The little maid quickly brought the items in, carrying the tray with trembling hands.
Jiang Zhaoxue took them from her. She first placed the bowl of well water beside the bed, then grabbed a handful of glutinous rice and scattered it in circles around the foot of the bed.
Chief Physician Zheng could no longer tolerate it.
“Ridiculous! This is witchcraft!”
“Then is the medicine you prescribed effective?” Jiang Zhaoxue did not even raise her head as she continued what she was doing. “If it was effective, how did he end up vomiting blood like this?”
“Or are you saying that this is also the level of skill and attitude you use when treating His Majesty?”
Chief Physician Zheng was rendered speechless. The several imperial physicians behind him also remained silent.
Today, Jing Prince truly was unusual. Judging from his pulse, he should have only been suffering from weakness, but after being forced to drink several doses of medicine, he showed no signs of improvement. Instead, he began vomiting blood.
And now that a newly married bride brought in for a luck-changing ritual had blocked them with her words, no one could answer.
Jiang Zhaoxue cracked open the raw egg and poured the egg white into the bowl of well water.
The transparent egg liquid did not disperse into the water. Instead, it gathered into thin strands and slowly sank to the bottom of the bowl.
Granny Cui cried out in shock.
“This\… what is happening?”
“Someone used his life as a medium and suppressed him, preventing him from waking up.” Jiang Zhaoxue lifted the bowl and gestured for her to look carefully. “You should say that it’s fortunate your prince has a strong fate. If it had been someone else, the grass on their grave would already have grown.”
“Who would dare harm the prince!”
“That question is too broad.” Jiang Zhaoxue placed the bowl back down. “From the passing maids to the guards by his side, I think anyone would dare if there was enough profit to gain.”
When Chief Physician Zheng heard this, his expression changed. He stepped forward and said,
“The Princess Consort keeps saying that someone is causing trouble, but do you have any evidence?”
Jiang Zhaoxue held the scissors in her hand and turned to look at him.
“You want evidence?”
She walked to the foot of the bed, crouched down, reached beneath the bed board, and pulled out a section of black thread.
The thread had been soaked in blood. Entangled within it was a strand of hair and a folded piece of yellow paper.
Several servants attending by the bedside immediately fell to their knees with a series of loud thuds.
“Your Highness! His Highness really has been harmed!”
“Granny Cui, this servant knows nothing!”
“The bedding was only changed yesterday. This servant truly didn’t see anything!”
The entire room descended into chaos, but Jiang Zhaoxue had no interest in watching them. She held up the piece of black thread and tossed it into the charcoal brazier.
The flames suddenly shot upward with a loud *whoosh*, and a foul, bloody smell filled the air.
Xiao Chenghuai, lying on the bed, suddenly coughed. He turned his head and spat out a mouthful of stagnant blood.
Granny Cui was startled at first, then unexpectedly burst into tears.
“His Highness! His Highness! He’s breathing, he’s breathing!”
Jiang Zhaoxue casually picked up the bowl of bitter medicine beside the bed, smelled it, and directly poured it into a copper basin.
Chief Physician Zheng became furious.
“What are you doing?!”
“There is something added to the medicine.” Jiang Zhaoxue said. “The foundation of this tonic isn’t bad. It contains half a qian of dendrobium powder, but another hidden ingredient was added. Once taken, the medicine appears to nourish his vital energy on the surface, but inside it pushes him toward death. Has your Imperial Hospital become so careless now that harming someone can be done so casually?”
Chief Physician Zheng was stunned. He truly had not known that someone had tampered with the medicine.
“Then, Princess Consort, what do you think should be done now?”
Jiang Zhaoxue sat down beside the bed. She raised her hand and pulled open Xiao Chenghuai’s inner garment collar slightly. There was a dark mark there.
The remnants of the Soul-Suppressing Curse were still present.
She pulled a thin silver hairpin from her hair. After holding the tip briefly over the candle flame, she lowered her head and stabbed it down.
The room was filled with sounds of people gasping.
The man on the bed furrowed his brows tightly, and his fingers moved slightly.
“He’s alive,” Jiang Zhaoxue said.
Granny Cui quickly turned her head back. Seeing that Xiao Chenghuai’s lip color had indeed improved a little, tears fell from her eyes again.
Chief Physician Zheng hurried forward to check his pulse once more. This time, his pulse had truly stabilized.
His expression was complicated. When he looked at Jiang Zhaoxue, all that remained in his eyes was shock. Just what kind of person was this new Princess Consort?
The bride brought in for the luck-changing marriage entered the manor, but she did not perform the wedding ceremony or cry during the farewell. Instead, she overturned the medicine bowl first, pulled a cursed thread out from under the bed, and in the end even dared to stab the prince with a hairpin—yet somehow, it actually worked.
Chief Physician Zheng, despite his many years of experience, felt for the first time that all the medical skills he had learned over several decades had been wasted.
Jiang Zhaoxue ignored them. She only waved at Granny Cui.
“Come here. Tell me, in this manor, who wishes for him to die the most?”
Granny Cui’s expression darkened.
“This\… where is this coming from\…”
“From the thing beneath his bed.” Jiang Zhaoxue looked up at her. “I just entered the manor today. I don’t understand the affairs here. If you try to avoid answering me, I can pack up my belongings and return to the Jiang family tonight. After all, the bridal sedan has already entered the manor, and the title of Princess Consort has fallen onto my head. If he dies, I can still at least become a widow.”
Granny Cui almost choked from her words.
Who in the world could speak about becoming a widow so casually?
But now was not the time to worry about that.
Granny Cui gritted her teeth.
“The prince has been ill for many years. The manor has always been managed by the Dowager Consort. From the outside, everything appears peaceful, but inside\… every household has its own thoughts. The Second Young Master is a concubine-born son. He moved out of the manor three years ago and has remained fairly obedient. The troublesome ones are those in the palace, as well as several imperial relatives. His Highness holds half of the military tally left behind by the late emperor. There are people who hope he survives, but there are even more who hope he dies.”
Jiang Zhaoxue understood.
A noble fate, great power, and an illness that left him unable to rise from bed.
He was nothing more than a piece of meat placed on a chopping board.
Everyone wanted to cut off a piece.
She reached out, grabbed Xiao Chenghuai’s chin, and turned his face toward her.
The man was unconscious. His brows were high, and his nose was straight. Even after becoming this ill, that intimidating air around him remained.
Jiang Zhaoxue looked at him for a few more moments and suddenly felt that being sent here by the Jiang family might not have been entirely a bad thing.
This prince had endured for so long without dying, which meant he could ward off disasters, protect a household, and perhaps even bring prosperity and advancement.
She released his chin and said to Granny Cui, “I’ll write a prescription. Prepare the medicine according to it. No one from outside is allowed to enter the main courtyard. Especially the kitchen and medicine room—replace everyone there with your own people. Also, have two steady-handed older maids come in and prepare hot water for me.”
Granny Cui quickly agreed.
“Princess Consort, are you planning to personally take care of His Highness?”
“I need to wipe his body and perform acupuncture on him.” Jiang Zhaoxue glanced at her. “Unless you want to do it instead?”
Granny Cui hurriedly waved her hands.
Jiang Zhaoxue stood up and walked toward the desk.
Paper and ink had already been prepared on the table. When she picked up the brush, she paused.
She recognized the characters, but her handwriting was only average.
That old blind man from the abandoned temple knew how to calculate fortunes, knew how to curse people, and knew how to teach her how to distinguish the aura of death and life—but he simply couldn’t write good characters.
Over all these years following him, she had learned many things, but her handwriting had been trained into a complete mess.
She lowered her head and began writing the prescription. Chief Physician Zheng leaned closer to take a look, and his expression grew more serious the longer he read.
This prescription was extremely strange. Half of it looked like a proper life-saving medicine, while the other half resembled an unorthodox exorcism formula.
Yet when combined together, he couldn’t point out anything wrong with it.
He endured it again and again, but finally asked,
“Princess Consort, who was your teacher?”
Jiang Zhaoxue did not even raise her head.
“A blind man.”
Chief Physician Zheng: “\…”
After finishing the prescription, she slapped the paper into Granny Cui’s hands.
“Go handle it. Quickly. He still needs to wake up once tonight.”
“He can wake up tonight?” Granny Cui held the prescription, her hands trembling.
“Yes, he can.” Jiang Zhaoxue said. “When he wakes up, I still have questions to ask him.”
Granny Cui rushed out with the prescription in her hands, moving as quickly as if she were carrying an imperial decree.
Jiang Zhaoxue turned back and looked at Xiao Chenghuai lying on the bed.
There was something she had not told anyone. When she had just checked his pulse, she had also secretly calculated their destined marriage.
Her thread of fate was entangled with his hand, and it was deeply intertwined.
This meant that her arrival at this prince’s manor was not a coincidence.