In Qingning Palace, the Queen Mother had long known that Mrs. Tai and Jiuniang had entered the palace one after another. When Jiuniang came, she even brought a strange man to Qianqing Palace, but she kept suppressing her emotions and did not let anyone go to Qianqing Palace. She made inquiries. Sure enough, her wait was not in vain. Mrs. Tai and Jiuniang finally came in person and brought news that was unexpected to her and could indeed be said to be extremely shocking.
Unlike Yuquan, whose expression changed greatly, the Queen Mother seemed very calm, and even laughed: "Sure enough, the closer to the end of the year, the more messy things happen. I don't know whether it is a group of demons dancing around, or Erlang's fate is really too bad. good!"
The Queen Mother did not speak, but Jiuniang had always felt awkward in Qingning Palace, so she was even more taciturn than when she was in Qianqing Palace. The silence between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law did not affect the Queen Mother's mood. She sighed slightly, but then He asked straightforwardly: "Is the emperor going to summon the people on that boat now? How did the people get brought in when the city gate is closed?"
"I asked Yingying to go in person." Although the Queen Mother's eyes suddenly turned sharp, Jiuniang remained calm, "The city gate is locked, and officials are not allowed to enter or exit the city unless it is for urgent reasons such as military affairs or other important matters. At this time, It is more appropriate for Yingying to go out of the city to meet her elder brother with an excuse rather than using the name of the master. And Dalang is in charge of the five-city military division and has the right of passage, so it is easy to lead people into the city."
"The Queen Mother may say that Yingying should not be involved in this kind of thing, but she is not a child anymore, and she has her own priorities. If you hide everything from her, then you are underestimating her. As for the family, I It has been entrusted to Erlang, and the matter has been roughly mentioned to him. If he never has the opportunity to be independent, how can he grow up? "
The Queen Mother had previously ordered Zhu Hong to make a trip, but now that she heard what Jiuniang said, she also felt that her daughter-in-law had thought more thoughtfully, so she immediately agreed: "The Queen Mother, Jiuniang's measures are very appropriate. When we go out of the city at this time, it is indeed better for Yingying to come forward. Others will turn around and say that this girl is domineering and arrogant. Anyway, she is used to it. Yingying is thick on the outside and delicate on the inside, so she can definitely handle it."
"Of course she can. As long as this girl wants to do it, she can do everything." The Queen Mother sighed helplessly, with a bit of sadness in her voice, "I just hope that she will not be involved in these messy things and be good. It would be great if she and her wishful husband could become a couple of gods."
"There is no such thing as a couple in the world who can't live with the world. If there is, it's not Ah Shou and Ying Ying."
This time it was the Queen Mother who made fun of her. She even mentioned the incident of Zhu Ying coming back today as a joke, which made the Queen Mother laugh. But after laughing, the Queen Mother immediately remembered the time when the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in front of her entered the palace. , and immediately ordered Yuquan to ask someone to pass on the meal. But when Yuquan went out in person and came in again, he brought another news.
"Someone from the Qianqing Palace said that the Emperor has invited His Highness the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince to have dinner together. He also asked the Queen Mother not to worry."
"Thank God!" The Queen Mother finally breathed a sigh of relief. Her son knew best. Although he was often careless and independent, the emperor was a very emotional person, and sometimes he would even forget his position as a king. , and will be more dedicated to being a son, a brother, a friend, and even a father.
Now that the emperor has recovered from the possible grief, she knows that the next thing to pay attention to is the reaction from the outside world and the aftermath. Therefore, she left the wife and Jiuniang to have dinner at her place Later, when she heard that the two of them said that they did not intend to wait for Zhu Ying to return home together, but to resign first, she did not persuade them to stay.
"If Yingying insists on going back, the emperor will naturally send someone to see her off. If she wants to stay in the palace, whether it is Qingning Palace or Qianqing Palace, there are plenty of places where she can stay for one night. You don't have to worry."
She ordered Yuquan to personally take the two of them to Qingning Gate, and then take them out of the palace in two sedans. The Queen Mother thought wholeheartedly about how to deal with this matter. Therefore, when Yuquan came back, what she saw was a beautiful scene under the candlelight. A Buddha-like Queen Mother.
She gently extinguished some of the other candles, making the light in the room even dimmer. Then she came to the Queen Mother holding a cloak and asked softly: "The Queen Mother, are you going to wash up and go to bed? Or should you continue to sit here for a while?"
The Queen Mother ignored Yuquan's question, let alone the foot bath she had to do every night. She pondered for a moment and then answered the question: "I remember that after Concubine Jing moved out of Kunning Palace, she seemed unwilling to move to the East and West Sixth Palace. So they moved to Xian'an Palace behind Qingning Palace?"
Yuquan was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Exactly, because Concubine Jing was noisy at first, the people who served her were afraid that she would disturb the Queen Mother, so they often made her drink a calming decoction."
The Queen Mother wanted to know why the former queen and now the concubine moved to Xian'an Palace, which was originally used to house the concubines and concubines. It was she who personally deposed the queen for unfilial piety, and this was the reason why the queen who had always relied on her For the queen, that was probably the hardest thing to accept, and she felt like she had been betrayed the most. Therefore, the queen probably went crazy wanting to see her.
She stood up slowly and said lightly: "I haven't seen her since she came here. Let's go and see her now."
Yuquan was immediately shocked. What kind of character the Queen Mother is, if others don't know it, how can she not know it? Even though she has only been in charge of politics for a short period of time, less than eight years, she can be the kind of person who dominates a young country and is suspicious of a woman. How could he be a soft-hearted person who cares about old relationships when he smoothly handed over the power to the emperor while the emperor was in charge of the government?
Haven't you seen that even the Queen Mother's biological brothers have not been able to step into the capital in these years? It's nothing to depose the Queen. The concubine failed to live up to the Queen Mother's kindness and expectations, and brought up the eldest prince and the second prince to be like this. , the Queen Mother has long been disappointed with people.
But Yuquan did not dare to advise the Queen Mother not to go to Xian'an Palace at such a late hour, because she knew that the Queen Mother did not like people's advice the most, so she could only hurriedly put a cloak on someone, followed her and asked: " Empress Dowager, do you want me to go to Xian'an Palace to tell you first? Then ask a few more people to hold lamps and prepare them?"
Seeing that the Empress Dowager acquiesced, Yuquan hurriedly went out to give instructions. In the end, she even called on six additional servants from the Qingning Palace to accompany her. When she returned to the room, she saw a string of Buddhist beads in the hands of the Empress Dowager.
Knowing that the Queen Mother's belief in Buddhism was actually more of a show, and Buddhist beads were mostly used to suppress anger and calm her mind, she immediately broke into a cold sweat and waited for the Queen Mother to put on a pair of thick leather boots and wear them outside her cloak. Wrapped in a mink fur cloak, she helped someone go out, got into the warm sedan, lowered the sedan curtain, and couldn't help but rub her hands.
The emperor is meeting the witnesses of the Song family in the Qianqing Palace. Even if they really know what is going on here, I am afraid they will not come, let alone the third and fourth princes. If the Queen Mother really wants to do something... who can stop it Can you live in it?
But at this time, it was too late to think about these things. She could only pray secretly in her heart that the Queen Mother would not go crazy after hearing the news. Because the Queen Mother's current seemingly calm but in fact uncertain mood was really unacceptable. Know what will happen!
Xian'an Palace had been locked at night. However, after receiving an urgent message from Yuquan, when the Queen Mother's sedan stopped in front of the door, the courtyard door had already been quietly opened. Several people came out of it. When the elders of the palace saw the curtain of the sedan chair raised, and the Queen Mother seemed to be about to get off the sedan chair, the leader hurriedly stepped forward to stop her and said: "The Queen Mother, the yard is dark, please just have someone carry the warm sedan chair to the front of the main hall."
Looking at the dark courtyard, the Queen Mother did not insist. The expenses in the palace have always been simple, that is, when the emperor went to a certain palace every night, he would light stone pillars and street lamps in advance on the road he must pass, and other The palace and gardens would be dark at night, let alone Xian'an Palace where no one would come.
When the warm sedan stopped again, she bent down and got off the sedan with Yuquan's support. When she finally stood in front of the thick blue silk quilted door curtain, she asked: "Is Concubine Jing sleeping now?"
The Queen Mother is coming, even if Concubine Jing is really asleep, people will wake her up by tossing her, not to mention that Concubine Jing is basically turning day and night upside down, talking crazy and stupid at one time, and she really hasn't gone to bed at this time. .Therefore, the elder palace man who followed hesitated for a while and finally told the truth.
"Reporting to the Queen Mother, Concubine Jing is writing a letter in her room."
This answer was beyond the Queen Mother's expectations. Writing a letter? After being deposed, people still have the ability to send letters outside the palace? Thinking about it, it seemed ridiculous. She suddenly frowned slightly and asked: "Writing a letter to whom? To whom? Who sent it out after it was finished?"
"No one... no one sent it out. The slave has collected a whole box." The palace servant glanced at the Queen Mother cautiously and whispered, "Since I got paper and pen, Concubine Jing has become much more at ease. Although she spent the whole day He will also talk some crazy things, but most of the time he just writes letters with all his strength. Some are written to senior ministers, some are written to senior officials, and some are written to royal family members..."
At this time, the Queen Mother finally understood. Since there were letters that could not be delivered, these people naturally let Concubine Jing write them. After all, people would not make a fuss and save a lot of trouble. As for delivering those letters In front of her and the emperor, no one would do this, because neither she nor the emperor liked to tell the truth. The emperor even made it clear when he moved to the palace.
It is said that the emperor ordered not to bother him with the matter of Concubine Jing anymore. If he wanted to die, it would not matter as long as he was rescued, just go to the Imperial Hospital. Anyway, Concubine Jing could not leave the palace, let alone give anything away, so he was not afraid of this useless queen. What kind of trouble will happen!
The Queen Mother didn't even mention that she wanted to see what Concubine Jing had written. She smiled calmly and said, "Let's go, take me to see this former Queen who is pretending to be crazy and acting stupid."
Including Yuquan, no one expected that the Queen Mother would immediately conclude that Concubine Jing was pretending to be crazy. But no one dared to ask the Queen Mother how she knew it. On the contrary, the palace official who just said that he had received Concubine Jing's letters was quite regretful. .
She felt that doing more was better than doing less. Neither the Queen Mother nor the Emperor were harsh people, so every time the concubine asked her to deliver a letter, she would put it in the box and store it. If she had known this, she would have packed everything in the box.
They were all sent to Qingning Palace!
But the Queen Mother didn't care what others thought. When she followed the palace servant who led the way into the West Room and saw the woman who was concentrating on writing a letter under the dim candlelight, she couldn't help but pause for a moment, but she didn't take a closer look at this person first.
She personally selected the emperor, but now she became the concubine of the deposed queen. Instead, she took a look at the surrounding environment.
The move to the palace was arranged by the emperor, and the people in Xian'an Palace were selected by Chu Kuan. None of the palace servants from Kunning Palace in the past were retained. All the palace servants who served here voluntarily stayed in the palace and were under the age of thirty.
The above may not be as lively and beautiful as those young palace servants, but at least there is one advantage. They will not find this kind of life after the service is exhausted. Therefore, at first glance, the Xian'an Palace is well-organized, with corners
There are even flowers in the porcelain vase.
Concubine Jing looks quite thin from the side, but her dress is very neat, and the bun on her head is not messy. At least she doesn't look like the image of a resentful woman in the palace with disheveled hair. However, no matter what the concubine Jing's wrists are, there are still
On the earlobes of her head, the Queen Mother could not see any gold and jade ornaments. She knew that this was probably not because she was indifferent because she was already a cripple, but because she was afraid of committing suicide.
After quietly looking at the woman who was only paying attention to her own letter, after a while, the Queen Mother calmly ordered: "After all, she is the imperial concubine. Don't be short of her things. Give her the gold and jade jewelry that should be given to her. Don't leave her alone."
Afraid that she would seek suicide."
The elderly worker who had been answering the questions was about to refuse, but when she heard the Queen Mother's last words, she immediately shut up in awe, and the thought that came to her mind frightened her.
The Queen Mother said this in front of the deposed queen's concubines. Could it be that she didn't care about the life and death of the deposed queen at all, so she told them not to be careful? You know, the reason why she put away all those things was because she was afraid of sharp things.
Hairpins are used to stab the throat, small pieces of gold and jade pendants are used to swallow... These are all common death-seeking techniques in the palace!
As if she heard the Queen Mother's words, Concubine Jing, who had just been immersed in writing a letter, finally moved. She turned her neck with difficulty. When she saw clearly that the person in front of her was indeed the Queen Mother, the dull look on her face finally changed.
A few changes.
However, the Queen Mother still did not give her a chance to speak first, but continued calmly: "You have been living in Xian'an Palace for a few days. This is the first time for me to come to see you, but it is also the last time.
Once. I came today just to tell you that I just got the news that something went wrong on Erlang's ship bound for Qiongzhou."
She didn't seem to notice the froze faces around her, nor did she notice the sudden ferocious expression on Concubine Jing's face, so she continued: "Maybe it's really his bad luck, maybe someone is thinking that there is a rare thing to live in.
Maybe it was just pure pirates, maybe there was a riot or even a rebellion on the ship... There are many possibilities, but there is another possibility."
"For example, since he caused the so-called Kunning Palace poisoning incident and you were deposed, he is already an unfilial and rebellious son who has no sworn relationship with you. So if his death can be used to bring a lot of benefits to Dalang,
If you have a chance, you might as well take a gamble, right?"
"Sacrifice one rebellious son and rescue the other son from the dilemma of farming in Huangzhuang. Why not?"
Concubine Jing finally stood up suddenly and rushed forward angrily: "That's nonsense, I don't!"
Seeing the two palace servants quickly stepping forward to hold the imperial concubine's arm, the Queen Mother turned around and walked out. She stopped when she was almost at the door: "It's not you who said it, but how the people of the world recognized it. You mother and son, you three
People have done too many stupid things. One more thing is not too much, and one thing less is not too much. Your natal family has lost a few loyal servants. Do you think I don't know?"