This matter had been kept secret for so long, but eventually the Empress Dowager found out!
Su Yushan felt a sense of foreboding. She was worried that the Empress Dowager would harm the child. Without even changing her clothes, she hurriedly got up and went to Cining Palace!
When she arrived at Cining Palace, the Empress Dowager looked at her with the same expression she had expected, as if she had been waiting for a long time and finally found something to use against her. Her anger was mixed with a hint of excitement as she pointed at her and rebuked her harshly.
"Su Yushan, how dare you! After what happened to your child, you didn't report it and kept it hidden, trying to cover it up! What are you really up to?"
Su Yushan was not afraid at all and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, I only want to protect Jin'er."
"You want to protect her? Do you think I would harm her? Her fingers have an abnormality, such a serious matter, you should have informed me, but you actually concealed it for two years! You are simply lawless and have no respect for me!"
As the Empress Dowager's voice grew louder, little Rong Jin, not yet understanding what the adults were saying, was frightened by their voices and burst into tears.
Worried, Yu Shan immediately stepped forward, picked up her daughter, and gently coaxed her, "Jin'er, be good, don't cry! It's alright, it's alright."
Not wanting her child to witness the adults arguing, she had the child taken away, but the Empress Dowager refused, saying, "How can a freak with such strange fingers be worthy of being a princess? And you, who gave birth to a freak, must be a demon in disguise, unworthy to be my son's Imperial Noble Consort!"
Holding her child, Su Yushan slowly turned her head, her eyes filled with anger. It didn't matter if the Empress Dowager disliked her or said anything about her, but the Empress Dowager shouldn't have called her daughter a freak!
"Your Majesty, now you know why I didn't want to tell you this matter, right? If I did, you would definitely use it as an excuse to slander my daughter!"
The Empress Dowager, feeling somewhat awkward after being pointed out, looked away and stubbornly said, "This is an indisputable fact. How could such a strange child appear in the royal family? Wouldn't it be a laughing stock if word got out?"
Su Yushan thought to herself: Didn't Yongcheng also lose an ear? You still brought him into the palace. Does that mean only princes can have defects, but princesses are monsters if they have defects?
However, this matter concerned Yongcheng's secret. If Su Yushan were to make it public, it would hurt the child's self-esteem. As a mother herself, she could never do something so hurtful to her child. Therefore, she didn't mention Yongcheng and only argued her case based on reason.
"Jin'er is not a freak, she is a healthy and good girl!"
"How could a normal girl have such strange fingers?" Having finally caught her red-handed, the Empress Dowager was not about to let it go and immediately ordered the child to be taken away!
Su Yushan was afraid that the Empress Dowager would harm Rong Jin, so she kept the child in her arms. When the guards tried to take the child, she scolded them sharply.
"Get out of the way! No one is allowed to touch my daughter! If you dare to lay a hand on her, I will not let you off lightly!"
At this moment, Su Yushan's eyes were bloodshot. She, who never threatened the palace servants, finally spoke harshly for the sake of her daughter. Her attitude was very firm. The guards, considering that she was the emperor's favorite concubine and worried that she would settle scores later, did not dare to approach her.
Seeing that the palace guards were disobeying her orders, the Empress Dowager was furious. "Rebellion! Rebellion! I am the mistress of the harem, how dare you disobey my orders! Don't you want your heads?"
The Empress Dowager gave another order, and the guards hesitated, unsure of what to do.
Su Yushan held her daughter tightly, forcing herself to remain calm. She secretly told herself that anger would not solve the problem, and the best way to protect her daughter was to lift her up to a high place so that people could look up to her!
Having made up her mind, Su Yushan adjusted her breathing and tried to persuade the Empress Dowager.
"Your Majesty, look closely. Jin'er's fingers, when put together, resemble the hands of a Buddha statue. This shows that she is not a monster, but a reincarnation of a deity or Buddha, protecting the Qing Dynasty. This is a blessing for the Great Qing! If you harm Jin'er, wouldn't that be disrespectful to the deities? How could the deities protect us then?"
Buddha's Hand? Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager felt the explanation was somewhat far-fetched. Granny Mei glanced at it and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"Your Majesty, the little princess's hands are indeed exactly like Buddha's hands; such a hand shape is truly rare! This is an auspicious sign!"
The Empress Dowager was a devout Buddhist, and with both Su Yushan and Granny Mei saying so, she couldn't help but waver. Could it be that Rong Jin was truly a reincarnation of a god or Buddha?
The skeptical Empress Dowager then ordered someone to invite a high-ranking monk to calculate the princess's fate.
Su Yushan was terrified, fearing that the high monk would expose her lie, and then the Empress Dowager would surely harm Rong Jin again.
On the way here, Yu Shan had already sent someone to invite Hongli, but Hongli was late in arriving and she didn't know what was going on.
Two quarters of an hour later, the high monk entered the hall, first asking the little princess for her birth date and time, and then feeling her bones.
As the high monk examined her bones, his expression grew increasingly solemn. He then immediately withdrew his hand, took three steps back, and bowed devoutly to the little princess, saying that she was the reincarnation of the Celestial Maiden of Wonderful Sound!
Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager believed it to be true and dared not say that Rong Jin was a freak again.
Su Yushan was just making things up in a moment of desperation, but unexpectedly, the high monk actually followed her story and gave Rong Jin a special identity.
She had no time to investigate why the high monk acted this way; as long as the Empress Dowager stopped making things difficult for Rong Jin, she would be grateful!
Since the princess was a celestial maiden reincarnated, the Empress Dowager had no reason to hold a grudge against Su Yushan and had no choice but to let the mother and daughter go.
When the Empress arrived, she was eager to see how the Empress Dowager would punish Su Yushan. But as soon as she arrived, the commotion subsided. The Empress Dowager did not punish Su Yushan at all, and even said that her daughter was a celestial maiden!
The idea of a celestial maiden reincarnated is utter nonsense!
The unwilling empress stared intently at the child in Su Yushan's arms, noticing that the child had big, blinking eyes with wet eyelashes, as if he had just been crying.
The Empress hadn't visited Jingren Palace in the past two years, and Su Yushan had been protecting the child very well, not allowing the child to attend any palace banquets, so this was the first time the Empress had seen the little princess's appearance.
At a single glance, the Empress was stunned. She grabbed the little princess's hand and wouldn't let go, murmuring, "Bao'er!"
Bao'er was the nickname of the Empress's daughter who died young. When she suddenly called Rong Jin "Bao'er," Su Yushan felt a sense of foreboding, pulled her daughter's hand away from the Empress's, and coldly reminded her:
"Your Majesty, this is my daughter Rong Jin, not Bao'er."
However, the Empress seemed to be possessed, and said joyfully to the Empress Dowager, "Empress Mother, that is Bao'er! Bao'er has been reincarnated. She missed me and came to visit me!"
Bao'er was born in the Prince's Mansion, and the Empress Dowager hadn't seen her much, so she didn't have much of an impression of this little granddaughter. She guessed that the Empress must have been missing her daughter so much that she made a mistake, but the Empress was convinced that the one Su Yushan was holding was Bao'er reincarnated, simply because the two looked so alike!
"Your Majesty, Bao'er has returned. Please let her return to my side so that I may raise her myself!"
Upon hearing this, Su Yushan immediately tensed up, secretly lamenting that the Empress was being foolish again!
Originally, the Empress Dowager thought the Empress had misjudged her, but when she made this request, the Empress Dowager suddenly felt that this might be a good way to teach Su Yushan a lesson.
With a slight shift in her gaze, the Empress Dowager spoke, "The Empress's willingness to raise Rong Jin is Rong Jin's blessing. Therefore, Rong Jin will be entrusted to the Empress to soothe her longing for her daughter."
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