This sudden turn stunned everyone present, Xia Xi was even more shocked looking at the child standing in front of him. After a long time, he found his voice, "Chun'er, you... you can talk?"
Xia Chun didn't have time to answer him, instead, he glared at Cai Huan and asked sternly: "What did you put in it?" He hadn't spoken for a long time, his voice was a little hoarse, and his tone wasn't very standard, but it was indeed words coming out of his mouth.
Cai Huan didn't expect him to speak, nor use this attitude or tone to question herself. Her face flushed with panic but she tried to stabilize herself, saying: "I just added some tonics such as red dates and longan. What did I put? You, what do you mean?" As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Chun pushed the bowl in front of her and said with certainty: "You have a sip."
Cai Huan was stunned, her face paled, "What?"
Xia Chun stared at her tightly, saying word by word: "If you take a sip, I'll believe you!"
Cai Huan quickly reacted and said loudly: "Why do I need you to believe me? Where did you come from? This soup is especially boiled for His Highness, and it's to supplement his nutrition. I've been with His Highness for so long, how could you say that I have the mind to hurt him? Do you know what you're talking about?" Faced with her aggressive appearance, even the old servant in the Palace, Lan Duo'er, couldn't help but tremble. Although Cai Huan was far from favoured, she was also a noble concubine. She was above tens of thousands of people in the harem and no one dared to look down on her. But Xia Chun didn't become timid or scared facing her. He just repeated: "If you take a sip, I'll believe you!"
Blue veins jumped out of Cai Huan's forehead, she hurriedly turned to Xia Xi and said aggrievedly: "His Highness, you call the shots, I just kindly gave you soup but this kid makes it seem like I want to kill you. I- I've been wronged..."
Xia Xi had never encountered such a situation before, he hesitated for a while. He thought about it and gently pulled at Xia Chun's wrist to say warmly: "Chun'er, don't do this, I'll just refuse to drink it at most. Cai Huan won't hurt me, you should apologize to her." Cai Huan said quickly: "I don't dare to receive this apology. Your Majesty, I'd better go. I won't come anymore, who knows if someone else will blame me again if something happens.." She wanted to stand up angrily but her body was suddenly was pulled back by Xia Chun, she immediately fell back on the chair. The next instant, a shimmering knife was placed on her neck, making her dare not even move.
This development was even more unexpected and shocking than Xia Chun's previous words. Regardless of the other's horrified eyes, Xia Chun only stared at Cai Huan and said, "Will you drink it yourself, or should I make you?"
The heat of the thick white soup had slowly dissipated, and the originally strong aroma had also faded. At this time, everyone looked at the bowl of soup and felt that it contained strong poison.
Cai Huan's originally ruddy face turned pale, her lips trembled slightly and her body tensed to the extreme. She looked at the child in front of her in horror. In the silence, a Palace servant announced: "The doctor is here."
It turned out that Lan Duo'er saw that the situation wasn't quite right, so she quietly ordered some people to fetch an imperial doctor. The reason the imperial doctor came so quickly was because Xia Xi was about to give birth, there were always imperial doctors waiting in the side halls, worrying about any possible accidents. As soon as the Palace staff went to invite one, they rushed over immediately.
When the imperial doctor arrived, Xia Xi and his maids let out sighs of relief, but the others still looked sullen. The imperial doctor looked at the situation. Although the person who fetched the imperial doctor briefly mentioned the situation, when he still saw the child who dared to put a sharp blade on the imperial concubine's neck he couldn't help but admire his courage. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little frightened. He saluted Xia Xi, and Xia Xi hurriedly said: "Worry not, imperial physician, there's something that can't be concluded here and you still need to judge it." He said to Xia Chun again: "Chun'er put the knife down first. Give the soup to the imperial physician for examination. If this is a false assumption, then you must apologize to Cai Huan."
Xia Chun saw the imperial physician take the bowl of soup, he slowly took away the dagger and walked towards Xia Xi step by step. Cai Huan rubbed her neck, still frightened, the blood on her face still hadn't returned. After a while, the imperial doctor declared that the soup was "not poisoned" and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her anger immediately recovered. "Your Majesty, the imperial physician has found out the truth, what will you do with this matter? He's a child and your righteous son. I didn't want to care about any unpleasant words with him, but you've seen what he did just now. He dared to carry a sharp weapon in my presence and even dared to put a knife directly on my neck. If such words and deeds aren't punished, then I'm afraid that it'll be my neck today, but who knows who's neck it'll be tomorrow!"
Xia Xi was also very embarrassed, he looked down at Xia Chun who was still being stubborn, he whispered: "Chun'er, you've heard it, do you know that you're wrong?"
Xia Chun didn't seem to hear them, he suddenly looked at the imperial doctor and said in Barbarian: "Check again!" Cai Huan gritted her teeth angrily when she heard his words, furiously saying: "Why do you keep questioning me? The silver needle says it's not toxic. This bowl of soup wasn't poisoned, so stop being a bother anymore!"
Xia Chun ignored her rage and handed over the earthen jars on the table. The imperial doctor didn't dare to neglect, using more detailed tools to separate all the materials at the bottom of the earthen jar, he carefully inspected it bit by bit.
Seeing no response, Cai Huan trembled with anger and was about to question again. Xia Chun said, "We're still waiting for the results, you're so impatient, it is because you're afraid?"
Cai Huan almost bit her tongue. Ever since she followed Xia Xi, except for being bullied a few years ago, she had become the one who bullied others. Especially after she became a noble concubine, she was even more powerful in the harem. People have to please her, where had she suffered such a loss? But seeing Xia Xi's intention to protect him, she could only bear it.
The room was silent for a while. After a moment, the imperial physician came to the conclusion, "The soup is indeed non-toxic, but there's a medicinal material in that's been misplaced. Although there's only a small amount, I've personally gone to a rocky area to pick it before, so I'm familiar with it."
Xia Xi wondered: "What material was misplaced?"
The imperial doctor answered: "This herb is cold grass. It can only grow in rocky areas, and it grows in crevices away from the sun. Most rocky areas are hot, so this kind of medicinal herb isn't common, it's very difficult to find. This herb greatly cools the body. People who have been poisoned with heat would drink the soup boiled with this herb and can recover in less than three days."
Xia Xi said, "So it's alright?"
The imperial physician hurriedly continued: "Since it's very cold, pregnant women cannot drink it. If you drink a bowl the fetus will lose its grip, you can also have dystocia, making both the mother and child at risk of death. This herbal soup isn't only not for pregnant women to drink, healthy women who haven't given birth also can't drink it. After drinking it, your womb will become cold. There'll be unbearable abdominal pain on your moon days¹, even the possibility of infertility."
As soon as his voice fell, Cai Huan's expression changed, she stood up and exclaimed: "What kind of nonsense are you saying? What kind of cold grass? I've never heard of it, so why would I use it to make soup? Could it be that you're dizzy and can't distinguish clearly?"
The imperial physician sternly said: "This old man has been practising medicine for 30 years and had never mislabelled a single herb. I also have this herb in my medicine box. If the Queen still doesn't believe me, she can compare the one with the other."
Cai Huan argued again, Xia Xi didn't know whether he should believe or not. He looked at her anxious appearance, thinking about the journey from the Xia Palace to Yudu with her, he felt that she wouldn't do such a thing to him. While he was hesitating, the maid closest maid to Cai Huan knelt on the ground with a "poof", shivering all over, her face pale as snow but Xia Chun still kicked her knee. She had a guilty conscience. When she knelt, she bowed her head in panic and begged for mercy: "Please forgive me, my Lord spare my life, my Lord spare my life, my Lord spare my life..."
She only repeated this sentence, but even if she didn't say anything else, her reaction alone had almost confirmed what the doctor said.
Early in the afternoon, Chu Lan brought a small group of people back to Yudu, planning to go settle down only the next morning. When he returned to Xia Xi's palace, it was exceptionally quiet but the guards were stricter than usual. Chu Lan was a keen person. He quickly noticed that something was different. He wrinkled his brows and asked a maid, "What's the matter? Where's the Queen?"
The maid briefly talked about what happened that afternoon. Before she could finish talking, Chu Lan hurriedly went into the inner hall. He was relieved when he saw Xia Xi sitting on a chair safe and sound.
Xia Xi asked about Xia Chun's previous actions, he had too many questions in his heart. He wondered why Xia Chun suddenly spoke and how he saw through Cai Huan's evil intentions. He also asked a little bit hesitantly: "Chun'er, did you previously... did you deliberately not speak?"
Xia Chun shook his head and said, "No, I was too frightened before and suddenly couldn't speak anymore. Gaining my voice again must've been because of stimulation."
Xia Xi looked at his pursed lips, thinking that he must've been spooked, so he stretched out his arms and hugged him. He asked, "What about the Cai Huan? How did you figure it out?"
Xia Chun slowly said: "She's different from usual, her eyes... dodging. She didn't even look at you. Her feet were tense and she kept secretly looking at the bowl of soup, so I became suspicious."
Xia Xi couldn't help but become sad, he was still only an eight-year-old child, yet his heart was so vigilant. Xia Xi sighed lightly and said, "If she didn't have any evil intentions, I may not be able to protect you from the consequences of your behaviour, what would you do then?"
Xia Chun said: "As long as there's a possibility of His Highness's life being threatened I'll stop it, even if it means death."
When Xia Xi was asking about this he saw Chu Lan hurriedly walk in, his face clearly saying that he knew everything. Xia Xi wanted to stand up to welcome him, but Chu Lan stopped him. He lowered his head and looked at him carefully. After staring at him for a while, he asked, "Is there anything uncomfortable?"
Xia Xi shook his head lightly and said, "I'm fine, why did my King come back today?"
Chu Lan said: "I feel uncomfortable sleeping alone so I came back for the night." He tightened his brows and his voice became cold. "Where's that vicious woman?"
Xia Xi's heart trembled and he quickly said, "I let them detain her in her palace and wait for you to come back to deal with it. Chu Lan, don't be mad. She may not have any bad intentions. The truth of the matter isn't fully ascertained."
Chu Lan sneered and said, "I'll find out the truth as soon as possible, I won't let any person who wants to harm you go unpunished."
Xia Xi closed his eyes, knowing that there was an 80% chance that this matter was true rather than something to frame Cai Huan. Whenever he thought about the fact that she was hiding such maliciousness towards himself, he couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. After a while, he feebly smiled, he pulled Xia Chun in front of him and said, "This time, it was thanks to Chun'er. If it weren't for him I would've drunk the soup."
Chu Lan looked at the child in front of him, feeling very grateful. For the first time, he had no hostility towards him, so he reached out and touched his head. Xia Chun didn't seem to like being touched by him, he subconsciously took a step back and leaned close to Xia Xi. Chu Lan disliked others being close to Xia Xi the most. But because the other party was still a child, he tolerated it, and when he thought that the other party had blocked a terrible disaster, he even showed a rather cordial smile. he said: "Chun'er you did a good job this time, what kind of reward do you want? I'll promise you to the best of my ability."
Xia Chun pursed his lips and said nothing, Xia Xi gently pushed him, but he still didn't speak. Chu Lan had to say: "if you don't wish for anything, then I'll grant you something myself. Xi'er and mine's child was saved by you this time. You're doubly sexed, both male and female, so I'll promise you: if the child in his belly is a girl, I'll let her be married to you as your wife. If they're a boy, I'll let him marry you as his wife and make you the next Queen."
Chu Lan obviously felt that this was the supreme reward. Speaking of, he was still a bit unwilling. After all, whether the child in front of him was worthy of his son or daughter when he grew up was one thing, but right now he still obviously had some big shortcomings. But his words had already been said, he couldn't go back on it now.
Xia Xi thought it was also a good reward, with a small smile on his face he lowered his head and asked softly: "Chun'er, are you alright with that?"
Xia Chun showed his rare childish side, pouting, and muttering in a low voice: "Girls can, but boys can't, I'm a man myself."
____
Notes:
1- Period days
<b>___</b>
<b>PastTimer: My Brother Was First My Boyfriend and then My Husband ranked 1st in yaoismut!! I LITERALLY CANNOT YOU GUYS</b>