Chapter 29 Chapter 29 Palace Maid's Twenty-Nine Days
The Queen had adjusted her mood when she came out of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, and no one could tell that there was anything wrong with her.
She tried to reflect on herself.
[I shouldn't be angry with the emperor because of this matter. The love between husband and wife is to be cultivated, not to be consumed, not to mention me, who was appointed as the queen halfway through.]
[The Emperor didn't know who was behind the scenes, so there was a limit to what he could do, but even so, he expressed his attitude.]
【As the queen, I shouldn't care too much.】
When the queen returned to Kunning Palace, her expression had returned to calm. The coquettishness and resentment that an ordinary woman would have were suppressed silently by her.
After receiving the gift list from the Palace of Heavenly Purity, she asked Qingyu to put the things into the warehouse, and a comfortable smile appeared on her lips.
My mood completely improved.
Of course, the emperor gave her, the queen, many things, but this time the gift meant that he was coaxing her.
He apologized for everything that happened in the Qianqing Palace and felt ashamed of his negligence towards the Empress and her son.
An emperor bowed his head slightly to his wife.
The Queen was satisfied and ate a lot in the evening, and even asked someone to bring the general election to distract her attention.
Shen Qing originally thought that the matter was over. Just a few days after she felt relieved, news came out that the Emperor had scolded Concubine Xian in the Cining Palace for her poor service to the Queen Mother, and a soup bowl was broken.
When the queen asked what happened in the palace.
Shen Qing told the Queen about this matter, and before she could continue, she noticed that the Queen's attitude was different when Concubine Yu and Noble Lan had an argument in the Imperial Garden over a flower in full bloom.
Shen Qing looked up and saw that the queen had become quiet at some point, her smile was gone, and there was some pain in her eyes.
She quickly said, "Madam, are you feeling unwell? I will go call the imperial physician right away!"
"No need!" The Queen's voice was unusually sharp, and she grabbed Shen Qing's sleeve, preventing her from leaving. She softened her tone, "Shen Qing, go and close the door. It's just the two of us. I want to be alone for a while."
Shen Qing asked the young maid in the room to leave. The four older maids were not on duty at this time, so she was the maid with the highest status here. So it was only right for the queen to leave her alone.
She closed the door, returned to the queen, and said worriedly, "Your Majesty."
The queen seemed to feel wronged, tears welled up in her eyes, and she looked at Shen Qing and asked, "What if someone cheated on you?"
The expression is helpless and vulnerable.
Shen Qing was heartbroken: "Fight back! If anyone dares to deceive me, I will fight back with my fists. I will do whatever I want to vent my anger."
"So someone deceived the Queen?"
The queen nodded slowly.
Shen Qing spat: "What a bastard! He dared to lie to such a good lady. He must be so bold!"
However, she changed her mind and realized that there were not many people in the world who could tolerate the grievances inflicted on the queen.
There are only two of them, an emperor and a queen mother.
Sure enough, the queen's next words were: "Be careful with your words."
[How can I find fault with the emperor? 】
Shen Qing made a gesture to keep her mouth shut. She was not bold enough to curse the emperor by name. She was just making an indirect accusation. It was completely unintentional.
She asked again: "But about Concubine Xian?"
The reason why the queen suddenly became unhappy was nothing more than what she had just said. There were three protagonists in her words: the empress dowager, the emperor, and the virtuous concubine.
After eliminating all the other candidates, the only one left is Concubine Xian.
The Queen didn't answer yes or no. She leaned back on the soft silk seat and said ambiguously, "The Concubine is the Queen Mother's niece and the Emperor's cousin. Even if she makes me angry, what can I do?"
The Queen felt disappointed, and now she had some resentment towards the Emperor.
[The Emperor never attacks without reason. Concubine Xian served the Empress Dowager very attentively. When she went to pay respects at the Cining Palace, even I could not interfere. The Emperor also praised her a lot. It can only mean that the Emperor knew that Concubine Xian had given the drug and that she had planted the person long ago, so he used this to criticize Concubine Xian. ]
The amount of information given by the Queen's inner voice was so huge that Shen Qing suddenly realized and remembered many details.
Concubine Hui and Concubine Xian became friends after Concubine Xian entered the palace. There was money to be made from Concubine Xian, so even if Concubine Xian bribed Cuihuan, even if she was implicated in the matter, Concubine Hui would help Concubine Xian clean up the mess, otherwise all her forbearance and scheming over the past few years would be in vain.
Moreover, even if Concubine Hui helped the Queen to overthrow Concubine Xian, Concubine Xian had the Queen Mother behind her and would not let her end up like Lady Du. In the end, the Queen and the Queen Mother would fight each other, and Concubine Hui, the unfavored Concubine, would be reduced to cannon fodder.
She would always offend one of the Concubine Xian and the Queen. Because she had a three-year friendship with the Concubine Xian, she was destined not to choose the Queen's camp.
This has led to the current situation.
Shen Qing could only comfort the Queen: "You are the Queen, and Concubine Xian will never surpass you no matter what. Besides, your Highness is pregnant with the Emperor's heir. When the prince is born, you will be the mother of the eldest son, and you will be honored in the future. Even though Concubine Xian is the Emperor's cousin, this kinship relationship will always fade. Look, the Emperor blamed Concubine Xian in front of the Queen Mother for such a small matter."
"The emperor's tolerance for the virtuous concubine will eventually run out, but it's different for the queen. The relationship between the queen and the emperor still lasts."
The Queen seemed to draw strength from these words: "Yes, the Emperor and Concubine Xian only met a few times when they were young, how could there be such a deep friendship? It is only because of the Empress Dowager that the Emperor gave her honor and dignity."
Shen Qing was delighted to see this, and continued, "Your Majesty is right to think so. Your Majesty is pregnant with an heir, and the Emperor and the Empress Dowager are looking forward to it. This is the most important thing now."
If it comes to making a choice, if a prince is born safely and a eldest son and grandson are born, no matter how partial the emperor or the empress dowager is, they will not favor the virtuous concubine.
It goes without saying how important the royal heir is.
The queen stroked her still flat belly, her eyes solemn, "Yes, I am pregnant, this is my support."
[But I still can't swallow this anger. ]
[How could Yan escape unscathed? It would be fine if we couldn't find out, but now that we have, how can I let her go so easily and leave harm to the unborn child? ]
Shen Qing choked up when she heard this. Madam, pregnant women should not be too worried!
She finally understood why in palace fighting novels, pregnant concubines are repeatedly told to put the fetus first, and the palace maids persuade and coax them, and they may even have wild thoughts that the woman may end up with miscarriage.
How could she divert the Queen's attention?
The Queen said, "Call Qing Gu."
[If the fetus in my belly is murdered again, will the emperor side with the virtuous concubine or me? ]
[The Emperor must be unable to tolerate the virtuous concubine's repeated vicious actions. ]
Although the Queen was hesitant, Shen Qing was certain that the Queen had plans in this regard. She wanted to take the opportunity to put herself in danger and strike hard at Concubine Xian.
Because of the previous crime, the Emperor was suspicious of Concubine Xian, and by then, Concubine Xian would really not be able to explain herself.
Shen Qing was anxious but helpless. She could not tell the Queen what to do, nor could she stop the Queen with something she had not said, so she could only obey the order and go find Qinggu.
This time, Qinggu was the only one beside the queen, and she had no idea what they talked about.
A few days later, the soup the queen drank was poisoned. Because the poison was too strong, the queen felt unwell after drinking only two sips, and blood flowed from her mouth.
Qingyu hugged the queen, her eyes showing anxiety, and shouted: "Go and call the imperial physician quickly!"
Kunning Palace was in a mess, Shen Qing grabbed a young palace maid and ran to the Imperial Hospital. Kunning Palace only had one female doctor, whose medical skills were naturally not as good as those of the Imperial Hospital. She didn't know how cruel the Queen had been to her, so she could only call the imperial doctor to Kunning Palace as soon as possible.
On the way, she met Wang Ding. Remembering that Wang Ding was a person in the imperial court, she said anxiously, "The queen has been poisoned and vomited blood!"
Wang Ding saw her running towards the Imperial Hospital and said quickly, "Let the eunuch go. He can run fast. Come with me to the Imperial Court to invite the Emperor."
Before Wang Ding finished speaking, the eunuch beside him ran out quickly.
Shen Qing said "Okay", took the little palace maid and followed Wang Ding towards the Qianqing Palace.
At this moment, asking the Emperor to take charge of the situation might be more in line with the Queen's thoughts.
It was now noon, when the incident happened suddenly. The palace servants in Kunning Palace had not yet delivered the news to the emperor. They were confused and didn't know what to do. When they remembered to invite the emperor, they saw that the emperor had already hurried to Kunning Palace, followed by Wang Jigui and Shen Qing.
When Ji Chen entered the palace, he found that the queen's face was pale, her eyes were panic-stricken, and she kept touching her belly. Only then did he feel the heartache.
So he stepped forward and held the queen's hand: "I'm here, everything will be fine."
The Queen held the Emperor's hand and said in a sad voice, "Your Majesty, you must find out the real culprit behind this. I will never be at peace until the real culprit is revealed!"
At this time, the eunuch following Wang Ding happened to invite the imperial physician, so the emperor had no time to promise the queen and gave up his position: "Hurry up and treat the queen. I want the queen and the fetus to be safe!"
The imperial physician came forward.
The queen watched the distance between her and the emperor grow larger, but she was powerless to do anything and could only close her eyes unwillingly.
The imperial physician examined the patient and tasted the poisonous soup. He concluded, "Your Majesty, this is a deadly poison. It was put in the soup with the intention of killing people. However, because the queen drank a small amount, the fetus was not endangered. However, this poison takes effect very quickly and has already entered the lungs. Even if I save the queen, she will inevitably suffer from coughing in the future."
As he spoke, the imperial physician had already written out a prescription and handed it to Qingyu, asking her to take it down and boil the medicine.
Then he unfolded the cloth bag containing silver needles and began to use acupuncture to control the poison for the queen.
Qing Gu, who stayed in the room, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. Doctor Liu in the Imperial Hospital was the best at treating poisoning, and he was on duty today, otherwise he would not dare to use such a deadly poison.
When she saw the emperor's face turn pale again, she knew it had worked.
Shen Qing's eyes were red and his hair was slightly messy. He thought to himself, the queen is too bold. She doesn't take her life seriously at all.
Ji Chen kept fiddling with the jade ring on his hand, faster and faster, just like his restless mood.
He finally focused his attention and prepared to investigate the matter thoroughly. He looked up at Wang Jigui and handed the matter over to him. Seeing Wang Jigui nod, Ji Chen withdrew his gaze.
But he didn't dare look in the direction of the queen again.
Guilt. If Concubine Xian had not been punished severely, she would not have been so fearless as to strike again.
Here, Wang Jigui grabbed Shen Qing's sleeve and tugged, pointing outside the hall, obviously having something to ask, so she followed him out.
There was something wrong with the Queen's soup, so Wang Jigui had to interrogate everyone in Kunning Palace to find out who poisoned the soup. When the Emperor came, the servants in Kunning Palace had already been controlled by people from Qianqing Palace.
However, Shen Qing did not expect that she would be the first one to be interrogated.
Shen Qing was ready to lead the Queen in the direction of innocence, but Wang Jigui's first words were: "Don't worry, the Queen will be fine, and the Emperor will definitely punish the real murderer severely."
He silently handed Shen Qing a handkerchief with a faint fragrance on it.
Shen Qing wiped her tears and saw other eunuchs in front of the emperor questioning a suspicious person. She realized that Wang Jigui did this just because he had a personal relationship with her.
There were ripples in his heart, and he tried his best to speak for the queen, "Godfather, the queen is really good to me. I don't want anything to happen to the queen, so I'm a little scared."
Wang Jigui said: "I know."
Shen Qing was still wiping her eyes with a handkerchief, and her eyelids were getting redder and redder. Wang Jigui could only say, "Give me back the handkerchief. Then follow me to meet the palace maids in Kunning Palace."
As there was important business at hand, Shen Qing agreed and returned the wet handkerchief to Wang Jigui. Wang Jigui grabbed it, stuffed it into his sleeve, and led Shen Qing towards the direction where the eunuch had discovered something.
When they arrived, they saw that a eunuch had committed suicide out of fear of punishment. The symptoms he suffered from taking poison were similar to those of the queen, except that the queen's symptoms were milder. This eunuch had already bled from all seven orifices and there was no way to save him.
The eunuchs in front of the emperor cleaned up the mess calmly. The miserable plight of the eunuch in Kunning Palace did not cause them any emotion at all, as if they had dealt with many such things before.
Wang Jigui's eyes darkened when he saw this, and he was about to send Shen Qing away, but Shen Qing exclaimed in surprise about the man's identity.
"He is Xiao Zhuzi, the eunuch who fetches meals. Xuancao took him to fetch today's meals. It is his turn to be on duty today."
There are many people in the Kunning Palace, so they implement a rotation system. The same is true for the Qianqing Palace.
Shen Qing turned away after he finished speaking, unable to bear to look any further. He could not help wondering whether this eunuch was a scapegoat found by the queen, or if he was really someone from another palace who happened to be used by the queen. However, no matter how selfish he was, the possibility of the former was obviously higher.
Wang Jigui had already asked someone to find Xuancao. When Xuancao arrived, she quickly understood what had happened and looked at the eunuch with disgust.
"It's a good thing for him to die." He then recalled what happened today when he got the meal. "When I got the meal from the imperial kitchen, Xiao Zhuzi opened the food box and checked it. I thought he was checking if there was anything wrong with the meal that the imperial kitchen gave to the queen today. It turned out that he took advantage of that time to poison the soup."
Wang Jigui had a bad feeling. Sure enough, he searched Kunning Palace from top to bottom and only found unused poison in Xiaozhuzi's residence. However, Xiaozhuzi, who had poisoned him, had committed suicide, and the clues were completely cut off.
He could only report what he found out to the emperor.
The same method of poisoning, the same means of silencing. Ji Chen closed his eyes and clenched his fists. His suspicion of Concubine Xian had reached the point of complete belief.
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