"I'll be straight with you. Whose child is in your belly?" Family scandals should not be made public, especially for the royal family. That's why Si Junlin brought her here, so that he could keep the matter under control.
"Your Majesty, how could you slander me like this? The child in my belly is naturally yours!" Concubine Xi was already starting to panic.
"Concubine Xi, I'll give you one more chance. If you tell the truth, I'll depose you and send you out of the palace. You can go with the father of the child. But if you still don't tell the truth, you know that an affair of a concubine is a great crime that implicates the whole family! For the sake of the Empress Dowager, I'll leave you a whole body." Si Junlin looked at her disdainfully.
"Your Majesty..." Concubine Xi was so frightened by these words that she collapsed to the ground. She was chosen by the Empress Dowager from a group of girls in the family to enter the palace because she listened to the Empress Dowager. So she had no opinion of her own and always obeyed the Empress Dowager. That day, she got the Emperor drunk according to the idea of her cousin.
"Your Majesty, you must have... must have listened to the slander of some villain. Your Majesty, do you remember that at the palace banquet, you were drunk and then... Your Majesty, you can't humiliate me like this. Otherwise, how can I live?"
By now, Concubine Xi could only cry, but she firmly insisted that she was slandered.
Si Junlin was having a headache. He thought she was being unreasonable, but she was a confidant of the Empress Dowager. If the matter got out of hand, it would have a bad influence on the Empress Dowager. He even thought about killing her.
But at this time, the Empress Dowager rushed over after hearing the news. Si Junlin was even more annoyed.
"Why did you come, Mother? It's the hottest time of the day. Why don't you rest in the palace?" Si Junlin politely greeted her outside the door.
But the Empress Dowager didn't seem to buy it. Obviously, someone from Concubine Xi's palace must have informed her.
"I'm really bored. But I heard that the Emperor is busy with one thing after another. I wonder if I can help?" The Empress Dowager ignored him and then walked in and sat down on the main seat.
"I don't know which talkative servant disturbed your peace, Mother." As soon as Si Junlin said this, Fang Xi immediately took note of the few unfamiliar little maids following the Empress Dowager.
"Quick, help this child up. Why is she kneeling here?" As soon as the Empress Dowager saw Concubine Xi kneeling there, she felt very distressed. Concubine Xi naturally felt that she had found a savior and stood up proudly.
"Mother, I originally didn't want you to come today. I could handle this matter myself. If you knew about it, you would be angry."
"I already know about this matter. It's not a big deal. You've made your old mistake again, Emperor. It's just that Concubine Mei, that little slut, complained to you again yesterday. You actually believed her nonsense and blamed Concubine Xi."
Naturally, the maid sent by Concubine Xi to invite the Empress Dowager reported the matter like this. Concubine Mei complained to him yesterday, and he wanted to punish Concubine Xi.
"Mother, sometimes you can't completely trust Concubine Xi. I really sent secret agents to investigate before making this conclusion. Come, bring the person up." Si Junlin originally wanted to dispose of the two people quietly. But since the Empress Dowager had been alerted, he might as well go all the way and have a good talk.
When the Empress Dowager saw the person brought up, she also felt familiar. After thinking for a while, she remembered that this was the distant cousin who seemed to have kowtowed to her and stopped her when Concubine Xi entered the palace.
"Why did you arrest him, Emperor?"
"This is the person who had an affair with Concubine Xi that I mentioned. Mother must know something about their relationship." Si Junlin wasn't polite to them either. He directly let the secret agent press the person down to kneel.
At this moment, the Empress Dowager also calmed down and felt that the matter was not simple.
"Concubine Xi, you're so stupid. Is the child in your belly really not the Emperor's?" The Empress Dowager was so angry that she trembled. Originally, she attached great importance to this grandson, but who would have thought that this would be the result.
"Empress Dowager! All the mistakes are mine. Please don't blame Concubine Xi."
"No, Empress Dowager. It's my fault first. Please spare his life." Concubine Xi cried softly. Knowing that the matter couldn't be hidden anymore, she didn't think about herself. Now the two of them were like a pair of mandarin ducks in trouble.
"You, you're going to piss me off." Before the Empress Dowager could finish her words, she fainted. The hall was in a mess. Fang Xi was busy inviting the imperial doctor.
Before the Empress Dowager was settled down, Si Junlin was almost exhausted. Who would have thought that Concubine Mei would take this opportunity to flatter and compete for favor. She said that she had stewed a soothing decoction and wanted to offer it to the Empress Dowager. But after she came in, she flattered Si Junlin and said that if she hadn't seen through Concubine Xi's plot, the royal bloodline would not have been pure.
Si Junlin was very annoyed. He immediately ordered someone to drag her out.
The Empress Dowager was fine. After resting for a few days, Si Junlin became more and more irritable.
The tea sent to the military camp was only said to be a reward from the Emperor to General Wei. But Su Wan'er was watching the general training the soldiers, so she was in the far - away camp.
The person who sent the tea insisted on handing it to her personally. Su Wan'er was extremely angry. She could only ride a fast horse back to receive it. In her heart, she cursed Si Junlin hundreds of times.
"Um... Reporting to the Marshal, the Emperor also asked you to... write a letter."
"What? What letter? The army is very busy." Su Wan'er replied impatiently.
"Well... After receiving the reward, shouldn't you express your gratitude?" The person who came was an eunuch. Although he was a small leader with some status in the palace, he really didn't dare to provoke the people in the military camp now.
"..." Su Wan'er really wanted to rush back to the military camp. From such a long distance, they sent her tea. Could she drink it? So she casually took a piece of ordinary paper used for going out of the palace, wrote a few words like "Thank the Emperor for his kindness" and threw it to him.
"Your Majesty, please calm down. Anyway, the imperial doctor said that the Empress Dowager is fine. Your Majesty, why don't you go back to the Yangxin Hall and rest for a while." For several days, Si Junlin had neither eaten nor slept well. Fang Xi saw it all. Now such a thing had happened, and the Empress Dowager had fainted. Obviously, he was very tired and irritable.
"Pfft—" Si Junlin actually spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Come quickly, call the imperial doctor..." Fang Xi immediately panicked and stepped forward to support him. The Empress Dowager had woken up during the chaos. She was originally fine, but seeing Si Junlin like this, she was no less shocked.
"Lin'er, what's wrong with my Lin'er?"
Si Junlin seemed to have exhausted his strength and fainted temporarily, but he still coughed constantly while lying in bed.
"Doctor Zhang, what's wrong with the Emperor? Why did he suddenly vomit blood?" The Empress Dowager was so panicked that she immediately grabbed an imperial doctor and asked.
"Forgive this old official for being blunt. The Emperor has pent - up emotions in his internal organs. Coupled with overwork for several days and being stimulated just now, that's why the cough broke out." The imperial doctor always talked in a long - winded way.
"Is it serious?"
"The Emperor is young and strong. As long as he recuperates well, he should be able to recover. Please rest assured, Empress Dowager."
"Then, I order you to treat him with all your strength!"
"Yes—" The imperial doctor trembled and went to prescribe the medicine.
"Fang Xi, what's wrong with the Emperor? He was in good health on weekdays. Why has he neither eaten nor slept well these days? I've seen the Emperor looking very tired for several days." The Empress Dowager always grabbed Fang Xi to ask questions when something happened. Fang Xi was really scared and could only answer tremblingly.