cold clothes

As the sun rose, the female official Yu Jing, accompanied by several palace maids and eunuchs, arrived at the Fifth Prince's bedchamber. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they barged in; without waiting for the eunuchs to announce their arrival, the group broke down the door and entered.

The Fifth Prince Zhao Yin had already woken up and was sitting by the bed. Yu Jing glanced at the Fifth Prince's entire body. He was thin and wearing a nightgown. He seemed to have been frightened by the group of people and his face was pale, but he quickly regained his composure. What was particularly noteworthy was the deep blue-green color under his eyes.

Yu Jing bowed to the Fifth Prince first, and then said, "Your Highness, did the palace maids serve you well last night? You don't seem to have slept well."

Zhao Yin blushed and coughed a few times to cover it up, saying, "The palace maids are exceptionally enthusiastic, but I am not used to having someone sleeping beside me, so I don't sleep very soundly."

“In that case, let them serve His Highness and then leave,” Yu Jing glanced into the tent, frowned, and shouted, “Someone, wake up these two ignorant palace maids.”

At Yu Jing's command, two nimble palace maids dragged the beauty off the bed and slapped her face repeatedly to wake her up. The beauty was stunned for a moment after waking up, then knelt down and begged for mercy.

"Your Highness is awake, but you are still asleep. You are extremely audacious. Your Highness, what do you think should be done with them?" Yu Jing scolded the two beauties, then bowed and asked Zhao Yin to make a decision.

The beauty then turned her hopeful gaze toward Zhao Yin.

Zhao Yin looked at them with a hint of pity and said gently, "They didn't do it on purpose. I saw that they looked worried and had a fever, so I gave them a few pills to clear their minds and relieve their fever. These pills have a sedative effect, which is why they didn't wake up early."

Yu Jing: "..."

The two beauties: "??!"

"I am in a hurry to Zichen Palace. Since these two palace maids were sent by the Empress Dowager, I will entrust them to Lady Yujing for arrangements," Zhao Yin added.

"Does Your Highness mean to accept them?"

Zhao Yin paused for a moment, then nodded.

"Then I will arrange for them to be placed in the wing room to Your Highness's left, so that Your Highness may summon them at any time." After Yu Jing finished speaking, she led the two beauties and a group of palace maids and eunuchs away.

After Zhao Yin finished washing up, his personal physician, Imperial Physician Li, arrived. He glanced at Zhao Yin's face with a sinister look and offered him a dark, black medicinal liquid with ill intent.

"Your Highness, please take the aphrodisiac."

"Thank you, Physician Li."

Zhao Yin took the medicine and gulped it down.

Physician Li was still staring at him with a sinister look. Zhao Yin knew he was resentful, so he said helplessly, "I won't go out for the next few days."

"Ha, what's the use? The Empress gave you two beauties, two! I finally managed to cure you, and you died of exhaustion after only a few years. What a waste of all my efforts!"

"..." Zhao Yin couldn't refute this, but he asked in confusion, "Why did the Empress send me women?"

"Because I told her the truth, that you have kidney deficiency." Doctor Li's long beard twitched. "She wanted to test whether it was true."

"How could I possibly have kidney deficiency!" Yin Jiu roared in a low voice, but the corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably, slowly revealing an extremely smug smile, "--Well done, old Li."

Physician Li: "?"

On the other side, the main hall of Renming Hall—

Empress Wang sat in the main seat, petting her heterochromatic Persian cat, listening attentively to Yu Jing and the two beauties' words.

Yu Jing reported what had happened that morning. Upon hearing this, Empress Wang casually glanced at the two beauties with a sharp look in her eyes, which startled them so much that they immediately knelt down.

"So, the Fifth Prince used medicine to counteract the effects of the drug?" Empress Wang asked.

A beautiful woman on the left stepped forward and said, "It shouldn't be. My servant and Yanru have marks left by the Fifth Prince on our bodies."

“Xiaoyu is right, and being drugged with aphrodisiacs isn’t an illness, so how could it be cured by taking medicine?” said the beauty named Yanru on the right.

Empress Wang pondered deeply, wondering if Physician Li's claim that Zhao Yin suffered from kidney deficiency was false.

Yu Jing whispered in Empress Wang's ear, "Your Majesty, a man with kidney deficiency may be unable to have sex. The Fifth Prince has become a doctor after a long illness, and perhaps he really did use medicine to cure Xiao Yu and Yan Ru's poison. I think we can only be sure if Xiao Yu and Yan Ru try it a few more times."

Empress Wang nodded slightly. Although she was not entirely satisfied with the outcome, she had no better solution.

Now that Zhao Yin has gained the emperor's attention, he is no longer as easy to assassinate as before. She has tried to assassinate him many times without success, and she has long suspected that her youngest son is not so simple.

However—if Zhao Yin truly damages his foundation, he naturally poses no threat.

In a flash, Empress Wang thought of her own son, who had gone to the south to control the floods. He had left right after the New Year and had been gone for four months. This year, the rainfall in the south had not been much, and the people of the south believed that the Third Prince had brought good weather and abundant harvests. She also believed that her son, Qun'er, was destined to be the Son of Heaven, a man of imperial destiny. As long as the rainy season in the south was over, Qun'er would return.