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Translator's note: Finally there are advance chapters availaible on Kofi
Chapter 99
Her abdomen felt like it was falling, aching terribly. In her hazy consciousness, Gu Han curled up in pain. The violent cramping in her calves made her body assume an unnatural posture. She was terrified beyond measure, tears falling silently. She wanted to move, but her whole body was so heavy she couldn't even open her eyelids.
She seemed to have grabbed onto something. Without time to think, she clutched it tightly in her palm.
…It hurts. She was in so much pain. Save her.
She was crying out silently.
Gu Han had no idea how long she had been in pain. Through her haze, she seemed to hear commotion, a cacophony of sounds in her ears. The abdominal pain gradually lessened, and someone kept massaging her legs. Like a turbulent sea finally calming, her tense body gradually stopped trembling.
Lu Yu sat on the bed, allowing the woman to grip his sleeve. Even though her fingers had turned somewhat pale from exertion, Lu Yu didn't pull his sleeve away and leave. He kept his eyes lowered, continuously stroking the woman's back.
The hall was utterly silent. Jiu Si hurriedly brought the fetal-stabilizing medicine. Together with Jiu Nian, they managed to get their mistress to swallow it. The physician checked her pulse and removed the needles, bowing respectfully with clasped hands:
"Noble Lady Zhao is no longer in serious danger."
Lu Yu didn't raise his head. No one knew what he was thinking.
Half an hour later, Liu An entered drenched in sweat, his expression somewhat troubled as he knelt on the ground:
"Your Majesty..."
Thinking of the scene behind Changchun Hall, he found it difficult to speak.
Lu Yu's eyes were somber, his voice cold: "Speak."
"This servant had people uproot all the peach trees behind Changchun Hall. After examination, the physicians discovered that the entire peach grove was covered in safflower powder."
Not only that, the physicians had even touched the tree trunks and said all these trees had been watered with water soaked in safflower.
An entire peach grove, right behind Changchun Hall. Even if Noble Lady Zhao never left her quarters, over time, this pregnancy would be very difficult to preserve. Not only that, living in such an environment long-term, she would find it very difficult to conceive again!
Such an elaborate scheme, Liu An didn't dare imagine who the culprit behind it might be.
Hearing this, Jiu Nian felt her spine go cold. She fell to her knees with a thud, her forehead striking the ground with muffled thuds that echoed through the hall, making the atmosphere even more oppressive. Everyone could hear her crying with suppressed, extreme hatred:
"Your Majesty! The person who did this clearly intended to kill my mistress! Even if only for the sake of the imperial son in my mistress's womb, I beg Your Majesty! Grant my mistress justice!"
"The peach grove behind the hall is a scenic spot in the palace. Consorts from all palaces come and go frequently. Such vicious methods can no longer even be described with the word 'malicious'!"
"I beg Your Majesty to uncover the truth and severely punish the culprit! If such evil people are not eliminated for even one day, the harem will not be at peace for even one day!"
When matters don't concern them, people can remain aloof, but Jiu Nian's words dragged everyone in the harem into the water. You think it's only my mistress who suffered today? But you should know, as long as anyone passes through that peach grove, day after day, who dares say they won't meet disaster?
Zhou Měirén had always been on the same side as Gu Han. Hearing this, she immediately bowed:
"Your Majesty, what Jiu Nian says is not unreasonable. Today they harmed the imperial heir in Noble Lady Zhao's womb, not hesitating to drag the entire harem down with them. What about in the future?!"
Now it's the consorts—in the future, might it be the Empress Dowager, or even His Majesty himself?!
Everyone was frightened by Zhou Měirén's implied meaning. They immediately bowed and knelt en masse. Whether sincere or not, they all cried out fearfully:
"We beg Your Majesty to investigate clearly!"
The Empress was helped to stand in the hall. She looked at the mass of people kneeling in darkness. How many among them truly wanted to seek justice for Noble Lady Zhao? Precious few.
But the harem was full of clever people.
The Emperor had remained silent throughout, allowing Jiu Nian and Zhou Měirén to say these things. They all knew what to do.
The Empress's eyes were completely clear. She was about to bow slowly when she looked up and her gaze met the Emperor's—cold, deep, unfathomable eyes. In that instant, the Empress couldn't guess what the Emperor was thinking.
But one thing she knew with absolute clarity without needing to know the Emperor's thoughts—the Emperor suspected her.
Consort Shu kept her head lowered, not looking at the eye contact between the Emperor and Empress. She knelt firmly on the ground. The cold floor finally brought a thread of clarity to her mind, which had been filled with various emotions during this time.
Who in the harem had the means to accomplish this, Consort Shu was too lazy to elaborate. But wealth and status dazzled the eyes, and even she hadn't been immune.
When the Empress requested that she temporarily manage the six palaces, she had indeed been wildly delighted. She thought that touching the power of the harem was equivalent to truly approaching the Emperor. She had been full of ambition, wanting to accomplish something.
Little did she know, all of this was within someone else's calculations.
Consort Shu bit her tongue hard to suppress her heavy breathing. She had always thought others were foolish, believing that because the Emperor elevated her, she was the Empress's only rival in the harem. But in the end, in the Empress's eyes, she was merely a chess piece to be used at will.
A fishy sweetness seemed to rise in Consort Shu's throat, forcing her eyes to turn nearly red. Concealing her emotions exhausted her mental energy, she had no capacity to look up at the scene in the hall.
The sound of shattering jade interrupted the hall's oppressive silence. The Emperor's ice-cold, bone-chilling voice came:
"Empress, such an incident occurred in the harem under your management, and you knew nothing of it?"
Mu Qiu looked at the Empress with concern. The Empress merely pushed away her hand, gently stroking her lower abdomen as she knelt on the ground. She met the Emperor's gaze frankly:
"I did not know."
"Long before Your Majesty left the palace for the summer retreat, I requested to rest and recuperate in the palace. The power over the six palaces was temporarily transferred to Consort Shu. Even after Your Majesty left the palace, I entrusted Mother Empress to manage on my behalf. If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, you may send someone to Cining Palace to inquire."
"I acknowledge my failure to detect this, but I absolutely dare not bear this grave responsibility."
She bowed her head in obeisance. Even so, her back remained straight. Her logic was clear, no one could find fault with her.
Because everyone indeed knew that she had claimed illness long ago and even handed over power over the six palaces. Under such circumstances, her failure to detect matters in the harem was within reason.
The peach grove behind the hall wasn't within Yihe Palace's jurisdiction but was attended by servants from Zhongsheng Hall. As soon as news spread, Eunuch Cheng quickly arrived, kneeling on the ground with sweat on his forehead:
"This servant would never dare harm Noble Lady Zhao."
Eunuch Cheng didn't come alone, he also brought the servant who had recently been responsible for tending the peach grove. That servant was trembling, unable to imagine being implicated in such harem intrigue, so frightened that tears nearly fell:
"This servant doesn't know! This servant doesn't know! Even with a hundred times the courage, this servant wouldn't dare plot against a mistress! I beg Your Majesty and all the mistresses to see clearly!"
Seeing this situation, Liu An felt troubled. The Emperor suspected the Empress, and the Empress certainly wouldn't personally investigate this matter. Just as he was about to step forward to interrogate the servant, he heard a woman's cold voice:
"Are you the only servant tending the peach grove?"
Liu An barely turned his head to see Consort Shu with a cold expression. He was startled and quickly lowered his head. In his impression, Consort Shu usually wore a smile on her face. Regardless of what emotions were truly in her heart, she always seemed like someone held in the palm of a hand, like stars surrounding the moon suspended in mid-air, incomparably proud.
It even made Liu An forget that she too had once lived very difficultly.
That servant was startled. He wiped his tears and said hurriedly: "No! There's also a Xiao Zezi who rotates shifts with this servant to tend the peach grove, but before coming to Changchun Hall, we couldn't find Xiao Zezi anywhere."
As his words fell, many people frowned.
It was still night, the sky not yet pale. How could a lowly servant not be resting in his room?
Moments later, the entire palace was ablaze with lights. Countless palace servants traversed the palace's various paths, carrying lanterns and not missing even the smallest crevice. Finally, behind a section of ornamental rocks, a servant poked his head in and suddenly a terrified voice rang out:
"Dead… someone's dead!"
A white cloth covered the stretcher. Mud and blood stained the edges of the white cloth.
Zhou Měirén frowned with some distaste, her expression troubled: "This clearly shows someone silenced him! Does she have no regard for the law at all!"
The Zhou family were beneficiaries of imperial power. Naturally, Zhou Měirén was extremely disgusted by those who disregarded the law.
The thread of investigation seemed to break here.
Someone imperceptibly glanced at the Emperor. Lu Yu's eyes drooped as he tucked the corner of the blanket around the woman, his words containing no emotion:
"People living in this world cannot be completely alone."
"He must have had acquaintances. Zhongsheng Hall also has gatekeepers. Interrogate them one by one! I don't believe that a living person could move about without anyone noticing his whereabouts."
Eunuch Cheng didn't dare say a single word pleading for mercy.
The physician carefully examined Xiao Zezi's corpse. Blood flowed from the back of his head: "Your Majesty, this servant was struck from behind with a blunt object and killed."
In other words, to accomplish this, it must have been someone Xiao Zezi trusted, someone to whom he would carelessly present his back.
Some frowned, pondering who could accomplish this, but not a single person's gaze fell on Xiao Zezi, as if his death wasn't worth mentioning. Some were even annoyed by his death because it obstructed the investigation.
Jiu Nian didn't understand the case investigation. She knelt on the ground, continuously wiping the cold sweat from her mistress's forehead. She hated the person behind this to the extreme, but all of this would have to wait until her mistress woke up before they could plan.
After all, the Empress was pregnant. Having knelt for so long, she couldn't help frowning. Her face somewhat pale, she said:
"Your Majesty, I'm feeling somewhat unwell. I ask Your Majesty to have the physician check my pulse."
Lu Yu looked at her expressionlessly. It hadn't even been a day since returning to the palace. When he looked at the Empress now, he couldn't find the feelings he'd had then. But when his gaze fell on the Empress's lower abdomen, he still averted his eyes and said:
"Physician."
He couldn't possibly watch the Empress come to harm.
Lu Yu held the woman's hand. For that one instant, he imperceptibly closed his eyes.
Author's Note:
Kunning Palace: Empress
Yi'an Palace: Consort Shu
Xianleng Palace: Imperial Consort De
Zhaoyang Palace → Main Hall: Xiuyi He
Zhaoyang Palace → Side Hall: Rong Baolin
Yihe Palace → Changchun Pavilion: Female Lead
Rongcui Hall: Beauty Miao
Cuizhu Pavilion: Beauty Lin
Changning Courtyard: Zhou Meiren
Hanleng Palace → (Main Hall transferred to Side Hall): Talented Lady Yuan
Also appearing: Noble Lady Lin, Liu Baolin
Here are the ranks of imperial consorts:
- Empress (皇后 Huánghoù) — Head of the Imperial Harem
- Imperial Noble Consort (皇贵妃 Huáng Guìfēi) — Rank 1
- Noble Consort, Pure Consort, Virtuous Consort, Worthy Consort (贵妃、淑妃、德妃、贤妃 Guìfēi, Shūfēi, Défēi, Xiánfēi)** — Senior Rank 1 (The Four Consorts, with Noble Consort as the highest)
- Consort (妃 Fēi) — Junior Rank 2
- Bright Deportment, Bright Countenance (昭仪、昭容 Zhāoyí, Zhāoróng) — Senior Rank 3
- Cultivated Deportment, Cultivated Countenance (修仪、修容 Xiūyí, Xiūróng) — Junior Rank 3
- Noble Lady (贵嫔 Guìpín) — Senior Rank 4
- Imperial Concubine (嫔 Pín) — Junior Rank 4
- Beauty (美人 Měirén) — Senior Rank 5
- Talented Lady (才人 Cáirén) — Junior Rank 5
- Precious Grove (宝林 Bǎolín) — Senior Rank 6
- Imperial Woman (御女 Yùnǚ) — Junior Rank 6
- Palace Maid (宫女子 Gōngnǚzǐ) — Senior Rank 7
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