Chapter 39 Chapter 39 [VIP]
After the prince left, Shen Youyi felt relieved and went to the warm room near the study, but she couldn't help feeling uneasy when she thought of the second prince's invitation.
Men are sometimes small-minded, and this has nothing to do with age. For example, Emperor Yuan Shuo, even though he knew about the existence of Marquis Lingyang, still had many taboos.
She went out on the anniversary of her late husband's death. Isn't the Second Prince afraid that the Emperor will become suspicious?
As expected, Chen Rongshou looked embarrassed when he came out and respectfully invited her in.
Emperor Yuan Shuo was reading a scroll of leisurely books, and beside him there were some paintings and calligraphy brought by his attendants that had not been put away. He did not look up when he saw her coming, and his jaw tightened slightly, revealing a malicious look.
The emperor did not wear formal clothes in his daily life in the inner court, but after being immersed in supreme power for a long time, no one could ignore the imposing majesty of the emperor and father even if he was a little casual.
It is truly a majestic and imposing style with a majestic bearing.
She was stunned. If she didn't have so many secrets, she might have run up to him without hesitation, covered his eyes coquettishly, asked him if he knew who she was, and questioned why he ignored her.
If a person is heartless, he will live a happier and more relaxed life. Once he is full of worries, even his pace will slow down.
No wonder my brother said that many fortune tellers said that her marriage would be full of ups and downs and would be difficult to be smooth no matter what. Although she was destined to have peach blossoms, it might also bring disaster and misfortune to her parents and relatives.
She is not a down-to-earth woman. The men who can make her feel a little moved and hope to grow old with her are usually those who cannot do so.
The book remained at that page for a long time without being turned. Emperor Yuan Shuo looked up casually, looking at her again and again, smiled lightly, and said reproachfully, "Are you stupid?"
Shen Youyi stroked her still aching neck and said softly, "I was wondering what book Your Majesty is reading. It's so interesting that he's so engrossed in it that he's ignoring me."
The anger in his heart gradually dissipated, and Emperor Yuan Shuo slowly said: "The principles in the book are boring, but at least they won't make you jump up and down and get angry."
His concubine was not a very shy woman, but what he did at night was so outrageous that if she had remembered anything, she would not have had no reaction when they looked at each other.
Although Shen Youyi felt guilty, she refused to show it on her face. She raised her voice a little: "I didn't ask for the moon in the sky. You love me, can't you be more lenient?"
"presumptuous!"
Emperor Yuan Shuo walked up to her, flicked her eyebrows lightly, and said in a deep voice: "Yi Niang, do you have a heart?"
He would rather she asked for a huge sum of money, such as precious calligraphy, ancient zithers, pearls, jade and porcelain. Didn't she understand his heart at all?
Shen Youyi was stunned. When the emperor slightly put away his gentle attitude, it was enough to intimidate his subjects. Unlike the subjects who had the imperial steps and pearl curtains as a buffer, she faced the emperor's stern face directly. She was trembling for a moment and couldn't even speak.
After almost exhausting all his strength, Shen Youyi pulled the corner of his lips and lowered his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, why do you call me like this?"
Wei Lanzhen was the name given to their daughter by Duke Yan and his wife; it wasn't originally hers. Emperor Yuan Shuo frowned and said, "You got drunk last night and said a lot to me, saying that your parents liked to call you whatever they wanted and that I should do the same. You also said that your family planned to marry you off to a powerful young man. I didn't want to hear it, but you kept pestering me."
She had indeed forgotten everything and just wanted someone to tease her.
Emperor Yuan Shuo held her palm and guided her to touch the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. His voice was soft but somewhat helpless: "Yi Niang, am I really that old? Are you unwilling to serve me?"
Shen Youyi was almost crying, and tremblingly said: "Did I say a lot of nonsense last night, and your majesty took it seriously?"
Could it be that her hoarse voice was not caused by Emperor Yuan Shuo's torture of her, but because she talked too much?
Emperor Yuan Shuo nodded slowly, with a look of worry between his brows. Shen Youyi relied on the support of his palm to avoid falling down. Did he know everything... everything?
Just because she said those words when she was drunk, and they were scattered and incoherent and not enough to constitute a confession, was he making up a confession?
Or did the prince just say something to him?
"Your Majesty is much older than me, but I am very willing to serve you."
She wanted to stand on tiptoe and kiss Emperor Yuan Shuo, but he stood straight and refused to cooperate. She could only lean all her weight in front of him and kiss his cheek, as light as a dragonfly touching the water.
"If I don't like you, how could I be so obsessed with being with you? I wish I could be with you day and night, but you are the emperor and you don't have much time for me. I just feel a little unhappy and uneasy. I always want you to love me more, but this is a place for the prince and his ministers to come and go, not for the concubines to come here at will."
Emperor Yuan Shuo saw that she was unusually anxious and felt a rare sense of embarrassment. She loved him so much and was afraid of being abandoned by the king, but he tossed her to and fro at night, and what else could she do except bite him from time to time and sob and utter a few incoherent words?
It's so soft and helpless that it can be slaughtered at will. It has no strength at all. It's really pitiful.
However, Shen Youyi leaned in his arms, as if to do it, and she whispered: "It's because...I've been separated from Your Majesty for too long, and you rarely favor me, so I worry about gains and losses. Sometimes I just want to make you angry and betray me, so how can I not like you?"
Emperor Yuanshuo smiled slightly. Of course he knew all this, but it was inappropriate to talk about it in the daytime. Would it make me angry?
Shen Youyi shook her head, thinking about the strange expressions of the maids, and pointed at her neck with a slight red mark. "What's wrong? Do you really think I can't be filled..."
She had seen those things when she first entered the palace for selection, but some of them were not on her body yet. Although she didn't think there was anything wrong, she felt uncomfortable when she spoke, so she still had to take care of her body. It doesn't matter what happens to me. It's hard work, don't waste too much energy on me."
Emperor Yuan Shuo said calmly, "It's not like you'll get pregnant, it's just a waste. Don't you enjoy it at night as well?"
He favored concubines in order to have more children, but he had wasted more than that in Zhaoyang Palace. It would not be a pity if he indulged himself a little.
She cried for a long time, but even if she didn't drink the medicinal wine, she still felt a little uncomfortable.
He felt a little tempted. She would never do those things when she was sober.
Seeing that Emperor Yuan Shuo was calm, Shen Youyi asked tentatively, "I really don't remember what happened last night. I only remember that Tan Rui and the others helped me clean my face and change my clothes. They said you were still busy, so they brought the birds that Your Majesty raised to entertain me. I talked to them for a while and then fell asleep."
Even if Your Majesty knew about the Crown Prince's affairs, would you be willing to turn a blind eye and not bother with her too much?
Emperor Yuan Shuo patted her shoulder, avoiding the conversation that night, and whispered, "Yi Niang, I said there would be no one else. Have you never believed me?"
Feng Chongyi said those words to compliment the imperial concubine's beauty, but she might not be happy.
Although she couldn’t remember the past events clearly, Shen Youyi looked up at him and said, “Yiniang, please, Your Majesty, please don’t say such things again in the future, okay?”
She had met many men who pursued her in her life, and many people had said such things to her. She would not believe what those people said, but when Emperor Yuan Shuo said this, she was already proud of it... and was willing to believe it.
When she was a girl at home, she didn't care much about these vows. Her father and mother's expectations of her had already raised her standards for judging men. Her brother was willing to support her for the rest of her life, so she had plenty of time to choose a man who could satisfy her and bring honor to the Shen family.
But when she became a prisoner, she had nothing, but she still didn't want to die. She could sacrifice her face and offer her body as long as someone was willing to help her, even if that person was not the prince.
But the more she got, the more afraid she became of the Supreme Emperor in front of her. She didn't want to reject his lingering affection, but she was even more afraid that he would discover her shameful deeds.
Emperor Yuan Shuo was silent for a while, then said gently, "Okay."
Shen Youyi burst into laughter and said softly, "It's rare that you don't dig deep into my affairs and interrogate me like a criminal."
"You are not a criminal at all, you are clearly a debtor from your past life."
Emperor Yuan Shuo laughed and said, "Of course I want to hear it, but if you are willing to tell me, there is no need for me to ask you. If you are not willing to tell me, then my asking you will only embarrass you."
She couldn't be treated like an ordinary person now. They had a long time to go on together, and he didn't mind giving her some time to adapt. Perhaps if she could find her original family, she would feel more at ease.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs had already investigated the matter of the hunter's family thoroughly. The couple only had one daughter and no sons, so Yi Niang could not be their child.
Shen Youyi noticed that he leaned over and sighed softly in her ear: "I can't bear to embarrass Yi Niang."
Her heart suddenly tightened, and she burst into tears. Emperor Yuan Shuo took a handkerchief from her arms and wiped her tears: "You are fine, what happened?"
Shen Youyi turned sideways. He was unwilling to embarrass her... but one day, she would embarrass him.
Not only would she ask him to go out of the palace to play today, she would also ask him for the position of queen in the future, and compete with the prince for the supreme position... She would even inevitably let him know that he and his own son had slept with the same woman, and she had also made vows to the prince under the moonlight, and even used her beauty to seduce the crown prince, asking him to disobey his father, secretly take her out of prison, and ask him to intercede for Shen.
"Because His Majesty seldom speaks such sweet words to me."
She held Emperor Yuan Shuo's palm close to her cheek and said in a muffled voice, "Every time you say this, I wish I could live in this moment forever. When you don't treat me so well in the future, I can only rely on these memories to get by. When I think of this, I don't even want to live anymore."
Although she knew that the love brought by the pleasure of men and women could never compare to the blood relationship, she sometimes could not completely give up that expectation. She could only avoid these difficult issues and not believe the sweet words of men, so that she would be less hurt in the future.
Restraining herself was not a pleasant experience. Shen Youyi took a deep breath and said softly, "Even if I said something, it was unintentional. If one day your majesty really gets ahead of me, I will ask the successor emperor to allow me to be buried with you... I don't want to be the queen mother, I just want to be with you."
She guessed that it would be easy for the emperor to live another twenty or thirty years. Regardless of whether it was true or not, considering that she was willing to sacrifice her life for the emperor, he should be more soft-hearted when he wanted to sentence her to death one day.
"Why are there so many twisted ideas? What if you have a child in the future and lose both parents on the same day? Aren't you afraid they'll be sad?"
Emperor Yuan Shuo wanted to open her head to see why she had such strange thoughts, but he smelled some inappropriate medicinal smell at the tip of his nose.
A palace maid waited outside the palace gates, holding a brewed medicine soup, and motioned for her to bring it in. "Buddhism says, 'If any living being kills itself, it will go to hell.' I see you've copied all those scriptures in vain. Stop saying such unlucky things. Yi Niang, just take care of yourself. Whatever you want, I will find it for you, whatever I own within the four borders."
She loved him so much that she couldn't live without him. He was willing to find a way for her even to get the position of queen. Even if they were unfortunately separated in the future, she had children and grandchildren to take care of her. She could live peacefully until her death and then see him. This was much better than committing suicide and not being able to enter the cycle of reincarnation.
When Shen Youyi smelled the medicine, even her head started to ache. What was wrong with her body that she needed to take these bitter medicines? She just wanted to act like a spoiled child and refused to take the medicine: "Yi Niang doesn't want to take the medicine. What if she gets pregnant with your child these days? Taking tonics will not be good for the royal heir."
Emperor Yuan Shuo was originally somewhat moved, but after hearing this he didn't want to believe her nonsense anymore. After going around in circles, he realized that the only truth was that she didn't want to take the medicine.
He scooped up a spoonful, blew on it to cool it down, and took a sip. It tasted a little sour and acrid, but not too bitter. He said lightly, "It's not that bitter. It's better than the medicinal wine you drank."
Chen Rongshou led several eunuchs to bring tea for rinsing the mouth and snacks that the imperial concubine liked. Seeing that the emperor tasted the medicine for the imperial concubine in person, she was frightened to death. The emperor had a precedent for using medicine. The imperial physician and the imperial pharmacy had to agree on it first before they could invite the palace supervisor, the secretary, the prime minister, and one of the commanders of the ten armies and sixteen guards of the north and south yamen to supervise the medicine. After the imperial physician who prescribed the medicine tasted it, he would write a note and stamp it for record. After the imperial physician and the palace supervisor tasted it, they would present it to the crown prince and ask the East Palace to taste the medicine for the emperor. Only after confirming that it was non-toxic could it be brought to the emperor.
This was a rule set by the late emperor when he was alive. Once the emperor harmed himself with medicine, the people who made the medicine would be punished. That is, when the emperor was young and often away from home, he had no time to take care of the affairs of Chang'an, so the empress dowager asked King Zhao to taste medicine for the late emperor instead.
However, concubines were far less cautious than emperors in using medicine.
This is something that is meant to be taken in, and Shen Youyi was also shocked. Although Song Yuanshi would not be stupid enough to murder her, everyone has their own symptoms. What if he doesn't eat the right thing?
Some doctors even add arsenic when prescribing medicine!
She glanced at the attendants who were hesitant to speak, and suddenly remembered the stillborn baby the queen had given birth to. She whispered, "You're drinking it like that? Aren't you afraid it's poisonous?"
Emperor Yuan Shuo looked down at her and said, "You will never obey me unless I drink a sip myself."
Shen Youyi wasn't completely afraid of suffering, and said with a bit of warmth: "I'm not sick or in trouble, I just want to be closer to you and give the Empress Dowager another grandson as soon as possible. Can't I drink this medicine later?"
Of course not. The disease hasn't shown any effects yet. By the time she reaches the level of Lady Yan, it will be too late. Emperor Yuan Shuo looked at her quietly, thinking again and again, and finally said, "After drinking this medicine, if Yi Niang wants to go to the Taoist temple, then she can go... I don't care what she does, but it's inconvenient for me to accompany her."
Sometimes he can be too stingy.
His concubine has forgotten everything. Could it be that she only remembers the brief encounter with Marquis Lingyang?
It's just that I'm paying tribute to an unrelated stranger based on my knowledge of his identity and experience. I'm reliving old memories and maybe I can remember something, but there won't be much true love.
Shen Youyi didn't expect him to say it so clearly. He reached out to take the medicine bowl, tasted a few times with a spoon, letting himself slowly adapt to the taste of the medicine, and then drank it all in one gulp. His facial features were tightly wrinkled. Apart from drinking a few sips of the sweet and refreshing drink, he couldn't eat any snacks.
She didn't go to the Taoist temple to pay tribute to her late husband, but she had to lead him to think so.
She had witnessed Emperor Yuan Shuo's desire for control. The emperor had such a respected status, but she entered the palace and missed her old friend. Although he was very angry about this, he finally tolerated it.
"He was born into a noble family, yet he was buried in a foreign land at such a young age. The more favored I am by Your Majesty, the more uneasy I feel. I just want him to receive more respect from the people."
Shen Youyi stretched out her arms and hugged the person in front of her: "It's been three years. I didn't mean to make you unhappy."
Emperor Yuan Shuo nodded, smiled softly, and said lovingly: "Yi Niang is a good child, I have always known that."
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