Forcing himself to sit up, Hongli said defiantly, "Empress Mother, I am not sick. Who said I am sick?"
The Empress Dowager could see it clearly. At this moment, Hongli's face was pale and he had no energy. "You look so unwell, yet you insist that you are not sick. How long do you plan to keep this from me?"
Hongli asked knowingly, "Who told you what?"
"You don't need to worry about this. Just make sure you rest well and don't look at any more memorials." Seeing her son's sickly appearance, the Empress Dowager felt a pang of heartache.
"How did you get so sick? How did Consort Chun take care of you?"
Since everything could be linked to Consort Chun, Hongli guessed that the Empress Dowager would take her anger out on Yushan, so he was prepared. "There are an unusually large number of memorials at the end of the year, and I have been too busy to leave. I haven't been to Jingren Palace for three or four days. This illness has nothing to do with her."
The Empress Dowager had no reason to blame Consort Chun, so she turned to the eunuchs and asked, "What about Li Yu? What about Wang Jinbao? How did they serve you?"
Every time he heard his mother speak, Hongli felt a headache coming on. "My illness is my own fault, and no one else is to blame. Does that mean that I should blame Granny Mei just because Your Majesty is ill?"
The Empress Dowager was speechless. Considering her son's discomfort, she finally stopped arguing and said in a low voice, "I know your plan. Since it is for the sake of the country and the court, then so be it! Promote Consort Chun to Imperial Noble Consort."
Upon hearing this, Hongli was overjoyed but also found it hard to believe. He had been trying for so long, but the Empress Dowager still disagreed. How could the Empress Dowager change her mind after Hongzhou's visit?
Hongzhou only instructed him to feign illness, without explicitly stating anything else, leaving it unknown what the Fifth Prince had actually said to the Empress Dowager.
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