Chapter 58 Chapter 58 Even a tiger won’t eat its own cubs!
February 2nd arrived in the blink of an eye. Nie Xiangyi did not attend the palace banquets such as New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival. Xie Zhi just found an excuse to excuse her, saying that she was meditating and praying for blessings.
At that time, she had just lost her maternal grandfather, so no one paid much attention to it. However, she had been absent several times in a row, so it was not appropriate not to go this time.
The emperor is not feeling well today. I heard that an old illness he suffered on the battlefield has recurred. He has even canceled this year's agricultural promotion and sacrifice to the gods.
That day, Nie Xiangyi entered the palace with her golden and jade headdress. However, as soon as she entered the palace, she happened to meet Pei Jue.
His gentle gaze lingered on Nie Xiangyi's face for a moment, and then he simply bowed and saluted, "Greetings to His Highness the Third Prince, the Third Prince's Consort."
Xie Zhi stared at him, "Master Pei, are you going to see the Emperor?"
The two of them looked at each other, as if they had reached some kind of consensus. Pei Jue nodded, "Yes."
He paused slightly, as if hinting at something, "It's just that the Emperor's illness came on suddenly and dangerously, there's always something strange about it..."
Xie Zhi's brows lowered suddenly upon hearing this, as if he understood the implication. His voice deepened, "I will go with you to see the Emperor."
As soon as he finished speaking, he glanced hesitantly at Nie Xiangyi beside him.
She tilted her head in confusion, "Should I go too?"
She shouldn't be involved in such a mess. Xie Zhi remained silent.
But he felt inexplicably uneasy today, as if he would always feel uneasy if he didn't keep her by his side.
"No!" Pei Jue was the first to stop him. He frowned and looked at Xie Zhi, "Your Highness! There is no such thing as absolute certainty. If..."
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Xie Zhi's voice. Xie Zhi turned to look at Nie Xiangyi, his dark eyes gloomy and incomparable. "Don't run around, understand."
"Your Highness and Lord Pei, please go." Nie Xiangyi waved his hand as if unconsciously, with a bright and brilliant smile on his face.
"I'm waiting for Your Highness in the Yannian Palace!"
Xie Zhi hesitated for a moment and left with Pei Jue.
"Third Prince, Young Master Pei." An eunuch came out of the palace with an apologetic smile. "The Emperor just took his medicine and is feeling a little tired. I'm afraid he doesn't have the energy to see you two."
"What's the emperor's condition?" Xie Zhiwei frowned, "Why is he suddenly so serious?"
The eunuch simply shook his head. "It's an old illness the Emperor contracted on the battlefield. It's been a long time coming. The weather's not right, so it's recurred."
"Who's serving now?"
"It's the Imperial Concubine," the eunuch replied. "She was busy presiding over the palace banquet and just left."
Xie Zhi understood and went to Yannian Palace with Pei Jue.
On the way, the two of them had different thoughts. Pei Jue suddenly remembered what his grandfather said, "The emperor's illness came on suddenly. I'm afraid someone can't sit still any longer."
He turned his head and looked at Xie Zhi, "Your Highness...the Emperor's illness..."
Xie Zhi simply replied word by word: "Something's wrong."
My father has always been in good health. Even if he suffered some illnesses on the battlefield, most of them were external injuries. How could he be in such a serious condition?
Pei Jue saw that he had guessed something, and his expression became more serious. "Excuse me for being blunt, Your Highness, you must make preparations early."
Xie Zhi raised his head, his gaze fixed on the sky outside the palace. His voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible, "Zhong Qianyue is already on his way back to the capital."
Here, before Nie Xiangyi even reached the Yannian Palace, someone came to announce, "The Imperial Concubine is summoning the Third Prince's wife."
Imperial Concubine? Nie Xiangyi was filled with hatred when she thought of her mother's murderer.
She had an almost animal-like instinct for caution, telling her not to go. Furthermore, Xie Zhi had warned her not to run around. So, she said calmly, "I'll wait here for Your Highness to come and meet the Imperial Concubine with me."
The nanny stepped forward and approached her, blocking her path. "The Imperial Concubine has summoned you alone. Please, Third Prince's wife."
This attitude that could not be refused made Nie Xiangyi jump. She took a step back and said, "Then let me inform His Highness so that he won't have to wait."
She gave Hanxu a look.
Hanxu was alert and ran out. However, before she could take a few steps, she was blocked by several tall eunuchs.
The nanny just looked at her expressionlessly, "Please don't embarrass us, Third Prince's wife."
Just as Xie Zhi and Pei Jue reached the long street near the Yannian Palace, he suddenly caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and stopped in his tracks.
Pei Jue watched him bend over and pick up a broken gold hairpin from the ground. The gemstones on it shone brilliantly in the sunlight. It seemed to have been dropped carelessly, with only one corner broken.
She knew that Xie Zhi always turned a blind eye to these women's things, but at this moment, he suddenly grasped the golden hairpin tightly in his palm.
"Your Highness?"
Xie Zhi's dark eyes were filled with danger, and his voice was as cold as ice.
"Something happened to Ah Si."
"Let me go! Let me go! I will kick you to death, believe it or not!" Nie Xiangyi was held hostage by several burly old maids. She kicked and struggled all the way, but these people remained unmoved and took her to the imperial concubine's palace.
"Oh! What happened?" The imperial concubine pretended to be surprised when she saw her come in, "How come even your hair is messed up!"
She looked at the maids with a stern face, "I asked you to invite the Third Prince's wife, and this is how you invite him?"
Before the maids could even complain, Nie Xiangyi angrily said, "Stop pretending here!"
If he could forcefully abduct her, he must be ready to break off relations with her. So why should she pretend to be nice to him?
"My mother only asked you to talk to her, but it was this group of stupid servants who ruined my good intentions." As she said this, she smiled and stretched out her hand, wanting to help Nie Xiangyi tidy up her hair.
Nie Xiangyi dodged sideways and just looked at her warily.
She seemed oblivious to this, dismissing everyone in the room and simply asking her personal nanny to bring a cup of tea to Nie Xiangyi. "Xiangyi, drink some tea quickly to cool down your temper."
When Nie Xiangyi saw her, she would think of her mother's death as her fault. She glanced at the teacup unhappily and said, "I won't drink it."
Her tone was stiff and cold, "What business has the Imperial Concubine sent for me? His Highness must be waiting impatiently."
"Child, how come you've become as cold and hard as Ruheng after staying with him for so long?" The imperial concubine turned a blind eye to her offense and rudeness, looked at her with a rather angry look, and handed the teacup to her.
"The tea will get cold later."
Nie Xiangyi hadn't paid much attention to the tea, but when she mentioned it again and again, she couldn't help but become suspicious. She looked at the tea doubtfully, "You're so anxious for me to drink it, you didn't add anything, did you?"
Her words instantly made the imperial concubine's smile disappear.
She, who was always gentle and kind, seemed like a completely different person at this moment, with a cold gaze in her eyes. "It seems like you already know everything..."
Her nail-stained red fingertips gently fiddled with the lid of the teacup. "You know all this, which means Xie Zhi knows too."
A fierce look suddenly flashed in her eyes, "Mammy, hold her down!"
As she spoke, she picked up the cup of tea and was about to pour it into Nie Xiangyi's mouth.
Nie Xiangyi was constantly climbing over walls and tearing down tiles, and an ordinary personal maid wouldn't be able to control her. She rolled over and twisted her body, butting her head against the maid's chest.
There was a cry of "ouch" and everyone fell to the ground.
"I underestimated you."
The imperial concubine looked at her coldly. In a moment, the tall maids approached step by step and immediately restrained Nie Xiangyi.
She looked at Nie Xiangyi indifferently as she kicked and bit, struggling desperately. She didn't look like an ordinary girl from aristocratic family, she just looked wild and untamable.
"Don't waste your energy. You won't die if you drink it." She slowly approached Nie Xiangyi, "I'm just using you to restrain Ruheng for a while."
Even though she knew the Imperial Concubine was partial, Nie Xiangyi could hardly believe her ears when she heard that she was going to deal with Xie Zhi. "Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs! He's your own son!"
"Ha." The imperial concubine suddenly laughed out loud, "It seems he didn't tell you."
She stopped explaining and just held the teacup, reaching out to pinch Nie Xiangyi's chin. But Nie Xiangyi twisted and struggled, her head pressed against her hand, and the gold hairpin in her hair scratched her arm, leaving a large red mark.
The imperial concubine covered her hand in pain, her patience running out. "Hold her head down too."
Seeing that she was finally restrained, the imperial concubine poured tea into her mouth. "Although this dose is not fatal, you will have to endure some pain. Just listen to me."
The tea in her mouth choked Nie Xiangyi, causing her to cough repeatedly. Tears welled up in her eyes. Even though she strained to keep her lips shut, she could still feel the tea trickling down her throat.
The imperial concubine actually wanted to use this to threaten Xie Zhi. Anger and despair suddenly arose in her heart, tears trickled down her cheeks, but she could not move at all.
"Otherwise, even if the dosage is increased a little bit, the pain will penetrate deep into the bone marrow with no relief, and the patient will die in endless agony."
As the tea bowl was finished, the maids around her relaxed their grip. The imperial concubine, however, simply warned her with a stern expression, "Your mother is a lesson for us!"
When Nie Xiangyi heard her mention her mother, she recalled her childhood when she watched her mother become thinner and thinner day by day, like a withered flower on a branch, the loss of vitality almost impossible to stop.
She didn't know what kind of pain and torture she was in at that time. She only remembered that even though her face was pale, she still smiled and looked at her, "My good Ah Si."
Her mother was tortured to death in this way!
Tears suddenly blurred her eyes, and Nie Xiangyi's eyes suddenly burst into a huge hatred. She didn't know where she got the strength from, but she broke free from her restraints and threw the imperial concubine to the ground like a ruthless little animal.
At this moment, she seemed to hear nothing and see nothing. She just pulled out the golden hairpin in her hair in anger and stabbed the person in front of her fiercely.
Until the hot blood splashed on her fair cheek, her head was buzzing and her eyes were filled with the glaring red.
As the anger in her chest slowly calmed, she seemed to have no memory of what she had done, nor of the reactions of those around her.
When Xie Zhi hurried into the palace, he saw a scene of chaos. The maids around him were in a panic, not knowing what was going on. The porcelain in the room was scattered all over the floor, and the imperial concubine lay in a pool of blood, her life or death unknown.
Nie Xiangyi was holding a bloody golden hairpin with a jewel in her hand, looking at her hand with a confused and horrified expression.
"The Third Prince's Consort! The Third Prince's Consort killed the Imperial Concubine!"
Until the nanny screamed sharply, the golden hairpin in Nie Xiangyi's hand fell to the ground.
With a clang, she seemed to be brought back to her senses. She mechanically turned her head to look at Xie Zhi, her hollow eyes filled with bewilderment, "Your Highness..."
She seemed to be frightened and sat on the concubine's body without moving, "I... I..."
She was speechless.
Xie Zhi glanced at the nanny in the room, gave Ling Zhu behind him a look, and told him to clean it up.
He stepped forward and pulled Nie Xiangyi up, his voice so soft as if he was afraid of startling her, "A Si, I'm here."
She couldn't help but tremble her teeth, "The Imperial Concubine...she..."
"Don't be afraid." Xie Zhi's fingertips brushed across her flawless white cheek, wiping away the blood bit by bit.
"I'll take care of everything."
He turned around and wanted to give some instructions, but was stopped by Nie Xiangyi.
"I'm not afraid." Her voice was as ethereal as a puff of smoke about to dissipate. "I'm going to die anyway."
Before Xie Zhi could ask her what happened, there was a sudden hurried noise outside.
Ling Zhu hurried in and announced, "Your Highness! The Crown Prince is here!"
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The author has something to say: It’s probably almost finished, if you have any extra chapters you want to see, please tell me [花花]
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