After refusing marriage, she was pampered by the prince who acted as a shield.

Chapter 556: Fulfilling a Wish

He stared intently at the bath tub containing the medicinal herbs, and even reached his hand into the tub.

Just then, Lin Rusi came in and heard the sound of water in the room. She pushed open the door and saw the maidservant reaching into the room.

"What are you doing?"

"I, I'll test the water temperature for the Imperial Concubine again. If it's too cold, we'll add some hot water."

"Do you need hot water? Where are the things?"

When suddenly asked this question, the maid paused, clearly wanting to come up with another reasonable explanation.

But the words were on the tip of his tongue, and because of Lin Rusi's gaze, he didn't even dare to open his mouth.

"What, suddenly you've gone mute?"

"If you can't give a satisfactory answer today, don't blame me for being impolite."

"Honorable Physician, spare me! I've heard that this medicinal bath is good for the body, so I wanted to try it. After all, such an opportunity is too rare for servants."

Lin Rusi hesitated slightly, but finally nodded in agreement.

Seeing her like this, the maid breathed a slight sigh of relief, bowed, and quickly left the room.

Noticing the other person's appearance, Lin Rusi silently memorized the person's features before placing her hand into the medicinal soup.

Since she had personally prepared this, she sensed something was wrong as soon as there was a slight fluctuation, and quickly added another powder to it.

Once the white powder dissolves into it, the brown medicine quickly becomes transparent, returning to its original appearance as if no medicine had been added.

"Please ask the Fifth Princess Consort to come and prepare the medicine. Keep the small stove burning to prevent the medicine from cooling down."

"Yes."

Hearing the sounds from outside, she turned her gaze to the other side, hesitated for a moment but didn't speak directly, deciding to observe first.

For two days in a row, the maid always found various opportunities to enter the room before the Fifth Princess took her medicinal bath, which Lin Rusi could not ignore.

He initially considered taking action himself, but considering that this wasn't his own territory, he decided to tell the Fifth Prince.

"Why hasn't Madam recovered these past few days?"

"I also wanted to explain a few things to Your Highness."

Lin Rusi confirmed that everyone nearby was someone the Fifth Prince trusted before quietly telling them what she had seen and heard over the past two days.

At first, he didn't believe it, after all, these people were all handpicked by him and would never betray him.

Realizing this, Lin Rusi directly presented him with the poison she had previously saved.

"If Fifth Prince doesn't believe me, he can have others try it."

"This……"

The Fifth Prince was well aware of the current situation and knew that he absolutely could not allow any of his people to fall.

With a slight shift in his eyes, he immediately had someone bring over a stray cat and poured some of the liquid for it to drink.

At first, the kitten showed no signs of distress, but just as it was about to escape, it put a little effort into running away.

But as soon as his body hit the ground, he began foaming at the mouth and collapsed to the ground.

Lin Rusi looked at the small body that had fallen silent before raising her eyes to look at the Fifth Prince.

"The kitten's small size means the toxicity is stronger, and it accumulates little by little in humans, eventually..."

He didn't continue speaking, but instead picked up the teacup, lifted it, and then let it fall with his fingers loosened.

The Fifth Prince was also startled by the noise, slammed his fist on the table and stood up, even trying to shout for someone to arrest him.

At this moment, Lin Rusi blocked the door, preventing others from leaving.

"At this point, we'd only catch a small fry, and the lady might still be targeted by someone in secret. It would be better to..."

Lin Rusi quickly stepped forward and whispered her plan in a voice that the two of them could hear.

The Fifth Prince confirmed that the other party was not harming his concubine, but he was not sure if capturing that person could save his beloved. He had no choice but to cooperate with her.

"Then I'll trouble the Fifth Prince to simply spread the word that the Fifth Princess is seriously ill and on the verge of death."

"But I've already invited you, so who else would come here?"

"This is really an accident. If I hadn't wandered in by mistake, that person would probably have already blended in."

Unexpectedly, there was this reason behind it. The Fifth Prince hesitated slightly, wanting to say something else.

But as soon as he raised his head, his gaze met that of Lin Rusi, who was standing to the side.

"It seems you haven't finished speaking?"

"That person did this entirely to gain more benefits. I urge the Fifth Prince to add a condition when searching for a cure."

Lin Rusi raised a finger and shook it at the prince in front of her.

"Ten thousand taels of gold, or a position in the imperial court—I can agree to either."

"No, these are not tempting enough. If you really want to get people out, you'd better do what I did."

What are those conditions?

The Fifth Prince was worried that this was Lin Rusi's scheme, and his face darkened. He even wanted to attack the person.

But her hand was already gripping that slender neck. She felt no fear, but stared straight into those eyes.

"It's normal for you to do it this way. If someone said that, I would definitely assume that he did it on his own."

"Then how do you plan to explain this? After all, he has the same request as you. If he says he wants to become emperor, I have no choice but to agree?"

Lin Rusi also realized that the person would definitely get the Fifth Prince to help the other princes.

"Even so, you can only agree, or you will be separated from the Fifth Princess by death and sit in that position that you are not very interested in."

"you……"

Those nearby, seeing Lin Rusi's appearance, wanted to make a move, but were stopped by the Fifth Prince.

"Alright, then we'll do as you say. Anyway, that position is dispensable to me."

"If you say that, I'm afraid the Crown Prince will want to assassinate you."

The Fifth Prince didn't say much, but stared straight at Lin Rusi.

The other party smiled slightly and simply said something that left everyone stunned.

"Besides, you don't need to worry. After all, I'm the one who solved this problem, not some guy who came up later to steal the credit."

"In other words, I only need to fulfill the wish I granted you."

That's clever. If we can cooperate, it would eliminate any future troubles.

Lin Rusi hesitated for a moment, wanting Li Jingyang to contact this clever man, hoping it might resolve those issues.

But with the two countries still at war, she really didn't dare gamble on this.

After much hesitation, she finally turned her gaze to the Fifth Prince.

"It's almost the third day. If he waits any longer, he'll die."

"Don't worry, I've already used a little trick to delay things. I won't take action until ten days later, which will be enough time for you to detoxify my imperial concubine."

"What you mean by 'small trick' is..."

The Fifth Prince coughed lightly, about to utter the word "humiliation," when he saw Lin Rusi appear in the silver needles of the room.

"How can you be so sure this isn't just a delaying tactic?"

"Don't worry, they can't fool me. Even if they could, they would notice something was wrong and get the man out of jail."

Upon hearing this, Lin Rusi slightly fiddled with the silver needles with her fingers, but ultimately withdrew them.