Li Liang's white beard bristled as he whipped his head around, his face full of displeasure. "Princess Consort of the Regent, whom might you be speaking of?"
Chu Fengge pressed her lips together and cast an indifferent glance at Mo Qianhan. "His pills contain a large amount of painkillers. The proportion of actually effective medicinal ingredients is far too low—not enough to cure the Imperial Concubine's chronic ailment. Worse, it will delay her treatment."
"I wonder—can Your Highness understand what I'm saying?" Chu Fengge asked in return.
Mo Qianhan looked at her with disdain. "Are you telling this King that Imperial Physician Li intends to harm the Imperial Concubine, deliberately reducing the proportion of effective medicine while adding large amounts of painkillers—so that when her old ailment flares up, he can promptly relieve her pain and ease her suffering, yet never actually cure her illness?"
Li Liang dropped to his knees with a thud, crying out, "This is slander! Your humble servant is innocent! I have served at the Imperial Concubine's side for ten years. Though I dare not claim my medical skills are the finest in the palace, I have always prescribed medicine based on syndrome differentiation and carefully consulted medical texts to treat her chronic ailment."
"And has it been cured?" Chu Fengge countered.
Li Liang ground his teeth and was about to retort when Chu Fengge cut in first. "Is Imperial Physician Li about to say that the Imperial Concubine suffers from a chronic ailment that requires slow, gradual conditioning—that it cannot be cured overnight?"
The corners of Li Liang's mouth twitched several times.
Chu Fengge turned to Nanny Zhang, who stood anxiously beside Consort Qi. "When the Imperial Concubine's illness flares up, she has blood in her urine, unbearable pain in her lower back, sleepless nights. In severe cases, she passes little urine, feels incomplete emptying, and cannot stand at ease—symptoms like these."
Nanny Zhang's expression changed and she nodded hurriedly. "Exactly as the Princess Consort says."
"The Imperial Concubine suffers from stone urinary syndrome," Chu Fengge said.
In modern terms, it was kidney stones.
Mo Qianhan said, "Imperial Physician Li's diagnosis was also stone urinary syndrome. Chu Fengge, who told you about the Imperial Concubine's condition?"
As he spoke, Mo Qianhan's hands, clasped behind his back, clenched into tight fists, his narrow phoenix eyes glinting with dangerous coldness.
The illnesses of noble members of the palace were never made public.
This was to protect their personal safety, lest those with ill intent learn of their conditions and plot against them.
Chu Fengge knew Mo Qianhan was about to question her again. She truly felt that Mo Qianhan was either stupid or had something wrong with his brain.
She was just a frail woman. If she really had heaven-defying abilities, the first person she would poison would be this dog of a man.
"From the medicine Imperial Physician Li just administered to the Imperial Concubine, and from her symptoms—Your Highness may not know this, but my sense of smell has been extraordinary since childhood. And besides… during the year I was missing, I studied medicine under a Divine Physician. I am quite capable of recognizing stone urinary syndrome."
"Hah, missing for a year!" Mo Qianhan gave a mocking smile.
From behind came Nanny Zhang's cry of alarm. "Imperial Concubine! Imperial Concubine, what's wrong…"
"The Imperial Concubine has fainted from the pain! Imperial Physician Li, hurry and do something!" No one in the courtyard took Chu Fengge's words to heart.
When Imperial Physician Li heard Nanny Zhang calling for him, he rose swiftly to his feet.
As he stood, lifting the hem of his robe, he did not forget to shoot Chu Fengge a disdainful look.
A mere discarded consort of the Prince's Manor, who had learned a superficial smattering of medicine, dared to frame him just to claim credit for herself.
Chu Fengge knew further persuasion was useless and shook her head inwardly.
Her gesture happened to be seen by Mo Qianhan.
In Mo Qianhan's eyes, Chu Fengge escaping punishment from Consort Qi was letting her off far too easily.
"Chu Fengge, my Imperial Consort Mother's old illness flared up because of you. Do you think her fainting means you've escaped? Someone, come—sentence Chu Fengge to twenty strokes of the caning. After the punishment, make her kneel outside Baoxiang Pavilion. When the Imperial Concubine wakes, she may deal with her as she pleases."
"You—" Before Chu Fengge could even catch her breath, the cane came crashing down hard on her back.
Standing to the side, Bai Ruoshui watched the scene and suddenly the wounds on her own back didn't hurt so much anymore…
Trying to fight her? She should take a good look at what she really was!