Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

199. Counterplot

Translator: Bryan

As the crown princess, he naturally had prepared some handmaids for the two concubines when the latter two entered the palace. After all, they were the crown prince’s concubines, and they needed some pomp when going out, otherwise they would be deemed a disgrace to Yuxing Tianrui. However, those sent there by Du Chuxuan had, to a greater or lesser degree, been sidelined by the two concubines.

In comparison, Fang Rui had done that in a relatively covert manner, but Zhao Ling’er hadn’t bothered to make any efforts to conceal her intention to have those handmaids ostracized. Therefore, almost all the handmaids who had come to this hall were among those that Zhao Ling’er had brought to the palace from her home. “What are you doing, sis? I brought them here from my home. Surely you don’t think any of them might do me harm?”

Du Chuxuan shook his head and pointed at Dongxiang, “Go and apply some of that powder to their hands one by one and see if any of them is the culprit.”

Zhao Ling’er breathed a sigh of relief at Du Chuxuan’s words. All these people were in her charge, and she was not stupid enough to let any of them give the game away. She straightened herself, waiting to see Du Chuxuan make a fool of himself.

Everyone else was confused. After all, Imperial Doctor Luo had just said that the powder was virulent. Was the crown princess trying to openly disgrace Concubine Zhao? But Concubine Zhao didn’t seem to be worried at all, which was so confusing.

All the handmaids were very cooperative. They looked like the mistress of the family was running roughshod over them. None of them had any concerns about the powder.

“You,” Du Chuxuan said, pointing to a young servant girl standing on the side. “Tell me, what do you think you people will end up?” The servant girl was younger than most of the others and probably had been brought here to make the group larger. Having suddenly been singled out by Du Chuxuan, she was taken aback, but she quickly calmed down.

The girl glanced at everyone else’s hands and let out a sigh of relief. “Your Highness, none of us have any poisonous powder on us.”

“Is that so?” A smile touched Du Chuxuan’s lips as he heard her reply. “The efficacy of this powder does sound amazing. Let’s leave aside the problem of whether it is poisonous. It is understandable that the Zhao Family didn’t report to the court on such a precious drug, intending to keep it as a family heirloom; but how come you, a mere servant girl, know so much about it?”

After hearing Du Chuxuan’s blunt words, the servant girl’s face instantly turned white. The rest of the handmaidens in the hall instantly caught on.

Given how precious this drug was, even a dignitary would keep it secret after getting it, and there was no way they would disclose so much to a servant girl. Concubine Zhao was obviously trying to use this powder to frame her handmaids, and she might have used her handmaids to harm her rivals.

Those standing in the middle of the room were Concubine Zhao’s handmaids, and the other handmaids were either Concubine Fang’s or among those who had been serving in East Palace all along. The crown princess had been here for a long time, but she didn’t have a single handmaid. Dongxiang, whom she had brought back from the battlefield, was the only one serving her.

However, except for those brought here by Concubine Fang, any of the handmaids in this hall could pin the blame on the crown princess. They didn’t serve the crown princess, so they naturally wouldn’t protect her, which meant that the crown princess would have no way to clear her name. This was such a shrewd move. She could kill two birds with one stone.

Zhao Ling’er’s face changed several times in a row. She turned her head to look at Yuxing Tianrui. “Your Highness, this morning I got scared by the snake, and then I tried the powder on my own handmaids before bringing them here. It was after confirming none of them was the culprit that I told them about the powder.

“Apart from anything else, I have nobody to protect me in this palace, and there’s no telling if any of these servant girls would be bought and try to do me harm. I have no other intentions.”

She was pretty quick-witted. Du Chuxuan nodded. She had immediately made up a lie to cover up the previous one. This lie was incomplete, but lies with flaws tended to sound more convincing.

“Don’t worry, Concubine Zhao. I just have some questions about it,” Du Chuxuan interrupted Zhao Ling’er with a smile. “But please tell us why these handmaids are not poisoned, so I can look into this matter for you.”

He didn’t care why Zhao Ling’er was doing this. It was Zhao Ling’er who had made a rod for her own back. Originally, he had wanted to put Zhao Ling’er in charge to spite Fang Rui. Now that idea struck him as ridiculous.

Luo Qing stifled a snicker. He knew that his master was no pushover. Having witnessed two incidents, he now came to realize that although Du Chuxuan used to be a playboy, he was capable of handling any evildoers when the crown prince was concerned.

“Your Highness is right.” Yuxing Tianrui, who had been silent for a long time, failed to restrain himself and spoke to back Du Chuxuan up. Naturally, he wouldn’t say that he was helping Du Chuxuan because he was angry about Zhao Ling’er attempting to harm his significant other.

Zhao Ling’er sneaked a resentful glance at Du Chuxuan. She thought, “It’s all his fault.” Her plan would have succeeded some time ago were it not for him! However, eventually she managed to suppress her anger. It was because her helper had failed to cover all the bases. Wasn’t there a backup plan? She doubted that Du Chuxuan would be able to escape again.

“I’m not trying to hide anything,” Zhao Ling’er sighed deeply. “Like Imperial Doctor Luo said, this powder is indeed poisonous, but it won’t do you any harm unless you have poison on you. Even if it has some kind of influence on you, you can counteract it by putting a mint leaf in your mouth.”

Luo Qing pondered for a while and nodded. “Well, that is indeed feasible. Just now I said the powder would give people a rash, but it’s because of the conflict between the efficacy of medications. If you don’t have any other medications on you, that won’t happen.

“And if you have a mint leaf in your mouth, its pungent taste would make your eyes water, and you would subconsciously cover your mouth and nose, preventing the poisonous powder from getting into your body.”

With that, he considerately fished a string of mint leaves out of his medical kit. “I have a lot of them in my kit. You may give it a try if you want, Your Highness.”

Zhao Ling’er nodded satisfactorily when she saw Luo Qing take out the mint leaves. Yesterday, she had had someone administer some powder to Du Chuxuan’s chopsticks. It wasn’t easy to wash the powder off with water, and now it seemed that the complexity of the plan was worthwhile.