Forensic Imperial Concubine by Erika Black

Almost at the same time, Fred and Barry turned their heads away from what was now Jack's corpse.

They did not have the heart

to see such a gruesome scene. Although Jack had betrayed Matthew, they didn't want to see him die

like that because they had

been friends since they were very little. They practically grew up together. Despite their sentiments,

they would not save him

either. Since he committed a very serious crime by betraying Matthew, he deserved to die. The only

thing that they could do was

turning away so they wouldn't be able to watch him die.

Then, Harper released her grip on Jack and his dead body slammed onto the ground with a thud. She

turned around and was

about to leave. But suddenly, she noticed that there was something wrong with Jack's face. After his

neck was broken and he

died within seconds, the complexion of his face did not change at all.

Meanwhile, Matthew's eyes had only been focused on Harper. At that time, he was still thinking about

how to deal with the

poison that was inside Harper's body. He asked, "What is the Terminalia Chebula?"

Unintentionally ignoring Matthew's question, Harper sat on the floor and closely examined Jack's face.

After a while, she still

couldn't find anything wrong. She then hesitated for a few seconds before taking out a silver needle.

With one quick sweep over

his face, she finally found something.

"Matthew, this man is not the real Jack," Harper concluded decisively.

Upon hearing that, the other three men were stunned. The first one to approach Harper was Fred. After

checking on Jack's body,

he immediately found something wrong with Jack's face. He then stretched out his hand and tore off a

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layer of mask that was

securely plastered atop his face.

Everyone looked at the strange face in front of them and silence fell on the room. The dead man was

certainly not Jack, even if

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he had been by their side for so long. The two most important questions by then were what happened

to the real Jack and if he

was still alive. Everyone was having the same doubts.

At that point in time, the furious state that Matthew was in did not melt away. Instead, it became more

and more intense. Fred

and Barry immediately noticed this. Slowly but consistently, they moved away from Matthew in order to

spare themselves. Before

long, they had already run away, leaving Harper and Matthew alone in the remote small yard while they

stared at each other in

dismay.

"Well... I'm sorry. Darling, I apologize but I'm not pregnant," Harper finally said. She couldn't stand the

silence anymore. Then,

she carefully and passively moved to his side and pitifully held on to his sleeve.

Matthew raised his head to look at her with a ghastly expression on his face. He even looked like he

wanted to skin people alive. When Harper was in the Phoenix House, she was very cautious. He knew

how high her defenses were towards other people. She was only able to calm down when he arranged

the servants to prepare food for her. Now, it was not her fault at all. But she still apologized when she

noticed that he was mad. The truth, however, was that Matthew was not upset at her for not being

pregnant. He was angry with himself for giving the fake Jack the opportunity to hurt her. He felt guilty.

Although a part of him was certainly a bit disappointed about not having a baby yet, another part of him

actually felt a bit relieved with this news. He sighed before reaching out to pull Harper into his arms.

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"I'm sorry. It's all my fault," he whispered into her ear. Harper breathed a sigh of relief when she heard

that. As long as he wasn't mad because she wasn't pregnant, Harper was at ease. She knew how

happy he was when he found out that he was going to be a father. But now, he had been informed that

she had only been poisoned by Terminalia Chebula and wasn't carrying a baby. Harper thought that he

would be very disappointed. After all, they just took a piece of heaven away from him. "I didn't protect

you well. I was so stupid. I didn't notice that it wasn't Jack but an impostor!" Matthew lamented. He was

extremely annoyed by his own foolishness. But, as luck would have it, Harper was not pregnant so he

didn't have to fall into a dilemma. "To be honest, I'm very curious about who is actually capable of

replacing your bodyguard without your noticing," Harper said. She couldn't think of a person who would

be able to do that. No matter how much she tried to search in every corner of her brain

for a suspect, she couldn't think of anyone.

"I'm curious about it too." Clenching his jaw, Matthew thought about the matter thoroughly. The entire

situation was a huge slap

in his face. Someone had been able to replace his bodyguard, poisoned his wife, and even delivered

news about him to others.

The worse thing was that it wasn't even him who found out about the discrepancies. If it weren't for

Harper and Fred, he was

afraid that he wouldn't have known that there was an intruder around him.

Harper then slowly added, "Speaking of which, there is one thing that's still very strange to me. Francis

had completely healed

from the poison in his body. He also knew that it was the emperor who had been poisoning him. Why

then did he allow them to

continue poisoning him? At this point, he had already consumed a lot of poison. The person who was

behind this clearly wants to

kill him in a short period of time."

"What did he say?" Matthew asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

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"He said that he was just having a cup of tea in the Imperial Study and then ended up like that. I always

felt like the whole thing

was weird. The emperor wanted to make it up to Francis so he had been protecting him with the utmost

effort. So why did he

suddenly drug him heavily? A dosage like that would have certainly killed him!" "I don't think it was the

emperor behind all of this. For all we know, it might be Francis who did it to himself in order to trick

everyone," Matthew said before taking Harper in his arms and walking towards to door. "What? Is he

mad? His body has been damaged for so long. He needs so much time and care to recuperate.

Injecting his own body with poison as lethal as that will definitely end his life!" Harper exclaimed. It was

hard for her to believe that Francis would

do something like that. Even if he didn't want to live anymore, he didn't need to torture himself like that.

Glancing at Harper, Matthew had the urge to throw her out when he realized that she still cared about

Francis so much. But he

didn't do it, because he knew that it would only bring him pain if Harper was hurt. Therefore, he lightly

pinched Harper around the

wrist to make her understand the displeasure that he was feeling. Of course, it was only natural for him

to feel disappointed when

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Harper cared for another man.

"Yes, he's insane!" Matthew agreed.

"You're right. The person who would do such a thing to harm himself is indeed insane," Harper said in

agreement. In fact, she

doubted that Francis would be so stupid to do such a cruel thing to himself. And for what? She could

not figure out any

reasonable explanation if Francis really did it to himself.

"What are you thinking about?" Matthew asked. He could tell just by looking at her that she was in deep

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thought.

"I'm just thinking about it more thoroughly. The emperor is not young anymore. He has been enjoying

his sexual life, day and

night. Thus, his body is getting weaker. Moreover, his condition has not been good recently. I'm

wondering when he will be in

trouble due to that," Harper remarked with a smile on her face. She didn't want to tell Matthew about

her doubts about the

possibility that Francis poisoned himself.

"What do you mean by that? What kind of trouble would the emperor run into?" asked Matthew.

The smile on Harper's face even reached her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something but

ultimately chose to do

otherwise. Matthew immediately understood what she meant. In an instant, a gloomy expression

appeared on his face. But it

was very brief and he soon returned to normal. Then, he said slowly, "Well, you don't have to worry

about anything like that with

me. I'm in good health. I will never find myself in that kind of trouble!"

Chocked by his words, Harper coughed to clear her throat. She asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I think you know exactly what I mean. Anyway, why don't we test it now? I will show you that my

body is still very strong,"

Matthew said with a smirk on his face.

"Matthew, I'm sorry, but I had never doubted your abilities when it comes to that!" Harper tried to plead,

although it was obviously

too late for her to do so. If she was going to spend the night with him, Harper could already foresee that

she would not be able to

get up in the morning the next day.

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