Yikun Palace.

Feng Bao had already reported to Concubine Li the news that the emperor had fallen ill while attending court.

Concubine Li was shocked when she heard this, and hurriedly ordered people to prepare a sedan chair and rush to the Qianqing Palace.

Feng Bao told her that the emperor was now in the back garden.

Upon hearing the news, Concubine Li's expression darkened immediately, and she gritted her teeth and said, "The Tartar has harmed him to this point, and he is still obsessed with it!"

No matter what she said, she still had to hurry to the emperor's side. Concubine Li ordered to go to the Houyuan instead.

Feng Bao reminded her again, should she call Empress Chen?

"Call her?" Concubine Li was stunned. She was used to Empress Chen standing aside.

"Firstly, she is the queen after all. If anything happens, it will be legitimate to borrow her name." Feng Bao explained to the bricklayer's daughter in a low voice: "Secondly, the incident last winter is still a thorn in your majesty's heart. If you go alone, I'm afraid you will not be able to get a good reputation."

In fact, he was worried that Li Caifeng was not smart enough, and she must not make any mistakes at this time. Empress Chen was much more clear-headed than the imperial concubine, otherwise she would not have retreated for so many years.

"Okay." As expected, Li Caifeng had lost control of the situation and ordered someone to invite the queen.

Empress Chen was indeed a smart person. She knew what to do and when. The two of them soon met in their sedan chairs at Kunning Gate.

"Sister." Li Caifeng took the little fat boy and saluted Queen Chen beside the imperial road.

"Come up and talk." Empress Chen rarely wore a double-phoenix crown, a long gown, a shawl, and a robe, which showed her status as the mother of the country.

Seeing the queen dressed like this, Li Caifeng couldn't help but feel that she was a head shorter than she actually was, so she quickly and obediently got into the phoenix sedan chair.

The little fat boy also wanted to squeeze in, and Queen Chen laughed and said, "My son, do you want to squeeze my sedan chair down?"

Feng Bao quickly squatted down, carried the seriously overweight prince on his back, and distanced himself from the sedan chair so that the imperial concubine and the queen could communicate.

"Is the emperor's illness recurring?" Queen Chen frowned and asked Li Caifeng. At this time, she had no time to hide her anger.

"Yes." Concubine Li nodded and said, "The day before yesterday, she said that the sores on her body had scabbed over and she was in much better spirits. So she was going to court. Who would have thought, alas..."

"What disease does the emperor have?" Empress Chen asked in a deep voice, "Others may not know, but you are his bedmate, so you must know, right?"

"Oh, sister, to be honest with you, the emperor no longer likes me because of the incident with Huahua Nu'er." Li Caifeng cried, "He suspected that I was the one who did it, and I can't clear myself of it even if I jump into the Yellow River."

"Okay, stop crying. This is not the time to talk about your affairs." Empress Chen interrupted her a little stiffly, and then sighed and said, "It's not easy to be the master of the six palaces. It's hard for my sister."

"I was kept in the dark at first, but later Feng Bao dragged the emperor's doctor to the Inner East Factory to scare him. Only then did we know that the emperor's illness had not been cured at all, and it was... difficult to cure..." Li Caifeng lowered her voice and said, "The doctor said that the emperor had syphilis, which was unheard of in the past few years. So there was no proven prescription in the medical books. The people in the Imperial Hospital could only treat it as rickets and give it a random treatment."

"Yangmei sore?" How could a woman like Empress Chen have ever heard of this disease? "The emperor is fine, why did he get this sore?"

"Of course it won't be published if it's fine, but if it's contaminated by a dirty person, there's no guarantee." Concubine Li showed a look of disgust and said, "Feng Bao also found out that Meng Chong took the emperor out of the palace in disguise in the twelfth month of last year."

"Is the emperor going somewhere on a secret visit?" Queen Chen asked with wide eyes.

"Go to the Eight Great Hutongs in disguise." Li Caifeng said bitterly.

"Ah?" Empress Chen knew that the Eight Great Hutongs were so famous. She immediately chanted "Amitabha" several times before she calmed down and cursed: "Is this murderer Meng Chong crazy? How dare he take the emperor to such a dirty place? It's not a pity to kill all his nine clans!"

"Of course, it is also possible that it was that Tartar who passed it on to the emperor." Concubine Li emphasized again that she was seizing every opportunity to prove that she was doing the right thing.

"She also had a physical examination before entering the palace. Besides, she has been in the palace for more than a year." Queen Chen shook her head.

"It's because she has seduced the emperor's soul that Meng Chong took the emperor to that kind of place to seek excitement!" Concubine Li was determined to put the blame on Huahua Nuer.

"Stop talking, this kind of scandal must not be spread!" Empress Chen calmed down and said in a deep voice: "Otherwise, not only will the emperor become a laughing stock, but the entire royal family and ancestors will lose face."

"I know that. Feng Bao is even more mature." Concubine Li nodded quickly. She felt ashamed of such a thing and didn't even tell her mother.

"Well, Eunuch Feng is not an ordinary person. We can only rely on him at this time." Queen Chen nodded.

~~

As they were talking, the two ladies arrived at Qinghe County. Empress Chen didn't know the novel Jin Ping Mei, so she didn't feel anything about the ordinary street scene. She just thought that the emperor was tired of the life of an emperor and wanted to experience the life of ordinary people here.

Concubine Li's eyes were bulging with blood. She had seriously criticized the book and could tell at a glance what happened in which house. It was like copying the world in the book into reality!

When she thought that she was not Wu Yue Niang, she felt so angry that her teeth itched and secretly swore to burn this place to ashes when she returned!

Led by the eunuch, the two came to the garden of Ximen Mansion and first went to Jujing Hall to see the emperor.

Seeing that Longqing had just taken the medicine and fell asleep, the two ladies left the inner room and went to the hall to explain everything to Jin Yuanpan.

"First, you must insist that it is not a dirty disease. Scurvy is still too dirty. Give me another name for it."

"Yes, I understand. I have not considered it carefully." Jin Yuanpan was also a veteran of two dynasties. The Jiajing Emperor died in his hands... Oh no, it was his treatment that was ineffective and he passed away.

So he was very knowledgeable about this kind of thing, so he suggested: "You can call it a stroke."

"Don't all stroke patients suffer from hemiplegia?" Empress Chen asked puzzledly.

"There were also cases of delirious speech and slurred speech. The emperor also fell once. The symptoms match." Judge Jin was full of confidence, revealing his professional self-assurance.

"Okay, you're the imperial physician, I trust you." Empress Chen nodded and asked, "When can the emperor's illness be cured? I mean a real illness..."

"This..." Jin Yuanpan's confidence collapsed immediately, and his answer was exactly the same as what the imperial physician had said before. "This disease has only been spreading from Lingnan for decades, and it has been spreading to other places for even less time. I only heard about this disease in Beijing ten years ago. Therefore, the Imperial Hospital knows very little about this disease, and there are no medical records to refer to..."

"Isn't ten years enough for you to figure it out?" Queen Chen glared.

"Your servants are foolish. But the Imperial Medical Bureau only treats patients in the palace, and at most visits the homes of ministers and officials. How could such a family have such a disease?" After Jin Yuanpan said this, he wanted to slap himself. Wasn't this scolding the emperor for being too undisciplined?

Fortunately, Empress Chen didn't bother to worry about these details, and asked again: "If you can't cure it, is there anyone in the world who can cure it?"

"I'm not bragging, but all the famous doctors in the world are in the Imperial Medical Bureau..." Jin Yuanpan said proudly.

"I heard there is a Jiangnan Hospital?" Queen Chen frowned.

The name of Jiangnan Group had long been spread among the upper class. After all, the nobles all cherished their lives. Empress Chen heard from the eldest princess that Ning An also said that she wanted to invite Wan Mi Zhai to the palace to treat her.

Alas, only this sister-in-law still remembers her, the emperor's sister-in-law.

"Sister, you're right. I've also heard of Wan Mi Zhai's prescriptions and Li Shizhen's medicines." Concubine Li also nodded in agreement.

"If it's them, then it's not impossible." Even Jin Yuanpan's tone was not so strong, but he still refused to admit that Jiangnan Hospital was better than the Imperial Hospital. He said, "That kind of disease has been in Jiangnan for a long time, and they treat the people below. Maybe they have some way."

"As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we must give it a try!" Empress Chen made the decision, "Hurry up and recruit two great doctors to come to the capital!"

"Uh..." The Imperial Hospital is not the Ministry of Health, so how can it manage Jiangnan Hospital? Jin Yuanpan said awkwardly: "I think, in order to save time, we should ask the court to issue an order directly."

"Yes, why am I nagging you?" Empress Chen nodded. Normally, she could just tell Meng Chong about this matter, but she hated the eunuch who took the emperor to visit the kiln so much that she didn't want to pay any attention to him. So she asked someone to summon Feng Bao and asked the East Factory to handle this matter.

Feng Bao followed the order without hesitation and went out. When he reached the entrance of the garden, he stopped and asked the eunuch behind him in a low voice, "Where is Mr. Zhang now?"

"He is waiting for orders in the front room." The eunuch pointed to the small room in the corner in the twilight.

"Please ask him to meet me at Woyun Pavilion." Feng Bao said, and turned to walk towards the rockery opposite the lotus pond.

~~

In the side room, Zhang Juzheng had just finished dinner with Gao Gong and went to sleep on the same couch. After a busy day, Gao Gong was already snoring loudly.

Zhang Juzheng couldn't sleep at all. As he was tossing and turning, his attendant gently pushed the door open and whispered something in his ear.

Mr. Zhang nodded slightly, looked at Gao Gong who was fast asleep beside him, then he got up quietly, put on his shoes with the help of his attendant, and quietly went out.

As soon as he left, Gao Gong opened his eyes. His gaze was bright and radiant. How could he be sleepy at all?

"Follow and take a look." He whispered an order, and the leader outside the door casually took the order and left.

On the other side, Zhang Juzheng walked quickly across the lotus pond, climbed the stone path on the rockery in the dark, and came to the Woyun Pavilion at the highest point to meet Feng Bao.

The night was the best cover, and the two figures were completely submerged in the endless darkness.

Eunuch Feng looked at the heavily guarded and brightly lit Jujing Pavilion on the other side of the river, and told Zhang Juzheng the truth of the matter and Empress Chen's request.

"So that's how it is..." Zhang Juzheng suddenly realized. No wonder the emperor was thinking about his afterlife...

"That's the thing. Anyway, this disaster is not easy to get through." He said with a hint of barely perceptible excitement in his tone: "What should we do? Please decide, sir?"

"Hurry up and inform Zhao Hao to bring the two doctors to Beijing. I will also write to him and explain the situation." Zhang Juzheng's voice did not fluctuate at all, and he said seriously: "Put everything aside now, and the most important thing is to treat the emperor!"

"Oh, okay." Feng Baoyan could not help but hear the warning in Zhang Juzheng's tone. He knew that his uncle was telling him that now was not the time to think too much.