NFBE Chapter 141 Please, Prime Minister's wife, produce the evidence!
Chapter 141 Please, Prime Minister's wife, produce the evidence!
Yu Chisheng stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the unconscious guest at the banquet with a deep and unfathomable gaze.
The first to be awakened by the imperial physician were Yuchi Ling, Zhu Huaning, Zhu Zhishun, and Lady Nangong.
Upon seeing the emperor, the four people visibly froze for a moment, then stepped forward to pay their respects.
"Let's all get flat!"
"Your Majesty," Lady Nangong kowtowed, weeping, without rising, "Today is my birthday banquet, but I was poisoned by someone with malicious intent. It is not my fault that I was harmed, but the Crown Prince and the ladies of the court have also suffered because of me. I beg Your Majesty to investigate thoroughly and give the Crown Prince and the ladies of the court an explanation!"
"Then tell me, who has such ability to drug all the guests in such a setting?" Yu Chisheng asked with a stern face.
Lady Nangong lowered her head and replied, "This humble woman dares not make a judgment, but we can ask the imperial physicians to examine everything that entered our mouths today; perhaps they can find some clues."
Yu Chisheng said, "The imperial physician has already investigated. Someone has put a sleeping potion in the wine, and it's from Huaxiang Pavilion."
Upon hearing this, Madam Nangong immediately looked at Gu Simo and questioned her with great heartache, "Dr. Hua, we respect you so much, and none of the people present here today have any grudge against you. Why would you poison us?"
Gu Simo looked at her and calmly asked, "Just because I am a disciple of Huaxiang Pavilion, you assume that I was the one who administered the sleeping potion? Madam also said that I have no grudge against anyone present, so why would I do such a thing?"
Nangong blurted out, "Then I'll have to ask you, who exactly is instructing you?"
No sooner had she finished speaking than the commander of the imperial guards rushed in to report, presenting a white bottle. "Your Majesty, this was found in Lady Zhu's room!"
Upon seeing this, Nangong's eyes widened, and her face instantly turned pale.
Yu Chisheng gave Lu Changqing a wink.
Lu Changqing stepped forward and took the bottle from Wu Yue's hand. He carefully uncorked the bottle and examined it, then reported to Yuchi Sheng, "Your Majesty, that's right, this is the sleeping potion that only Huaxiang Pavilion has."
"No!" Madam Nangong suddenly became agitated, pointing at Gu Simo and angrily saying, "How vicious you are! I kindly invited you to my birthday banquet, and you not only drugged my guests, but also hid the drug in my room to frame me! What did I do to offend you that made you do such audacious thing!"
Ye Shishu also said to Gu Simo, "Dr. Hua, if what the Prime Minister's wife said is true, then you are really too busy. You have to go to the kitchen to put the medicine, and you also have to hide the medicine in the Prime Minister's wife's room. Most importantly, you can disappear under our noses while avoiding all the servants in the Prime Minister's mansion. May I ask if you have cultivated some kind of clone technique? If you really have such a skill, I suggest you don't study medicine. Just lead troops into battle and create millions of clones. You can defeat the enemy and make them flee in disarray all by yourself!"
Gu Simo couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh. "Your Highness is absolutely right. I shouldn't be practicing medicine, especially as a traveling doctor. Not only do I have no fixed abode, but I also can't earn many copper coins. It's just a pity that besides knowing a little about medicine, I really have no other expertise. I'm afraid that making a name for myself can only be a dream."
Nangong gritted her teeth, her face full of arrogance, "Just because Doctor Hua couldn't do it alone doesn't mean she didn't have accomplices!"
Ye Shishu turned to look at her and smiled slightly, "Madam Prime Minister, you wouldn't be saying that Doctor Hua's accomplice is me and the Prince, would you? The Prince and I simply didn't drink. If that's enough to convict us, then this world is a place where wicked people run rampant. Madam Prime Minister, don't you think so?"
"you……"
"You suspect my husband and me, and Doctor Hua, right? Then please, Madam Prime Minister, produce the evidence!" Ye Shishu's smile vanished, replaced by a sharp edge. "The sleeping potion was found in your room. You're trying to frame us? No way! Don't tell me someone in your household saw it. If anyone witnessed it, why didn't you expose it beforehand? If you had, no one would have drunk the drugged wine, would they?"
Nangong's face turned pale and then flushed.
Because she was just about to say that someone in the mansion had seen Hua Xin enter her room...
However, as Ye Shishu said, if someone saw it, why not report it in time? If it had been reported beforehand, wouldn't the guests have been prevented from being drugged?
Not to mention her, even Zhu Zhishun, Zhu Huaning, and Yu Chirui, who were standing to the side, all looked at Ye Shishu with surprise.
No one expected that this daughter of the Ye family would be so eloquent!
Ye Shishu seemed embarrassed by being stared at, so she stepped back to Yu Chisheng's side, grabbed his wrist, and said, "Your Highness, judging from the Prime Minister's wife's expression, she's convinced we're the murderers. What are we going to do? That traitor Hua Ping from Huaxiang Pavilion has been hiding in the capital, and we can't catch him. Are we just going to let others frame us like this?"
Yu Chisheng's face darkened, and he shot her a stern gaze. "What do you mean by what the Princess Consort said?"
Ye Shishu replied, “Father, it’s like this. There’s a disciple of Huaxiang Pavilion named Hua Ping who was expelled from Huaxiang Pavilion ten years ago, but he has been hiding in the capital doing things for others in recent years. But he is very cunning, and we have been trying to catch him for a long time but have not been able to catch him. Now he is hiding in the shadows, trying to find ways to deal with us.”
Yu Chi Sheng's gaze sharpened as he turned to Yu Chi Ling, "Prince Cheng, is what the Princess Consort said true?"
Yu Chi Ling nodded. "It's true. The sleeping potion found in the Prime Minister's wife's room was most likely made by him. As for how this bottle of sleeping potion ended up in the Prime Minister's wife's room, I have no idea."
Upon hearing this, Lady Nangong immediately exclaimed, "Your Majesty, please be wise! I absolutely did not collude with that Hua Ping, and I have no idea why the sleeping potion was in my room!"
Yu Chisheng's gaze sharpened as he looked at her. "Who said you colluded with others? Haven't you been accusing Hua Xin of conspiring with Mr. and Mrs. Cheng to drug the guests?"
Nangong was embarrassed and dared not speak again after being glared at fiercely by Zhu Zhishun.
Zhu Zhishun said, “Your Majesty, Physician Hua has no grudge against us, and I believe she would not do such a thing. My wife was just frightened, so she spoke without thinking. Please forgive her, Physician Hua, and also please forgive her, Prince Cheng and Princess Consort.”
He bowed to Gu Simo, Yu Chiling, and Ye Shishu respectively to express his apologies.
Yu Chisheng glanced at them coldly, and finally said to Zhu Zhishun, "If Prince Cheng and Princess Cheng really tampered with this banquet today, they wouldn't have needed to summon me! Besides, why would they go to such lengths to drug everyone? They'd be asking for trouble. Why not just give you a packet of arsenic and save ourselves the trouble of arguing with you? On the other hand, your wife, just because Hua Xin is a disciple of Hua Xiang Pavilion, you're accusing them of being murderers without even verifying the facts. You're so thoughtless. If someone really deliberately framed Prince Cheng and Princess Cheng and dragged Hua Xiang Pavilion into it, can your family bear the consequences?"
Zhu Zhishun quickly knelt down and kowtowed, "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. It was my fault for not disciplining you properly. I am willing to accept punishment!"
Yu Chi Rui and Zhu Huaning remained silent, but their faces were both gloomy and unpleasant.
"Hmph!" Yu Chi Sheng ignored him and turned to Yu Chi Ling, ordering, "Prince Cheng, since you know who is behind this evil deed, then you shall arrest them and bring them to justice!"