After the senior martial sister found a water source and removed her makeup, the coquettish woman immediately found her much more pleasing to the eye. The two exchanged a smile and rode their horses away like the wind.
Fellow sufferers in the vast world, from now on, the rivers and lakes will be far away. Why not drink and sing, and laugh at the vicissitudes of life?
...
The Imperial Palace of the Great Yong.
A month passed in a flash. When Ji Feiyu was looking at a personnel appointment and removal document of the palace officials, she suddenly noticed a problem. That was, after the imperial physician who diagnosed Concubine Zhen at that time was killed, several imperial physicians who diagnosed Concubine Xin all retired from office one month later. Was this just a coincidence or on purpose?
It should be noted that Concubine Xin had a miscarriage before Concubine Zhen, but the imperial physicians left much later.
In addition, Ji Feiyu also discovered something else. That was, the embroideress she had lent to Concubine Zhen before had never come back since she left.
She began to rummage through the records of the struggles in the previous dynasties and the harem, for fear of missing any trick the numerous women had come up with. Finally, she smiled after seeing a line of words on a yellowed page.
...
In September of the ninth year of Tianhe in the Great Yong, the emperor married Princess Shuanghua of the Northern Han.
In November, Princess Shuanghua was pregnant, and the whole imperial capital celebrated. In the same month, the baby died, and the emperor was in low spirits.
When Yong Ya Xuan rushed over to see Ji Feiyu, she was lying on the imperial concubine's couch, enjoying the dried fruits brought from the Northern Han.
Seeing him come in, she quickly covered her veil and said, "Why is Your Majesty so free today?"
"Free?" He looked indignant. "What's going on with the baby?"
Ji Feiyu yawned lazily, turned over, and looked at him playfully. "Aren't I investigating a case for my aunt?"
"Case? Lying to others that you're pregnant and then having an abortion. Is that the case you're investigating?" He laughed out of anger.
But Ji Feiyu sat up and said, "Doesn't Your Majesty think this method is a bit familiar? Using this method to harm others is both harmful to others and beneficial to oneself."
"What did you say?" There was a hint of solemnity in his eyes. He thought of the unannounced case of Concubine Zhen.
Ji Feiyu said, "What if only one of the two concubines was really pregnant last time, and the other just took advantage of the chaos and copied the method to harm others?"
Yong Ya Xuan couldn't help but feel a shiver down his spine. He stared intently at her and heard her say, "It's not a difficult thing. You just need to bribe the imperial physician."
"So, you bribed the imperial physician to say you were pregnant?"
Ji Feiyu nodded and added, "And I also asked someone to change the court records."
"You're really something!" He looked at her, speechless.
"Really something? I'm very smart, right?" Ji Feiyu looked up at him and smiled.
But he was incredulous. "What about the blood on the bed and the clothes during the abortion?"
Ji Feiyu sat up from the couch and said innocently, "Doesn't Your Majesty know there's something called menstrual blood? I deliberately calculated the date. It was just the next day, and the blood was very fresh."
"You're so shameless!" He looked at her with disgust. "I even thought you were having an affair with someone else behind my back!"
"Hahaha," Ji Feiyu couldn't help laughing. "Your Majesty may wish for it, but I wouldn't agree."
Maybe Ji Feiyu was too presumptuous. Yong Ya Xuan was so angry that he picked up the apple on the table and stuffed it into her mouth through the veil, silencing her. She angrily took out the apple and looked at him. "What do you want to do!"
But he just snorted. "Concubine Zhen was confined because of you, and the Empress Dowager fainted because of you. Yet you're still laughing here. You're really a demon!"
But Ji Feiyu immediately said, "Does Your Majesty care about Concubine Zhen or the Empress Dowager?"
"I care about you! If something really happened to you, how could I explain it to your elder brother?" His eyes were full of anger, which made her shiver. She quickly lowered her eyes to hide her expression and said coyly, "Nasty. Hearing the first half of the sentence, I thought Your Majesty had fallen in love with me."
Yong Ya Xuan's mouth twitched when he heard this. Ji Feiyu immediately changed the subject and said, "Your Majesty, you'd better investigate the pregnancy - preserving prescription that Concubine Zhen gave me to see if it can cause an abortion when combined with something. Concubine Zhen came to see me on the night of the incident and said that the prescription was also given to her by someone else. If it's really the problem with the prescription, she'll be the culprit. But she also said that she had used this prescription before without any problem, and we can check her medical records in the imperial hospital. When she talked to me that day, her words were really touching, and it's hard to tell if they're true or false. So you'd better investigate this prescription first, and then I'll tell you my next plan."
The incident of pregnancy and abortion started when Ji Feiyu announced through the mouth of the imperial physician that she was pregnant. At that time, everyone came to see her and congratulate her, and they also sent all kinds of small gifts. Among the people in the palace who had given birth to a prince, only Concubine Zhen and Concubine Xin. Because of the relationship with the former grand preceptor, Concubine Xin sacrificed herself for her clan. So only Concubine Zhen was left. She specially came to give Ji Feiyu advice on matters to pay attention to during pregnancy and gave her a pregnancy - preserving prescription that she had used before.
At first glance, there was nothing wrong with this prescription. But as someone who knew how to make poison, Ji Feiyu quickly noticed that several herbs in it would change their medicinal properties under certain circumstances. Of course, Ji Feiyu couldn't say this out. She needed someone else to discover it. So she made a big show of having people prepare several doses of medicine according to this prescription and drink it every day.
Ji Feiyu also knew that there would be many eyes watching in the palace after she was pregnant. So she didn't fake it. She really drank those medicines. Later, she checked the scented objects in her palace and found that there were indeed substances that could make the prescription deteriorate. After faking the abortion, she threw the prescription to the emperor and asked him to have someone investigate it.
Who would have thought that on the night of the incident, Concubine Zhen came to clear herself of any suspicion, so they couldn't do anything to her before the matter was clear. At most, she was just confined. So Ji Feiyu didn't know if what she said was true or false, and she couldn't figure out who the mastermind of all these things was. Now they locked her in as the primary target to investigate because when they lured out the snake by faking the pregnancy, she was the first one to come out.
Yong Ya Xuan looked at her worried look and wondered if the mystery that had remained unsolved for many years could really be dug out bit by bit by her. He really underestimated her. But thinking that her method of solving the case was really scary, he reminded her, "After this matter is over, don't do such scary things anymore."
Ji Feiyu nodded with a smile. It seemed that now he was a little closer to her and also a little closer to the truth.
...
The result of the thorough investigation of this matter was indeed that there was a problem with the pregnancy - preserving prescription.
But Concubine Zhen insisted that the prescription was given to her by a certain maid back then. She had shown it to the imperial physician, and there was no problem. She also said that she had taken it without any accident. She emphasized that her miscarriage back then was because Concubine Ning colluded with the imperial physician and tampered with her medicine, which had nothing to do with this prescription.
But the maid back then had been killed during the rebellion, and Concubine Ning had died of illness not long after she was sent to the cold palace. So nothing could be verified.
Ji Feiyu didn't expect that Concubine Zhen would play the cards of "being blatant" and "no one to testify against". But this didn't prevent her from analyzing the ins and outs of this matter to Yong Ya Xuan.