Fengqi Palace.
The palace was crowded with concubines, all of whom had rushed there after hearing the news. At this moment, the queen was lying in the inner room while the imperial physician was stopping her bleeding.
Because the injury was to the lower abdomen, and the imperial physician was a man, it was not convenient for him to go in directly to examine the patient. He could only direct the palace maids to apply medicine to the queen's wound through the screen.
This was somewhat inconvenient, but fortunately, the medicine used was top-grade, and the bleeding stopped quickly.
"Where's the Queen? How is the Queen?"
This time the Queen Mother arrived quickly. As soon as she came in, she hurried to the inner room, and she really looked concerned.
Su'e hurriedly replied, "The Queen Mother was worried, but the bleeding has stopped and she is fine now."
The Queen Mother narrowed her eyes slightly, not sure whether she was angry or disappointed.
"What on earth is going on? Why would Lin Xiuyi want to assassinate the queen for no reason?"
"My Queen Mother, the incident happened suddenly, and Lin Xiuyi deliberately sent us away. We have no idea what happened inside. When we heard the noise and rushed in, Lin Xiuyi had already..." said Nanny Ding.
"What happened?" The queen mother's face was gloomy.
Madam Ding said with a stiff upper lip, "He's already like a madman, stabbing everywhere with a pair of bloody scissors."
This scene was described in just a few words, causing the concubines present to change their expressions.
Just as the Queen Mother was about to continue asking questions, she heard an announcement outside that the Emperor had arrived.
There was a sound of hurried footsteps, and then a tall bright yellow figure hurriedly entered the inner hall.
Everyone knelt down hurriedly to pay their respects, but Ning Chen said nothing. He just skipped them and went into the inner room to take a look.
The queen was extremely frightened, injured and bleeding, so she was not very conscious at the moment and was almost in a semi-comatose state.
After a while, Ning Chen came out with a frown on his face.
"Your Majesty, don't worry too much. I have already asked, and the Queen is fine for the time being."
"Well, I'm sorry to have worried you, mother. Please sit down first." Ning Chen nodded, helped the queen mother sit down first, then turned around and said, "All of you stand up. Who accompanied the queen today? What happened? Tell us everything."
Nanny Ding came forward and knelt down to answer.
I will explain the whole story.
"I was sent out by Lin Xiuyi. When I came back, I heard Lin Xiuyi saying that she had bribed the maidservants around Zhao and used musk on Zhao. When Zhao was near the bed to serve the queen, the queen's pregnancy became weaker and weaker, and finally she had a miscarriage. She also said that the death of the second prince's biological mother was also instigated by her to do so."
The amount of information suddenly became huge.
No one expected that a sickly Lin Xiuyi could secretly harm the Queen's pregnancy.
"But the Queen has always been kind to everyone in the harem, and Lin Xiuyi is also a gentle and calm person. Why did she suddenly want to assassinate the Queen? Is there some other hidden story behind this?"
Concubine Jing suddenly spoke cautiously.
But it was obvious that everyone wanted to know the answer to her question, so everyone's attention fell on Nanny Ding again.
Mrs. Ding was relatively calm, and continued to speak at a steady pace, "When I went in, I heard some words. It seemed that Lin Xiuyi misunderstood that the Empress was responsible for her miscarriage. I guess that's why she wanted to kill the Empress."
Concubine Shu rolled her eyes and pretended to be puzzled.
"When Lin had a miscarriage in the palace, the Japanese imperial concubine, the empress, and the emperor were not in the palace at that time. Later, it was found that it was the concubine Li who was jealous. How could the empress be involved? Could it be that... there is something else going on?"
"You are not allowed to criticize the queen." Ning Chen interrupted coldly, "What happened back then has already been settled. Tell me who is the one who is gossiping behind the scenes and instigating Lin to assassinate me. I will never let them off easily!"
At this point, there has been a concubine who assassinated the queen and murdered the legitimate heir. If it were to be revealed that the queen had murdered the illegitimate son first, the royal family would really lose all face.
Furthermore, if the Empress Dowager and the Harem are unstable, the previous dynasty will also be affected.
It is impossible to depose a queen at will, so the queen cannot be charged with murdering the concubines' children.
Even though Ning Chen had doubts in his heart, he couldn't do it.
His attitude still frightened the concubines, and no one dared to say anything more.
Of course, this also includes the Queen Mother.
After all, the Queen Mother has been wanting to support the Chen family to take the throne for a long time, and Ning Chen needs Xie to occupy the throne.
Just as Ning Chen was about to call Lin Xiuyi in for questioning, he saw a young eunuch hurried in.
He knelt on the ground with a pale face, "Your Majesty, Lin Xiuyi... is gone!"
Everyone was stunned.
Although we knew that Lin was in poor health, the news we got was that she would not survive the winter. The imperial decree for promotion was issued at noon, but now, in less than two hours, she was gone.
Ning Chen was also silent, and no one dared to speak at this moment.
Nanny Fu stood beside the Empress Dowager and touched her shoulder gently without making any expression.
The Queen Mother looked up at her and understood.
After considering it for a moment, he spoke in a gentle voice.
"Your Majesty, the deceased is gone, and the Empress is fine. In my opinion, you should bury her first. Lin is seriously ill and her mind is in a trance. It is possible that she has been possessed by a demon for a while. It is hard for the Empress to suffer such a series of misfortunes. It is better to punish Lin and not allow her to enter the imperial concubine's tomb, and bury her as a commoner."
The Queen Mother could see clearly that the Queen's hands might not be clean, but Lin also had a life on her hands. Both sides were guilty, but Ning Chen was determined to protect the Queen.
This treatment punished Lin but did not protect the Queen, so it struck a balance.
"Mother has thought it through carefully. Let's do it this way." Ning Chen lowered his eyes, and his thoughts could not be seen.
Just added something else.
"After what happened today, if anyone in the harem dares to speak nonsense, I will not let them off easily. You all should keep your mouths shut, and the servants around you should sew their mouths shut. If anyone spreads words that shouldn't be said in the palace, I will only punish the master!"
Lin's assassination of the queen involved the lives of two royal heirs and two concubines. Further investigation would only reveal more secrets, so we had to stop here.
Yao Xiang was sitting among the concubines and really wanted to spread rumors, but Ning Chen's move blocked her way.
I can only give up.
By the time everyone came out of Fengqi Palace, it was already past dinner time.
This time, since he didn't have to serve the sick, Ning Chen directly exempted him from the task and also ordered that everyone be exempted from paying respects, and no one should be disturbed unless the queen summoned him.
Obviously, he was also a little angry with the Queen for not giving her the opportunity to criticize the concubines.
Ye Jun was in a heavy mood and didn't say a word all the way back.
I didn't eat much for dinner.
Huiyue felt distressed and consoled him softly, "Xiu Rong, don't be too sad. This has always been the case in the palace. Lin is not the first one."
"Yeah, not the first one, nor the last one." Ye Jun paused and looked out the window. It was pitch black. "I don't know how long I can hold on."
Who is born to love fighting, especially in a place where one can die at any time.
"Go to sleep. There will be new people coming in next year and we will have to fight again."
Ye Jun took a deep breath, gave a self-comforting smile, then stood up and went into the inner room.