noffsinger Chapter 564: Queen Shi is Poisoned
Chapter 564: Queen Shi is Poisoned
"It's okay." Lu Yan shook her head and avoided Jiang Suining's inquiring gaze.
Jiang Suining was worried and asked again, "You suddenly left the palace today. Did you go home or somewhere else?"
Ayan is not a person who shows her emotions too much on a daily basis. The way she looks now, it seems that something has happened.
Lu Yan glanced at Jiang Suining, but still said nothing. She just shook her head and said, "I'm fine. The Emperor and the Empress should be here soon. We just need to concentrate on the banquet."
Hearing this, Jiang Suining didn't dare to continue asking.
Lu Yan quickly calmed herself down, put on an appropriate smile, and stared at the banquet with Jiang Suining and the others.
Not long after, Concubine Cheng, Xiao Yue, Xiao Yi, Emperor Xiao and Empress Shi all arrived one after another.
Everyone took their seats and the banquet officially began.
The Laba Banquet is similar every year. This year, apart from the larger scale, there are not many changes in other aspects. According to Queen Shi’s request, everything remains the same.
It’s just that they paid more attention to some details and arranged them more appropriately.
At first, when the banquet just started, everyone was a little reserved, but later they gradually started to exchange pleasantries.
Jiang Suining and the others stayed in the hall, on guard at all times and prepared to deal with any emergencies. However, tonight's banquet went exceptionally smoothly, and no accidents occurred until it was almost over.
By the time the reward of Laba porridge was given, the banquet was coming to an end.
Jiang Suining and the others finally felt relieved after being worried for so long.
As the banquet came to an end, everyone stood up and bowed, respectfully bidding farewell to Emperor Xiao and Empress Shi.
But just as Empress Shi followed Emperor Xiao to stand up from her seat, her body suddenly shook.
"Empress, what's wrong with you?" The nanny beside her hurriedly supported Empress Shi.
Emperor Xiao also reached out to support her, "Queen, did you drink a few more glasses just now? Are you a little drunk?"
Queen Shi steadied her body, shook her head and was about to speak, but the next moment, a large mouthful of blood suddenly spurted out.
"Queen!"
"Queen!"
Empress Shi fell down, and Emperor Xiao held her up and said loudly: "Call the imperial physician immediately!"
The palace maids and maids around were suddenly in chaos, and the court officials and female relatives who came to the banquet tonight were all frightened by this scene.
Soon, Empress Shi was helped down, and the imperial physician hurried over. After taking her pulse, he came to the conclusion:
Queen Shi was poisoned.
Emperor Xiao immediately sent people to seal off the entire Qixiang Hall. The imperial physician checked all the food that Empress Shi had consumed tonight, and finally discovered that there was residual poison in the wine that Empress Shi had not yet finished drinking.
In the Queen's bedroom, Jiang Suining, Lu Yan and others were kneeling on the ground. All the palace maids and eunuchs in charge of the entire banquet were also detained outside.
"Your Majesty, the wine has been carefully checked before being served. There will definitely not be any problems." Jiang Suining knelt on the ground and spoke with a frown.
"The imperial physician found poison in the wine, and it is highly toxic. If the queen had drunk a few more sips tonight, she would probably have died by now. And you still dare to tell me that there is nothing wrong with the wine!" Emperor Xiao was furious.
The palace maids and eunuchs nearby knelt on the ground, all with their heads lowered, not daring to breathe.
Lu Yan and Wei Yao also looked unhappy, showing their extreme nervousness. He Qingrui was even more frightened and shrank back, kneeling behind Jiang Suining and the others with her head lowered, her face looking frighteningly pale.
Jiang Suining gritted his teeth secretly, calmed down, and continued: "Your Majesty, we are not shirking our responsibilities. It's just that we haven't investigated it clearly yet, and we really don't know where the poison in the wine came from."
Lu Yan also said quickly: "Your Majesty, please give us a little more time. We will definitely find out what is going on..."
"Enough, I don't want to listen to your nonsense. If anything happens to the Queen, no matter where the mistake is, I will never forgive you!" Emperor Xiao said in a cold tone.
Although everyone in the palace now says that he favors Concubine Cheng, Emperor Xiao and Empress Shi are, after all, a young couple who have been together for many years and have a love for each other that no one else can match.
"Your Majesty, the Empress is vomiting blood again!" A cry of surprise came from the inner room of the bedroom. Emperor Xiao didn't bother to say anything else and walked quickly into the inner room.
After Emperor Xiao left, He Qingrui, who was originally kneeling on the ground, was so frightened that she fell to the ground in panic.
"What, what should we do? Will something happen to the Queen? If something happens to the Queen, then we..."
"Don't talk nonsense, the Queen will be fine!" Lu Yan interrupted He Qingrui. Although she said this, she could not suppress the panic on her face.
Jiang Suining knelt on the ground, his brows fixed, "What went wrong? All the drinks were checked before they were served, and since several people were working together to serve the drinks, it would be difficult for them to tamper with the process."
"That's right, why was it only the wine that the Queen drank that was poisoned?" Lu Yan was also very confused.
A thought suddenly occurred to Jiang Suining, "Unless..."
"Unless what? Suining, have you thought of the reason?" He Qingrui asked hurriedly.
"Unless the poison was put in the cup instead of the wine."
When Jiang Suining said this, Lu Yan was stunned, and then said: "It is very likely! The wine has been carefully checked, there shouldn't be any problems. However, the wine glasses and bowls and dishes have been placed on the seats early, and everyone's seat is fixed. If you want to poison, you only need to take the opportunity to put the poison in the wine glass."
"That's right, that's probably the reason." He Qingrui also said quickly, but then frowned, "But how can we prove it?"
"Check the wine on the Queen's table. If there is no poison in the wine pot but there is poison in the wine glass, then it proves that the poison was put in the glass. But the problem is, even if we prove this, we can't be sure who poisoned her." Jiang Suining took a deep breath and looked at He Qingrui, Lu Yan and the others. "We can only hope that the Queen is safe and sound, otherwise this matter... will be too big."
Jiang Suining's words made Lu Yan and He Qingrui silent again, and they didn't know what to say for a moment.
He Qingrui swallowed nervously, and when she saw Wei Yao beside her out of the corner of her eye, she remembered that Wei Yao seemed to have not spoken a word since she came over.
"Wei Yao, are you scared too?" He Qingrui looked at Wei Yao in panic, "Ayan and I can at least rely on our families to plead for mercy, Sui Ning and Prime Minister Shen are protecting her, you... you must be even more scared, right?"