Chapter 48
Ning Yuling flushed because of the praise. Although she didn’t understand what the meaning of the Consort Dowager was, she still proudly looked at Ning Xueyan. She had already felt that she was much more beautiful than Ning Xueyan.
But Ning Xueyan remembered something and understood the meaning of this Consort Dowager. She lowered her head to cover the sneer in her eyes. Ning Yuling was very proud now. Ning Xueyan wondered whether she would be proud too when she knew the truth.
"Consort Dowager, you think highly of her." Madam Dowager said with a smile, then she raised her hand and said to Ning Yuling, "Yuling and Xueyan, you two come over together and salute the Consort Dowager of the Commandery Prince Li’s Manor."
"Yes!" The two came together and saluted the Consort Dowager of Commandery Prince Li’s Manor with great respect.
Really speaking, the identity of this Consort Dowager was the same exalted as that of the Empress Dowager. She was the present emperor’s aunt. The Honored Consort Ya also had to respect her. Her meaning that she took a fancy to Ning Yuling was so obvious. The Madam Dowager couldn’t act like she didn’t understand.
So she let Ning Yuling come over to salute the Consort Dowager with Ning Xueyan. In this way, Ning Yuling would be less conspicuous.
"You’re really a good girl. You’re so lovely. If you were my child, it would be great. Good girl, I don’t have something good with me now. I just give this to you." The Consort Dowager of Commandery Prince Li’s Manor took Ning Yuling’s hands intimately. She took off the ruby bracelet on her wrist and then put it on Ning Yuling’s wrist.
Both Madam Dowager and Honored Consort Ya changed their looks.
Only Ning Yuling still didn’t know. Ning Yuling knew this ruby bracelet was the best when she saw it. She remembered the pair of ruby bracelets that she wanted and finally was given to Ning Ziyan by Madam Ling. So she now wanted to accept this ruby bracelet when she saw it.
"Consort Dowager, this is too expensive. How could a child deserve such a good thing?" Madam Dowager refused with a smile.
"It doesn’t matter. I just like her, so I want to give it to her. I have no other meaning." The Consort Dowager said with a smile. Her words relieved Madam Dowager and showed that she really liked Ning Yuling. And when she was talking, the ruby bracelet had already been worn on Ning Yuling’s wrist.
"Thank you, Consort Dowager." Ning Yuling had already thanked Consort Dowager before Madam Dowager said something again. So Madam Dowager now could say nothing more and had to thank Consort Dowager with a smile. But she had made up her mind that she would let Ning Yuling take off the bracelet and then send it back when they returned.
This ruby bracelet was not an ordinary bracelet. It was the heirloom of the Commandery Prince Li’s Manor and also was the bride-price for the future Consort of the Princely Heir of Commandery Prince Li. Thinking of this Princely Heir of Commandery Prince Li, Madam Dowager couldn’t be happy anymore. He just was a libertine. Every day, he either saw a play or drank in the brothel. No parents wanted their daughter to marry him.
He dared to bring any woman to the manor. It was heard that he had married many concubines and had several children. And he had once annoyed his mother seriously. If any girl became his Official Wife, she wouldn’t live a good life!
Ning Yuling didn’t know the meaning of this bracelet. She returned to her seat with joy, and also deliberately show off her new ruby bracelet in front of Ning Xueyan.
Ning Xueyan smiled faintly and didn’t pay attention to her. Her gaze fell on Aunt Xiang who stood next to Honored Consort Ya. Seeing that she had been standing behind Honored Consort Ya, Ning Xueyan smiled more greatly.
The madams in the room chatted about their daily life and the chrysanthemum appreciation grand meeting of tomorrow. Several madams also asked about who would attend the chrysanthemum appreciation grand meeting, wondering if there was a daughter in their manors who could marry the Princely Heir or prince. All of them calculated in mind and chatted with each other, which cost quite a long time.
Ning Xueyan felt it was the time that Madam
"Your Highness, an older female servant of the Lord Protector’s Manor is outside and said that she came here to send the medicine to Madam Dowager."
Hearing that the medicine had arrived, Madam Dowager stood up and said to Honored Consort Ya with a smile, "Your Highness, I’ll go out to take the medicine first, and then come back." After that, she was going to go out.
"Madam Dowager, don’t have to be so troublesome. Let she come in and you can take the medicine here." Honored Consort Ya politely said.
"Er…" Madam Dowager hesitated.
With a slight smile, Ning Xueyan was about to persuade Madam Dowager to take medicine in the room. But she stopped and kept her head down when she heard the words of the Consort Dowager. Since someone was willing to persuade Madam Dowager, she just needed to watch the show!
"I’ve heard that the medicine taken by Madam Dowager is very good for the elderly. I wanted to ask Madam Dowager for advice. Now that Madam Dowager’s servant has taken the medicine here, how about letting us look at it." Consort Dowager said with a smile. Now the Consort Dowager wanted the help of Madam Dowager, so she flattered Madam Dowager.
Since Consort Dowager said that, Madam Dowager would be pretentious if she refused again. So she had to agree.
After a while, an older female servant of the Lord Protector’s Manor walked in with a pot and was led to Madam Dowager. The palace maid took out a bowl and the older female servant opened the pot. Immediately, a strong smell of medicine rushed out and the Honored Consort Ya who was the nearest to the medicine couldn’t help but lean to the side.
Madam Dowager took the pot, poured the medicine into the bowl, and was going to drink.
Aunt Xiang who stood next to Honored Consort Ya suddenly changed her look, looked up slightly, and looked at the bowl in Madam Dowager’s hands. She shouted, "Stop! There’s something wrong with the medicine!"
This word stunned everyone. And they all looked at the bowl in Madam Dowager’s hands.
Ning Yuling first shouted and rebuked, "Nonsense. This medicine is made by grandmother’s servants in her yard. How could there’s something wrong with it?"
If there was something wrong with the medicine in the manor, Madam Ling was the first to be suspected. Ning Yuling was particularly clear-headed this time.
When Ning Yuling reproached Aunt Xiang, Honored Consort Ya frowned and looked at Ning Yuling with unhappiness. Aunt Xiang was Honored Consort Ya’s henchman, and even she herself also respected Aunt Xiang. How dare Ning Yuling reproached Aunt Xiang in front of her?
"Aunt Xiang, what’s the matter?" Honored Consort Ya ignored Ning Yuling and asked Aunt Xiang gently.
Madam Dowager knew Aunt Xiang. At this time, she didn’t dare to take the medicine in her hands. She put it on the table, looked at Aunt Xiang with confusion, and listened to her.
"Your Highness, there’s another kind of medicine material in it. Long-term use will make people sleepy. Weak people like Madam Dowager will lose her life if they take it. Originally, this medicine is used for people who are in good health. But it’s harmful to weak people!"
Aunt Xiang said with a faint expression. Then she came over, smelled it and said, "The smell of that kind of medicine is very light and couldn’t be smelled when it’s mixed with other medicines. Only when the pot is opened, one could smell the faint scent that is different from the smell of general medicine. Madam Dowager, if you don’t believe it, you can smell it now. Otherwise, it’ll dissipate after a while."
It was almost colorless and tasteless, but could kill people! How poisonous this medicine was. No one would pay attention to the tiny difference in the medicine. Usually, it had been cool when it was sent to Madam Dowager. But this time, Madam Dowager poured it into the bowl in person in order to take it when it was still hot.
The looks of everyone changed.
"Bullshit! How could someone poison grandmother!" Ning Yuling subconsciously felt bad and refuted.
"Second Young Lady, I don’t know how to say if you insist on not believing. You can invite other doctors to have a look. Are the dregs of the decoction still here?" Aunt Xiang indifferently said. She looked at Ning Yuling, stepped back, and stood behind Honored Consort Ya, as if she just casually discovered something and spoke out it.
What would happen next had nothing to do with her!
What would happen next had nothing to do with Aunt Xiang. But how could it have nothing to do with Madam Dowager. Madam Dowager was extremely angry when she thought that there was poison in her medicine. She pointed at the older female servant and shouted, "Go, pour the medicine dregs out."
The older female servant was so frightened. She had wanted to be rewarded for bringing the medicine to Madam Dowager. Unexpectedly, it might bring a great disaster to her. She didn’t dare to be slow, quickly pouring out the dregs into another bowl sent by a palace maid.
Honored Consort Ya also brought an imperial physician with her when she came to the Cold Mountain Temple. Aunt Xiang was her henchmen. If she invited her own imperial physician to check the dregs, others would suspect the result. So Honored Consort Ya didn’t invite her imperial physician. Instead, she let people tell the Forth Prince that she wanted to borrow his imperial physician.
Since such a thing happened, the palace maid ran away quickly to invite the Forth Prince’s imperial physician.
When things got to this point, Ning Yuling was shocked at first, and then looked back at the servant standing behind her. This was the person Madam Ling sent to her and was Madam Ling’s henchmen. When Ning Yuling looked at her, she shook her head, indicating that there was no problem with the medicine and the First Madam didn’t poison.
Although the interaction between them was not attention-getting, it still fell into Madam Dowager’s eyes, and her gaze suddenly turned cold.
This servant’s behavior relaxed Ning Yuling. She came over and said to Madam Dowager with a smile, "Grandma, don’t worry, there can be nothing wrong. It must be this female officer’s mistake. Your medicine materials are the best medicine materials selected by my mother, and the doctor in the manor has also checked. How can there be problems? Is there something wrong with this bowl?"
She just wanted to say that Madam Ling was filial to Madam Dowager, not to speak ill of Honored Consort Ya. But this bowl was taken out by Honored Consort Ya’s maids from Honored Consort Ya’s room. It seemed that Ning Yuling targeted at Honored Consort Ya. The meaning was that the Honored Consort Ya deliberately made troubles.
Ning Xueyan smiled slightly and thought Ning Yuling was the most stupid one she had seen. Didn’t she see Honored Consort Ya’s and Madam Dowager’s cold and unhappy faces? Originally, Ning Xueyan had wanted to irritate Ning Yuling so that she would say something foolish. Unexpectedly, she didn’t need to do that. Ning Yuling had already taken the initiative to say something wrong. So Ning Xueyan simply sat aside and quietly saw what would happen.
"Ning Yuling, just boast. You’d better say how virtuous and filial Madam Ling is. Later, you’ll regret what you have said." Ning Xueyan thought in mind.
Madam Dowager didn’t show a smiling face because of Ning Yuling’s explanation. Instead, she looked at Ning Yuling coldly and gave a gloomy smile, ignoring her.