Chapter 368: Chapter 368

"Princess Consort, you... what did you say? Mother put something in your tea?"

The crisp sound of a teacup breaking echoed distinctly in the originally silent room.

At this moment, Yin Si even wondered if his ears were playing tricks on him.

His own birth mother drugging his princess consort? What kind of ghost story was this?

He was about to ask if it was a misunderstanding, but when he saw the obvious cold fury on her face and the handkerchief stained with tea, he abruptly fell silent.

Having been married for over a year, Yin Si knew his princess consort's temperament very well, but Mother...

Thinking back to his mother's various dissatisfactions with this marriage earlier, after a moment of silence, Yin Si finally spoke with some unease:

"What kind of medicine? Has this matter, has it..."

"And when Suyun returned to the residence, she deliberately brought back several prescriptions for fertility-enhancing medicine..."

This way, even if someone saw them, they would only think the Eighth Princess Consort couldn't bear the pressure from the palace urging her to conceive, and had sent her maid to get medicine right after leaving the palace.

Seeing that the shock on his face didn't seem feigned, Guo Luoluo felt slightly relieved as she sat by the kang table and began to explain.

"As for that medicine, even the physician didn't recognize it."

No matter how angry she was, Guo Luoluo hadn't lost her rationality.

She knew well that whether it was a daughter-in-law groundlessly suspecting her palace mother-in-law, or Consort Shu in the palace targeting her daughter-in-law, either scenario leaking out would be extremely detrimental to their household.

Husband and wife were one entity - when one prospered, both prospered, and she understood this well.

"Princess Consort..."

It had to be said, at this moment, looking at his elegant and dignified princess consort before him, the Eighth Prince suddenly felt an indescribable sense of relief. Thankfully...

He comfortingly grasped her hand:

"Fortunately my princess consort is intelligent and magnanimous. Otherwise, the consequences today would have been unimaginable..."

From what he knew, back during the Imperial Noble Consort incident, when the Emperor only had some suspicion, he had already treated them mother and son this way over the years. If...

And Consort Chen Mother, her conduct had always been generous and upright. In his view, she possessed rare gentlemanly virtues. As long as there was no concrete evidence that his mother was behind that incident, she wouldn't deliberately target them mother and son.

But... medicine that even the old physician couldn't identify?

It seemed that Consort Chen's health back then was indeed very likely his mother's doing.

Thinking of that extraordinarily beautiful figure in his memory, complex emotions flashed in the Eighth Prince's eyes. Turning to his princess consort beside him, he said apologetically:

"In the future, if there's nothing important, it would be better for you to visit the palace less frequently."

Upon hearing this, Guo Luoluo raised an eyebrow, her beautiful eyes fixed on the man before her. Finally, she chuckled lightly:

"My lord, aren't you going to enter the palace to ask? Perhaps there's some misunderstanding about this matter?"

The Eighth Prince couldn't help but laugh bitterly.

What misunderstanding could there be? Although they didn't yet know the exact composition of this medicine, there was a saying: if something was truly good, why would it need to be done so sneakily? For her own daughter-in-law, she could have given it directly.

"Princess Consort, rest assured. I believe when you become pregnant, Mother will naturally find out."

In any case, Yin Si was genuinely frightened now.

Earlier he had repeatedly warned her, but unexpectedly, while Mother agreed readily on the surface, she still acted this way behind his back.

Fearing that with her stubbornness, if one scheme failed, she would continue trying, he decided it would be better to have his princess consort avoid her for now!

In the dimly lit room, the Eighth Prince rubbed his temples with some exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Lady Guargiya, who thought she had successfully accomplished her mission and was happily waiting for good news in the palace: "..."

Over the following months, seeing her daughter-in-law's frequency of paying respects indeed decreased significantly, Consort Shu mistakenly assumed something else. Occasionally glancing at her daughter-in-law's belly, her mood became unusually cheerful.

Seeing where her gaze fell, under her wide sleeves, Guo Luoluo dug her nails deeply into her palms...

It had to be said, it was truly a beautiful misunderstanding.

Within the spiritual sea, the system, bored from having nothing to do and spending its days searching for gossip to enjoy, nearly laughed out loud.

However, there was one thing the system didn't quite understand:

"If it's not something bad, can't she just give it directly?"

Why bother sneaking around? Wasn't she afraid of being misunderstood?

Staring pitifully at its host who was leisurely reclining on the couch, enjoying a beautiful woman massaging her shoulders, the system couldn't help looking confused.

An Ning wasn't surprised by this. Taking a bite of the lychee fed to her mouth, she found herself in the mood to explain:

"Haven't you noticed that this Consort Shu has actually been quite cautious all along?"

"Ca... cautious? Her?" The system widened its dog-like eyes with an expression that said "don't mess with me":

"In her previous life after getting drunk, she basically confessed directly to the original host!" It was practically a self-exposure!

So where was the caution? Where was the caution!

"Indeed, after nearly twenty years of day and night companionship, apart from that one day when she was overly happy and mistakenly drank Western wine, she never gave the original host the slightest clue. How is that not cautious?"

One had to understand that being able to preserve herself until now in an environment like Xin Zheku showed the original host's mind wasn't lacking.

And yet such an original host had been kept completely in the dark for nearly twenty years.

"And most importantly..." An Ning pondered for a moment:

"System, haven't you noticed that her golden finger, meaning those medicines, apart from herself, even her confidants and her shrewd son remain completely unaware?"

"Even over these years, Kangxi hasn't spared any effort placing informants around her, yet after this incident, those people still haven't detected anything..."

Otherwise, with this emperor's temperament, his treatment of her would be more than just coldness.

Those entrusted with important tasks by the emperor were definitely not incompetents.

"Then there's only one possibility - that she secretly administered this medicine herself from the very beginning, never entrusting it to anyone else, not even her personal maids."

"This was true for the original host, and it's the same for Guo Luoluo now." Though the purposes were completely opposite.

That's why no matter how anyone investigated, they couldn't find anything.

"And don't you find it interesting?" Seeing the system's expression, An Ning couldn't help but chuckle:

"Against the original host, this so-called 'Eighth Prince's birth mother,' she could strike hard, but against the ultimate winner, even the main culprit who harmed the 'Eighth Prince' - the Fourth Prince - this Consort Shu didn't even have the intention to act!"

Why? Was it because she didn't want to?

The answer was that she was unwilling to take risks.

"From what we can see now, this person has only done two things: first, drugging the original host, and second, targeting Guo Luoluo, her daughter-in-law."

Looking only at the results, both ended badly, more or less exposed, making the gains not worth the losses.

At that time, the original host was just the daughter of a convicted official with no background. No matter how beautiful she was, given Kangxi's temperament, the possibility of promotion without children was almost nonexistent - at best she might become a Noble Lady.

For such people, the Imperial Physicians were most tight-lipped. Just like the original host, in her previous life she never knew her body had been ruined throughout her entire life.

As for Guo Luoluo, fertility medicine was different from others. If not for her sudden inspiration that day, the possibility of exposure was almost nonexistent.

Of course, the most important thing was the Eighth Prince's body.

"Lady Guargiya shows traces of having used health-boosting medicine or marrow-cleansing medicine, but the Eighth Prince himself shows no signs of having used such medicines."

"Not to mention distant matters, just look at the fact that he still has no offspring to this day."

As for the reason? An Ning speculated that when he was young, she was probably afraid a child couldn't withstand the medicine's effects. When the Eighth Prince grew older and more aware, she didn't dare, fearing the obvious effects would make him detect something unusual.

Of course, if the medicine wasn't sufficient, that would be another matter.

"Even her only son has to be treated with such caution."

Glancing at the obviously stunned system, An Ning snorted lightly:

"After all this, do you still think she's particularly reckless?"