Chapter 183: Chapter 88 Poisoned_3
"No harm done, Princess Consort. There’s no need for concern," Lu Tong said as she took the handkerchief passed to her by the maid and dabbed at the sweat on the Princess Consort’s neck, her motion suddenly pausing.
There was a slight swelling at Pei Yunshu’s neck and shoulders.
Had she been more robust, such swelling might easily have been overlooked, but Pei Yunshu was slender. Even with her pregnancy, she appeared rather frail. Her neck was thin and long, which made the swelling all too easy for Lu Tong to spot.
She reached out gently pressing on the swollen area.
"Ouch," Pei Yunshu cried.
"What are you doing?" The tall maid slapped Lu Tong’s hand away furiously and glared at her.
"Qiong Ying, don’t be like that," Pei Yunshu scolded softly, then turned to Lu Tong with an apologetic touch to the back of her neck, "Doctor, this maid of mine has a quick temper. Please pay her no mind."
Lu Tong shook her head, not taking Qiong Ying’s earlier action to heart. She continued to touch the slightly raised swelling, "Princess Consort, did you not notice this swelling here?"
"This?" Pei Yunshu, following Lu Tong’s fingertip, touched the area, somewhat puzzled. "This has been here for a while, and a medical officer has examined it. He said that swelling in the later stages of pregnancy is normal and told me not to worry. Doctor, is there something wrong?"
Swelling during the later stages of pregnancy was indeed common, and if none of the medical officers from the Medical Officer Institute had found it concerning, it should be fine.
Yet, for some reason, Lu Tong felt a subtle unease in her heart, as if she was overlooking something.
Pei Yunshu, leaning back on her cushions, took a few sips of the hot soup Qiong Ying brought to her lips, her complexion grew rosy, and she even managed to offer Lu Tong a weak smile as if trying to ease the tense atmosphere, initiating conversation.
"Not just swelling, in the later stages of pregnancy I also often feel overheated, sweating intermittently, even though autumn has already started, I don’t feel like adding more clothes. The medical officer warned me not to catch cold, but I can barely cope with the heat, and my skin has also darkened considerably..."
Indeed, these are symptoms that can occur during pregnancy.
"The worst was during the previous half-month when I developed pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy on my lower abdomen that were extraordinarily itchy, but I didn’t dare to scratch. The medical officer prescribed some herbs for me to boil and use for washing, and after enduring half a month, it finally subsided..."
Pei Yunshu went on for a while without hearing a response from Lu Tong, she couldn’t help but look at her uneasily.
"Doctor?"
Lu Tong’s hand holding the handkerchief tightened slightly.
Swollen neck, excessive sweating, darkened skin, abdomen urticaria, abdominal pain, and bleeding.
Each symptom did indeed seem like something that could arise during pregnancy, but all of them manifesting together...
Without a word, she abruptly stood up, and amidst everyone’s puzzled gazes, she quickly walked to the table, opened her medical kit, and drew out a velvet cloth holding Golden Needles.
Before the others could react, she had swiftly approached Pei Yunshu and with one swift move inserted a needle into her hand!
The action was so swift that Pei Yunshu instinctively cried out.
"Stop!" Qiong Ying yelled and pushed Lu Tong away.
Lu Tong was pushed harshly, almost crashing into a nearby cabinet; the inkstand on top fell to the ground with a crash, arousing the attention of the people outside.
Yin Zheng hurried in from outside, "What happened? What’s wrong?"
Lu Tong didn’t speak, instead, she stared fixedly at Pei Yunshu’s hand.
Following her gaze, Qiong Ying’s eyes suddenly widened.
On that wrist, as white as jade, where the Golden Needle had been inserted, there emerged a sinuous line of blood at a rapid pace.
But to call it a bloodline was incorrect; it was clearly a dark purple streak, like a venomous centipede that had been lurking unseen, suddenly revealing its hideous true form.
Pei Yunshu looked down, horrified at the mark on her wrist, and began to tremble as she spoke.
"...What is this?"
...
Outside in the courtyard, beside the pondside pavilion, Meng Xiyang reclined casually against a red railing, absentmindedly tossing fish food into the pond.
The Mid-Autumn festival banquet had dispersed, and with the household’s primary wife falling ill, it would be unseemly for her, as a Consort, to continue to host the banquet without a care. By tomorrow, all of Shengjing City would be buzzing with rumors that she was heartless.
Some things, though trivial in private, still required one to put up appearances in public.
The servant girl beside her bent over and whispered into her ear, "Madam, they’re still inside the Princess Consort’s room."
Meng Xiyang smiled faintly, "Oh?"
She curled her lips, "It seems that this new doctor actually has some courage."
Today’s sudden illness of Pei Yunshu had initially prompted the summoning of a Medical Officer and a Midwife; however, it so happened that a Resident Doctor who delivered medicine to the mansion was available. Pei Yunshu urgently needed someone to check on her, and with the other noble ladies of official families also suggesting it, she had taken the opportunity to send Lu Tong to look after Pei Yunshu, to show that she genuinely cared for the well-being of the Princess Consort.