Chapter 80: Entangling the Queen Mother
"Auntie, something's wrong." After sneaking into the palace, Wei Qingyan whispered, "The defense is too lax."
She was familiar with the layout of the palace. Although she was confident that she could sneak into the cold palace without being noticed, she encountered almost no resistance tonight. How could the palace's defense be so bad?
There are only a few people who can mobilize the defense of the palace.
Someone guessed that they were coming, or rather, someone guessed that Auntie was coming.
Those who are familiar with A-gu are either her enemies or people around her.
The queen is already in the cold palace, could it be the emperor?
After a moment's thought, Lan Shu also thought of what Wei Qingyan was thinking. She looked vigilantly in front of Wei Qingyan.
When the two men sneaked into the cold palace, the emperor was just walking into the empress dowager's Cining Palace.
The Empress Dowager was sitting cross-legged on the couch, resting with her eyes closed, her hands twirling Buddhist beads. She heard the old nanny's reminder in her ear and asked calmly, "How come the Emperor has time to come to my place tonight?"
The emperor bowed and sat down opposite the empress dowager. "My son has been busy with government affairs recently and has not visited you for a long time. I wanted to come and see you today and have a word with you."
"What does the Emperor want to tell me?" The Empress Dowager slowly opened her eyes, a terrifying glint in them. "Do you want to tell me how you banished your own Empress to the cold palace and oppressed your own family?"
"Mother."
The emperor slowed down his voice and stretched out his tone, like an ordinary son talking to his mother, with a hint of helplessness in his tone.
"My mother is aware of the recent situation outside. Liu He publicly accused the Queen of murdering the National Protection Army. There is no smoke without fire. Even if there is no evidence, there must be an explanation for the rumors.
Moreover, there is irrefutable evidence that the Empress murdered the heir to the throne, and she should be executed according to the law. Her son, mindful of her filial piety to his mother over the years, and unable to bear the pain of his elderly uncle losing his daughter, has sent her to the cold palace."
He sighed heavily, "Mother, Shu'er's children are also my children, and even more so, your grandchildren.
Twins, a boy and a girl. When Shu'er was pregnant, it was the first time for her son to become a father. He was so happy. He had even dreamed of two similar faces running towards him like pink dough balls.
"Mother, my eldest son and daughter have both lived. The Queen has lived a stable and prosperous life for so many years. It is not unfair for her to suffer in the cold palace."
The Queen Mother stopped what she was doing, without raising her eyes, "I understand, the Emperor came here today to remind me not to interfere in this matter.
"Your Majesty, please go back. I am a concubine in the harem. I am old and cannot take care of many things. I just hope that Your Majesty will remember that the Xie family is your maternal clan."
"My son must never forget this." The emperor said, tugging at the empress dowager's Buddhist beads. "Mother, please have someone prepare something for my son. I haven't had dinner yet and I'm hungry."
Hearing this, the Queen Mother could no longer hold back and quickly glanced at the old nanny beside her, "Hurry up, it's already so late, and you'll have a stomachache again soon."
After thinking for a moment, she looked at another palace maid and said, "Go get a bowl of bird's nest porridge for the emperor to eat first."
The palace maids and nannies were busy preparing.
Soon, a table full of food was served.
The Empress Dowager has been focusing on eating less and staying healthy in recent years. Seeing the Emperor sitting there eating alone, she inexplicably felt a sense of desolation, so she sat over as well and had someone serve him half a bowl of porridge and put it on the table.
The emperor laughed, "It's still the mother who loves her son."
The Queen Mother swallowed a small mouthful of porridge and said with pity, "I know that the emperor has a hard time. I heard the news from the Council Hall today, and I didn't go there either. How can I not love my own son?
But the emperor also understands me. The queen is my niece and is raised like a daughter. How can I not feel uncomfortable?
Concubine Shu caused such a commotion back then, and now she’s back to stir up trouble again…”
"Son, I know I was wrong." The emperor interrupted the empress dowager by picking up a piece of green bamboo shoots.
Then he changed the subject and said, "I see that brother Yu seems to be feeling better today. If he still doesn't want to get married, I will arrange a marriage for him."
The Queen Mother understood the Emperor's intention to change the subject and asked, "Have you chosen a candidate for the Emperor?"
"No." The emperor half-lowered his eyes and shook his head. "He's not young anymore, he'll have to get married eventually. I won't hide it from you, I don't want him to marry someone from a wealthy family, lest he become ambitious.
The Great Wei is not truly at peace yet and cannot withstand internal strife, but after all, he is my brother, and I hope for his well-being, so I will do my best to find a solution for him."
"Then go ahead and look for one." The Queen Mother put down the spoon in her hand. "No matter how useless he is, he is still my daughter. I must have a successor so that I can meet the late emperor in the future."
"Son, I understand." The emperor responded. Seeing that the empress dowager was about to stand up, he added, "I heard that your mother used bone-breaking poison on him again. Mother, if he uses bone-breaking poison three times on his body, he will die."
Have used it twice already.
The Queen Mother froze, her expression growing increasingly cold. After a long moment, she spoke, "I have no choice. There are some things he shouldn't be involved in. If he's in pain, how can I, as his mother, feel any better?"
She sighed deeply, her shoulders slumped, and she stood up and walked into the inner room, her voice full of fatigue, "Emperor, please eat slowly. I am tired and need to rest."
"Then Queen Mother, please rest early. My son can go back after eating."
The emperor watched the empress dowager leave, put a piece of fish into his mouth and chewed it carefully.
Feng Ruobao came in from outside and nodded at him imperceptibly.
In the cold palace.
The queen sat on a low couch with an unhappy look on her face.
The low couch was not as luxurious as the one in Fengyi Palace, but it was also clean and covered with brocade.
There were also some furniture and other things nearby that were out of place in this cold palace.
These were secretly delivered by the prince when the queen came in.
The courtyard was also a separate courtyard, not together with other deposed concubines. Although she was sent to the cold palace, the queen did not suffer any punishment.
The Queen Mother also sent a message that she would find a way to let her return to Fengyi Palace later. Despite this, the Queen was still very angry.
She was the only one in the whole yard, without even anyone to serve her. The things she had just smashed in anger were scattered all over the floor, and no one cleaned them up.
No matter how bold the prince was, he would not dare to send servants to her in the cold palace, so he could only wait for her to deal with it herself.
But the queen didn't care about those things, she was still thinking about Lan Shu.
Her brows were grim, "So what if you come back? He will grow old, and in the future this world will belong to my son.
In the end, I will be the one to be buried with him. By then, I will leave your corpse in the wilderness for wild dogs to eat.
Lan Shu, I will make sure that you can’t be a human being in your next life, and in the next life after that, I will make sure that you two will never meet again in this life..."
"It doesn't matter to me whether I meet him or not."
A cold voice interrupted the queen's curse, "But you will surely die before me."
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