To Be a Mighty Empress, Or Not to Be - C133

“There is indeed something fishy …”

Shi Anran slightly nodded her head, and after lightly sipping a mouthful of fragrant tea, she slowly said, “Since this medicine comes from the Imperial Palace, then the perpetrator must be in the Imperial Palace. Furthermore, he must have some understanding of this medicine, which is why the poison is so colorless and tasteless, so I am unable to detect it.”

Li Mu frowned slightly, “Then are you doubting the Imperial Noble Consort Lan now?”

“No, I feel that it can’t be her. Otherwise, when she saw me today, she wouldn’t be so furious that she would want to hit me. She would directly kill me!” Saying that, Shi Anran slowly stood up and walked to the window. Looking at the crowd on the street, her eyes flashed with a light: “I know! Since Liu Yue did not come into contact with anyone else during the process of delivering the medicinal food to the emperor, then that means the problem lies in my production. If I did not add the medicine, then the only possibility is that the medicinal ingredients were poisonous, or tableware.

Looking at the girl who was analyzing seriously in front of him, Li Mu’s opinion of her changed more and more.

“The problem with the medicinal ingredients might have originated from the Imperial Hospital or from the imperial kitchens. Is there anyone strange in the Palace?”

“I cannot confirm this, but I cannot exclude this possibility either. After I return, I will have Cui Yun investigate the people from the Palace carefully, maybe they are still in the Palace right now.” With these clues, Shi Anran was elated in her heart. Very soon, the truth would be revealed, and at that time, Liu Yue would be saved. Thinking about it, her heart gradually calmed down.

“Anran, I have to say, you are very smart.” Li Mu said from the bottom of his heart.

Towards his praise, Shi Anran was not happy, but she also smiled and said: “If you can’t even think of these details, then how can you help Third Prince fulfil his wish so soon?”

“Wishing?” Li Mu spat out three words, and then laughed: “That is our wish!”

Shi Anran dodged his sizing up: “The Ninth Prince has always been coming up with some ideas by the crown prince’s side, and now that the Ninth Prince is restricted within the palace, why don’t Third Prince take this opportunity to make connections, and not give others the chance to take advantage of it?”

After Li Mu heard this, he pondered for a while, and then muttered: “You’re right, but the person I want to rope in the most is Xiang Rongcheng.” After he finished speaking, he quietly observed the changes in Shi Anran’s expression, but unfortunately, Shi Anran did not let him see anything.

Shi Anran seemed to understand his meaning, and said indifferently: “I am not as familiar as Third Prince thinks, so Third Prince should decide this matter on his own!”

“What? Aren’t you going to help me?” Li Mu’s deep eyes revealed a strange light.

“How does Third Prince want Anran to help us?” Anyone was fine, but the only person Shi Anran couldn’t hurt was Xiang Rongcheng. If she could feel that he was sincere towards her, how could she do that?

Seeing her unwilling, Li Mu lost his interest and immediately waved his hand: “Forget it, whatever you want to do, I won’t force you.”

Hearing that, Shi Anran became expressionless, and returned to her previous uncaring attitude, indifferently saying: “Thank you Third Prince!” Li Mu merely wanted him to be with Xiang Rongcheng, and then think of a way to rope him in. This kind of method was a bit too shameless, not to mention that Shi Anran wouldn’t even let Xiang Rongcheng participate in the struggle of a few princes for the throne.

“Alright, let’s return to the palace!” Although Li Mu did not have any expression on his face, his eyes were filled with displeasure.

“Zhu’er, where is the palace maid who poisoned me?” Li Ruolan reclined on the Imperial Consort’s chair. Although her face was pale white, her entire body was emitting an indolent aura. With the emperor’s concern, she was no longer afraid of anything.

“In reply to the Empress, that palace maid called Liu Yue has been imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice’s Prison. Rumor has it that the guards did not torture her, and she still eats three meals a day as usual.” Pearl added fuel to the fire, not forgetting to look at Li Ruolan’s reaction.

“If that’s the case, then if I don’t properly train him, the poisoned blood he vomited out this time will probably be vomited out in vain?” After Li Ruolan lazily said that sentence, she continued: “Bring that person over to Phoenix Nest Palace, I want to personally teach her the etiquette and rules of the palace!”

Pearl smiled and said, “This servant will do it right away!”

“Shi Anran, do you think that I wouldn’t know that it was you who ordered a little palace maid to poison me? This method is too shameless. If my children are gone, I will cut you into ten thousand pieces! ” Li Ruolan clenched the fruit in her hand tightly and said those words fiercely.

Cui Yu lowered her head and said, “Please calm your anger, Your Highness!”

“How can I quell my anger? That slut wanted to murder me and my son, so why didn’t the Emperor execute her? ” Originally, he thought that even if he didn’t execute her, the emperor would severely punish him and force him out of the palace. But when he thought about how Shi Anran would stand in front of him with the same arrogance as before, he couldn’t help but be extremely angry.

Cu Yu shut her mouth and did not dare say anything. She was secretly worried for Shi Anran, although her aunt did not trust her anymore, Cui Yu had never wanted to harm her from the start.

“Alright, all of you get the hell out of here. Stop standing here and blocking my way!” Li Ruolan said irritably, then closed her eyes and exhaled a long breath, finding it difficult to suppress the anger in her heart.

When Shi Anran returned to the Palace, she immediately went to find a female Medical Officer and found out that the bowl of medicinal food was taken away by the Zhou Imperial Physician.

Didn’t Imperial Physician Zhou say yesterday that he had never touched the medicinal food before? Thinking about it, Shi Anran scolded herself for being stupid, how could she throw away such important evidence?

“Cui Yun, has everyone in the palace checked yet?”

Cui Yun nodded. “Aunt, we’ve already checked. No one entered the kitchen that day.”

After hearing this, Shi Anran felt her mind go blank. Since no one had entered the kitchen before, then who was the one who poisoned the herbs?

Poison was forbidden drugs in the palace, if there were some methods people couldn’t touch it, ordinary people wouldn’t think of harming people with this poison, only people who understood medicine would understand how to mix it. The poison was colorless and tasteless. No matter how sharp one’s eyes or how sensitive one’s nose was, one would not be able to smell what kind of medicine it was. Just what was the other party planning to do?

On the next day, after hearing that the Imperial Noble Consort Lan’s body was unwell, Shi Anran followed along to look at the emperor’s side, only to see the Imperial Noble Consort Lan’s dying breath lying on the bed. She looked extremely serious, and there were many imperial doctors waiting at the sides of the bed for news.

After a long while, the Imperial Noble Consort Lan finally woke up. She opened her eyes and blinked, then weakly asked: “Your majesty, where is your majesty?”

“We are here!” The emperor strode forward and placed her hand in his palm as he spoke with incomparable gentleness.