Chapter 689 - The Truth
The little eunuch outside came over carefully and whispered a few words in the head steward's ear. Su Chi glanced at his teacher, and Su Ran stared at him and said, "What are you looking at me for, do I still have to teach you?"
"Your Imperial Majesty, Imperial Prince Xu is outside the palace doors, requesting to see you!" Su Chi stepped forward, closing the gap, and reported the news brought to him by the little eunuch to the emperor.
"Oh, he's coming to us to find his person!" What should've come had come, but Zhu Junfan's heart was relaxed. He wondered if that guy would flip the Kunning Palace after finding out that his wife had been poisoned in the palace. Hopefully, he would give them some face after seeing that Xiaocao was still alive and kicking, and not make too embarrassing of a scene!
"Allowed!" Zhu Junfan gave Xiaocao a look. If Imperial Prince Xu, that boy, got angry, only this lass would be able to put out his fire!"
Yu Xiaocao was puzzled, ‘Your Imperial Majesty, my man is coming. What do you mean by giving me looks?'
"This subject greets the emperor!" Zhu Junyang’s steps were rushed and hurried. He had been waiting outside the palace for a long time and didn't see his little wife leave the palace, so he felt something was wrong. After entering the palace, he used his abilities to find out from Kunning Palace's maidservants and eunuchs that his wife had been poisoned. He was so anxious, he almost ‘flew’ in.
Upon entering Kunning Palace, he looked for his wife. He saw her rosy cheeks and that she was sitting safe and sound in the warmed partition in the east side of the room. Only then did his anxious heart finally calm down.
"Husband...hubby...my lord!" Yu Xiaocao's address for her man changes three times in a row. The first address wasn't appropriate for the moment. The second address was too embarrassing, so she finally settled on the third address. When she read transmigration novels in the past, the female leads always addressed the male leads, who had high ranks or were princes, like that. She thought it was pretty interesting at the time.
As soon as the emperor's ‘you may rise’ came out, he saw Zhu Junyang taking long strides towards Xiaocao's side in two or three steps. The prince took her hand and looked at her romantically for a while before asking, "Is the poison gone?" This guy, how did he find out his wife was poisoned? Did he have eyes and ears in the palace?
Yu Xiaocao didn't answer the question and exclaimed in happy surprise, "Oh right! Your Imperial Majesty, I have an idea! My lord is the best at judging those tight-lipped tough guys. Let him help, maybe we'll have a breakthrough with the case!"
“Oh? You have so much faith in your man!” Zhu Junfan didn’t have much hope. Even Su Ran didn’t have any ideas. Could his cousin open someone’s head and pick at their brains?
Yu Xiaocao had a completely confident expression on her face as she proudly said, “Of course! He’s my husband, if I don’t believe in him, who would I believe in?”
Zhu Junyang saw that she still had the energy to argue with the emperor and the rest of his unease was resolved. Hearing what Xiaocao just said, he frowned and said, “What? You still haven’t found the poisoner? They’ve hidden pretty deep! Your Imperial Majesty, this subject is willing to assist with the investigation!”
“Your Imperial Majesty, the evening meal is ready!” Su Chi’s voice rang out once again.
Zhu Junfan waved at his cousin and cousin-in-law, “Junyang hasn’t eaten yet right? Eat some to fill your stomach first before talking about this case! Earlier your wife said people can’t function on an empty stomach. Skipping a meal will cause extreme hunger! The emperor doesn’t send out hungry soldiers, come! Eat with us!”
The dinner was arranged in the Flower Hall in the warmed area of the western side of the room. Zhu Junyang wasn’t an outsider so the emperor didn’t pay attention to the formalities. When dining, not just the empress was present, even the Imperial Prince Zhu Hanwen was called over. After all, he was regarded as the successor to the country, being cultivated for so many years, and he would’ve been an easy target for the traitors.
Nearly half the chefs and workers in the Imperial Kitchen were arrested. Everyone was panicking, so only the Head Chef of the Imperial Kitchen was calm enough to make a table full of presentable food for dinner.
The dinner couldn’t be counted as extravagant as there were only eight dishes and one soup. Compared to the luxurious palace banquets in TV shows, it was simple. There was Eight Treasures Soup, braised shark fin, braised deer tendon, imperial court lucky meatballs, steamed chicken, shredded chicken with vegetables, sliced sea cucumbers, fresh shrimp balls, and stir-fried water bamboo.
Su Chi stood at one side with a silver needle, testing each of the dishes one by one. The dishes were only brought before the masters when the needle didn’t change colors. Xiaocao was already waiting with her chopsticks.
However, Zhu Junyang held down his wife’s impatient hands and picked up a piece of deer tendon, took a bite, and chewed it carefully. After waiting a moment with no reaction, he put it into Xiaocao’s bowl.
Xiaocao ate the warm deer tendon, blinked, and said, “Those pastries from this morning had slow-acting poison! My constitution is special and my tongue is sensitive to drugs so I could quickly detect it. Before the poison took its course I was able to take an antidote.” This meant that their method would only work on fast-acting poisons and not on slow-acting poisons.
Zhu Junfan reacted to this by saying, “Beloved subject, was your pain this morning just an act to test me?”
“No! How could I dare try to fool the emperor? Alright ah, it wasn’t all pretending. It was only half true and half faked. Your Majesty, I was really poisoned!” Yu Xiaocao ate the shrimp ball her man had picked for her, blinking her big eyes, pretending to be innocent.
The empress followed up with, “Emperor, the imperial doctors have confirmed that the pastries did contain deadly poison. Official Yu wasn’t trying to deceive you!”
“Yes, Yes! It’s just that my body reacts more quickly to poison so we could see through the enemy’s insidious tricks in time——your majesty, how about this subject helps you try these dishes to see if they are safe?” Yu Xiaocao was dissatisfied with the speed that her man was using to pick up food and her stomach was gurgling in revolt. She thought of a reasonable excuse to eat the imperial food that had a variety of flavors and colors first.
The head chef, who was standing off to the side with his head down and trying to minimize his presence, was also trembling inside. Although he cooked these dishes by himself and none of them had been touched by anyone else, the pastry this morning had poison in it despite having no accidents in any part of the process. The new cook had nowhere to reason to!
Zhu Junyang disagreed, “This morning, the poison had already entered your body. If you were to get poisoned again, what if your body broke down?”
“I’ve already taken the antidote and will be immune to any poison for 24 hours!” Yu Xiaocao said with certainty, exaggerating a bit, “For the sake of the safety of the rulers of the country and the future crown prince, as an official, I should take the lead and lay down my life for them...”
“Shut up!” Zhu Junyang didn’t care what she said and confiscated her chopsticks, in case she decided to ‘lay down her life’ for them. Then he would be left all alone in this world, what would he do then? Thinking back now, he still was a little scared. If Xiaocao didn’t have a habit of carrying antidote pills around with her and if the poison was a little stronger, he would probably be looking at a cold corpse of the lass right now. At the thought of this, the dark demon in his mind started to move.
“Alright, alright! I’ll shut up, is that better? Don’t get so worked up, calm down, calm down!” Zhu Junyang’s emotional changes were clearly sensed by Xiaocao who was sitting beside him. She was afraid that if he lost his temper then he would flip the empress’s Kunning Palace so she quickly pacified him.
Zhu Junyang threw away the chopsticks in his hands and hugged her tightly in his arms. He felt the warmth of her body and smelled the fragrance coming from her hair. The panic he felt calmed down a little, “As long as you’re well, then I will be well!”
“Ok, ok, ok! Both of us will be well, living until we are a hundred with a group of children and grandchildren!” Yu Xiaocao’s small hands smoothly slipped from his waist to his back, gently patting him, and softly soothed him.
Zhu Hanwen had naturally never seen such an intimate action before and his face turned red with embarrassment. The empress, too, sheepishly looked away and pretended to tidy up the dishes.
Zhu Junfan coughed in a very obvious manner and said, “You guys should be careful not to show off your love all over ok? Eat, eat, the food is becoming cold!”
Next, Zhu Junyang continued doing things his way, picking some food, taking a bite, and leaving what was left for his wife to eat. At the end of the dinner, Xiaochao felt she was only half full. She drank a sip of tea and weakly asked, “Where’s the dessert?”
The head chef who led the eunuchs to clear the table thought, ‘Princess Consort Xu is pretty brave. She just had a scare this morning with the pastries, but now she still dares to ask for dessert.’
He bowed and said, “Your Highness, there are only two imperial pastry chefs in the imperial kitchen. One of them is on vacation, and the other is…” This meant she shouldn't be thinking about dessert.
"Then... cut a platter of fruit and bring it here! Strawberries, cherries, muskmelon.... these fruits, bring whichever ones you like!" Due to the greenhouses, these fruits were available on the estate in the suburbs of the capital and should be placed on the market.
The head chef glanced at the emperor. Upon seeing him nod his head, he said, "Yes, I will go wash some of them by hand right now."
Zhu Junfan then continued on the topic before dinner, "Junyang, see, Su Ran still hasn't come back. There is no progress in the investigation. Since your wife thinks highly of you, how about... you go over and take a look? "
Zhu Junyang had long wanted to find out the guy who wanted to harm his wife. He was naturally duty-bound. He wasn’t gone for long. Before Xiaocao could even finish eating her plate of fruit, they already had an answer.
It turned out that on the way from the imperial kitchen, the palace maid who was serving the meal had met a fellow villager, an ordinary eunuch who was not astonishing in appearance. She was stopped to say a few words. As they spoke, the food box was placed on the railing under the porch, and that was when something went wrong.
This little eunuch was someone who was moved by money. He accepted the money of a fellow eunuch who had regular contact with him. They wanted him to stop his fellow villager maidservant who was in charge of passing the food along and say he wanted to marry her. The maidservant got mad and scolded him before picking up the food box to take it back to Kunning Palace.
After extracting this information from the fellow villager eunuch, Zhu Junyang caught the eunuch who had paid the money. When they caught him, the eunuch saw that the matter was revealed, and he bit through the poisonous pill in his mouth and wanted to commit suicide. Zhu Junyang forced down an antidote pill into the eunuch and saved him.
Zhu Junyang used his mind-reading ability and assaulted the eunuch's mind. He found the person behind his actions, who was a spy who entered the palace at the same time as Su Ran. He was an old eunuch who had been guarding the cold palace for more than 20 years.