A burst of anger instantly surfaced on Noble Consort Zheng’s face. She was just thinking of flaring up when she suddenly changed her mind, reaching for her stomach instead and crying out, “Aiyah, my belly, my belly.”
With an anxious expression, her attending royal maid Cailing hastily went to support Noble Consort Zheng’s body while shouting loudly, “Your Majesty the Queen! Your Majesty the Queen! Please uphold justice! The crown prince consort has caused Her Highness the Noble Consort’s abdomen to hurt from anger!”
With a drastic change in expression, Wei Ziqin reached out to hold on to her daughter’s hand, and she glared severely at that royal maid called Cailing. “Don’t talk nonsense! Thoughtlessly slandering the crown prince consort ought to be sentenced with capital punishment.”
After patting the back of her mother’s hand to reassure her, Qiao Mu swept Noble Consort Zheng a cool gaze while curving her lips. “Shaoyao, go request for the Royal Physician Building’s Old Physician Cao to come make a trip. Just tell him to come examine Noble Consort Zheng since her abdomen hurts.”
“Yes.” Without any reservations, Shaoyao nodded and was just about to leave.
However, the hand with which Noble Consort Zheng was clutching her abdomen slightly stiffened, and then she immediately exclaimed with a drastic change in complexion, “Stop right there! Crown Prince Consort, I won’t be inconveniencing you to go to the trouble! I usually have an acquainted physician diagnose me. I-I don’t need you to butt in.”
“That won’t do.” Qiao Mu walked step by step towards Noble Consort Zheng, with her dark eyes staring coldly at her. “If we don’t request for the Chief Physician to come take a look, what if later on, something happens to Courtesan Zheng, who insists on putting the blame on me? Then wouldn’t I be unable to wash myself of this dirt even if I were to jump into the Hope Sea, hm?”
What an exceedingly shrewd crown prince consort. Everyone was slightly shocked on the inside, and they looked over in awe.
Only Noble Consort Zheng and Cailing were looking straight at Qiao Mu’s eyes. They only felt as if the bottom of those pair of eyes seemingly contained countless cold, skeleton arms that wanted to pull them master and servant right into the abyss of hell.
Noble Consort Zheng shrieked in surprise, and she quickly shrunk behind Cailing without caring about appearances.
“Enough!” Queen Zhao was enraged.
At present, she disliked both Noble Consort Zheng and this crown prince consort for stirring up so many upsetting matters on the first day of the new year.
She only felt that the big one and the small one were both troublemakers, being at each other’s throats whenever they met.
“Crown Prince Consort, Our Highness is pregnant, so can you speak nicely to her?” Cailing tearfully entreated, fully acting out the part of a loyal servant.
Qiao Mu snickered, and she asked in a soft voice that only the three of them could hear, “Pregnant? You sure?”
Noble Consort Zheng’s complexion suddenly paled, and her malicious eyes promptly produced a hint of incredulity as she gazed at Qiao Mu in slight terror.
The corner of Qiao Mu’s lips cracked open like a woodcut, and she gazed icily at Noble Consort Zheng and her servant while asking coldly, “What if I make this matter public?”
“Don’t!” Noble Consort Zheng screamed. When she sensed the queen and the many royal concubines’ suspicious gazes, she promptly straightened her body as a chill ran down her back. She fixed her expression before chiding, “Cailing, don’t talk nonsense. It’s only that my abdomen feels a bit uncomfortable. With your groundless uproar, making a fuss about nothing, what to do if the crown prince consort were to be wrongly blamed?”
Queen Zhao stared at Noble Consort Zheng with a gaze so biting that it was like she wanted to burn a hole in her face, wanting to see why she suddenly changed her attitude.
After standing up on her own, Noble Consort Zheng forcefully held onto Cailing’s arm, saying, “Help me to sit over there.”
It wasn’t until she had returned to her seat that Noble Consort Zheng looked beside her at the crown prince consort, who had also sat down in her own seat, in sudden realization.