Chapter 7

That's not it!

Master Qingping was renowned for his expertise in talismans, feng shui, physiognomy, yin and yang and the five elements. He was also extremely tactful in dealing with people and had a knack for business. In his previous life, he was almost appointed as the national advisor.

Xie Danling nudged her with her elbow and asked in a low voice, "You've heard of it?"

Yes! Gu Zhizhuo said, "Master Qingping came to Taiqing Temple to stay a year ago. It seems that around this time last year, the old lady of the Marquis of Pingyang was having a severe nightmare. The Marquis of Pingyang went to Taiqing Temple to ask for a calming talisman for his mother. As a result, he met Master Qingping. Master Qingping immediately said that the old Marquis's tomb had been disturbed."

"The heir of the Marquis of Pingyang made a special trip back to the clan's territory. He heard that it was true. An unfilial descendant in the clan lost money gambling and secretly took a few offerings from the coffin to pawn and pay off his debts. After that, the nightmare of the Marquis of Pingyang's Dowager Lady was cured."

Master Qingping became famous from then on.

Xie Danling listened with a startled expression, finding it extremely amusing: "Next time I leave the palace, let's go and see if he can figure out who I am."

The restrictions placed on women in the Daqi Dynasty were far less stringent than in previous dynasties, which forbade them from showing their faces in public. If Xie Danling wanted to leave the palace to play, all she needed was Consort Shu's permission.

Seeing them huddled together, whispering to each other, Consort Shu said, "Go on."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Eunuch Zheng bowed his head and said, "After seeing Miss Ji off, Her Majesty the Empress took the Third Prince to the front."

Consort Shu smiled enigmatically and said, "The Empress certainly knows how to let go."

Gu Zhizhuo's eyelashes trembled; she understood.

What Xie Jing did was truly disgraceful; it was known to most of the court long before the palace banquet ended.

The Empress had promised to give her an explanation, but now that she could no longer protect Ji Nanke, she had no choice but to make a clean break. The Empress must have taken the Third Prince to apologize.

"Imperial Physician Chen," Gu Zhizhuo pointed to the small medicine pot, "please present it to the Emperor, and also repeat what you just said to your aunt to the Emperor."

"There's no need to make a special trip. Just 'bump into' the Emperor before the palace banquet begins."

Consort Shu nodded, indicating that Chen Baishu should do as she said.

Physician Chen bowed and withdrew.

Xie Danling was never idle for a moment; whenever she had a moment to herself, she would think about changing Gu Zhizhuo's veil.

She had just had a fight with her cousin and picked one without thinking. Now that they've made up, she wants to choose the prettiest one!

With a wave of her hand, she had all her treasured veils brought over, then spread them all out on the table. She pulled Gu Zhizhuo there, picking and choosing, and finally hesitated between a veil adorned with pearls and one embroidered with kingfishers, her little face scrunched up in distress.

"Oh, by the way, I've just acquired a plum blossom hairpin..." She was about to have someone fetch the plum blossom hairpin to match her kingfisher veil when a palace maid came in first to report, "Your Highness, Eunuch Li has arrived."

Li Deshun was the emperor's chief eunuch, a top-ranking figure in the imperial court.

"please."

Then, Li Deshun came in cheerfully, waving his whisk. He wasn't very old, probably around forty, with a fair complexion, no beard, medium build, and a round face, making him quite pleasing to the eye.

"ah."

Gu Zhizhuo let out an exaggerated soft exclamation and quickly grabbed one from a pile of veils on the table and put it on.

She didn't turn her back, and Li Deshun could clearly see her swollen and red cheeks. His gaze lingered for a while longer, noticing that her eyes were red, as if she had just been crying.

Li Deshun, who rose from a lowly eunuch to serve the emperor, was no fool. He immediately understood that Consort Shu had deliberately let him see the injury on Miss Gu's face so that she could report back.

He bowed respectfully and solemnly said, "It is an imperial edict."

A whole group of people knelt down in Chonghua Palace.

“The third prince has misbehaved and acted arrogantly and unruly. He is hereby ordered to go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to reflect on his mistakes.”

"His Majesty said that Miss Gu has been wronged."

This statement definitively settled the matter.

Li Deshun felt a deep sense of melancholy.

When the Empress brought the Third Prince to apologize, the Emperor initially scolded him angrily, but when he was about to go to the front, he still took the Third Prince with him.

Having served the emperor for many years, Li Deshun naturally understood that the emperor placed high hopes on the third prince, his only legitimate son. In the emperor's heart, only the third prince was a "son," while the others were merely "princes."

The Emperor thought the matter would be put aside, but unexpectedly, he ran into Chen Baishu on his way back to the Imperial Hospital.

Chen Baishu said he was going to see Miss Gu, so the emperor asked a few more questions, which enraged him.

Back then, the deposed crown prince colluded with the head of the Imperial Medical Academy to poison the late emperor's medicinal meals, little by little each day, until medicine was no longer effective. When the late emperor passed away, the current emperor was by his side, attending to his illness.

What the emperor feared most was that someone in the inner palace would get too close to the imperial physician.

When the Third Prince came to apologize, he only said that he had a quarrel with Miss Gu and, in a fit of anger, wanted to make her suffer. In fact, it was clear from this that he was downplaying the seriousness of the matter, but since the Emperor did not pursue the matter, then this was the "truth".

Unexpectedly, Physician Chen not only revealed what poison was in the medicine, but also presented it to the Emperor. He also clearly described Miss Gu's injuries, especially emphasizing that "if this poison were accidentally ingested, it would cause her intestines to perforate and her stomach to rot."

This is blatantly and repeatedly reminding the Emperor that the Third Prince colluded with the imperial physician to secretly poison him!

At that moment, the Emperor berated the Third Prince mercilessly, saying things that the Third Prince dared not even listen to or think about.

The Third Prince is still kneeling in front of Shuntian Gate.

Alas, the Third Prince is definitely going to miss out on becoming the Crown Prince this time. Who could have imagined that something so sure of him would turn out to be so unpredictable? Now that he's missed his chance, who knows who will be the next Crown Prince? Not to mention the First and Second Princes, even the Fourth Prince has grown up, and if Prince Chen returns to the capital alive, things will be even more uncertain.

Li Deshun felt a little uneasy, but he was glad that he hadn't been misled and had treated all the princes equally.

He said with a smile, "Miss Gu, the Emperor has bestowed a reward upon you."

He clapped his hands lightly a few times, and six eunuchs carrying trays entered in two rows.

The gifts were extremely generous: a jade pomegranate bonsai, a white jade brush washer, a jeweled and gilded incense ball... each item was precious, especially the gilded hairpin with butterflies and two flowers, the pearl on it was as big as a pigeon egg, with a smooth color and exceptional brilliance.

Li Deshun recounted the rewards one by one.

"This humble woman thanks you for your kindness."

Gu Zhizhuo bowed deeply once again, and Li Deshun helped her up with both hands, saying, "Miss Gu, Physician Liu has been imprisoned in the Eastern Depot's prison. The Emperor will not allow you to suffer any injustice."

Gu Zhizhu bowed and thanked him. Li Deshun smiled like Maitreya Buddha and comforted her for a few more words before taking his leave. Before leaving, he specifically told Gu Zhizhu that she did not need to attend the palace banquet and could rest well in Chonghua Palace.

As soon as Li Deshun left, Xie Danling beckoned with her finger, signaling the palace maids to bring over all the rewards and place them together with her stack of veils. She looked at them one by one and picked up the hairpin.

"This one is the best!"

Xie Danling held it up in Gu Zhizhuo's hair and put it on for her herself.

"Alright, let me take a look."

Xie Danling gestured for her to lean back.

Two butterflies landed on Gu Zhizhuo's hair, and the pearls in her hair swayed gently with her movements. The shimmering light of the pearls fell on her cheeks, making her look beautiful and captivating.

"I say this one looks better!"

Now there's no need to worry anymore! Xie Danling personally helped her put on the pearl-adorned veil and smiled contentedly.

Gu Zhizhuo took a cherry and put it into her mouth.

Sweet! Xie Danling squinted her eyes in delight.

Gu Zhizhuo was granted special permission not to attend the palace banquet, and Consort Shu also took the opportunity to avoid the banquet by taking care of her "injured" niece. She smiled and leaned on the chaise longue, watching the two maids bicker, make up, and then playfully fight and run around the palace.

When the palace servants came to report that the banquet was over, Consort Shu beckoned to Gu Zhizhuo and pulled him to sit down in front of her, saying, "Just now, the censors jointly impeached the Empress, and His Majesty issued an edict reprimanding the Empress and ordering the Fengluan Palace to be closed for half a month. You can keep this to yourself. His Majesty punished the Third Prince and the Empress one after another to appease the Gu family. He won't allow you to break off the engagement anytime soon."

"You don't need to rush, especially since you absolutely cannot be the one to take the blame for this mistake. Also, your stepmother is always two-faced, so be careful of her..."

Gu Zhizhuo solemnly agreed to each one.

The Gu family still has value, and the marriage is a means to maintain morale in the army. How could the emperor easily give up such a simple and convenient method?

Being tied to Xie Jing was truly annoying, and Gu Zhizhuo secretly pondered how to sabotage the situation before leaving Chonghua Palace.

The carriages from each household were waiting outside the palace gate. Gu Zhizhuo found his own carriage first. After waiting for a short while, Madam Gu came out with the help of Madam Ji. As soon as she saw Gu Zhizhuo, Madam Ji burst into tears before she could even speak.

"Zhuo'er." Ji's eyes were red, and her beautiful face was full of sorrow. "Does your face still hurt... You are injured like this, it really feels like my flesh has been ripped out. Come here and let me take a look."

Gu Zhizhu greeted them and said, "Grandmother, Mother."

Lady Ji was extremely beautiful. She was not tall, but thin without being bony, and her eyes and brows exuded a charming and alluring quality.

My father has been stationed in the northern frontier for many years and rarely returns to the capital.

After her mother passed away, she and her brother were still young and had no one to take care of them. The late emperor and her grandfather were comrades-in-arms on the battlefield when they were young and had a life-or-death friendship. Later, they became good friends as ruler and subject, so the emperor arranged for her father to marry a woman from the Ji family as his second wife.

After Ji entered the family, she treated the siblings extremely well, showing them great care and concern. Gu Zhizhuo suffered from constant illness since childhood, and it was Ji who took care of him tirelessly, even collapsing from exhaustion and giving birth prematurely to her younger brother, Gu Yan.

later.

The entire Gu family was convicted of a crime, but the emperor showed mercy and did not strip them of their title. Instead, he issued an edict ordering Gu Yan, who was not yet six years old at the time, to inherit the title and the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion.

Lady Ji, Gu Yan's biological mother, was also pardoned.

Of the entire Gu family, only Ji Shi and Gu Yan were not implicated, and even Ji Nanke was able to continue to enjoy wealth and luxury in the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.

As for the others, her uncle was beheaded, her aunt, her cousins, and even her infant cousin Ange'er did not escape the fate; they all died of illness in that mortuary.

A note from the author: