Chapter 206: Slanders Kept on Coming!

Baili Qingcang was stunned for a moment. Then his brows furrowed tightly. If all officials entered the Palace together, something serious must have happened. “Ninghua, what happened in your mansion?”

Shen Ninghua thought quickly, but her gaze became even calmer.

“Father Emperor, today, I held a banquet for enjoying the plum blossoms in my mansion. The madams and young ladies of all clans were invited. However, there was an accident during the banquet. The plum trees accidentally caught fire, and many madams and young ladies were hurt. I have used the Skin-Revitalizing Ointment to treat them.”

Baili Qingcang’s gaze was sharp, and he looked at Shen Ninghua with a complicated expression. “Summon the officials.”

A group of officials came in led by Lin Yue, the patriarch of Lin family, and Zhao Kun, the patriarch of Zhao family. As soon as they entered the hall, they knelt on the ground. “Greetings, Your Majesty. We are here to ask Your Majesty to do justice for our wives and daughters.”

Baili Qingcang kept frowning. Seeing the two of them act in unison, he got even more impatient. “I have been informed about the fire incident in the plum woods in Princess Zhaohua’s mansion. She has also taken remedial measures. The most urgent thing now is to treat the injured. Are they alright?”

Lin Yue had a serious expression. “Your Majesty, my wife’s injuries are extremely serious. Her arms and cheeks were burned by the flames. Now she is in extreme pain…”

“Didn’t Princess Zhaohua offer them Skin-Revitalizing Ointment?” Speaking of which, Skin-Revitalizing Ointment was a healing panacea.

Lin Yue was silent. But an official aside could not help but say, “Your Majesty, although Princess Zhaohua has offered Skin-Revitalizing Ointment to treat the wounds, there is no way to cure the shock in the heart. My daughter was so frightened that she behaved like an idiot at the moment. I beg Your Majesty to do justice for her.”

“That is true. My wife went to the banquet in perfect health. However, instead of enjoying the beautiful scenery, she returned home with injuries all over her body. What on earth has happened?”

“My daughter is going to get married in two months. Knowing that her face was hurt, her fiancé’s family immediately requested to cancel the engagement. If the engagement was really canceled, my poor daughter would have to be a nun for the rest of her life.”

“Your Majesty, please do justice for us!”

The officials in the hall were in an uproar. Baili Qingcang frowned tightly, and his gaze towards Shen Ninghua became even harsher. “Ninghua, what exactly is going on?”

Shen Ninghua respectfully kowtowed and looked at Baili Qingcang.

“Father Emperor, I am also very puzzled and don’t know what on earth has happened.”

Consort Yin aside stood up and looked at Shen Ninghua with hatred. She got pregnant with great difficulty. Originally, she thought that she would have a bright future. However, her dream was destroyed by Shen Ninghua’s incense. She wished she could devour her alive. “Your Highness, if you don’t understand, how about I telling you?”

Shen Ninghua turned around and asked, “What advice do you have for me?”

Consort Yin knelt on the ground and looked up at Baili Qingcang. Tears rolled in her eyes. “Your Majesty, what I am going to say is only my speculation. If I can help Your Majesty, it is my fortune. If I cannot, please forgive me, Your Majesty.”

“Get up and speak.”

Consort Yin shook her head, “My status is humble comparing with Her Highness. Whether I have a grudge with Her Highness or not, I shall be disrespectful if I start to speculate about her. But thinking of my unborn child, I can’t care about that much. Let me speak on my knees. I will take this as a prayer for my child.”

Baili Qingcang nodded, and his expression became even colder.

“When I heard the words of all the lords and took everything into consideration, my puzzle was solved.” Consort Yin turned to look at Shen Ninghua. She sneered, “Her Highness was filled with resentment when Her Majesty left her wedding banquet early. When Her Majesty asked for incense from her, she took this opportunity to bribe the imperial physician and send harmful incense to the Palace. However, she did not expect that Her Majesty gave the incense to other consorts. Even the madams and young ladies of the aristocratic clans thought highly of the incense.”

Shen Ninghua lowered her eyes, not caring about how others looked at her at all.

Consort Yin sneered. “Your Highness, when the madams came to your mansion and asked for the incense, you refused to see them, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then I venture to ask why Your Highness insisted on closing your door to the visitors? The ingredients of the incense are sufficient, and it can be made easily. Moreover, by giving it to the madams, you can also do them a favor. Why don’t you give it to them?”

Shen Ninghua’s voice was calm. “The incense is mine. I have the freedom to decide whether to give it to them. You can’t blame me because I didn’t give it to them, right?”

“Humph, Your Highness, you knew your incense was harmful, so you didn’t dare to give it to them, did you? When you heard something happened to your incense in the Palace and His Majesty ordered to thoroughly investigate the origin and production of the incense, you destroyed the plum woods. You destroyed the evidence. However, you did not expect that the madams were also injured. So you panicked when His Majesty summoned you to the Palace for questioning. You even sent your men to assassinate the Imperial Guards. However, you did not expect the Imperial Guards were so valiant that the assassination failed.”

Shen Ninghua coldly curled her lips and said, “Consort Yin, you really have an abundance of imagination.”

“Am I wrong?” Consort Yin glared at Shen Ninghua with hatred. “Your Majesty, Princess Zhaohua has ulterior motives. Please scrutinize.”

The officials aside also shouted, “Your Majesty, please do justice for us!”

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The eyebrows of Baili Qingcang popped out and he stared at Shen Ninghua with a fierce gaze. “Ninghua, I have always treated you as my own daughter. Tell me the truth. Is what Consort Yin said true?”

Shen Ninghua raised her eyes and said, “Father Emperor, I am deeply grateful for your great kindness to me. I respect you and have not the slightest bit of disrespect towards you. This is the same when it comes to Mother Empress. Although I was very sad that Mother Empress left early that day, I didn’t resent her. She treats me like her own daughter, how could I hurt her with harmful incense?”

“Then why did the imperial physician give that confession?”

“Father Emperor, I made a detailed record of the ingredients and production process of the incense. You can send people to my mansion to check it. As for the confession made by the imperial physician, I think Doctor Chen should be able to prove it for me.”

“Chen Yun?” Baili Qingcang frowned and looked over. “Doctor Chen, do you understand what the princess said?”

Chen Yun stepped forward and bowed. “Your Majesty, because the incense was presented to the Empress, Her Highness thought she must ensure that there was nothing wrong about it. So she asked me to check the incense during and after the production. The incense was also inspected by me before being sent to the Academy of Imperial Physicians for inspection.”

Zhao Huiying’s expression changed abruptly, and Consort Yin was also stunned.

“What?” Baili Qingcang raised his eyebrows and said, “Then when you inspected the palace of Consort Yin, why did you say that there was something wrong with the incense?”

“Your Majesty, I was just telling the truth. There was indeed something wrong with the incense in Consort Yin’s room. But I don’t know when the incense became harmful.”

“So there’s no problem with the incense Ninghua sent into the Palace?”

“No.”

Consort Yin was not convinced. She turned to stare at Chen Yun. “Doctor Chen, could it be that you made a mistake in your check or missed something?”

Shen Ninghua raised her eyes. “Consort Yin, I used a jade knife to cut a part from each piece of incense before sending them to the Palace. Each one of them was numbered. The parts taken out from the incense were randomly cut by Doctor Chen. If you are not convinced, you can take out the unused incense and examine it. You will definitely be able to find the cuts. The parts taken out from the incense have no problem. If you are still not convinced, just call an imperial physician to check it again. He will surely prove my innocence!”

The Empress sat in her seat and stopped playing with her finger armor. Shen Ninghua was really like her mother. She did everything perfectly without any flaw!

Baili Qingcang directly ordered someone to fetch the evidence from Shen Ninghua’s mansion. After verifying it, the Academy of Imperial Physicians found no problems.

At this moment, many people were stunned and began to speculate what was going on. Many people even looked at the Empress. All incense in the palaces of the consorts was given by the Empress. Since there were no problems with the incense delivered by Shen Ninghua in the beginning, the problem should be with the Empress.

After all, the one who didn’t want to see Consort Yin give birth to a child was most likely the Empress.

Shen Ninghua’s expression remained calm. “Father Emperor, you also saw that the incense I sent into the Palace was harmless. But in the end, there was something wrong with the incense. There was also an imperial doctor who confessed and committed suicide. If it weren’t for my alertness and I hadn’t taken measures to ensure that the incense was harmless, wouldn’t I be unable to explain myself? Moreover, so many ladies have been hurt. So the matter must be thoroughly investigated!”

Baili Qingcang turned to look at the Empress with a solemn expression in his eyes. “Empress, what do you think of this matter?”

“Your Majesty, this matter is really complicated. I originally wanted to help the other consorts sleep better. But I did not expect something unexpected happened. I was almost made use of by others and misunderstood Ninghua. The person behind this was sinister and framed all of us. Your Majesty, please scrutinize.” Zhao Huiying frowned, her voice was elegant and generous, showing not any trace of uneasiness.

Baili Qingcang’s serious gaze gradually softened. The Empress was not as magnanimous as she looked outwardly. But the Crown Prince’s position was stable. So there was no need for her to harm an unborn child whose gender was uncertain.

“Chen Yun, I’ll leave this matter to you. Investigate it thoroughly to find the person behind it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Ninghua, get up.” Seeing that Shen Ninghua’s face turned pale because of kneeling on the ground for so long, Baili Qingcang felt very distressed. The series of things happened too suddenly. As an emperor, he had no choice but to express his stance. Even if he trusted Shen Ninghua in his heart, he could not be too biased. As a result, he had to let her suffer grievances.

Shen Ninghua did not stand up as ordered. Instead, she raised her eyes to look at Baili Qingcang. “Father Emperor, Consort Yin mentioned several incidents. The incense is only one of them. There is also the assassination of the Imperial Guards. I must analyze them one by one. Otherwise, my innocence won’t be easily proved.”

“Assassination of the Imperial Guards… What do you want to say?”

Shen Ninghua looked at Chu Junyi.

Chu Junyi stepped forward and bowed. “Father Emperor, I can explain this matter.”

“You?”

“Yes, because some of the black-clothed men who went to assassinate us were captured alive by me!”

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