Work overtime

Chapter 713

The next day, August 19th, was an odd-numbered day, and Li Beichen should have attended the morning court. After the morning court, a full-moon banquet for the eldest prince was held and all officials were entertained.

He sent Liang Xiaobao early in the morning to announce that due to the grief over the loss of many concubines and royal heirs, he became ill and was infected with typhoid fever. He needed to rest and would not attend the morning court in the coming days. All government affairs would be handled by the State Council. He would come to Wutong Pavilion to report on his work every day at 5 p.m. after get off work.

The eldest prince's full-month banquet went on as usual, but everything was kept simple.

Meng Xin, Marquis of Changping, delayed his appointment to Fujian for one month and participated in government decision-making as an advisor to the Administrative Council. The left and right prime ministers remained unchanged.

Meng Zhao was very happy to hear this. This way his father could stay in the capital for a few more days.

The ministers all said that the emperor had worked hard and asked him to take care of his health. They wished the emperor good health and were very happy in their hearts while enjoying the full moon banquet for the eldest prince.

Some time ago, the emperor was moody and would beat people with a stick, deduct year-end bonuses, and deduct wages at any time, which scared them terribly. They had to work overtime at the company every day. When they got home, they also studied various history books. They were afraid that the emperor would ask about how the past dynasties did things in a certain aspect, and they would not be able to answer.

The average person has at least ten gray hairs. The most common person, the Minister of Personnel, has a head full of gray hair and has become an old man with white hair. I heard that he either has nightmares or insomnia, and he reads, writes thoughts, and takes notes every night, which shows how much psychological pressure he is under.

I can finally catch fish for a few days, but they will rot after a few days. Can I be secretly happy?
Of course, the members of the State Council are an exception. They are miserable. While others clock out and go home to spend time with their wives and children, they have to continue meetings at their leaders’ homes. This includes the old man who is the Minister of Personnel. How can there be a shortage of cadres who can’t manage personnel?

My boss was sick, so I changed the work to home office. Since I needed to rest during the day, I forced overtime to become the new normal.

Li Beichen did not think there was anything wrong with this. Instead, he thought it was a sign of appreciation for the core team and an additional benefit.

After get off work, you can have a limited edition imperial chef's working meal at Wutong Pavilion. The menu is different every day, and there is an unlimited buffet of rare fruits tributed from all over the country.

In order to keep everyone energetic and their families happy, the emperor also arranged a nourishing venison meal every day.

Li Beichen felt that he was a really good leader.

The Emperor is so dedicated to his work that all the court officials want to report the Imperial Physician, saying that he does his job too carelessly and inadequately.

The emperor was already so ill that he had to lie in bed during meetings and often fell asleep while they were in session. He had to ask Concubine Ning to take notes in a small notebook and to be responsible for waking the emperor up from his sleep.

Wouldn't it be better to just take sick leave and rest for a few more days?
Have you forgotten the ancestral precept that the harem is not allowed to interfere in government affairs?

Can't the imperial physician force the emperor to take a sick leave? He doesn't even avoid Concubine Ning. What if her ambition grows and she becomes the second Wu?

The ministers politely raised their objections, and then -

invalid objection.

When the emperor is ill, according to the rules, concubines of higher rank should be arranged to take care of him.

When the concubines came, they didn't have to do any dirty or tiring work. Their main job was to serve the emperor at meals, set the table for him, catch his spit, pass him tissues, and then chat with him to keep him entertained.

Li Beichen had not originally planned to arrange this.

As a result, when Qi Wanyi, Concubine Xie, and Concubine An received the news that the emperor was seriously ill, they immediately walked across half of the palace to visit him. Everyone cried and made a fuss, sincerely hoping to come to Wutong Pavilion to take care of him, and their sincerity moved heaven and earth.

Li Beichen had no choice but to ask Jiang Yuebai, who was watching the show leisurely on the side, to draw up a schedule and ask them to come every afternoon for only one hour.

The morning is his and Jiang Yuebai's private time. Li Beichen hopes to sleep with Jiang Yuebai until they wake up naturally, then have breakfast together, review secret documents, take medicine, and do rehabilitation training.
He and Jiang Yuebai both had to take a nap in the afternoon, so he asked the concubines to have afternoon tea at about 3 o'clock.

There were only a few people above the rank of concubine, so Jiang Yuebai arranged for Concubine An, Concubine Xie, Qi Wanyi, and Xia Liangyuan to take turns in order, and that was it. It was very similar to the arrangement of Spring Festival duty in the unit. Xia Liangyuan was not qualified to begin with, so she just made up the number to make it even.

At Li Beichen's strong request, Jiang Yuebai consulted Yuan Jianzheng and Jiang Yuanshi and wrote a simple SOP, stating what to do and what not to do, and even made regulations on clothing and hairstyle.

In short, serving the emperor is serving the emperor, pouring water, reading newspapers, taking out the trash, don't think of taking the opportunity to flirt with him or have a night of pleasure. The four people looked at the neatly written SOP with a look of resentment on their faces. So the imperial concubine and the emperor really slept alone every night, doing nothing, absolutely nothing, no physical contact? After all, the SOP said that physical contact was not allowed.

Concubine An was surprised and asked seductively, "Your Majesty, why can't we have physical contact?"

Li Beichen showed his arm, which had some red spots from mosquito bites in autumn. "It's because of allergies and itching."

Concubine An reached out her hand and touched it in disbelief, and Li Beichen immediately got goose bumps all over his body.

"look."

Concubine An felt that the emperor was a little strange.

Because of its allergies, Concubine Xie's dog Xiaobai was not able to come in and was tied to a big tree outside the door. The puppy was so anxious that he almost climbed the tree when he couldn't see Concubine Xie.

The happiest person among them was Xia Liangyuan. She could not see the emperor at all on weekdays, but now she could see him once every four days. She was so excited that she looked grateful and cried every day as if she had found a treasure.

I heard that this good thing was arranged by the Imperial Concubine, so every time she saw the Imperial Concubine, she would kneel down and kowtow, making the Imperial Concubine look like her ancestor.

When other people were attending to the emperor, they were responsible for serving tea and water and helping him take medicine. Only when Concubine Xie came, the palace maids and eunuchs surrounded her, and there were more snacks and fruits than when others came. Concubine Xie was only responsible for chatting and playing the pipa.

Jiang Yuebai knew that the emperor was particularly fond of Concubine Xie because he felt sorry for her young age, but in fact, he was on guard against the Xie family. After all, the Xie family now had a large number of troops. If the emperor passed away, she and her father and brother would work together, relying on the emperor's trust in them for so many years, and it would be possible to hold the eldest prince hostage and ascend the throne.

She guessed that Concubine Xie must also understand that everyone was pretending to be deaf and dumb and acting according to their own role script.

Meng Zhao, who was already depressed and in tears because of family changes, heard that the emperor was seriously ill a few days ago, and other concubines and above took turns to take care of him, and Concubine Ning even lived with the emperor.

But I didn't know about this until three days later, on August 22nd.

She quickly wrote a letter and asked Qingying to deliver it to Li Beichen in person, expressing her concern and deep longing. However, Li Beichen replied with only a few words as if he was reviewing a memorial:

"I know what you mean. Take care of yourself and stay healthy."

The man who patiently drew the picture of Guanyin, the Goddess of Childbirth, for her in front of the lamp and loved her is gone.

She held the reply letter and was heartbroken when she thought about what had happened after she returned home.

After Qingying's counseling, she finally calmed down, but she found that she started bleeding. It had been seven days since her miscarriage. The bleeding was not much, but she was very scared and quickly called Jiang Yu to see her.

Gynecologist Jiang Xian could not be called. He was still reading ancient books in the side hall of the Qinzheng Palace. Only the emperor, the imperial concubine, and the eldest prince could be called to consult him.

Jiang Yu was as anxious as Meng Zhao. As a doctor, it was particularly painful to watch patients die one after another from the same disease without being able to do anything about it.

He had failed before, but he decided to try again.

Meng Zhao recovered after her miscarriage and bleeding, unlike Concubine Zhen who suffered from continuous bleeding. Does this mean that the poison has different effects on different people?

Maybe it will work. We can't just sit there and wait for death.

Jiang Yuebai gave Jiang Xian a prescription, and Jiang Xian sent his assistant to copy a copy for his brother. They discussed that two of the prescriptions might be worth a try.

Jiang Yu took the risk of using a modified version of one of the prescriptions, which increased its hemostatic function.

That night, Meng Zhao couldn't sleep. Jiang Yu also couldn't sleep.

(End of this chapter)