The eldest daughter's scheming, the crown prince's exclusive favor to the venomous concubi

Upon hearing this, Murong Chuan quickly said, "How can this be? After just one time with my beloved consort, I've become addicted. I can't bear the longing for her!"

Upon hearing this, Qiu Lingyu said with displeasure, "Could it be that His Majesty only likes my appearance and body, and doesn't care about my health at all? If that's really the case, then I've misjudged His Majesty."

As Qiu Lingyu spoke, she pushed Murong Chuan aside, put on her shoes, got out of bed, and put on her coat before walking out.

Murong Chuan was stunned for a moment, then quickly caught up and said, "That's not what I meant. I just love you too much. If you're really not feeling well, I won't touch you. You know it's not easy for me to come here, so please don't hold it against me."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Lingyu's expression darkened further. She picked up a teacup from the table and sneered, "Indeed, the Emperor has to consider the Empress's feelings, so he is naturally restricted in many ways, especially here. If the Emperor comes here often, I'm afraid all the things in my palace will be poisoned."

Murong Chuan was puzzled, but he noticed that Qiu Lingyu's eyes were fixed on the cup in her hand. He looked over curiously, and after a while, he was shocked and rushed forward to snatch the cup away, saying, "Who gave you this?"

Qiu Lingyu smiled and said, "In this palace now, who else could stand to see me doing well? If I don't accept it, I will be accused of disrespecting the Empress. If I accept it and don't use it, I will also be accused of the same thing. I might as well use it and save her from thinking about it all the time."

Murong Chuan's face turned ashen, and he said coldly, "Since you knew there was something fishy about this thing, why didn't you tell me? Why did you still use it? Aren't you afraid of being poisoned to death?"

Qiu Lingyu raised an eyebrow: "Poison her? She wouldn't dare. After all, I am still the princess of Mobei. I had someone verify the contents of this. They are just some blood-activating and stasis-removing medicines. Apart from preventing pregnancy, they have no other effects. I will use them to reduce her attention. After all, no one wants to be watched every time they do anything."

Upon hearing this, Murong Chuan flew into a rage, snatched the quilt from his hand, and smashed it, saying, "Can't conceive? That means you can't bear me any children? Do you not want to have children for me at all?"

Qiu Lingyu suddenly stood up, swept all the remaining teacups to the ground with a single blow, making a crisp crackling sound, and said coldly, "I don't want to? Or am I afraid? Can you guarantee that I can safely give birth to the child if I get pregnant?"

"You and Yue Leyun don't have an eldest son yet. Do you really think she and my sister are as kind-hearted as they are, that they could tolerate someone giving birth to a son before her? If I were to be secretly harmed and miscarry, it would be better to have no child at all; it would save me both physical and emotional harm."

Qiu Lingyu spoke calmly, but Murong Chuan felt a pang of heartache. He had never expected Yue Leyun to be so obvious. Did she see through him and realize that he still needed her?

Looking at the shards on the ground, he shouted outside, "Someone, clean up these shards so they don't hurt the Empress."

Bing'er quickly entered with her maid and cleaned up the floor. She then bowed to Murong Chuan and Qiu Lingyu and said to Qiu Lingyu, "Your Highness, the princess has woken up, but she won't drink the wet nurse's milk and keeps crying."

Qiu Lingyu frowned upon hearing this and said, "Why are you crying and making a fuss? You were perfectly fine last night."

Bing'er said, "This servant doesn't know either. The princess was fine this morning, but she became like this after drinking two sips of the rice porridge that Her Majesty the Empress had just sent."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Lingyu hurriedly got up and went to Rouge's room. The wet nurse was holding the crying Rouge and trying to soothe her, her eyes full of heartache and helplessness. When she saw Qiu Lingyu come in, she quickly took the child and went over to her, saying, "Your Highness, the princess is really hard to soothe. The maid has already gone to find the imperial physician, but we don't know when he will be able to come."

Qiu Lingyu glanced at Rouge and noticed that her face was flushed from crying. She frowned, sat down at the table, picked up the bowl of rice paste, smelled it, frowned slightly, picked up the spoon and was about to put it in her mouth when Murong Chuan stopped her.

"You must be crazy. The imperial physician will be here soon to examine this thing."

Qiu Lingyu shook her head, brushed Murong Chuan's hand away, and said, "No need to test it. There were raw and cold things in it. The child's stomach must have gotten cold from eating it."

Murong Chuan remained silent. At this moment, the imperial physician rushed over, bowed to Murong Chuan and Qiu Lingyu, and quickly went to Rouge's side to examine her. After a while, he said, "The little princess must have eaten something raw and cold, which has caused her to feel cold. Her abdomen is bloated and painful. If she is to get better, she needs some medicine to expel the cold. However, the princess is too young, and it will be difficult for her to drink the medicine."

Qiu Lingyu said, "I must eat it, even if it's difficult, so I'll trouble the imperial physician to prescribe the medicine."

The imperial physician nodded hurriedly in agreement. Murong Chuan, still feeling drowsy, walked up to the physician and asked, "Take a look at this bowl of things and see if there's anything in it."

The imperial physician took it, smelled it, took a bite, and tasted it with his tongue, saying, "Your Majesty, has the little princess eaten this bowl of rice porridge?"

Qiu Lingyu looked at the wet nurse, who quickly replied, "She's eaten, she's eaten. This was brought over this morning, and they said it was prepared by the Empress herself for the little princess, that it would be good for her health. I was thinking of feeding the little princess first, but the Empress's people came and said that not eating it would be disrespectful to the Empress and that they were not satisfied with the Empress's arrangement. I looked at the food and tasted it myself, and since there were no adverse reactions, I gave it to the little princess."

The imperial physician nodded and said, "The shrimp in here are fine for ordinary people, but if children, especially girls, eat them, they will definitely not be able to tolerate the cold nature of the shrimp. In particular, the little princess has allergies and is not suitable to eat seafood. Therefore, this is the cause of the little princess's illness."

Murong Chuan waved his hand, dismissing the imperial physician. Qiu Lingyu then had Bing'er go with her to fetch the medicine. She then smiled at Murong Chuan and said, "It seems I wronged the Empress."

Murong Chuan shook his head and said, "No, you didn't wrong her. She deliberately sent this over because I am also allergic to seafood."

Qiu Lingyu was somewhat surprised. She blinked at Murong Chuan and instantly understood. She couldn't help but ask, "But why would she do this? Knowing you're here, why would she use such methods? Is she afraid you won't know she's targeting me?"

Today's events were not arranged by Qiu Lingyu. After all, Qiu Lingyu had only just been served by the emperor. Such an arrangement would seem deliberate and would arouse suspicion from anyone. Who would have thought that Yue Leyun would be so eager to cause trouble this morning, and unfortunately, she just walked right into the line of fire.

After staring intently at the rice porridge for a long time, Murong Chuan suddenly picked it up and drank it all in one gulp. Then he sat down at the table. Qiu Lingyu was puzzled. After a moment, she saw Murong Chuan writhing as if he were sitting on pins and needles. Then she looked at her and said, "Tell someone to tell the Empress that I drank the rice porridge she sent and I am dying."

Qiu Lingyu was stunned for a moment, then understood. She called another palace maid to inform Yue Leyun, and then said to Murong Chuan, "Why is Your Majesty doing this? You know it's not the right time to touch her, so why are you doing this? You're just making yourself suffer for nothing."

Murong Chuan shook his head, his tone firm: "I can't let you suffer like this. I'm useless, I can't let you stay in the palace peacefully, how can I be a good husband? Don't worry, I will definitely not let her be so arrogant."

Murong Chuan remained seated in his chair, but within moments, a dense rash had spread across his neck, face, and even hands. Seeing Murong Chuan like this, Qiu Lingyu frowned: "Your Majesty should summon the imperial physician to take a look!"

Murong Chuan smiled and said, "My beloved consort is feeling sorry for me and is no longer angry? It's alright, I'll be fine in a moment."

Qiu Lingyu paused, concealing the disgust in her eyes, and said, "Does Your Majesty mean to demean yourself like this so that I will feel sorry for you and not pursue the matter with the Empress? But Your Majesty need not do that. I have never pursued the matter from beginning to end. I understand that in this palace, to be safe and sound, one must unconditionally obey the Empress. Even if she tells me not to have children, I must not have children. This way, I can save my life, and that is good enough."

Murong Chuan's purpose was exposed, and he immediately looked embarrassed, but he still argued, "Of course not. I can't touch her now, but I can make her put her mind at ease. After all, if something really happens to me, it won't be easy for her to be the empress."

Qiu Lingyi didn't speak, but helped the wet nurse soothe Rouge, who was still crying. Bing'er came in with the medicine shortly after. The imperial physician who had just taken Rouge's pulse also came over because he was worried about Bing'er preparing the medicine. When he came in and saw Murong Chuan in this state, he was immediately startled. Fortunately, after examining Murong Chuan, he found that it was not serious. He had just developed some rashes. So he gave Murong Chuan two bowls of the medicine that he had prepared for Rouge.

Just after taking the medicine, Yue Leyun arrived. She was startled by Murong Chuan's appearance and quickly knelt down to confess her sins.

Murong Chuan looked at her coldly and said, "My Empress is truly something else. How dare she harm my daughter while I'm here?"

Yue Leyun immediately panicked and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me, I didn't, I really didn't know that the princess was also allergic to seafood."

Upon hearing this, Murong Chuan suddenly stood up: "So you knew I was allergic to this? If that's the case, how could you not have guessed that the real child would also be allergic? Is this allergy hereditary? Do you know that your lack of investigation almost cost me my life?"

Upon hearing this, Yue Leyun calmly kowtowed and said, "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. It was my oversight and negligence. Please punish me. I truly only wanted to get some nutritious food for the princess, and I absolutely had no intention of framing her."

Yue Leyun never expected that a bowl of seafood rice porridge would cause her such big trouble. She only wanted to give Qiu Lingyu a warning, but she never expected that it was the Emperor who fed Rouge the porridge, and the Emperor even drank the rice porridge.

Qiu Lingyu said, "Her Majesty the Empress has raised the princess for some time. Does she really not know that the princess is allergic to seafood? Moreover, before this, the Empress and the late Empress had a good relationship. The Empress often participated in the princess's daily life. How could she not know what the princess can and cannot eat?"