novelcrest Chapter 378 Prince Guo offended the Empress Dowager
Chapter 378 Prince Guo offended the Empress Dowager
"Mother, what is miscarriage?" Xihe asked.
Chao Yu knelt down with a thud. He had made a fatal mistake; he shouldn't have spoken in front of the Crown Prince and Princess. He felt his life was over.
"Miscarriage means that Princess Guo was pregnant with a baby, but the baby is no longer there, so it's called a miscarriage," Shen Shixi explained patiently.
The prince asked, "Is he dead?"
"Um."
Xihe found it hard to accept, "Where do people go after they die?"
Shen Shixi said, "Every baby is an angel, a little fairy sent down from heaven. If they don't like it here, they will go back to heaven. Look at all those bright little stars in the sky, they are the ones twinkling."
Dongjun and Xihe exclaimed "Wow!" in unison. Xihe eagerly asked, "Mother, am I too?"
Shen Shixi said, "You and Dongjun are not little stars, you are little suns, little suns that your parents have been waiting for for a long, long time. Your light is much, much brighter than that of other little stars."
The two children were especially happy, leaning carefully against their mother and smiling, touching the baby in her belly and whispering something to each other.
Shen Shixi comforted the two children, "Don't worry, your younger brother and sister will be fine. Nothing will happen to them because Mommy will protect them. You will too, won't you?"
"Yes!" Dongjun shouted, and Xihe was not to be outdone.
Shen Shixi said, "Then get some sleep. Mother is sleepy too. If Mother doesn't sleep, your younger brother and sister will be very tired."
Dongjun and Xihe quickly closed their eyes.
Shen Shixi had the Imperial Household Department make a bed with three railings, which was placed side by side so that the two children could sleep together.
Shen Shixi came out and apologized to Yu, saying, "This servant deserves to die. Please punish me, Your Majesty."
"Get up! What crime have you committed? If you feel it's inappropriate, just be more careful in the future," Shen Shixi said.
The children in the royal family are pampered too much, which is actually harming them. Even if they are young, they should still know what they need to know.
Chao Yu was quite surprised, yet felt that it made perfect sense.
The Empress was never one to punish people arbitrarily.
Princess Guo suffered a miscarriage, and the news reached the Emperor. Prince Guo rushed over, and Li Yuanke returned. After washing up, he was about to go to sleep when Qingruo arrived.
"Your Majesty, Prince Guo offended the Empress Dowager, and she has fallen ill. The imperial physician has been summoned."
Li Yuanke was extremely annoyed. He was supposed to stay up all night with his ministers tonight, but since the Empress was pregnant, he was not staying up to be with her. And now this mess had happened.
"Can't you just stop all day long?" he complained as he walked.
The Empress Dowager summoned Zhu to Cining Palace and first had her serve her washing up. However, upon seeing Zhu's coffin-like face, she became increasingly angry. She lay down on the bed and had Zhu massage her legs.
Zhu's legs ached from kneeling, and she didn't want to massage the old woman's legs. When she moved, she fell to the side and rolled onto the end of the pedal. Did that cause the pedal to tilt up? The pedal flipped over and slammed down on her head with a bang.
The people were almost all smashed to pieces, and there were still women who didn't miscarry?
The Empress Dowager was immediately terrified.
They quickly tried to save her. The imperial physician arrived and, upon examining her pulse, discovered she was over a month pregnant. But what good was it? At this point, it was already a miracle that the mother could be saved.
Li Yuanyin ran over and, upon hearing this, was both angry and furious. He shouted at the Empress Dowager without restraint, "Why does Mother always pick on Chun'er?"
Now that she's in this state, with her child gone and near death herself, is Mother satisfied?
The Empress Dowager was stunned. Her youngest son had actually yelled at her. A chill ran from her toes to her head. She took a few steps back, unable to believe that her son would lose his temper and harbor such resentment towards her for the sake of a woman.
"Yuan Yin, have you gone mad?" the Empress Dowager roared.
Li Yuanyin was even angrier than her, "Your Majesty, I think you're the one who's gone mad! You hate your sister-in-law, look down on Chun'er, and can't stand either of your daughters-in-law, but you're very nice to those so-called nephews' wives and grand-nephews' wives from the Eighth Route Army!"
The son just couldn't understand. What was wrong with Chun'er? She was tormented from the moment she married into the family, causing a rift between her and her son for a long time. His sister-in-law was right; there was truly no mother in the world who so desperately wanted her son and husband to turn against each other.
The Empress Dowager never expected that the person who launched the fiercest attack against her would be her youngest son, whom she loved to the core.
While Shen was certainly despicable, she merely acted very assertively; the key was that she consistently sided with her eldest son.
Compared to her youngest son, she could be considered quite adorable.
The Empress Dowager was so angry that she fainted. When Cining Palace saw this, they were terrified, and Qingruo had no choice but to go and invite the Emperor over.
"What happened?" Li Yuanke asked as soon as he entered, seeing Li Yuanyin carrying Zhu Shi out with snot and tears all over his face.
"My mother killed my child, and Zhu Shi almost died at her hands. From now on, I never want to step into Cining Palace again." After saying this, Li Yuanyin left.
Li Yuanke found out what had happened on the way, and he asked how things had turned out this way.
Seeing that Zhu's head was bleeding and she was covered in blood, Li Yuanke didn't say anything more and let the two of them leave the palace. He also instructed the imperial physician to treat her properly.
The Empress Dowager had just woken up when she heard her youngest son's words, and then fainted again.
The imperial physicians did their best to revive her again, administering acupuncture and pinching her philtrum. They finally managed to rouse her, but the Empress Dowager burst into tears, crying, "Your Majesty, what have I been doing all this for? What have I gained in my entire life?"
Li Yuanke was too lazy to listen to his mother's complaints. He thought to himself, "How would I know what you're after?"
He bowed and sat down to the side, automatically ignoring the Empress Dowager's words, and asked the imperial physician, "How is the Empress Dowager?"
Imperial Physician Zhang replied, "Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager is suffering from a heart attack due to anger. We will first prescribe a calming decoction for her, and then adjust the prescription according to her pulse."
That means they won't die for the time being.
Li Yuanke said, "Mother has always thought that Yuan Yin is too young and doesn't know any better, so why bother with him this time? Besides, Princess Guo is pregnant after all. Even if you don't care about anything else, you shouldn't treat her like this for the sake of the child in her womb."
The Empress Dowager angrily retorted, "How was I supposed to know she was pregnant? Did she tell me? She was pregnant, and she didn't even tell me, how was I supposed to know?"
The Empress Dowager, tears streaming down her face, pounded the bed in anger. "None of you have ever treated me like your own mother? I only found out today how big the Empress's belly is!"
Li Yuanke couldn't empathize. "Even if Lady Zhu wasn't pregnant, what day is it today? Besides, since her marriage, the Empress Dowager has tried every means to torment her. Everyone in the court and the public knows this. Do you think people outside are saying you're bad or that Lady Zhu is immoral?"
The Empress Dowager was extremely shocked. "As the mother-in-law, shouldn't I be setting rules for my daughter-in-law? And how could I have set them wrong?"
Li Yuanke said, "Does a lady from a prestigious family like the Zhu family need rules? Besides, can't outsiders tell whether it's establishing rules or just putting her through hardship?"
He was too lazy to argue with the Empress Dowager any further. "If there's nothing else here, Your Majesty, I'll head back now. The Empress is having a hard time with twins, and the Crown Prince and Xihe need someone to take care of them. The Qian Yuan Palace also needs someone to look after it."
After he finished speaking, he instructed Qingruo to take good care of the Empress Dowager, and then left.
The Empress Dowager's illness came on suddenly and fiercely. She developed a fever in the middle of the night and called out "Yuan Yin" in a daze.
Li Yuanke had no choice but to rush over again and send someone to inform Prince Guo's residence. However, Prince Guo said that the Princess Consort was seriously injured and needed to be taken care of, so she would not be allowed to enter the palace.