Junxuan, who had been enjoying his meal, suddenly lost his appetite. His gaze toward Shen Yunxi was complicated, and he didn't know how to describe his current feelings.
After a moment, Junxuan put down his chopsticks and bowl. “Miss Chen, please enjoy your meal. I am already full.”
Shen Yunxi immediately agreed, "This humble woman is ready as well."
Junxuan stared at Shen Yunxi for a moment, then stood up and walked towards the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager had already finished a bowl of bird's nest porridge. Seeing Junxuan approaching, she knew he had finished his lunch and smiled, asking, "Has Your Majesty finished eating?"
"Yes, Mother, I have other matters to attend to, so I will take my leave now. I will come to see you another day." Junxuan nodded.
"Your Majesty's business is of utmost importance. I have Yunxi with me these past few days, so Your Majesty need not come here specifically," the Empress Dowager said with a smile.
Junxuan nodded in agreement, but did not express a clear attitude. After saying a few more words, he turned and left Cining Palace.
During this process, he didn't glance at Shen Yunxi once, seemingly completely unconcerned about her existence. His figure gradually disappeared into the entire hall, leaving cleanly.
Shen Yunxi didn't care about Junxuan's departure. After she stood up, Granny Tian arranged for someone to clear away the unfinished food on the table.
"Your Majesty, are you feeling any better now?" Shen Yunxi asked.
The Empress Dowager smiled and nodded, "I am much better now. With Yunxi here, my health is recovering very quickly."
Shen Yunxi felt helpless. She wondered if her birth chart clashed with the palace. She had thought she wouldn't have to come for a while, but the Empress Dowager fell ill, and she had to go to the palace again.
Fortunately, Junxuan now believes that she has truly given up on her feelings for him. Otherwise, given the number of times she has entered the palace and the number of times they have met, she herself would have misunderstood whether he had given up at all.
Now that she has opened her heart and is looking at her relationship with Junxuan again, she realizes that they were never equals from the beginning, which is why they drifted further and further apart. She remembered Junxuan's kindness and gradually transformed that kindness into affection, always following him and wanting a response from him.
He might not care much about romantic relationships, but he was grateful to the little girl who accompanied him in his childhood and gave him bamboo candy, which is why he tolerated some of Lu Wanqing's actions.
It's impossible to say I don't resent him at all; even now, I still feel resentment. The biggest problem remains.
Shen Yunxi took a deep breath, just about to ask the Empress Dowager if she needed to massage her body, when she saw the Empress Dowager staring at her with some surprise.
"Your Majesty, what's wrong?" Shen Yunxi subconsciously touched her face, wondering if there was some oil stain on her face that she hadn't wiped off properly, otherwise the Empress Dowager wouldn't be staring at her like that.
The Empress Dowager shook her head. "It's nothing. I just felt that Yunxi's eyes were full of pain and a little resentment just now. Was she blaming the Emperor? It's just you and me here, so you don't need to worry about the words being spread."
As she spoke, the Empress Dowager's gaze fell on Granny Tian and her group, and Granny Tian immediately took all the maids away.
Shen Yunxi understood what the Empress Dowager meant. Her expression shifted slightly, and she suddenly didn't want to hide it from the Empress Dowager, fearing that the Empress Dowager would continue to create opportunities for her and Junxuan.
"Your Majesty is right. I do indeed harbor resentment towards the Emperor, but I understand I shouldn't blame him. It was my own wishful thinking that I wanted to become one of his concubines, even though he felt no romantic feelings for me whatsoever, and even disliked me because of the late Emperor's arranged marriage. But Your Majesty, matters of the heart cannot be forced. It took me a lot of energy to figure this out, and one day I suddenly realized that all this so-called persistence seemed meaningless, which is why I gave up." Shen Yunxi paused, then continued, "In the past, Your Majesty helped me out of consideration for my sincerity, but it backfired, leading the Emperor to suspect that Your Majesty might be trying to use me to control him. But I have no such ability. Fortunately, this won't happen again. I happen to have a favor to ask of you."
The Empress Dowager remained silent for a long time. She understood that Shen Yunxi had struggled with these words for a long time and what giving up Junxuan meant to her.
This means that all those years of perseverance have come to nothing, which makes the Empress Dowager feel very sorry for Shen Yunxi.
Hearing that Shen Yunxi had another request, the Empress Dowager, who doted on her so much, naturally did not want to refuse.
"Yunxi, please speak freely. If it is within my power, I will certainly help you. As for the Emperor, if you give up, I will no longer allow you to come to the palace to accompany him. Once I recover from this illness, you may return home," the Empress Dowager said softly.
Shen Yunxi was deeply moved. As expected, the Empress Dowager was always on her side. That was why she couldn't possibly implicate the Empress Dowager.
"Your Majesty, what I wish to say is that I request Your Majesty to tell me the cause of Consort Yun's death. What exactly happened to her?" Shen Yunxi asked.
The Empress Dowager thought Shen Yunxi was asking for something else, but it turned out she only wanted to tell her the cause of Consort Yun's death.
Actually, the cause of Consort Yun's death wasn't some unspeakable secret; it's just that the late emperor was so traumatized that no one dared to discuss it casually.
Since Shen Yunxi wanted to know, the Empress Dowager was naturally willing to tell her.
"To be honest, Consort Yun and I had a very good relationship and were never enemies. When I married the late Emperor, we made an agreement: he promised me the position of Empress Dowager, but I was not allowed to have any children of my own. The late Emperor was worried that I would support my own children to ascend the throne or use them to compete for favor and to take care of my maternal family. However, when I was in my maternal family, my father favored his concubines over his wife, and I had a very difficult life. Even illegitimate children could climb over me, so he agreed to it. It just so happens that I don't have anyone I love, so it doesn't matter if I marry into the palace and I don't care about these things."
"Later, when Consort Yun entered the palace, I realized that she was the Emperor's darling. Although he couldn't give her the position of Empress, he showered her with all his affection. I didn't care about that, after all, I didn't have the late Emperor in my heart. I entered the palace simply to find a place to settle down and make a living, so that my younger brother could live a safe and peaceful life. Later, when my brother had an accident, I stopped caring about these things. My friendship with Consort Yun in the past was genuine. We would often play chess together and talk about our feelings."
"I just didn't expect that Consort Yun had another man in her heart. She didn't love the late Emperor, but she was willing to be Consort Yun and live a quiet life. Neither of us loved the late Emperor, and we got along well, so we became good friends and called each other sisters. Later, Consort Yun became pregnant, but she was poisoned. I asked the imperial physician, who said that Consort Yun was deeply poisoned and that it would be best to use the child as an antidote, but she insisted on keeping the child."
Upon hearing this, Shen Yunxi was greatly alarmed. Could it be that Junxuan had really misunderstood something?
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