Madam Hou

Chapter 56

At the beginning of the month, the evening breeze blew gently, and bursts of flower fragrance came from the yard.

Yan Niang led the maids who were waiting around her back from Fengyi Palace to Lanhe Palace. The lanterns hanging under the corridor of Lanhe Palace had already been held in their palms, and a few court ladies stood outside the door with lowered eyebrows and ears.As soon as Yanniang entered the palace gate, she saw Caici hurrying out of the palace, her brows were full of spring, she looked shy.When I saw Yanniang when I came out of the palace gate, Fushen greeted Yanniang with an unnatural expression: "Please, my lady!" After saying hello, seeing that Yanniang didn't make a sound, she said as if she just remembered something: " Empress, the emperor is visiting the little princess in the palace."

Standing at the door, Yan Niang carefully looked at the colored porcelain in front of her. She had curved eyebrows, a round face, and a pair of shallow dimples between her cheeks. Her face seemed to have been delicately dressed. Rouge was applied, and a light pink lip balm was applied to the lips.Coupled with the pink palace maid costume and a pair of glazed butterfly hairpins on the head, although the person may not look very beautiful, it makes people feel sweet.

Caici hugged her body, because Yanniang didn't yell, and she didn't dare to get up, being stared at by Yanniang like this, she felt more and more uncomfortable, and lowered her head involuntarily, not daring to face Yanniang directly.

After a while, Yanniang withdrew her gaze, and said casually to Caici: "Get up!"

Caici thanked her, and then dared to stand up straight.Yan Niang said again: "Go down, you don't need to be on duty tonight." After saying that, she lifted her foot into the door of the main hall, and then turned from the main hall to the inner room.

Indoors, Emperor Jinghui, wearing a bright yellow uniform, stood beside a cradle next to a large pillar in the room, looking at the little princess in the cradle, spitting white bubbles for a while, clenched his fists for a while Bite inside the mouth.Emperor Jinghui stretched out his hand to remove the little princess' fist in his mouth, and after watching the little princess play without a fist, he opened a pair of big and round eyes and looked at him curiously, as if asking him why he didn't let him play fist.There were not many princes and daughters in the palace, and Emperor Jinghui rarely saw such cute movements and expressions of children. Now seeing the cute look of the little princess, he couldn't help showing a gentle expression.

Emperor Jinghui heard Yanniang's footsteps coming in, raised his head and waved to Yanniang to signal her to come over, and said with a happy expression: "Yanniang, come and have a look, our little Fuqing can already spit bubbles .”

Yanniang walked over with a smile, and said softly to the emperor: "The little princess is greeting the emperor, she must know that her father is here to see her, so she is trying her best to express herself." Walking to the cradle, the little princess seemed to sense her mother walking beside her, and suddenly grinned, but the smile disappeared soon, and then yawned and tilted her head to look at the red brocade quilt next to her. The pattern of flowers blooming and riches embroidered on it is now.

Although the smile disappeared quickly, the emperor still saw it. The emperor pointed to the little princess's face in surprise and said, "Look, look, we just smiled."

Yanniang naturally saw it too, and couldn't help being moved by being a mother in her heart, but she said to the emperor with annoyance and coquettishness: "Our little Fuqing is really eccentric. The concubine takes care of her every day, and we don't see her. Smile at me, but the emperor laughed as soon as he came. It seems that the little princess only likes the father and not the mother. In the future, the emperor should come here less often, otherwise the little princess’s love will be snatched by the emperor. gone."

The emperor was delighted by the little princess's love for him, and saw that his concubine's jealousy was so cute, he couldn't help but feel more joyful, he pinched his concubine's nose with a smile, and said: "What kind of stupid talk is this? My jealousy is here, the little princess doesn’t love you, so I’ll come and love you every day from now on.”

Yanniang dealt with it again with anger and coquettishness, making Emperor Jinghui flatter even more joyful.Then the two teased the little princess together for a while, and Yanniang deliberately picked some interesting actions of the little princess to tell the emperor. Yanniang was good at speaking, which made Emperor Jinghui feel that the little princess was smart and cute. The little princess who praised again and again has a temperament like him.

In the evening, Emperor Jinghui naturally stayed in Lanhe Palace. After some intense non-ferrous sports, on the second day, the emperor went to court refreshed.

After the emperor left, Yanniang finished her grooming and went to pay her respects to the queen. After greeting her back, Yanniang found time to call Caitao in alone for questioning.

Yan Niang touched a gold-plated ring on her finger, and asked the painted pottery: "What happened to the painted pottery and the emperor's inner hall yesterday?"

Caitao recalled the performance of Caici in the past few days, organized his words, and then replied: "I'm afraid Caici's heart is a little big. When the emperor came to our palace a few days ago, Caici went up to serve him. The emperor praised the beautiful clothes on Caici. After that, Caici began to pay more attention to her own makeup. When the emperor came to the palace to visit the little princess yesterday, Caici rushed forward to serve her, and frequently said in front of the emperor. Something about little princesses."

When he said that, Painted Pottery was a little embarrassed.She and Caici both came out of Yongning Hou Mansion and entered the palace with Yanniang. Although the relationship between the two is not usually very good, but Caici did such a thing, so that she felt ashamed and felt a little embarrassed. I'm sorry Mrs. Chen.

Yanniang asked again: "Where is the emperor, how is the emperor's performance?"

Caitao continued: "The emperor's performance is nothing special. Since she praised Caici a few days ago, she hasn't paid special attention to her."

Yanniang tapped her fingers on the table a few times, pondered for a while, and continued to the painted pottery: "When the emperor comes in the future, let the colorful pottery go up to serve, and the other waiters should get out of the way." Withdrawing her hand on the table, she snorted disdainfully and said, "I'll give her a chance to see if it's just a crow that can fly up a branch and become a phoenix. It just so happens that Mrs. Lin Hou is tossing around these days." My younger sister should have had enough trouble, and it's time for me to give her a big gift."

Hearing this, Caitao knew that the final outcome of this Caici might not be able to escape a death sentence, and it might even affect her family.Caitao stood below, hesitating to speak, Yanniang saw it and asked directly: "Why, you think I'm cruel, and want to plead for Caici?"

Caitao nodded, then shook his head again, and said: "No, empress, this slave girl knows that she should die for Caici's thoughts that she shouldn't have. If empress doesn't deal with her first, it will only be empress' disaster. Whatever happened to her is her own fault. But after all, Caici and I came from the Marquis of Yongning, we share a sisterhood, and this servant wants to ask your mother not to hurt Caici's family when she disposes of Caici." Then he continued Kneeling down on the ground, she said to Yan Niang: "Your Majesty, I know that the behavior of Caici makes your Majesty sad, and I also ask you not to be sad. I assure you that as long as Caitao is here, I will never betray your Majesty." .” After finishing speaking, he kowtowed down.

Yanniang looked at the painted pottery below, feeling better from the disappointment caused by the colored pottery.Stand up and walk down personally, helped Caitao up, and said: "Get up, I know that you are different from Caici, so I have always trusted you the most, and I will do everything important to me. Leave it to you. In my heart, you are not just my servant, I regard you as my sister who lives with me in this palace, do you understand this, Caitao?"

In a dynasty with clear distinctions between superiority and inferiority, if a master says that he regards you as her sister, it is such an honor to be a servant.Caitao looked into Yanniang's eyes, and couldn't help being moved: "Your Majesty!"

Yanniang nodded to Caitao, and then continued: "As for Caitao, I won't do it myself, but I don't care how others treat her."

Cai Tao wiped her tears with her sleeves and nodded, "I understand, empress."

Yan Niang looked at Caitao's appearance, she couldn't help but smiled and said: "Okay, hurry up and wipe away your tears, then it's time to do something, I have something to tell you to do."

Painted Tao wiped away all the tears with his sleeve, and then immediately said: "Your Majesty, please tell me, this servant will be absolutely heartbroken, and I will not hesitate to die."

"It's not that serious." After speaking, she waved her hand to Caitao, Caitao put her ear to her knowingly, and Yanniang whispered a few words in Caitao's ear.After Caitao finished listening, she exclaimed in surprise, "Your Majesty, you..."

Yan Niang nodded and said: "I took my own pulse this morning. Although the pulse is light, I'm sure it's Hua pulse. You pass the news to the empress's palace, and the empress will find someone to confirm it after she knows it." Yes, what I say is more convincing to her than what she personally confirms. Also, find someone to tell my sister Yinniang the news."

Cai Tao said: "Yes, I'll do it now." After speaking, he saluted and went out.

Half a month later, news came from the palace: Empress Concubine Chen is pregnant again!

As soon as this news came out, the ears of a group of people were deafened.Then everyone began to scold the imperial physician who had taken the pulse at the time: Who said that Concubine Chen couldn't give birth? The black land turned out to be a saline-alkali land where not a single blade of grass grows, and you are too unprofessional.How many people have been ruined by delivering such a misleading message.

When the emperor in the palace first heard the news, his first reaction was to be happy. Who would dislike having many heirs, especially when his own heirs are not abundant, and his favorite concubine is pregnant? It's all something to be happy about.But after the initial excitement passed and his mood calmed down, the emperor began to feel that something was wrong.

It seems that Li Yuan was the one who diagnosed Concubine Chen's pulse at the beginning. It is said that Li Yuan is the best imperial physician in the imperial hospital, right? He was the one who diagnosed Chen Concubine as unable to conceive again, because he believed him that day After his consultation, he didn't send other imperial physicians for follow-up visits. As a result, the best imperial physician in this imperial hospital diagnosed that Concubine Chen, who could no longer conceive, conceived again less than four months after giving birth to the second princess. Well, if he doesn't suspect that there is something tricky in such a relationship chain, he will feel sorry for his IQ.

Then the emperor began to count Xiao Jiujiu in his heart: This imperial doctor ate food from my Tian family, but in the end he didn't necessarily listen to my Tian family's orders. This made me worry too much about my personal safety.This kind of thing has to be investigated, must be thoroughly investigated, and it must not be tolerated when it is found out.

So when the emperor ordered a vigorous investigation campaign, news came from outside the palace that Li Taiyi had sent away all the children and wives at home, and committed suicide by taking poison at home.Of course, things don't end when a person dies. The emperor said that he would continue to investigate thoroughly.After a thorough investigation, another thing was found out: this Li Yuanzheng is good in everything else, but he has a bad habit, lust.But in the past, he was lustful and well-proportioned, and only dealt with the concubines at home and the prostitutes in the brothel.But about seven or eight months ago, this imperial doctor Li actually slept with a woman from a good family. It is said that this woman from a good family is the mother of Concubine Shu, the niece and daughter-in-law of the second aunt's daughter-in-law of Mrs. Ning Guogong's natal cousin.This doctor Li is also lucky. He slept with his wife and was not beaten to death. In the end, he took in two new concubines.

As far as evidence theory is concerned, it is a bit unreasonable to force this matter on Concubine Shu and Ningguo Palace. After all, the relationship between the victim and Ningguo Palace is too far away.What happened to this matter, everyone knew it well.

After checking here, the emperor can know what's going on. In order to balance the foreign court, the emperor didn't ask people to investigate further.But a person like Li Taiyi who eats inside and outside can't be let go. If he dies, his wife and son will be chased back and beheaded directly.Then take this incident as a typical case and publicize it in Taiyuan Hospital: Look, look, this is the end of eating inside and outside.

As for the incident, the Empress took advantage of this incident to carry out a cleansing in the palace, especially the personnel affairs in Fengyi Palace, which is another story.

(End of this chapter)