Chapter 689: The Truth (2/2)
The empress followed up with, “Emperor, the imperial doctors have confirmed that the pastries did contain deadly poison. Official Yu wasn’t trying to deceive you!”
“Yes, Yes! It’s just that my body reacts more quickly to poison so we could see through the enemy’s insidious tricks in time——your majesty, how about this subject helps you try these dishes to see if they are safe?” Yu Xiaocao was dissatisfied with the speed that her man was using to pick up food and her stomach was gurgling in revolt. She thought of a reasonable excuse to eat the imperial food that had a variety of flavors and colors first.
The head chef, who was standing off to the side with his head down and trying to minimize his presence, was also trembling inside. Although he cooked these dishes by himself and none of them had been touched by anyone else, the pastry this morning had poison in it despite having no accidents in any part of the process. The new cook had nowhere to reason to!
Zhu Junyang disagreed, “This morning, the poison had already entered your body. If you were to get poisoned again, what if your body broke down?”
“I’ve already taken the antidote and will be immune to any poison for 24 hours!” Yu Xiaocao said with certainty, exaggerating a bit, “For the sake of the safety of the rulers of the country and the future crown prince, as an official, I should take the lead and lay down my life for them...”
“Shut up!” Zhu Junyang didn’t care what she said and confiscated her chopsticks, in case she decided to ‘lay down her life’ for them. Then he would be left all alone in this world, what would he do then? Thinking back now, he still was a little scared. If Xiaocao didn’t have a habit of carrying antidote pills around with her and if the poison was a little stronger, he would probably be looking at a cold corpse of the lass right now. At the thought of this, the dark demon in his mind started to move.
“Alright, alright! I’ll shut up, is that better? Don’t get so worked up, calm down, calm down!” Zhu Junyang’s emotional changes were clearly sensed by Xiaocao who was sitting beside him. She was afraid that if he lost his temper then he would flip the empress’s Kunning Palace so she quickly pacified him.
Zhu Junyang threw away the chopsticks in his hands and hugged her tightly in his arms. He felt the warmth of her body and smelled the fragrance coming from her hair. The panic he felt calmed down a little, “As long as you’re well, then I will be well!”
“Ok, ok, ok! Both of us will be well, living until we are a hundred with a group of children and grandchildren!” Yu Xiaocao’s small hands smoothly slipped from his waist to his back, gently patting him, and softly soothed him.
Zhu Hanwen had naturally never seen such an intimate action before and his face turned red with embarrassment. The empress, too, sheepishly looked away and pretended to tidy up the dishes.
Zhu Junfan coughed in a very obvious manner and said, “You guys should be careful not to show off your love all over ok? Eat, eat, the food is becoming cold!”
Next, Zhu Junyang continued doing things his way, picking some food, taking a bite, and leaving what was left for his wife to eat. At the end of the dinner, Xiaochao felt she was only half full. She drank a sip of tea and weakly asked, “Where’s the dessert?”
The head chef who led the eunuchs to clear the table thought, ‘Princess Consort Xu is pretty brave. She just had a scare this morning with the pastries, but now she still dares to ask for dessert.’
He bowed and said, “Your Highness, there are only two imperial pastry chefs in the imperial kitchen. One of them is on vacation, and the other is…” This meant she shouldn't be thinking about dessert.
”Then... cut a platter of fruit and bring it here! Strawberries, cherries, muskmelon.... these fruits, bring whichever ones you like!” Due to the greenhouses, these fruits were available on the estate in the suburbs of the capital and should be placed on the market.
The head chef glanced at the emperor. Upon seeing him nod his head, he said, ”Yes, I will go wash some of them by hand right now.”
Zhu Junfan then continued on the topic before dinner, ”Junyang, see, Su Ran still hasn't come back. There is no progress in the investigation. Since your wife thinks highly of you, how about... you go over and take a look? ”
Zhu Junyang had long wanted to find out the guy who wanted to harm his wife. He was naturally duty-bound. He wasn’t gone for long. Before Xiaocao could even finish eating her plate of fruit, they already had an answer.
It turned out that on the way from the imperial kitchen, the palace maid who was serving the meal had met a fellow villager, an ordinary eunuch who was not astonishing in appearance. She was stopped to say a few words. As they spoke, the food box was placed on the railing under the porch, and that was when something went wrong.
This little eunuch was someone who was moved by money. He accepted the money of a fellow eunuch who had regular contact with him. They wanted him to stop his fellow villager maidservant who was in charge of passing the food along and say he wanted to marry her. The maidservant got mad and scolded him before picking up the food box to take it back to Kunning Palace.
After extracting this information from the fellow villager eunuch, Zhu Junyang caught the eunuch who had paid the money. When they caught him, the eunuch saw that the matter was revealed, and he bit through the poisonous pill in his mouth and wanted to commit suicide. Zhu Junyang forced down an antidote pill into the eunuch and saved him.
Zhu Junyang used his mind-reading ability and assaulted the eunuch's mind. He found the person behind his actions, who was a spy who entered the palace at the same time as Su Ran. He was an old eunuch who had been guarding the cold palace for more than 20 years.