Chapter 506: Your health is more important, why don't you rest first? We can travel tomorrow, right?
Yun Jin nodded in understanding. "The Empress Dowager is in poor health. I heard she's in very serious condition. The Emperor even sent an imperial physician to treat her a few days ago, and now even His Royal Highness the Regent has gone in person..."
He paused, his tone tentative with caution, "Yueyue, why didn't you go with me to attend to the sick?" He was worried that the empress dowager had a grudge against Yueyue because of the late emperor. Now that she was seriously ill, if Yueyue didn't go to visit, the rift would only deepen.
Lan Xiyue dipped the boiled tripe in the sauce and put it into her mouth, chewing it carefully and swallowing it, then she raised her eyes, her expression calm, with an almost transparent indifference: "If I go, the Empress Dowager will see her, and she will probably be even more unhappy, which will be detrimental to my recuperation. Why bother to cause dislike and make people upset? It's better to be sensible and not come forward." She spoke in a relaxed tone, as if she was talking about a trivial matter that had nothing to do with her.
Yun Hua immediately glared at Yun Jin with a hint of reproach: "Brother! We're enjoying our meal, why are you bringing this up? Don't spoil the fun!"
He quickly picked up the wine glass, a bright smile on his face again, "Come on! Let's have a good time today. Let's celebrate the big event that's coming up later this evening. Let's drink this glass!"
The crisp sound of jade cups colliding dispelled the subtle silence just now.
The steam from the hot pot rose up, blurring the window lattices and casting a warm and hazy light on the figures of everyone in the hall.
Outside the window, the night is deep.
It is said that Mo Liyuan arrived at the Huguo Temple after a long journey.
Inside the Zen room, Yao Lao had just finished acupuncture, with sweat oozing from his forehead.
He poured the spiritual spring water into the bowl of freshly decocted medicine, and the medicinal juice swirled as if it was injected with new vitality.
After the empress dowager took the medicine, her rapid breathing finally subsided, and the terrifying blue-gray color on her face faded a little. Although she was still pale, she was finally out of danger.
Mo Liyuan sat in a rosewood armchair not far from the bed, the candlelight casting a deep shadow on his cold profile.
He looked at the empress dowager's haggard face and said in a low voice, "Mother, please return to the capital with me tomorrow morning to recuperate."
The Queen Mother wearily lifted her heavy eyelids, her gaze mingled with resentment and alienation. Her voice was weak yet pointed, "Return to the capital? Ha... Didn't you send me here because I'm an eyesore? Why should I go back and cause trouble, and be an eyesore to you and that enchanting concubine?"
"Mother!" Mo Liyuan's brows suddenly furrowed, and his voice lowered, filled with suppressed anger.
"I should have seen through it long ago!" The Queen Mother suddenly became emotional, her chest heaving violently, her eyes instantly reddened as she stared at her youngest son. "Over the years, your royal brother... even if he has a thousand faults and is extremely foolish, he is still your biological brother from the same mother! How could I... how could I not be aware of his little actions behind the scenes?"
Her voice was filled with tears. "But aren't you safe and sound? Yuan'er, if you wanted to, you could have overthrown his throne and sat on it yourself. I... I can only blame him for his incompetence! But why... why did you insist on taking his life, leaving me with nothing but my old age to see my young one die! Cough cough cough..." Her angry and grief-stricken accusations were interrupted by violent coughing, which was heart-wrenching, as if she was going to cough out all her internal organs.
"Empress Dowager, please calm down! Please take care of yourself!" Nanny Cui, who was standing by, hurried forward, patting the Empress Dowager's back to help her calm down, while anxiously comforting her, looking at Mo Liyuan with pleading eyes.
When the heart-wrenching coughing finally subsided, Mo Liyuan's tightly pursed lips finally loosened a little. He looked directly into his mother's resentful eyes and said firmly, "Everything was done by this son alone. Yue'er has nothing to do with it!"
"Nothing to do with it?" The Queen Mother let out a shrill laugh, as if she had heard a huge joke. Her bony fingers tightly grasped the quilt. "Do you really think I know nothing in the Huguo Temple? It was your good princess Lan Xiyue who personally plunged the sharp blade into your eldest brother's heart! It was her! Mo Liyuan, I demand that you immediately depose Lan Xiyue from her position as Regent Princess and sentence her to death! To comfort your royal brother's spirit in heaven!"
"Absolutely not!"
"You... ahem! Are you going to piss me off to death?" The Queen Mother was shaking with anger and pointed at the door. "Get out! Get out! Let me fend for myself in Huguo Temple so I don't have to bother you!"
Mo Liyuan clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turned white from the force, and veins on the back of his hands were knotted.
He took a deep breath and suppressed his surging emotions. "Mother, please don't say anything angry. Tomorrow morning, I will leave for Beijing to recuperate and take good care of the Empress Dowager." After he finished speaking, he did not pause, turned around and strode out of the meditation room. The heavy door curtain fell heavily behind him, isolating the suffocating grief and resentment in the room.
“Evil son! Evil son!” The Queen Mother’s desperate wails and the muffled sound of pounding the bed echoed from the room, echoing in the silent Zen temple, sounding particularly mournful. “For a woman… you actually watched your own brother die tragically… How can I face your father? Lan Xiyue… that troublemaker! I regret it so much! I regret allowing you to marry her! I regret even more that I indulged her… indulged her… cough cough…” The Queen Mother sobbed, tears streaming down her face. “How can I face the late Emperor in the underworld…”
Nanny Cui had already burst into tears. She had tried to persuade the Queen Mother again and again these days, but the hatred the Queen Mother had for the Regent Princess was as deep-rooted as poisonous ivy and difficult to remove. She could only try to calm the Queen Mother down again and again, fearing that she would faint from a cough again.
At this moment, a palace maid in plain palace attire quietly bowed in, knelt on the ground, and held a small bamboo tube in her hands. "Your Highness, the Empress Dowager, a letter has arrived from Her Royal Highness Princess Wenshu via carrier pigeon."
The Queen Mother suppressed her boiling anger and hatred, wiped away her tears with a handkerchief, and said in a hoarse voice, "Show it up! I want to see what Wenshu said!"
Nanny Cui hurried forward to take the bamboo tube, took out the thinly rolled plain paper inside, carefully unfolded it, and handed it to the empress dowager.
The Queen Mother took the letter with trembling hands and read it line by line in the dim candlelight.
As her gaze shifted, her already pale face grew uglier, turning a sullen hue. Her eyes were brimming with rage, her eyes nearly bursting with fury! She suddenly crumpled the letter into a ball, then, as if unsatisfied, tore it apart with all her might! The thin, brittle paper instantly transformed into fragments of butterflies, fluttering to the ground.
"Lan Xiyue! Lawless! Absolutely lawless!" The Queen Mother's chest heaved violently, her voice shrill and distorted with extreme anger. "Madame Cui! Pass on my decree, prepare immediately! I will return to the capital tomorrow morning! I want to see for myself how daring this Lan Xiyue is! Is it possible that even I, the Queen Mother, cannot catch her eye?"
"Yes, Empress Dowager, I'll make the arrangements right away." Madam Cui responded fearfully. Seeing the Empress Dowager on the verge of collapse, she was filled with worry and whispered, "Empress Dowager, it's getting late now. Your health is more important. Why don't you rest first? You can travel more tomorrow, right?"
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