Chapter 144 I hope you never have to use it...
Shao Minqing went with the people from the Marquis's residence to fetch the imperial physician. She would be returning to the Shao family home later to take care of Shen Mingda.
Zhao Lan wanted to take Aunt Liu back to be punished according to family rules, but Yan Yi stopped her.
"Auntie, what did Aunt Liu do before she entered the Shen family? How did she obtain this so-called secret medicine from the palace?"
Yan Yi calmly analyzed, "This involves palace secrets, and it's no longer a simple power struggle among the wives and concubines in the inner quarters. In order to prevent the Shen family from being implicated for no reason, it would be better to temporarily detain her at the Marquis's residence and interrogate her thoroughly."
She smiled at Zhao Lan again, "Our two families are related by marriage. We share the same fate, and we share the same fate. Please believe me, Aunt, I will definitely investigate this matter for A-Yue."
When Zhao Lan met her calm and gentle face, the inexplicable anxiety in her heart was strangely soothed.
No wonder Yue'er always says she'll live off her brother and sister-in-law in the future; it turns out this young master's wife is really reliable.
She felt a pang of sadness, realizing that she was no longer the person her youngest daughter relied on most.
But she also felt relieved, after all, she couldn't stay with Yue'er forever, and someone had to take over to take care of her.
“Then I’ll have to trouble the young master and his wife.” Zhao Lan agreed after a moment’s thought, then gave a sarcastic smirk, “My master has always cherished this precious child. If I were to help, who knows what he would suspect.”
If Shen Hang has the guts, then come to the Marquis's mansion and demand his return.
With both old and new grudges combined, she would never let Aunt Liu off this time.
...
Pei Jinghuai carried Shen Lingyue to the bed, then spread out a quilt and wrapped them both inside.
He hugged her from behind, his chin resting on the crook of her neck, his voice deep.
Why didn't you ever tell me this?
Three years into their marriage, he had no idea that he almost lost his wife.
Pei Jinghuai grew increasingly frightened as he thought about it, tightening his grip on Shen Lingyue's arms as if he wanted to hold her close and never let her go again.
Shen Lingyue said listlessly, "I only just found out myself."
She had always thought that Zhao Lan controlled the Shen family's inner quarters very strictly. Although there were occasional disagreements between the wives and concubines, and sisters fighting, it was just a matter of words and nothing serious.
She just didn't expect that Aunt Liu, who seemed so gentle and weak and only threw tantrums at Shen Hang, would be so ruthless when she got physical.
Feeling that she was blocking Shen Songyi's path, he poisoned her.
Feeling that Shao Minqing had ruined Shen Mingda's future, he poisoned her.
...What kind of outlaw is this?!
"You still haven't seen enough."
Pei Jinghuai gently stroked her cheek, knowing that Shen Lingyue loved gossip, so he deliberately said something to distract her, "Besides, our family is quite peaceful, without those dirty affairs of fighting between legitimate and illegitimate children."
Shen Lingyue wrinkled her nose. "It's all my father's fault for being a womanizer. He doesn't have a throne to inherit, so why does he have so many women around? He's a reproductive cancer."
"What's so surprising? In the previous dynasty, there were even princes-in-law who secretly kept mistresses behind the princess's back. When the princess found out, he not only didn't repent, but he also turned around and accused the princess of being jealous, intolerant, and of being of noble blood but of low character... He actually angered that prince so much that he miscarried."
Shen Lingyue was indeed drawn in, her eyes widening: "He's rebelling against the Heavenly Gang, isn't he afraid of being punished by the emperor?"
Pei Jinghuai shrugged. "No, because that prince consort is very capable as an official, and he has many loyal colleagues in the court who support him. So His Majesty only gave him a light reprimand and then sent him two beautiful maids as a consolation."
Shen Lingyue: My fist is hard.jpg
"So you don't need to be sad anymore. If anyone dares to bully you, we'll retaliate a hundredfold or a thousandfold."
Pei Jinghuai gritted his teeth and decided that once Pei Jingyi's interrogation was nearly complete, he would send Concubine Liu to the Northern Garrison Command.
To deal with such a vicious woman, even being torn to pieces wouldn't be too much.
“It’s not entirely because of her.” Shen Lingyue sighed, then hesitated, “Never mind, you wouldn’t understand.”
She felt as if something was stuck in her throat, making it hard to breathe. In the end, she could only say, "I hope Second Brother... good fortune will come to him."
...
"This medicine is called 'Heart-Eroding,' and it was given to me by my aunt. Back then, her family was poor, so she tried to get into the palace as a maid. However, she was too honest and didn't know how to flatter or scheme. Even after more than ten years in the palace, she was still just a lowly maid tending to flowers and trees in the Imperial Garden."
Aunt Liu knew she couldn't escape this time, but she had personally witnessed Pei Jingyi taking the Marquis's invitation to invite the imperial physician for Shen Mingda, and she held onto a sliver of hope. Therefore, she cooperated fully with Yan Yi's questioning.
She continued to recall: "Later, she had a stroke of good luck. Somehow, she caught the eye of the Empress and was transferred to the Empress's palace. Although she was still doing some gardening work, the people in the Empress's palace were different. She was looked up to wherever she went."
Aunt Liu clearly remembered that year when the Empress granted permission for palace servants to take turns taking leave to visit their families. Her aunt was wearing a palace dress that was neither new nor old, with pearl flowers in her hair. She sat in the main room, making the gray tiled house bright and cheerful.
Her grandparents and relatives who rushed over upon hearing the news all bowed and scraped before her, trying their best to please her. Some even brought their own daughters, hoping that her aunt could take them into the palace to serve the nobles.
At that time, she firmly believed that being a palace maid was the most prestigious thing in the world. She could wear beautiful clothes and sparkling jewelry. How glamorous!
On her birthday that year, she solemnly made a wish: When I grow up, I want to enter the palace and become a palace maid!
"No one expected that something would happen in the palace the following year." Aunt Liu shook her head. "The Empress suddenly passed away, and the maids and eunuchs who served her were tortured by the Embroidered Uniform Guard in turn. They were all half dead, but they still couldn't find out the cause of the Empress's death."
Emperor Qingxi was furious and said that all these palace maids should be buried with him and sent to serve the Empress in the afterlife.
It is said that it was the young Princess Tong'an who persuaded her, saying that her mother would not be able to bear to commit further killings, and that it would be better to banish them from the palace.
“My aunt had to be carried back. The more grand her return home was last time, the more miserable she was this time.”
Everyone avoided her like the plague. Her grandparents especially disliked her, so they threw her into a thatched hut on the west side where they stored miscellaneous items. They gave her food only sporadically, wishing she would starve to death as soon as possible.
“My aunt loved me the most before she entered the palace. On my birthday, she even sent a gift home through someone. It was the pearl hairpin that she used to wear. I still keep it in my dressing case.”
Aunt Liu saved her own food rations to secretly help her aunt, and also accepted the money that the aunt secretly gave her to keep her money, and went outside to get medicine for her.
They barely managed to survive for a few more years.
As Aunt Liu grew up and became more and more beautiful, she caught the eye of a wealthy distant relative of the Liu family, namely Shen Hang's mother. She took the initiative to bring her into the mansion as a concubine, hoping to help her compete with Zhao Lan, who came from a high-ranking family, and maintain her own authority as the mother-in-law.
Aunt Liu gave a self-deprecating twitch at the corner of her lips.
“I never thought about becoming a concubine. I think it would be better to be a palace maid. But my parents said that palace maids have to serve others, get beaten, and if they are unlucky, they will be kicked out like my aunt. As a concubine, you only have to serve the master well, and you can dress and use things that are much more impressive than palace maids. You are half a master.”
She believed her parents' words, thinking that she would have someone to rely on for the rest of her life. Sure enough, after entering the family, she was doted on by the young and handsome Shen Hang. Within two years, she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. She was regarded as a lucky star by Old Madam Shen and trusted her even more.
At that time, Aunt Liu felt that apart from not having a formal title, she was living a much more comfortable life than the main wife of the main wife.
She has sons and daughters, a mother-in-law to support her, and a husband who dotes on her. But what does Zhao Lan have left?
She returned to her parents' home and took the initiative to move a room for her aunt, who was becoming increasingly ill. She also bought a maid to serve her so that she could pass away peacefully.
Until her last breath, her aunt pulled a small porcelain bottle from the lining of her pillow. In a final burst of energy, she clearly explained how to use the "heart-corroding" poison.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, this secret can only be taken to your grave... I only hope that you will never have to use this medicine..."
Even if Aunt Liu was foolish, she knew this was a deadly thing. She hid it in her hand for twenty years, pretending she had never heard her aunt's last words.
It wasn't until her two children grew up and reached the age for marriage that Aunt Liu belatedly realized that the title she lacked was the most important thing.
Zhao Lan's daughter could easily marry into a noble family, while her daughter, no matter how hard she tried, could only pick and choose from among those scholars whose futures were uncertain.
Aunt Liu was unwilling to give up, so she found the porcelain bottle that her aunt had given her, hidden at the very bottom of the dressing case.
She only used it twice, both times for her children, but in the end she suffered the consequences, and the retribution fell on Mingda.
She gave the Crown Prince and his wife a sorrowful smile.
"I've told you everything I know. My aunt said there's no cure for the Heart-Corroding Poison; even the Empress couldn't escape its clutches, but the Third Miss..."
Like a drowning person grasping at a straw, she kept asking, "As long as Mingda is given the same medicine as the Third Miss, he will definitely recover, right?"
Pei Jingyi and Yan Yi exchanged a glance, both with solemn expressions on their faces.
This matter is likely to escalate significantly.
Who would have thought that what seemed like a simple poisoning case would be connected to the death of the Empress more than ten years ago?
Yan Yi lowered her voice and asked, "I heard my mother say that Empress Wei committed suicide, didn't she?"
"Perhaps the palace is intentionally suppressing the news and confusing the public," Pei Jingyi pondered. "No wonder His Majesty was furious with the entire Wei family after Empress Wei's death. Perhaps the murderer is from the Wei clan?"
It would be too awful to hear that the Empress was poisoned to death by her own maternal relatives.
In short, there must have been many unavoidable considerations in the palace at the time, which led to the rumors evolving into the version of the Empress committing suicide.
"There's no time to lose, let's go find Princess Tong'an now."
Yan Yi said, "The princess was raised by Empress Wei, so she should know about this matter, both morally and logically."
She had a premonition that Aunt Liu might be hiding an even bigger secret.
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