Inside the study, Lu Xiaoyun was still reading those books, while also making notes on paper in the style of Zhu Yu's handwriting.
Upon seeing Lu Xiaoyun, Yuan Xiu said, "Your Highness, Consort Duan has returned to the palace with her entourage."
Lu Xiaoyun frowned upon hearing this. This Consort Duan was truly a handful. Before entering the palace, she didn't even send someone to inform her first. She had only been at Prince An's residence for three short days, and now she was making a fuss about entering the palace again.
If she can enter the palace smoothly this time, that would be fine. But if she is stopped at the palace gate, the powerful and wealthy families of Shengjing City have not yet had enough of a laugh, and this is going to be another one for them.
Lu Xiaoyun had a headache.
But she also knew that Consort Duan was already on her way. If she tried to stop Consort Duan from turning back halfway, not only would Consort Duan be unlikely to listen to her, but even if she was forced to return, she would still cause a scene.
That won't do either.
Well then, I hope the old emperor and empress dowager can at least consider her status as "Prince An" and the dignity of the royal family, and let her enter the palace directly, so that she won't become a laughing stock in front of the palace gates.
Lu Xiaoyun leaned back in her chair and asked, "Have you found out why Mother Consort is staying at Prince An's residence this time?"
Consort Duan did not have a close relationship with Zhu Yu, her son. With the emperor alive, a consort would either be punished for her crimes and sent to a temple to spend the rest of her life in seclusion, or she would be banished to the cold palace with no hope of ever rising again.
They either live comfortably in the palace, enjoying a life of luxury, or they've never been heard of being sent to their own son's residence.
Yuan Xiu's face turned slightly pale with embarrassment. He had found out the truth, but how could a mere steward like him answer?
Although this was not a secret in the palace, it had been kept from the prince, and since the prince was not in Shengjing City, it was naturally not as well-known.
Now that the prince has asked him, how could he dare to gossip about it in front of the prince's son? Wouldn't that be courting death?
Lu Xiaoyun raised her head and looked at the housekeeper: "Tell the truth."
As for how he tried to sow discord in front of Consort Duan, saying that Zhu Yu had bribed two maids to secure his favor, she was currently in Zhu Yu's body, so she didn't really have the right to punish him.
Besides, given how disliked Lu Xiaoyun was by everyone in the Prince An's mansion, if she punished him for it, it was hard to guarantee that someone with ulterior motives wouldn't notice something amiss.
Yuan Xiu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Since entering the palace, Consort Duan has been deeply favored by the Emperor. He spends almost ten days a month in her Yuqing Palace. She became pregnant with Your Highness in less than two years after entering the palace."
Lu Xiaoyun nodded. It seemed that this Consort Duan was the emperor's favorite when she was young. It would be strange if she wasn't envied by the other concubines.
"It is said that when Consort Duan was pregnant with Your Highness, she overdosed her nutrition, and the fetus became too big, causing the skin on her belly to tear. The palace maids said in private that it looked quite frightening."
Too much supplementation? Ha, this is probably the work of some concubine in the harem again, isn't it? Wasn't she planning to kill both mother and child during childbirth? It's just that she didn't get her wish in the end.
"After you were born, the Emperor was naturally overjoyed and often visited Consort Duan's Yuqing Palace. However, Consort Duan was always looking worried at that time. The Emperor was only focused on you and did not notice anything unusual about the Consort."
Yuan Xiu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and continued, "When you were two months old, Eunuch Cheng, the head of the Imperial Household Department in charge of the concubines' nights with the emperor, saw that although the empress looked worried, she was in good spirits and seemed to be recovering very well. So he did not ask the imperial physician whether the empress could attend to the emperor."
"Then a young eunuch was sent to inform the Empress that she should prepare in the meantime. But something went wrong somewhere, and the young eunuch failed to inform Consort Duan. Meanwhile, Eunuch Cheng, unaware of this, put up the Empress's green plaque that very day."
Yuan Xiu paused and continued, "The Empress was already deeply favored by the Emperor, so he was naturally pleased to see her and immediately chose her name on the imperial tablet. When Consort Duan heard that the Emperor wanted her to serve him that night, her face turned pale. But the Empress had no better choice. She couldn't refuse to serve him, and even if she could refuse once, she couldn't refuse countless times afterward. So she could only bite the bullet and welcome the Emperor."
At this point, Yuan Xiu blushed: "Everyone in the palace knows that the Emperor doesn't like it to be dark when he does 'that'. The entire bedchamber is brightly lit. The palace maids and eunuchs of Yuqing Palace only heard the Emperor enter the bedchamber a short while ago when they screamed and rushed out of the bedchamber, vomiting on the spot."
"The entire palace maids and eunuchs of Yuqing Palace were terrified by this sudden change. Some called for the imperial physician, while others apologized. In short, chaos reigned. Before dawn, the news that the Emperor had been so frightened by the Empress in Yuqing Palace that he vomited had spread throughout the entire palace."
Lu Xiaoyun's hand tightened slightly at her side: "And then?"
"The next day, the Emperor issued an edict to have Eunuch Cheng and the young eunuch beaten to death, and ordered the chief eunuch Zhang Zhongwei to thoroughly investigate the matter. Normally, during the Empress's pregnancy, there would be a special imperial physician to check her pulse every day, and the palace had plenty of good medicine. How could they let things develop like this, with the fetus so big and still bearing a mottled belly?"
Having already said all that, Yuan Xiu, despite being drenched in cold sweat, had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue.
"But when Eunuch Zhang investigated the imperial physician, he discovered that he had retired and returned to his hometown just a few days after the Empress gave birth to you. Eunuch Zhang sent people to his hometown, but his family and neighbors all said they had never seen him return. After much searching, his body was finally found in a mountain valley on the outskirts of the capital. A jade pendant was found on the body, which was later determined to belong to Consort Guo."
"Guo Meiren?" Lu Xiaoyun searched through the original owner's memories but found no recollection of her at all.
Yuan Xiu nodded: "Yes, Consort Guo. She has never been favored and was jealous of our Empress's favor, so she bribed the imperial physician to give the Empress a lot of tonics, hoping to make the Empress have a difficult childbirth and kill both mother and child. However, her plan failed, and our Empress and Your Highness are blessed with good fortune."
At this point, Yuan Xiu sighed softly. If it weren't for this incident, the relationship between the Empress, the Prince, and the Emperor would not have developed to this point: "Alas, but the Empress has indeed injured her health."
"Consort Guo was given poisoned wine by the Emperor."
"It is said that for a long time after that, the Emperor did not go to the harem again, nor did he summon any of the concubines to his bedchamber. From that day on, the Emperor never again summoned any of the empresses to his bedchamber."
Yuan Xiu paused and then said, "The next day, Her Majesty had all the eunuchs and maids who were serving outside the Yuqing Palace bedchamber beaten to death. Since that incident, Her Majesty's temperament has changed a lot. One day she'll smash up Yuqing Palace, and the next day some maid or eunuch angered her and she'll punish them."
"So later on, the Emperor gradually stopped visiting the Empress and you at Yuqing Palace."
Yuan Xiu paused for a moment, then continued, "Furthermore, Consort Duan endured two days and two nights of labor to give birth to you, suffering greatly. Adding to this incident, therefore..."
Yuan Xiu couldn't continue his story at this point.
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