.
Their eyes met briefly before Wei Yan immediately fixed his gaze on the Crown Prince’s face. Dark color spread across the Crown Prince’s skin, his breathing was extremely faint — clear signs of severe poisoning.
There was no time now to carry the Crown Prince indoors; treatment had to begin immediately, on the spot.
Wei Yan’s expression turned graver than ever before, and he commanded in a deep voice, “Lay His Highness down gently on the ground. I need to bleed out the poison.”
On the surface, the Crown Grandson appeared composed enough; hearing Wei Yan’s instruction, he followed it without hesitation.
Ling Jingshu lacked the strength for this, so Yang Wei, standing nearby, immediately stepped in to take her place, and together with the Crown Grandson, carefully laid the Crown Prince flat on the ground.
…
Wei Yan crouched down and, without the slightest hesitation, picked up the thickest and longest golden needle and plunged it in. Black blood quickly seeped out from where the needle entered, and against the Crown Prince’s deathly pale face, the sight grew ever more harrowing.
The Crown Grandson said nothing the entire time, silently wiping away the blood with a handkerchief, his handsome face as still as a stone carving, radiating a chill that unsettled the heart.
No one knew how much hatred and regret consumed him in this moment.
Hatred for Prince Yan’s ruthless cruelty! Regret for his own arrogant overconfidence!
He had known full well that Prince Yan harbored ill intentions, yet, confident he could handle anything, he had carelessly walked into the temporary palace — and straight into this trap.
The earlier female assassin’s attempt on the Emperor’s life had only been a smokescreen.
By taking that sword strike for the Emperor, Prince Yan had won the Emperor’s trust while smoothly clearing himself of suspicion. Most importantly, it had drawn everyone’s attention away — and only once everyone’s guard was down did the real assassin strike.
Prince Yan’s true target had been the Crown Prince all along.
If Ling Jingshu hadn’t been so attentive and perceptive, noticing the eunuch’s strange behavior and calling out the warning in time. If Ling Jingshu hadn’t acted so swiftly, feeding the antidote pills to the Crown Prince in time — by now, the Crown Prince would already have departed for the underworld.
With the Crown Prince dead, Prince Yan — who had won the Emperor’s deep trust and favor, and now carried the merit of having saved the Emperor’s life — would naturally and rightfully become the new heir apparent.
What a Prince Yan he was!
What a tremendous gamble!
And he himself, for his own unspeakable selfish motives, had only wanted Prince Yan to expose himself early so he could be eliminated, never once giving thought to the Emperor’s life — and he had walked right into Prince Yan’s scheme…
From the day he was born, he had been the noble legitimate grandson of the Emperor. Over the years, everything had come easily to him, and without realizing it, he had grown to think far too highly of himself. Though he had always declared he would deal with Prince Yan, in truth he had never truly taken him seriously.
This carefully orchestrated assassination attempt was, without question, a heavy blow to the head. Beyond the unbearable pain, it had also made him truly realize the gap between himself and Prince Yan.
In scheming, in patience, in ruthlessness — he fell short of Prince Yan in every way. He still had a long road ahead of him, and he had to truly grow up. Otherwise, how could he ever speak of ruling the realm?
The Crown Grandson closed his eyes, forcing back the glimmer of tears welling within them.
A man may bleed, but he does not weep. Now was not the time for regret and self-blame!
…
The Emperor held the unconscious, blood-drained Prince Yan in his arms; since Prince Yan could not be moved, no matter how anxious he was about the Crown Prince’s condition, he had no way to approach. He could only ask anxiously, “How is the Crown Prince now?”
Wei Yan, wholly absorbed in administering the emergency acupuncture, was deaf to every sound around him.
No one else was qualified to answer in his place. The Crown Grandson took a deep breath and answered without turning his head, “Reporting to Imperial Grandfather, Imperial Physician Wei has been continuously draining the poisoned blood from Father.”
Poisoned blood was black; only once most of it had been drained could the bloodletting stop, after which medicinal decoctions would be used to expel the remaining poison.
Fortunately, the poison had not yet reached his heart — had they been even a little later, the Crown Prince would have died on the spot.
The Emperor’s heart was a tangle of anxiety and fury.
He had six sons in total. Two had died young, and two others had long since been sent off to their fiefs. The two remaining in the capital were his most valued eldest son and his most favored youngest son.
Now his youngest son lay gravely wounded, and his eldest son’s fate hung uncertain between life and death — it was no different from two blades plunged straight into his heart, each one cutting deep and agonizing.
The female assassin had taken poison and killed herself; the eunuch who had attacked the Crown Prince had likewise bitten open a hidden poison capsule and died.
Only the women from the sword dance remained, surrounded by the guards, trembling in utter terror.
The Emperor swept his imperial gaze across them, his eyes ablaze with fury and murderous intent. “Seize every one of them and interrogate them under severe torture. And every eunuch and maid serving in this hall — take them all as well!”