Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

197. Scheme

Translator: Bryan

The East Palace was uproarious. Almost everyone was gathered. Yuxing Tianrui was sitting in the high seat, looking serious. Even those who were not familiar with Yuxing Tianrui knew that the crown prince was not in a good mood right now. Du Chuxuan sat down below, appearing so unworried as if it had nothing to do with him.

“Your Highness, we must get to the bottom of this. I’m not the only concubine in this palace. This time it appeared in my place, but someday another one might show up somewhere else! ” Zhao Ling’er said in a faintly tearful voice as she noticed that the atmosphere was suitable enough for her story. Face smug, she glanced at Du Chuxuan, as if showing off.

Yuxing Tianrui didn’t respond. Instead, he glanced at the handmaid beside Zhao Ling’er. “There are herbs in every yard. Were you too lazy to put the herbs in place?”

The handmaid immediately knelt down. “Your Highness, I’ve been Concubine Zhao’s handmaid since she married you. I’ll have nothing to gain and everything to lose if any misfortune befalls her. Besides, I’ve only just been put in charge of those things, and I haven’t even familiarized myself with them yet.”

Du Chuxuan nodded with satisfaction. He felt that the handmaid was fairly smart. By making a reply like that, she had not only cleared her and Concubine Zhao of suspicion but also thrown mud at him insinuatingly. It showed that although he had made concessions, Zhao Ling’er was still jealous of him and wanted to bring him down.

“My darling, do you have anything to say about this?” Yuxing Tianrui asked coldly. He was really angry, but Du Chuxuan was the only one knowing the reason.

Looking at his jealous significant other, Du Chuxuan was resigned. He really had nothing to do with the poisonous snake that had been put into Zhao Ling’er’s yard. He would never adopt a method like that which would get himself in deep trouble. He was afraid that Zizheng mistakenly believed that it was his doing. He must not make any mistakes when handling this matter.

“What you just said was true, sis. Everything was prepared by servants of East Palace. Still, what reason do I have to victimize you, sis?” Du Chuxuan waved his hand airily and rearranged his sleeves. “At that time, I didn’t know which house you would move into, after all.”

He was telling the truth. The two courtyards had been cleaned beforehand, but nobody had known which houses Zhao Ling’er and Fang Rui would choose. Du Chuxuan was not a seer. Even if he were, not every prophecy he made would come true. Zhao Ling’er involuntarily frowned at his words.

“Take it easy, sis. I’m not suspecting you.” She turned to look at the crowd present in the room. “I heard the former emperor once hired a very powerful wizard to cast some spells on this palace, which could keep ordinary animals from entering. Therefore, I’m sure someone deliberately put that snake there.

“If you want to catch a snake, you must put some powder on your clothes or body. As chance would have it, my family once got a kind of medicinal powder. No matter whether it is poisonous or not, if anybody touches it, there would be traces left behind, and this medicinal powder can make the traces visible.”

The moment she said that, many servant girls in the room became nervous. Though knowing that they were innocent, every one of them carried a pack of drug or two. If they got caught because of this, nobody would believe them that the drug was only common cold medicine.

Zhao Ling’er hadn’t finished speaking yet. “What’s more amazing about the powder is that the revealed traces will show different colors according to whether they’re poisonous or not. Green ones are usually vulneraries or common cold medicine, whereas red ones are toxic or harmful.”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief at her words. Knowing that no harm would come to them, they were very happy to enjoy a show. Many of them promptly started to sneak appraising glances at the two people in the room. Of all the people present, the crown princess and Concubine Fang who hadn’t slept with the crown prince yet were probably the only ones having what it took to victimize Concubine Zhao.

‘I knew it. She’d made adequate preparations before coming here,” Du Chuxuan thought as a thin smile touched his lips. Zhao Ling’er was clearly scheming against someone. Otherwise, even if the Zhao family did have that kind of magical powder, they wouldn’t let Zhao Ling’er carry it with her. He looked away from Fang Rui, wondering who Zhao Ling’er was targeting.

Fang Rui appeared frigid and indifferent all along, as if totally uninterested in what was happening. She noticed that Yuxing Tianrui’s eyes were on her, but she still seemed quite composed. “Since Concubine Zhao wants to get to the bottom of it, let’s get it over with. I have nothing to say about it. It would be best if this could prove my innocence.”

Naturally, she secured her good reputation by saying that. Du Chuxuan dissolved into smile. Neither of these two women were easy to deal with. He wondered if Zhao Ling’er would be able to get what she wanted after going to such great lengths.

Since she had put it this way, Yuxing Tianrui naturally couldn’t stop her. He waved his hand and Ada nodded. “Concubine Zhao, please take out the powder you just mentioned. Later, His Highness will summon some court physicians from the Imperial Hospital to have them bear witness.”

If it were in another palace that such a thing had happened, the owner of the palace would very likely have decided to hush it up or gloss it over by scapegoating a random servant. The crown prince had nothing to fear. By doing this, Yuxing Tianrui made it very clear that no matter what happened, he would protect Du Chuxuan.

Of course, except for those who had been serving Du Chuxuan and Yuxing Tianrui all along, nobody couldn’t understand it. They just felt that the crown prince really cared about Concubine Zhao very much, seeing this incident as how he was going to such trouble to stand up for her.

Dongxiang ran into Luo Qing on his way back. “His Highness actually sent for Imperial Doctor Luo?”

“What is Master doing? The one Ada sent there to inform me asked me to be cautious and play it by ear.” Luo Qing was a little anxious as well. The one who had gone to his house to deliver the message a moment ago had only gave him a general account of what Zhao Ling’er had said. He didn’t know any details.

If the drug was indeed as effective as Zhao Ling’er had said it was, it would mean that she had come up with a watertight plan.

“His Highness didn’t do anything this time. Why are you nervous?” Dongxiang involuntarily muttered, getting tense because of Luo Qing’s reaction.