Why? Why? Why so many whys?
So annoying!
Jian Yang lied, "This is a name I came up with at random. If Your Majesty wishes, you can naturally call me Paper Goose."
The emperor noticed Jian Yang's slight panic and perfunctory attitude, but he did not point it out.
He glanced at the paper airplane in his hand and secretly marveled at how Jian Yang could make a light piece of paper fly so far; calling him a genius wouldn't be an exaggeration.
This is another surprise that Jian Yang brought him, following his medical skills, culinary skills, and strategic acumen.
To avoid him asking more questions, Jian Yang had already taken Zhou Kun aside and started playing Gomoku.
Seeing the loving interaction between the two, the emperor felt a surge of warmth in his heart.
He genuinely liked his son, Zhou Kun.
After all, this was his first child.
However, because he had no mother, Zhou Kun was somewhat gloomy and timid from a young age.
He originally thought that sending him to Jian Yang would require a long adjustment period between the two.
But he didn't expect that on the second day, the two of them would be playing together like a mother and son.
This must be what it feels like to have a child by your side, enjoying the bliss of family life.
It also feels like home.
That night, the emperor stayed at Weiyang Palace.
Jian Yang had become completely numb to his behavior.
Half asleep and half awake, she suddenly heard the emperor ask her, "Who exactly are you?"
With a loud "boom".
Like a thunderclap exploding on the top of her head, Jian Yang trembled and was completely awakened.
She turned to look beside her, and sure enough, the emperor was staring at her with a probing gaze.
Jian Yang's heart pounded like a drum, and her brain began to work at lightning speed.
So... we've been exposed?
Just because of a cup of milk tea and a paper airplane?
No, even if it's exposed, we absolutely cannot admit it.
The emperor was probably just suspicious and trying to trick her.
If she were to admit it, given the nature of this era, she would inevitably be dragged out and burned as a sacrifice to the heavens.
She didn't want to die.
So Jian Yang feigned surprise and asked, "Your Majesty, who are you talking to so late at night?"
The emperor smiled but said nothing.
Jian Yang gasped and said, "Could it be that there's something unclean about us?"
The emperor smiled and said, "It's getting late. You have court tomorrow, so go to bed early."
After saying that, he closed his eyes as if nothing had happened, and at the same time reached out and pulled Jian Yang into his arms.
In the time that followed, Jian Yang listened to the breathing of the person next to her gradually becoming regular and long, but she just couldn't fall asleep.
After much deliberation, she decided to play it safe for now.
At worst, we can just be more careful in the future; anyway, the emperor has no evidence.
In the days that followed, the bond between Jian Yang and Zhou Kun grew stronger, and the little guy became more and more attached to her.
Anyone who sees this will say that the bond between mother and child is profound.
Jian Yang was very satisfied with the result.
It wasn't that she enjoyed being a mother, but rather that the more Zhou Kun clung to her, the more reason she had to refuse to be alone with the emperor.
The emperor wasn't angry when he was rejected; after all, what kind of father would compete with his son for the emperor's favor?
Before we knew it, the year was coming to an end. Every year on January 1st, the royal family would go to Huguo Temple to pay homage to their ancestors.
As is customary, the Empress Dowager, who was fond of Buddhism, would stay in the temple for four or five days, firstly to pray for the well-being of her children and grandchildren, and secondly to discuss Buddhist teachings with the eminent monks in the temple.
Jian Yang did not hesitate to choose to stay with the Empress Dowager.
The emperor saw through her intentions but didn't say anything. He simply instructed her to take good care of the Empress Dowager and Zhou Kun, and even more importantly, to take good care of herself.
Jian Yang watched the emperor leave the temple with "reluctance," and that day, feeling "sad," she ate two extra bowls of vegetarian food.
While she was patting her belly and digesting her food in the meditation room, the emperor was browsing books in the imperial study.
The book he was reading at the moment was a collection of ghost stories and supernatural tales that he had asked Eunuch Zhang to buy from a folk bookstore during his trip out of the palace.
After flipping through several articles, his eyes finally lit up when he came across a story titled "Bai San Niang Reincarnated to Repay Kindness".
This story, titled "Bai San Niang Reincarnated to Repay Kindness," tells the tale of a poor family in a certain rural area where a mentally challenged daughter falls into the water and awakens. From that moment on, her personality changes drastically, and she leads her entire family to become wealthy through business, eventually becoming a local tycoon.
At the end of the story, as Bai San Niang was about to die peacefully in her sleep, she called her children and grandchildren to her bedside and told them that she was not the real Bai San Niang, but a transmigrator whose soul came from another world.
Because he had taken Bai San Niang's body for free, he used his wealth to repay her family.
Before this, the emperor had often scoffed at this kind of popular literature.
Confucius said, "I do not speak of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder, or spirits." Although he held a deep reverence for the doctrines of ghosts and spirits, he did not believe in them at all.
But after meeting Jian Yang, the flames of doubt in his heart burned brighter and brighter.
However, he could not find the answers he was looking for in the classics, so he turned his attention to these folk myths and legends.
The story of Bai San Niang is the best evidence to support his idea.
He became increasingly convinced that his guess was correct—Jian Yang was very likely not from this world.
That would be excellent.
If that's the case, she'll be all alone in this world, and the only person she can rely on is him.
Three days later, Jian Yang had played all the games with Zhou Kun, including hopscotch, beanbag toss, handkerchief drop, and eagle catching chicks.
Just as she was frowning and wondering what games she could use to amuse the children, someone suddenly came to report that the Empress Dowager had fallen ill.
Jian Yang was greatly surprised.
She was perfectly fine for the first few days, so why did she suddenly fall ill just before she was about to return to the palace?
She rushed off to visit the Empress Dowager.
The woman, who had been full of energy just a few days ago, now lay on the bed with a pale face, unable to even open her eyelids.
"What's wrong with the Empress Dowager?" Jian Yang asked the accompanying imperial physician.
The imperial physician said, "Your Majesty, according to the Empress Dowager's pulse, she is currently suffering from qi and blood deficiency and spleen and kidney yin deficiency. I will prescribe some kidney-tonifying and qi-boosting medicine for her to recuperate, and she should recover soon."
"Okay, thank you for your trouble."
After having the imperial physician sent away, Jian Yang personally stepped forward to take the Empress Dowager's pulse.
The results were similar to those of the imperial physician.
But she was still a little worried.
If a person has insufficient Qi and blood, it should be evident in their daily life.
However, the Empress Dowager's health had long been restored by her, and she usually looked rosy and radiant, showing no signs of blood deficiency.
So she always felt that something was wrong.
That night, in order to take good care of the Empress Dowager, Jian Yang slept on a small couch in her meditation room.
The next day, half asleep and half awake, she seemed to smell a strong medicinal odor in the room.
An ominous premonition enveloped her heart, and Jian Yang instantly opened her eyes.
Then a young palace maid was seen carefully feeding the Empress Dowager a bowl of medicine.
"Wait!" She immediately sat up, disregarding her appearance and demeanor, snatched the medicine bowl from the maid's hand, and casually pulled a silver hairpin from her hair and put it into the bowl.
A moment later, she picked up the silver hairpin and saw that the tip had been completely corroded, turning a dark bluish-black.
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