Chapter 58: Let Me In
Ruyue stood off to the side, panic surging through her veins.
It’s over!
If an imperial physician were actually summoned, wouldn’t their secret—drugging the Second Prince of the Snake Clan—be exposed?
She stole a glance at Li Qinghe’s face and found the princess’s expression was no better than her own.
Clearly, Li Qinghe had also realized the gravity of the situation. Consequently, when Empress Lin issued her command, the maids standing in the hall remained motionless, having received no signal from their mistress.
Seeing this, the fury in Empress Lin’s heart deepened.
“Princess Qinghe, what is the meaning of this?”
Empress Lin was, after all, the mother of a clan. Li Qinghe’s uncharacteristic behavior naturally confirmed her suspicions.
“Mo’er is in this state because you drugged him, isn’t it?”
Jun Mo was usually full of life and vigor in her presence. Yet, after not seeing him for merely half a month, he was now lying on the bed, lifeless and still.
Empress Lin felt as though her heart were being pierced by needles; the pain was unbearable.
Seeing that things had reached this point, Li Qinghe had no choice but to feign a look of distress. She walked up to Empress Lin.
“Snake Empress, please, do not be anxious.”
She adopted a pained expression. “In truth, Qinghe should have told you about this long ago. I was only afraid that you would be angry if you heard it.”
Li Qinghe frantically searched her mind for a justification for drugging Jun Mo, completely failing to notice the dark expression settling on Empress Lin’s face.
Upon hearing these words, how could Empress Lin not know what game she was playing? She was making excuses for herself.
She simply stared at Li Qinghe with a sullen face, waiting to see just how eloquently she could spin this lie.
Meanwhile, Li Qinghe, immersed in formulating an explanation for the sleeping drug, failed to detect the murderous intent in Empress Lin’s eyes. She continued her fabrication:
“Since the Snake Empress has discovered it, Qinghe will no longer hide it from you.”
Wearing an expression of deep grief, Li Qinghe continued, “Ever since the Second Prince became pregnant, his temper has been volatile. A few days ago, the imperial physician warned that if he continued this way, it would trigger a miscarriage.”
“And a miscarriage would cause immense damage to his body.”
Surely, Empress Lin would not want Jun Mo’s body to suffer any harm, right?
She spoke this way to appeal to a mother’s pity for her child, hoping she would understand her actions. It was a ploy to deflect from the reality that she had drugged him.
“Thus, for the safety of both him and the child…” Li Qinghe feigned a look of reluctance. “So, following the imperial physician’s advice, once he had calmed down and finished his meal, I administered some medicine to help him sleep peacefully.”
“But please, rest assured, Snake Empress.”
After saying this, Li Qinghe made sure to guarantee the safety of the drug, fearing the Empress would suspect she was harming Jun Mo.
“This medicine poses no danger whatsoever to the Second Prince’s body or the child in his womb. It simply allows him to rest peacefully. He will wake up before long.”
Empress Lin had listened for quite some time, fire practically shooting from her eyes. How could she not hear the implication in Li Qinghe’s words?
She found her son too noisy and troublesome, so she had simply drugged him into silence.
It was absolutely intolerable.
Empress Lin had always loved her son more than her own life; she could never bear to let him suffer even the slightest hardship or fatigue. Yet now, having come to the Phoenix Clan, her son was being treated like this.
How could she continue to endure it?
She raised her hand and delivered a series of sharp slaps—smack, smack, smack—ruthlessly across Li Qinghe’s cheeks.
“You wretched girl, do you take This Palace for dead?”
Empress Lin roared, her face twisted with uncontrollable rage. “Whether my son wants to fight or make a scene is his prerogative! Who are you to make decisions for him? Do you have a death wish?”
If this were the Snake Clan, Li Qinghe would have already been hacked into a thousand pieces by Empress Lin. She never would have been allowed to strut around so arrogantly in front of her.
Empress Lin’s unconventional reaction stunned everyone. Even Ruyue, standing to the side, was too terrified to make a sound.
Amongst the Hundred Clans, who didn’t know that Empress Lin had been a hot-tempered beauty in her youth? For hundreds of years, no one had ever dared to speak to her with their head held high or defy her will.
Cheng Momo, who had served her since childhood, knew this better than anyone.
In Cheng Momo’s eyes, Li Qinghe’s words just now were a death wish. She hadn’t considered who she was dealing with before acting so presumptuously. If that wasn’t asking for a beating, what was?
“As I see it, you have a guilty conscience,” Empress Lin asserted firmly. “I was unaware the Phoenix Clan had birthed such a thing as you.”
Li Qinghe was completely dazed by Empress Lin’s slaps.
Since leaving the Hall of Supreme Harmony, she had rarely been slapped in the face—in fact, she hadn’t been beaten at all.
Empress Lin’s slaps made her feel as though she had returned to those days of humiliation in the Hall of Supreme Harmony: that sense of helplessness and suppression, wanting to fight back but not daring to, forcing her to endure in silence.
Li Qinghe’s eyes turned red, and she fought hard to force back the tears welling up within them.
She clenched her fists, took a deep breath, and slowly regulated her breathing to calm herself before asking, “Snake Empress, what is the meaning of this?”
No matter what, Li Qinghe was now the Second Princess of the Phoenix Clan.
She had bowed and scraped before Empress Lin time and again, lowering the dignity of a Phoenix princess to the absolute minimum. Yet, this Snake Empress not only refused to let it go but had even resorted to physical violence.
Naturally, she would no longer indulge the other party at the expense of her own dignity.
“If you are truly dissatisfied, you can go and say so directly to my Mother Empress. Why make things difficult for a junior here?”
Although Li Qinghe felt guilty about mistreating Jun Mo—starving him and drugging him—she had not forgotten that this was the Phoenix Clan.
Empress Lin was merely from the Snake Clan; no matter how capable she was, her reach could not extend here. Even if she guessed the truth, so what? Without any concrete evidence, what could a foreign empress do to her?
At this thought, Li Qinghe’s anxiety and insecurity vanished, replaced by the anger and resentment of having been humiliated.
Seeing Li Qinghe’s demeanor, how could Empress Lin not guess what she was thinking?
She trembled inwardly with rage. She narrowed her viper-like eyes, wanting nothing more than to strangle the woman on the spot.
But she knew this was the Phoenix Clan, not a place where she could act recklessly.
Even if this wretched girl truly harbored ill intentions toward her son, she needed evidence. Otherwise, mere words would indeed be hard to make this wretched girl submit.
“Why are you blocking me? Let me in!”
Just as the two locked eyes, neither willing to back down, a sudden commotion erupted outside Qihua Hall.
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