RVW-40.2

The next day, when the sun had just risen and the weather slightly cold, Ah Nan dressed herself properly and brought Ru Cui, Ru Lan, and Zhang Momo into the palace.

In the palace, Ah Nan first went to Empress Dowager’s Chonghua Palace to pay her respects. Surprisingly, the Empress was also present at the time.

After Ah Nan paid her respects to the two, she sat on the side and had a palace maid brew her hot tea.

The Empress Dowager, looking amiable, said to her, “Su Wang isn’t in the capital, Ai jia always feels uneasy thinking of how much he will suffer in Tongcheng….” After wiping her eye corners with a handkerchief, she continued, “So Ai jia invited you to stay in the palace for a few days to accompany this old lady. Seeing you here, Ai jia’s heart was relieved a little…”

Ah Nan obediently replied, “This is what daughter-in-law should do. Mu hou, please rest assured that Wang ye will be safe and sound.”

The Empress at the side also comforted the Empress Dowager, who was worried about her travelling youngest son. After the two daughter-in-laws comforted her for 15 minutes, the Empress Dowager finally stopped dwelling on the topic and turned to talk about the Emperor’s sons in the palace. She enthusiastically discussed with the Empress about when the pregnant concubines give birth and how many young princes would be added next year, and so on. When it comes to grandchildren, the Empress Dowager seemed to look forward to it a lot.

Ah Nan: =__=! I really don’t understand what’s so good about so many young princes. Do they want to reenact the Nine Dragons Seizing The Throne?!¹Refers to the event [九子夺嫡] where Emperor Kangxi from Qing dynasty’s son compete for the throne. The Emperor had 24 surviving sons and 9 of them competed for the throne. It’s a shit show.

Ah Nan was initially only listening and not joining in the conversation, but she was suddenly startled when the Empress Dowager suddenly frowned and stared at her stomach sharply.

“Has there been good news for Su Wang fei’s stomach?” The Empress Dowager stared intently at Ah Nan’s stomach.

Ah Nan answered shyly, “Mu hou, this daughter-in-law’s last menstruation came half a month ago……”

Ah Nan felt that she was currently too young. Having a child at such a young age wasn’t just harmful for the mother’s body, but also unlikely to give birth to a healthy child. She thought of waiting two years, when she had reached eighteen years old, before having a child. At that time, her body should be relatively developed, and giving birth would be comparatively safer.

The Empress Dowager looked disappointed upon hearing it, frowning tightly, looking dissatisfied. It’s also that now, she no longer worries about Su Wang fei being “Ke-killed” as people said, but instead started to worry about Su Wang’s offspring. Due to her son’s eccentricity, Empress Dowager was really worried, what would happen if Su Wang only had one woman by his side in this life? If that one woman couldn’t give birth at that time, wouldn’t they blame it as the fulfilment of the “losing son” prophecy? Then wouldn’t her son be wronged to death?

The Empress Dowager couldn’t not be worried ah, so she values Ah Nan’s belly a lot. No matter how much she dislikes this daughter-in-law, she still wants her grandchild. As for the matter of pointing a Shu fei and squeezing people in, it will also have to wait until her youngest son returns.

Ah Nan was stared at by the Empress Dowager so much her hair stood on end. The Empress finally diverted the subject and said, “Mu hou, both Su Wang and Su Wang fei are still young. Moreover they have only been married for over a month. Good news would definitely come.” The Empress smiled as she covered her mouth, “When Su Wang returns, you can still hug a grandchild.”

The Empress had already given birth to a young prince two years ago. The young prince is the fourth son, clever and quick-witted, and was very favored by the emperor. Now that she has no pressure to have a son, she naturally spoke relaxedly.

Reminded by the Empress, the Empress Dowager suddenly remembered that her son was not here. There’s only the daughter-in-law left here, how could she make a grandson alone? The Empress Dowager suddenly regretted only worrying about her son when hearing Su Wang was going to Tongcheng. She forgot to let his wife go along with him. What if….she sends a few women to Tongcheng for her son now? It’s just that she’s afraid that she would lose face when the beauties she sent were thrown out by her son again.

The Empress Dowager glanced at her daughter-in-law. White and tender, smiles sweetly, so adorable like a snowball that it made people love her. Such a cute and sweet young lady, how could she survive in a place like Tongcheng where even the weather is uncertain…. It was said that the weather in Tongcheng was extremely bad, and the women there were all burly and sturdy, strong and well-fed, with physique not much different from the man, vulgar women among the common folks…..

The Empress Dowager’s gaze flickered, but she didn’t make things difficult for Ah Nan.

Because Ah Nan stayed at the palace for the purpose of accompanying the Empress Dowager as a daughter-in-law, she was housed in Chonghua Palace’s side hall. Her daily tasks were to pay respect to the Empress Dowager, then accompany her to chat to ease her longing for her youngest son.

Ah Nan felt that the Empress Dowager’s longing for her son was actually just a reason to annoy people. Today she said she had a headache and had no appetite; Tomorrow she would say her chest hurt and had no no appetite; The day after tomorrow she would say her stomach is uncomfortable and had no appetite; The day after the day after tomorrow she would say her feet suddenly became sore and had no appetite…… Hence the Empress Dowager tormented the Imperial physicians into a complete mess. Emperor Chongde has slipped away early on, leaving his wife and younger wives to be filial towards his troublemaker of a mother in his place.

Ah Nan was also among the people serving her, but unfortunately the Empress Dowager’s face would turn gloomy everytime and said she didn’t want to see her. Then Ah Nan would calmly retreat amidst the envious gaze of the concubines.

The onlooking Empress sighed with emotion, thinking, Your Majesty ah, you actually asked Chen qie to take care of Su Wang fei more, but with Su Wang fei’s skilful kungfu of aggrieving people, how should I take care of her? The one who should be taken care of more attentively is the Empress Dowager so that she won’t be so frequently angered that her whole body aches……

Speaking of it, when the Empress Dowager complained this and that hurt, she was in fact not really deceiving anyone. It’s just that she was so aggrieved by a certain second-rate good that she was hurting.

Initially, when Ah Nan entered the palace, the concubines in the harem mingled with Su Wang fei to build a good relationship with her and gossip about how long she could live. However, after interacting with her for so long, they couldn’t bear it anymore. Not only did the Empress Dowager torment people, this Su Wang fei was also very powerful. For some reason, talking to her always made them feel a great pressure ah.

Thus, Ah Nan only stayed in the palace for a few days. Because not only the Empress Dowager was unable to bear it, the concubines also couldn’t bear it.

*******

At the time of Wu²Around 11 a.m to 1 p.m, Ah Nan had just gotten up from her nap when she was greeted by a Tonic with a poisonously strong medicinal smell.

Ah Nan’s face immediately turned bitter.

This is the Tonic that the Empress Dowager specifically ordered the female physician in Chonghua Palace’s kitchen to make for her to take care of her body——just thinking about it, one could guess what kind of care it provided. But Ah Nan couldn’t turn a blind eye to the Empress Dowager’s eager gaze at her stomach, so she could only pinch her nose and drink this Tonic for nursing her body everyday.

Ah Nan had now found that the Empress Dowager and Chu Baning are indeed mother and son. They both like to stuff her up with Tonic to the best of their capabilities, taking her as a pig.

When Ah Nan just finished washing up and about to take that poisonous Tonic, Zhang Momo’s expression suddenly changed and stopped Ah Nan from drinking it.

“Is something wrong, Momo?” Ah Nan was alarmed. The first thing that came to her not-so-slow mind was whether someone was playing dirty with her.

Ah Nan had no sense of security towards the Palace due to her incarnation having watched a lot of shows and fictions, so she felt that the Palace is a place with the rule of the jungle. If you harm me, I will conspire against you, one doesn’t have to have reason to cheat someone! Even though she is now the Su Wang fei with no conflict of interest with the women in the palace, who basically shouldn’t have any need to be harmed, but she has some extreme imagination and always felt that being more careful won’t do her any wrong. That’s why she brought along Zhang Momo, who has medical expertise, to go to the palace.

See, it’s actually useful now.

Zhang Momo examined the poisonous tonic all over, then her expression turned strange, saying “Wang fei, there’s no problem with this tonic. It’s just that there are several herbs mixed along and got boiled along in a slow fire, and the effect… might cause diarrhea for several days.”

“……”

Ah Nan frowned, this kind of trap is really confusing. Ah Nan pondered carefully, recounting the perpetrator suspects. There’s no way it could be the Empress Dowager. If something happened, the Empress Dowager would be the first to worry about it——After all, she doesn’t want her to die and fulfil the “Killing wife and losing son” prophecy of Su Wang. For the sake of her youngest son’s reputation, regardless of whatever she said, the Empress Dowager would protect her. The Emperor and Empress are even more unlikely. She has no conflict with them at all, and the hands of the concubines should not be able to extend so far….

While Ah Nan was still racking her brains on who the culprit could be, the Empress Dowager had already learned about it from the palace maids she had planted next to Ah Nan, and very quickly caught the mastermind. As it turns out, it was the senior palace maid by her side, a trusted aide who had served the Empress Dowager for over twenty years.

“AnYang Tai fei! This despicable woman!! How long ago was the matter, even placing her people on Ai jia’s side!!” The Empress Dowager was both anxious and angry, her expression twisted ferociously, she hated her so much she wished to rush over to AnYang Wang’s Mansion and bite AnYang Tai fei’s flesh and blood.

After capturing the spy hidden in Chonghua Palace, the Empress Dowager was alarmed. She had always thought that after ten years of “cleaning”, her Chonghua Palace was already well fortified and would never let any spies in. Unexpectedly, AnYang Tai fei was able to place her spy on her side decades ago, the spy was even able to become one of her confidants. Thinking that her own trusted aide was actually AnYang Tai fei’s subordinate, and that she had been constantly monitored by her enemy, the Empress Dowager was really frightened.

This kind of thing where her life was actually hanging on a thread, really would terrify anyone who is afraid of death.

That night, several of Chonghua palace’s palace maids inexplicably disappeared.

It’s normal occurrences for one or two people to disappear from the palace, but Ah Nan sensitively discovered that the palace maids serving by her side had been changed several times. Moreover, the atmosphere in the Chonghua Palace seemed to freeze, causing everyone to feel a sense of danger.

What surprised Ah Nan even more was that two days later, the Empress Dowager made her pack up and prepare to set off for Tongcheng.

Ah Nan: (⊙o⊙) What happened? Who can give her an explanation?