Chapter 102 Questioning His Majesty: Let Ah Xuan leave the capital and then grant him a title.
Qi Jingxuan and Shen Yan stayed in the palace for two hours, having dinner with Consort Shu before leaving.
After the two of them left, the smile on Consort Shu's face gradually faded, and she lay back on the bed weakly, closing her eyes to rest.
But she didn't get to rest for long before a figure came in, sat down on the edge of the bed, tidied the blankets for her, and asked in a low voice, "Did you eat properly today?"
Consort Shu did not open her eyes, but smiled wearily: "What are you saying, Your Majesty? When have I ever not eaten properly? It's just that I haven't had a good appetite lately and I can't swallow anything. You called Ah Xuan into the palace, and I have to work hard to coax him, which is more tiring than usual."
As she spoke, she slightly raised her eyelids and glanced at the emperor: "Ah Xuan is already married. Your Majesty, please don't always indulge him. A prince who has already left the palace and established his own residence, how can he come and go from the palace gates so casually?"
"Yeah"
The Emperor spoke softly, repeatedly smoothing the corner of the quilt: "But I've noticed that you only behave properly when Ah Xuan enters the palace."
Consort Shu lowered her gaze, and after a moment, she propped herself up and sat up: "Your Majesty, you've come here today to cause trouble."
The emperor remained silent, taking her hand and stroking it for a moment. Looking at her slightly haggard face, he finally said after a long while, "The imperial physician said that you have been weak lately because of improper diet. I have asked the kitchen to prepare a variety of your favorite dishes, but you hardly eat them, saying that you have no appetite."
"Ah Ning, are you really unable to eat, or do you simply refuse to eat?"
Consort Shu looked at him and chuckled lightly: "My son was first framed for no reason, and then implicated in some unfounded matters, even being suspected by his own father. As his mother, how could I possibly happily enjoy a life of luxury in the palace? Wouldn't that make me have a rather insatiable appetite?"
As she spoke, she tried to pull her hand away from the emperor's palm, but the emperor gripped it even tighter, leaving red marks on the back of her slender white hand.
"You're just worried about him," the Emperor moved closer, looking directly into her eyes, "not that you want to kill yourself, not that you want Ah Xuan to leave the capital without any worries, to go far away to his fiefdom."
"You know that it's a serious crime for a concubine to commit suicide, and you're afraid of implicating him, so you dare not. So you deliberately refuse to eat or drink, and pretend to be nauseous and vomit up the medicine you've drunk! You're not actually suffering from a poor appetite; you just want to die, you want to starve yourself to death!"
By the end, the emperor was furious and could no longer control his voice. He squeezed the Consort Shu's hand so hard it almost broke.
At first, he genuinely thought that Consort Shu had a poor appetite and tried every possible way to get her to eat more. But no matter what dishes he changed or which chef he hired, her appetite continued to decrease.
He was puzzled and had all the imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Academy examine him. The physicians all said there was nothing wrong, except for his old ailments and poor appetite. But they couldn't figure out why his appetite was poor.
The emperor was furious and berated the imperial physicians, accusing them of being incompetent. Then he heard that news of Qinghe's affair had reached Zhaohua Palace.
The Emperor, realizing he had done nothing wrong and that Consort Shu was being unreasonable, lost his temper and ordered Qi Jingxuan to be barred from the palace, using this as leverage against her. However, Consort Shu not only refused to comply but also began vomiting her usual medicine.
He suddenly realized that this time, Consort Shu wasn't just throwing a tantrum; she was deliberately trying to kill herself.
This isn't the first time. The last time was when Ah Xuan was eleven years old and was poisoned. In order to get him to leave the palace and establish his own residence, Consort Shu pretended to have a poor appetite, refusing to eat or drink, intending to starve herself to death.
She thought that if she died, he would no longer force Ah Xuan to stay in the palace, so that Ah Xuan could leave the palace to establish his own residence as soon as possible, leave the capital to be granted a title, and escape the storm of the struggle for the throne.
The emperor was completely unaware of all this at the time. He thought that Consort Shu was really seriously ill and unable to eat. He was so anxious that he almost invited all the doctors in the capital to the palace to treat her.
Later, the Empress's words were a wake-up call, saying that Consort Shu might have developed a mental illness because she was frightened by the poisoning of Prince Jin.
The emperor understood that a mental illness requires a mental cure. However, Qi Jingxuan was only eleven years old at the time, and it was far too early for him to leave the palace and establish his own residence. Even outside the palace, it might not be as safe as inside.
As for being granted a fiefdom upon leaving the capital, that was even earlier; at that time, the fiefdom had not yet been chosen for him.
After much deliberation, the emperor finally decided to establish an heir apparent.
With the crown prince confirmed, all the attempts to harm Qi Jingxuan disappeared. Consort Shu finally felt relieved, her appetite gradually returned to normal, and her health improved day by day.
Nothing similar happened after that, and Qinghe's matter wasn't a big deal, so the Emperor didn't think about it. It wasn't until she started pretending she couldn't drink the medicine that he suddenly realized that Consort Shu was using the same old trick again.
But why? If she had done this when Ah Xuan was framed by Prince Ning, he could understand. Now that Prince Ning has been executed, why is she making such a fuss over a mere maid like Qing He, insisting on forcing him to release Ah Xuan from the capital?
The emperor was completely baffled. Seeing that Consort Shu had no intention of stopping, he had no choice but to send Qi Jingxuan to the palace to visit her, hoping that she would eat properly and not actually starve herself to the point of illness.
Consort Shu's meal was indeed normal today, which further confirmed the Emperor's suspicions and made him even angrier.
"Why? Why? Just because I killed a maid, you think I'm so cruel that I wouldn't even spare Ah Xuan?"
"Haven't you seen how I've treated him all these years? Am I so despicable in your heart? What more do you want me to do? Do you want me to tear my heart out and show it to you before you'll believe that my feelings for you and Ah Xuan are genuine, and that I've never intended to hurt you?"
He may have had very little genuine affection in his life, almost all of it devoted to Consort Shu and Ah Xuan. But why, after all these years, does she still refuse to believe it?
Consort Shu closed her eyes briefly at his roar, then slowly opened them again after he finished speaking, gently stroking his chest with her other hand.
"Your Majesty's sincerity is commendable, but... it cannot protect my child and me."
The emperor froze, his burning rage seemingly trapped inside a charcoal brazier with an iron lid, causing him a dull ache in his chest and abdomen.
Long ago, Consort Shu said something similar to him: "What use is sincerity if you can't protect us, mother and child? If you can't, then sincerity is nothing but harm to us."
She spoke more directly then than she does now, but now she is much more tactful. The emperor felt as if he had been slapped several times, and these slaps were more painful and unbearable than before.
Because what Consort Shu said before was only something that might happen in the future, but now she has proven with her own experience that what she said was true.
The emperor's lips twitched, his raised neck drooped, and he weakly took Consort Shu's hand: "I tried my best, Aning, I really tried my best."
His voice choked with emotion, and he even felt somewhat wronged.
As an emperor, he was often powerless to control many things, and he had already done his best.
"I know, Your Majesty, I know."
Consort Shu returned his hand, her calm voice revealing a rare tenderness.
"Many things are beyond our control, and that's not what you truly believe. But Your Majesty, many things are beyond our control if we only look at our own hearts."
"Now that the fourth prince is gone, among the older princes, besides the crown prince, there are only Prince Jing'an and Ah Xuan."
“Jing’an is implicated by Consort Hui and the He family. You have already issued an edict ordering him to leave the capital next month to take up his post. This means that he no longer has any chance of seizing the throne. As a result, apart from him, the eldest prince after the Crown Prince is A’xuan.”
“In his early years, Ah Xuan had attracted a lot of resentment and jealousy because of your favor, and was once regarded as a stumbling block to the succession. It was only after the crown prince was established and there was an even more conspicuous fourth prince in front of him that things finally calmed down. Even so, he was almost harmed by the fourth prince this time and ended up with a disgrace.”
"Now he has become the eldest prince after the crown prince, and his younger brothers are all fourteen or fifteen years old, not much older than him. How can they not see him as a thorn in their side?"
"This time, Ah Xuan was lucky to have met Ah Ci and escaped danger. But what about next time, and the time after that? Can he always have such good luck?"
“Your Majesty, I am Ah Xuan’s mother. He is my only child. My only wish in this life is for him to live a good life.”
She gripped the emperor's hand tightly, her expression earnest: "Your Majesty, please allow Ah Xuan to be enfeoffed outside the capital. Once he's in his fiefdom, no one will see him as an enemy anymore. He can live a peaceful life without being bothered by unnecessary matters, and Your Majesty won't have to constantly clean up his messes. Wouldn't that be better?"
At first, the emperor was somewhat moved by her gentle tone, thinking she was genuinely comforting him. But as he listened, he realized that everything she said and the gentleness she displayed were ultimately for one purpose: to get Qi Jingxuan to leave the capital.
He raised his head again, his eyes no longer filled with the self-reproach and guilt of before, but instead with questioning: "Do you really only want him to leave the capital because of these things, and not because of the deceased maid, and because you think I will suspect Ah Xuan and hurt Ah Xuan because of this?"
Consort Shu paused for a moment, and though it was only a brief instant, it revealed everything.
The emperor's gaze turned cold. He released her hand and stood up: "Since you're so prone to overthinking, I'm even less able to let Ah Xuan leave the capital. Otherwise, if he leaves, wouldn't you be even more worried, unable to eat or sleep?"
"Starting tomorrow, I will have Ah Xuan come to the palace every day to dine with you. I want to see if you can be so heartless as to starve yourself to death in front of him."
After saying that, he turned and left. Consort Shu got up and tried to grab his sleeve, but he walked too fast and she missed. Her whole body leaned forward and she fell off the bed with a thud, her knee hitting the footstool with a loud noise.
"Ah Ning!"
The emperor immediately turned around and quickly helped her up. He reached out and lifted her clothes to look at her knees, only to see blood slowly seeping through the fabric.
"Imperial Physician! Summon the Imperial Physician!"
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