Chapter Forty-Six: The Explanation

"Insolent! Damned! Exactly who is it that has made this Princess lose all face in front of everyone?" Princess Anping threw a tantrum wrapped in a quilt, hurling incense burners and porcelain all over the floor.

Shen Chubai silently took a few steps back, terrified something would smash into her feet.

Lu Yuanshuang enjoyed throwing tantrums and breaking things herself, but could not stand seeing others do the same. She curled her lip impatiently, "If you want to throw a tantrum, go back to the palace and throw it there. I have checked every single piece of food you touched, and there is nothing wrong with them."

Anping shot her a cold glance. "What kind of a thing are you? Did this Princess give you permission to speak?"

Lu Yuanshuang's expression changed. Subconsciously glancing at Shen Chubai, she felt she had lost all dignity in front of her, which only made her eager to put on the airs of a senior.

"I call Her Majesty my aunt, and I am married to your elder brother. Whether as a maternal cousin or a sister-in-law, it is only proper that I offer you a word of advice. If you remain so willful and wayward, you must take care lest you fail to find a husband in the future."

Her reply was a teacup hurled straight at her head by Anping. "Since when does a mere concubine dare to presume to be my sister-in-law? As for a maternal cousin, I certainly have no maternal cousin who is a rustic country woman."

"You..." Blood welled at Lu Yuanshuang's temple. Clutching her head, she staggered up and glared viciously at Anping, as if she might fight her to the death the very next moment.

"Is there truly no one left in this Prince of Yan's Estate capable of managing things?" Anping's gaze swept around the entire room, deliberately avoiding Shen Chubai.

Shen Chubai waved her hand, signaling the servants to drag Lu Yuanshuang away, and stepped forward on her own accord. "Your Highness..."

Anping looked her up and down and let out a cold hum. "You are not the one managing this household. Considering that today is your daughter's full-month celebration, I will spare you trouble. Get lost."

Yet Shen Chubai did not step back. "Since Your Highness suffered a grievance within the Prince of Yan's Estate, the estate naturally owes Your Highness justice."

"You have found something?" Anping looked back at her, her gaze shifting to carry a measure of scrutiny and suspicion.

Shen Chubai shook her head. "The female physician examined Your Highness's pulse, and it appears Your Highness has inhaled Five-Stone Powder."

"Five-Stone Powder?" Princess Anping abruptly sat upright. "Wasn't that substance prohibited long ago? How could such a thing appear within Chang'an City?"

Then, indignation rising within her, she added, "No wonder Lu Yuanshuang gave me that attitude just now; she must have thought I took the substance on purpose. This is simply too tyrannical!"

Shen Chubai offered no comment on her words. "This concubine has heard that some alchemists brew Five-Stone Powder such that one need not ingest it; merely sniffing it produces the exact same effect."

"According to Noble Consort Lu, there was nothing amiss with Your Highness's food, so it is highly probable that someone scattered the Five-Stone Powder into the air." Shen Chubai spoke with absolute clarity.

Princess Anping raised an eyebrow at her. "So, you are saying you already have someone suspected?"

Shen Chubai answered with a resounding certainty, "Yes, Master Leiji. Monks and Taoists share the same roots, and furthermore, he offended Your Highness today. No matter what, it cannot be anyone else."

"No!" Princess Anping instinctively objected.

Shen Chubai looked at her in confusion. Anping touched her nose, looking somewhat surprised, yet she remained utterly resolute on the matter of Leiji, stubbornly insisting that he was not the one responsible.

Shen Chubai felt a twinge of regret. She had always regarded Leiji's existence as a threat and had hoped to use Princess Anping's hand to be rid of him today, but she had not expected that Princess Anping had no intention of punishing him at all.

With no other choice, Shen Chubai let the matter drop. "Will Your Highness think back? Did you encounter anyone along the way? Did anyone overturn anything that caused you to smell an unusual scent?"

Shen Chubai quietly instructed Chunchan to summon every single maidservant who had crossed paths with Princess Anping along her route.

"It's you! It must be you!" Before Shen Chubai could even examine the faces of the maidservants, Princess Anping leaped barefoot from the couch and delivered a resounding slap to the one leading the group.

Shen Chubai instinctively moved to stop Princess Anping from striking again, but once she clearly saw the woman's face, it was already too late to pull back her hand.

"Didn't your Prince of Yan's Estate intend to give me an explanation? This vile slave-girl is the one who did it." Anping pointed directly at Cui Xiwen, who knelt on the ground with lowered eyes, speaking with unwavering conviction.

Shen Chubai closed her eyes with a throbbing headache. Understanding the truth, a secret hatred brewed within her—so everything today had merely been a ploy to thrust Cui Xiwen back into Li Tinghan's sight once more.

What a pity that this gang of people had completely ruined her daughter's full-month banquet.

Princess Anping shook off her restraining hand and rained blows left and right upon Cui Xiwen's face.

Sure enough, the next moment: "Stop—!"

With a gaze full of heartache, Li Tinghan pulled Cui Xiwen into his embrace, casting a slightly reproachful look at Shen Chubai. "Wuniang, I have come too late."

"Brother Han, I thought I would never see you again in this lifetime."

The sight of their lingering affection hurt Shen Chubai's eyes, yet she could find nothing appropriate to say.

Princess Anping had no patience for their antics. She marched right up and forcefully pulled the two apart. Before Li Tinghan could utter a word, she pointed a grievance-filled finger at them and accused, "This woman caused me to lose all face in public, and instead of seeking justice for me, you protect her."

Shen Chubai echoed in a duet, "If Your Highness says so, where is the proof?"

"She, a young lady of a noble house, became a lowly slave in the Hall of Redeeming Sins, and now she is forced to act as a menial servant at her former fiancé's daughter's full-month banquet. Naturally, she harbors resentment, and thus she deliberately harmed me by exposing me to Five-Stone Powder. She did it to take revenge on me, and even more, to take revenge on my imperial mother!"

"Aside from her, who else could have deliberately harmed me?" Shen Chubai inwardly cursed her own bad luck. Believing that Cui Xiwen had actually done something, she had spoken before Li Tinghan in hopes that Princess Anping would pin the crime on her once and for all, only to find that not a single word of the accusation held weight.

Li Tinghan would certainly never accept such an outcome.

"Wuniang would never do such a thing. All of this is merely your speculation," Li Tinghan retorted angrily.

Seeing that Li Tinghan not only refused to side with her but stood opposite her in accusation, Princess Anping felt utterly wronged and instinctively looked to Shen Chubai for help.

Shen Chubai: ......

Seeing the rising suspicion in Li Tinghan's eyes, Shen Chubai hurriedly changed the subject. "The most urgent priority is still to find the person who administered the Five-Stone Powder to Your Highness. Will Your Highness look over these people once more and see if you caught any unusual scent from any of them?"

Anping swept her gaze across the gathered crowd, and just as she was about to withdraw it, she looked again at Cui Xiwen with a sudden flash of realization. "It was her!"

"Anping! Enough!" Li Tinghan ground those words out through gritted teeth, as if forcing them out from between his jaws by sheer will.

Yet Princess Anping let out a cold scoff, hands on her hips. "I remember now! When she passed by me, she knocked over a box of scented powder, but she immediately ran off with her head down so I didn't see her face clearly..."

Li Tinghan interrupted, "Since you didn't see her face clearly, how can you claim it was Wuniang?"

Princess Anping puffed out her cheeks, refusing to yield. "That's because she has a small mole on the back of her neck! Of everyone I encountered today, she was the only one who knocked over scented powder near me, so it had to be her."

Having witnessed her previous baseless accusations, Li Tinghan firmly believed that Princess Anping was merely making trouble out of nothing and that Cui Xiwen was innocent. Thus, both of them turned their gazes simultaneously toward Shen Chubai.