Reunion
"Her beauty alone captivates in the depths of spring, her golden threads and fragrant scent entwine the jade mat."
The moon's first rays rise as the clouds roll up, and the flickering red candlelight veils half of the moon's face.
Who planted the seal of longing before the door?
My thoughts linger around the lotus-covered quilt and pillow.
A promise is hard to keep, a wish is hard to fulfill.
It seems a beautiful woman has come to the secluded courtyard.
After Princess Yu Ning's personal maid finished reciting the poem, she said with a hint of sarcasm, "Your Highness, it's another pretentious poem. These pedantic scholars are so pretentious in their expression, why don't they dare to recite it directly in front of the princess?"
"Let me take a look..." Another palace maid glanced at him, "Red leaves convey affection and express longing. He's certainly thoughtful, but I wonder if he's a top-notch handsome man."
Yu Ning leaned lazily against the jade couch, one palace maid fanning her while another fed her grapes.
She had little interest in poetry and literature, and few people would offer her poems or essays. Unexpectedly, a simpleton asked, "Where did you come from?"
His tone was languid and aloof.
The hairpin on her head was slightly crooked because she was lying down, but her charming eyes and cascading black hair still made her look like a fairy among flowers.
"The one from the Hanlin Academy is this year's third-ranked scholar."
"Oh?" Yu Ning became interested. "Let me take a look."
Her slender fingers, adorned with red nail polish, took the thin red leaf. The leaf was as thin as a cicada's wing, and the poem on it had been carved by someone, but it was not damaged in any way.
Yu Ning read it once and felt that the arrangement of the poem was a bit strange. Ordinary poems, with two lines per couplet, should be neat and orderly.
But this poem is different. The first four lines are in a couplet of two lines each, and the last four lines are in a column of one line each.
Strange, bizarre.
Then this poem must have other meanings.
Is it an acrostic poem? Yu Ning connected the first characters of these lines of poetry, and his expression suddenly turned ashen.
Is there any doubt surrounding Consort Rong's death?
"I want to see him."
Her fingertips dug into her palm, hoping this person really knew something and wasn't just trying to attract attention.
"Ah? Your Highness?"
Yu Ning's head palace maid looked puzzled. People would often send her small trinkets, but the princess would always just glance at them and ignore them.
What's wrong with me today?
"Now, go and invite him here. I wish to meet this third-ranked scholar." It seems someone has already made their choice, bringing her unexpected joy.
Was there really something unusual about my mother's death?
She was only three years old when her mother died, so she has very few memories of her mother. However, the maid who was in charge of her upbringing told her many stories about her mother.
She knew that her mother loved her very much, but her health was too poor to watch her grow up.
Mother, if you were truly murdered, I will avenge you, no matter who it is.
She hoped that Dongfang Hongyao wasn't just trying to attract attention, otherwise she would definitely let him know what would happen if he lied to her.
"Greetings, Your Highness. May you enjoy good health."
Through layers of beaded curtains, Dongfang Hongyao saw the noble and precious princess once again.
"Get up." She sat up and leaned against the cushion behind her. "Tell me about this poem."
"Your Highness, please dismiss the palace servants," he pleaded, his eyes lowered.
"Alright, you may all leave." The crowd withdrew.
"Now you can tell me, right?"
"What do you know? And what do you want?"
The palace gates of Shengyang Palace were closed by the palace servants, leaving only the two people in the empty hall.
As Yu Ning spoke, he approached the third-ranked scholar standing below him step by step.
The main hall was very quiet.
The clinking of jade beads as the beaded curtain was lifted, the rustling of fabric as people walked...
Yu Ning, his red nail polish framing his handsome face, said, "Look at me, then speak..."
"Consort Rong may have been poisoned by a poisonous herb called 'Starry Night' from the southern border. The roots and stems of this herb are poisonous, but the toxicity is mild. Only long-term consumption can cause excessive blood loss and death. However, outsiders cannot detect any signs of poisoning; they can only observe that the poisoned person gradually weakens, becomes pale, weak, and has a strange fragrance..."
"How did you learn this? And why are you suddenly investigating my mother's affairs?"
"From the Nan Family Medical Clinic."
Dongfang Hongyao stated without hesitation the words he had prepared beforehand: Gu Yu should not be involved in this matter; she had already fulfilled her promise.
"I live near Zuo'anmen. There is a clinic there. The doctor's surname is Nan. He is highly skilled in medicine and is from the southern border region."
"It is indeed a coincidence. I admire the princess and have checked the records of her life in the Hanlin Academy. I also learned about the illness of the princess's mother, Consort Rong. I then discussed this with that Physician Nan and was suddenly surprised to find that Physician Nan's expression was unusual."
"After careful questioning, we learned about the poisonous herb, Starry Night, and through contact with the witch doctor from the southern border who was brought into the palace when the Empress was ill, we boldly deduced what happened back then."
"When Doctor Nan saw that I had guessed the truth, she admitted that she was the granddaughter of the witch doctor from back then. She told me everything, and that's why I dared to come and tell Your Highness."
Yu Ning listened to this bizarre and strange story for a long time, unable to recover.
It's true that nothing in this world is more likely to be a coincidence.
However, Dongfang Hongyao dared not lie to her, so what he said was most likely the truth he knew.
After her mother died, she was raised by the Empress, who treated her like her own daughter and loved her dearly. The Empress would pluck the stars from the sky and scoop the moon from the sky if she wanted them.
Her mother died when she was three years old, and she can't even remember her mother's face anymore.
But the Empress was no ordinary woman. She raised her under her wing for fourteen years, sharing in her joys and sorrows, and was her mother.
"If the princess doesn't believe it, she can see Doctor Nan. Doctor Nan harbors resentment towards the Empress for betraying her after she served her purpose and killing her grandfather. That's why he stayed in Shengjing, waiting for an opportunity to avenge his grandfather."
Yu Ning kept her eyes closed, her eyes stinging with tears. She dared not open them again, for fear that tears would fall and she would lose face and dignity.
Which is more important, the kindness of giving birth or the kindness of raising?
But if the Empress hadn't poisoned her mother, it would have been her mother who had been there for her throughout her childhood—her mother, the gentle and kind-hearted mother described by the palace maids. She had no choice in her mother...
No one gave her a choice when faced with a life-or-death situation!
"Princess..." the man called softly, reaching out his hand to wipe away her tears with a silk handkerchief. "Don't cry, it pains me..."
What do you want?
Yu Ning opened her eyes, her vision blurred with tears as she stared at that handsome face.
"As I said before, I am pleased with Your Highness."
Yu Ning sneered, "Dongfang Hongyao..."
His name rang out clearly from between her pearly teeth.
"You chose to provoke me."
Her gaze slowly moved down from his smooth, full forehead to his Adam's apple, which bobbed with inexplicable emotions.
He was aggressive and scrutinizing.
"I know you have someone in your heart, but—"
"Now that you've chosen me, from this day forward, tear her from your heart, tear her clean, even if she's still attached to flesh and bone, scrape her away completely!"
Her bright red nail polish gripped his chin, her face displeased.
"Furthermore, I wish to see that Doctor Nan. How could such a poisonous herb as 'Starry Night' have entered the palace? Presumably, both her grandfather and she possess the skill to cultivate it. I want to test this poisonous herb on the Empress Dowager."
"If the Empress Dowager didn't do it... are you terrified?"
"I'm not afraid."
"Alright, if Mother Empress really shows any unusual expression, I will investigate what happened back then, and I will gather all the witnesses and evidence..." Only in this way can I give my mother justice in front of my father.
*
Empress Ye had already cut the expenses of the inner palace several times because the national treasury was empty.
Since Emperor Shengyuan began to devote himself to Taoist cultivation ten years ago, no more concubines have entered the harem.
The palace servants who reached the required age all left the palace, leaving few elderly people behind, and fewer and fewer new people were being brought in.
She spent her days in this peaceful and uninteresting way.
As people get older, they tend to reminisce about the past.
The days of youth were vibrant; compared to the uneventful emotions and life I experience now, every day back then was wonderful.
The Empress resided in Kunning Palace. Emperor Shengyuan, who practiced Taoism and valued auspicious locations, built Qin'an Hall to the north of the palace, in a location associated with water.
Although Kunning Palace was the closest palace to Qin'an Hall, the Empress never felt that the distance between her and Emperor Shengyuan had shortened as their residence distance had decreased.
When she was sixteen, while her father, who was the Crown Prince's tutor, was still alive, she married the Crown Prince, who was the same age as her, also known as Emperor Shengyuan.
They were childhood sweethearts and best playmates. She discovered she liked him when she first fell in love.
The love I felt in my youth was the most unforgettable.
She could sense that he also had feelings for her, but his heart was always preoccupied with the affairs of the nation and the politics of the court; she was far, far behind him.
At the end of his sixteenth year, the previous emperor passed away, and he officially ascended the throne as Emperor Shengyuan.
She became the mother of the nation and the head of the six palaces.
They all stood at the pinnacle of their respective rights.
He was above her and below the emperor's authority. No one dared to disobey him. Everyone feared him, respected him, loved him, and some wanted to harm him.
When he was young, he was poisoned by the late emperor's favorite concubine. It was the eunuch Xu Shanhai who attended him who noticed something was wrong, drank the poisoned wine, and vomited three liters of blood. Only then did he gain the late emperor's attention.
After that incident, he became cautious and suspicious, unable to trust anyone else. She had grown up with him and knew all of this.
She never forced anything; she just wanted to be by his side. He was too lonely, and she, who loved him, was undoubtedly lonely as well.
They were so close, yet they were still so lonely.
She still remembers the first snowy night of the fourth year of the Shengyuan era, when someone in the court, dissatisfied with his new policies, actually poisoned his wine.
He was unaware of the truth; he was simply pleased with the initial success of the new policies and rewarded his servant with his wine. The servant drank the poisoned wine and died on the spot.
When the emperor is enraged, millions die. That night, the snow in the palace was red, and the stench of blood lingered throughout the palace for three days.
He squatted helplessly and exhaustedly before the throne, burying his head in his arms, his face contorted in extreme pain, looking like a ferocious beast.
After she arrived, he almost greedily sought her warmth and her tenderness.
When the red candle burned out, she had never felt his loneliness more deeply than at that moment—the loneliness of sitting alone on the high platform, a loneliness that no one dared to believe.
Even though she was right in front of him, she still had to tilt her head back and stand on tiptoe to see him.
After that night, they had their first child, and he was overjoyed, making him the crown prince.
Later, many concubines entered one after another. They were all young, fresh and beautiful, like flowers blooming in a greenhouse, delicate, beautiful, and full of vitality.
She cared for the infant crown prince, watching him favor one concubine after another.
Some people won his heart, which he treasured, but he soon discarded them like worn-out shoes.
He would hold some of them as if they were toys, playing with them briefly before quickly looking away.
She always felt different because she was his wife, the empress, and the mother of the crown prince.
Because he had no heart, she didn't care about the existence of those people in the harem; they were just for amusement.
If he truly knows how to love, then he will surely be able to feel her passionate and unconditional love.
Then,
He can love her, and he will learn to love her.
However, Zhang Wanrong's entry into the palace changed her mind. Despite Zhang Wanrong's lowly origins—the illegitimate child of a palace maid whose father was unknown—she gained his favor because of her beautiful face.
When she first met Zhang Wanrong, she felt a sense of crisis—the fear of a woman losing her youth and beauty, but she was only twenty-one years old at the time.
She is at the most youthful and beautiful age of her life.
Zhang Wanrong was so beautiful, more beautiful than any woman she had ever seen.
It is an undisputed beauty that can outshine other cosmetic colors.
Such beauty would undoubtedly stand out even in a harem full of women. Her heart, which had been dormant for five years, suddenly began to beat violently, and she took her by her side.
Sometimes she would forget why she did it in the first place. Thinking about it, she realized that she probably wanted to test him.
She calmly watched as Emperor Shengyuan took an interest in Zhang Wanrong, then made her a concubine and gave her her own palace.
Then, he visited Kunning Palace less and less, and eventually, he never set foot in her palace except on certain days.
Women in her family had always been required to study history, and she had seen too many examples of this in books: beauty fades and love wanes. She comforted herself with this thought.
It's alright. When Zhang Wanrong gets older and loses her beautiful face, why would he value her anymore?
But she discovered that he treated her differently.
Outsiders couldn't see it; they just thought he was praising Zhang Wanrong to the heavens and then watching her fall, just like the tricks he played with his other favorite concubines before.
However, she knew that he treated her differently.
Because she loved him, she immediately noticed when he began to learn how to love.
In every aspect, in every detail, no matter what, he only thought of her.
She saw the emperor, who sat alone on the high platform, descend—
He transformed from a shapeless mist into a human form, and then grew a human heart—a soft heart that would beat for the one he loved.
He was no longer alone; only she remained in the same place. They should have been the closest of friends, but she could never truly understand his heart. Even if he developed feelings for her, they were not meant to be hers.
If he didn't love the world and no one, she wouldn't feel resentful. But he learned to love, and that person wasn't her.
She planted flowers for many years, and they blossomed and bore fruit, but she wasn't the one who reaped the rewards. How could she be content with that?
Jealousy is a very unfamiliar and terrifying word, and she spent the rest of her life with this painful and twisted emotion.
She was insanely jealous of the woman named Zhang Wanrong.
She longed to replace him; she wanted to be him, to be the one he loved.
A sharp, piercing voice screamed in her heart, and every time she saw him holding her hand, her already shattered heart would break open again.
The cold wind howled and swept through, she shed her human skin and picked up the beautiful flower called "Stars".
The ugly girl held that small, pure white flower as if it were a precious treasure.
"Mother, why are you daydreaming?" Her daughter, whom she had raised, called out affectionately, placing the poisonous plant in her palm.
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