Lu Xiaoyun held Consort Duan's hand tightly: "No one is at fault in this matter, not you or your son! Why torture yourself and your son every day like this?"
Consort Duan's face turned deathly pale. She stared at Lu Xiaoyun in disbelief, her lips moved, but her throat felt as if it were stuffed with cotton, so sore that she couldn't utter a sound.
Slowly, her whole body began to tremble uncontrollably, and in the end, she could only bury her head deeply in Lu Xiaoyun's hands and sob.
Lu Xiaoyun breathed a long sigh of relief; at least she could cry.
Lu Xiaoyun's eyes also reddened. She knew that Consort Duan had been living on thin ice for the past few decades, and that she was actually not much better off than Zhu Yu.
Consort Duan held Lu Xiaoyun's hand tightly: "Yu'er, Yu'er... I thought, I thought you would never know this secret in this lifetime."
"My mother wants to tell you, but I dare not, I dare not."
"Mother, it's my fault." Lu Xiaoyun choked up, gently patting Consort Duan's back until Consort Duan gradually stopped crying after half an hour.
Lu Xiaoyun took out a handkerchief from her bosom and wiped away Consort Duan's tears.
Consort Duan asked in a hoarse voice, "When did you find out?"
“I already knew five years ago. I’m sorry, Mother, all these years… it’s my fault, I shouldn’t have…”
In fact, Zhu Yuzhen should have been honest with Consort Duan about everything earlier, and then none of this would have happened.
But the mother and son have remarkably similar personalities.
Consort Duan covered Lu Xiaoyun's mouth with her hand, shook her head, and tears rolled down her cheeks again.
"No, it's not your fault, it's your mother, it's your mother who has wronged you. But, Yu'er, if your mother doesn't do this, what will you do, what will you do? Your father will not tolerate you, he will kill you, kill you. I have no other choice, I have no other option."
“I humiliate myself and you every day, and it pains me like a knife to my heart, but I have no other choice. I am just a woman, and I can’t think of any other way. This is all I can do, this is all I can do…”
“In the palace, there were people watching everywhere. When I arrived at Prince An’s residence, I dared not do it anymore. I was afraid that countless eyes would be watching you and me.”
"I don't know why the Empress Dowager sent me to Prince An's residence for no reason. I was afraid they had something they could use against you, so, so, Yu'er, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
Consort Duan wept uncontrollably.
Lu Xiaoyun's eyes were red as she hugged Consort Duan tightly. "I know, I know everything. Mother, I know you've suffered more than anyone else in these past twenty years. I've never blamed you, Mother. Please don't suffer anymore. Now that you're living in my residence, I'm happier than anyone else."
"Don't worry, my son's Prince An's mansion is surrounded by my son's confidants. There are only two people in Yunmei Garden who are the Crown Prince's and the Third Prince's men. Wu Chuan has already put these two people under surveillance, so they won't know."
Consort Duan kept shedding tears.
Lu Xiaoyun understood that now that she had spoken frankly with Consort Duan, the people Zhu Zhi and Zhu Chen had planted in the Prince An's residence could no longer remain.
Fortunately, these people don't leave the palace easily on a daily basis. After dealing with these two, she can choose two trustworthy people to replace them.
Today is the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, and many shops on the street have already closed to prepare for the New Year, so it will not be so easy for Granny Zhang to buy all the medicines.
Moreover, when Ayan was taking Consort Duan's pulse inside the room, she had already hinted to Wu Chuan to make arrangements with a few pharmacies first.
In Shengjing City, more than half of the pharmacies belong to the Prince An's mansion.
Therefore, it would take three or four hours for Granny Zhang to return, giving her plenty of time to recount the events of that year to Consort Duan.
Jiang Chuan brought the food, and Lu Xiaoyun dined with Consort Duan.
However, neither of them had any appetite, and after eating only a little, they asked Jiang Chuan to clear the table.
Lu Xiaoyun helped Consort Duan wash her face and hands.
"Mother, when did you find out that you were a princess from the previous dynasty?"
"Shortly after I became pregnant with you, on the Lantern Festival, the Emperor took me out of the palace incognito. That year, the streets of Shengjing were especially crowded. In front of a lantern tower, someone slipped me a note. That person must have known that I was an imperial concubine and that the person beside me was the current Emperor. So I discreetly slipped the note into my sleeve and didn't unfold it until we returned to the palace."
"The note was very detailed, even including my birth date and time. Besides that, it demanded that I give it five hundred taels of silver, or else it would reveal my identity to the public."
"I didn't take this seriously at first. I just thought it was utterly absurd. The previous dynasty had been gone for more than 20 years. I wasn't even born when it was destroyed. How could I possibly be a princess of the previous dynasty? But Zhang Mama saw that piece of paper, and her face changed drastically."
“I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw her. After pressing her for details, she told me the truth. It turned out that I really was a princess of the previous dynasty. My mother had only been pregnant with me for a little over a month when the previous dynasty collapsed. Zhang Mama immediately left the palace, took the silver, and met the person on the note in a teahouse. Only then did she learn that he was the nephew of the mute slave who had faked a marriage with my mother back then.”
Lu Xiaoyun's clenched hands slowly tightened; she hadn't expected there to be such a person.
"It turns out that although that mute servant couldn't speak, he could read. He wasn't born mute; he was poisoned after committing a crime. But your maternal grandmother's daughter entered the palace early on, and she didn't know that. She faked a marriage between your maternal grandmother and him, thinking that this would keep my true identity a secret."
Where is this person now?
If he is still alive, he must not be allowed to live. The Empress Dowager said that three people knew about Consort Duan's background and had already been dealt with. It is unknown whether this person was included.
“That man was insatiable. Zhang Mama knew that once there was a first time, there would be a second and a third, and sooner or later the Emperor and the Empress Dowager would find out. So, when he was relieving himself, Zhang Mama put a slow poison in his tea.”
"This poison would silently kill him that very night; Granny Zhang watched him drink it."
“Zhang Mama and your maternal grandmother served the young lady together back then, and she also entered the palace with the young lady. After the fall of the previous dynasty, the three of them returned to Lingnan together. Zhang Mama was also the wet nurse of the imperial concubine.”
At this point, Consort Duan's tears streamed down her face again: "Countless times I wanted to drink that abortifacient, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Yu'er, you were in my womb, how could I kill you with my own hands..."
"So, you were aware all along that Consort Guo bribed the imperial physician to give you intensive tonics, hoping to kill you and your unborn child?"
Consort Duan nodded: "That imperial physician was originally the man that Consort Guo admired. The two were childhood sweethearts. If Consort Guo had not entered the palace, the two would have been married in half a year. That imperial physician was eager to learn and eventually mastered medical skills and entered the Imperial Hospital. He was completely obedient to Consort Guo."
Consort Duan wiped away the tears that kept flowing: "I noticed the second time he tried to harm me, but in order to survive in this ruthless harem, I could only pretend not to know and secretly reduce the dosage of the medicine he prescribed by half."
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