flstandardbreds Chapter 521 Cats and Dogs Poisoned
Chapter 521 Cats and Dogs Poisoned
[Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, as expected of someone close to the Empress Dowager. Even her defense was clear and coherent, without a single flaw. It seems this palace maid wasn't the one who poisoned her.]
[Wait a minute, the Crown Princess didn't even deal with the remaining poison from the Crown Prince's meal.]
【This is interesting. 】
Gu Jianchu casually waved his hand, calling Yunhe over behind him, and whispered a few words in Yunhe's ear. Yunhe immediately understood and left.
And the interrogation in the room continued.
The cook from the princess's residence, who had been named by the young palace maid, immediately stepped forward to testify, "Your Highness, when Miss Mingyue came to collect her meal, only you and Lord Lin were left. The meals for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the other lords had already been taken. I had some free time to come out and speak to Miss Mingyue for a few words before personally seeing her off."
Last night, Su Tang was discussing important matters with Lin Wen, and it was a little late, so the dinner time was naturally postponed.
If we exclude the suspicious people around her, the only ones left are General Lin, Prime Minister Zhu, and the people around the prince.
Or someone in the kitchen.
The young general beside General Lin has been following General Lin all year round. He was promoted by accompanying General Lin all the way to the border. It is very likely that he will not obey the Second Prince. Military generals value feelings more, not to mention that he has been with General Lin for so many years. Unless the Second Prince can promise him a higher position in the court, it is obvious that the Second Prince cannot achieve it in a short time. On the contrary, bribing him with money or other means would be more realistic.
Before Su Tang could ask more, Yun He trotted in, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I just went to the kitchen. When I passed by the back garden, I accidentally saw that the two dogs and three cats fed in the Sifang Pavilion had fallen to the ground and were even having convulsions, just like the symptoms His Royal Highness just had. The servants in the Sifang Pavilion were wondering whether to throw them away or call a doctor."
"Are the symptoms the same as those of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?" Gu Jianchu asked again pretending to be thoughtful, but his gaze turned to the Crown Princess and Prime Minister Zhu.
For some reason, when Prime Minister Zhu saw the Queen's inquiring eyes, he always had a bad premonition in his heart.
The Crown Princess panicked and almost fell, but fortunately she reacted quickly and regained her balance.
Yun He nodded with certainty, "Yes, the symptoms are exactly the same as those of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
"Cats and dogs carry the rabies virus. It might be a flare-up of the disease, so convulsions are normal. What do you mean by saying that the symptoms are exactly the same as those of our Crown Prince?" Prime Minister Zhu immediately retorted.
"Prime Minister, don't be anxious. Maybe someone fed the Crown Prince's leftover food to the cats and dogs, causing them to develop the same symptoms as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Yunhe, you and your men will bring all the twitching cats and dogs here and hand them over to Doctor Zhou for a look." Gu Jianchu's grip on the hot water bottle kept tightening.
He turned to look at Su Tang and explained, "Your Highness, why don't you take a look at those cats and dogs first? Maybe it will help you investigate the case of the prince's murder."
Su Tang had heard of the queen's abilities and did not refute her words.
Moreover, she has followed her father in handling state affairs for so many years, so naturally she is not stupid. This matter seems to be unrelated, but maybe there is really a connection. It just takes a little more time, and it may become a key clue to solving the case.
After a while, two dogs and three cats were carried over. Their symptoms were exactly the same as those of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince just now, and there was white foam at the corners of their mouths as if they had vomited.
After they were carried into the room, Doctor Zhou immediately went forward to check the eyes and mouths of the cats and dogs. Before she could get up to get the incense burner, Doctor Lin had already brought the incense burner over and placed it next to the cats and dogs, and then used a tinder to relight the black thing.
The Crown Princess standing next to the Crown Prince couldn't help but get nervous when she saw this. She clenched her fingers tightly under her sleeves and didn't dare to look over here at all. Her face turned pale because of panic, and she sat next to the Crown Prince with her head down.
The Crown Princess lowered her head, so Gu Jianchu couldn't see her expression at all.
However, the cats and dogs in front of him were making other movements.
As the black substance was ignited, the smell of blood around became stronger and stronger. Several red nematodes crawled out of the noses of cats and dogs, exactly the same as the nematodes that crawled out of the prince's body. Everyone was scared and took a step back.
No one expected that these cats and dogs were infected with the same poison that the Crown Prince had been infected with.
The two things that originally seemed unrelated are now completely connected.
Gu Jianchu looked back at the servants kneeling on the ground and said, "I want to ask you, who fed the leftovers of the masters to these cats and dogs?"
Everyone shook their heads.
However, the palace servant beside the Crown Prince suddenly stood up and said, "The Crown Princess fed the Crown Prince's leftover cakes to the cats and dogs in Sifang Pavilion. She said that the cakes would not be tasty tomorrow, so she just threw them to the cats and dogs."
He knew that Su Tang and the people of Ye Lan would not easily believe that the Crown Princess would murder the Crown Prince. After all, the relationship between the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess was not the best, but they respected each other like guests and there was no conflict between them. Moreover, the Crown Princess was the granddaughter of the Crown Prince's tutor.
Gu Jianchu stroked the teacup beside him with his fingers, his eyes dark as he said, "Apart from the cakes fed by the Crown Princess, has anyone else ever fed the Crown Prince's leftovers to the dog?"
Since the symptoms of the cats and dogs are the same as those of the prince, it must be related to the prince's diet.
The little palace maid shook her head and said, "No, I poured the leftovers of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince into the slop bucket."
"The泔水袋 has been taken away." Gu Jianchu tapped the table slowly, making a series of muffled sounds of knocking on wood, which made Prime Minister Zhu and the Crown Princess's heartbeats accelerate, and there was an inexplicable sense of panic mixed in.
The young palace maid glanced at Su Tang. Seeing that Su Tang didn't react, she told Gu Jianchu the truth, "Your Majesty, the swill bucket should have been taken away. The people from the Sifang Pavilion come to collect it every morning. I will order them to put the swill bucket away and place it outside the Crown Prince's courtyard to prevent them from coming in to collect it."
The consul of the Sifang Pavilion, who was in charge of carrying the cats and dogs, heard the young palace maid's words and, without regard for the timing, spoke directly, "The swill buckets that the Empress received yesterday should not have been collected yet. The person responsible for collecting the swill is an old man hired from outside the Sifang Pavilion. He accidentally sprained his leg on his way back from leaving the city yesterday, so he asked for leave from me, saying that he wanted to take a day off today and asked me to find someone else to collect the swill for just one day. He will come back tomorrow after taking a break."
"I thought it wasn't worth hiring someone for a day, and since it's freezing cold right now, the smell wouldn't go away if I left it there for another day, so I didn't hire anyone to clean it."