Forensic Imperial Concubine novel Chapter 627

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 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 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. "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.

"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 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 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.