On the night of the seventeenth day after the Empress Dowager suffered a stroke.
Cining Palace.
In the bedroom, the candlelight was dim. The empress dowager lay on the bed with her eyes open, staring fixedly at the ceiling.
Prince Shou was ill and did not come.
The palace maids close to the Empress Dowager had left early, leaving only two maids taking shifts. They said they were taking shifts, but in fact they were doing so to keep an eye on Emperor Jianxi, for fear that he would do something bad to the Empress Dowager.
There are all kinds of dirty things happening in the deep palace. Although Emperor Jianxi cannot be so stupid as to openly attack the empress dowager, he still has to be on guard. Isn't it always a safe bet?
After all, there is no impenetrable wall in this world, and Emperor Jianxi obviously knew this. It would be fine if the empress dowager was fine, but if something happened, even if she just coughed twice, it would be Emperor Jianxi's fault.
Of course, according to the Empress Dowager, she was hoping that Emperor Jianxi would take action. The notoriety of matricide would be enough to make Emperor Jianxi suffer, not to mention the gossip of the public, but also the detailed description in history books.
The Empress Dowager has two trusted maids, one is Nanny Hua, who was brought from her mother's home, and the other is Nanny Sun, who is on duty tonight.
Nanny Sun has been with the Empress Dowager for forty years and is over sixty years old this year. The Empress Dowager met her when she was on tour with the late Emperor. Nanny Sun was good-looking at that time and was favored by the late Crown Prince, who wanted to bring her back to the Crown Prince's Mansion. However, the late Emperor was already dissatisfied with the late Crown Prince at that time. If he brought a woman back, it would surely make the late Emperor angry again.
The former crown prince was also an undisciplined person. The queen mother had no way to deal with him and could only coax him, saying that she would take him back. If he was interested, he could come to her and she would help cover up for him if anything happened.
So, with this guarantee, the former Crown Prince Zhen and Nanny Sun started to have an affair in Kunning Palace.
However, not long after, the former crown prince's old illness came back and he got tired of it. Nanny Sun was also a smart woman. She did not argue or make a fuss and served as the empress dowager's maid with peace of mind. This led to her later blessings.
First, the crown prince was deposed as Prince of Yan and then exiled. All the women in the Prince of Yan's mansion became official prostitutes, but Nanny Sun escaped this disaster.
Nanny Sun was good at observing people's hearts. After the death of Prince Yan, she often acted as if she was mourning and heartbroken. As a result, the Queen Mother became more and more fond of her, even more than Nanny Hua who came with the dowry.
Suddenly, a loud thunderclap sounded outside the window, startling the Queen Mother. Nanny Sun hurried over to greet her, "Don't be alarmed, Queen Mother. It's just thunder."
Thunder roars in spring, and the weather begins to warm up.
Nanny Sun glanced at the window, then came to her senses and pinched the corner of the quilt for the empress dowager. "It's going to rain tonight, so Your Majesty may not come."
Emperor Jianxi would come here every day after dinner.
The Queen Mother sneered with her mouth crooked.
It seemed as if he was saying, how could Emperor Jianxi let go of such a good opportunity to laugh at her?
Nanny Sun still insisted on her own opinion and went out to the palace maids on duty and said, "It will rain tonight. You should go down early. I will serve the Queen Mother here."
Of course, the palace servants were willing to leave work early, and before long, everyone had left.
In the dark Cining Palace, only one room was lit.
A drizzle began to fall. The guards on duty were getting wet in the rain and wanted to change and leave to put on their straw raincoats, but they saw Emperor Jianxi's procession from a distance. As usual, it was grand and majestic, with Emperor Jianxi wearing a dragon robe and leading the procession. Wu Yonggui held a lantern in one hand and held an umbrella for Emperor Jianxi in the other. The old eunuch was so wet that he could not open his eyes, but the hand holding the umbrella was as firm as a rock.
"Your Majesty!"
Emperor Jianxi lifted his robe and stepped over the threshold. He suddenly paused and said to his guards, "Go back and change into your straw raincoats first, so you won't freeze too much."
The guards knelt down with tears of gratitude, thinking that human nature is the biggest devil, deliberately making malicious assumptions about good people. The emperor is so kind and compassionate, no wonder the Duke of Zhenguo's family is so powerful and obeys the emperor's orders.
The leadership's personal charm.
The chief guard of Cining Palace was a close confidant of Prince Shou, and he came with a mission. Seeing this, he was unsure of Emperor Jianxi's thoughts, so he declined politely, saying that they had all left and there was no one to guard the palace.
"How dare you! You dare to disobey the Emperor's order?"
The chief guard knelt down and said, "I dare not!"
"Never mind..."
The captain of the guards breathed a sigh of relief.
After Emperor Jianxi left, a guard asked the chief guard, "Boss, why did you disobey His Majesty? His Majesty had good intentions..."
"What do you know? If we leave, won't it give someone an opportunity to take advantage of us? If anything happens to the Queen Mother, Prince Shou will kill our whole family!"
"But I see that His Majesty doesn't look well..."
"Don't be afraid, His Majesty won't bother with us little people over such trivial matters."
The night rain is like a thin thread, stretching longer and longer.
In the bedroom, Emperor Jianxi brought in a breath of damp air.
Nanny Sun stepped forward and bowed, "This old servant pays respects to Your Majesty. It is raining outside, and Your Majesty, for the sake of His Majesty's health, does not need to come."
"I remember that my mother had rheumatism. It rained heavily and I was worried that she would be in pain." Emperor Jianxi lowered his voice.
The Queen Mother closed her eyes and hoped for luck as soon as Emperor Jianxi came in.
Suddenly, there was a movement beside the bed, and Emperor Jianxi's voice was close at hand, "Is the Queen Mother fast asleep?"
The Queen Mother took a deep breath but did not open her eyes.
Emperor Jianxi tapped his knees intermittently with his thick fingers, his brows were lazy and he was not in a hurry.
Suddenly, he chuckled and said, "I know my mother is not asleep."
"I can't sleep in this kind of weather."
"Mother, do you know why?"
Emperor Jianxi glanced at the Empress Dowager, and seeing her eyelids rolling, he retracted his gaze, narrowed his eyes slightly, and spoke in a deep voice, "When I was eight years old, my brother, the Prince of Yan, broke my ten fingers one by one. Since then, even after they were reattached, every time it rains," Emperor Jianxi slowly raised his hand, frowning and examining it, "I still feel a dull pain."
"Hyomin always said that the emperors in the novels she read were either slender or as white as a flute, but mine was like a radish."
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