Compared to the liveliness outside, the atmosphere in Fengxi Palace was extremely depressing.
The shock that night made Empress Lu really sick. Even though several days had passed, her face still looked sick. The palace maids in Fengxi Palace tried to walk as lightly as possible, and even Jinzhi and Deshun dared not breathe.
The Fourth Prince's face was covered with wounds, and he roared angrily: "What did you say? Say it again?!"
Doctor Sun said with a bitter face: "Your Highness injured your waist when you fell off your horse. I have tried my best to treat you, but the injury is really irreparable. I am afraid that Your Highness will have uneven legs in the future..."
"Bang!"
The Fourth Prince grabbed something at hand and threw it at Doctor Sun. He sat on the bed and stared at him: "You lied to me, how could I be lame? You lied to me!"
Imperial Doctor Sun quickly stepped back and looked at the Fourth Prince who seemed like he was going crazy, his face full of fear.
Empress Lu hurriedly asked Deshun to hold down the Fourth Prince, and turned to look at Imperial Physician Sun: "The Fourth Prince only had some scratches from falling off his horse. When Imperial Physician He came to treat him two days ago, he said he was fine. How come his condition has suddenly become so serious now?"
Doctor Sun hesitated to speak, and seeing the Queen's stern expression, he lowered his voice: "Your Highness must have injured his waist when he fell off the horse, otherwise he wouldn't have been unable to get off the ground these few days. But he has never used medicine on the wound on his waist, and ordinary external injuries should have scabbed over after a few days of recuperation, but Your Highness's face..."
He hesitated for a moment, looking at the wounds on the Fourth Prince's face that were oozing pus and blood because he was too excited to tear them, and hurriedly lowered his head and said, "Your Highness's face has become festering. Ordinary abrasions shouldn't be like this. Maybe the Imperial Doctor He used different medicine. Why don't you ask Imperial Doctor He to come and ask him?"
Empress Lu looked at Deshun suddenly, and Deshun's face turned pale. "Doctor He has not been on duty for the past two days. I asked the He family and they said that Doctor He's mother was seriously ill and he went back to his hometown to visit her relatives."
"I couldn't find Doctor He, so I asked Doctor Sun to come over."
The Queen and the Fourth Prince had nothing to understand after hearing this.
"He Wengran, he hurt me, he actually dared to hurt me, I will kill him, kill him!!!" The fourth prince's eyes were ferocious and he roared angrily.
Doctor Sun saw that more blood was oozing from his face, and hurriedly said, "Quick, hold His Highness down, don't let him move, otherwise it will affect the injury on his waist. If it gets worse, I'm afraid he won't be able to walk anymore."
The Queen was shocked when she heard this, and quickly ordered Deshun and Jinzhi to step forward and hold down the Fourth Prince. However, the Fourth Prince was too anxious and angry to listen to anything else. She watched him struggle more and more violently, the wound on his face split open, and the pus and blood almost dyed the white gauze on his face red.
"Knock him out!" Queen Lu said sternly.
Deshun quickly took action and slapped the fourth prince on the back of his neck, and the struggling man finally calmed down.
Helping the Fourth Prince lie down, Empress Lu felt extremely heartbroken as she looked at the miserable Prince. She turned her head and said in a deep voice, "Doctor Sun, is the Fourth Prince really hopeless? If you can help me cure the Fourth Prince, I will agree to anything you want."
Doctor Sun knelt on the ground with a bitter face: "Empress, it's not that I can't treat it, it's that I really can't treat it. If you had called me here immediately after Your Highness fell from the horse three or four days in the morning, I would still have 50% to 60% chance of success, but now..."
Facing the Queen's face that could barely conceal her anger, Imperial Physician Sun lowered his head and said, "My humble medical skills are not very good. Your Majesty, why don't you ask other people in the Imperial Medical Bureau, or find a master in treating bone injuries outside? Maybe your Highness can recover as before."
Queen Lu's face turned even worse when she heard this.
Doctor Sun in the Imperial Medical Bureau is already a person of extremely high medical skills, otherwise he would not have been able to sit in the position of deputy director. If she looks for another doctor, let alone whether he can be better than Doctor Sun, wouldn't the news that the prince is disabled be known to everyone? As for looking for those doctors outside, even if she wants to find one, it will not be possible to find one in a short time. Is she going to wait until the fourth prince's leg is completely disabled?
Empress Lu pinched her palms tightly and said, "I believe in the medical skills of Imperial Doctor Sun. I hope Imperial Doctor Sun will do his best to treat the Fourth Prince."
"But Your Highness..." Doctor Sun moved his lips and said cautiously, "Your Highness's legs may have hidden diseases, and after the abscesses on your face are removed, scars may also be left..."
A prince, lame and disfigured.
No one present was unaware of what this meant.
Empress Lu's face turned pale, and in contrast, her eyes were dark and full of creepy. "Sorry to bother you, Doctor Sun. It's just that I don't want others to know about the Fourth Prince's injury."
"My queen…"
Doctor Sun wanted to say that this matter could not be concealed for long, but Empress Lu's eyes were full of gloom. She was afraid that if she said more, her life would be in danger. She swallowed the words that came to her lips and lowered her head: "Your humble servant understands. I will never mention this to anyone. But your highness's injury is not known to me alone. If others learn about it from other sources..."
"Don't worry, as long as you don't say anything, I won't blame you even if the news leaks out."
Doctor Sun felt relieved after hearing this.
The Fourth Prince had only serious abrasions on his face, but after a few days of "medication", the wound worsened, and the blood and pus almost corroded half of his face. Imperial Doctor Sun carefully cleaned the abscess for him, and when the rotten flesh was peeled off to reveal fresh flesh and blood, half of his face was covered in blood.
Seeing that the Fourth Prince was still subconsciously crying out in pain when he fainted, Queen Lu's eyes turned red and bloodshot.
After cleaning the Fourth Prince's face and reapplying medicine, Imperial Physician Sun examined his waist and legs. By the time he took back the silver needle, more than half an hour had passed. Imperial Physician Sun was exhausted and sweating, but he still gave the prescription for future medication to the Queen.
"This is the prescription that the Fourth Prince will take next. Your Majesty will have someone go to the Imperial Medical Bureau to get the medicine later, and bring it back to boil and take it yourself. As for this prescription, I will also make a copy and leave it in the Pulse Records Bureau of the Imperial Medical Bureau. If Your Majesty finds a better doctor, you can go and look at it at any time."
Empress Lu understood that Doctor Sun was actively asking her to check the prescription at any time and to make the medicine herself to prevent the villain from taking action. She softened her expression and said, "Thank you for troubling Doctor Sun."
After ordering someone to send Imperial Physician Sun out, Empress Lu ordered Jinzhi and Deshun to wash the Fourth Prince's body. After changing him into clean clothes, Empress Lu stood up and walked out of the back hall.
"Bring Cheng Ping up."
Deshun responded quickly and turned to go out. Not long after, when he came back, there was a man following him, holding a bloody Cheng Ping in his hand.
His fingers were clamped with sticks and his back was hit with a board, and the blood was all over the ground.
After Cheng Ping was thrown to the ground, he kowtowed repeatedly: "Your Majesty, this servant... this servant has not betrayed Your Highness. This servant has been with Your Highness since he was a child. His life and death, honor and disgrace all depend on Your Highness. This servant would never dare to do anything that would betray me."
"You failed to take good care of the Fourth Prince and failed to stop him from getting into danger in time. It's your fault that the master got hurt!" Queen Lu said coldly.
Cheng Ping's face turned pale, and he felt his heart tremble when he saw the queen's cold eyes.
"I did stop you. I really did. On that day at the polo match, I and the Fourth Prince's wife both advised you not to play. It was the Second Prince who kept irritating you and used the incident at Hengting Pavilion to mock you. That's why you insisted on playing in anger."
"I wanted to accompany him to protect him, but the Second Prince mocked him for being unable to leave his Highness without a eunuch like me, and even said that it was not my turn to play in the game of the nobleman."
The queen lowered her eyes and asked, "What's the matter with Hengting Pavilion?"
Cheng Ping whispered, "It was before His Highness went to the Lu family that day, and he made an appointment with Governor Xiao to meet at Hengting Pavilion. Unexpectedly, he ran into the Second Prince and a few playboys in the capital discussing His Highness and the Lu family. Those people said that His Highness was not as dependent as before after losing the Lu family, and that His Highness was now a lost dog, relying only on the queen to keep up appearances, how could he still have the nerve to dream of the throne."
"His Highness was furious and had a conflict with the Second Prince. They even fought. It was only later that Governor Xiao arrived and stopped them."
Cheng Ping was seriously injured, and he was panting as he spoke too quickly. "His Majesty asked you to investigate the Lu family. You were reluctant at first, but after coming out of Hengting Pavilion, you decided to go to the palace to look for the queen. As a result, there were too many people in the market, so when I changed the route to the palace, I ran into the second prince, the Feng family, and Aunt Bai from the mansion..."
He told Queen Lu what happened that day and the identity of Aunt Bai.
Queen Lu asked in a deep voice, "Are you saying that Aunt Bai is from the Lu family?"
Cheng Ping whispered, "I dare not lie. That day, I and Your Highness saw the Second Prince and Feng Qiuli together. Afterwards, Aunt Bai sneaked to see them. I followed Your Highness's instructions and captured Aunt Bai. I used some tricks to get her to tell me that Aunt Bai was not the daughter of a minor official at all. She was a chess piece picked from a branch of the family by the Lu family and raised since she was a child. Even the food and utensils that Your Highness ate in her room were drugged."
"Why didn't you tell me about this?!" Queen Lu asked sternly.
Cheng Ping's face changed and he didn't dare to speak for a moment.
"You still dare to hesitate, Deshun!"
Seeing the eunuch beside Empress Lu coming towards him, Cheng Ping was immediately excited and hurriedly said, "Your Highness forbade me to tell the Empress. The medicine that Aunt Bai gave Your Highness can make a man's blood and essence strong, and he can have sex with women every day, but once used too much, it will greatly damage the body."
Aunt Bai was gentle, eloquent, and talented, and her body was soft and boneless. When she sang seductively and wantonly in bed, she was bold in a way that was completely different from her daytime self.
The Fourth Prince found it novel and exciting, and stayed in her room for a long time. Whenever he saw her, he couldn't help but have sex with her.
The properties of those medicines were very strong. When used, they could make the Fourth Prince vigorous and energetic. However, once he stopped taking the medicine, the effects would backfire and the Fourth Prince's sexual ability was not as good as before. He even showed some signs of impotence. He had no sexual interest even towards the beautiful women in the mansion.
The Fourth Prince panicked and asked the court physician to check him out. The physician only said that his body was injured by the strong drug and he had become dependent on it. If he could not continue to take the drug in the future, he might not even be able to touch a woman. The Fourth Prince was so angry that he almost beat the court physician to death. How could he let the physician tell the Queen about such a thing?
Queen Lu had already suffered a severe blow today, and when she heard that the Fourth Prince was "no longer able to make it", she almost fainted.
"Empress!" Jinzhi hurriedly supported her.
Queen Lu suppressed the dizziness in her head and asked: "Did the Lu family give you that medicine?"
Cheng Ping said, "I dare not speak nonsense. Aunt Bai told me in person that the medicine was given to her by the Second Master of the Lu Family. When she was sent to the mansion, she also told him to do whatever it takes to preserve the bloodline of His Highness."
"Afterwards, His Highness was afraid that the Lu family had been wrongly accused, so he secretly investigated. After Aunt Bai entered the mansion, she would meet with a man named Feng San every five days to take the medicine from him. I led people to follow that man and found out that Feng San's uncle worked for the Lu family. Although Feng San did not join the Lu family, he did run errands for the Lu family."
Cheng Ping knew how cruel Queen Lu was and how much she cared about her son, the Fourth Prince. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.
"My lady, it's not that I didn't protect Your Highness, it's just that the Lu family and the Second Prince are vicious."
"The Lu family had obviously had other ideas long ago and wanted to abandon His Highness and His Majesty. They knew that even if they had a child with the blood of the Lu family and the royal family, it would take many years for the child to grow up. Right now, he had to push someone to protect the Lu family, so he chose the Second Prince who had no one to rely on."
The other princes all have maternal families with more or less power behind them. Even if they get the help of the Lu family and gain the throne in the future, the Lu family will not get much in return. The only exception is the second prince, whose mother was born a lowly maid and palace servant, and he has no one to rely on.
As long as the second prince can ascend the throne, the Lu family will be able to gain the greatest benefits just like they did when they assisted His Majesty, and they can control the power of the court and maintain the status of the Lu family.
Queen Lu was shaky and staggering, almost unable to stand, but she managed to calm herself down: "You said that day at Hengting Pavilion, where did the Fourth Prince and Xiao Yan meet?"
"yes."
"What about entering the palace later? Was it Xiao Yan who suggested it?"
Cheng Ping was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "No, Governor Xiao had said something to sow discord between the Queen and the Fourth Prince. In order to gain his trust, His Highness pretended to believe him and even deliberately acted angry with the Queen."
"After I came out with Your Highness, I was originally going back to the Prince's Palace. It was because Your Highness wanted to discuss the Lu family's affairs with the Empress that we suddenly decided to go to the palace. When we arrived at the market, we also decided to change the route at the last minute."
"Your Majesty, Lord Xiao has never done anything. It was the Second Prince and the Lu family who wanted to harm Your Highness. They worked together to set up this trap. It is not a pity for me to die, but Your Highness was framed by a villain. I beg Your Majesty to avenge Your Highness!"
Cheng Ping's head was banging loudly and blood soon appeared on his forehead.
When Queen Lu heard Cheng Ping's words, she felt a buzzing in her ears. Seeing that she remained silent, Jinzhi quickly signaled Deshun to cover Cheng Ping's mouth and pull him away.
When the palace was quiet, Jin Zhi whispered, "Your Highness, do you suspect that Xiao Yan plotted against Your Highness that day in Hengting Pavilion?"
Empress Lu whispered, "That eunuch never does anything useless."
While he was trying to please her, he was also trying to sow discord between her and the Fourth Prince. Even when the Fourth Prince suddenly went to investigate the Lu family, it was probably because of his advice to the Emperor. Even though those things had nothing to do with him later, he definitely had no good intentions.
"The Lu family..."
"Bang!"
The queen slammed the table with a ferocious expression: "Lu family, Lu Chongyuan!!"
She had not intended to be so ruthless, and had not intended to destroy the Lu family, but Lu Chongyuan should never, ever touch her prince, and should not destroy all her hopes.
Lame, disfigured, and childless, her prince was completely ruined.
"Jinzhi, have someone tell Xiao Yan that I want to see him."