Chapter 328 Competing for Favor (Two Updates)

At the hour of You (5-7 PM), the Imperial College and Qinghe Academy dismissed their students.

Gu Xiaoshun went to Nanxiang and Master Lu to learn his skills, while Gu Yan asked for leave on the grounds of feeling unwell.

He wasn't actually unwell; he deliberately took leave to carry out his plan with Xiao Jingkong in their anti-brother-in-law justice alliance.

"Why hasn't the little monk come back yet?" Gu Yan paced back and forth in the courtyard.

Mrs. Yao asked with amusement, "Are you feeling better?"

Gu Yan coughed lightly: "I... I'll get some fresh air, I feel much better."

Ms. Yao knew he was skipping class on purpose, but she didn't say anything because of his health condition.

As Yao's pregnancy progressed, Gu Yan didn't feel hot, but she was sweating profusely and went back to her room to take a shower.

Gu Yan waited anxiously at the door for who knows how long before finally the little monk returned.

"Why are you so late?" Gu Yan asked.

Little Jingkong sighed like a little adult: "Isn't it because Grandpa is too late? I told him I could come back by myself, but Grandpa was worried and insisted that I wait for him."

The Imperial College is not far from Bishui Hutong. Xiao Jingkong walks there every day and can walk it with his eyes closed without getting lost.

However, adults and children often have different ideas. His safety zone is this alley, and if he goes any further, the adults at home will not feel at ease.

Gu Yan looked at both ends of the alley, then took Xiao Jingkong's hand and said, "Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. My sister and brother-in-law will be back soon."

This means the two are about to start doing shady things in secret.

However, since this is their first time, they still need to plan carefully.

The clinic and the Imperial Academy were not busy today, so Gu Jiao and Xiao Liulang arrived home early. After arriving home, Xiao Liulang went to the study to check Xiao Jingkong's homework.

He finishes his homework faster than Gu Yan, so he usually checks Gu Yan's first.

Gu Jiao then went to the kitchen.

Gu Yan narrowed his eyes, quietly went outside the kitchen and peeked inside, only to find that his sister was actually making savory tofu pudding!

ah!

Are you addicted to giving your brother-in-law savory tofu pudding?

They even made tofu pudding by hand!

Gu Yan's heart was churning with jealousy. Xiao Jingkong slipped out of the study under the pretext of urinating. The two little devils hid behind the crabapple tree and meticulously exchanged the information they had gathered.

Xiao Jingkong said fiercely, "Jiaojiao went to the Hanlin Academy to pick up her bad brother-in-law, and they went home together!"

Gu Yan was furious! His sister had never picked him up from school!

Gu Yan gritted her teeth and said, "My sister is making savory tofu pudding, and it's all for my brother-in-law! There's no for us!"

Xiao Jingkong had a sudden inspiration and a plan came to mind!

"Jiaojiao! Your great-uncle is calling you!" Xiao Jingkong came to the kitchen and said to Gu Jiao with a cute expression.

Gu Jiao put down her spoon and said, "Oh, okay, then I'll go over there."

She had barely left when the two little troublemakers slipped in.

The two exchanged a mischievous glance, picked up the seasoning jars, and poured them into the tofu pudding with a splash!

"Add some salt!"

"Hot sauce!"

"star anise!"

"Sichuan peppercorn!"

"And this and this!" Gu Yan pulled a jar from the very back of the cupboard. "Lotus seed hearts, they're super bitter!"

Xiao Jingkong pretended to be so miserable that his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground, then got up and laughed so hard that his whole body was shaking!

After the two finished their mischief and put the last jar back in the cupboard, Gu Jiao returned. She said in surprise, "Grandpa didn't call me just now."

Xiao Jingkong spread his hands in a serious manner: "Ah, maybe I misheard!"

"What are you two doing here?" Gu Jiao asked.

Their eyes flickered.

Gu Yan remained calm under pressure and said, "Oh, didn't you make tofu pudding for your brother-in-law? We'll take it over for you!"

Xiao Jingkong quickly chimed in, "Yes! Take it over to Jiaojiao!"

Gu Jiao said "Oh," and then said, "The tofu pudding wasn't made for your brother-in-law, it was made for you. Last time I only bought tofu pudding for your brother-in-law and not for you, and you seemed quite disappointed, so I came back early today and made a bowl for you myself. You've come at the perfect time, hurry up and eat!"

The two looked at the culinary disaster they had so thoroughly ravaged with countless seasonings, and felt as if they had been struck by a thousand thunderbolts.

The two little devils were on the verge of tears. It's too late to regret it now, boohoo...

Gu Jiao glanced at the two whose expressions were gradually breaking down and asked strangely, "What's wrong? Don't you like my tofu pudding?"

Oh, I absolutely can't not like it!

Otherwise, we'd lose to our wicked brother-in-law!

They love Jiaojiao even more than her bad brother-in-law!

The two took out their respective small bowls, and Gu Yan scooped a large spoonful for Xiao Jingkong: "You are the younger brother, so you should eat more."

Xiao Jingkong scooped an even bigger spoonful for Gu Yan: "In ancient times, Kong Rong shared pears; now, Jingkong shares tofu pudding. Brother Yan, have some more."

Gu Yan: "No, you should eat more, so you can grow taller."

Xiao Jingkong: "I'm still young, I can grow taller slowly. It's more important for Brother Yan to take care of his health."

Come on, let's hurt each other!

The first operation of the Anti-Brother-in-Law Justice League ended in failure, with both sides hurting each other!

...

Even after they finished eating, Gu Yan and Xiao Jingkong were still acting strangely.

"Hmph!" Xiao Jingkong turned his face away.

"Ha!" Gu Yan also turned his face away!

Everyone was completely confused. What was going on? Why were they fighting again?

After dinner, Gu Jiao continued to study her gunpowder. Halfway through her research, Eunuch Qin arrived.

Despite his advanced age, Eunuch Qin jumped off the carriage, nearly falling flat on his face.

"Eunuch Qin, please slow down!" Gu Xiaoshun, who happened to be at the door, helped him up.

Eunuch Qin wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled, "Thank you, Brother Xiaoshun! Brother Xiaoshun, is your sister here?"

"Yes! In the backyard!" Gu Xiaoshun said, shouting inside, "Sister! Someone's looking for you! It's Eunuch Qin!"

Gu Jiao gathered up the bottles and jars on the ground, stood up, and looked at the hurried Eunuch Qin: "Eunuch Qin, is it my aunt looking for me so late?"

Eunuch Qin said anxiously, "Oh dear, yes... no!"

Gu Jiao asked, "Is it or isn't it?"

"Oh!" Eunuch Qin pinched himself. "Look at my mouth, I can't speak properly when I'm anxious. It's like this, Miss Gu, the Empress Dowager got a fish bone stuck in her throat while eating fish, it's quite deep, and the imperial physicians couldn't do anything about it, so I came to find you!"

"Alright, I'll go to the palace with you now." Gu Jiao returned to the east room, picked up her small medicine box, and went out with Eunuch Qin.

But before she could get into the carriage, another carriage stopped in front of her house.

Eunuch Wei stepped down from the carriage, looking anxious: "Miss Gu! Miss Gu!"

Gu Jiao hummed in response: "Eunuch Wei came to see me too?"

Eunuch Wei, breathless, said, "Your Majesty... His Majesty requests that Miss Gu go to Huaqing Palace... Someone has been injured!"

Eunuch Qin tugged at Gu Jiao's sleeve: "Miss Gu, you should go see the Empress Dowager first!"

"What happened to the Empress Dowager?" Eunuch Wei, not waiting for Eunuch Qin's reply, grabbed Gu Jiao's other sleeve. "It's a matter of life and death. Miss Gu, please come with this old servant to Huaqing Palace!"

Eunuch Qin said solemnly, "The Empress Dowager's life is also at stake! She's coughing up blood!"

The main problem was that the Empress Dowager didn't take the fish bone seriously at first. She tried to swallow it with a folk remedy, but instead of swallowing the fish bone, she cut her throat.

Gu Jiao said to Eunuch Wei, "Removing the fish bones will be quick; I'll come over as soon as I'm done."

Eunuch Wei raised his hand: "But..."

There are no buts.

Gu Jiao got into Eunuch Qin's carriage.

Eunuch Qin breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself, "The Empress Dowager's affection for Miss Gu was not in vain!"

But, was someone injured?

Who is injured that makes His Majesty so anxious?

The two went to Renshou Palace.

Empress Dowager Zhuang was in great discomfort. Something was stuck in her throat, and swallowing caused excruciating pain. The Empress Dowager's health was of utmost importance, and the imperial physicians dared not blindly pry open her mouth.

Fortunately, Gu Jiao arrived, and all the imperial physicians felt a great sense of relief.

Gu Jiao opened the small medicine box, took out gloves and put them on, and then picked out a pair of cold tweezers.

"I don't want it!" Empress Dowager Zhuang was horrified the moment she saw the tweezers.

"It'll be quick, and it won't hurt at all," Gu Jiao coaxed.

"No, no! I don't want it!" Empress Dowager Zhuang retorted angrily.

Gu Jiao turned to look at everyone: "Eunuch Qin, you may all leave now."

Empress Dowager Zhuang: "You are not allowed to leave!"

Eunuch Qin coughed lightly and withdrew with the imperial physicians and palace servants.

Empress Dowager Zhuang: ...Am I still your Empress Dowager?! What happened to being feared and trembling at your feet?!

Empress Dowager Zhuang covered her mouth and jumped off the phoenix bed with a whoosh.

Gu Jiao chased her all over the palace.

The two were essentially playing a cat-and-mouse game.

Looking at the shadow projected onto the window paper, Eunuch Qin shook his head; this was also an eyesore.

In the end, Empress Dowager Zhuang was still caught up by Gu Jiao.

She covered her mouth tightly: "I don't want to!"

Gu Jiao coaxed, "Okay, I won't use it, but can I at least take a look?"

Empress Dowager Zhuang said, "Then, then give me this thing!"

Gu Jiao obediently handed her the tweezers: "Open your mouth so I can see if I can use the medicine."

Empress Dowager Zhuang opened her mouth wide.

A flash of silver light, and in a whoosh, Gu Jiao used another pair of tweezers to remove the fishbone from her.

Empress Dowager Zhuang: "..."

Gu Jiao said, "It's alright, it's nothing serious. But your throat is sore and needs to rest for a while. Try to use your voice less and eat a light diet." As she spoke, she said to the door, "Eunuch Qin, come in."

Eunuch Qin entered the bedchamber with a grin.

Empress Dowager Zhuang glared at someone with an icy expression!

Eunuch Qin shrank back and hid behind Gu Jiao.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Eunuch Wei returned to Huaqing Palace alone.

The emperor, alone, was furious: "What's going on? Where is the little miracle doctor? Didn't I tell you to bring her here no matter what?"

Eunuch Wei said awkwardly, "This servant went to invite him, but... the little miracle doctor..."

The emperor said coldly, "Speak your mind! Don't beat around the bush!"

Eunuch Wei steeled his resolve and said, "The Empress Dowager is also ill, and the little divine doctor was summoned away by Eunuch Qin."

The emperor laughed sarcastically, slamming his fist on the table and saying with a cold laugh, "Wasn't her cold already cured? She was in good spirits when I went to deliver the amulet just now. How come she's so sick in such a short time that she needs to call a doctor? Aren't there any imperial physicians in the palace?"

Eunuch Wei thought for a moment and said, "This... I heard it was an accident, he got a fishbone stuck in his throat."

The emperor's smile grew increasingly sarcastic: "Last time she was so seriously ill, she couldn't bear to tell the little divine physician, but now she's summoned to the palace over a mere fishbone. Do you think she did it on purpose? Did she find out?"

"Your Majesty..." Eunuch Wei was completely at a loss for words.

The emperor clenched his fist and said, "Fine, if she does the first thing, she can't blame me for doing the fifteenth!"

"Your Majesty! Miss Gu has arrived!" the eunuch outside the door announced.

The emperor gave Eunuch Wei a wink, and Eunuch Wei understood, personally going outside Huaqing Palace to welcome Gu Jiao in.

Gu Jiao only knew that someone in Huaqing Palace was injured, but she didn't know who was injured. It wasn't until she entered the side hall of Huaqing Palace that she discovered that the injured person who needed her treatment was actually Consort Jing.

Gu Jiao didn't ask why Consort Jing, who should have been living in a nunnery, was in the Emperor's palace. It seemed that Renshou Palace was unaware of this, otherwise Eunuch Qin wouldn't have been muttering about it the whole way.

Gu Jiao looked at the unconscious Consort Jing.

Well, my husband only said not to go to the nunnery to make house calls anymore, he didn't say that he couldn't make house calls at Huaqing Palace.

I can make house calls today, so I'll round it off.

Gu Jiao placed the small medicine box on the table and began to examine Consort Jing's injuries.

"What's wrong with her?" Gu Jiao asked.

The Emperor looked at Consort Jing and said with concern, "My mother fell down. She went to pick fruit for me and accidentally tumbled down the steps."

Behind the nunnery was a small orchard planted with seasonal fruits. Every season when the fruit was plentiful, Consort Jing would pick some and have them sent to the emperor in the palace.

The Emperor then explained the reason why Consort Jing had entered the palace: "I went to visit my mother today, and upon returning to the palace, I heard this terrible news. I was really worried about her, so I ordered someone to bring her back to the palace to recuperate."

“She’s not seriously injured,” Gu Jiao said.

The emperor's gaze deepened as he said, "But I'm worried that something else might happen to her."

It's hard to guess what this means. Does it mean that Consort Jing is old and prone to accidents, or that someone is secretly plotting against her and repeatedly causing her misfortunes? We don't know.

Gu Jiao didn't ask.

Consort Jing had abrasions of varying degrees on her right elbow, left palm, right thigh, and knee, accompanied by a slight fever. She was diagnosed with a recent cold.

Gu Jiao wrote out a prescription and asked Eunuch Wei to get the medicine: "One dose a day, decocted twice a day, morning and evening, and taken after meals. As for her injuries, just apply some wound medicine from the Imperial Physician Bureau, or it's fine if you don't apply it."

Gu Jiao packed her things to leave when the emperor suddenly smiled bitterly and said, "I thought we had kept it a secret."

In the end, he overestimated his own strength and underestimated the eyes and ears of that person in Renshou Palace!

Gu Jiao paused, then said, "The Empress Dowager doesn't know."

"Ha." The Emperor sneered, "Didn't she know she would feign illness at this critical juncture? Fortunately, Consort Jing's injuries weren't serious. What if they were? With this delay, Consort Jing might have lost her life!"

She had been touched by the fact that she had taken care of her all night, but now it seemed that it was just a tactic she used to win people over; she was incorrigible!

“The Empress Dowager wasn’t faking illness.” Gu Jiao pointed to Consort Jing on the bed. “The Empress Dowager’s condition is more serious than hers. If she were faking illness, why wouldn’t it be her?”

Gu Jiao was not questioning Consort Jing, but simply presenting evidence to refute the emperor.

The Emperor was immediately agitated: "How could Consort Jing feign illness? She's injured like this! You saw it with your own eyes, how could it be fake!"

Undeterred by the Emperor's wrath, Gu Jiao stared at him intently and said stubbornly, "I also witnessed what happened with the Empress Dowager."

The emperor's gaze grew increasingly cold.

The entire side hall fell silent, and the eunuchs serving nearby all held their breath, not daring to utter a sound.

Miss Gu is too bold. Isn't she afraid of being punished by His Majesty for speaking to him like that?

The emperor was indeed so angry with Gu Jiao that he almost punished her, but he managed to hold back in the end.

He turned around and said coldly, "You may leave. Do not appear before me for the next few days!"

Gu Jiao said calmly, "That's perfect. I was also planning to tell His Majesty that I will no longer come to Huaqing Palace. If anyone in Huaqing Palace falls ill, please go and fetch a doctor or imperial physician on your own. Do not come to me."

The emperor suddenly turned around and looked at her: "You!"

snort!

Gu Jiao slammed the lid shut, grabbed the small medicine box, and left without looking back!

The emperor was so angry that his face turned green.

He watched the small figure of someone strut away and said angrily, "Even the Crown Prince has never been so presumptuous in front of me!"

Gu Jiao paused, then turned back, clutching the small medicine box.

The emperor's lips curled slightly. Now you know the power of the Son of Heaven, don't you?

Well, it's not that I really want to punish her. If she just obediently apologizes, I'll forgive her this once.

Gu Jiao stretched out one hand.

"What?" The emperor was taken aback.

"Consultation fee!" Gu Jiao said coldly, "Doesn't the emperor pay for medical treatment?"

The emperor, who nearly choked to death, exclaimed: "...!!"

After receiving the fifty taels of silver as payment, Gu Jiao left without expression.

Consort Jing slowly woke up, and probably because of the pain in her body, she gasped.

The emperor noticed the commotion and quickly came over and sat down by the bedside: "Mother!"

Consort Jing rubbed her groggy head: "It was so noisy just now, did someone offend His Majesty?"

Eunuch Wei glanced nervously at the emperor.

The Emperor tucked the blanket around Consort Jing and said, "No, Mother, you must have misheard. No one disturbed me. I was just discussing your condition with the doctor. If I disturbed you, it was my fault."

Eunuch Wei's expression relaxed; His Majesty still dotes on the little divine physician.

Thanks to the creative comments section! The nickname "little drama queen" comes from a lovely little book lover.

(End of this chapter)