Luo Qinghan’s lips pursed imperceptibly.
He should have known long ago that Imperial Mother did not care at all whether he was poisoned, nor did she care whether he was doing well or poorly.
The only thing she cared about was this position of Crown Prince.
Luo Qinghan lowered his eyes, concealing the change of emotions in the depths of his gaze, and said submissively, “This son has already sent people to investigate. Presumably, there will be results very soon.”
Empress Qin looked at him coldly. “Can there be results tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“You were raised by this Palace with her own hands. How much painstaking effort this Palace has poured into you, you know very well in your own heart. Do not let this Palace down, do you understand?”
“This son understands.”
“Retire.”
“May Imperial Mother rest well. This son takes his leave.”
The conversation between mother and son ended just like that.
Throughout the entire process, there was not even a single sentence of ordinary exchange of pleasantries. It was freezing cold, giving one the illusion of not being a living person but rather an object.
Stepping out of Jiaofang Palace, Luo Qinghan slowly exhaled a breath, as if wanting to spit out all the cold air he had just inhaled.
He returned to the Eastern Palace and had someone summon all his trusted aides.
Eunuch Chang reminded him in a low voice, “Your Highness, you haven’t had your afternoon meal yet. Do you want to eat first?”
“No need. I am not hungry.”
The position of Crown Prince seemed glorious, but in reality, the risks were extremely high.
As the heir, he ought to let more people see his talent, yet he could not get too close to the court officials, lest it arouse Imperial Father’s suspicion.
Therefore, the people Luo Qinghan could use under his command were actually not many. Aside from the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, the Grand Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince, and the Grand Guardian of the Crown Prince who taught him academic studies, there were also the Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince, the Junior Second Tutor of the Crown Prince, the Junior Guardian of the Crown Prince, as well as the Commander of the Yulin Army, Zhao Xian, and the Young Prince, Nie Changping.
The former six people were all tied to the same boat as the Crown Prince. They shared common interests and had to stand on the Crown Prince’s side.
Only the Young Prince, Nie Changping, was different. That he could stand in the Crown Prince’s camp was completely out of the friendship of growing up together since childhood.
He and Luo Qinghan were very good friends.
In order to find out the truth of the poisoning as quickly as possible, Luo Qinghan summoned all of them to the Eastern Palace.
Because the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince was advanced in years and in poor health, he frequently fell ill and had rarely entered the palace recently. Today he did not come, but he let his eldest son come, which could be considered as showing his attitude of supporting the Crown Prince.
A group of people discussed this matter in the study.
Learning that the Empress demanded the Crown Prince find out the results by tomorrow, Nie Changping could not help but click his tongue.
“Her Majesty the Empress truly has consistently high standards and strict demands for His Highness the Crown Prince.”
The Grand Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince said, “This shows that Her Majesty the Empress regards His Highness the Crown Prince with great importance.”
Nie Changping sneered, treating this with disdain.
He had played with Luo Qinghan since childhood and understood Luo Qinghan’s affairs very well. That Empress Qin appeared to place high hopes on Luo Qinghan, but in reality, she merely wanted to use Luo Qinghan to plot for the position of the heir.
Luo Qinghan’s birth mother passed away when he was very young, and he was sent to Jiaofang Palace to be handed over to Empress Qin to be raised.
Because Empress Qin suffered a miscarriage in her early years, her body was damaged, and she could never become pregnant and give birth to a child after that. It just so happened that Luo Qinghan lost his birth mother, and having no one to rely on in this imperial harem, he could only survive by depending on her. Thus, she put forth all her effort to cultivate Luo Qinghan, helping him seize the position of Crown Prince.
To put it bluntly, the two of them were merely in a relationship of mutual utilization.
Luo Qinghan was currently listening to Zhao Xian report on the work.
“This subordinate has already checked. The one that was poisonous was not the wine, but the wine cup. The wine cup had been coated with poison, so of the wine poured from the exact same wine pot, only your cup of wine was poisonous.”
In other words, even if the Eldest Prince had not come to pour wine for Luo Qinghan last night, as long as Luo Qinghan drank the wine, he would have been poisoned.
The Eldest Prince’s bout of tossing and turning was purely taking the blame for someone else.