inspire-indiana Chapter 23 The Queen Mother Returns to the Palace
Chapter 23 The Queen Mother Returns to the Palace
The next morning, before Jinse had returned, Su Nuannuan unexpectedly heard the news that the Empress Dowager was about to return to the palace. She dared not be negligent in the slightest, and hurriedly dressed herself up. She also specially instructed Su Yueniang to take good care of Cheng'er, and then hurriedly went to the palace gate with her personal maid Yaoqin to meet her.
When the Empress Dowager returned to the palace, not only did the Emperor and Empress need to come to greet her personally, but even the concubines with some status in the harem could not be absent.
Even the Crown Prince, who was only two years old, as well as the Second Prince and the Third Prince, had come to the palace gate and were being obediently looked after by their respective wet nurses.
Before long, a luxuriously decorated phoenix palanquin slowly approached on the road ahead; it was the Empress Dowager's carriage.
As the imperial carriage drew closer, everyone held their breath and focused intently, not daring to relax in the slightest.
After the imperial carriage stopped, the emperor stepped forward first and respectfully greeted the Empress Dowager: "Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty, and wishes Your Majesty good health and longevity." Immediately afterwards, the people behind him also bowed and paid their respects.
The Empress Dowager smiled at the large group of people before her, her eyes full of affection. She waved her hand and quickly said, "Rise quickly!" After everyone thanked her and stood up, the Empress Dowager looked them over carefully again, and then said to everyone except the Emperor, Empress and Crown Prince, "You should all go back to the palace first. I have some things to discuss with the Emperor and the others privately."
Upon hearing this, everyone responded in unison, "We will obey the Empress Dowager's decree." Then they left in an orderly manner.
As for what the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and the Empress actually discussed, Su Nuannuan had absolutely no interest in finding out. At this moment, the only thing on her mind was when Jinse would bring the wet nurse back.
Not long after Su Nuannuan returned to Cuiwei Palace, Jinse hurriedly returned with Honglian. Honglian respectfully bowed to Su Nuannuan and said, "This servant Honglian greets Consort Zhuang."
Su Nuannuan raised her hand slightly, indicating, "Rise." Then, she looked at Honglian and solemnly instructed, "Honglian, from now on, the important task of taking care of the little princess will be entrusted to you. As for the specific matters, Jinse must have explained them to you clearly on the way, so I will not repeat them here."
Honglian quickly curtsied again and replied, "Yes, this servant understands."
Su Nuannuan turned to Yaoqin and instructed her, "Yaoqin, take Honglian to Su Yueniang's place and bring the little princess over."
"Yes, Your Majesty. Honglian, please come with me." Yaoqin said softly to Honglian after accepting the order.
Honglian bowed to Su Nuannuan again before leaving the palace with Yaoqin.
After Honglian left, Jinse carefully pulled out a thick stack of silver notes from her sleeve. She walked respectfully to Su Nuannuan, handed over the stack of silver notes with both hands, and said softly, "Your Highness, this is a stack of ten thousand taels of silver notes that Madam specifically instructed me to give to you."
Su Nuannuan slightly raised her eyes, her gaze falling on the stack of silver notes in Jinse's hand. She extended her slender fingers, gesturing for Jinse not to rush to hand them over, and then said slowly, "You should keep them for me for now."
"By the way, Jinse, has Mother ever said anything about me adopting the princess?"
Jinse quickly replied, "Your Majesty, Madam said so. Madam said that Your Majesty has always been a blessed person, and now you have both a son and a daughter. She also instructed Your Majesty to take good care of yourself, the prince, and the princess, and that Your Majesty need not worry too much about anything in the manor."
After hearing Jinse's reply, Su Nuannuan nodded, indicating that she understood the situation at home. Then, after a moment's thought, she instructed Jinse to summon Li Quan into the hall. Not long after, Li Quan limped in quickly. He approached Su Nuannuan, bowed deeply, and loudly proclaimed, "This servant greets Your Majesty!"
"Li Quan, I order you to devise a plan to place our own people in each palace. This way, if I need to obtain certain information in the future, I will have a reliable source. I really don't want to be a blind man kept in the dark like before. You must handle this matter as soon as possible without any mistakes!"
"Your Majesty, this servant has already made all the arrangements. When I first reported this matter to Your Majesty, you didn't seem to care much, so I didn't dare to act rashly and haven't made any further contact with them." Li Quan bowed slightly, gave another respectful bow, and said cautiously.
Hearing Li Quan's words, Su Nuannuan couldn't help but smile slightly, her beautiful face as radiant as a flower blooming in spring. She nodded gently and said softly, "Li Quan, you handled this matter very well! I am very satisfied." As she spoke, she gave Li Quan a thumbs up, expressing her sincere appreciation.
Upon seeing this, Li Quan felt a surge of joy and quickly bowed again, saying with trepidation, "This servant thanks Your Majesty for your praise. It is truly an honor for this servant to receive such praise from Your Majesty."
Su Nuannuan's idea of establishing an intelligence system was actually thanks to Qinfei's advice last night.
Especially after Consort Mei's difficult childbirth was caused by the baby being too large, and the Imperial Physician Zhang, who was in charge of taking care of Consort Mei's pregnancy, is now imprisoned, suspicions have arisen in his mind.
What surprised Su Nuannuan even more was that the Empress Dowager returned to the palace today, but Consort Mei had already been quietly buried last night and sent to the imperial mausoleum.
She knew nothing about this matter! But upon closer reflection, it's not entirely the Empress's fault.
It turned out that the Empress received the message from the Empress Dowager close to midnight.
Because the incident happened so suddenly, the Empress had no choice but to simplify Consort Mei's funeral and hastily send her to the imperial mausoleum for burial that very night. After all, she couldn't allow a deceased person to offend the Empress Dowager who was about to return!
Thinking of this, Su Nuannuan frowned slightly, then turned to Li Quan beside her and instructed, "Li Quan, quickly go and investigate for me what exactly is going on with the fetus in Consort Mei's womb?"
Upon hearing his master's order, Li Quan quickly bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, this servant inquired about it this morning. As far as I know, Consort Li secretly bribed Imperial Physician Zhang to deliberately make the fetus in Consort Mei's womb grow too large. Her plan was to terminate the pregnancy and keep the child, so that after Consort Mei gave birth, she could adopt the child herself. Consort Li was punished by the Emperor and confined to the palace for three months to reflect on her actions."
As for Physician Zhang, he was ultimately sentenced to exile three thousand li away. Fortunately, the Emperor was merciful and did not extend his anger to Physician Zhang's family.
Perhaps out of consideration for his past achievements, or perhaps to prevent more innocent people from being implicated, the court punished Physician Zhang severely, but at least his family was spared from suffering the same fate.