The emperor was enraged by Concubine Li's words and kicked her directly. "Where is the Fourth Prince?"
Lin Yu: [Did we forget something?]
Lin Yu: [We haven't told the emperor that the Fourth Prince was saved by Baozhu.]
The Dragon King: [What's the rush? Let's watch the emperor kick someone first.]
The Immortal Qingyun: [No hurry. Wait until the emperor has dealt with this woman.]
The Immortal Qingyun: [Baozhu, don't say a word for now.]
Just as Shen Baozhu was about to say that the Fourth Prince was in the Princess Mansion, she saw the Immortal Qingyun's message. She immediately covered her mouth and reminded Yan Mingli, "Brother Mingli, let's keep quiet for now."
Yan Mingli was already startled by the emperor's action. He nodded nervously. "Okay, we won't say a word, not a word."
While they reached an agreement on this side, Concubine Li on the other side had already guessed that the emperor knew the truth. It wasn't that she was smart, but the emperor's action of kicking her was so abnormal.
Concubine Li had been in the palace for several years, and this was the first time she had seen the emperor get physical.
In front of the emperor, Concubine Li, who had always been self - assured, finally felt nervous. The queen had raised the Third Prince like a precious treasure. Not only had she fed the Fourth Prince the "Elixir of Stupidity", but she had also allowed the eunuchs in the palace to abuse him. When the queen advised her to be nicer to the Fourth Prince, she had even become more cruel.
Concubine Li was stupid, and the emperor could see through her thoughts at a glance.
A sense of unease rose in the emperor's heart. "Why are you nervous? What have you done? Speak up!"
If Cui Zhengping had been here and seen that the emperor had guessed part of the truth, he would surely have advised Concubine Li to confess a part of it. But unfortunately, Concubine Li was too stupid. She just sobbed, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Your servant has done nothing. Your servant doesn't know where the Fourth Prince is either."
The emperor was furious and retorted, "You are the mother of the Fourth Prince. You've raised him for seven years. If you don't know where he is, who does?"
The Dragon King: [Kick her again! You can't get anything just by asking.]
Lin Yu: [Don't be so violent.]
The Dragon King: [She abused the Fourth Prince. She deserves it.]
The Dragon King: [Think about what the Fourth Prince looked like at first. He was about as tall as our little cutie, all covered in dust. After we washed him, there were still many wounds on his body. And this was after he took four pills!]
The Dragon King: [The immortal's pills are so miraculous. The wound on our little cutie's forehead healed instantly. The Fourth Prince took four pills and still wasn't fully recovered. It just shows how badly he was hurt.]
The Dragon King: [This woman swapped the Third Prince with the queen. She watched the Third Prince become the crown prince and do all kinds of evil, while she herself abused the queen's son. Such a vicious woman deserves more beatings!]
Lin Yu was convinced by the Dragon King. [She really does deserve a beating.]
The emperor interrogated her a few more times, but Concubine Li couldn't tell him where the Fourth Prince was. She stammered, "When your servant went to look for the Fourth Prince today, he was already missing. Your servant really doesn't know where he is."
This statement made the emperor laugh out of anger.
The emperor picked up the inkstone on the table and threw it at Concubine Li's feet, scaring her into curling up.
Concubine Li cried out, "Your servant really doesn't know!"
"Such a nice 'I don't know'. Then do you know that the Fourth Prince is the crown prince of Dayong?" The emperor looked at Concubine Li coldly and began to test if she had really swapped the children.
Concubine Li was stunned and subconsciously retorted, "No. The Third Prince is the crown prince."
The Dragon King: [She's still daydreaming!]
The emperor also thought Concubine Li was daydreaming. "The Third Prince has been deposed by me. The Fourth Prince is the queen's own son. He should be the crown prince of Dayong."
"No! The Fourth Prince is a fool. How can he be the crown prince? No, the Third Prince is the queen's son. The Fourth Prince was born by your servant. He doesn't deserve to be the crown prince, let alone compete with the Third Prince!" Concubine Li blurted out without thinking.
The Dragon King: [Stop talking nonsense. Just beat her!]
The Immortal Qingyun: [Is the emperor waiting for the Cui family woman to admit the child - swapping by herself, or does he not believe that she could do such a thing?]
The Dragon King: [If it wasn't a swap, could it be a mistake? If it was a mistake, why did Cui fawn over the Third Prince?]
The Dragon King: [Is this emperor blinded by beauty?]
Shen Baozhu whispered to Yan Mingli, "Brother Mingli, what does 'blinded by beauty' mean?"
Yan Mingli whispered back, "It means a person loses his mind when he sees a beautiful woman."
Concubine Li was quite good - looking. She had an oval face, and under her pair of curved willow - leaf eyebrows were gentle and amorous peach - blossom eyes. This good looks was her capital to gain a foothold in the harem.
But in Shen Baozhu's eyes, no matter how beautiful Concubine Li was, she couldn't be more eye - catching than the wounds on the Fourth Prince's body. She loudly reminded the emperor, "Uncle Emperor, you can't be blinded by beauty. This bad woman didn't give the Fourth Prince enough to eat and even allowed others to bully him. The Fourth Prince was covered in wounds."
The whole hall fell into silence again. Everyone else looked at Shen Baozhu in horror.
But Shen Baozhu didn't realize that she had said something shocking. She stomped angrily up to Concubine Li. "You swapped the Third Prince with Aunt Queen. You watched the Third Prince become the crown prince and do all kinds of evil, while you yourself abused Aunt Queen's son. You're so vicious!"
Concubine Li was shocked and subconsciously tried to excuse herself. "No, it wasn't me who swapped them. It was a mistake..."
Shen Baozhu, with her small body, was full of momentum. "It was a swap! If it was a mistake, why did you fawn over the Third Prince?"
Lin Yu: [This sounds so familiar. Where have I heard it before?]
The Dragon King: [Good job, good job, little cutie! You should scold her like this!]
Hearing Shen Baozhu defending the Fourth Prince, the emperor felt a bit uncomfortable. He quickly explained, "Baozhu misunderstood. I'm not blinded by beauty. I just need to know if the Cui family was involved before I convict Cui."
"The elder brother of Lady Cui is the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. I can't just make random assumptions and wrongly convict him."
The Dragon King: [So that's the case. I wrongly blamed the emperor.]
Shen Baozhu looked at the message thoughtfully. It turned out that she had wrongly blamed Uncle Emperor. Just as she was about to apologize to the emperor, Concubine Li beat her to it.
"Your Majesty, it was all your servant's idea. Your servant's elder brother didn't know about it!" Concubine Li knew that she couldn't hide it from the emperor. She had been reckless in the Yunshang Palace. Before, the emperor hadn't thought in this direction, but once the emperor investigated, all her deeds would be exposed.
She grabbed the emperor's robe, with only one thought in her mind: to protect the Cui family and her elder brother.
Concubine Li finally showed some sense. As long as there was a mountain left, there would be firewood. The emperor didn't have many heirs, and the Fourth Prince was a fool. As long as the Cui family was still there and her elder brother was still the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, with the relationship between the Third Prince and the queen, there might still be a chance for the Third Prince to seize the throne.
In her panic, Concubine Li forgot about how she had sowed discord between the queen and the Third Prince. Or rather, she had already forgotten about it.
When the Third Prince was crowned the crown prince and doted on by the queen, she couldn't bear to see her son get close to the queen. She had sown discord everywhere and even wished that the Third Prince would break with the queen, completely forgetting that the Third Prince had become the crown prince because of his mother's status.
Now that the Third Prince had fallen from grace, she deluded herself into thinking that the queen would still protect the Third Prince out of old affection.
Concubine Li knelt at the emperor's feet, recounting the old feelings and taking all the blame on herself.
The emperor looked at Concubine Li with a solemn expression. In the end, he didn't ask Shen Baozhu for another truth - telling talisman. Instead, he said coldly, "Choose one from the white silk, poisoned wine, or dagger."