The next day, before dawn, Liu Qingxi left the palace and took a carriage toward the Prince Zhan's Estate.
Unexpectedly, halfway there, a mad horse suddenly charged out onto the street and crashed head-on into her carriage.
The coachman was terrified out of his wits. In his panic, he tried to dodge, but it was too late, and the carriage was overturned by a powerful force.
Boom!
Liu Qingxi was thrown violently from the carriage, letting out a terrified and painful scream: "Ah!"
"Aunt Liu!" The maidservant who had dodged to the side turned pale and hurriedly stepped forward to help her up. "Aunt, are you alright? Are you hurt?"
Liu Qingxi's vision went black. Her legs and arms felt as if they were about to break. The pain made her complexion turn deathly pale, her brows were tightly furrowed, and she couldn't help but shed tears.
"You beast!" A man in red rushed over, nimbly mounted the horse, and with a few lashes of his whip, quickly brought the mad horse under control. "Don't you dare go crazy again, or I will hack you into pieces and feed your meat to the wolves!"
Supported by two palace maids, Liu Qingxi struggled to stand up from the ground, her face pale from the pain and her eyes reddened.
The man in red leaped down and walked straight to her, bowing deeply. "This beast suddenly went mad and startled you, Young Lady. I hope you can forgive me."
Liu Qingxi looked up at the man before her, her tear-filled eyes brimming with anger. "It is forbidden to ride horses at full speed on the streets of the Imperial City. You actually allowed a mad horse to run wild; do you have a death wish?!"
"I have already explained that this beast suddenly went mad; it was not my intention to let it run wild." As the man in red spoke, he pulled a bag of silver from his sleeve and tossed it to her. "This is compensation. Take it to buy some medicine, Young Lady."
Having said that, his tall, slender figure suddenly rose from the ground. With a flash of red, the man leaped back onto the horse's back.
Liu Qingxi's expression was extremely ugly. Just as she was about to question him further, she saw him flick his whip and speed away like a shooting star, disappearing into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Everything happened so fast that there was no time to react. Liu Qingxi wasn't even sure if the person had done it deliberately or accidentally before it was all over.
Although it was early in the morning, most of the ministers had already entered the palace to attend court, and common people could not reach this area. There were few people on the road, and she didn't even know who to question.
Liu Qingxi gritted her teeth, staring fixedly at the direction in which the man in red had left. "Who is that person?"
The two palace maids looked at each other in confusion, both shaking their heads to indicate they didn't know.
"Young Lady!" Some Imperial Guards on duty approached quickly from the distance. Seeing Liu Qingxi's attire, they proactively bowed and greeted her. "Were you struck by a horse just now, Young Lady?"
Liu Qingxi looked at them coldly. "The horse that hit me and its master have already gone far away, and only now do you arrive? What were you doing just now?"
The Imperial Guards looked at each other. Although they were displeased, they were unsure which noble master this young lady served in the palace and dared not offend her rashly. They only bowed humbly and said, "It was our negligence of duty. We will send men to investigate immediately."
Having said that, they turned and left in a hurry.
Liu Qingxi closed her eyes and suppressed her anger. "Forget it, let's go to the Prince Zhan's Estate first."
The carriage was lifted up by several guards, but Liu Qingxi was still shaken and dared not sit in it again.
It just so happened that they were not far from the Prince Zhan's Estate.
She walked toward the Prince Zhan's Estate with the two maidservants, but because she was in such severe pain, she inevitably walked a bit slowly.
When she arrived at the Prince's Estate and followed Nanny Xiong to see the Princess Consort, Chu Yunfei was busy in the Jinlin Courtyard with Baochan and several other maidservants, dealing with Prince Zhan's clothing.
Seeing the late-arriving Liu Qingxi, a look of surprise appeared on Chu Yunfei's face. "What happened to you, Physician Liu?"
"There was a small accident on the way." Liu Qingxi took a deep breath, lowered her head, and said, "I am late, please forgive me, Princess Consort."
"…No harm." Chu Yunfei scanned her from head to toe and said slowly, "Would you like to find a doctor to take a look at Miss Liu first?"
Liu Qingxi shook her head. "I am a doctor myself. It was just a fall, it is nothing."
Chu Yunfei nodded indifferently, turned to instruct Baochan to take the packed clothes and books to the Shuanghua Courtyard, and then said, "Baochan has already brewed the medicine and given it to the Prince. The Prince didn't sleep well last night, so he just fell asleep."
Liu Qingxi's expression changed slightly. "I haven't arrived yet, how could the Princess Consort give the Prince medicine without authorization?"
"Miss Liu, that is a funny thing to say." Chu Yunfei's pupils narrowed, and her gaze turned cold. "If Miss Liu couldn't come today, would the Prince not drink his medicine?"
Liu Qingxi stiffened and lowered her head. "That is not what I meant, servant."
"I ask that Miss Liu recognize her own identity." Chu Yunfei warned her coldly. "You are merely a medical woman who came by the order of the Noble Consort, but you cannot represent the Noble Consort to give orders."
Liu Qingxi frowned upon hearing this. Although she looked disheveled, her eyes were now looking at Chu Yunfei with arrogance.
"What kind of look is that, Miss Liu?" Chu Yunfei raised her hand to grab her chin, a playful and cold smile on her lips. "My status as Princess Consort is more noble than yours; a wave of my hand can decide your life or death. You are arrogant and disrespectful, insulting a superior—who exactly are you relying on?"
Liu Qingxi was clearly unwilling to submit. "I am a person of the Noble Consort, representing the face of the Noble Consort."
"Rong Cang is the Noble Consort's own son, and I am the Noble Consort's daughter-in-law." Chu Yunfei spoke softly. "Does Miss Liu mean that the Noble Consort told you to be disrespectful to me, the Princess Consort Zhan?"
Liu Qingxi paused, her face turning slightly pale. "The Noble Consort did not—"
"Then you are acting on your own, not taking this Princess Consort seriously?" Chu Yunfei's eyes turned cold, her gaze fixed on Liu Qingxi with bone-chilling intensity. "So I still want to ask, who is backing you, making you forget your own identity and daring to be presumptuous in the Prince Zhan's Estate?"
Liu Qingxi's face turned from blue to white. Finally, she lowered her head and said unwillingly, "This servant is guilty."
Chu Yunfei released her chin, lowered her eyes, and brushed her sleeves. "You did indeed come by order, but you should not use the Noble Consort's name to act high and mighty. If this accidentally reaches the ears of the Censors and they report the Noble Consort to the Emperor, do you think the Noble Consort will continue to keep you?"
Liu Qingxi's face turned deathly pale. Her hands, hanging by her sides, clenched tightly, and she slowly knelt down. "This servant is guilty. Please forgive me, Princess Consort."
"I heard that Imperial Physician Liu once had a wife in his hometown of Tongzhou." Chu Yunfei looked down at her with a gaze of disdain. "I wonder how that original wife is doing now."
Liu Qingxi was startled and looked up at her in disbelief. "What did the Princess Consort say?"
"Miss Liu doesn't know yet?" Chu Yunfei smiled faintly and walked slowly to a chair to sit down. "When your good father was studying medicine at a medical clinic in Tongzhou, he had a marriage with his master's daughter. They were a lawfully wedded husband and wife. Your father's medical skills were all taught to him by his master. Who would have thought that after entering the Imperial Hospital in the Capital City, Imperial Physician Liu not only abandoned his wife and son but even secretly sent people to suppress their family, strictly forbidding them from coming to the Capital City to acknowledge their relatives? If the crime of abandoning a wife to remarry were to be known..."
"Impossible!" The blood drained from Liu Qingxi's face. She shook her head in a panic, her voice filled with unease. "Impossible, this is not true..."
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