The Ninth Princess Reigns Supreme [Transmigration] - Chapter 25
Concubine Shi’s actions were not concealed from anyone, so within a short time, everyone in the palace knew about it and couldn’t help but discuss it. They said that Concubine Shi was truly arrogant, even using Princess Bao’an’s name to compete for favor.
And the empress was truly a living bodhisattva, not only not angry but also going to visit Princess Bao’an.
“The Emperor and Empress have arrived—”
Bao’an subconsciously patted Liu Li’s hand, wanting her to step back, but saw Liu Li shake her head and then smile slightly, indicating that she didn’t need to be nervous.
Emperor Jiacheng was still counting on using her as a bargaining chip to threaten Bao’an, so he wouldn’t really harm her.
“The Emperor is here.” Concubine Shi gave a graceful salute, her arrogance reduced by seventy to eighty percent. The momentum from just now was gone, and she was as docile as a cat in front of Emperor Jiacheng. “Greetings, Empress Sister.”
Emperor Jiacheng glanced at Bao’an, who didn’t dare to raise her head, and then focused his gaze on Concubine Shi: “You called me here in such a hurry, what happened? Is it related to… Imperial Sister’s safety?”
“Your Majesty is wise!”
Concubine Shi called Imperial Physician Wang over and had him repeat the diagnosis he had just made in detail, adding a few embellishments.
Empress Jiang seemed to be sitting upright, but her body suddenly stiffened when Imperial Physician Wang spoke, and then quickly returned to normal.
Liu Li thought disdainfully, she’s really good at pretending.
“Is that so?” Emperor Jiacheng frowned and gave a wink to the chief eunuch beside him.
Eunuch Yao had been serving the emperor for so many years and was as shrewd as a human being. He immediately understood his master’s meaning: “Where is the head servant of Penglai Palace?”
When the master they served made such a mistake, how could the servants not understand that they were in great trouble? They all knelt down, trembling, waiting for their punishment.
Empress Jiang spoke softly: “Could it be that Your Highness accidentally ate incompatible food? It seems that these servants are not attentive enough. Why not punish them all and replace them with new ones to take good care of Your Highness?”
She then looked at Emperor Jiacheng as if seeking his opinion.
In this era, human life was extremely cheap. Especially for those servants, their lives were in the hands of their masters’ few words.
Concubine Shi said “ai” and said: “Empress Sister, you are wrong. This concubine has asked clearly. Her Highness’s daily meals are very delicate and follow the imperial physician’s instructions. It is impossible to kill all these servants with one blow. In my opinion…”
She sincerely said to Emperor Jiacheng: “Could it be that someone deliberately harmed Her Highness?”
One empress and one concubine, their opinions differed. It was clearly Bao’an’s matter, but it became a way for them to argue.
Emperor Jiacheng pondered in silence, clearly having his own considerations. The empress whose mother’s family was powerful but had no children; the concubine whose mother’s family was ordinary but had many children and was the most favored…
How should he balance the two sides?
Liu Li thought that this dog emperor was really incompetent. He spoke arrogantly in front of the weak Bao’an, but when he faced Empress Jiang and Concubine Shi, he immediately cowered. How disgusting.
Moreover, he said he liked Bao’an, but now that he knew Bao’an was being harmed, he didn’t even have the idea of avenging Bao’an.
The dog emperor’s love was truly cheap.
Liu Li’s mission was to find out the truth about Bao’an’s harm, so she had to help Concubine Shi’s side at the right time to advance the plot.
So she decisively spoke.
“Xiao Cui, Xiao Die.”
The two servants she called hesitated to raise their heads.
“Reporting to Your Majesty, two highnesses.” Liu Li said, “These two are usually responsible for decocting medicine. Why not let Imperial Physician Wang ask them carefully to see where the problem is?”
Liu Li always felt that the mystery was in the medicine.
What was certain was that Bao’an had never eaten anything related to pinellia fruit; but after Liu Li’s constant testing, as long as Bao’an took the medicine, her health points would definitely drop, but the medicine did not contain pinellia fruit.
It was really strange.
Seeing that Liu Li was helping her speak, Concubine Shi quickly seized the opportunity: “The little princess is right. Could it be that there was a problem with the decocting process?”
Empress Jiang still smiled gently and politely, but she hated it to the core.
Seeing Bao’an and Liu Li loving each other as mother and daughter, and Concubine Shi’s triumphant expression next to her, and thinking that she hadn’t given birth in more than ten years, Empress Jiang couldn’t wait to tear these people to pieces.
Liu Li saw that her favorability was constantly dropping and thought that she had probably found the right direction. Empress Jiang was anxious!
“Granted.” Emperor Jiacheng said.
Imperial Physician Wang took the order and hurriedly stepped forward to ask the two servants carefully.
Xiao Die’s expression was calm, and she answered fluently; Xiao Cui’s expression was cold and sweaty, and her eyes were timid, not daring to look directly at Imperial Physician Wang.
“What’s going on?” Seeing this, Emperor Jiacheng narrowed his eyes.
Imperial Physician Wang also sniffed a few times and hesitated: “This subject has something to say, but I don’t know if I should say it…”
“Say it!”
“This servant’s hand seems to have the scent of pinellia.” Imperial Physician Wang was also a little unsure. He asked Xiao Cui to stretch out her hands so that he could get closer and smell them.
But Xiao Cui looked extremely guilty and refused to stretch out her hands.
Emperor Jiacheng said sternly: “Guards, take this servant down!”
At the emperor’s order, the imperial guards immediately swarmed in, surrounded the servant named Xiao Cui, and drew their swords.
Seeing the development of the situation in front of her, Liu Li felt a little strange. Ning Zisheng also told her about the abnormality of the servants in the hall that day. Similarly, Ning Zisheng also smelled the faint scent of pinellia.
The person who aroused Ning Zisheng’s suspicion was Xiao Die. But why was Xiao Cui, who was now highly suspicious?
She didn’t believe that Ning Zisheng had mistaken the suspect, but Xiao Cui did reveal the flaw in front of her.
Looking at Empress Jiang again, she didn’t have any nervousness on her face, not at all like she was being caught with a handle, Liu Li felt even stranger.
Xiao Cui still maintained the kneeling posture on the ground, hurriedly raised her head to scan around, and then her eyes locked on Empress Jiang, muttering: “Empress, please save me! Please!”
Empress Jiang and the other servant named Xiao Die were both shocked. They didn’t expect Xiao Cui to suddenly say this.
Empress Jiang reacted quickly and immediately scolded: “You lowly servants, don’t talk nonsense!”
Xiao Cui tried to crawl towards the empress, but was caught by the imperial guards with quick eyes and hands, and shouted desperately: “Empress, save me. I did everything according to your instructions! You can’t abandon me!”
“Nonsense!” Empress Jiang was publicly accused, her eyes wide with anger.
In the pushing and shoving, Xiao Cui’s body actually hit a guard’s blade, directly piercing through her chest.
Human life was very fragile, and the distance from life to death was closer than anyone imagined. In the blink of an eye, Xiao Cui fell to the ground, bl00d splattered everywhere, and she was silent.
Liu Li’s pupils shook.
She had never seen such a thing in modern times. Fortunately, the system was considerate at this time and took the initiative to put mosaics on all the bloody parts in front of Liu Li, taking care of this underage body and not letting her be too shocked.
Liu Li calmed down and hurriedly used her sleeve to block Bao’an’s sight, not letting this tragic scene frighten her.
“Your Majesty, please forgive me.” The guard who “killed” her felt very wronged. “This servant bumped into me…”
“Enough!” Emperor Jiacheng suppressed his anger and said coldly, “Deal with it quickly. Do you want the dead body to lie here forever?”
The guards quickly dragged Xiao Cui’s body down and cleaned up the bl00d stains. Soon, everything returned to normal.
Except for the lingering smell of bl00d in the air, which was disgusting.
“Empress.” Emperor Jiacheng said in a deep voice, “How do you explain?”
Throughout history, this method of “framing” was very straightforward but had been tried and tested.
The deterrent power of the dead body on the spot was unparalleled. Even if Xiao Cui didn’t say anything substantive—for example, what did the empress ask her to do? As long as she called out the empress’s name before she died, Empress Jiang couldn’t clear her suspicion.
“Your Majesty, please be aware,” Empress Jiang quickly knelt down, frankly saying, “This empress does not recognize the deceased servant and knows nothing about it.”
She glared fiercely at Concubine Shi with her peripheral vision. After a few days of not seeing her, she didn’t expect Concubine Shi to have become smarter, actually learning how to frame her!
Xiao Cui was not someone she had sent, yet she was willing to smear Empress Jiang even in death. It was obvious who had instructed her to do so.
Emperor Jiacheng gave a look, and the guards immediately took the order, taking Imperial Physician Wang to investigate the small kitchen of Penglai Palace. After a while, they returned to report.
“Reporting to Your Majesty, we found this.”
The guard held a plate of candied fruit, which was the snack Bao’an always ate before and after taking her medicine.
Imperial Physician Wang carefully examined it several times before saying, “This candied fruit is mixed with pinellia powder.”
Among the other kneeling palace servants, someone couldn’t help but speak, “Reporting to Your Majesty, this candied fruit has always been prepared by Xiao Cui…”
At this point, there was no need to say more.
Xiao Cui, under someone’s instructions, mixed pinellia powder into Princess Bao’an’s candied fruit, intending to use the incompatible medicinal properties to harm Princess Bao’an!
Liu Li, however, thought that this was completely wrong.
She and Ning Zisheng had carefully checked before, and there was nothing in the candied fruit, it was perfectly normal. How could pinellia be found now?
Could it be that Concubine Shi did this to frame the empress? But Concubine Shi’s people had never entered the small kitchen, so how could they have had time to do it? Moreover, deceiving the emperor was a serious crime, and this evidence would definitely be preserved. Imperial Physician Wang would never dare to lie.
Furthermore, the mission had not indicated completion, proving that everything presented as “truth” was wrong.
Emperor Jiacheng ultimately did not punish anyone in public, but clearly suppressed his anger and left with a flick of his sleeves.
With him gone, Concubine Shi and Empress Jiang had no reason to stay in Penglai Palace.
Concubine Shi naturally couldn’t help but mock the empress, and Empress Jiang, who had originally intended to leave directly, turned back with a sinister look and said slowly:
“Concubine Sister, you are truly high-spirited, as if you have forgotten what is the proper respect.”
Concubine Shi hated her using her position as empress to suppress her. Just as she was about to retort, she saw Empress Jiang leave without looking back.
Although the mission was not completed, the goal of causing trouble for Emperor Jiacheng was achieved. Jiao’er and others soon heard the gossip and quickly reported it to Liu Li.
It was said that Emperor Jiacheng and the empress had a huge argument. Empress Jiang was a lady from the Duke of Jiang’s mansion and had been well-educated since childhood. This was the first time she had cried and smashed many things, and even injured Emperor Jiacheng. It was unknown whether it was true or not.
Serves him right! Liu Li thought, hoping the dog emperor had trouble.