A Mid-Autumn Festival family dinner was held in the palace. Those attending the dinner included the emperor and empress, the empress dowager, concubines in the palace, the unmarried Princess Xinyang, and the unmarried Prince Qi, Prince Xiang, and Prince Ning.
Other princes who had already married did not have a Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet, such as the Prince of Qin and the Prince of Zheng.
The family dinner was over and the moon was at its zenith. The concubines returned to their respective offices. The three princes of Qi, Xiang and Ning also left the palace and returned to their palaces. Princess Xinyang accompanied the empress dowager back to the Cining Palace.
As His Majesty, Zhao Zixu naturally went to Queen Lu Yinli's Kunning Palace. Since it was a family dinner, he drank a lot of wine and there was a faint smell of alcohol on his body.
Queen Lu thought Zhao Zixu was drunk, so she helped him walk into the palace. However, Zhao Zixu pushed Queen Lu's support away and strode towards the Queen's phoenix bed, swaying his body.
Empress Lu was afraid that Zhao Zixu would lose his balance and fall, "Your Majesty, slow down, slow down."
She hurried after him.
Zhao Zixu staggered to the edge of the couch, his legs went weak, and his whole body fell onto the couch.
Empress Lu scolded him, "Your Majesty, I wanted to help you but you wouldn't. I told you to slow down but you wouldn't listen. Now you've fallen."
This reminded Empress Lu of a few times before Zhao Zixu ascended the throne when he and the young general of the Ye Mansion got drunk. He didn't drink the hangover soup or change his clothes, but just fell asleep on the bed.
"vomit……"
Blood spurted out of Zhao Zixu's mouth and splashed on the yellow brocade bedding, like a brilliant red plum blossom blooming on a branch.
Zhao Zixu looked at the pool of red blood with black tints, and he knew clearly that the poison had taken effect!
He felt dizzy and everything was dark before his eyes.
"Your Majesty!" Queen Lu suddenly screamed.
Queen Lu stared at the unconscious Zhao Zixu in a daze and hurried to check on him.
"Someone come!"
"Someone come quickly!"
Upon hearing the voice, the palace maid hurried into the inner hall and said, "Your Majesty, I am here."
"Call the imperial physician, come quickly!" Queen Lu ordered urgently.
The maid glanced at Queen Lu, only to see His Majesty sleeping unconscious on the couch, with what seemed to be a pool of blood on it.
His Majesty……
"Yes, I'll go right away!"
The palace maid ran out of the hall in a hurry.
In the outer hall, Eunuch Luo saw the palace maids passing by like a gust of wind, and realized something. He ignored the rules and walked quickly into the hall.
When he saw the pool of blood beside Zhao Zixu, he understood everything.
"Empress, please let His Majesty lie down first. The imperial physician will be here soon."
Empress Lu and Eunuch Luo helped Zhao Zixu onto the bed.
Queen Lu's face was pale, and her eyes were filled with anxious worry.
Eunuch Luo comforted Queen Lu with a few words to calm her down.
Soon, the palace maid rushed back to Kunning Palace with two imperial doctors on duty from the Imperial Medical Bureau.
"Your humble servant greets Your Majesty and the Queen..."
The two doctors were about to bow and salute, but Empress Lu interrupted them and said, "No need to salute."
"Imperial Physician, please take a look at His Majesty quickly." Queen Lu ordered the two imperial physicians.
The two imperial physicians were about 50 years old, dressed in green robes and carrying a medicine box on their shoulders.
The imperial physicians looked up at Zhao Zixu lying on the phoenix couch and answered in unison, "Yes."
One of the imperial physicians stepped forward, knelt down, clasped Zhao Zixu's wrist with his five fingers, and took his pulse.
The moment he felt Zhao Zixu's pulse, the imperial physician's eyes widened in disbelief. For a moment, he thought his medical skills were not good enough and his diagnosis was wrong.
Judging from the pulse, Your Majesty seems to have been poisoned?
The imperial physician took the emperor's pulse again and was sure that the emperor was really poisoned!
The imperial physician withdrew his hand tremblingly.
Empress Lu quickly asked, "Imperial Physician, how is His Majesty? Why is he unconscious and vomiting blood?"
The imperial physician said, "Your Majesty, His Majesty... appears to have been poisoned."
"Poisoned?"
Empress Lu frowned slightly and questioned the imperial physician, "How could Your Majesty be poisoned? What poison did Your Majesty get?"
The imperial physician shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, I am not a skilled doctor and cannot diagnose what poison Your Majesty has contracted."
Empress Lu was extremely anxious and pointed at another imperial physician, "Please take a look at His Majesty."
The imperial physician quickly took Zhao Zixu's pulse and made the same diagnosis as the previous one. "Your Majesty, Your Majesty is indeed poisoned. I cannot diagnose the cause of the poison, let alone cure it. Your Majesty, please summon Imperial Physician Liu and Court Administrator Shen to the palace to treat Your Majesty. Imperial Physician Liu and Court Administrator Shen are highly skilled doctors and may be able to cure the poison in Your Majesty's body."
Luo Nei Shi said, "Empress, please summon Imperial Physician Liu and Imperial Physician Shen to the palace. His Majesty can't wait any longer."
Empress Lu immediately sent someone out of the palace to summon Imperial Physician Liu and Shen Yuanzheng into the palace.
She sat on the edge of the bed, her brows and eyes filled with worry. She called a palace maid and sent her to go to the Cining Palace to invite the empress dowager over.
Your Majesty's poisoning is no small matter and requires the presence of the Queen Mother to take charge of the situation.
When the Empress Dowager learned that she had suddenly fallen into a coma, she hurried from the Cining Palace to the Kunning Palace.
As soon as the Queen Mother arrived, Empress Lu briefly explained the matter to her.
The Queen Mother immediately ordered the imperial physicians to treat Zhao Zixu again. The two imperial physicians examined him again, but the result was the same as before; they could not cure him.
As a mother, the Queen Mother was furious when she saw the unconscious Zhao Zixu. She immediately scolded the two imperial doctors for being useless. The two doctors were trembling with fear and dared not speak.
After an unknown amount of time, Empress Lu's men brought Imperial Physician Liu back to Kunning Palace.
The palace maid did not bring Chen Yuanzheng into the palace. Chen Yuanzheng was older than Doctor Liu and was unwell. He had been bedridden for two or three days.
Imperial Physician Liu was about to go to bed when he heard someone from the palace summoning him to come in and treat the emperor. He put on his outer clothes, without even having time to put on his socks, and hurriedly put on his medicine box and followed the palace maid into the palace.
"Doctor Liu, please treat His Majesty." said the Queen Mother.
Doctor Liu bowed and said, "Yes."
Doctor Liu walked towards the bed where Zhao Zixu was. He bent his knees and squatted down, holding Zhao Zixu's inch joint. The moment he felt the pulse, Doctor Liu was startled, his brows slowly furrowed, and his eyes looked particularly solemn.
Your Majesty, this is poisoning!
And it’s not light!
The pulse is weak and the life is in danger.
Doctor Liu withdrew his pulse-taking hand, knelt on the ground, and bowed to the Empress Dowager and Empress Lu, saying, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty has been poisoned. Please, please withdraw your attendants. I will expel the poison from Your Majesty."
The Queen Mother signaled to the lady-in-waiting beside her, and the lady-in-waiting sent the extra palace maids and eunuchs away.
In the inner hall, only three imperial physicians, Empress Lu, the Empress Dowager, Eunuch Luo, and a few palace maids and female officials were left.
With the assistance of two other imperial physicians, Doctor Liu began to give Zhao Zixu acupuncture to expel the poison.
At the same time, Doctor Liu also prescribed an antidote.
After Doctor Liu gave him acupuncture, Zhao Zixu finally woke up.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty is awake. Your Majesty, Your Majesty is awake!" an imperial physician shouted excitedly.
Upon hearing this, the restless empress dowager hurried to the couch, followed closely by Empress Lu, who walked quickly.
"My son, you finally woke up. I was worried to death." From the moment Zhao Zixu vomited blood and fainted to this moment, the Queen Mother has been worried.
Empress Lu felt the same as the Empress Dowager, "Your Majesty, you are finally awake. I was so worried about you."
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