Chapter 1104 - Chapter 1104 Doubts in Two Lives Piled Up
Chapter 1104 Doubts in Two Lives Piled Up
“Is it a kind of medicine that can invigorate the circulation of Qi and blood?” It sounded like a question, but Shao Wanru was not asking. Instead, she was telling the truth.
Yujie wiped away her tears and nodded vigorously. “Yes, My Lady. It can promote Qi and blood circulation. If you eat it with the medicated food best for your health, you will bleed badly, and your wound will burst open. We can’t find out the truth, no matter how much we want to!”
“Get up, and let’s talk!” Shao Wanru ordered.
“My Lady…” Yujie still wanted to say something, but Shao Wanru shook her hand and said, “Get up before we go on our conversation.”
Qu Le pulled Yujie up. Both of them were angry and hateful, and their eyes were bloodshot. They thought they had protected their master well, but they didn’t expect someone to almost succeed in murdering their master by taking this chance. If their master hadn’t kept a cool head, she might have been dead now. In that case, they wouldn’t absolve themselves from the blame even if they died ten thousand deaths.
“There should be nothing wrong with these people in the kitchen. The main suspect should be the person who delivered the meal. Perhaps, someone else sent the meal today. Or, poison might be put into the meal on the way. My grandma sent a person. Someone must have encouraged my grandma’s maid to come over and tell me those words. Of course, the person did it to convince me of the matter… As for this bowl of soup, this superb medicated dish plays the most important role.”
Shao Wanru analyzed in a low voice.
Everything planned by this person was perfectly coherent, and the person even knew that the Empress Dowager would ask someone to send her a bowl of medicinal food. This showed that this person was very familiar with the Empress Dowager’s character.
Since Shan Wanru was injured, sending her a bowl of soup was necessary. Of course, the medicinal cuisine would be the best. Seeing her poor condition, the Empress Dowager would inevitably instruct the imperial kitchen to make her a bowl of medicinal cuisine, which must have contained the smell of traditional Chinese medicine. Although there was also a faint smell of medicine brought by the medicine sprinkled into the rice, it was not apparent among the flavors from those dishes and herbs.
Moreover, the person who intended to poison her didn’t know the dishes Shao Wanru would like to eat. However, judging by her poor health, Shao Wanru must not have eaten much. If she didn’t eat the medicine put into her meal, the person’s sinister plot against her would fail. Therefore, the person sprinkled the poison on the rice.
Even if she had little appetite, the two servant girls would persuade her to eat more. After all, she was recuperating now, so she should eat more.
“My Lady, who on earth wants to take your life?” Yujie asked, grinding her teeth with rage.
“This person should know that I have medical skills. Otherwise, there was no need to cover the smell of the drug with the strong fragrance of the soup. Then, only ordinary soup would be served,” Shao Wanru said slowly and slightly narrowed her liquid eyes. “This person wanted to kill me. Besides, this person knew what happened in the Palace today. Or even if the person didn’t know it, he or she must have learned what had happened from others!”
There weren’t many people who could meet these conditions.
“My Lady, could it be Secondary Consort Shao?” Qu Le was struck by a thought and asked.
When Princess Chen married into the Prince Chen’s Mansion, she greatly offended Madam Jiang and Secondary Consort Shao. The two of them had devoted themselves wholly to hurting Princess Chen, but they eventually met their tragic fates, which they brought upon themselves.
There was hardly anyone who wanted to murder Princess Chen except for the two of them. Moreover, Princess Chen had treated Old Madam when she stayed in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion, so everyone there knew that Princess Chen had some medical skills.
In addition, Secondary Consort Shao was living in the Palace. It seemed that she matched all the conditions.
“My Lady, it’s unlikely to be Secondary Consort Shao. She can’t even protect herself in the Palace, so how could she get the energy to plot against you?” Yujie shook her head and said, thinking it was impossible.
Although Secondary Consort Shao knew her master well and had the motive to harm her, she wasn’t capable of scheming against Princess Chen in the Palace.
Secondary Consort Shao couldn’t order the Empress Dowager’s servants, not to mention that the person should be familiar with the Empress Dowager’s character. How could Secondary Consort Shao say anything when she couldn’t even go anywhere near the Empress Dowager?
“Even if it’s not her, it has something to do with her. She couldn’t approach the Empress Dowager, but she could ask someone else to do it. In other words, she can’t deal with me in person but can secretly ask others to do things for her. She has helpers in the Palace.” Shao Wanru said slowly, with a trace of coldness flashing across her eyes.
It sounded unreasonable, but after carefully reflecting on the whole thing, she thought it made sense.
“Who, who would help Secondary Consort Shao?” Yujie asked in confusion, “With her terrible state, how could there be anyone who thinks highly of her? Perhaps, Prince Yue or Prince Zhou?”
After she finished speaking, Yujie was also shocked.
“It’s possible. I think Prince Yue and Prince Zhou must have been supporting her. Secondary Consort Shao wants to deal with you because of the old grudges. And Prince Yue or Prince Zhou may have done it to deliver a terrible blow to Prince Chen. You’re injured but survived the disaster. This time, they are determined to watch you die.”
Qu Le repeatedly nodded, feeling that Yujie’s words made sense.
After their assassination failed, they devised another plot, which would inevitably take away Princess Chen’s life. If Prince Yue or Prince Zhou had been involved, some things could have been done. It was not a big deal for them to change or order a person in the imperial kitchen. Coupled with Secondary Consort Shao’s knowledge and hatred for Princess Chen, they could act in time according to the circumstances.
“Not them! There is a more suspicious person!” Shao Wanru shook her head and said. She had always suspected that person, but she did not want to stir up trouble since that person had been very mysterious. Now it seemed that that person had already taken the initiative to hurt her, even if she had been trying to avoid the dispute.
“The dishes without medicine are safe, and we can also drink the soup. I’ll have some, and so should you. As for the rice, you can eat some. It’s okay for you because you are not wounded,” said Shao Wanru.
If she didn’t eat anything, she wouldn’t have the energy to think. Only after getting something to eat could she gain some strength to think about tricky things.
Because she was sick and weak, her reactions were much slower than usual. Those people must have figured out that she must eat something to recharge her strength and energy. Initially, she had to eat this bowl of rice. But now, she could no longer eat it. Fortunately, she could still eat other dishes.
Yujie and Qu Le hurriedly helped Shao Wanru up. After she sat down with her back against the couch, Yujie brought over two suspicious dishes so that Shao Wanru could smell them. Shao Wanru shook her head, indicating that they were okay. The scent of the soup must have wafted over them, so she seemed to have smelled medicine on them.
The servant placed some dishes and the soup on the same layer. After a long time, the other dishes also picked up the strong smell of medicine, which seemed to be drugged.
Yujie and Qu Le brought the soup and ate something together with their master. Then they stopped eating.
After Shao Wanru was full, she felt refreshed and slightly knitted her willowy eyebrows. “Am I the sole target? They spent so much effort and even mobilized their power in the imperial Palace only to deal with me, a useless princess to them?
“I’ve been seriously injured. Even if I died here, it would not be too surprising.
“Today Is the Empress Dowager’s birthday. I’ve deliberately announced that I would come to present the birthday gift in person. They could plot against and murder me, but is that all?”
Shao Wanru reached out to rub the space between her eyebrows. In her previous life, she didn’t hear about this kind of thing. Of course, she wouldn’t inquire about it at that time and only occasionally heard something from the servants in the Palace. She would enter the Palace later on when the Pageant was held. It had been three years since this moment. What had happened in the Palace had passed.
This sort of thing was not something that these servants in the Palace could casually talk about.
In this case, did only the incident about the maple leaf painting happen on the Empress Dowager’s birthday? Was there anything else? Prince Zhou rose in revolt. He was forced to do that, wasn’t he?
What made Prince Zhou and the Empress feel that rising in rebellion was their only way out? Did they think it was their best choice?
In this life, the incident about the maple leaf painting also happened. It was brought under control, and not many people knew about it, but still, it happened. Also, the Empress was involved. But even after this incident and the assassination targeted at her that might have been planned by Prince Zhou, the Empress was still the Empress, and Prince Zhou was still the legitimate son of the Palace.
Anyway, Prince Zhou and the Empress had not been pushed to a dead end, so they did not need to rebel.
But what if something happened at this time that made the Empress and Prince Zhou the only ones to blame? For example, her death?
Shao Wanru suddenly felt a chill in her mind, and an ice-cold, brutal look slipped across her watery eyes. “Did someone plan to use my life to force Prince Zhou to rebel? So, in the last life, what events had been added to the Empress and Prince Zhou so that they had to rise in rebellion?”
Some traces of her two lives were similar, while some were different. Due to the loss of her memory, Shao Wanru couldn’t remember the specific situation.
If she guessed it right, the Empress should have advised her grandma to send someone to remind her.
Shao Wanru suddenly asked, “Yujie, Qu Le, if you see the person who delivered lunch again, can you recognize him?
Yujie and Qu Le looked at each other and nodded with certainty. “My Lady, we were afraid that something would happen just now, so we deliberately took a few more glances and remembered his appearance!”
This person was probably a eunuch in the Empress’s place.
She would die for nothing if she couldn’t find out the truth. Once the case was entirely cleared, it would involve the Empress. With the assassination in the Prince Chen’s Mansion and the poisoning incident happening in the Imperial Palace, the Empress would inevitably find it difficult to convince the public that she was innocent. Thus, Shao Wanru thought that as soon as the cause of her death was uncovered, the Empress would lose her high position.
Risking her life to make the Empress fall out of power.
She was dead, and the Empress and Prince Zhou were also implicated. In the end, Prince Yue was the one who benefited, right? And Shao Yanru?
Shao Wanru still felt that she hadn’t yet figured out the overall situation.
So, when things had come to this, it didn’t matter whether she was alive or dead, did it?
“Is Her Highness awake?” A shrill voice suddenly came from outside the tent. The unique, high-pitched voice undoubtedly belonged to a eunuch in the Imperial Palace.
Shao Wanru motioned to Yujie, and Yujie hurriedly got out of the tent. Looking at the eunuch standing before her, Yujie asked unhappily, “What’s the matter?”
“Great Elder Princess is worried about Princess Chen, so she sent me here to ask if she has woken up?” The eunuch bent down slightly and said with a smile.
“Are you sent by Rui’an Great Elder Princess?” Yujie looked the eunuch up and down and asked. After what had happened just now, her heart was still fluttering with fear, so she asked him in detail at this time.
Rui’an Great Elder Princess was not the only Great Elder Princess who had entered the Palace today. Therefore, she had to make it clear in case she should get confused and leave loopholes to others.
“Yes, Rui’an Great Elder Princess sent me here.” The eunuch nodded vigorously with a smile. He seemed to be good-tempered. Of course, with Princess Chen’s noble status, no eunuch in the Palace dared to act rudely.
“Go back and report to Rui’an Great Elder Princess that my master has woken up. There is nothing serious. She can rest assured!” Yujie said.
“Well, I’m going to report it to Her Grace now. You can serve Princess Chen for lunch!” The eunuch replied with a bright smile, as if he was sincerely worried about Shao Wanru. Then he turned around and left without saying anything else.
Everything seemed to be normal. The information he got was that Princess Chen had woken up and was about to have lunch…