Chapter 67: Thoroughly investigate the Inner Palace!!

In the Ruyi Palace, Imperial Yu Fei had long since left the palace!

Seeing this, Imperial Physician Jia could only whisper a few words to a head maid in the Ruyi Palace who was about thirty years old.

After hearing Imperial Physician Jia's words, the head maid's face changed again and again. After Imperial Physician Jia left in a hurry, she turned back to the Ruyi Palace and closed the doors tightly.

When Imperial Physician Jia returned to the Qingju Pavilion with the boiled medicine from the Imperial Hospital, Imperial Physician Chen was removing the needles for Qin Yuan, and Lin Jiaojiao was also removing her own needles.

"This duck was served to me by Imperial Yu Fei." Qin Yuan drank the medicine soup, and after completely calming down, looked at the duck meat, which had congealed a layer of white fat.

A surge of anger rose in his heart, "No wonder every time I ate the food she sent, I had to take a nap with her for half a day—"

"Someone, thoroughly investigate the entire Inner Palace for me. I want to see who else is using these base methods to gain favor!"

Although it was Lin Jiaojiao's first time entering the Huang Gong, she had seen plenty of these Inner Palace tactics in palace dramas.

She never expected such a thing to fall on her own head, and even cause her to suffer along with it.

After drinking the medicine soup, her stomach soon began to rumble.

She clutched her stomach, twitched the corners of her mouth in embarrassment, and looked at Qin Yuan apologetically, "Your Majesty, the medicinal properties of the soup I drank have taken effect. I might need to visit the latrine several times today, so I really cannot accompany you—"

Qin Yuan also knew that it was not suitable for him to stay here for long. He stood up, preparing to return to his palace, "Very well, rest well. I have many matters that need to be handled."

Before leaving, he did not forget to instruct Qingdai, who was guarding Lin Jiaojiao, "Qingdai, please take good care of Miss Lin. If anything happens, you may send someone to report at any time."

"Yes." Qingdai responded and bowed, "Respectfully sending off Your Majesty."

"Forgive me for not being able to see you off." Lin Jiaojiao's lower abdomen tightened, and her stomach rumbled again. She was now anxious to send Qin Yuan away so she could go to the latrine.

"It is of no consequence," Qin Yuan looked at Lin Jiaojiao with a comforting gaze, "I will return to the palace first. Another day—another day when there is progress in the case, I will find time to come and inform you."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Lin Jiaojiao broke out in a sweat. As soon as Qin Yuan walked away, she clutched her stomach and ran to the latrine impatiently.

After Qin Yuan returned to the Yangxin Hall, thinking that the case Lin Jiaojiao was involved in concerned the entire Dali Temple, he wanted to send someone to find Song Shijie to discuss countermeasures.

However, at the thought of the miserable, severely injured state Song Shijie was in when he last visited the Lu General Mansion, and guessing that he wouldn't be recovering anytime soon, he sighed and called for Eunuch Gao to first attend to the unpresentable matters of the Inner Palace.

Outside the Huang Gong, Song Shijie was at Xu Xiao's mansion, and he finally waited for his few capable subordinates.

"Chief, this Official Xu...?! " As soon as the subordinates arrived at Xu Xiao's mansion and saw the servants lying all over the place, they all looked at each other in confusion.

When the subordinates saw Xu Xiao lying in filth, they were all so fumigated by the stench that they could barely open their eyes.

They all covered their mouths and noses, "Chief, what happened to Official Xu?"

"The Xu family ate improperly prepared pufferfish, and they all have pufferfish poisoning." Song Shijie's face was pale, his lips colorless.

The knife wounds on his body throbbed, but he still insisted on handling official business.

"This humble one understands."

"Zhang Yi, you are responsible for finding a doctor to treat Official Xu, and at the same time, monitor the movements of the Xu mansion at all times."

"Li Er, you are responsible for thoroughly investigating the Dali Temple fire case."

"Niu San, you are responsible for reorganizing the female prisoners and rebuilding the women's prison."

"Liu Si, you..." Before he could finish speaking, Song Shijie swayed and with a "thud," fainted on the table!

"Chief! Chief! Chief!" The four subordinates hurriedly went up to check the situation. When Liu Si touched his forehead, he discovered that Song Shijie had a fever!

"The Chief has a fever! I will carry him back to the Song mansion to find a doctor first, and wait until he wakes up to take orders." Liu Si was the quickest to react among the subordinates, and the other three agreed with his arrangement.

After Liu Si finished speaking with the other three, he carried Song Shijie on his back and hurried away from the Xu mansion.

When they reached the entrance, Liu Si, carrying Song Shijie, encountered an extremely magnificent ceremonial procession.

This ceremonial procession had more than twenty people. Leading the way was a head maid dressed in light pink gauze, and walking beside her was a head eunuch. They led eight little eunuchs carrying a palanquin through the streets, attracting passersby to kneel and look sideways.

Liu Si knew that the person in the palanquin was someone from the Inner Palace. Even though he was in a hurry, due to the red tape that could cost him his life, he had to step aside, lower his head, and make way for this majestic ceremonial procession of the Inner Palace.

"Arrived at the Xu mansion, stop the palanquin—" When they reached the entrance of the Xu mansion, the leading eunuch shouted at the top of his lungs, and the ceremonial procession slowly stopped.

After the palanquin was completely steady, a noble Imperial Concubine stood up from the palanquin draped in pink gauze and stepped down with the support of a maid.

The woman who stepped down was Imperial Yu Fei. She had just come out of the palace. After learning from the Emperor in the palace that her father had been poisoned, she hurriedly arranged the ceremonial procession to come and visit her relatives.

Imperial Yu Fei, who had stepped off the palanquin, did not see the Xu mansion steward come out to welcome her, but instead saw Liu Si carrying Song Shijie on his back. She couldn't help but glare at him fiercely, "Who is that standing there sneakily?"

When the leading eunuch saw that his master was unhappy, he immediately walked over and shouted at Liu Si at the top of his lungs, "Seeing Imperial Yu Fei, why don't you kneel!"

"This humble one, this humble one is carrying Official Song, it is inconvenient to kneel." Liu Si really couldn't kneel, but he didn't want to offend anyone from the Inner Palace, so he could only bow and apologize, "I hope Imperial Yu Fei will be magnanimous."

"Official Song? Is it Song Shijie?" Imperial Yu Fei parted her vermilion lips, and a pair of peach-blossom eyes looked at the man on Liu Si's back.

She saw Song Shijie fainted on Liu Si's back, his face pale, and streaks of blood flowing from his wounds seeping through his clothes. Her heart tightened, and the worry in her eyes was almost ready to burst forth.

Seeing Song Shijie in this state, she almost forgot the purpose of her trip out of the palace.

She walked over and looked at Song Shijie carefully again. In her mind, Song Shijie was still that cold and ruthless young man. She had never seen him in such a miserable state before!

Imperial Yu Fei was puzzled: what on earth had happened to make Song Shijie hurt like this?!

She stretched out a slightly trembling hand, wanting to touch his forehead, but halfway through, she remembered her status and could only helplessly drop her hand.

Even the tone of her voice lost its previous arrogance and was mixed with a trace of concern and nervousness: "What happened to Song Shijie? Is he poisoned too?"