The Rebirth of an Ill-Fated Consort (Chapters 1- 203)

Chapter 188 : Her Inner Demons

Steward Lin didn't dare to delay, so he immediately sent someone to brew the medicine. Sitting in the room, Xia Qing looked at Jiang Ruan with a tense expression, wondering what she was thinking. Qi Feng stood by the window, looking up from time to time to glance at Jiang Ruan. Several maids were bustling about, but Jiang Ruan didn't show any signs of waking up.

About half an hour later, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open, and a gust of cold winter air was brought in from outside. Xiao Shao strode in, his body still covered with unmelted snow. He walked to the bed, looked at Jiang Ruan's tightly closed eyes and was startled. Immediately, he then turned his head towards Lian Qiao and Bai Zhi, and asked coldly, "What happened?"

Lian Qiao and Bai Zhi looked at each other but Bai Zhi had no choice but to repeat the explanation she had already given to everyone else. "Just after Guye and Missseparated, Miss met Fourth Miss in the palace, and spoke briefly with Fourth Miss. After she returned to the carriage, she sat for a while in a daze, then vomited the blood and suddenly fainted. Diving Physician Xia said that it happened because of Miss' old illness." After a pause, Bai Zhi said again, "But when did Miss have any old illness?"

Xiao Shao was startled, and looked at Xia Qing who stood to the side. He remained silent, then asked Lian Qiao, "What did Jiang Dan say to her, tell me everything without leaving out a single sentence."

His tone was cold, his eyes were dark and filled with deep anger. Lian Qiao's heart trembled, and she repeated every word spoken between Jiang Dan and Jiang Ruan. After that, she said, "That's all. However, if this servant dares to say something, I can't think of anything strange about their words, but once she was in the carriage, Miss seemed to have remembered something disturbing and seemed very afraid. This servant has been with Miss for many years, and since we returned to the capital a few years ago, I have never seen Miss so scared of anything."

Hearing this, Qi Feng looked at Lian Qiao inquisitively. But Xiao Shao tightened his hands, as if he stood there thinking for a moment, then turned around and was about to leave when Qi Feng grabbed him. "Third Brother Xiao, what do you want to do?"

"To untie the bell, we need the person who tied it. This matter has something to do with Jiang Dan, so we should naturally look for her," Xiao Shao said.

"What can you do now? With a few words, she can't be convicted of any crime." Qi Feng glanced at Jiang Ruan. "Are you going to kill her now? This will only bring trouble to Third Sister-in-law." Qi Feng's words revealed the anxiousness in his heart as he thought of Jiang Ruan and tried to put himself in her shoes, but Xiao Shao's eyes froze when he heard those words. He looked at him and said coldly, "This is my wife. There's no need for you to worry for her."

Qi Feng's throat stung, but he couldn't speak, and his expression was a bit awkward. But Xia Qing also stood up, with a seriousness that didn't match his age written all over his baby face. "Stop arguing. Third Brother Xiao, Third Sister-in-law is not angry because of other people's words, although that might have happened out of coincidence, but what caused her to look like this is because she has been poisoned."

Qi Feng loosened his grip on Xiao Shao's hand and asked incredulously, "Poisoned?"

"Impossible," Xiao Shao said, "No one can do anything in the Wangfu." Everything here was handled by Steward Lin himself, and it was impossible for the guards in the Jinying Wangfu to betray them either. Poisoning Jiang Ruan was more difficult than killing her directly.

"She wasn't poisoned in the Wangfu." Xia Qing shook his head, "This poison has been in her body for more than ten years; it seems that she might have even been affected by this poison in the womb. However, for some reason it has remained dormant for several years so the poison has remained undetected. Consequently, it has accumulated in the body. Now someone has used something to trigger this poison. As for the incident that took place in the palace, this made Third Sister-in-law so agitated that it made the poison accumulated in her body flow faster." He hesitated for a moment and said, "It seems that there are other intentions behind this move, but at the moment I can't think of one."