As Li Ji neared his son’s room, he suddenly heard the boy crying.
His heart tightened, and he quickened his pace, breaking into a run.
He shoved the door open.
His son’s cries instantly became sharp and clear.
Without a second thought, Li Ji rushed to the bedside to check on his son.
He found the boy tucked neatly under the covers, a damp cloth on his forehead, and the strong scent of alcohol clinging to him.
The child was still crying, his face streaked with tears. His small hands flailed about, as if trying to grasp something.
Li Ji reached out and touched his son’s forehead.
It was a little hot.
His heart sank. He turned and shouted out the door.
"Someone, get in here!"
Usually, at least three people were on duty by the young prince’s side. Tonight, however, for some unknown reason, there was not a single person in the room. The area outside was also eerily quiet, with no one in sight.
’This is no coincidence.’
Rage surged within Li Ji, and his expression turned grim.
Soon, the nanny, maids, and young servants responsible for the young prince were all summoned.
The moment they entered and heard the young prince’s cries, they began to tremble in fear and dropped to their knees in unison.
Li Ji ordered them to kneel outside so they wouldn’t be in the way.
Feihua Zhenren hurried over, a medicine box on his back.
After his treatment, the young prince’s fever quickly subsided.
Seeing his son was no longer crying, Li Ji’s anxious heart could finally rest.
He stood up, walked out of the room, and looked at the nanny and servants kneeling in the courtyard, his voice icy.
"I ordered you to care for the Princely Heir. Is this how you do it? Leaving him alone in his room, sick, with no one to attend to him? Do you really think I am that easy to fool?!"
They all kowtowed frantically, begging for mercy.
Li Ji’s gaze swept over the group. Not seeing Si Yun and Qing Huan, he asked in a low voice.
"Where are Si Yun and Qing Huan?"
Since Hua Manman’s passing, Si Yun and Qing Huan had taken on the responsibility of caring for the young prince. Logically, they should have been with him tonight.
Gao Shan hurried over and explained in a low voice.
"Si Yun and Qing Huan both have upset stomachs. They are resting in their rooms right now."
Li Ji frowned.
’How could they both get sick at the same time? That’s far too much of a coincidence.’
He suspected that tonight’s events were deliberate.
Li Ji had Chen Wangbei take all the servants away.
"Interrogate them thoroughly for me. Find out what they were really up to tonight."
"Yes, sir!"
The trusted aides roughly dragged the weeping servants away.
The courtyard quickly fell silent again.
Li Ji turned and went back inside.
Feihua Zhenren was examining a bottle of medicinal wine.
When he saw Prince Zhao enter, he immediately asked, "Did you open this bottle of medicinal wine, my Prince?"
Li Ji denied it without hesitation. "No."
Feihua Zhenren looked puzzled.
"That’s strange. This bottle has been opened, and the wine inside is almost gone."
Li Ji wasn’t concerned with such trivial matters and replied casually.
"So what?"
Feihua Zhenren said, "When I was treating the young prince just now, I noticed a strong smell of medicinal wine on him.
Someone must have rubbed his body with it.
You may not know this, Your Highness, but if a child has a fever, you can rub alcohol on their joints.
It helps bring their temperature down. It’s a simple and effective first-aid method.
I originally thought you were the one who did it.
If it wasn’t you, then who could it have been?"
Li Ji was stunned.
When he entered the room, he had only seen his son crying on the bed. There was no one else inside.
If Feihua Zhenren hadn’t laid out his analysis so logically, Li Ji wouldn’t have even known someone else had been in the room.
He suddenly remembered the damp cloth that had been on his son’s forehead.
The cloth now lay quietly on the floor by the bed. In the rush, it had been stepped on a couple of times and was now dirty.
Li Ji bent down and picked it up.
Unfolding it, he saw it wasn’t a real handkerchief but a piece of fabric torn from a bedsheet.
Feihua Zhenren leaned in for a look, his expression growing even more peculiar.
"Did that person tear this cloth, too? Who would do something like that?"
Li Ji was silent.
He mentally reviewed everyone in the Prince Mansion who might have done this, but came up with nothing.
Feihua Zhenren remarked with feeling.
"It’s a good thing that person used the medicinal wine to bring down the young prince’s temperature. Otherwise, his illness could have become severe. Treatment would have been exceptionally difficult, and a slight misstep could have left him with serious long-term effects."
Li Ji clutched the piece of cloth in his hand.
He had thought his subordinates would take good care of his son, but he never expected such a major lapse.
’In the end, I bear some responsibility for this too.’
If he had just taken more time out of his day to check on his son, his subordinates wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be so negligent.
After what happened tonight, Li Ji was in no mood to sleep.
He sat by the bed, watching over his son all night.
「The next morning」
Li Ji sent someone to the Zhong’an Bo Mansion to ask the He Family matriarch to come and help look after the child.
Devastated by Manman’s death, the He Family matriarch had fallen gravely ill.
Although she had now recovered, her spirit was much diminished. Not only did she have more wrinkles around her eyes, but a few strands of white had even appeared at her temples.
Originally, Li Ji hadn’t wanted to trouble her.
But he had no experience caring for a child, so he had no choice but to ask for help from the woman who had raised two sons and a daughter.
When the He Family matriarch learned her precious grandson was sick, she didn’t hesitate for a moment, immediately taking a carriage to the Prince Zhao Mansion.
She even brought along her most capable nanny.
With the He Family matriarch’s help, the young prince recovered quickly.
Meanwhile, Chen Wangbei’s interrogation had yielded results.
Just as Li Ji had suspected, it was no accident that Si Yun and Qing Huan had gotten sick. The nanny had secretly put a laxative in their dinner.
The nanny had then deliberately made excuses to send away all the servants attending the young prince.
When she was the only one left, she intentionally opened the window to let the cold night wind pour in, then threw the young prince’s blanket onto the floor.
She knew this would make it easy for the young prince to catch a cold.
She was also prepared for the aftermath. If the High Housekeeper were to question her, she would claim the young prince was a restless sleeper and had kicked off his own blanket.
After all, Prince Zhao rarely came to see the young prince, so it seemed he didn’t care about the boy at all.
Even if the young prince got sick, Prince Zhao probably wouldn’t pay it much mind.
But she never expected Prince Zhao to become so furious.
The nanny’s life was certainly forfeit, and the other maids and young servants who attended the young prince were all sold off.
Li Ji knew that a mere nanny wouldn’t have the courage to do something like this.
There had to be someone else behind her.