Chapter 225: Chapter 100: Presenting the Silk Banner_1

The dust had barely settled on the imperial examination scandal when another major incident rocked Shengjing.

In Prince Wen’s Mansion, a consort attempted to poison the pregnant Princess Consort in a scheme to murder the unborn heir. Fortunately, the Princess Consort and her child were blessed with good fortune, for a female doctor happened to be delivering medicine to the mansion on the day the poison took effect, saving her and her child at the brink of death. However, the resentful consort, refusing to accept her failure, vented her anger on the female doctor and sent someone to secretly assassinate her, but she was accidentally saved by a guard from the Prince’s Mansion.

It was only when the criminals confessed their backers while in custody at the Patrol House that people became aware of this court case.

Since the guard had transported the criminal through a bustling market to the Patrol House, many people witnessed it firsthand. Thus, once the news spread, it immediately became the talk of the town, discussed avidly by drinkers and pedestrians alike.

Poisoning the unborn child of a pregnant woman is considered an affront to one’s moral integrity, something not even tolerated in a commoner’s household, let alone in a distinguished family claiming to be honorable. After the incident, Prince Wen, well aware of the wrongdoing by someone close to him, failed to punish the consort accordingly, merely confining her to her quarters in an attempt to shield her. With such a husband, cold and unfeeling towards his wife and daughter, sympathy for the unfortunate Princess Consort grew among the people.

If the matter had ended there, the rumor would have likely damaged the family’s reputation but would have subsided in time. However, the controversy surrounding Prince Wen’s Mansion did not die down but instead grew more intense over several days, all because it involved a forbidden medicine from the palace known as "Child’s Sorrow."

The poison that struck the Princess Wenjun was indeed "Child’s Sorrow," a forbidden medicine from the palace.

This was a secret of the royal court, long forgotten over the years until someone somehow unearthed it once again.

"Child’s Sorrow" is said to be colorless, odorless, and easily soluble in paint. When a pregnant woman consumes it, she would initially show no symptoms, but gradually, she’d experience a rise in body temperature and skin darkening. In the following months, swelling would occur around her shoulders and neck. Eventually, signs of abdominal pain and bleeding might appear. Despite these symptoms, the unborn child within the poisoned person would remain stable. Even if a doctor examined her, they would likely dismiss the symptoms as normal pregnancy reactions, and any medicine taken to secure the pregnancy would only allow the poison to penetrate deeper. After a full ten months, a stillborn child would be born, leaving the mother unharmed.

This insidious poison was difficult for ordinary people to detect, and even the medical officers of the Hanlin Medical Institute might not be able to identify it, leaving everyone in a state of panic. To make matters worse, after the Xuan Yilang Mansion in Shengjing learned of the incident, Xuan Yilang, who was well into his fifties, knelt before the court the following day, beating his chest and intending to collide with a column in protest, pleading with the emperor to thoroughly investigate the matter—

Xuan Yilang suspected that his beloved concubine had also given birth to a stillborn child due to "Child’s Sorrow."

Xuan Yilang, who considered himself a romantic, had been inconsolable with grief since the untimely demise of his concubine, scribbling sentiments like "Ten years of life and death beyond recall" on every wall and temple. Now that he had the chance to vindicate his concubine’s unjust fate, he was as excited as if he had drunk chicken blood overnight. Joining forces with various officials who suspected their own family members had been victimized by "Child’s Sorrow," he requested the court to conduct a thorough investigation.

After all, during the former emperor’s reign, a consort who had used this poison to target the royal heirs was discovered, and thereafter the court ordered the medicine to be banned, never to reappear. Now that the forbidden medicine had resurfaced, the question was, where did it come from?

Since the matter involved the imperial harem, the Empress Dowager was alarmed while she was praying at Wan’en Temple. She returned to the palace the same day and immediately initiated a personal investigation into the imperial harem that very night.

And her investigation did indeed uncover something.

The imperial guards found unused "Child’s Sorrow" in Consort Yan’s chambers.

Consort Yan was the cousin of Meng Xiyang, the consort from Prince Wen’s Mansion.

Unable to endure the palace’s interrogation, Consort Yan revealed that she had obtained the poison from the Imperial Apothecary, at Meng Xiyang’s request. Consequently, numerous individuals associated with the Imperial Apothecary faced punishment, and both Consort Yan and Meng Xiyang were imprisoned.

Possessing forbidden medicine and attempting to murder the imperial heir—both charges were enough to warrant death.

In the days that followed, this tumultuous news leaked out from the palace, becoming a matter of lively public discourse. And yet, the man at the center of the storm seemed to have been overlooked, with few people speaking of him.

Inside Prince Wen’s Mansion.

Prince Wen stood in his courtyard looking somewhat disheveled, a far cry from his usual concern for appearances. His face, once full of energy and ambition, was now tinged with viciousness as he glared at the person before him.

"Pei Yunmeng, get out of my way!"

At the entrance to the courtyard, there stood several dozen men resembling imperial guards, with a young man at their head holding a silver knife. He glanced inside, shushed Prince Wen with a smile, and said, "Keep quiet, Treasure Bead is still sleeping."

It would have been better not to mention Treasure Bead, for the color drained from Mu Sheng’s face at the mere mention of her.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read