Gan Qiongying's hand was red and she looked bewildered. She had just tried to help the emperor but was violently pushed away.
The emperor's overreaction stunned her. Just before lunch, they were clearly very affectionate, but his sudden change in attitude left her at a loss. However, the emotion in the emperor's eyes was clearly not disgust.
"Send the princess back to her residence immediately," the emperor said to those outside the carriage.
To prevent himself from showing signs of the drug taking effect, he bit the tip of his tongue, declaring, "From now on, you shall not enter the palace without my summons."
Gan Qiongying: "Your Majesty..."
Gan Qiongying swallowed the rest of her words. She saw blood at the corner of the emperor's mouth. Had he vomited blood?
She rushed closer in a panic, but before she could say anything, the emperor grabbed her and pulled her out of the carriage.
As she struggled, the emperor grasped her shoulders, his eyes filled with an overwhelming, suppressed grief. With that one glance, Gan Qiongying stopped struggling and allowed herself to be pushed out of the palanquin.
When the palace servants outside the palanquin saw the curtain flutter, Eunuch Li immediately stepped forward and caught Gan Qiongying as she was being pushed out. The moment she landed, the palace servants carrying the palanquin immediately continued forward.
As the sun set, the warm, soft sunlight shone on the palace walls. A hot summer breeze swept by, but Gan Qiongying felt a chill all over her body. The dampness on her back had not yet dried, and a dull pain came from her chest again, causing her to frown.
Eunuch Li stayed by Gan Qiongying's side the whole time, and several times he tried to help her up, but she stopped him by raising her hand.
Gan Qiongying endured the pain, her face growing paler. She thought of how the emperor had risked everything to make her drink the problematic tonic soup, and of Li Quan's panicked expression after seeing the emperor leave the Empress Dowager's bedchamber. Forgetting all caution, she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
"Eunuch Li," Gan Qiongying said without stopping, "what kind of soup is Yibu Tang?"
Eunuch Li paused noticeably, then, thinking he had covered up the mistake, gave the answer he had prepared beforehand: "To replenish qi and calm the mind."
"Do you think I'm a fool?" Gan Qiongying stopped moving forward and turned back to ask him.
Eunuch Li naturally dared not advance, and bowed to wait, repeating once more, "The nourishing soup has the effect of replenishing qi and calming the mind."
Gan Qiongying was taken aback, and her gaze sharpened. But she looked like a patient now, her lips devoid of color. She asked again, "What kind of soup is Yibu Tang?"
Eunuch Li's lips trembled violently, but he remained silent.
The two were locked in a stalemate when suddenly he knelt down with a thud and kowtowed several times. When he looked up again, Gan Qiongying saw that his forehead was red and his face was covered with tears.
"Princess, please stop asking..." Eunuch Li pleaded, weeping.
“Your Majesty…” Eunuch Li shook his head repeatedly, tears streaming down his face. “When the princess has free time, she must visit the palace often. The princess’s visit is the happiest thing for Your Majesty.”
“My dearest flesh and blood, Princess, please don’t become estranged from His Majesty,” Eunuch Li sobbed, tears streaming down his face.
Finally, he couldn't help but blurt out, "Your Majesty is facing immense difficulties with the princess; if even the princess is to be distanced from..."
His Majesty probably has no will to live anymore.
Gan Qiongying looked at Eunuch Li, waiting for him to continue, but he shut his mouth tightly like a clam, refusing to say anything more.
The excruciating pain intensified, and Gan Qiongying couldn't help but clutch her chest, feeling her heart clench with pain even when she breathed.
Everything that happened today left Gan Qiongying physically and mentally exhausted. She was even too weak to help the kneeling eunuch Li up. "Eunuch, please get up. I understand."
"It's good that the princess understands that His Majesty did everything for her sake." Eunuch Li kowtowed again, wiped away his tears with his sleeve, and tried to help Gan Qiongying up, but was refused again.
“No need to see me off,” Gan Qiongying raised her hand to stop them, then turned her head, her palm already damp. “I remember how to get there.”
“If the princess’s heart pain recurs,” said Eunuch Li, “the imperial physician can be summoned to the princess’s residence at any time, but the princess must not take the prescriptions given by Physician Fu.”
Eunuch Li dared not disobey the emperor's orders, but he also could not disobey the princess, so he followed Gan Qiongying at a distance.
Gan Qiongying's feet seemed to float, completely bewildered.
She clutched her chest with one hand and clenched her fist with the other. Her shoes made rhythmic sounds as they stomped on the stone slabs, but she was in turmoil and couldn't understand anything.
For the first time, she realized how insignificant she was within the deep walls of the palace.
Several figures flashed past the palace gate, but Gan Qiongying didn't notice them. She stared at the stone path beneath her feet and walked slowly forward.
At this moment, Eunuch Li stopped and silently bowed. He then watched Gan Qiongying leave the palace and be helped by the people from the princess's residence. Only then did he turn around, wipe away his tears, and walk quickly towards Jing'an Palace.
"Princess!" Manyue noticed that something was wrong with Gan Qiongying and immediately stepped forward, supporting her with one hand and holding her waist with the other. "Is your chest hurting again?"
With her body regaining some support, Gan Qiongying seemed unable to hold on any longer. The pain intensified, her vision blurred, and her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Upon seeing this, the maids rushed forward, took down small stools, lifted the carriage curtain, and helped Gan Qiongying into the carriage in twos and threes.
Sweat beaded on Gan Qiongying's forehead, but the excruciating pain refused to subside. She climbed into the car, her head covered in cold sweat, and then wondered if she was hallucinating.
Gan Qiongying was startled when she suddenly saw Li Hua sitting upright in the car. Li Hua was also momentarily taken aback when he saw her pale face.
The two looked at each other in silence. Gan Qiongying sat down and leaned against the car wall, constantly rubbing her chest to relieve the pain. Her vision was getting blurry, and she asked the person beside her, "Did my husband come to pick me up?"
"What happened?" Li Hua skipped the question, frowning as she saw the bloodstains on her wrist, then asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"
In that instant, Gan Qiongying had an urge to cry and tell her story. When she was wronged, she was afraid that others would just ask her questions. But she suppressed the urge to confide in others, not because she didn't want to, but because she didn't know where to begin.
She wanted to say that she almost drank poison, that the emperor's fickle attitude was unpredictable, that she had no idea what was going on today, and that she regretted coming to the palace.
But how is she supposed to say it?
She didn't even understand it herself.
All she wants to do right now is go home, lie down, and get some sleep.
The intense pain caused Gan Qiongying to bend over involuntarily. She felt a wave of dizziness wash over her, and cried out, "My chest hurts so much..."
She was pale and unable to utter another word. The swaying of the carriage made her feel dizzy and disoriented. She couldn't even lift her head to look at Li Hua before collapsing to the ground.
Li Hua hurriedly caught Gan Qiongying, his voice urgent as he shouted out of the carriage, "Go back to the manor immediately, quick!"
Gan Qiongying tried hard to open her eyes, but she couldn't see anything clearly.
Her mind was in turmoil; the emperor's broken and painful appearance, Eunuch Li's strange words—the images overlapped and switched rapidly, almost bursting out of her head.
The carriage sped up, and Li Hua supported the limp and powerless Gan Qiongying. He could tell that she was in extremely poor condition. If he let go even slightly, Gan Qiongying would immediately fall to the ground. He could only hold her in his arms.
He tested Gan Qiongying's forehead temperature with the back of his hand, and then checked the bloodstains on Gan Qiongying's wrist. After finding no wounds, he visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sanjiu,” Lihua said to the window, “the princess is unwell. You should hurry back to the manor and send someone to pick fruit from the estate. Also, invite the divine physician from Zhongliu Mountain to the manor.”
The surrounding sounds were indistinct, and the shadows in front of her kept swaying. Gan Qiongying felt as if her ears were filled with water, which then flooded her entire body and submerged her. She felt icy cold all over, as if she had fallen into a freezing cave.
She groped around for a source of warmth, as if grasping at a straw, and clung to Li Hua's arm, curling up in his embrace, yearning for a little warmth to ease her pain.
The sound faded into the distance, and her vision blurred. Gan Qiongying felt as if her eyelids were weighed down by a thousand pounds. The only thing she could feel was the warmth coming from behind her, which inexplicably made her feel at ease.
The pain in her chest was still intense. She became dizzy and could no longer open her eyes, and completely lost consciousness.
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