Husband, Be A Gentleman

Chapter 47

Chapter Forty-Seven

After a nap, Yan Shi Ning thought about the emperor's motives.

'Pei Jin, I'm not certain the emperor poisoned me,' Yan Shi Ning said.

'Why?' Pei Jin asked.

'I don't know what the emperor's motives to poison me are,' Yan Shi Ning said.

Pei Jin's head and heart were muddled earlier. Yan Shi Ning's logic reminded him that he forgot to think about his father's motives for poisoning Yan Shi Ning.

Pei Jin and Yan Shi Ning's eyes shone at each other.

'Shi Ning, do you think it's that person too?' Pei Jin asked.

Yan Shi Ning nodded her head. 'Perhaps that person used Princess Kang Hua in hope of using her to kill me. Besides, Princess Kang Hua didn't need to wait, she could have poisoned me the moment I arrived in the imperial city.'

'In the past Bei Dou and I had the same thought as you,' Pei Jin said. 'Then we thought perhaps she wanted you to die outside the Yan Manor to deflect suspicions... but looking at the past now, perhaps that assumption is wrong.'

Yan Shi Ning's chest hurt while remembering how viciously Princess Kang Hua stabbed her and she wondered if Princess Kang Hua was still alive.

'That's right,' Yan Shi Ning said. 'If Princess Kang Hua wanted to kill me, she would have killed me at the Yan Manor.'

'Earlier like you,' Pei Jin said. 'I thought it was imperial father. But now I think it's that person, she has a motive to kill you.'

An image of the kind Consort Mu appeared in Yan Shi Ning's head and she sighed. 'Glancing at her, she seems like a kind person.'

'Shi Ning, do you remember what I told you about Consort Chen?' Pei Jin asked.

Yan Shi Ning remembered Pei Jin confided in her about how Consort Chen was poisoned by Fu Gui and she nodded her head.

'At that time I suspected there was something wrong about the fragrance of the incense sticks,' Pei Jin said. 'So I hid them but later they disappeared. Thinking about it now, I think she found out I hid them and sent someone to retrieve the incense sticks. I think Consort Mu knows that I know the incense sticks were poisoned.'

'That's why I think she wants borrow a dagger to kill me,' Yan Shi Ning said.

'She and seventh brother used Yan Shi Ting's fake pregnancy to oppose the empress and the crown prince,' Pei Jin said. 'They would do anything to eliminate anyone who poses a threat to them big or small.'

'Pei Jin, what should we do now?' Yan Shi Ning asked.

Pei Jin laid his hands on Yan Shi Ning's stomach. 'I need to ask someone to be certain who poisoned you. After I've confirmed it then I can plan what to do next.'

'Who do you need to ask?' Yan Shi Ning asked.

'The empress,' Pei Jin said.

'The empress?' Yan Shi Ning asked. 'If the empress denies it then it's possible Consort Mu is the culprit. But if the empress did it, would she admit it to you?'

'I have a way to make the empress tell me the truth,' Pei Jin said.

'Pei Jin, are you hiding anything else in your stomach?' Yan Shi Ning asked.

Pei Jin held Yan Shi Ning's hands and put them below his stomach. 'Inside your husband's stomach isn't hiding anything. But your husband is hiding something here.'

Yan Shi Ning's face flushed red. She pulled his hand to her mouth and bit hard. 'Even if you're about to die, you wouldn't know how to be serious.'