The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

"Impossible!" Liu Shuyi jumped up from her chair almost instantly, her pretty face full of surprise.

Fang Fei also raised her head suddenly and subconsciously wanted to look at Yunrong's hand.

Her sister Jiaqi changed her previous cautious attitude and glanced at Shuangyi with a stern look.

Shuangyi had already prostrated herself on the ground, and she shouted loudly: "My wife is innocent, Your Majesty and the Queen, please help my beautiful wife!"

The emperor, who had been keeping a cold face, suddenly widened his eyes and asked, "What's going on?" after hearing Yun Rong's exclamation.

Yun Rong held the sachet and various herbs on a small tray, stepped forward quickly, and presented these things to the emperor and the empress: "I have some knowledge of medicine, and I can tell that the herbs in this sachet are all beneficial to pregnant women and fetuses... But I am not a doctor, so it is inevitable that there will be omissions. Your Majesty, please call the adults in the Imperial Hospital to take another look."

"Your Majesty!" Xie Yuzhen increased the strength of his grip on the emperor's hands, almost digging his nails into the emperor's palms and backs of his hands. At the same time, a burning tear rolled down the two people's holding hands, burning the emperor so much that he temporarily forgot the severe pain and only remembered the scorching heat of this tear.

"Your Majesty, please make the decision for A Yuan!" Most of the beauties in the harem who have some acting skills will be extremely sad when they try to achieve their goals with tears.

Xie Ruizhen is one of the best among them.

She enjoyed crying and throwing tantrums in front of the emperor, but she always struck the fine line between flirting and expressing her true feelings. In her tears that seemed real or fake, she would mix in some real feelings that the man could hardly distinguish, which would make the emperor anxious and dizzy, and panic for her.

"Call Bai Qing here!" The emperor only felt the pain in his hands at this moment, and as Xie Yuzhen's tears pierced his heart, he skillfully held Xie Yuzhen's hands, and with a protective gesture, he held him in his arms, and then raised his eyes and looked at Liu Shuyi with a malicious look.

Liu Shuyi, who once swore that Concubine Xu was so vicious that she used a child that she couldn't keep to frame her, has completely panicked.

"How could this be possible..."

Ever since Fangfei told her the secret, Liu Shuyi saw with her own eyes how the sachet was sewn stitch by stitch. Even the things that were supposed to be put in it for the Great Cold were put in under her watchful eyes.

Without the slightest hesitation, she immediately pointed the finger at Fang Fei and the other two: "You are the ones who colluded with each other and deliberately deceived me to frame me!"

Liu Shuyi knelt on the ground and began to cry: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I have always been at odds with Lady Xu, and I do have a deep prejudice against her. It was because I was careless and believed in the instigation of the treacherous people that I thought Lady Xu had deliberately plotted against me. Your Majesty and Your Majesty, please understand that I was indeed wrong, but these two are just lowly maids, how could they have the courage to come up with such a vicious plan to frame the master? There must be someone behind them!"

Xie Yu was really surprised that he thought Liu Shuyi would become obsessed with her life due to the influence of "bad luck" and would continue to insist that Concubine Xu was framing him.

She was able to react so quickly and realize that the surrender of the sisters Fangfei and Jiaqi to her was a hidden conspiracy. She also quickly came up with a series of excuses, trying to put the blame on the sisters and the people behind them. No matter how you look at it, she doesn't seem like a really stupid character. Why was her behavior so outrageous before?

However, even though Liu Shuyi spoke earnestly, the emperor had no intention of paying attention to her. Instead, he hugged Xie Yuzhen, his brows furrowed even uglier.

The queen sighed softly, picked up the cut sachet from the tray and looked at it for a few seconds: "This sachet is the work of Concubine Xu. Liu Shuyi's needlework is not very outstanding. She can't imitate this by herself."

She put down the sachet and looked at Liu Shuyi: "Since you said earlier that Fangfei learned your needlework and copied the sachet on Lady Xu, where is that sachet now?"

The Queen said, looking at Fang Fei and Jia Qi with an extremely serious look: "You two were very sure of what you said just now. Concubine Xu deliberately replaced the sachet and deliberately framed Liu Shuyi... I want to ask you, does the sachet really exist?"

She lowered her eyes, her compassionate gaze like a bodhisattva was hidden, revealing a solemn expression: "As a palace maid, the two of them colluded with each other, deliberately provoked and framed the concubines, their crimes are so serious that they should be beaten to death in court, and their families should be punished as well!"

"If you two had told the truth, there might be hope." The queen's tone was filled with regret.

Xie Yuzhen could hear her tiredness.

Even though many beauties had offered medicine to restore the queen's health, it seemed... the queen was even more tired.

Fang Fei shivered and fell to the ground, but refused to change her words: "Reporting to the Queen, what I said is all true. That sachet... I did sew it according to Concubine Xu's instructions, and it was indeed Concubine Xu..."

"Enough!" Shuangyi seemed to have finally been unable to tolerate the slander against her master. She glared at Fangfei with anger on her face and said, "My wife is kind to the palace people. She is not like what you said, keeping a close eye on you two sisters. She didn't even know that Jiaqi would be transferred to Yuchunju to serve, and she never tortured her. How can she threaten you with her life to harm others?!"

"Don't think I don't know. Jiaqi was born with a heart disease. I don't know how many medicines he has taken for this disease. The money for your medicine was given by my wife!"

Shuangyi was almost pointing at Fangfei and her sister and yelling at them: "After Jiaqi was assigned to Yuchunju by the Shanggong Bureau, the lady recognized her and sympathized with her frail body, so she only asked her to do some chores to organize small items. It was she who was so slow in doing things. Others had already finished, but she was the only one who dragged her feet!"

"Don't try to make yourself sick on purpose so as to frame my wife!" Shuangyi said angrily, still staring at Jiaqi with wide eyes.

Jiaqi's expression gradually changed from calm to fear. She hunched her shoulders and said, "What I said is true... Cuiliu, who once served in Yanzhang Palace, also knew about this matter. As for why the sachet became like this, I know nothing about it. Please, Your Majesty, have mercy and summon Cuiliu to testify for me and others."

Green willow?

Liu Shuyi's heart skipped a beat.

How come there is such a thing as a servant girl betraying her master?

The situation was completely beyond her control, which made Liu Shuyi even more uneasy. She felt that there was an unknown existence behind her secretly weaving a huge spider web, and she was the little insect that fell into the web and struggled in vain.

When Cui Liu was suddenly mentioned, Xie Ruizhen saw that Shuangyi's expression was out of control for a moment, as if this person was not in their plan...but he felt that her behavior was a bit strange and deliberate, so following his intuition, Xie Ruizhen looked at Concubine Deng.

Concubine Deng was still kind-hearted, gentle and taciturn, and she was not moved at all by the scene before her. On the contrary, Concubine Chen, who was always indifferent, seemed to slightly curl up the corners of her lips, which were always straight.

The familiar water becomes more and more muddy.

The person who went to the Buddhist hall of the palace maids to search for the rustling strange object has not returned yet, but the old imperial physician Bai has arrived first.

As soon as he entered the room, the emperor called him to take Concubine Xu's pulse again.

The imperial physician who had been temporarily transferred over to give Concubine Xu emergency treatment found a place to kneel down consciously, and tremblingly thought about how to plead for himself as he was not well-trained.

It didn't take long.

After checking Lady Xu's pulse, old Imperial Physician Bai came out, stroking his beard.

"Your Majesty," he said, cupping his hands. "Although Concubine Xu is not in very good health, she will be able to conceive and give birth without any problems. And judging from her pulse, her body has not been affected by anything cold or harmful to the body. On the contrary, she has been taking medicines to preserve the pregnancy and nourish her body very well. If nothing unexpected happens, there will be no problem in giving birth to a healthy heir."

His words made Liu Shuyi's face turn completely pale.

Xie Yuzhen, who was pulled by the emperor to sit beside him, saw the sorrow on the man's face. He looked past him and saw the obvious grief on the queen's face.

The old imperial physician Bai continued, "The fetus in Lady Xu's belly has already fallen. The female doctor went in to check Lady Xu's injuries... Combined with the pulse I detected, it is certain that the fetus in Lady Xu's belly was caused by a severe blow to her abdomen..."

The child was aborted.

Even the experienced old imperial physician couldn't bear to say: "... Lady Xu's bleeding has stopped, but she has lost too much blood. Whether she can wake up depends on fate."

The emperor closed his eyes tightly.

The hall fell into silence for a moment.

When he opened his eyes again, he raised his hand, picked up a porcelain bottle on the table, and threw it at Concubine Deng's feet.

"This one served in the Yanzhang Palace, this one too, and that Cui Liu was also once Liu Shuyi's close friend!" The emperor pointed at several palace servants one by one, "I didn't even know how Yuchunju became a 'Little Yanzhang Palace'?"

"Concubine Xian, you have been in charge of palace affairs for many years and rarely made mistakes. How come you have made mistakes so frequently since last year, causing unrest everywhere in the palace and even harming the royal heir one after another!" The emperor raised his hand and pointed in the direction of Concubine Xian Deng, who immediately knelt on the ground.

Concubine Deng lowered her head deeply, but did not beg for mercy: "It is because I am old and weak that I neglected the palace affairs. Please, Your Majesty, please punish me."

Xie Wei, who was watching coldly, felt his heart sink even more.

Judging from the emperor's reaction, it was clear that the queen was the master of the harem, and Concubine Deng was only an assistant. However, he directly bypassed the person with the greatest power in the palace and began to accuse Concubine Deng.

Was it because he respected and loved the Queen, sympathized with his wife's frailty and had to share power with the concubines, and did not want the Queen of a country to bear the stigma of being unable to protect the heirs of the harem?

No.

Xie Wei really wanted to.

This man...knows that there is something wrong with Concubine Deng.

Perhaps he has always known that this virtuous concubine, who came from a distinguished family, had sons and daughters, had the power of assistant, and although she was not favored, she was always trusted by several supreme rulers... had problems.

But what was it that made the emperor tolerate Concubine Deng again and again, until now, when Concubine Xu lost the royal heir in such a tragic way, he finally couldn't bear it anymore?

Xie Yuzhen felt deeply confused.

"Since you are old and mentally weak and can't manage palace affairs, you should hand over the palace account books from today and return to Changrui Palace to reflect on your mistakes!" said the emperor angrily.

Concubine Deng responded calmly.

While talking.

The palace maid who went to the Buddhist hall of the palace maids to retrieve Sisi's relics and the palace maid who went to Yuchunju to arrest Cuiliu arrived at the same time.

A young eunuch came forward holding a few pieces of clothing. On top of the clothes was a thick silver bracelet. He lowered his head and spoke in a shrill voice, "Your Majesty, this is the relic of the palace maid Sisi."

I can actually find it.

Xie Yuzhen glanced at Concubine Deng's expression and found that she was still expressionless.

But at this moment, Xie Yuzhen was no longer amazed at Concubine Deng's calmness. After all, the appearance of Susu's relics just happened to confirm his previous guess and Concubine Song's words before her death.

The queen was ill but not dead.

Deng Qingzhi, who has been longing for the throne of empress for so many years, and has been patient for so many years, and has played the role of a virtuous concubine for so many years, is finally - getting anxious!

"She even left a silver bracelet behind?" Xie Yuzhen asked, "Your Majesty, I sometimes hear palace maids talking and they all say that after those palace maids who couldn't find their families died, most of them only left a piece of clothing for their close friends to remember them by... Oh my, how deep is Susu's resentment that she left so many things behind and no one dares to deal with them!"

If Susu was really a hidden chess piece set by Concubine Deng, then her death before she could accomplish her mission was indeed resentful enough; even if it was not... how could one not feel resentful about an innocent life that was beaten with a stick, smeared with ointment mixed with iron filings, and died of a high fever?

But since Xie Yu was so cruel and did such a brutal thing to Sisi, he was not afraid that she would become a vengeful ghost and come for revenge.

Hong.

The servant who was beaten to death in the Wuwei Marquis Mansion.

There are hundreds of people in the Meng family.

They are all the souls killed by her knife.

If you want revenge, I'm afraid you'll have to line up.

Listening to Xie Yuzhen's sarcastic words, the emperor looked at her helplessly and signaled the young eunuch to continue.

The young eunuch said, "This silver bracelet is wrapped inside the clothes. I weighed it and it seems to be hollow, with something flowing inside."

Say it.

Then another palace servant stepped forward and carefully cut open the bracelet. As expected, there was some yellowish powder hidden inside. After pouring it on the paper, the old imperial physician Bai stepped forward and first twisted the powder with his hands, then picked up some with his thumb and placed it in front of his mouth and nose. With his other hand, he gently fanned himself a few times, then took the handkerchief and wiped his hands, saying, "If this old minister is not mistaken, it should be a secret medicine recorded in the imperial hospital of the previous dynasty, the Shendouxiang, which can make people confused and their temperaments increasingly impulsive and irritable. This medicine was made by Huang Daozi a hundred years ago. Later, he presented the secret medicine to the last empress dowager and was awarded a title and the surname 'Hong'!"