Chapter 169: Murder of Parents and Children
On the way back to the study,
Jiang Deshun followed beside the imperial carriage, shrugged his shoulders and said to Xiao Jingheng with a flattering smile:
"Empress Yi likes sour food, and she thinks this baby is likely to be a prince. No wonder the emperor has been smiling all the way. I am happy just by hearing this."
"Hahaha~" Xiao Jingheng laughed out loud, "Nonsense. Whether it's a prince or a princess, I like them all."
Then he instructed Jiang Deshun, "Let Imperial Physician Chu take care of Concubine Yi's baby personally. Let him check Concubine Yi's pulse later."
Jiang Deshun naturally understood what Xiao Jingheng meant.
Doctor Chu was the chief physician of the Imperial Hospital. He was only responsible for the health of the emperor, empress, and queen mother.
Xiao Jingheng asked him to be responsible for Song Zhao's pregnancy.
Firstly, he wanted to ensure the safety of Song Zhao and his mother, and secondly, he wanted to know the gender of the baby in advance.
After Xiao Jingheng met with the court officials in the Shangshufang, she originally planned to go to Changle Palace, thinking of her promise to Song Zhao to accompany her for dinner.
Before leaving, I asked,
"How is it? Doctor Chu went to see Concubine Yi. What did he say?"
"This..." Jiang Deshun stuttered, "Courtier Chu sentenced him...to stay in the Queen's palace, so he is not free."
"Empress?" Xiao Jingheng asked puzzledly, "Didn't Doctor Chu check her pulse the other day and say that she and her child are both healthy?"
"The Queen is suffering from a heart attack, so she summoned Doctor Chu to treat her."
"What a mess! Why are you telling me this now?"
Xiao Jingheng's tone was obviously unhappy, so he hurriedly sent the imperial carriage to the Queen's Palace first.
After entering Kunning Palace, he happened to see Chu Yuanpan coming out of the Queen's bedroom.
He then asked, "How is the queen?"
Judge Chu bowed and said, "I just gave the Empress acupuncture and she is fine now. Now that she is in her advanced stage of pregnancy, it is really hard for her to be pregnant. She also has a heart disease. If she is properly treated, she will not have a relapse during pregnancy. But maybe because she has been thinking too much recently, the disease has come back again."
He paused, and said with some concern:
"Your Majesty, please advise the Queen not to think too much about trivial matters. Otherwise, if the heart disease relapses during childbirth, it will be a serious matter that may cost her life..."
Xiao Jingheng knew what the queen was worried about.
She felt that Xiao Jingheng's asking her to rest was a distraction for her, so she felt uneasy.
This is not difficult.
No matter what the queen did, she was still the Empress Dowager and the biological mother of the emperor's legitimate son.
Xiao Jingheng's tolerance towards her was naturally greater than that towards ordinary concubines.
At that time, the queen was leaning on the bed, letting Shuangruo help her take medicine.
Seeing Xiao Jingheng coming, she was surprised and happy and asked: "Your Majesty... why are you here?"
She forced herself to stand up and wanted to greet Jamel Xiao.
But Xiao Jingheng held her shoulders and said, "Since you are sick, let's skip these formalities."
As he spoke, he took the medicine bowl from Shuang Ruo's hand, stirred it with a spoon to cool it down, and asked:
"How are you? Are you feeling better now?"
The Queen said, "It's not a big deal, it's just an old problem. It's my fault that the Emperor had to put aside his government affairs to visit me."
"You and I are husband and wife. If you keep talking about these things, we will become more distant."
Xiao Jingheng fed the queen the medicine very carefully, and then said, "Fengluan Palace has been renovated, and I asked the people in the Imperial Household Department to add more decorations inside. They are all what you like."
The queen's eyes were filled with tears. "Thank you, Your Majesty."
Jamel Xiao took her hand and patted it gently on the back of her hand.
"After you give birth, you will move back to Fengluan Palace. If you are healthy and can spare some time, you will still be in charge of the affairs of the harem. You are the Empress, so you are more legitimate than the Concubine. It's just that during this period of time, I see that you are very tired because of your pregnancy, so I don't want you to work too hard."
Xiao Jingheng said this beautifully.
He described the punishment of deposing the queen as his deep concern.
I don't know if the queen can understand the meaning of his words.
However, the queen enjoyed it very much and her complexion looked much better.
That night, Xiao Jingheng naturally stayed to accompany the Queen for the night, which wasted the large table of delicious food prepared by Song Zhao.
The next morning, after Xiao Jingheng went to court,
There was no sign of illness on the queen's face, and she looked even more radiant.
While she was enjoying her breakfast, Shuang Ruo came in and reported:
"My queen, Zhao in the cold palace has gone crazy."
"Oh?" The queen paused for a moment, then continued to drink her porridge. "What's so crazy about it?"
Shuang Ruo said, "The guards guarding the cold palace said that she seemed to be crazy because she missed her son. She would wander around the cold palace every day holding a dead tree. She was disheveled, crying and laughing at the same time. I'm afraid she is a waste."
"What's the point of going crazy over her child?" The queen sneered and shook her head. "When she dies on the road to the underworld, how can she have the face to see the premature child she killed with her own hands?"
Shuang Ruo served the Queen food while smiling maliciously:
"That's right~ The little prince was originally healthy and had no illnesses, but Zhao Shi actually aborted him herself? She also tried to frame Concubine Yi to arouse the emperor's suspicion and make the emperor and the queen alienated? It's simply a foolish dream!"
On that day, after the Queen learned that Shu Fei was pregnant, she asked Doctor Zhang, who was taking care of Shu Fei's pregnancy, about the condition of her pregnancy.
Doctor Zhang said that Shu Fei's pregnancy seemed stable and everything was fine.
But how could the Queen allow someone in the harem to give birth to a child before her?
The queen recalled that after her grandmother passed away a while ago, she had taken Shu Fei out to drink several times. At that time, Shu Fei was pregnant without knowing it.
So she asked Doctor Zhang, "When Concubine Shu was diagnosed with pregnancy, she was already nearly two months pregnant. She didn't know about it, and neither did I. I had drunk with her several times. Does this have any impact on the heir to the throne?"
"Don't worry, my lady, it won't have any impact."
“Then you let it have an impact.”
The Queen's gloomy words frightened Doctor Zhang so much that he broke out in a sweat.
"What do you mean, Queen?"
"Go tell Shu Fei that because she was drunk at the beginning of her pregnancy, the baby is not strong enough in the womb and can only survive for seven months at most. Even if it is born prematurely, it will be a dead fetus that cannot be raised."
Doctor Zhang was so frightened when he heard this that he dropped his knees to the ground and kowtowed to the queen repeatedly.
"This... But if Madam Shu Fei lets other imperial doctors treat her, this matter will certainly be exposed. At that time, I, your humble servant..."
The Queen raised her hand to interrupt Doctor Zhang's words and said firmly, "She won't. Just do as I say, and I will protect you. After the matter is done, the vacant position of the Deputy Director of the Imperial Hospital will be yours."
The Queen knew that if Imperial Physician Zhang really told Concubine Shu what she said, then Concubine Shu would definitely not let any other Imperial Physician treat her.
After all, the matter of the royal heir cannot be taken lightly, and any mistake must be reported to Xiao Jingheng.
When Shu Fei knew that she could not keep the child, she must have panicked at first and tried every means to get Doctor Zhang to keep the secret for her. How could she create more trouble herself?
Being pregnant, even if she couldn't give birth, she could use it to win Xiao Jingheng's favor.
Therefore, Shu Fei kept this matter secret.
When the due date was almost approaching, Doctor Zhang kept urging her, saying that the baby would soon be lost and if the fetus died in the womb, there would be a high possibility of two deaths.
Shu Fei drank the abortion medicine with great pain and reluctance, killing her healthy and peaceful flesh and blood with her own hands...
Afterwards, Concubine Shu was afraid that this matter would be discovered, so she secretly sent someone to silence Doctor Zhang. (Chapter 162)
This saves the Queen from having to do it herself.
At this moment, the queen had finished her breakfast and was wiping her mouth with a handkerchief after rinsing her mouth.
"As a mother, she actually killed her own unborn child with her own hands. Tsk tsk..."
She smiled bitterly and shook her head, put down her handkerchief, picked up the Buddhist beads, turned them around and chanted a Buddhist prayer.
"Amitabha, Zhao's sins are so great that it is all retribution for what she has done today."
Shuang Ruo responded, "She is crazy now. The guards in the cold palace said that she won't eat or drink. I don't think she will live for many days."
The Queen's eyes froze for a moment, and after pondering for a while, she suddenly smiled grimly and said:
"Before she dies, if she can do something big for me, it will be considered as accumulating blessings for her after her death."
After saying that, Chong Shuangruo waved her hand and whispered in her ear...
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