The Beauties of the Song Dynasty - Chapter 154
This house arrest lasted for a full two months.
After Deqing returned to the capital from Luoyang Palace, Miss Xue suddenly passed away, and Deqing suddenly entered the palace to accompany the Empress, he and Ning'er met again in October.
At the family banquet in Qingshou Palace, he secretly planned to take Ning'er away, but was thwarted by an unexpected event.
Ning'er is pregnant.
Nine years later, the Empress, who was once the most favored concubine in the harem, announced her pregnancy. He felt as if he had been placed in an ice cellar, and all his thoughts and plans were frozen. Until he saw her drink the wine that he had drugged for his brother, he was completely desperate!
That one piece of clothing went out of control, leading to Deqing being injured and falling into a deep sleep.
The emperor suddenly passed away, and Ning'er inexplicably miscarried.
When Wang Jisi brought him this news, he didn't think about anything else and went straight to the Wansui Palace. However, every day afterward, he regretted his impulsive actions.
If he hadn't been the first to arrive at the Palace of Ten Thousand Years, his and Ning'er's fate might have been very different.
After rushing to the Wansui Palace and helping her up from the ground, he saw the deep despair in her eyes and suddenly realized that nothing could be changed.
He replaced Defang and ascended the throne inexplicably. The woman who had devoted his entire life to him gradually drifted away from him.
He was horrified to discover that they would never cross paths again.
However, after waking up from a two-month slumber, Deqing's accusatory words filled him with dread—the child Ning'er had lost... was not his elder brother's, but his own...
Faced with his questioning, she, who had long since given up hope, only asked him for one thing.
She said: Please let me go.
Let her go?
Yes. Because of her despair and heartbreak, he suddenly realized that they could never go back to the way things were. The chasm between them, which was not wide to begin with, was widened by his own hands after he ascended the throne.
The affairs of state were complicated, the Northern Han had not yet surrendered, and the Liao Kingdom was eyeing him covetously. All of this left him exhausted.
He eventually agreed to her insistence on moving out of Anfu Palace, but resolutely refused to let her live in Kunning Palace. The women in that place belonged to his elder brother, but she—he would not allow her to belong to another man!
If they truly cannot be together, he is willing to maintain the status quo and watch her from afar.
However, her sudden request to go to Xiangguo Temple to worship Buddha terrified him. He thought she wanted to use this method to escape from him. He secretly took Defang to Xiangguo Temple and strictly ordered her that if she insisted on doing so, he would not care how the world would view him and would definitely not be able to have her!
His coercion successfully kept her in the palace, but their relationship became increasingly strained.
Until he personally led an expedition to Taiyuan, and then tried to pursue the Liao army while in victory, he suffered a great defeat and was seriously wounded. Unexpectedly, when he returned to the capital, he was met with her tearful face full of heartache, and he was flattered and overwhelmed.
He thought she had finally changed her mind, and he really thought so.
But to his surprise, a month later, she shattered his heart once again!
She actually took poison!
This cruel woman once again ignored his feelings and tried to escape him by dying!
Seeing the imperial physician emerge from the inner palace, he rushed forward, grabbed him, and anxiously asked, "How is she?"
The imperial physician's face was quite pale, and he stammered, "Reporting to Your Majesty... Her Highness is alright... but... but—"
"Just tell me what it is!"
"Her Majesty...she is pregnant."
My mind went blank with a sudden, overwhelming sound.
Ning'er is pregnant...
Was this why she took poison? Just like when she assassinated her elder brother to protect him, did she choose to end her own and her child's lives this time to save him?
Mu Ran walked to her bedside, lowered his eyes and stared at her pale face, gritting his teeth inwardly.
He was the ruler of a country, so why couldn't he even protect the woman he loved?
"Eunuch Wang."
"emperor."
"This matter must be kept absolutely secret. I need you to do two things."
Wang Jisi lowered his head and replied, "Your Majesty, the imperial physician suddenly fell ill and passed away this morning. The servants in Baoci Palace have mistakenly eaten poisonous fruit and are unable to speak further."
Zhao Guangyi paused for a moment, then glanced at him sideways. "Very good."
"Your Majesty, this servant has invited a renowned physician from among the common people. He will become the Empress's personal physician in the future. What do you think?"
"I trust Eunuch Wang with all my heart."
Wang Jisi smiled slightly and said, "Before leaving, Princess Qin asked me to pass on a message to His Majesty."
"Deqing? What else does she want to say?" Didn't she leave with Defang?
"The princess said that the emperor's harem should have a Consort De."
Zhao Guangyi was taken aback and suddenly turned around to stare at him.
"Did she really say that?" Deqing even knew about the concubines in the harem.
Consort De... Consort De... Perhaps he really could do that.
"This servant dares not speak presumptuously; that is exactly what the Princess said."