If not abolished

Chapter 178 Vomiting blood

"I have been practicing medicine for more than ten years. If you can't figure this out, then I'm ruining your reputation. May I ask, Princess, which doctor gave you this prescription? This is not to save you, but to harm you."

"In this case, doctor, please be my witness. Xiaomei, go and ask His Royal Highness to come over." The Crown Prince's wife said to the doctor, "I was wondering why I haven't gotten better after taking medicine for so long. So this is what's going on. If the doctor hadn't come to tell me today, I'd be afraid..."

After a while, Zhu Zhanhe came over. The maid was afraid of alerting the enemy, so she just told Zhu Zhanhe that the Crown Princess wanted to see His Highness for something.

Zhu Zhanhe was originally busy, but he knew that the Crown Prince's Consort was not a meddlesome person. If it was not a very important matter, she would not send someone over specially, so he came over in a hurry.

As soon as Zhu Zhanhe came in, he saw the doctor in the room and immediately asked nervously, "Why is the doctor here? Is the Crown Princess feeling unwell?"

"Your Highness," the Crown Princess got up from the bed, "Xiaomei, please go out first."

"Yes."

Zhu Zhanhe was even more puzzled by her behavior and asked again, "What happened?"

"Doctor, please repeat to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince what you just said to me." The Crown Prince's wife looked at the doctor and said.

"Yes, Your Highness. Just now, the Crown Princess said that she suddenly felt dizzy. I took her pulse and found that her Qi and blood were not enough. Originally, this was not a big problem. After all, it was not long since she had a miscarriage. Then, the Crown Princess showed me the prescription written by another doctor, and I found that there was something wrong with the medicine. One of the medicines was not only useless to the Crown Princess's body, but also made her weaker and weaker."

"What did you say? Someone actually prescribed such medicine for the Crown Prince's Consort," Zhu Zhanhe couldn't believe it. "Shu Ning, the doctor who prescribed the medicine for you before must be torn into pieces." Zhu Zhanhe was rarely so angry.

"Your Highness, wait a minute, let us ask carefully. Doctor, if you didn't look at the medicine package, if you took the patient's pulse normally or something, would you know that the patient was weak because of taking this medicine?" asked the Crown Prince's wife.

"In reply to the Crown Princess, unless a doctor looks at the medicine bag or the medicine residue, he or she basically cannot tell the patient's pulse. Even if they know that the patient is weak, they have no way of knowing whether the patient has been drugged." The doctor answered truthfully.

"So if I hadn't shown you the medicine bag today, you wouldn't have known about it?"

"Yes, that's why when I felt your pulse at first, I only found that you were deficient in Qi and blood, and didn't find any problems with the medicine."

"I understand. Thank you very much today, doctor. Go and collect your reward. There is one more thing I need your help with, and that is today's matter. I hope you can keep your mouth shut." The Crown Prince's wife requested.

"I understand." The doctor actually didn't want to get involved in this muddy water. It was a matter between dignitaries, so he should not get involved if he could, otherwise his life would be in danger.

After the doctor left, Zhu Zhanhe immediately said, "Who on earth prescribed this medicine for you? I'll immediately arrest him and interrogate him. I want to see who is so bold as to harm the Crown Prince's wife."

"Your Highness, before that, I would like to apologize to you." The Crown Prince's wife knelt down immediately.

Zhu Zhanhe was puzzled, "What are you doing? Why are you apologizing for no reason? Could it be that you drugged yourself?" As Zhu Zhanhe said this, he was about to help her up, but the Crown Prince's wife refused to get up, so Zhu Zhanhe had to give up and wait for her to finish.

"Your Highness, actually this medicine bag does not belong to me. It is the tonic that I had someone secretly take from the kitchen for my mother." The Crown Prince's wife said while kneeling on the ground and raising her head.

Zhu Zhanhe felt a thunderbolt strike his mind, shocking him for a while before he could speak. "You said this was the tonic my mother used to take. How is that possible? My mother's tonics were all specially prepared by my father himself. How could there be a problem..."

"I also know that Your Highness will not believe me if I tell him this, so I specially asked the doctor to come and see him. You heard what the doctor said just now."

"Wait, why do you suddenly suspect that there is something wrong with my mother's death, and you know it's the medicine?" Zhu Zhanhe just thought of this question. Apart from the murderer, who else would suspect that there is something wrong with the death of a princess for no reason, and immediately find evidence of the crime.

"Originally, I had no way of knowing this, but today I overheard Concubine Guo saying it."

"Concubine Guo, what did she... say?" Zhu Zhanhe was surprised again. Could it be that Concubine Guo did it?

The Crown Prince's wife told Zhu Zhanhe everything she heard word for word.

"So it was father who killed mother, but why? Why did father do that? How could mother make father want to kill her?" Zhu Zhanhe couldn't figure out the reason behind this.

"I'm afraid I'll have to ask my father himself. Your Highness, what do you think we should do about this matter?"

Zhu Zhanhe sat on the stool with all his strength. What should he do? What could he do? His father killed his mother. If this were to spread, he would be laughed at by the whole world. Could he kill his father to avenge his mother?

He inexplicably felt a little familiar with this feeling. Yes, when his father wanted to send people to assassinate the emperor and them, he was also in such a dilemma.

That time... Zhu Zhanhe thought about that incident and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind. He seemed to know why his father wanted to kill his mother.

The assassination failed. My father must have known that someone leaked the information. What my mother did was not perfect. If my father had investigated carefully, he would have known that it was my mother's doing. That's why my father came up with such a roundabout way.

So my mother died because of him, and she saved him...

It turned out that he was the one who harmed his mother. It was him. It was him.

Suddenly, Zhu Zhanhe spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Your Highness!" The Crown Princess screamed in fear.

Zhu Zhanhe suddenly fell down, "Someone come, someone come quickly..." the Crown Prince's wife shouted loudly.

"Second Prince, the Crown Prince suddenly vomited blood and fainted. The prince asked you to go and see him." The servant came to invite Zhu Zhanqi.

"Brother, why did you suddenly vomit blood? What happened?" When Zhu Zhanqi heard that his elder brother vomited blood and fainted, he ran out and asked what happened as he walked.

"I am not very clear about this. I only heard that the Crown Prince was talking to the Crown Princess alone in the room at that time, and then something went wrong."

"Has the doctor come to see him?" Zhu Zhanqi was afraid that the mansion was busy with affairs and no one had gone to ask for a doctor.

"What a coincidence! The Crown Prince's wife was not feeling well today, so she just happened to call a doctor. Before the doctor left, something happened to the Crown Prince, so the doctor was pulled over just in time. The doctor said that the Crown Prince was so angry that he was upset, so it was just right for him to spit out the blood."

"So what happened?" Zhu Zhanqi knew that his elder brother had always had a very good temper. If he could make him so angry, it must be a big deal.

As they were talking, the two of them arrived at Zhu Zhanhe's yard.

"Brother, how do you feel?" Zhu Zhanqi hurriedly walked in and asked.

"Why are you here? Aren't you keeping vigil for your mother?" Zhu Zhanhe asked when he saw him coming.

"My father heard that my eldest brother vomited blood and fainted, so he asked me to come and see what happened and why he was so angry?" Zhu Zhanqi asked immediately.

"This is a long story." Zhu Zhanhe sent the servants and the Crown Prince's wife out.

"Brother, you can speak now."

Zhu Zhanhe told Zhu Zhanqi the whole story from beginning to end, including his guess as to why Zhu Gaoxu killed people.

"How can such a man be qualified to be a father or a husband?" After hearing what happened, Zhu Zhanqi angrily slammed the edge of the bed several times.

"But what can we do? Even if we know the truth, can we commit patricide?" Zhu Zhanhe was also angry. For him, he was not only angry, but also blamed himself, so he vomited blood in a fit of rage.

"Since he is capable of killing his first wife, there's nothing wrong with us killing our father. It's the retribution he deserves." Zhu Zhanqi said indignantly, and his tone sounded as if he wanted to take the knife and chop his gangster father to death right now.

"No matter what, he is still our father. He was indeed wrong in this matter, but we still cannot be unfilial..."

"Brother has concerns. Maybe he is reluctant to give up the position of the Crown Prince. If he is reported, he will definitely be deposed, and then you will also be implicated."

"What do you mean? Am I the kind of person who is greedy for fame and fortune?" Zhu Zhanhe didn't expect to be said by his younger brother.

"Since it's not the case, don't worry about filial piety. As the saying goes, a father is kind and a son is filial. If there is any question, he was unkind first, and we were unfilial later."

"But if we go to confront our father like this, he will definitely not admit it." Zhu Zhanhe also knew his father. He was a master of sophistry. If we go like this, he will definitely not admit it. He will even turn the tables and say that someone is trying to alienate their father-son relationship.

"You're right, so we won't go looking for him. Isn't there anyone in this world who can deal with him? Let's go directly to Grandpa Huang with the evidence and let Grandpa Huang punish him. What do you think?"

"You have a point. If we confront him like this, it will probably be ineffective and will alert him, causing him to be on guard and bite back."

"Who said it wasn't true? If he knew that the two of us knew about this, he would probably kill us as well. After all, we are not the only two sons he has." Zhu Zhanqi said with a sneer.

"Humph, do you think father has never had such thoughts? His wife and children are all expendable in front of his great cause."

“So we can’t be soft-hearted.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

The two were startled and asked hurriedly, "Who?"

"Your Highnesses, the palace maid who was with the princess before asked to see you, saying that she has something to give you." The voice of the Crown Prince's wife came from outside.