Although Empress Dowager Jiang said she didn't care about little Dou's visit to the palace at night to meet Jiang Huizhi, she was still worried about it.
So I tossed and turned all night and still couldn't sleep well. I didn't get up until Chen the next day. While I was dressing up, I heard the palace official reported: "The Princess Yongfu is here!"
The Queen Mother looked at the copper drain in the corner of the palace and was a little surprised: "So early?"
It is already late for ordinary people, but Princess Yongfu is the Queen Mother's only biological flesh and blood. She has been carefully cared for by the Queen Mother since she landed. She is not willing to let her suffer any grievances and cannot bear to suffer any pain - What is the meaning of morning and evening? It doesn't matter, as long as the eldest princess is happy!
Therefore, Princess Yongfu had a habit rarely seen among young women at this time: getting up late.
No matter how early she went to bed the night before, she would basically not get up until midday the next day.
Now it is the beginning of the morning, and the eldest princess has actually entered the palace. Calculating the time, she got up very early today.
The Queen Mother was inevitably surprised, but she immediately said: "Hurry up and come in, the wind is very cold now!"
While he was talking, Yongfu had already entered the palace, came up to greet her, and comforted her: "Ms. Lin was loyal and loyal during her lifetime. Even if she goes away, she will definitely wish her mother a good child. She never wants her to be sad for her. Please express my condolences to her!" "
Empress Dowager Jiang looked at her in surprise: "What did you say?" Of course the Empress Dowager was not used to it when her old servant of many years left - but this time the servant went behind her back to murder her nephew-in-law, and was found out by her nephew. , the Queen Mother's mood is not simple grief but complicated!
She didn't tell Yongfu these things, but what did Yongfu mean by mentioning Miss Lin
The Queen Mother frowned and asked, "Who told you about Miss Lin?! I asked you to come to me to intercede or to do something?"
"No one said anything about Miss Lin!" Princess Yongfu explained, "Brother Seventh Emperor sent someone to his daughter's house at dawn this morning to tell the queen that you have been in a bad mood these days and asked her to come to the palace to accompany her. To accompany you, that's why my daughter came - she was thinking that her 19th cousin-in-law has woken up and her mother is in a bad mood, so she must be Miss Lin? "
Seeing that Empress Dowager Jiang looked unhappy, the eldest princess changed her mind and said hurriedly, "Then it's for Shao'er? Mother, Shao'er is the eldest prince of Da Rui, and he has the protection of Guo Zuo and my ancestors of the Chu family. , he will definitely recover soon. Please don’t worry about him, Queen Mother. I heard from Brother Qihuang that you have been eating less in the past few days. This is not possible for your body..."
While he was talking, the palace attendant came up again to report: "Your Majesty is here, please see me outside the palace!"
"Ai Jia was about to ask him what he meant?" Empress Dowager Jiang always felt that something was wrong - the emperor had always been very filial to her, but seeing that she was in a bad mood these days, she asked Princess Yongfu to come into the palace to accompany her, which was fine. make sense. But there is no way that the emperor didn't know Yongfu's habit of staying in bed, and he also knew how much the Queen Mother loved her biological daughter. How could he go to the eldest princess's mansion to call for someone at dawn
After a while, the emperor came in alone. He was wearing a jade crown and was very formally dressed. However, although there were beads hanging down in front of the jade crown, it still could not hide his tired face.
"The child has been unhappy these days when he saw his mother, so he took it upon himself to invite the emperor's sister into the palace in order to give his mother a surprise." After saluting, the emperor smiled and said, "I wonder if my mother is surprised?"
Hearing this, Empress Dowager Jiang still had lingering doubts. She frowned and said, "Why don't you go call Yongfu so early in the morning? It's not like you don't know that Yongfu always sleeps."
"Mother!" Princess Yongfu shook her arm with some embarrassment and said coquettishly, "How can my daughter be so sleepy? When the emperor brother sent someone to call, my daughter was already awake! She just got up later if there was nothing to do. ! Since I know you are in a bad mood, how can I not come to greet you immediately?"
Being spoiled by the eldest princess, the queen mother could not continue to blame her, so she had to change the subject: "By the way, you came here in person, I wonder how Shao'er is doing? I'm not going to court today, so how can I wear a crown? ?Cen Wei didn’t follow you either?”
"Shao'er is much better this morning. Children like bright and colorful things. During the previous dynasty, when the child wore a crown, he would not let go." The emperor said calmly, "I changed the child to make him happy. This whole body... I just put him to sleep, thinking that I haven't seen my mother for a long time, and the emperor's sister happened to be here today, so I came directly - Cen Wei stayed with the child for several nights, but just now he couldn't stand it any longer. So I asked him to rest. Anyway, the road from Zishen Palace to Ganquan Palace is not difficult to walk. I walked alone while looking at the snow, and I arrived unconsciously! "
"That's it!" Although Empress Dowager Jiang felt that this explanation was a bit far-fetched, the emperor had always been docile, so she didn't think much about it. She suddenly thought of Li Chu and said, "Shao'er likes him very much? Could it be a hint? Do you want to appoint Shao'er as the heir? Tianchi said before that the matter of the heirloom should be waited for when Northern Xinjiang is settled - isn't it now? Furthermore, Tianchi was unwilling to appoint the heir apparent because he was worried that the Xin family would be too expanded. Even if the Jiang family is not afraid of becoming the Tao family again, it has calmed down a lot since they used Miss Chen’s incident to beat the Xin family during their summer vacation last year!
"It doesn't matter, even if the prince comes from the Xin family, the Xin family will continue to tremble in the future. But Tianchi will come back in person soon, and he will be there to control it. I am not afraid of big troubles in the Xin family... Shao'er is very sick now. If I could be in the East Palace, maybe it would be better if I felt happy?"
The Queen Mother had always planned to make Chu Shao the crown prince, so after thinking about the emperor's real intention of coming here today, she put down her guard and started talking and laughing with the son and daughter in front of her.
The emperor was very eye-catching and did not want to steal the spotlight from his legitimate sister, so he spent most of his time with Princess Yongfu chatting with the Queen Mother, occasionally interjecting a few words just to cheer her up, and basically serving tea beside her. The water deliveryman served Empress Dowager Jiang and was willing to do the green leaves that set off the red flowers.
Even when the incense burner was full, the palace servants wanted to change the incense, but the emperor got there first - this was the height of filial piety.
After lighting the new incense, the Queen Mother finally noticed the emperor's attentiveness, and said warmly: "The emperor has been with the Ai family for a long time, and he is also concerned about Bei Que, so why not go there first?" In order to express her gratitude to the emperor's eldest son, Even though she was sick, she thought of the satisfaction of honoring her aunt, the Queen Mother, and said specifically, "After lunch later, Ai Jia and Yong Fu will also go and have a look!"
The emperor was startled when he heard this. He glanced at the incense burner inadvertently and smiled: "Thank you, mother, for your thoughtfulness!"
He respectfully bowed out of the Taishi Palace, but did not walk towards the Zishen Palace. Instead, he walked along the corridor to a deserted area behind the corner, where he stopped, raised his hands, and looked down at the white mountains outside the railing with an indifferent expression. white snow.
After a moment, he clenched his fist hard, then let go, turned around and walked towards Taishi Temple.
Just as I turned the corner, I almost collided head-on with two palace maids who were rushing towards me!
"Your Majesty?!" One of the palace maids exclaimed after barely stopping her steps, then she woke up and said sternly, "The Queen Mother has given you an order, Your Majesty, to go to the Taishi Palace as quickly as possible!"
"I'm about to go there!" The emperor glanced at them indifferently - this was an expression that the maids of Taishi Palace had never seen before. In the past, even if he was a palace servant in Taishi Palace, the emperor would always have a gentle attitude and a smile on his face. welcome.
So at this moment, the two palace maids were stunned and angry: "Why do you show off when you are about to die?! Your Majesty's face was very ugly when she just gave the order... If it were normal, we might beg for you, since You are really showing off your master’s face now, let’s see how we will add insult to injury later!”
The two palace maids who were gnashing their teeth followed the emperor into the palace. They saw the Empress Dowager Jiang sitting in front of her, her face sinking, and her heart secretly happy. They were thinking of words to add fuel to the fire. Unexpectedly, the emperor suddenly spoke first: "The empress suddenly summoned her. The child is very clear about the reason for his return! Please kill these two maids first, so that the child will not be able to say anything!"
"What?!" The two palace maids almost thought they heard wrongly!
What surprised them even more was that Empress Dowager Jiang didn't even think about it when she heard this: "Pull her down and behead her! Get her head back quickly!"
"The mother is really happy!" A smile appeared on the emperor's cold face, and he said stroking his hands, "In this case, the child will not go around in circles. The mother issued another decree to summon Jiang Ba, Jiang Jiu, and their male heirs into the palace. how?"
"It's strange that my father said that the Ai family can only serve as a cover for the family. The real regent will definitely not succeed without the help of her mother's family!" Empress Dowager Jiang looked at him with a complicated expression and said lightly, "The Ai family has always thought that you are well-behaved and sensible, but I don't think you are trying to take advantage of your courage... But how stupid are you? If you had just paid it off before, now that the war in Northern Xinjiang has ended, and there are successive victories in Western Xinjiang, you actually take such a dangerous move at this time! You tricked the heirs of the fourth house into entering the palace, and you said that even if you really harmed the descendants of the fourth house, how could you be in charge? You are so naive!"
The emperor looked at her mockingly: "What the mother said is really unfair to the child! If the child is really a fool, how could he have deceived the mother all these years? Is the mother worse than a fool?!"
"What do you mean by launching an attack today?!" Empress Dowager Jiang glanced coldly at the incense burner not far away - speaking of it, the Empress Dowager was also quick to react. As soon as she noticed something was wrong, she found the place where the tampering was done and remembered the emperor. I used to be a low-key person and poured out the incense burner and changed the incense. Unfortunately, looking at the emperor's confident appearance now, it was obviously too late to find him now!
"Of course I want to support you before I die!" The emperor's tone was understated, but his face was distorted. He tried his best to suppress his resentment and said with a weird smile, "After all, the imperial concubine's family is ready to invest the life of the child. If the child didn't attack first, wouldn't it be an unjust death? Mother, don't you think so?"
"The imperial concubine's family wants your life?!" Empress Dowager Jiang was shocked, "Shao'er is gone!?"
When the Queen Mother thought about it, although the imperial concubine gave birth to a second prince, she was still far away from the Taishi Palace where she lived - at least when Chu Shao was alive, the prince could not go to Quezhi Palace no matter what!
Only Chu Shao died young and the emperor had only one prince under his knees. If the emperor died, then the new king could only be the second prince who had not yet been named!
However, the emperor shook his head and said calmly: "Shao'er's fever broke down again this morning, and his breathing was very stable when the child came over. Maybe after this time, he will get better!"
"Then why did the imperial concubine want to kill you?!" Empress Dowager Jiang was stunned - but she saw the emperor looking at her with a half-smile, and slowly said: "Mother, do you really not know what happened in Northern Xinjiang, or did you not see it at all? !”
"Northern Xinjiang?" Empress Dowager Jiang was startled, her mind was spinning, and she seemed to have thought of something, her face suddenly changed, "Tianchi... he actually has such thoughts?! Wei Dao refused to appoint Shao'er as his crown prince before?! "
"Since the Queen Mother has thought about it, she should also think clearly about today's decree. Shouldn't it be carried out?" The emperor glanced at the back hall with cold eyes and asked solemnly, "After all, there is no antidote for Wu Lan Xiang in this world." The second one! The queen has learned martial arts with the Duke of Qin in her early years, but now she can only suppress it temporarily - if she doesn't give an answer as soon as possible, isn't she afraid that she will lose her life? "