Jian Yang did not respond to him.

"Empress! Wake up!"

The emperor grabbed her hand, but couldn't help trembling.

A chilling coldness.

This is absolutely not the body temperature a living person should have.

In addition, her abdomen stopped rising and falling, her eyes stopped twitching, and her complexion gradually turned ashen.

Even their limbs gradually became stiff.

All of this points to one thing: she is indeed dead.

The emperor, however, seemed unwilling to give up, and slowly brought his finger to the tip of her nose.

There was no breath.

"No!" The emperor finally roared in a heart-wrenching rage, shaking Jian Yang's shoulders. "I will not allow you to die! You will not die without my permission!"

Xiqiu finally ran back to her bedchamber.

Seeing that the emperor was about to go mad, she rushed forward and pleaded in a pitiful voice, "Your Majesty, please let the Empress rest in peace!"

The emperor's rationality gradually returned.

He loosened his hands, stood up somewhat dazedly, and loudly ordered, "Yongfu, summon the imperial physicians! Have all the imperial physicians from the Imperial Hospital come here!"

Zhang Gonggong wiped his eyes with his sleeve and hurriedly ran out.

A moment later, all the imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Academy knelt down in Jian Yang's bedchamber.

They stepped forward one by one to take Jian Yang's pulse, then shook their heads and knelt back down on the ground.

Finally, the head of the Imperial Medical Academy stepped forward and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, the Empress has indeed passed away. Please accept my condolences."

The imperial physicians also joined in, saying in unison, "Your Majesty, please accept our condolences."

The emperor closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, his eyes were filled with rage.

He shouted sternly, "Where is Hu Yongzhi?!"

A young man stepped forward tremblingly and said in a trembling voice, "Your humble servant is here."

The emperor stared coldly at him and questioned, "Didn't you say that as long as there is the magical herb Lingzhi, the empress can be saved?"

"Your Majesty, your humble servant..." Hu Yongzhi was sweating profusely, but he dared not look up to wipe it away.

"Drag him out and behead him." The emperor's eyes had lost all their luster.

Upon hearing this, Hu Yongzhi was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground.

"Your Majesty," Xiqiu suddenly knelt before the emperor and said, "Before the Empress passed away, she asked me to convey to you that you should not make things difficult for Physician Hu, nor for Lord He who presented the medicine, nor for anyone else. Consider it an act of good karma for her."

The emperor showed a hint of pain and waved his hand at the guards who were about to drag the person away. "Fine, since it's the empress's wish, let's do as she says."

The guards and imperial physicians all withdrew.

The emperor then asked, "Does the empress have any last words?"

Xiqiu lowered her head and said, "Her Majesty said that the national treasury is empty now, so her funeral should be kept simple and should not disturb anyone. There is no need for ministers to come and pay their respects. Only Prime Minister Jian and a few of her close friends can come and visit her."

Is there anything else?

"The Empress also said that the coffin should not be kept in the morgue for too long, preferably no more than three days."

Is there anything else?

"Also, Her Majesty instructed that this matter should not be alarmed to the young prince, for fear that he is too young to handle it."

Is there anything else?

"there is none left."

The emperor said somewhat unwillingly, "Didn't she leave me a single word?"

Xiqiu remained silent for a moment, then shook her head.

The emperor felt as if his heart was being torn apart.

Finally, he nodded and said, "Alright, send someone to inform Prime Minister Jian."

At the same time, Xiahou Riyue arrived at the Prime Minister's residence and told him about Jian Yang's plan.

Upon hearing this, Prime Minister Jian flew into a rage, "She's being ignorant, why are you joining in this nonsense, Lord Xiahou?"

Xiahou Riyue didn't say anything, but took out the letter Jian Yang had written to him from his sleeve.

Besides recording her plan to escape death, this letter mainly recounts the dangers of palace life and her fears.

It was a story that would break the hearts of anyone who heard it and bring tears to their eyes if they saw it.

As Jian Yang's biological father, Prime Minister Jian was eventually moved by his daughter's words, which were filled with blood and tears.

“So be it,” Prime Minister Jian sighed. “Over the years, I, as her father, have never done anything for her. This time, I will simply fulfill my responsibility as a father.”

Just after the two finalized their cooperation plan, Eunuch Zhang also arrived at the Prime Minister's residence.

He came to inform Jian Yang of her death.

Having prepared himself mentally, Prime Minister Jian immediately feigned extreme grief upon receiving the news, pounding his chest and wailing, "Heavens above, give me back my daughter!"

Zhang Gonggong was startled by his posture.

In his memory, the father-daughter relationship between Prime Minister Jian and the Empress was not very deep, so why was he crying as if he was about to die?

In the end, the emperor followed Jian Yang's last wishes and arranged her funeral in a simple manner.

On the third day, she was buried in the imperial mausoleum.

Upon learning of this, all the civil and military officials looked at Prime Minister Jian with pity.

Empress Jian Yang is probably the first in history to receive such poor treatment after her death.

However, they were all shocked to learn that the emperor had directly borrowed the empress dowager's mausoleum because the empress's mausoleum had not been built.

This is an immense honor!

An empress who has fallen out of favor would never receive such treatment.

Just as everyone was making wild guesses, Xiahou Riyue and Prime Minister Jian sent people to infiltrate the imperial tomb and dig a tunnel that night to steal Jian Yang out.

Looking at his daughter, who was stiff and lifeless, Prime Minister Jian stammered, "Lord Xiahou, is my daughter really still alive?"

Xiahou Riyue nodded and said, "The Empress said that this fake death medicine will reduce the body's metabolic function to the lowest level, making it look no different from the symptoms of death. As long as she is fed this antidote, she will be able to return to normal after an hour."

As he spoke, he took out a small brocade box from his bosom, opened the lid, and sure enough, there was a brown pill inside.

"Human metabolic function?" Prime Minister Jian asked, frowning. "What is this?"

Xiahou Riyue shook his head and said, "This humble official is not quite sure either."

As he spoke, he dissolved the pill in warm water and then gently fed it to Jian Yang with a porcelain spoon.

The two then fell into an anxious wait.

An hour later, they watched as Jian Yang, whose body was stiff, suddenly took a deep breath, and his pale face instantly turned white.

Then, she opened her eyes.

Seeing this, Prime Minister Jian, who was hiding behind Xiahou Riyue, cautiously called out, "Yang'er?"

Jian Yang turned to look at him.

"Dad, why are you hiding so far away? I don't eat people."

Prime Minister Jian burst into tears of joy, then stepped forward, took Jian Yang's hand which was gradually warming up, and said, "You scared your father to death!"

Jian Yang ignored him and instead looked at Xiahou Riyue standing by the bed, smiling slightly, "Lord Xiahou, I knew you were reliable. Thank you so much this time."

Xiahou Riyue said gently, "I dare not take all the credit; Prime Minister Jian contributed the most."

Jian Yang then looked at her adoptive father's tear-streaked face and smiled, "Father, thank you very much this time."

Prime Minister Jian wiped away his tears and said, "It's good that you're alive, it's good that you're alive. Yang'er, what are your plans for the future?"