Mei Fei still shook her head, "No, King Ye, even if you kill me, I still can't say anything. If Zi'an doesn't die, the emperor will die. I can only be cruel this once."
"You..." Ye Wang was so angry that he almost went crazy, "If you don't tell me what happened to Seventh Sister-in-law, do you think you and your son can survive?"
"I can't tell you. Even if you kill me, I won't tell you." Concubine Mei was still stubborn.
The third prince stood up, took two steps back, wiped the tears from his face, and suddenly rushed to the cabinet, picked up a pair of scissors and pointed them at his neck.
Mei Fei was so frightened that her soul left her body. "My son, what are you doing? Put it down!"
The Third Prince looked at Concubine Mei and said sadly, "Mother, you have always taught me to be grateful. Aunt Seven has been very good to us. You have hurt her before, but she never held it against you and has always helped us. If it weren't for her, we would have been killed long ago. Now, you want to use her life to exchange for my life. If I live, I will just be a bad guy who repays kindness with enmity. Uncle Seven taught me that a man should be upright and protect his relatives, but you are telling me to be a coward. In this case, I might as well die."
As she spoke, she exerted force on her hands, leaving blood marks on her neck. Concubine Mei was so frightened that she burst into tears, "Put it down, put it down, mother will tell you, mother will tell you everything."
She fell to the ground and cried, "It was after the assassination that night that the noble concubine disappeared from the palace. I thought that everything would be fine after the incident. Unexpectedly, my close aide Xiaoqing poisoned the prince and threatened me to take Zi'an to the mountain of Zhenguo Temple. If I succeed, he will give me the antidote. If I fail, the prince will bleed from all seven orifices and die within seven days."
"So, you told Sister Qi that you were going to take San'er to burn incense, and you knew that Sister Qi was worried and would definitely follow you, so you attacked her on the way?"
"Yes," Mei Fei cried, "In fact, I feel very uncomfortable and don't want to do this, but there is nothing I can do."
"How did they do it?" asked the Night King.
Mei Fei said, "Because the carriage could not go up the mountain, we found a guide to take us along the mountain road. The guide was naturally the noble concubine's man. He took us into the dense forest. The dense forest burned poisonous incense. We were all poisoned. Zi'an and Dao Lao Da were taken away. When I woke up, Xiao Qing was by my side. It was she who gave me the antidote for the poisonous smoke and prepared a sedan chair for me. She said that I would stay on the mountain for two hours."
"Xiao Qing?" Ye Wang said coldly, "Is she the maid who stopped me outside the door just now?"
"It's her!" Mei Fei cried in despair, "She has always been the person I trust the most, but I never thought that she was the spy that the noble concubine planted beside me."
"Lingli, catch Xiaoqing!" Ye Wang shouted outside the door.
"Yes, master!" The two women in plain clothes hurried over, and after a moment, they caught Xiaoqing and threw her in.
The Night King leaned over, pinched Xiao Qing's face and forced her to look up, "She looks good, but she followed the wrong master."
Xiaoqing was not afraid at all, she smiled coquettishly, "If the prince has pity on me..."
Before she could even utter the word "home", her face suddenly became cold and nails flew out of her mouth, hitting the Night King's brow.
There was a "clang" sound, and the Night King blocked it with his hand. The nail was embedded in the back of the Night King's hand. Xiao Qing laughed poisonously, "This nail is highly poisonous. If there is no antidote within half an hour, you will die. Send me out of the palace immediately, and I will ensure that you will not die."
Upon hearing this, the Third Prince rushed over and slapped her twice, "Hand over the antidote immediately."
Xiao Qing sneered, "Third Prince, you can't even protect yourself, how can you care about others?"
"You..." The third prince's eyes were filled with rage. Although he was only ten years old, he looked quite majestic with his anger. "Come on, search her residence and her body. Make sure you find the antidote."
Xiao Qing snorted, "Haven't you searched my place? Would I be so stupid as to carry the antidote with me?"
She looked at the Night King and said, "Time is running out. If you don't want to die, send me out of the palace immediately."
The Night King laughed, and his smile was extremely cold. He raised his hand and the nail embedded itself into the back of his hand, but no blood was seen.
The Night King asked Mei Fei, "Do you have a handkerchief?"
Concubine Mei handed over the handkerchief in a daze. The Night King took it, wrapped the nail around it and pulled it out. There was no blood on the nail.
Xiaoqing's face turned ugly, "How could this happen?"
The Night King sighed, "What a waste of good flesh and blood. I will have to make another one."
He took out a dagger and gently scratched the back of his hand, lifting the skin on the back of his hand to reveal a dark iron hand.
Xiao Qing gasped, "Your hand, is it fake?"
"Smart!" The Night King took a step back and ordered indifferently, "Take her down, and use all your life's knowledge to make her hand over the antidote for the Third Prince."
Lingli cupped her hands and said, "Yes!"
She walked up to Xiaoqing, grabbed her hair, and pulled her forward with all her strength, grinning, "Come on, let's have a good chat."
Xiaoqing was dragged out, and soon after, she heard some cruel screams coming from outside, like a wild beast in the woods about to be devoured.
Not long after, Lingli came in and said, "Master, I confess. The antidote for the Third Prince is under Concubine Mei's bed, wrapped in a piece of red paper."
Concubine Mei quickly asked someone to get it, and sure enough, a small package containing three pills was taken out from under the bed.
"Give her one and give it to her!" said King Ye.
Lingli responded, turned around and went out, and came back after a while and said, "Master, she took it. I took her pulse and there was nothing unusual."
"Take another one and throw it into the water," the Night King ordered.
Lingli poured out a glass of water and put the pill in it. The water was very clear and slowly became turbid. Ye Wang took a look, picked it up and smelled it, nodded and said, "Well, it's the antidote, give it to him."
Poison is generally colorless and odorless, but this is not the case with antidotes, because they are mostly made from medicinal herbs, most of which have smells.
After the Third Prince took the antidote, the black on his lips slowly faded away, and the red veins under his eyes also disappeared. Concubine Mei hugged him and burst into tears.
The Night King said coldly: "If you discuss things with me or Sister Seven, it's actually no big deal. Concubine Mei doesn't trust us."
Mei Fei was filled with shame. "I was wrong. I was at a loss at the time and didn't know what to do. That little bitch made the poison sound so horrible, so I just let them do whatever they wanted."
Ye Wang snorted and ordered Lingli, "Go out and interrogate her again to find out how the noble concubine contacted her, and where she was imprisoned after the seventh sister-in-law was captured."
"Yes!" Lingli spun out again like a top.
After a while, she came back and said, "The noble concubine sent someone to contact her, but she didn't know where the contact person was or which palace he was from. When she pressed him, he died."
The Night King frowned, "That means he didn't tell me the whereabouts of Sister Seven."
"I am incompetent!" Lingli said ashamedly.
"It's okay, there is another contact person." The Night King sneered.
(End of this chapter)