In the past year, the emperor's health has not been as good as before. He has been sick for more than a month, coughing and dizziness during the day, palpitations and night sweats at night, difficulty falling asleep, finally falling asleep, and having many nightmares. A feeling of emptiness and loss will remain in my heart for a long time.
His hair was a lot grayer, and his handsome face climbed with traces of the years. Facing the children and concubines around him, for some reason, he felt impatient and even bored. He prefers to be alone more and more, and only a letter from the eldest prince who was raised by him can make him feel a little more happy.
That person was also in Lin'an Mansion, but in the letter, the First Prince never mentioned her at all. The emperor checked the thick stack of letters repeatedly, searching word by word, but found nothing in the end. He thought that the eldest prince would come back at the end of the year and spend the Spring Festival with him, but he never expected that he would encounter Japanese pirates and almost died at the bottom of the sea.
When he received the battle report, the emperor's mind was blank and he couldn't think about anything. When he came back to his senses, the civil and military officials of the Manchu dynasty had already knelt down, and he unknowingly wrote an edict to go to Lin'an Mansion. . It was only at this moment that he slowly let out a breath, as if helpless and relieved.
Half a month later, he was accompanied by the Du brothers and sisters to the Taoist temple, quietly watching the man standing on the edge of the cliff with his back to him.
"You're here." The man spit out three words that were neither cold nor indifferent, and the howling wind blew up from the bottom of the cliff, blowing her voice to pieces. She didn't kneel down or go up to greet her, she just stared at the layered dark clouds in the distance, wondering what she was thinking.
"I'm here." The emperor opened his mouth and realized that his voice was so dry, as if he had exhausted all his strength to squeeze out these words. To this day, he still remembered the tearful eyes of this person before leaving, and the bloody scars crisscrossing her forehead. And their feelings are like those scars, painful and deep, but they can never be restored.
"It's going to rain." The emperor didn't know what to say to her, so he could only speak indiscriminately.
"Yeah, it's going to rain." Queen Du finally turned her head and looked at the group.
Rao is that Du Rusong and Du Ruyan have been used to seeing this aunt who has been reborn in Nirvana these days, and they can't help but be stunned, not to mention the unprepared emperor and his confidants.
The guards stared at her dumbfounded, and then made a series of gasping sounds. The emperor took a step back, seemingly unbearable, then took a few steps forward and shouted hoarsely: "Fan, Fange?"
A gust of wind blew up from the bottom of the cliff with water vapor wrapped in it, stirring the hem of Queen Du's pure black clothes. The hem of her clothes reflected the layers of dark clouds behind her, like waves, and like some ominous omen. Empress Du just stared at the emperor indifferently, then turned her head and continued to look into the distance. A manzhushahua in full swing bloomed between her eyebrows, so enchanting, so confusing, but her eyes were like bottomless pools, and there was no trace of emotion. She lost a lot of weight, and the overly large robes shrouded her, fluttering gently, as if blending with the tumbling, invisible darkness behind her.
She used to be so beautiful and flamboyant, but now she is more beautiful than ever, but she has lost her scorching temperature. Looking at her dark and cold eyes, the emperor was struck by a sudden, indescribable pain.
"Fan Ge, is that you?" He confirmed again, his eyes could hardly be taken away from her lonely figure.
"Come here quickly, the edge of the cliff is dangerous." Seeing another gust of wind blowing the hem of Queen Du's clothes, the emperor's heart almost stopped beating. In a trance, he thought in cold sweat: If Fan Ge took another step forward, would he disappear into this endless black cloud forever
Empress Du seemed to have never heard of his words.
The emperor wanted to step forward, but he was afraid to startle her, so he could only change the subject: "I came here to ask clearly why you did that. You and I have more than 20 years of relationship, why can't you trust me?"
Queen Du finally turned her head and said word by word, "This is what I want to ask you as well, why can't you believe me?" She looked at the dim sky again, her voice erratic: "You know, two Ten years ago, in order to save you from the cold pond, I was seriously injured, and I will never be able to conceive again. I am worried that you will feel guilty and blame yourself, so I ordered the imperial doctor to keep this secret. The first prince lost his mother at an early age. He raised him, the fourth prince, the sixth prince, as long as your children lose their mother, which one is not my child? I already knew that I could not bear children. If I really wanted to adopt a child of my own, why wait for two years? It took ten years to bring the Li family into the palace? For so many years, I have been in charge of the sixth palace for you, raising children, and you have been on the brink of life and death several times. For you, I can even risk my life, in exchange for What? Do you know? As long as you said a word to me, I would tell you the secret. I hit a pillar, I went on a hunger strike, I stood in front of the cold palace waiting for you day and night, but it was a piece of paper. After the edict, I don't want to say anything, forget it, that's all..."
When telling all this, Queen Du's tone was very calm, as if telling someone else's story. She smiled lowly and said indifferently, "It's raining, it's time for Your Majesty to go back."
It's boring, it's really boring... She shook her head, her smile was silent, as if the past had been buried, leaving only a piece of filth.
The first time the emperor heard about this, his heart seemed to be cut by a sharp blade, and the pain was unstoppable. He said in disbelief: "Twenty years ago, did you know that you are infertile? I, I don't know." Twenty years ago, because of his assassination, he was forced to jump into a cold pool to escape, but because of his hands and feet, he was forced to jump into a cold pool to escape. Cramps, unable to swim ashore. Queen Du led the guards to rescue him in a hurry, jumped into the ice-cold water when everyone gave up on him, and rescued him from the bottom of the pool. Since then, Empress Du has been extremely afraid of the cold. Every winter, she will be reluctant to move by the fire, and every menstrual period will be excruciatingly painful.
He only said that she suffered for himself, but he didn't expect that she had lost even the most precious thing of a woman. Looking at this charming but indifferent face, the emperor was a little panicked.
The raindrops fell, wetting everyone's clothes, and also wetting Queen Du's face. The fiery red manzhushahua made her as bright as the scorching sun, but it made her look more and more cold. She took one last look at the emperor and walked away in the mud. The emperor stood there blankly, his face covered with rain or tears.
Du Rusong and Du Ruyan bowed silently and disappeared into the rain.
After a long time, the emperor suddenly returned to his senses and staggered to the Taoist temple. He slammed on the door of the quiet room, but got no response. He called out Empress Du's name over and over again, but only the cold wind whistled in his ears.
Winter was clearly over, but the weather was so cold, it was bone-chilling.
…
After returning to the mansion where he was temporarily staying, the emperor called the imperial doctor who had served him for more than 20 years and asked, "The queen can't have children?"
The imperial doctor knelt down tremblingly and said, "Yes, in order to save Your Majesty, the Empress was seriously injured, and she cannot conceive from now on. At that time, Your Majesty's cold air entered her body, her life was in danger, and she could not bear any stimulation, so the Empress ordered Wei Chen to hide it. The minister is convicted and asks the emperor's forgiveness."
"Why didn't you say it earlier? Why didn't you say it earlier!?" No wonder the queen treats each of his children as her own and teaches patiently, but she has long known that in this life, she will never have the chance to be a mother again. Several princes were brought up by her own hands and had a deep relationship with her. Why should she murder the Li family? The one in Li's stomach didn't know whether it was a prince or a princess. What was the use of killing Li's? Twenty years later, if she wanted to adopt a child, why wait until now
The reason why the queen was demoted was that the biggest crime was murdering the emperor's heir. Once the emperor believed this, and then became frustrated with Empress Du, but now, his heart seems to be tightly wrapped by a fire, anxious, painful, and unbearable.
That night, the emperor fell ill, but the next day he forced his sick body to go to the Taoist temple, wanting to see Empress Du. Queen Du stayed behind closed doors.
On the third day, he still went to the Taoist temple and was unable to see his old friend; on the fourth and fifth days... After seven consecutive days, he was so sick that he could not even get out of bed, and his already thin cheeks were sunken at a speed visible to the naked eye. Going down, the hair mixed with many silver threads gradually showed signs of being dyed with snow.
On the ninth day, he developed a high fever and fell into a coma.
The eldest prince couldn't afford to kneel in Queen Du's quiet room for a long time. At midnight, the door that had been closed for a long time finally opened. Queen Du, who was beautiful but had a cold expression, lowered her eyes to look at him, her eyes were indescribably deep.
…
The emperor had another nightmare. He found himself immersed in a cold pool surrounded by floating water plants and bottomless darkness. The biting cold made his hands and feet stiff, unable to escape. He was soon unable to breathe, but in desperation he saw a familiar figure swimming towards him quickly. The man pushed aside the water plants, revealing a beautiful and unparalleled face, opened his mouth again, and breathed a fresh breath into his mouth. He hugged her tightly, like a ray of light in the dark, and like a fire in the boundless cold.
Desperate and anxious, he was gone in an instant...
"Fan Ge!" He suddenly opened his eyes, only to find that the person he dreamed of was actually lying beside his bed, holding his hand tightly with one hand, taking care of him personally like every time he was sick in the past He is always there, guarding him all the time, never leaving for a moment.
"Fan Ge!" At this moment, the tearful emperor had to admit that he couldn't let go of this person, and he couldn't watch her drifting further and further away, and finally became a stranger.