Chapter 91 The Empress Dowager is Critically Ill
Yuwen Che gently closed the door to the Guanju Palace's sleeping quarters, his gentle expression instantly vanishing, replaced by his usual coldness. He didn't change his clothes, still wearing the black dragon robe, and went straight back to the Sizheng Hall.
The hall was brightly lit by candlelight. After returning to his desk, he picked up a memorial concerning the allocation of military provisions to the northern border and began to review it with focused attention. Li Dehai stood silently to the side, not daring to make a sound.
The hall was completely silent, with only the faint sound of a vermilion brush tracing across paper.
Suddenly, a series of hurried and chaotic footsteps came from outside the palace gate. Immediately afterwards, a young eunuch disregarded etiquette, pushed open the palace gate, and rushed in, falling to his knees with a thud, his breathing uneven.
Yuwen Che's brows furrowed instantly, a hint of displeasure flashing in his eyes.
Li Dehai's heart skipped a beat. He immediately stepped forward and shouted sternly, "You insolent wretch! Disturbing His Majesty's presence, utterly disrespectful! Drag him out..."
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please forgive me!" The little eunuch trembled with fear, but hurriedly raised his head and cried out in a sobbing voice, "Cining Palace... News just came from Cining Palace that the Empress Dowager... the Empress Dowager is probably not going to make it! She kept saying she wanted to see you one last time!"
Yuwen Che's hand holding the pen suddenly paused, and the vermilion imperial brush left an abrupt mark on the memorial.
He slowly raised his head and looked at the panicked eunuch. Then, he stood up abruptly from the dragon throne, and his imperial brush slammed onto the memorial, staining the words red.
"What did you say? Empress Dowager... when I visited her before the New Year, she was perfectly fine, wasn't she?"
The young eunuch was so frightened by his sharp gaze that he almost collapsed, prostrating himself on the ground, his voice trembling: "Your Majesty... this servant does not know the specific reason, but the head maid of Cining Palace ordered this servant to report immediately at the risk of his life, saying that the Empress Dowager suddenly vomited blood and her breathing was weak, and the imperial physicians... the imperial physicians are all helpless, saying to prepare... prepare for the worst... the Empress Dowager was conscious for a moment, only saying that she wanted to see Your Majesty..."
Li Dehai, who was listening nearby, was terrified and quickly looked at Yuwen Che.
Yuwen Che's face was so dark it seemed to drip water, his chest rising and falling slightly. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant—he wasn't entirely unaware of the Empress Dowager's health condition. Although she had a chronic illness, it had indeed been relatively stable before the Lunar New Year. Why had she suddenly become critically ill? Was it a relapse of her old illness, or... had someone tampered with it?
He suddenly looked at Li Dehai, his voice as cold as ice: "Prepare the carriage for the Cining Palace!"
"Yes! This old servant will arrange it immediately!" Li Dehai dared not delay in the slightest, immediately bowed and replied, then strode out of the hall and loudly proclaimed: "His Majesty has decreed that the Emperor shall proceed to Cining Palace!"
Yuwen Che stopped looking at the kneeling eunuch and strode out. His face was calm, but his clenched fists showed that his heart was far from peaceful.
He strode towards Cining Palace, and as he walked, he solemnly instructed Li Dehai, who was following closely beside him: "Don't let this matter reach Guanju Palace yet, and don't disturb the Empress's pregnancy."
“This old servant understands!” Li Dehai immediately comprehended.
Yuwen Che stepped into the inner hall of Cining Palace and, as expected, saw several concubines of high rank kneeling on the ground, sobbing softly. He didn't even glance at them and went straight to the phoenix bed.
The Empress Dowager lay there, her face ashen, her breath faint, only the slight rise and fall of her chest indicating that she was still alive. Her trusted nanny, Qin, with red-rimmed eyes, attended to her.
Upon seeing Yuwen Che, Granny Qin felt as if she had seen a savior, and called out in a tearful voice, "Your Majesty..."
The Empress Dowager seemed to sense something, and with difficulty opened her eyes, her cloudy gaze looking at Yuwen Che, her lips moving.
Yuwen Che waved his hand, his voice icy: "Get out, all of you."
Qin Mama understood and immediately said to all the concubines and palace servants in the hall, "Your Highnesses, please follow this old servant to the outer room to wait."
After everyone had left, only the mother and son remained in the hall.
With her last breath, the Empress Dowager stammered, "Che...Che'er...Hao'er...Treat Hao'er well...What happened back then was...it was all my doing...The child...is innocent..."
Yuwen Che stood before the bed, looking down at her. Upon hearing her words, he closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, his eyes were filled with an icy sharpness.
He spoke slowly, his voice low and calm: "When you poisoned that bowl of pear soup last year, did you ever think of him as innocent?"
"Mother."
"Back then, when my father was still alive, my brothers and I were outwardly considered to be on friendly terms with each other."
He leaned slightly forward, his gaze fixed on the Empress Dowager's increasingly unfocused eyes, and asked, word by word:
"Back then, my second brother and I were closest, but you deceived me, making me, who was still young at the time, personally hand that cup of poisoned wine to my second brother..."
What are you thinking?
The Empress Dowager's eyes widened suddenly as she stared at Yuwen Che in disbelief. Her withered hands gripped the brocade quilt tightly, and a broken, hoarse sound came from her throat.
Seeing her like this, Yuwen Che's eyes also reddened uncontrollably, and his voice was choked with suppressed sobs: "Mother... there are no real secrets in this palace."
He took a deep breath and continued, "I have always known what role you and the Shen family played in Father's death."
The Empress Dowager's pupils contracted sharply, and her breathing became even more rapid.
Yuwen Che did not stop. He took a step closer, his voice lower, yet every word was like a knife:
"And back then... you schemed against me, poisoning my food, intending to force me to consummate my marriage with Lady Shen and have her give birth to the eldest son to solidify the Shen family's position. But by a twist of fate, I unexpectedly favored an innocent palace maid, which led to the birth of Hao'er..."
He stared at the Empress Dowager's suddenly pale face and asked the question that had lingered in his heart for many years:
"At that time, what were you thinking when you looked at that eldest son, who was born because of your scheming and whom I did not expect?"
His voice suddenly turned cold:
"Did you... from that time onwards intend to emulate Empress Lü of the previous dynasty, to support a young emperor, rule from behind the curtain, and firmly grasp the power of the Great Zhou in your hands and the Shen family behind you?"
"You...you..." The Empress Dowager gasped for breath, pointing a finger at Yuwen Che. Her carefully cultivated and deeply buried ambitions and schemes had been seen through by her own son! No wonder...he wiped out the Shen family so thoroughly, leaving no room for retreat!
Yuwen Che straightened up, watching life rapidly slip away from her eyes, closed his eyes briefly, and forcibly suppressed his surging emotions.
"Mother," he finally said in a deep voice, "go in peace. Hao'er... as long as he behaves himself, I will grant him a lifetime of wealth and peace."
This was the last promise he could make as a father and a son.
The Empress Dowager's hand fell limply to her sides, her eyes still wide open, staring fixedly at the top of the tent, before finally taking her last breath.
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