Proud Feather

Chapter 3 Cause of Death
The weather is dry and it is a season when fires are prone to occur. The white banners hanging in the mourning hall are particularly flammable.

Chu Ling's kick was perfect, and paper ashes with sparks flew out and scattered everywhere, some splashing on the curtains, and some falling on the hem of clothes.

This is a life-threatening situation. Everyone present is a royal relative. What will happen if something happens?

Then the palace maids and eunuchs all came on stage, some splashed water, some put out the sparks.

Chu Ling had already retreated to the side of the coffin, but seeing that the eunuchs did not move, he became even more certain.

"Be careful, brother, there's more over there!"

She shouted as she dodged backwards, and in her panic she bumped into the lantern next to her.

There was someone watching over the Lianzhi lantern, but the scene was too chaotic and the palace servants were trying to avoid it, so it was knocked down without paying attention.

"Crash..."

The branch lanterns were already huge, and when they fell over with dozens of candles, it was really scary.

What’s even more terrifying is that it fell towards the coffin!

"Princess!" Zheng Qiu, who was separated from the crowd, was scared to death.

The eunuchs finally moved, some to block the candlelight, and some to protect the coffin.

"Ah!" Chu Ling screamed, dodging to the other side and ramming hard towards the coffin...

"Bang——" The coffin lid, which hadn't even been closed yet, was knocked sideways.

"Brother!" She seemed to be startled and rushed over in panic to see what was going on.

When the bystanders heard the sound, they turned around and saw the situation here and were stunned.

"Your Highness!" Lu Chan was shocked.

"Brother!" Chu He was also panicked.

The eunuchs were in a panic, trying to protect the coffin from the candlelight and trying to pull Chu Ling away.

But the palace servants quickly rushed over and dispersed them.

So Chu Ling successfully saw the remains of his elder brother.

Crown Prince Chu Yi lay silently in the coffin, his face clean after being tidied up.

"Brother!" Sadness welled up involuntarily.

While crying, Chu Ling reached out with a clear goal to touch Chu Yi's hand which was folded on her abdomen and hidden under her sleeves.

"Princess, be careful!" A eunuch tried to take her away.

"Princess!" Zheng Qiu squeezed in in time and protected her naturally.

Chu Ling was quickly surrounded by palace servants. They didn't care whether Chu Ling touched the coffin or not, they only cared whether she would be hurt.

The eunuch had no choice but to clean up the scene as quickly as possible and restore everything to normal.

As long as everything is back to normal, the princess can be taken away from the coffin in a natural way.

Nothing should go wrong in such a short time, right?
When the candles were extinguished one by one and the sparks were all gone, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Chu He didn't care about anything else and immediately squeezed towards the coffin.

"A Ling! Come back soon..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Chu Ling's scream.

"What is this? Why is Big Brother's hand like this?"

The girl's shrill voice instantly penetrated the chaos in Huaide Hall.

All the royal relatives, concubines of the Eastern Palace, and palace servants present looked over.

——Their eyes were focused on a hand held high in the coffin.

The hand was large, pale, and slightly swollen, making the black nails particularly eye-catching.

Chu He's breath caught, his mind went numb, and he froze. Lu Chan's face paled, and he stared at the hand, stumbling forward.

"Princess!"

She pushed the palace maid aside, rushed to the coffin, grabbed the hand, and rubbed it with her fingertips.

It's black, either it's stained with something or the nails are black!

"Sister-in-law, look!" Chu Ling pulled down her sleeves, revealing the faint blue spots on the body's arm, one after another...

"How could this happen?" Lu Chan murmured, his mind a mess as he turned the pages over and over again.

The royal relatives not far away were also surprised and whispered to each other.

"Do people turn blue after they die?"

"I heard there would be corpse spots..."

"Lividity isn't this color. I saw it when my grandfather died. It should be dark red, not bluish!"

"Yeah, not to mention the nails..."

At this time, someone slowly read out a sentence: "Anyone who dies from taking poison will have a dark purple or blue face, dark blue fingernails and toenails, and blue spots on the body..."

The surroundings were silent. Only a dandy member of the imperial family, bewildered by what he heard, asked foolishly, "Young Master Yang, what are you reading?"

Young Master Yang glanced over indifferently and said, "Washing Away Wrongs, Volume 4, Taking Poison."

"Oh." The dandy paused for a second, then suddenly realized what was happening and exclaimed, "Poison? Are you saying the prince was poisoned?"

This sound startled everyone and they couldn't help but roll their eyes at him.

What? It's okay to just know about this kind of thing. Why yell? Xiao Jiu from Prince Kang's Mansion is indeed a guy who doesn't know the seriousness of the matter.

"Is His Royal Highness's face like this too?" The Ninth Young Master tried to squeeze through. "He looks completely normal!"

As he spoke, Chu Ling had already picked up the tea that was meant to soothe his throat and gently splashed it on his face. He then used a handkerchief to wipe off the powder that had been applied during the burial, immediately revealing faint blue spots on the body, and even his lips were dark blue!

The facts are confirmed beyond doubt!

"Imperial Physician! Call the Imperial Physician!" Lu Chan shouted in a trembling voice, tears falling uncontrollably.

Chu Ling was also heartbroken, but she knew she had more important things to do. As she pretended to walk out, she murmured, "Where's the emperor? I want to tell him! Big brother was poisoned. This wasn't an accident, it was murder!"

Chu He came back to his senses and hurriedly said, "A Ling, Father is sick! He has been devastated by the news of my eldest brother's death and has fallen ill! If you run over like this, what if Father can't bear the shock?"

Chu Ling stopped and cried helplessly: "What should we do? Someone has to make the decision, right? My brother was murdered for no reason, how can we just ignore him?"

"I didn't say I'd ignore it," Chu He said soothingly. "Precisely because this matter is so serious, we must be even more cautious. Big brother is the crown prince. If you spread it without knowing the truth, it will probably cause unrest. Why don't we listen to Big Sister-in-law and ask the imperial physician to come and check it out first? After all, we don't know the whole story. What if it's not the case?"

What he said made so much sense, and he even put the blame on the Crown Princess.

But Lu Chan only called the imperial physician and did not say that the news could not be reported.

Chu Ling nodded while sobbing: "Okay! Imperial physician, where is the imperial physician?"

There were so many old men and women crying in Huaide Hall, and there was an imperial physician on duty. When he heard the call, he hurried over.

"Why is there only one?" Chu Ling was dissatisfied. "Call more. Qiu Niang, go to the Imperial Hospital and call all the doctors on duty!"

Zheng Qiu responded and ordered the palace servants, "Hurry! Call as many as you can, and be sure to call the court eunuch."

"Yes!" The palace maid ran out in a hurry.

Chu He opened his mouth, as if wanting to stop it, but he had no reason.

Chu Ling lowered his head to hide the sneer on his lips.

Those mourning in the main hall were all members of the royal family and nobles, but there were also civil and military officials in the side halls. There was a fire and poisoning, and now they were inviting the imperial physician with great fanfare. I don't believe that no one would come to find out what happened.

Soon, footsteps were heard at the door, and a steady voice came: "Your servant Zhang Dingyuan, may I ask what happened in the palace?"

(End of this chapter)