Chapter 289 - The Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law

“Isn’t it nice?” The old maid laughed and continued with relief, “You personally told Beautiful Lady Nuan why the empress kept her in the Palace of Xuanming. She didn’t summon Beautiful Lady Nuan in the past two days but suddenly looked for her then. What is the reason except that His Majesty’s condition changed or she made up her mind to take actions?”

She added casually, “So if there is something wrong as soon as Beautiful Lady Nuan went back, we don’t need to worry so much. Just spread the news outside the imperial palace and ask Prime Minister Gu to summon all the officials to enter the palace following the crown prince…I don’t need to say more about what will happen next, right?”

The old emperor had been critically ill for several days, and all the officials suddenly followed the crown prince to enter the imperial palace. Of course he was prepared to take the throne, or rather take the throne in front of the emperor’s coffin.

Consort Cui pondered and then stated, “I am afraid that when the crown prince enters the imperial palace, His Majesty is still alive. Then he can’t advance or retreat.”

He couldn’t advance or retreat. Moreover, he would be commented as he hoped that his father would die earlier so he could take the throne.

This would be recorded in the history book.

“Your Highness, do you mean…” The old maid’s eyes lit up and she bent over to ask.

“It’s better to ensure it first.” Consort Cui narrowed her eyes. “Then I will be relieved and all of you can rest assured, too, right?”

The old maid smiled vaguely. “As long as you don’t forget what you promised…”

“As you said, it seems that you never worry about this matter since you got in touch with me,” Consort Cui expressed indifferently. “Moreover, if we succeed, what you want is hardly worth mentioning to me. Why would I risk my fame and fall out with you?”

The old maid seemed to ponder for a moment and then nodded. “In this case, please personally write a letter to the Eastern Palace, telling them to detoxify His Highness so he can enter the Palace of Xuanming to serve His Majesty.”

She intentionally stressed the word “serve”, and her hidden meaning was evident. There was fierceness flashing in Consort Cui’s eyes. She caressed the hair on her temples and explained sweetly, “It’s unnecessary to write a letter. If it’s found when you leave the palace, won’t we get into trouble through clever means? Moreover, the crown princess is in charge of the Eastern Palace now. My daughter-in-law is very smart. As long as you go there with one of my personal things, I think she will consider it.”

The old maid didn’t mind as Consort Cui guarded against her. She nodded slightly after hearing that. “Your Highness, please give me the token.”

Almost at the same time, in the Eastern Palace, the crown princess received the handkerchief from Shiwan and wiped the sweat on her forehead. “Is His Highness better now?”

“Your Highness, the imperial doctor has said that His Highness is stable now,” Shiwan reported cautiously, her face pale. “But he is poisoned too seriously, and the imperial doctor is afraid that…”

The crown princess asked with a frown, “What?”

“The imperial doctor said that it might ruin His Highness’ foundation.” Shiwan lowered her head and gazed at the tile floor as she didn’t dare to look at the crown princess’ face. “Even though His Highness is in good health, the poison is too strong. If he doesn’t focus on recuperating in the following three or five years, perhaps…he will be like His Majesty!”

The crown princess’ hand stiffened when she wiped the sweat. After quite a while, she responded, “It’s fine if he can get better after recuperating. As long as he goes through this, everything is fine. If he can’t go through it…” She smiled coldly. “What’s the point even if he is healthy?”

She glanced at her trusted maid who was obedient. “Although I did so because I consider for His Highness, for the future, we can’t let anybody else know it. Before Qiu Shuxia and the others came today, it was Han Ji who harmed His Highness, and we don’t need to bother about the person behind Han Ji for now. We just need to care about one thing, His Highness’ health. Do you know?”

Seeing that Shiwan nodded while trembling, the crown princess wearily waved her hand. “Go to see Zhongling and tell his foster nurse to pay attention. We can’t let anybody seize the chance to harm him at this time.”

When only the crown princess was left in the room, she sighed deeply and showed a scared expression. Although she was not a naïve and weak woman, what she did today made herself feel nervous.

Because she suspected Gu Shao, she changed the excuse and plan which Gu Shao and the others had agreed and made use of the crown prince’s concubine Han Ji to put poison in his medicine before Qiu Shuxia and the others reached the Eastern Palace.

It was real poison.

It was not the original drug like the sleeping pill, which was from the last dynasty and mainly used to pretend to be sick or be poisoned. Anyway, anybody who took it would look as if he wouldn’t stay alive for long judging from his face and pulse, while in fact, he wouldn’t be hurt but could be detoxified at any time and then return normal.

After all, the crown princess kept the crown prince in the Eastern Palace mainly to find a reason for him not to serve the emperor in the Palace of Xuanming. How would she really harm the crown prince?

However, Gu Shao knew this plan. After the crown princess was suspicious of him, how would she dare to continue with this plan? Qiu Shuxia and the others were on the way to the Eastern Palace then. If Gu Shao was unreliable, the crown prince’s “being poisoned seriously” couldn’t be hidden from them. If the truth was revealed then, the Eastern Palace would be doomed eternally.

So in a desperate situation, the crown princess got hard-hearted and decided to make it true, yet she just suspected Gu Shao and was not sure. Even if Gu Shao was really unreliable, she didn’t dare to gain a bad reputation as she harmed her husband.

Therefore, the crown princess chose Han Ji as the scapegoat. If the crown prince investigated it after he recovered in the future, at most, she would be blamed as she didn’t discipline her husband’s concubines well but let Han Ji have a chance to do evil. As the crown prince’s official wife and Commandery Prince Zhongling’s biological mother, she could find an excuse to explain her fault. Her negligence was because she was worried about the crown prince then, and it was enough to let her get away with it.

She chose Han Ji not because she fought for the crown prince’s favor but mainly because Han Ji was once a maid in the imperial palace and had stayed in the imperial harem system for several years, working in a few places. Among the crown prince’s concubines, Han Ji was the most difficult to investigate, so the crown princess could disassociate herself more easily and win more time to consider the next step at the moment.

Even so, with such a hasty plan, under Qiu Shuxia and Huang Jingting’s aggressive inquiries, she almost exposed herself.

Thinking that Qiu Shuxia finally led the others to say goodbye in the evening, with a faint smile before leaving as if he knew something, the crown princess had a sense of foreboding.

“What should I do?” The crown princess was at a loss after feeling fearful. She waved her hands and pulled down the bed-curtain. Holding her knees and biting her lower lip, she pondered quickly. “I am just a woman. It’s fine if I won’t lose the crown prince and Zhongling, and it is merely temporary. Unless the crown prince takes the throne, all people in the Eastern Palace are in danger. However, it’s impossible for him to take the throne without the support of the imperial court. If Gu Shao is unreliable…who should I ask for help?”

She suddenly thought of something. The crown prince couldn’t make a decision, and her parents’ family the Wei Family was not reliable, while she trusted Jian Xubai. However, even though this Duke of Yan had an honorable status, because of his age and experience, he almost didn’t have a say at the imperial court, and he was still trapped in the Palace of Xuanming.

If Gu Shao had evil intentions to the Eastern Palace, why did he play for time and divide them into two teams to find the truth? If he joined hands with Prince of Wei and Prince of Zhao to kill the crown prince earlier or find a reason to select another prince as the heir to throne, would the Eastern Palace have power to fight back?

“His Majesty! It must be His Majesty!” The crown princess didn’t think that she made a mistake as she suspected Gu Shao. After all, the Eastern Palace was at a disadvantage in the fight for the title of heir to the throne gradually in the past half a year. It might be wrong to put all the blame on Gu Shao, yet he didn’t try his best. So it appeared that only Emperor Xianjia could protect the Eastern Palace and make all the officials at the imperial court have no nerve to act recklessly.

Although Emperor Xianjia had been in a coma for two or three days, with this emperor’s achievements, it was impossible that he had no last card which could still make him frighten all people when he was unconscious.

The problem was that such a conjecture couldn’t make the crown princess sigh with relief, but she had more cold sweat. “So I can’t hide the fact that I made use of Han Ji to poison the crown prince?”

Even though she did that against her will because she was afraid that the crown prince would be harmed, it was a fact that it damaged his foundation. Emperor Xianjia was the crown prince’s biological father and all people knew that he was partial to his eldest son, would he understand that his daughter-in-law had no other choices?

The crown princess thought that if Emperor Xianjia and the crown prince were her and Commandery Prince Zhongling, she believed that she would certainly have hard feelings for such a daughter-in-law after thinking it over, especially when she hadn’t solid evidence to prove that Gu Shao was unreliable.

“His Majesty loves Zhongling all the time, but the crown prince is his son, and Zhongling is not so close. Grandma made a choice between the crown prince and Aunt Daiguo, and didn’t it prove this point?” The crown princess just felt that her hair stood on the end for the moment, and she involuntarily raised her hand to cover her chest where her heart beat fast, thinking in doubt and surprise, “So if His Majesty can go through this and knows what I did, he probably won’t punish me openly for the sake of Zhongling at most, but how would he not remind the crown prince in private?”

Even though she and the crown prince were a couple, if he knew this matter, how would he not be alert to her?

After all, the crown princess could poison the crown prince to be at the gate of death for the Eastern Palace’s future. In the future, would she kill the crown prince for other reasons, for example, to become the Empress Dowager earlier?

Once a person started to suspect somebody, he couldn’t stop himself. In the final analysis, the crown prince and crown princess were just a normal couple, and they didn’t love each other so much that they could sustain such a test.

Song Yixiao just harmed Cui Jianlian and the others who were unrelated to Jian Xubai, yet his biological mother Grand Princess Jinguo was afraid that this daughter-in-law was so vicious and Jian Xubai would suffer great losses if she took the advantage of sleeping with him to harm him.

Moreover, the crown princess had poisoned the crown prince indeed.

Even though the crown princess was shrewd all the time, she couldn’t help but feel that her future was uncertain. Before the morning audience was over today, she thought that the difficult problem was how to defeat Prince of Wei and Prince of Zhao. After realizing that Gu Shao was suspicious, she thought that the problem was more difficult, and the mainstay of the crown prince’s followers might defect. Till now, she knew that even if she defeated Prince of Wei and Prince of Zhao, she might be utterly discredited.

Could she live in peace?

When all the crown princess’ ambitions were blasted, there was a knock on the door. Shiwan reported anxiously outside the door, “Your Highness, a maid reached the corner gate and said that she came to send an important oral message for Consort Cui.