“Mother, I don’t agree with you.”
The Crown Prince didn’t agree on the Empress’s opinion. In his view, he could have done perfectly in Prince Yu’s Mansion.
Unexpectedly, the Empress refused his request to Princess Yu’s Liuxin Courtyard.
If he had been there, he could have led Princess Yu to plead guilty, no matter how many excuses Princess Yu could make.
‘Idiot!’ The Empress silently shouted. Her fierce phoenix eyes let out a cold light.
He was the Crown Prince, who was destined to govern Dajin, as well as the rest of the world.
However, such a worthless thing he was! How could he get involved in women’s things?
How could he rule over the whole empire in such a way!?
“Oh? Tell me. What have you planned to lead Princess Yu into confessing on her own?”
The Crown Prince had been trying out his own power, after becoming an adult.
A little feeling of helplessness rose in the Empress’ heart.
She struggled to govern Dajin well for the purpose of cultivating her own son to be an emperor worth the name.
However, the Crown Prince let her down.
He was obstinate, self-opinionated, shortsighted even. The Empress felt really disappointed in him.
“Since our country was founded, witchcraft has been banned by explicit order. Besides, murdering a royal member is another crime. Two crimes would be serious enough to deprive Long Tianhao of his title of nobility, even with the plea of Concubine De. In that case, the abandoned prince would do nothing with my arrangement for him. Mother, you also agree that, Long Tianhao would be my main enemy.”
When presenting his plan, the Crown Prince looked very proud.
The Empress hadn’t given him any praise in the past.
That was why he had been trying his best to show something successful to the Empress.
“I just ask you one question. How could Long Tianhao know of your birth details?”
Staring at the Crown Prince, the Empress proposed her question.
The Crown Prince, who might have had his own answer, immediately replied,
“Long Tianhao was the prince, close to me. Therefore, he could secretly steal my birth information. As the imperial concubine, Concubine De must have known when I was born. It would be easy for her.”
However, a sneer had already appeared on the Empress’ face.
“Your birth details were still unknown to everyone until you grew up. You were been a stranger to Long Tianhao until then. Everyone knows that. You were born in the temporary imperial residence at Luyang. Only your father stayed with me at that time. There were no other concubines. Long Tianhao was the prince, as well as your father’s son. You could frame him for some small mistakes. But he could be convicted on a charge only after many investigations. So do you think your stupid plan is able to deceive everyone successfully?”
The Empress was irritated. Such an idiot really made a stupid plan to kill his enemy at the expense of his own life.
The Empress wanted to kill Long Tianhao. However, it was still not the right time.
“Hem! Even so, I would not let him get free easily. I would find someone to give false testimony. Then, his death would be a sure thing.”
The Crown Prince didn’t realize his mistakes yet. His plan had cost him so much, but was not completed.
“False testimony? How could you have that idea! Long Tianhao has great military honors. But he has been keeping a low profile so that others don’t notice his honors. The Jiang family, who was the minister to three emperors and had countless students, was Long Tianhao’s mother’s home. The Lin family also had a large amount of outstanding people. Military officers all had some relationship with the Lin family. How dare you wipe them all out! Do you want the world to turn upside down?”
The Empress totally flared up. She heavily threw the tea cup on the table down to the floor, which shattered into pieces.
Watching the pieces on the floor, the Crown Prince finally became quiet.
He yielded and stopped talking, waiting for the Empress’ reprimands.
“I told you to draw a wedge between them and develop your own power. However, what have you done? You have been getting involved in women’s fights. Ming Yue is the princess of a western vassal state. How did you know she would not make a profit for her state by disrupting our country?”
When she saw Ming Yue for the first time, the Empress had already known that, the woman was not as gentle and kind as she looked.
Eventually, when she came back from Mount Lingju, Ming Yue sent someone to ask for help.
She also presented the Empress lots of treasures to gain credibility.
She silently connived at the Crown Prince’s cooperation with Ming Yue, not because she had been successfully lied to by Ming Yue, but because she wanted to know the real intention of the one behind Ming Yue.
It turned out that King Ming asked Ming Yue to marry Long Tianhao, and then Ming Yue became entangled with the Crown Prince.
If she hadn’t directly refused King Ming’s request, the scandal about the Crown Prince and Prince Yu would have already been well-known to all.
Such a strategy of sowing discord! How stupid the Crown Prince was to believe what Ming Yue told him.
Ming Yue wouldn’t be their partner, even to counter Long Tianhao.
“Kneel down to reflect on yourself. Guard, keep your eyes on the Crown Prince. He is not allowed to stand up until five hours pass by.”
The Empress looked at the Crown Prince, as if he were not her son anymore.
That look full of disappointment made the Crown Prince’s flesh creep with fear.
The Crown Prince drew back the explanations that were on his lips.
Some fears drifted across his heart. ‘Is my mother even going to give me up?’
‘No. She won’t. She has only one son. She has no choice but me.’
In the empty hall, only the Crown Prince knelt down on the cold ground.
It had been five days since the banquet was held.
Nothing went wrong, as Lin Mengya expected.
Xing’er died. Wang Hanlin was sent back to his mansion by Long Tianhao. Only the corpse of Madam Wang was detained in Prince Yu’s Mansion for involvement with the latter.
Apparently, it was only a statement to the public.
As a matter of fact, Madam Wang, who had been wandering outside hell for a few days, finally came to life thanks to Lin Mengya’s and Baili Rui’s treatments.
But she was still unconscious and in poor health at the moment.
In recent days, Lin Mengya would stroll alone in the dungeon of Prince Yu’s Mansion after lunch.
Guards almost got familiar with the hostess of Prince Yu’s Mansion.
Therefore, she went there without any hindrance.
Long Tianhao was very curious. Baili Rui had a weird temper.
Even Baili Wuchen had to leave shortly after putting the food outside the door.
Only Lin Mengya went visit Baili Rui’s cell every time.
Guards said that, Baili Rui and Lin Mengya would sometimes make some noise.
However, Baili Rui wouldn’t get angry at Lin Mengya. Instead, he and Lin Mengya had made a friendship between generations.
“Teacher, here is the jade box you wanted. It is the best jade. Have a try.”
Upon arriving at the stone room where Baili Rui lived, Lin Mengya took out a jade box about a fist in size.
The stone room was in a slight mess. But it felt lively at the moment.
Baili Rui had a serious exhaustion, yet seemed to be in fine fettle.
He took the jade box in Lin Mengya’s hand, and examined it. Then, he nodded and put it aside.
“Does Madam Wang look better than before?”
Baili Rui got along with Lin Mengya as a teacher or a friend.
Baili Rui had considered accepting Lin Mengya as his apprentice to inherit his medical skills.
However, Lin Mengya just agreed to treat him as her teacher. Even though he had tried every means, she still refused to be his apprentice.
He could do nothing but be her teacher.
“Her heartbeat is still slow, but stable now. So is her breath. Teacher, did you feed her new medicine?”
Lin Mengya stood by the bed, and looked over Madam Wang.
Lin Mengya had no choice but to move Madam Wang into her teacher’s room.
The guest room had many people after all. Bacteria were uncontrolled, and the possibility to be infected would increase greatly.
On the other hand, Teacher’s room was shady, cool and clean.
Besides, there were lots of medicinal materials.
Lin Mengya found by an experiment that, some common fungi grew slowly in the stone room for no reason.
So it was the best place to treat Madam Wang.
“Right. I fed her a kind of medicine with less poison. I found that, it had a very strong notorious function if mixed with other medicines.”
Lin Mengya couldn’t help rolling her eyes, as she saw Baili Rui’s eyes shining.
Her teacher had less shortcomings except for his stubborn enthusiasm for poison.
It reminded her of that day. In order to encourage her teacher to save Madam Wang, she told him that he was able to poison others to death only, but not to poison them to live.
Her teacher’s eyes shined immediately. She thought that it might have been a wrong decision to take Madam Wang to her teacher’s room.
“Teacher, I think we should be cautious to use the medicine. Madam Wang is too weak after all. What if she dies because of your poison?”
Looking at his student’s suspicious eyes, Baili Rui instantly got angry and fierce.
“Little girl, are you questioning my poisoning skills?”
Lin Mengya shook her head, but some discredit appeared in her eyes.
“Hey, you little girl! Don’t look at me like that. I’ve promised you to save her life through poison. I will fulfil my promise.”
When looking at her teacher red with anger, Lin Mengya smiled apologetically.
“I believe you, teacher. Your poisoning skills are the best under the sun. But, teacher, can you be cautious when poisoning? Once she really dies, others will say that Baili Rui doesn’t deserve his Saint of Poison name, and wonder how he couldn’t save a patient’s life through poisons. How unjustly would I feel for your sake.”
Such an excellent strategy. Baili Rui had fire in his eyes when hearing her words.
“Bullshit! My poison skills are the best. Little girl, stop distracting me. Don’t come into my room too often, otherwise you will delay my treatment. Then, I will feed you a poison ball then!”
Lin Mengya silently laughed. It seemed that teacher would try his best to treat Madam Wang.
Well then, it was her turn.
