Chapter 84 The Truth: Old Ten's Lazy Way Out

Consort Tongjia fell seriously ill because she had suffered extremely severe blows to both her physical and mental health.

This is not a sudden, acute illness, but rather a hidden danger that has been accumulating over time and can no longer be concealed, finally surfacing completely at this moment.

As early as the 22nd year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, Consort Tongjia, who had been in the palace for several years without conceiving, gave birth to the eighth princess with great difficulty. However, the eighth princess died less than a month later. Consort Tongjia was deeply affected by this and fell ill. She was bedridden for half a year and could not get over the pain of losing her daughter.

Even back then, Consort Tongjia had developed a deep-seated emotional distress, and her physical health also suffered due to the emotional pain.

From that year onward, Consort Tongjia's health was never very good, and she would often suffer from minor illnesses. The doctors of the Imperial Hospital got used to going to Chengqian Palace every now and then.

Two years ago, the Empress Dowager passed away in the twelfth lunar month. Consort Tong, as the deputy empress, presided over the funeral. She spent a whole month in the coldest part of the first lunar month preparing for the Empress Dowager's funeral, and she lost a lot of weight and looked extremely haggard. She fell ill as soon as the mourning period ended.

Originally, Consort Tongjia had only fallen ill due to overwork. With proper treatment from the imperial physicians and careful recuperation over a period of time, she might have recovered completely. However, the actions of her maternal family, the Tong family, and her father, Tong Guowei, broke her heart once again.

Consort Tongjia knew perfectly well why her father, Tong Guowei, had rushed to request her to be registered in the Manchu register as soon as she recovered from her serious illness.

He wasn't satisfied with the benefits he had already gained from the maternal relatives' connections this time; he wanted to do it again, and he wanted to secure some more advantages for the Tong family while his daughter was still alive.

The Tong family did not only take advantage of Consort Tongjia while she was alive, but they also made preparations for her death as early as the 22nd year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, when Consort Tongjia fell seriously ill and was bedridden for half a year.

—The half-sister of Consort Tongjia is already twenty-one years old this year, and is still unmarried.

Even for a Manchu aunt, it's a bit late to be unmarried at this age, let alone the Tong family, which is originally a Han Chinese family.

It's obvious to anyone with eyes to see what the Tong family is up to. They simply plan to send another girl into the palace after the death of Consort Tongjia, so that she can continue to gain a high position in the palace and bring benefits to the family.

Tong Guowei and Tong Guogang experienced the benefits of being born into the imperial family.

After Emperor Kangxi ascended the throne, he bestowed many benefits upon the Tong family and his uncles. Although the Tong family has not yet reached the point of controlling half the court, their rise is unstoppable because the emperor is standing behind them!

This fueled the Tong family's ambitions to go even further. They wanted to interfere in the struggle for the throne and ensure that the next emperor would continue to support the Tong family. The fact that Kangxi was born to a Tong family daughter had already brought the Tong family so many benefits. If the next emperor continued to favor the Tong family, then the Tong family would be even more formidable.

It has to be said that the Tong family's calculations were very shrewd, and their actions were truly disgusting.

The reason why the Niohuru clan decided to send another noblewoman into the palace was because Empress Xiaozhao, the successor empress, had only been in the position for half a year before passing away.

After the death of Empress Xiaozhao, who came from a prominent Manchu noble family, the connection between the Manchu nobles and the imperial family was severely weakened. It was then that the Niohuru clan re-married into the imperial family to continue the kinship relationship between the Niohuru clan and the imperial family.

Empress Xiaozhao passed away in February of the seventeenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign. Her younger sister, Consort Niohuru, was seventeen years old at the time, the age for marriage. However, Consort Niohuru only entered the palace at the end of the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign after observing a full twenty-seven-month mourning period.

After Empress Renxiao's death, Hesheli originally did not intend to send another noblewoman from her clan to the palace. It was only after seeing Niohuru send a concubine to the palace that she followed suit—although Hesheli's actions in this matter were not exactly dignified.

When Empress Heseri sent the ten-year-old Chuxiu Consort to the palace to wait for her to grow up, this was indeed quite criticized after Emperor Kangxi came of age and began to rule. However, at least initially, Empress Heseri did not intend to rise to power by virtue of her status as a maternal relative after the death of Empress Yuan.

Of course, this could also be because Empress Yuan left behind a crown prince. With the crown prince as their trump card, the Hesheli clan no longer needed women from their clan to enter the palace to gain favor and become the link between the royal family and the Hesheli clan.

Compared to the Hesheli clan, the Niohuru clan may not have been much simpler or had much purer intentions.

The reason why Consort Gui was able to observe the full 27-month mourning period before entering the palace as a concubine was twofold: firstly, it was her own insistence, and secondly, Faka, who was her and Empress Xiaozhao's elder brother, also supported Consort Gui in observing the full mourning period.

While the Consort and her brother had their own principles, the entire Niohuru clan might not have been so simple-minded.

When the Niohuru clan promoted the entry of the Imperial Concubine into the palace, they certainly wanted to continue the marriage ties between the Niohuru clan and the imperial family. However, the Niohuru clan did not need to rely on their maternal relatives for benefits. Their family rose to power through military merit and relied on their real skills on the battlefield. They had no need to play the fancy game of relying on maternal relatives.

After the deaths of Empress Xiaoyi and Empress Renxiao, the Niohuru and Hesheli clans sent noble ladies from their clans to the palace, which did indeed reflect their desire to continue their marriage ties with the imperial family. However, compared to the Tong family, their schemes seemed simpler, and their actions were far less disgusting.

While Consort Tongjia was still alive, the Tong family had already prepared a replacement for her. It was as if Consort Tongjia was merely a tool for the family to pursue their own interests; once she was no longer useful, they simply replaced her. From beginning to end, the Tong family had shown her absolutely no affection.

Even though Consort Tongjia was seriously ill after the death of the eighth princess in the twenty-second year of Kangxi's reign, it was understandable and forgivable for the Tong family to search for a successor in the palace out of concern for her passing.

However, in the past six years, the half-sister of Consort Tongjia has remained unmarried, which makes the Tong family's intentions rather malicious. The Tong family is certain that Consort Tongjia will not live long and wants to keep her half-sister in the palace as a concubine to replace her.

After Tong Guowei requested permission to include the Tong family in the Manchu register, the Tongjia Imperial Noble Consort, who had previously been somewhat self-deceiving, finally saw through her family's exploitation and cold-bloodedness.

Originally, Consort Tongjia had only barely recovered. This blow and the heartbreak were too great. She could only hold on for a year after recovering before she fell ill again.

This time, Consort Tongjia's illness came on fiercely, and her previous ailments also flared up. Her condition became uncontrollable, evolving from a minor illness into a serious illness that left Consort Tongjia unable to get up, and even gradually showed signs of being incurable.

After Consort Tongjia fell seriously ill, the Fourth Prince was extremely worried and anxious.

Because Emperor Kangxi did not grant the Fourth Prince special permission to take a break from the Imperial Study, the Fourth Prince, who was upright and strict with himself and others, would not do such a thing as skipping class. So every day at noon, he would take time to visit Consort Tongjia at Chengqian Palace in the Eastern Six Palaces, squeezing out his lunch break time.

Consort Tongjia had lost faith in her family. Apart from Emperor Kangxi, who was both her husband and cousin, the person she cared about most and who she missed the most in the palace was the Fourth Prince.

The Fourth Prince was raised by Consort Tongjia right after his birth, and she always treated him like her own son.

She knew that the Fourth Prince's personality was not very likable, and she was very worried that after her death, the Fourth Prince would have a hard time in the palace without his mother's protection.

The Fourth Prince was the adopted son of Consort Tongjia, not her biological son. This was a secret in the palace, known only to the older palace staff who had witnessed Consort De's childbirth. Because of Consort Tongjia's high status, no one dared to reveal this to the Fourth Prince.

Even Consort De, who used her status as the birth mother of the Fourth Prince to act as a loving mother and feign grievances to ask for favors in front of Emperor Kangxi, only dared to play on the edge and never dared to have any close contact with the Fourth Prince, let alone reveal the truth directly to him.

Parents who love their children plan far ahead for them.

As princes grow up, they will eventually move out of the palace, and the distance between them and the emperor will grow further and further. Without the help of the women in the palace to mediate, the princes will become increasingly estranged from their fathers, and if the father-son relationship weakens in the future, the princes will live a very difficult life.

The Crown Prince serves as a cautionary tale, and Consort Tongjia would never want the Fourth Prince to become a prince without a mother's protection in the palace.

Knowing that she was nearing the end of her life and had no time left to protect the Fourth Prince, Consort Tongjia wanted to find a way out for him before she died and entrust him to a suitable person.

Therefore, after falling seriously ill, Consort Tongjia took the initiative to tell the Fourth Prince the truth, telling him that she was not his biological mother, but Consort De was.

Consort Tongjia hoped that after her death, the Fourth Prince's birth mother, Consort De, would take care of him, as this was the best person she could think of to entrust him with his care.

Consort De was no longer the Noble Lady De who rose in status because of her son. She was one of the four consorts, the birth mother of the Ninth Princess who was raised by the Empress Dowager. She had influence in front of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager and was a high-ranking consort in the palace.

She has the position to protect the Fourth Prince, who is already eleven years old and will soon grow up to become a strong support for Consort De. It is likely that Consort De would be willing to do this thing that is mutually beneficial to both her and the Fourth Prince.

After the death of the sixth prince, Yinzhuo, in the twenty-fourth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, Consort De, the only one among the four consorts without a child, kept a low profile for a long time. It wasn't until Consort De gave birth to the twenty-third prince, Yinzhen, in the first month of the twenty-seventh year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign at the "advanced age" of nearly thirty that she once again became the center of attention in the palace.

Consort De, who was pregnant with another prince, was unwilling to take over the care of the Fourth Prince.

That's right, the Fourth Prince is her own son, and he will soon grow up and won't need her to worry about him for long.

However, after sending the Fourth Prince to live with Consort Tongjia, Consort De no longer regarded him as her own son. Now that she has her own son, she does not want to waste resources on the Fourth Prince, with whom she has no mother-son relationship.

After the death of the sixth prince, Yinzhuo, Consort De doted on her hard-won youngest son, Yinzhen, to the point of being obsessive.

Now that Yinzhen is young and vulnerable, Consort De has devoted all her attention to taking care of him, neglecting even the twelfth princess who was born in the twenty-fifth year of Kangxi's reign. She is unwilling to spare any attention to take care of the fourth prince, whom she no longer regards as her son.

After Consort Tongjia fell seriously ill, the Fourth Prince, upon learning of the severity of her condition and the fact that it was incurable, felt as if half of his world had collapsed. Furthermore, upon learning about his own origins from Consort Tongjia, the Fourth Prince's entire world was completely turned upside down.

The Imperial Noble Consort treated the Fourth Prince as her own son, showering him with love and care over the years. The Fourth Prince never imagined that she was not his biological mother, nor did he ever think that he was not actually the Imperial Noble Consort's biological son.

Consort De... The Fourth Prince had never had any close contact with Consort De, and his impression of her was very shallow. He never thought of her and could not accept that Consort De was his mother.