Chapter 230: Early Ascension to Paradise
On this day, after all the concubines had left, only Song Zhao stayed behind.
She kowtowed to Concubine Chen and thanked her sincerely:
"Thank you very much, Your Majesty, for sacrificing your life to save Chengyu."
Concubine Chen yawned lazily first, and then let her kneel for a while before saying:
"Get up. I have lost a child myself, and I know the pain. And I saved him not because of you, but because he is the emperor's flesh and blood. As for you..."
She lowered her eyes and glanced at Song Zhao, her eyes filled with sternness, "I asked you to clean the Plum Garden properly, but you made the ground muddy. If you were not so useless, Huipin would not have fallen for no reason, and the Queen Mother would not have turned around in shock and almost killed your child!"
Concubine Chen's face was full of disgust, and her tone was full of impatience.
"You can't even handle a small matter. If I really want you to help me manage the six palaces in the future, won't you cause trouble everywhere?"
Song Zhao did not refute her, but said respectfully:
"Your Highness, I will follow your instructions."
When Concubine Chen saw that she didn't accept the challenge, she rolled her eyes at her and said unhappily:
"You have to have a brain to understand what I am teaching you. Well, it's really hard to talk to you, just kneel down."
After Song Zhaofu left,
Concubine Chen could no longer hide her inner joy.
The corners of her mouth raised in a beautiful arc, and her eyes narrowed into a crescent moon when she smiled.
He stood up and paced back and forth in the palace, caressing her bulging belly with his hands.
Liu Yue followed Concubine Chen closely, fearing that she might get bumped or bruised again.
"Your Majesty, you encountered a dangerous situation today, and your pregnancy is a bit disturbed. You should walk less, drink the pregnancy-stabilizing medicine, and rest in bed."
"Liu Yue, did you hear that?" Concubine Chen suddenly clenched Liu Yue's hand, her eyes bright as if stars had fallen from the sky.
"The imperial physician said that I am pregnant with twins. Twins! I can finally give birth to a family for the emperor, and it's a pair! Do you think the emperor will be as happy as I am when he hears this news? Will he love me even more in the future?"
Liu Yue saw that Concubine Chen was happy, so she smiled too.
"Of course! The Emperor has always loved the Empress the most. This time the Empress is about to give birth to twins for the Emperor. I'm afraid the Emperor will soon promote the Empress to Imperial Noble Consort!"
"Slippery~" Concubine Chen smiled and patted Liu Yue's cheek lightly, then suddenly remembered something and said hurriedly:
"Go to the kitchen and ask them to prepare dinner. Remember to prepare dishes that the emperor likes. When the emperor hears the news, he will definitely come to visit me. Also, the emperor doesn't like the spicy taste of chopped green onions in this season, so tell them to garnish with coriander."
She gave endless instructions, and finally, fearing that Liu Yue would not remember, she said proudly,
"Forget it, forget it. You are so clumsy in everything you do. You can't be careless when preparing meals for the emperor. I'd better watch over it myself."
*
On the way back to the palace in the sedan chair from Yonghe Palace, Song Zhao no longer left Chengyu to the wet nurse, but held the child in his arms the whole time.
She hugged Chengyu tightly.
A child always feels safest and secure in his mother's arms.
Song Zhao lowered her head and watched the little guy sleeping soundly, but her heart could never calm down for a moment.
In her mind, the scene of Cheng Yu falling from the Queen Mother's arms kept flashing back.
Her heart was gripped and it hurt.
If it weren't for Concubine Chen who risked her life to save her today, I'm afraid she and Chengyu would have been separated forever.
Since having Cheng Yu, Song Zhao has lived more cautiously in the harem.
She had been on guard everywhere, but the reason why an accident is called an accident is that it is always unpredictable.
But now that he calmed down and thought about it carefully, Song Zhao felt that today's facts were really strange.
It goes without saying that the Queen Mother cares about Cheng Yu, and she is not seriously ill, so how come she can't even hold the child when she turns around?
When the incident happened, besides Concubine Chen, there was also the Queen...
Song Zhao recalled that when Huipin fell, the Queen Mother looked back and was obviously dizzy.
After thinking carefully for a while, she originally had some pharmacological questions to ask Xiao Fuzi,
But after lifting the curtain of the sedan chair, he found that only Yunshan was following the sedan chair.
She asked, "Where is Xiao Fuzi?"
Yunshan said, "He just said mysteriously that he had something to do, and I don't know where he went."
She poked her head to look inside the sedan chair and said in a low voice:
"The eldest prince has fallen asleep? Today's incident was really close. Fortunately, Concubine Chen... But I am really surprised that she can sacrifice herself to save the eldest prince..."
Song Zhao pressed his slender index finger against his temples and was silent for a long time before he said:
"If there is a chance, I would like to repay her for this favor. The Ning family is so powerful that they are doomed, but she...may still have a chance of survival."
After returning to the palace, Song Zhao comforted Cheng Yu to sleep in her room before Xiao Fuzi returned late.
"Your Majesty, I have just searched the Plum Garden carefully and found nothing wrong. Later, I went to the Imperial Pharmacy and found out from Xiao Dezi the prescription that the Queen Mother used to treat her cold these past two days."
Xiao Fuzi took out a crumpled prescription from his bosom and handed it to Song Zhao.
Song Zhao lowered his eyes and read quickly.
"Ephedra, cinnamon twig, Notopterygium wilfordii, Chuanwu, Clematis chinensis, and Angelica dahurica... these are all common herbs for treating colds. Can you see anything wrong with them?"
Xiao Fuzi said solemnly: "The ephedra in the palace is refined together with Tianchuangzi, so the effect is much faster than that of ordinary ephedra. But because of this, people who have taken this medicine must not drink alcohol.
Not to mention drinking, even the smell of strong alcohol is unbearable. Otherwise, she will experience short-term heart disease and fainting symptoms, just like the Queen Mother's illness today..."
The smell of wine was strong and pungent. The Queen Mother was not a drinker, so if she had smelled wine, she would have noticed it long ago.
Besides, Song Zhao was present throughout the whole process today, and she didn't smell any alcohol.
Song Zhao thought about it silently for a moment, and a terrible guess came to his mind, so he asked Yunshan,
"I want the hot water bottle you prepared for all the concubines. Does the Queen want it?"
Yunshan said, "After the Queen's body was damaged, she became very afraid of the cold. When I brought her a hot water bottle today, I saw that she was already holding one."
Song Zhao suddenly realized what was going on.
She slammed the table in anger, clenched her fists so tightly that she didn't even feel the pain even when her fingertips dug into the flesh.
Because of the snake incident in the Plum Garden last year, Song Zhao added realgar to the hot water bottles he prepared for the concubines this time.
If ordinary wine is kept warm in a hot water bottle, it will definitely be noticed.
But if the queen's hot water bottle was filled with realgar wine, it would be perfectly hidden among the hot water bottles filled with realgar wine and would not be noticed.
Moreover, the Queen was standing next to the Queen Mother, who was smelling the alcohol without realizing it, and sooner or later would feel dizzy and weak in her limbs.
So today, regardless of whether Huipin fell or not, the Queen Mother would have "accidentally" let Chengyu fall to the ground, it was just a matter of time.
After the incident, everyone must have panicked at first, and no one dared to blame the Queen Mother.
By the time someone wanted to investigate later, the contents of the Queen's hot water bottle would probably have been disposed of without a trace.
Xiao Fuzi had the same guess as Song Zhao, so he went to the Imperial Hospital to find the Queen Mother's prescription.
Seeing Song Zhao shaking with anger, he whispered:
"My Lady, it would be difficult to investigate this matter now..."
Song Zhao frowned, his eyes full of murderous intent.
After a long silence, he said fiercely:
"Why pursue a dying person? Instead of pursuing her, it is better for me to send her off personally..."
"Ascend to paradise soon!"
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