Chapter 096 Chapter 96
[Chapter 96]
Ruan Jun's hands clenched instantly, leaving a crease on the spine of the book, but she didn't even notice it.
She knew she couldn't allow herself to listen any longer, but she still couldn't help wanting to get closer.
The book hurt her hands, but Ruan Jun had no intention of putting it down.
Outer Hall
Young Prince Yu stood in front of the emperor and handed the portrait to Wei Maoyuan.
Wei Maoyuan respectfully unfolded the portrait and placed it in front of the emperor, and Yan Shiyu took a glance at it.
The woman in the painting looks a bit like Ayun only in her eyebrows and eyes, and the rest of the picture is not very similar.
"Is this Li Siyin?"
Yan Shiyu asked in a deep voice, placing his hand on the edge of the portrait without touching it.
Young Master Yu said, "Yes, ever since I received the news that she was taken to Yangzhou, I have been looking for the old slaves of the Li family. However, it has been too long, and Master Li died too early, so most of the old slaves in the mansion have been scattered. The ones I found before have either died of illness or were slaves in the outer courtyard. I don't know why."
When Ruan Yun heard these words in the inner hall, he felt a little stuffy in his chest.
She unconsciously put down the book in her hand. She had just ordered people to wait in the outer hall, and now she was the only one inside.
I stumbled around and found a stool to sit on. I covered my chest with my hands. The nausea came back and I even felt a little dizzy. Everything went black in front of my eyes.
But since it concerned A'niang, she had to be extremely alert and listen to what the Emperor and Young Master Yu had done.
There was an unusual paleness on her delicate face. Ruan Jun leaned on the pillow before she came to her senses.
Yan Shiyu's cold voice came in, "Did you find anyone when you went to Yangzhou this time?"
Young Master Yu did not dare to hide it. He took out a piece of paper from his arms and raised his hand respectfully.
Wei Maoyuan also took it from the hands of Prince Yu and handed it to the emperor.
Yan Shiyu moved quickly and spread out the paper. On it were the words of an old slave, and at the end, there was his fingerprint.
"After reading the files with the Emperor in Yunling Pavilion last time, I immediately sent someone to Yangzhou to pick up this old slave. Some of the things described in the files are basically similar to what this old slave said."
The young prince frowned:
"When my grandfather was protecting the western border, he brought my grandmother with him. He thought that with him in charge, the barbarians would not dare to do anything out of line. But one day, on the day my grandfather was on patrol, a traitor appeared in the army and colluded with the barbarians. As a result, my grandfather was seriously injured and his whereabouts are unknown."
Yan Shiyu had also heard of this incident. At that time, the country had just been settled, and the old Duke was guarding the border, and no one dared to invade. Who would have thought that a barbarian slave would buy a man in the army, get the divination map and route, and ambush there. The news of the old Duke's death was suddenly reported back to the army. Although the old Duke came back later, could it be that this was involved...
He glanced at Wei Maoyuan, who immediately understood and brought an armchair for Young Prince Yu to sit down.
After thanking the emperor, Prince Yu sat down below him and continued, "My grandmother was already seven months pregnant at the time. She was so sad to hear the tragic news that she went into premature labor. She narrowly escaped death and gave birth to my aunt. She then passed away."
"This sleep lasted for several days. One of the nurses was so bold that she took advantage of the fact that the newborn baby was changing dramatically every day and accepted money from a local wealthy businessman. The daughter of the wealthy businessman and my aunt were born on the same day. In this way, his daughter became the only daughter of the Duke's Mansion, and my aunt was taken away by the wealthy businessman."
Yan Shiyu's eyes were deep. The rich businessman was not Mr. Li, but someone else.
Young Prince Yu showed some hatred in his eyes, and continued, "I have been looking around for years and finally found the remaining wet nurse. She was full of guilt and said that she saw that the baby was replaced, but she didn't dare to say it in order to avoid trouble. She also said that she secretly went to see the rich man, but the family was very rich, so she didn't want to care anymore."
Yan Shiyu clasped his hands on the table and said, "Go on."
Young Master Yu took out another confession, "This is from the steward of the rich merchant's house. I asked him about this matter. He knew he couldn't escape, so he told me everything."
"Because the news of my grandfather's sudden death spread, the barbarians were rampant in the border areas, and many people wanted to take advantage of the chaos to escape, and the rich businessman was naturally no exception. However, he was too greedy and wanted to take away all the gold and silver, which delayed him a lot of time. Because his family business was too large, the barbarians targeted him and directly robbed most of the money in his house. The rich businessman had to take the remaining money and escape to save his life."
"There were many servants in the mansion, so he could only take some of them with him. There was only one wet nurse left to take care of my aunt. The wet nurse was worried and tiring from the long journey, so my aunt, who was still an infant, couldn't eat well and cried all day long."
Young Master Yu said this with a hint of coldness in his narrow eyes, "They conspired to kill the wet nurse, wrapped my aunt in swaddling clothes, and buried her alive."
When Ruan Yun in the inner hall heard this, he didn't even have the strength to stand up. He just sat there stupidly, and there seemed to be a buzzing sound passing by his ears.
In her memory, her mother's health had always been poor and she had to take medicine all year round. It turned out...it turned out to be this reason.
Wei Maoyuan, who was waiting nearby, could not bear to listen any further. If it was their own daughter, would they still do this? They knew that if the baby died, it would be truly beneficial to them, so they chose to use such a cruel method.
"The steward really couldn't bear it, so he took advantage of the rich couple's absence to dig my aunt out of the ground. He felt that she still had a weak pulse, so he tied her to a few pieces of wood with a reed stick and let her float away in the river."
When Young Prince Yu said this, scenes flashed through his mind.
Many years have passed, and although he has no idea what the place looked like back then, he can see that it is in such a dilapidated state now that it is shocking:
"I learned from the steward that if we follow the river, we will not pass by any villages along the way, but there will be people passing by. I was unwilling to give up, so I had to abandon other ideas and follow the river until I arrived at a village that could not be smaller."
"That night, I and my men stayed there. In order not to reveal our whereabouts, we lied that our business had failed and we were going back to our hometown. The woman was willing to talk to us and inadvertently mentioned a person from their village."
Young Master Yu took a deep breath and said, "This person is Master Li."
"He has a great skill and can repair calligraphy and paintings so that no traces of other things can be seen. However, he and his wife have been married for many years, but they have no children."
"There is an antique calligraphy and painting shop in the city. They asked Mr. Li to work there. The monthly salary is two taels. This is a great thing for them. The couple thought of the City God Temple they visited a few days ago. They thought it was the gods in the temple who appeared. They went to fulfill their vows before leaving. Unexpectedly, on the way back, they heard the faint cry of a baby. They hurried over and saw that my aunt's clothes were soaked and a small person fell on the shore."
"When they saw that my aunt was so thin but still alive, they spent a lot of money to cure her. They were afraid that the news would spread, so they quickly took my aunt away."
"This was a strange thing in that small village. That's why the woman in the village still remembers it."
Yan Shiyu calmly opened Mr. Li's notes and recalled the time carefully. At that time, the war was over and many people were short of food and clothing, without even the most basic clothes to wear. Mr. Li must have seized this opportunity and used the money he earned to buy cloth, made clothes in large quantities, and sold them. He then started a silk business. Later, Yangzhou silk became famous all over the world, and he naturally became the richest man overnight.
"Mr. Li has only one daughter, my aunt, and he has never told anyone about my aunt's background. I also concluded that Li Siyin is my aunt based on what that woman said."
"She is exactly the daughter of her grandparents who was living away from home."
Ruan Jun stood up suddenly, and the moment she stood up, she knocked over the book beside her.
The book fell to the ground with a "bang". Ruan Jun wanted to pick it up, but the moment she squatted down, she felt dizzy and passed out.
Before she fainted, a bright golden dragon robe flashed before her eyes. She felt herself falling into his arms, wrapped in ambergris, and she no longer knew what was happening.
…
Linxuan Palace
Tingxu cried as she wiped the queen's hands. Yingning saw the emperor's bad expression and covered Tingxu's lips, "Go back to your room and rest first. When the queen wakes up, come and serve her."
Tingxu was reluctant to leave, but Yingning shook her head and put her hand on Tingxu's arm with a gentle expression.
Only after listening to this did he come to his senses and quickly wipe away his tears.
When passing by the emperor, Tingxu quickly bowed and left in a hurry.
Yingning felt relieved upon seeing this. She took the boiled medicine and ordered the palace maid to hold the empress and feed the medicine to her.
But the queen was in a coma now, and it was not easy to feed her the medicine, so most of it flowed out from the corners of her lips.
He quickly wiped the medicine stains from the corners of Ruan Yun's lips with a handkerchief. A cold voice came from the side, "Give it to me."
Ying Ning stepped back and placed the bowl and cup in her hand into the emperor's hands.
However, Ruan Jun had not woken up yet, so it was not easy to feed her the medicine, not to mention that the queen was particularly resistant to such bitter medicine.
Yan Shiyu was thinking of this. He couldn't feed the spoonful of medicine, so he handed the bowl out and Yingning immediately took it.
"Your Highness has not woken up for a long time. Many concubines heard about this and wanted to come and see you."
Ying Ning did not raise her head to see the emperor's expression, but placed the golden ruyi sent by the empress dowager in front of the emperor and said, "The empress dowager ordered someone to send this ruyi to you."
Yan Shiyu looked at the things in front of him, as if such exquisite and luxurious things were just ordinary things. His jaw was cold and hard, and he turned his head to look at Ruan Yun, "Since it was sent by the Queen Mother, I will accept it on behalf of your Majesty."
After hearing the emperor's words, Yingning stopped worrying about other things. She collected the wooden box and put it in the storeroom herself.
Yan Shiyu stroked Ruan Jun's face with his fingertips. Seeing her hand on her belly, a rare tenderness appeared in his dark eyes. "Xiaoxiao, do you know something too?"
Wei Maoyuan was extremely anxious. When he saw Doctor Sun coming to Xuan Palace, he pulled Doctor Sun behind the screen and spoke in a very low voice, fearing to disturb Ying Chongrong who was lying on the bed. "Your Majesty, Doctor Sun is here."
Imperial Physician Sun took two steps tremblingly, and then Yan Shiyu's cold and sharp voice came, causing Imperial Physician Sun to kneel down quickly.
"Didn't you say that Ying Chongrong would wake up one day? Why hasn't she woken up yet?"
Doctor Sun did not dare to look up at the person on the bed, and could only bite the bullet and say: "Ying Chongrong is still weak, it is not a good time to get pregnant. And she has been stimulated, so it is normal that she can't wake up for a while."
Just after saying this, Doctor Sun felt a chill on his neck and cold sweat ran down his neck. He was about to try the method of fumigation with moxa, but the emperor suddenly asked:
"If there was no dragon in my belly, would my body be better than before?"
Imperial Physician Sun was so shocked that he looked up at the emperor without even looking around. He saw that the emperor asked this question calmly without any hesitation, and he understood instantly.
Ying Ning naturally heard the emperor's words, so she calmed herself down and said quickly, "Your Majesty, the queen wants to have a child of her own. I have seen it all. Your Majesty..."
Before she finished her words, a faint sound came from the bed.
Yingning looked over in surprise and found someone who was faster than her.
Yan Shiyu's dark eyes were fixed on Ruan Jun. Her usually beautiful face, without any makeup on, looked pale and a little haggard.
Ruan Jun first saw the familiar Cheng Chen, and then turned to look at Yan Shiyu.
Noticing that she wanted to get up, Yan Shiyu held Ruan Yun's shoulders and said calmly, "No need to get up."
Ruan Jun took advantage of the situation to hook the emperor's fingertips, her voice still hoarse, "Why does the emperor look at me like this?"
Yan Shiyu pushed aside the strands of hair in front of her forehead, revealing her bright and clear almond-shaped eyes.
"You are pregnant."
Ruan Jun's eyes widened in disbelief and she suddenly tried to sit up from the bed, but Yan Shiyu held her back and made her lie in his arms.
Sniffing the faint scent of ambergris on the emperor's body, Ruan Jun touched her belly with one hand, "Am I really pregnant?"
Yan Shiyu nodded, "Yes, Dr. Sun diagnosed it himself."
Now that her position is stable, the emperor will always have new people by his side, such as Wen Baolin, who is the best example. She must have an heir to the throne, even if it is a little princess, it will be great.
Ruan Yun's tears fell unconsciously, and strings of tears dripped onto the emperor's dragon robe.
"How long have you slept, concubine?"
Ruan Jun was not as happy as she had just been when she woke up. Thinking of the news she heard before she fainted, she couldn't stop feeling heartbroken.
It turned out that A'niang had suffered so much in the past. She had been feeling unwell for a few days, and she didn't know if it was the baby in her belly that felt something.
Yan Shiyu's dark eyes captured Ruan Yun's face, "It's been almost two days."
My throat was hoarse, and Yingning brought me a cup of tea at the right time.
Yan Shiyu personally held the cup and fed Ruan Yun the drink, then wiped away the water stains from the corners of her lips with his fingertips without any disgust.
Ruan Yun hooked the emperor's hand and was about to open her lips, but Yan Shiyu had already seen through her thoughts and let her into his arms: "Your mother is indeed a wandering girl from the Duke's Mansion."
After hearing the conversation between the Emperor and Young Master Yu in the Zichen Palace, Ruan Jun, who was extremely emotional at the time, has gradually calmed down.
Yan Shiyu ignored Ruan Yun and continued, "For so many years, the Duke and the Young Master Yu have been sending people to look for your mother, and the Madam has been crying every day. Ah Yun, do you want to see your grandmother?"
Ruan Jun's eyes darted straight into Yan Shiyu's black eyes. If she saw him, it would mean that she acknowledged her identity.
I thought of the old lady’s gray hair and what I had learned about the difficulties of the Duke’s Mansion.
Ruan Yun's red lips opened and then closed again.
In the end, he shook his head and silently rejected the idea.
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