[Ding! Successfully consumed gossip: 'Royal Secret: The Ninth Prince is actually a daughter!' Gossip points +2599]
When the system's crisp notification sounded in his mind, Pei Cijing had just picked up a piece of lotus pastry to put in his mouth.
His hand trembled.
The flaky crust scattered down.
Balance: 3718 points.
No need to observe anymore, no need to guess anymore, no need to painstakingly verify.
The system's crisp "Ding" had explained everything—his shocking speculation from just now was actually an ironclad fact.
The Ninth Prince, Li Chenglu...
Was truly a woman!
Pei Cijing slowly put down the pastry, picked up his teacup, and took a sip. The warm tea slid down his throat, but it couldn't suppress the stormy waves surging in his heart. He raised his eyes, looking towards the main seat again—Li Chenglu had returned to normal, currently fanning himself with a folding fan and chatting gently with a young master beside him.
Between the flow of his gaze, that lingering sense of feminine charm became even more obvious.
But this was wrong.
Too wrong.
Pei Cijing frowned slightly. Observation, olfaction, inquiry, and pulse-taking—the four diagnostic methods of Chinese medicine combined. For congenital pseudohermaphroditism, mere observation was indeed difficult to confirm a diagnosis.
After all, men with feminine features were not unheard of.
Just "observation" alone.
Could not determine a person's sex.
But combined with "pulse-taking"—to an experienced imperial physician, distinguishing between male and female was not difficult. A woman's pulse tended to be soft and fine, while a man's pulse tended to be surging and large. This was a basic skill.
As soon as they touched the pulse.
Whether male or female, it would be instantly clear!
The Ninth Prince suffered from abdominal pain every month, resembling menstrual cramps. This matter definitely couldn't be hidden from the imperial physicians who served closely. Of the imperial physicians who could serve princes and frequently enter the inner palace, which one didn't have exquisite medical skills and profound experience?
Perhaps they weren't as good as his "divine doctor" self with a cheat system, but just speaking of the basic skill of "distinguishing yin and yang through the pulse," they absolutely couldn't make a mistake.
Then why...
Had the Ninth Prince's secret not been exposed to this day?
Pei Cijing tapped his fingertips lightly on his knee, his gaze deepening. Soon, he figured out the crux of the matter.
It was all to stay alive!
He sighed deeply in his heart.
Congenital pseudohermaphroditism, a woman with male features.
In modern society, it was just a condition that needed treatment. Although the patient might face psychological pressure and social prejudice, at least their life wouldn't be in danger, and there would be scientific diagnostic and treatment paths.
But this was ancient times.
Imperial power was supreme, and etiquette and law were strict!
A "reversal of yin and yang" would undoubtedly be judged as a sign of a demonic anomaly!
If the Ninth Prince's true gender was exposed, what kind of earth-shattering scandal would that be?
The royal bloodline confused, a dragon son actually a phoenix daughter. Once this news spread, let alone the Ninth Prince's own unpredictable fate, even the entire Imperial Hospital, the midwives who delivered the baby back then, all those who knew...
Would all have to die.
Not a single one could escape!
Pei Cijing suddenly understood.
He seemed to see those white-haired old imperial physicians, their hands trembling as they touched the Ninth Prince's pulse. The pulse coming from beneath their fingers told them clearly and unmistakably—this was the pulse of a woman.
At that moment, how terrified must they have been in their hearts!
And then?
Then came the cold sweat, the racking of brains, the trembling kneeling and reporting: "Your Highness's condition... is truly rare. We ministers are dull-witted and still need to consider it carefully..."
What a bunch of old foxes.
Pei Cijing smacked his lips, but he couldn't muster half a bit of disdain in his heart. Instead, a strong sense of empathy surged up.
These imperial physicians.
Had it too hard!
In modern times, medical disputes at most ruined your future and caused your social death. But in the royal family—this was a deadly game of "executing the whole family" and "exterminating nine generations" at the drop of a hat!
What could the imperial physicians do?
Tell the truth?
Expose the prince as a woman on the spot?
Then the next moment, their heads would probably part ways with their bodies.
So they could only play dumb, could only bite the bullet and call the "abdominal pain" a "congenital deficiency," "liver qi stagnation," "cold coagulation and blood stasis," etc... Anyway, these excuses were safe and sound, neither curing nor worsening the condition.
Then they would prescribe some warming, regulating, pain-relieving, and nerve-soothing formulas.
When it flared up every month.
They just needed to prepare pills to suppress the pain.
As for the inability to cure it, the Ninth Prince's dissatisfaction, and even the Emperor's dissatisfaction, they could only accompany it with smiling faces, endure a few reprimands of "incompetence," and trembling survive it.
Compared to the lives of their entire families, what was a scolding?
What was losing a little face?
Being scolded.
Was always better than losing one's life!
Pei Cijing could even imagine the gloomy, tacitly understood, and secretive looks of the hospital directors and imperial physicians when they met privately within the Imperial Hospital.
Tsk tsk.
It was truly too difficult!
How was this treating an illness? It was clearly walking a tightrope on the tip of a knife, struggling to survive in the shadow of imperial power!
He was shaking his head, shedding a tear of sympathy for his colleagues in the Great Qian Imperial Hospital, his thoughts drifting to the ancestral tablets of some imperial physician whose entire family had been executed for failing to cure an illness, when—
"Young Master Pei."
A clear and steady voice suddenly came from his side. Neither loud nor soft, it perfectly interrupted his train of thought. Pei Cijing's heart skipped a beat, and he instantly snapped back to reality.
He turned his head.
And saw a person who, at some unknown time, had stood two steps away from him.
Dressed in plain cyan clothes, the fabric showing very faint flowing water patterns under the shifting light, his posture as straight as a lone bamboo, his face half-hidden in the shadow cast by the corridor pillar. It was precisely the person with whom he had shared a "gossip connection" at the Imperial College—Huang Yu.
Li Chengyu looked at him quietly. In those eyes as still as a deep pool, Pei Cijing's complex expression, which he hadn't yet had time to fully conceal, was clearly reflected.
"Brother Huang?" Pei Cijing quickly put on his usual leisurely smile, bowed with cupped hands, and spoke in a relaxed and natural tone, "What a coincidence, meeting here again."
He smiled impeccably on the surface, but alarm bells were ringing wildly in his heart.
When did this person come over?
What did he hear?
What did he see?
Li Chengyu nodded slightly in return, but his gaze remained locked on Pei Cijing's face, without the slightest intention of exchanging pleasantries. He got straight to the point.
"I saw Young Master Pei staring at the Ninth Prince for a long time just now, seemingly deep in thought." He paused, lowering his voice a bit more, yet every word clearly struck Pei Cijing's ears. "Could it be... you noticed something inappropriate about the Ninth Prince?"
The hairs on Pei Cijing's back instantly stood on end.
Inappropriate?
It was more than inappropriate!
This was a nuclear-level inappropriateness!
But could he say it?
Did he dare to say it?
Pei Cijing maintained the smile on his face, even making it a bit brighter, while his brain spun at an unprecedented speed.
"Brother Huang must be joking." He let out a dry laugh, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping over the Ninth Prince, who was chatting merrily with someone in the center of the water pavilion. His tone carried the precise amount of doubt and concern belonging to an "ordinary bystander." "It's just that I saw His Ninth Highness's face suddenly turn pale just now, seemingly unwell, and only getting better after taking medicine. I know a little bit about medicine, so seeing this, I couldn't help but look a few more times out of concern!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
Li Chengyu took a small step forward.
The distance closed.
That invisible, oppressive aura belonging to a superior silently washed over like a tide.
