The Double

"If Eldest Young Master Li truly knew about this early on, how did he come to know? Is there evidence, or did he just catch wind of it?" Mei Xiang remained as calm as ever, "We don’t know any of that now."

"What are you trying to say?"

"What I am trying to say is that even if Your Highness were to go before Imperial Consort at this moment, before His Highness Prince Cheng, and tell them that Eldest Young Master Li is responsible for the death of Your Highness’ unborn child, I fear no one would believe it. Before that, we must focus on evidence. Take the evidence and test Eldest Young Master Li, and we will know whether he is really the mastermind behind this."

Princess Yongning asked, "How can we get evidence?"

"I overheard the conversation of those two men in the secret room. They mentioned that Eldest Young Master Li had used various means to try to induce Your Highness’ miscarriage, but all in vain. This was because when Your Highness stayed at the Li Family, you took great care of the little one in your womb. Not to mention, you didn’t consume any of the fetus-preserving medicine brewed in the Li Family’s kitchen, fearing that it might be drugged. Instead, you only ate the Pregnancy-Sustaining Pills that I brought from the Princess’s Mansion. But others don’t know that; they think Your Highness consumed the medicine when in fact I poured it out under the willow tree by the door."

"There are still some remnants of those medicines left, amounting to quite a bit. I can go dig them up, and there should still be some to find. As long as we bring them to the pharmacy and have the doctor smell them, we’ll know if there’s anything inside that could cause a miscarriage. If there is, it proves that what those two people said is true, and Eldest Young Master Li truly wished to ensure the unborn child’s death. If the medicine remnants are unproblematic, it would mean those two were lying, aiming to slander Eldest Young Master Li and have Your Highness and him mutually destroyed."

After hearing this, Princess Yongning couldn’t find fault with it. After a long while, she finally said, "Fine, I’ll listen to you. Go, dig up those medicine ingredients and take them to the pharmacy tomorrow for clarification. If they’re harmless, let be. But if it truly was Li Xian who harmed my child, I’ll stake my life to drag the Li Family down with me!"

Her eyes blazed with the fire of revenge, and Mei Xiang bowed her head, saying, "Yes."

...

The news of Princess Yongning’s miscarriage had spread throughout the court and the Shen family was not unaware of it.