Chapter 368 The Empress Dowager's Trap (Second Update)
"Who is this silly kid?"
Empress Dowager Zhuang asked casually.
Gu Chengfeng then noticed that Empress Dowager Zhuang had also arrived and was standing behind Gu Jiao.
Gu Chengfeng had met Empress Dowager Zhuang twice: once in Bishui Hutong, and the other time when he and Gu Jiao were being chased by Tang Yueshan to the vicinity of the palace.
Empress Dowager Zhuang had them executed as assassins, which put Tang Ming at ease.
The inspiration for the idea of being killed while pretending to be an assassin actually came from Empress Dowager Zhuang.
Gu Chengfeng wore a mask that time, so Empress Dowager Zhuang did not recognize him at first glance as Gu Jiao's "friend" from that night.
Gu Chengfeng's face was covered in mud, and Empress Dowager Zhuang did not recognize him.
But the next second, Empress Dowager Zhuang guessed something: "Oh, the one who went to the Marshal's Mansion."
Are your eyes that sharp?
How could you guess that?
Even though I'm clearly speaking in a different voice!
If Empress Dowager Zhuang didn't have any ability, then she wouldn't have been able to dominate the court and the harem for so many years. She glanced at Gu Chengfeng indifferently: "What is your relationship with Jiaojiao?"
Why does this seem like a life-or-death question?
Gu Chengfeng looked at Gu Jiao.
Gu Jiao held the broken bag in her arms and stood by and watched.
Ugh! This girl, she just uses it and throws it away! How heartless of her!
"Your Majesty," he stood up, cupped his hands in a salute, and said, "This humble subject, Gu Chengfeng, greets Your Majesty."
"oh."
Brother Jiaojiao, you are not a wildflower or weed.
I won't disturb her while she's holding her great-grandson.
Empress Dowager Zhuang then left without asking Gu Chengfeng why he knew martial arts or why he entered the palace.
Gu Chengfeng was a little confused: "...The Empress Dowager's temperament is quite unique."
The turtle that Qin Gonggong smashed really stunned the two of them. Fortunately, the turtle's shell was hard, so they were not seriously injured, just a little frightened, and spent the whole afternoon hiding in its shell.
Gu Jiao treated Gu Chengfeng's shoulder injury and asked him for a thousand taels of silver, euphemistically calling it a consultation fee.
Gu Chengfeng, whose thousand taels of silver notes hadn't even warmed up yet, was speechless.
Gu Chengfeng looked at her with a headache: "Speaking of which, you were willing to give up the imperial decree to rescue me from the Dragon Shadow Guards, could it be that you just wanted that thousand taels of silver?"
After all, if he died, his body would definitely be disposed of, and she wouldn't be able to get the silver notes.
Gu Jiao had an expression of utter disbelief on her face!
Gu Chengfeng understood, and he was suddenly moved. This girl actually had a conscience after all; she wasn't just thinking about exploiting him.
Gu Jiao analyzed seriously, "If you die, I will lose a thousand taels, but if you live, you can earn me many more thousand taels! As for the imperial edict, aren't you the number one thief? Just steal it back next time!"
Gu Chengfeng: "..."
So why was he moved?
The two had lunch at Empress Dowager Zhuang's Renshou Palace.
Gu Chengfeng couldn't treat Empress Dowager Zhuang as an ordinary aunt, and he ate the meal with great restraint. Gu Jiao, on the other hand, kept eating, her cheeks bulging, reminding people of a chubby little squirrel he had once caught in the back mountain.
In the nunnery, Consort Jing waited quietly while striking a wooden fish and chanting sutras.
However, instead of receiving news that Granny Cai had captured the assassin, she received the devastating news that Granny Cai had been detained and interrogated by the emperor.
"Your Highness," the young nun who had brought the news knelt behind her, looking at her anxiously, "What should we do? Granny Cai has been arrested... Why did His Majesty arrest Granny Cai? Isn't Granny Cai one of our nun's people? His Majesty isn't..."
The young nun recounted a series of grievances in one breath, and by the end, she herself was in tears.
The palace has never been able to keep secrets, and even the smallest thing can be described in great detail.
There was no need for Renshou Palace to spread any rumors; the mere fact that Cai Mama was arrested was enough to make people speculate whether the relationship between Consort Jing and the Emperor had truly become tense.
"Your Highness, let's go and plead with His Majesty. Please ask him to release Granny Cai... Granny Cai is old... she can't endure that kind of suffering..."
The young nun hadn't been in the palace long, but she had heard a lot about the tortures there that were worse than death. When someone was arrested and interrogated, no matter what they got out of the palace, they were always skinned alive.
She was worried.
She was scared too.
She feared the building would collapse and crush her, who was also inside.
As night fell, the nunnery fell silent, and the young nun's sobs gradually blended into the darkness.
Consort Jing did nothing. She didn't even send anyone to inquire about Cai Mama's whereabouts. She just sat quietly in the Buddhist hall, her hands clasped together, as if she were devoutly worshipping Buddha, or as if she was just sitting there in silence.
The young nun finally couldn't take it anymore. She had only heard about the cruelty of the palace, but had never experienced it firsthand.
She ran to Huaqing Palace, choking back tears.
"Let me see His Majesty! The Imperial Concubine has not eaten or drunk anything all day... If this continues... if this continues... she will fall ill..."
She cried very loudly.
This is a major taboo in the royal palace.
She had no idea how lucky she was that she wasn't dragged away and punished according to palace rules.
"What's all the noise outside?" The emperor put down the memorial in his hand, pinched the bridge of his nose, and asked.
Eunuch Wei whispered, "It's the little nun who serves the Empress Dowager. She said... the Empress Dowager hasn't eaten all day."
The emperor frowned.
Seeing through the situation, Eunuch Wei said, "Your Majesty, shall I go and take a look?"
The emperor opened his mouth.
He hesitated; for a moment he almost nodded.
He was then startled by his own thoughts. In the past, he would always drop everything to visit his mother when he heard news of her. But now that she hadn't eaten or drunk anything all day, he wasn't so anxious anymore.
He shouldn't have done that.
He closed his eyes and said, "I'm going to the nunnery."
Eunuch Wei: "Yes."
The emperor did not ride in a sedan chair; he walked there himself, accompanied by Eunuch Wei.
Consort Jing preferred tranquility, so the chosen location was quite remote, and because the temple was built overnight in a hurry for use, the temple itself was not very large.
Now swallowed by the night, it appears even smaller and more helpless.
The young nun was overjoyed to see the emperor arrive: "Your Majesty—"
The emperor didn't look at her, he just raised his hand slightly.
The young nun was instantly awestruck by the aura of the true dragon.
The lights in the Buddhist hall were on, and a lonely figure flickered across the paper window. The emperor stepped forward.
In the desolate Buddhist hall, Consort Jing knelt alone on the ground. She tried to straighten her back, but it seemed that she could not withstand the passage of time and the ravages of life. Her body showed a trace of the dejection of old age.
The emperor's heart suddenly ached: "Mother Consort..."
Consort Jing did not turn around. She said in a cool and indifferent tone, "If Your Majesty has nothing else to say, please return."
Hearing her emotionless voice, the Emperor felt a growing bitterness in his heart: "Is Mother blaming me...?"
Consort Jing gave a self-deprecating laugh: "What's it to blame you for? Is it because you arrested Granny Cai without a word, or because you treated me like a monster after your nightmare, and the Empress Dowager is your closest mother, or because you brought me back from outside the palace, but then hurriedly sent me out of Huaqing Palace? Your Majesty, what am I? How many mothers in the world can even hope to be called 'Mother' by their own son?"
As she spoke, she turned around.
There were no tears in her eyes, only endless sorrow.
The emperor felt a pang of heartache upon seeing her like this.
How could he doubt his own mother?
How could she have her own secrets?
How could she possibly send an assassin to kill the Empress Dowager?
Ning An was married off to a distant place, and she was forced to go to a nunnery. Her only son could not be by her side. How did she spend all these years in loneliness and misery?
Has he forgotten all of that?!
He stepped forward, knelt down in front of her, and took her hand: "Hong'er will never do it again. In Hong'er's heart, Mother Consort will always be Hong'er's only mother."
Consort Jing's fingertips trembled slightly, and her eyes reddened.
The emperor gripped her hand tightly with guilt: "Mother hasn't eaten yet, has she? Hong'er will dine with you."
Consort Jing asked steadily, "Then Your Majesty... will you no longer doubt me from now on?"
"I..." The emperor hesitated for a very brief moment, "I will not."
Consort Jing lowered her eyes.
...
"So the Dowager Consort Jing was hiding her true identity so well." On the way back in the carriage, Gu Chengfeng couldn't help but sigh to Gu Jiao.
Gu Jiao wouldn't tell him these things. Gu Jiao was a woman of few words. It was a revolutionary friendship that Gu Chengfeng had forged by helping Eunuch Qin feed the turtles, and Eunuch Qin had told him everything.
Gu Chengfeng was most surprised that Consort Jing could even harm the Emperor, who was her adopted son. How could she bear to feed him so many strange drugs? Wasn't she afraid of making him stupid?
"The most poisonous heart is that of a woman!"
His words were meant to be a double entendre, a way of teasing Gu Jiao.
However, Gu Jiao didn't react at all.
Gu Chengfeng felt as if he had punched cotton.
The carriage swayed along, and as if remembering something, Gu Chengfeng suddenly smiled mischievously: "You switched the black medicine and the white medicine just now, didn't you? So next time she tries to drug the emperor, won't it backfire?"
On a dark and windy night, in a secluded and quiet temple, only the sounds of stir-frying came from the small kitchen.
The emperor went to another meditation room to wait.
Consort Jing pushed open the door to her meditation room and slowly entered. Then, with a flick of her sleeve, she used her inner strength to close the door.
She opened the wardrobe and took out the black and white medicines from the small box.
She uncorked the white medicine bottle, poured out a dark brown pill, and wrapped it in a white handkerchief.
After doing all that, she was about to leave, but then she suddenly stopped.
Her gaze fell on the small box, then looked at the spot where the imperial edict had been, and then at the two bottles—
Suddenly, she put the pill back into the white bottle and poured one out of the black bottle.
She took the medicine from the black bottle to the meditation room next door.
The vegetarian dishes have all been served.
The emperor and she knelt on a cushion, and the emperor personally served her food.
“Your Majesty, please eat it yourself,” she said.
"There is no His Majesty here, no Imperial Concubine, only Hong'er and Mother." The Emperor placed a piece of tender bamboo shoot on Imperial Concubine Jing's plate. "I remember Mother likes to eat bamboo shoots. It's not the season for bamboo shoots now, so we only have pickled bamboo shoots. When the winter bamboo shoots come out, I'll have someone dig up a whole basket of them."
Consort Jing said, "How could I possibly eat that much?"
"Your Majesty, this is wild mushroom soup that Her Majesty personally cooked!" The little nun happily presented a bowl of soup.
The Emperor said, "Mother Consort, please don't work so hard anymore."
Consort Jing said, "It's rare for you to come all this way."
The emperor solemnly declared, "I will come every day from now on."
Whether it was because these words touched a nerve with Consort Jing or not, her expression finally softened.
She sighed, picked up a soup spoon, and served the emperor a bowl of mushroom soup.
“You may all leave,” she said.
"Yes." The little nun and the palace servants who were serving her gradually withdrew.
"You may also step down," the emperor said to Eunuch Wei.
Eunuch Wei: "...Yes."
Only the two of them remained in the meditation room, which was filled with the faint scent of sandalwood.
The distinction between "white medicine" and "black medicine" doesn't depend on who feeds him the medicine. It's enough that when the medicine takes effect, he sees himself and remembers himself deeply.
"Drink it while it's hot." She handed the soup bowl to the emperor.
The emperor took a bite and smiled, "Mother's cooking is as good as ever."
"I'm glad you like it."
"Your Majesty! The Empress Dowager has summoned you for a meeting!"
Suddenly, Wei Gonggong's voice came from outside the door reporting.
Consort Jing looked at him with a slight shift in her gaze. The Emperor felt a pang of heartache at her anxious and reluctant eyes. He said, "I am having a meal. We will discuss this matter another day!"
“…Yes.” Eunuch Wei replied helplessly.
The emperor picked up a spoon and drank the mushroom soup that his mother had personally prepared for him, spoonful by spoonful.
After finishing a bowl of mushroom soup, the emperor put down the bowl, held his forehead, and said, "Mother, I feel a little dizzy."
Consort Jing looked at him gently: "It's alright, if you feel dizzy, just sleep for a while, you'll feel better when you wake up."
The emperor slumped over the table, gazing dazedly at Consort Jing. Before his eyes was her smile, in his ears her voice, and before his nose her breath.
All of this was deeply imprinted in his mind.
He wants to remember this person, but he doesn't know why.
He remembered it deeply.
Inside the carriage, Gu Jiao leaned lazily against the wall: "I did switch the black medicine and the white medicine, but I switched them back."
Gu Chengfeng was horrified: "What did you say? You...you switched them back? So...the white bottle still contains the white medicine, and the black bottle still contains the black medicine?"
Gu Jiao nodded: "That's right."
Gu Chengfeng was stunned: "Why did you do this?"
Gu Jiao said calmly, "Because the Godfather once said that there are always some people in this world who like to be too clever for their own good."
(End of this chapter)
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