Chapter 209: Chapter 208: Slapping the Green Tea Empress Dowager 25
Empress Dowager, though she had been shouting until her voice was hoarse.
Yet, she was still attentive to the surrounding noises.
She heard what Xiao Yu said.
She also heard what Nanny Qin and Doctor Wang said.
Now, she could no longer care about the pain, furiously shouting: "If I knew who was harming me, I would never spare them, never spare them."
"Empress."
Nanny Qin tenderly wiped her sweat, "Empress, do not think about these things anymore, the most crucial thing now is to give birth to the child."
Emperor Jianwu was waiting outside, completely distraught.
Seeing Xiao Yu coming out, Emperor Jianwu quickly approached and asked, "Xiao Yu, how is the Queen Mother?"
With a worried look on her face, Xiao Yu shook her head sadly: "I’m afraid it’s not good. Doctor Wang said, said both the Empress Dowager and the child are in great danger. Should anything go wrong, it might..."
Xiao Yu didn’t finish her sentence, but Emperor Jianwu understood it.
This warning meant possibly losing both lives.
He staggered a few steps, muttering softly, "How could this happen? How could this be?"
Emperor Jianwu now regretted it.
Had he known it would turn out this way, he wouldn’t have administered the medicine to the Empress Dowager.
The child could have just been born, as long as the Queen Mother was fine.
At this moment, Emperor Jianwu’s heart was filled with longing for the Empress Dowager, recalling the past scenes of mother and son relying on each other, he clenched his teeth to prevent himself from crying.
"Queen Mother, if something happens to you, what should I do?"
Emperor Jianwu didn’t expect that a mere medicine could put the Empress Dowager in such danger.
He didn’t want that child to be born, just didn’t want... He didn’t intend to harm his own mother.
If Anning knew Emperor Jianwu’s thoughts now, she would probably call him a silly child.
Indeed, there are always silly children, no matter the time.
Emperor Jianwu was undoubtedly a silly child.
And now, the destructiveness of this silly child had become apparent.
According to Anning, the reason Emperor Jianwu so boldly poisoned the Empress Dowager was entirely due to her usual teachings.
In the early years when the late Emperor was alive, the Empress Dowager taught Emperor Jianwu to be competitive, to compete with the other princes for everything, which made him think of competition upon knowing the Empress Dowager was pregnant.
After Emperor Jianwu ascended the throne, with Prince Kang acting as Regent, the Empress Dowager taught Emperor Jianwu that paramount interests, in order to secure the throne, any measures could be taken. The Empress Dowager could feign affection with Prince Kang, and Emperor Jianwu also had to endure Prince Kang, which meant, for the throne, the mother and son would stop at nothing.
Having grown up under this guidance, could one really expect him to have a proper set of values?
That he still retained a sliver of mother-son affection for the Empress Dowager was indeed difficult.
The Emperor Jianwu, as shaped by the Empress Dowager’s teachings, was actually cynical and mean-spirited, preferring covert actions, a trait that ran in the family.
And now, the Empress Dowager was reaping the consequences.
She struggled desperately in the room, ultimately giving birth to a stillborn.
Seeing the formed child, the Empress Dowager was filled with sorrow.
Although this child was not the one she had hoped for, having carried it for so long, she still had some feelings for it.
Now that the child was gone, the Empress Dowager was far from willing to rest.
Before falling unconscious, she loudly commanded: "Investigate for me, investigate thoroughly..."
Xiao Yu was ordered to bury the stillborn, while Nanny Qin began a systematic investigation.
Emperor Jianwu entered the room, glanced at the Empress Dowager, and left in disarray.
Xiao Yu, carrying a basket, which held the stillborn.
She came out from the palace, handed the basket to the coachman after getting on the carriage, while she herself was already nervously sweating profusely.
Xiao Yu was gasping heavily.
After calming down, she found the energy to speak to the coachman.
"Brother Lu, that was very dangerous."
The coachman’s face was tense as well: "Miss, be more cautious in the future."
None of them had expected Emperor Jianwu to drug the Empress Dowager so soon; they nearly didn’t manage to replace the dead fetus in time.
Luckily, they had made preparations beforehand and considered many scenarios. The dead fetus this time was just a dummy, a realistic doll made by a top-notch craftsman.
And the reason the Empress Dowager felt like she had a miscarriage was because Mr. Liu switched Emperor Jianwu’s medicine.
This medicine causes stomachaches and the sensation of labor.
In fact, it’s simply a kind of hallucinogenic drug.
And Nanny Qin, Xiao Yu, and the midwife were all acting a part.
Anning, like the Empress Dowager, used cunning schemes this time.
But she would never harm innocent lives.
If the Empress Dowager was truly pregnant, she wouldn’t have harmed the child.
The Empress Dowager wasn’t actually pregnant.
The reason she appeared to be was because of the medicine Xiao Yu gave to Nanny Qin.
Xiao Yu told Nanny Qin it was contraceptive, and Nanny Qin later thought it was to safeguard the pregnancy. In reality, this medicine was concocted by Anning, a secret potion she learned from another world.
This medicine induces all the symptoms of pregnancy, indiscernible by oneself or even a doctor.
This is actually a harmful medicine used among the housewives.
Nanny Qin and her team carefully inspected everything; the ingredients in the kitchen were fine, and the regular food the Empress Dowager consumed was also free from problems.
Finally, Nanny Qin brought the food brought by Emperor Jianwu and asked Doctor Wang to take a good look.
There was no problem with this batch of food either.
Nanny Qin’s expression was not good.
Eventually, it was Doctor Wang who discovered something wrong with some crumbs from the pastries that had fallen on the floor.
He squatted on the ground, dabbed some crumbs with his finger, sniffed them, and then dissolved the crumbs in a little bit of water, sniffed again, and even tasted a bit.
That little taste shocked Doctor Wang so much that he nearly dropped the bowl in his hand.
He was covered in cold sweat.
"How is it?"
Nanny Qin pressed close, giving Doctor Wang no chance to relax.
Doctor Wang’s face looked particularly bad, he shook his head discreetly: "No, no serious issue, just, just that the pastries are a bit harmful to pregnant women. But there are no pregnant women in the palace, and Your Majesty didn’t know about the Empress Dowager’s pregnancy beforehand, it might not be intentional."
Nanny Qin’s face looked even grimmer.
She didn’t know whether Doctor Wang was defending Your Majesty, or if it truly wasn’t intentional by Your Majesty.
Having discovered the issue, Nanny Qin naturally had to report it to the Empress Dowager.
She waited for the Empress Dowager to wake up and explained everything she had investigated.
The Empress Dowager was still in pain all over and couldn’t muster up any energy.
After hearing what Nanny Qin said, she remained silent for a long time, her silence making Nanny Qin a bit frightened.
"Just as Doctor Wang said, the Emperor did not do it on purpose, those pastries might have been specially made for him by the Imperial Kitchen, he doesn’t understand the concept of food incompatibility, also, he didn’t know that I was pregnant, he is just a foolish child trying to be filial."
The Empress Dowager couldn’t afford to fall out with Emperor Jianwu now.
The harm was done, and the child was lost; these were unchangeable.
She couldn’t afford to fall out with her only son over things that couldn’t be changed.
Not only could she not afford a fallout, she needed to keep this matter well hidden.
Emperor Jianwu probably also understood this, which is why he was so fearless.