Chapter 61 Heartfelt Intentions.

Qin Lie coughed lightly behind the archway. Upon hearing this, Huan'er immediately jumped up like a mouse seeing a cat and ran towards the back hall, quickly disappearing from sight.

Qin Lie paused for a moment before turning around from behind the archway. He saw Ling Yi standing there, staring blankly at the corner where Huan'er had disappeared, her eyes filled with a dazed expression.

Qin Lie snorted coldly, turned around and walked towards the main hall. He had only taken two steps when he heard footsteps behind him, and knew that Ling Yi had followed.

The two returned to the palace and sat for a while. Then someone from the Empress's palace came to summon them, and the two got up and went to the Empress's palace.

Because Emperor Jiahe's mother died early, Lingyi had never seen her grandmother since she could remember, and Cining Palace had been vacant for many years.

When Lingyi first entered Cining Palace, she didn't realize it. But as she walked out of Cining Palace and saw unfamiliar faces in the familiar palace, she began to feel the reality of the change of dynasties.

The Empress, residing in the former palace of Consort Guo, fixed her gaze on Lingyi, scrutinizing her from head to toe for a long time, as if she had never seen her before. Lingyi never imagined that the Empress truly had never seen her before. Though surprised, she still stood smiling, allowing the Empress to examine her, her demeanor remaining impeccable.

The Empress finally withdrew her gaze, finished bestowing gifts, and then ignored her completely.

The Crown Princess, however, was very affectionate, taking her hand and saying, "Princess... you should call me sister-in-law from now on. You've finally overcome all your hardships... If your third brother dares to bully you in the future, just come to me!"

Lingyi didn't remember her at all, only feeling that she was fake all over, and she just lowered her head and didn't answer.

Having thus met the Empress, it was time for her to leave. However, several claps of thunder sounded in the sky, and almost instantly, rain poured down. No matter how much the Empress disliked her, she could not allow the dignified Prince Duan to leave like this, lest rumors of discord between mother and son spread. She had no choice but to order a meal to be prepared with a stern face.

The meal was cold and quiet. Apart from the Crown Princess exchanging pleasantries and Lingyi chiming in, the Empress and Qin Lie didn't exchange a single word, and their faces were both gloomy.

Lingyi had difficulty swallowing, but she could not refuse the hospitality and drank two cups of wine, finally managing to hold on until the banquet ended.

The stars had stopped falling outside, and Qin Lie was just waiting to say goodbye when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.

She tried to grit her teeth and endure it, but the pain intensified with each wave, making her vision blur. She had no choice but to reach out and grab Qin Lie's sleeve for help.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, he vomited blood, lost all strength, and collapsed into Qin Lie's arms.

The Empress and the Crown Princess both paled.

It was the Crown Princess who was the first to come to her senses, shouting, "Summon the imperial physician! Quickly, summon the imperial physician!"

The quick-footed eunuch ran out, while the others had to clean up the leftover food on the table.

Qin Lie's face turned deathly pale, and he shouted sternly, "Don't move!"

He was a seasoned warrior, having slain countless souls under his command, and his imposing presence was truly awe-inspiring.

Even though this was the Empress's palace, and he was just a prince, his deep shout was enough to intimidate everyone.

The entire palace was trembling with fear, and everyone stood still, not daring to move. Even the Empress and the Crown Princess were momentarily stunned.

Blood seeped from the corner of Lingyi's mouth again, her face was as white as paper, and her face was covered with fine sweat.

Qin Lie glanced down at her, then looked up again, his eyes reddening. He glared at the Empress and said angrily, "You can't tolerate her at all?!"

The Empress was completely bewildered by his questioning and subconsciously replied, "I can't tolerate her, but... but..."

Even if she were slow-witted, she knew that there were some things she couldn't say to Qin Lie, so she stopped mid-sentence.

The Crown Princess tried to mediate: "Third brother, I know you're worried and confused. Let's wait for the imperial physician to come and see your wife first."

Qin Lie sneered: "What use is it for the imperial physician to come if you're the ones who did it?"

He continued to press the Empress: "Was it her who instigated you, or was it your own idea? Who do you want to kill, the princess or me?"

The Empress was increasingly confused about what he was saying, only startled by the deep sorrow and anger on his face. She moved her lips several times but did not know how to speak.

The Crown Princess's usual kind expression turned extremely ugly as she glared at Qin Lie.

Qin Lie picked up Ling Yi and carried her to the place where the two had been sitting during their meal. He then picked up the wine pot on the table and asked the palace servants.

"She only drank some wine. Should the bottle be turned to the left or right?"

No one answered, nor did he need to. He tilted his head back and poured the rest of the wine into his mouth, not a drop spilling.

He threw down the wine bottle, hugged Lingyi tighter, and calmly looked at the Empress.

"Now I am also poisoned. If you still care about me being your son, then take out the antidote."

"Otherwise, I will die here with her."

.

This farce didn't end until dusk.

Lingyi was poisoned, but it had nothing to do with the Empress or the Crown Princess; it was simply a case of drugs interacting and counteracting each other.

She had been poisoned when she was pregnant with Huan'er, and the lingering poison had never been cleared. Fortunately, this wine contained a rare flower from the Western Regions, which was incompatible with one of the ingredients in the poison she had been given. When the two met, they became an extremely potent poison. Fortunately, the imperial physician arrived in time; otherwise, even a celestial being could not have saved her life.

Such a potent poison is actually easy to cure: one dose of medicine to induce vomiting, and one dose of medicine to detoxify.

Lingyi's pain subsided, and she fell into a deep sleep.

Qin Lie knelt before the Empress and begged for forgiveness.

The Empress was the beloved daughter of General Qin's deputy general. Her family was considered a prominent one in Jizhou. She had lived a carefree life since childhood. Later, she married the young master of Jizhou and became the Queen Consort. Although she suffered the pain of losing her eldest son and daughter early and her husband taking a new lover, no one dared to embarrass her to her face.

I never imagined that today, in front of everyone, I would be scolded, falsely accused, and threatened by my son.

She had never suffered such humiliation before. Despite Qin Lie kneeling in front of the door for three hours, she still refused to see him. In the end, it was only after the Empress Dowager came that the situation was barely resolved.

After the Empress Dowager and Qin Lie left, she clutched her chest and sobbed to the Crown Princess, "I knew from the beginning that he wasn't on my side, but I never imagined that after I carried him for ten months and gave birth to him, he would doubt me so much because of a woman! Luckily, I still have you and Xu'er, otherwise I would have lived in vain!"

The Crown Princess comforted him, saying, "My third brother acted impulsively and must have meant no harm. Mother, you don't need to hold it against him. Putting aside everything else, my third brother has always been very good to me and my sister. To put it simply, in this palace, we are truly one family."

Hearing this, the Empress grew even angrier: "Ying'er told me several times before that her third brother was cold-blooded and heartless, but I didn't take it to heart. I always thought it was because he was always at war that he had a bit of a violent streak. But today it seems that what Ying'er said was true. He can treat me like this today. I wonder how much resentment he harbors when Ying'er poisoned me! I even sent someone to assassinate that woman. Today, he dares to do this in my palace because I am the Empress. If only..."

The Empress sat on the couch, increasingly alarmed by the thought. Looking at the Crown Princess, her own niece, standing respectfully to the side, a sense of relief rose within her. In the past, she had been oblivious to the affairs of the court, but now that the Empress Dowager had come, she realized that so many people in the court were taking a wait-and-see approach towards the Crown Prince, all because they believed that Prince Duan would replace him.

The Empress Dowager advised her that Qin Lie's marriage to a princess of the previous dynasty was tantamount to abandoning the throne, thus preventing brothers from turning against each other. Otherwise, why would she have accepted Lady Liu? However, at the time, she was rather skeptical, thinking the Empress Dowager was exaggerating. In her view, as both Empress and her birth mother, she could control Qin Lie no matter who he married, preventing him from competing with Qin Xu.

Until just now, not a single person in the entire palace dared to utter a sound in the face of Qin Lie.

How could a general who had returned from a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood be easily controlled by her?

Now, as if she had returned from a calamity, she felt only gratitude, her mind racing with thoughts of it.

Fortunately, Xu'er is the Crown Prince, and fortunately, Qin Lie is only the Prince of Duan...

She unconsciously read it aloud. The old woman serving beside her was already soaked in cold sweat, her head bowed and her eyes lowered, wishing she could disappear immediately.

The Crown Princess stood by her side, her face displaying her usual gentle and virtuous expression. However, as she turned around, the smile on her lips became increasingly pronounced, illuminating her somewhat ordinary face.

.

Inside the Cining Palace.

The Empress Dowager slammed her prayer beads hard into Qin Lie's face. He neither dodged nor avoided them, but knelt upright, letting the beads hit his eyes very close without uttering a sound.

The Empress Dowager's voice trembled: "I never imagined that our Qin family would produce such a lovelorn fool as you! Our Prince Duan of Daxian, you're risking your life to force the Empress, what a pathetic thing to do! Have you ever considered that if the wine really was poisoned, and if there was no antidote, after I've sent away your third uncle and your eldest brother, would I have to send you off as well?!"

Qin Lie, who had been consumed by rage at the time, had long since calmed down and realized he had lost his composure. He understood that marrying the princess was to fulfill the wishes of the Empress Dowager and the Crown Princess, and with the two of them present, he was confident he could persuade the Empress. Even if he couldn't, the Empress didn't possess such insidious methods. And even if she could, she should at least wait for the imperial physician to arrive; no one else would tolerate such willful behavior.

Therefore, he was speechless at this moment and just lowered his head without saying a word.

The Empress Dowager continued, "I originally thought you two had confessed your feelings for each other, which is why you forgave each other and insisted on marrying her as your principal wife. But just now, I heard from Huan'er's attendants that she didn't even recognize Huan'er before." Her tone suddenly became extremely stern. "What exactly is going on?! What are you up to now?!"

Qin Lie knew that the Empress Dowager was the most perceptive and wise, even surpassing the Emperor, and he was determined that he could not hide it from her any longer, so he had no choice but to tell the truth: "...She has forgotten her past life."

With a "smack!", Qin Lie's cheek was scratched by his armor. Ignoring his own injury, he quickly reached out to support the Empress Dowager, who was unsteady on her feet due to the force of the impact.

The Empress Dowager looked shocked and disappointed. She pointed at him with deep sorrow: "Those who drown should avoid water, and those who freeze to death should avoid winter. But you not only fail to learn from this lesson, but you also deceive yourself like this, drinking poison to quench your thirst. You are simply bewitched!"

Qin Lie said in a deep voice, "I know what I'm doing."

"Sense of propriety? What sense of propriety do you have?! I only allowed her to live so long because I thought you had sense of propriety, but I never expected you to go so far as to do this!"

There were things the Empress Dowager hadn't wanted to say, but now she had to speak them out: "Back when she gave birth to Huan'er in Jizhou, I should have known you had gone mad! You're a general who's risked your life countless times; every time you went to war, I was terrified. I wished I could pray for you before the Buddha every day, but you dared to barge into the place where a woman was giving birth, not even afraid of offending her and tainting her with bad luck! A general of your stature, threatening a midwife with a sword meant for killing enemies and defending the country—think about how absurd that is! You chose to save the mother over the child, and I comforted myself that you didn't want to offend the heavens. She drugged you and ran away, and you chased after her to Zhuozhou, and I told myself that you were filled with resentment. Tell me, what is it today that makes you want to live and die with her?!"

Qin Lie knelt upright, revealing a rare hint of vulnerability: "I don't know either. You said I was bewitched, which is probably true, but I just couldn't resist and could only make one mistake after another."

The Empress Dowager originally had much more to say, but after hearing what he said, she knew that it was all useless.

—Even he himself admitted to being bewitched, so who can wake him up?

She sighed, "You know, things we can't have are always the most alluring, but once we actually get them, they're usually nothing special."

Qin Lie remained silent for a long time before saying in a low voice, "I hope so."

Then silence returned. Outside, it started to drizzle again, and inside the hall, only the sound of falling stars could be heard.

At this moment, a palace maid hurried over and, due to the tense atmosphere in the hall, knelt down in fear. "Your Majesty, Miss Chen has woken up. She...she wants to see Prince Duan."

The Empress Dowager paused for a moment before remembering that Qin Lie had given the princess a false identity belonging to a family surnamed Chen. Looking at Qin Lie again, she saw him already standing up impatiently, his eyes vainly gazing towards the rear hall, filled with anxious longing. She sighed inwardly and said to him, "Go see her. That poison was Ying'er's doing; she suffered so much."

As the Empress Dowager grew older, she became more particular about cultivating her inner energy. Her own living quarters in the east side room were not very large, and the side hall, which was not used by anyone for a long time, was even smaller.

Besides the bed, the room only had a table, four stools, a cabinet, and two trunks.

The bed was a single carved rosewood bed. Only the Empress Dowager and Qin Huan lived in Cining Palace, and this was the first time anyone had used this side hall.

The candlelight in the side hall was not very bright. Lingyi lay on the bed, half of her body hidden in the shadows. Qin Lie sat by the bed and watched her long black hair spread out on the pillow, making her face appear even more delicate and small. Although her complexion was still somewhat pale, her lips had regained some color. She looked straight at him, her eyes glistening with tears as the candlelight flickered.

He asked, "Did the situation today frighten you?"

Lingyi nodded, then shook her head, her eyes still gazing at him tenderly. She said softly, "You have injuries on your face... Did the Empress hit you? You really don't need to offend her for my sake."

He smiled nonchalantly: "Mother and son shouldn't hold grudges overnight, it's nothing. But you haven't recovered yet, and the rain outside is getting heavier. Just rest here and go back tomorrow. You haven't eaten much all day, so I'll have them cook some easy-to-digest porridge and bring it to you. Whether you have an appetite or not, you should drink some so your body doesn't suffer."

After hearing all that he had to say, Lingyi couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you here?"

Qin Lie said, "This is the inner palace, so it's not convenient for me to stay overnight." Seeing her nervous expression, he comforted her, "Don't worry, I'll stay in the place where the cabinet ministers hold their meetings. If anything happens, I'll come right away."

He had much more to say, but it was almost time for the palace gates to close, and he could not delay any longer, so he had to leave.

Before she could even get up, she reached out and grabbed his sleeve, looking at him with longing and tenderness.

Qin Lie's tone became even gentler: "Don't be afraid. I was just being paranoid. No one is trying to harm you. You only need to stay here for one night. I will take you back to the palace as soon as it's light tomorrow."

She still wouldn't let go, lowering her eyes and speaking softly, "I'm not afraid, I... I just can't bear to be apart from you."

Qin Lie wondered if he had misheard, and froze, staring blankly at her.

Once she started speaking, the rest flowed easily. "I never knew you treated me like this... There are some things I want to tell you... Before, I wanted to leave the palace because I knew you had a wife before, and I felt wronged." She bit her lip. "It's not just wronged, it's also sad... Just thinking about how you liked someone else before, and treated her as well as you treated me, even better than you treated me... My heart feels like it's being squeezed, an indescribable sadness... Because of this sadness, I just want to be as far away from you as possible." Tears welled up in her eyes, streaming down like broken beads. "Even knowing she was before me, and that it's not your fault, I still hate you in my heart. I hate that you didn't only love me, even now... You were willing to risk your life for me, and I was both moved and happy, but I still can't help but wonder, would you do the same for her...?"

She was heartbroken and helpless: "Look, I'm just that bad, I don't deserve you treating me like this at all."

Qin Lie stood there, motionless for a long time.

Lingyi thought he was blaming her. She had lost all restraint as soon as she opened her mouth, wanting to vomit out all the torment she had endured these past few days. Who wouldn't find her repulsive if they heard that?

Qin Lie remained stunned for a long time before finally muttering, "Grandmother was wrong."

The Empress Dowager was wrong, terribly wrong. What she had been longing for but could not obtain, once it fell into her hands, would it be nothing more than that?

The sheer joy alone could overwhelm a person instantly, as if they had taken a divine elixir, sweeping away years of ailments, filling their chest with indescribable pleasure and an unprecedented ease and joy.

He cupped her face in his hands; she was still crying, and he couldn't stop.

Finally, he could only sigh, "Don't cry, your crying makes me sad too..." Not wanting her to despise herself, he held her hand, "When you treat me like this, I only feel joy. And I... when I think of Xie Yu, I feel the same way about you..."

He spoke with embarrassment, and her tears indeed stopped. She stared intently at his unnatural expression and his flushed face.

The two looked at each other, time seemed to stand still, a tranquil sweetness they had never known before.

It was as if their gazes were like silk threads, tightly entwining them, as if with each breath, the threads would spontaneously combust and burn them to ashes.

They still had much to say, but the old woman outside urged them, "Prince Duan, it's getting late, you should go."

Qin Lie had no choice but to stand up, give Ling Yi a deep look, and then turn and leave.

After the nanny returned, she told the Empress Dowager about the meeting between the two.

The Empress Dowager paused, fiddling with the new prayer beads, and after a long while said, "I've watched him live like a ghost these past few years—if it could truly bring him some peace of mind, it would fulfill my wish. But the princess is gentle on the outside but strong on the inside... Do you think there's any chance her amnesia will ever be cured?"

The old woman hesitated and said, "Should I ask the imperial physician to take a look tomorrow?"

"No need," the Empress Dowager sighed. "He knows better than anyone else what's going on. Why should we play the villain?"