"What do you know?"
Gu Chenzi said, word by word, "The Soul-Returning Pill!"
The master gave the Resurrection Pill to his junior brother. How is that any different from giving him a second life?
Such a precious elixir, how could Yao Chenzi be willing to use it to save someone?
What a waste!
...
Yu family.
While Yan Qing was away, Yan Xiu sat on the edge of the bed, still acting like an injured person.
She initially thought she was her nephew, so she treated her with extra affection. Now that she has confirmed with the wet nurse that she is her daughter who was lost for eighteen years, she is filled with love and tenderness.
It took three days and three nights to refine the Evil-Dispelling Pill. After the pill was completed, Yao Chenzi was so exhausted that he had to be helped to rest by his servants.
Despite taking the elixir, Wei Pingxi remained unconscious.
As an emperor, Ji Ying could not possibly stay by her nominal 'niece's' side every step of the way, both emotionally and logically.
Fortunately, everyone knew that the Empress Dowager treated her 'nephew' like a daughter, so Yan Xiu stayed in the Yu family to take care of her.
This care lasted for five days.
Five days passed, and the Wei family father and son, preoccupied with some important matter, finally remembered to visit their seriously injured and unconscious 'granddaughter'/'daughter'.
Not only was Yan Qing deeply displeased with this, but the Empress also showed no respect for the Marquis's residence, coldly rebuking them.
Wei San, who had come with his grandfather and father, was also blamed. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, daring not to speak out in anger.
When people of high status gather at the Yu family home, troubles inevitably arise.
During the days that Wei Pingxi was in a coma, it was thanks to Princess Yunzhang staying by Yu's mother's side that the truth that 'Yu Zhi is a concubine' was kept hidden.
With her there, the situation didn't escalate further.
Wei San was neither loved by his mother nor favored by his aunt, and was inexplicably scolded by the Princess.
Fortunately, he's not the same person he used to be, and he doesn't care about saving face as much anymore, otherwise he would have hanged himself long ago.
He didn't understand. A concubine is a concubine. Why can't she be spoken of?
But the princess didn't want him to speak; even if he had a mouth, he could only remain mute.
Furthermore, the Empress was incredibly meticulous and covered for her daughter both in public and in private. For five whole days, Liu Boyan remained completely unaware of the affair of "using a concubine as a wife."
On the evening of the fifth day, Yu Zhi recovered and woke up, proving that the Rejuvenating Pill truly lived up to its reputation as the second most miraculous pill in the world.
Yan Qing watched as her legs went weak and she collapsed onto another bed, her fingers twirling prayer beads.
The room was full of people: the Empress, the Eldest Princess, and Yu's mother. These people had been keeping watch with her day and night. She sighed inwardly, not daring to reveal any murderous intent.
"Xi Xi, Xi Xi?"
Shouts and calls.
Hearing this shout, the person lying on the bed could not awaken from the boundless sea of suffering—Wei Pingxi hardened her heart and fought against the internal energy that Gu Chenzi had left in her body, a struggle as dangerous as a battle between a dragon and a tiger.
Chapter 64 Weakness
"Your Majesty, it's time to return to the palace."
The maidservant reminded her in a low voice.
The Empress Dowager cannot linger outside for long; after only five days of care, she has already aroused suspicion among many outsiders.
That makes sense, but how could Yan Xiu bear to leave her beloved daughter whom she had lost and then found again?
This is the child she and Aying had longed for for many years and had a difficult birth with.
Having been separated for eighteen years and raised by a thief, it remains to be seen what Yan Qing's true intentions are behind her kindness towards Xi Xi.
With danger lurking everywhere, how could a mother watch her daughter be in peril?
She refused to leave.
Yuzhi also stayed by the bedside without taking off her clothes.
The two, one big and one small, kept a close eye on Wei Pingxi. Liu Boyan felt sorry for her daughter who had just escaped death and wanted to persuade Yu Zhi to rest, but in the end, she couldn't bring herself to say it.
Yan Qing smiled and said, "Your Majesty, as my aunt, cares for me even more than I do as my mother. It's truly..."
"Really what?"
"It's truly...touching."
Yan Xiu's smile was extremely faint; she went her own way, unafraid of Yan Xiu's suspicion.
If Xixi had been murdered in Lingnan, she would have been powerless to do anything about it, but in the capital, under the emperor's nose, she would not allow anyone to harm her daughter!
Her decisive attitude caused even the people sent by Princess Jiaorong to urge her to return to the palace to return empty-handed. Not to mention Yu's mother, even the eldest princess found it strange that she cared so much about Wei Pingxi.
Ji Rong and the Empress have known each other for many years. A person who values reason in all his actions is willing to abandon reason...
She looked at Yan Xiu thoughtfully.
...
In the secluded room, Yan Qing said coldly, "My elder sister has become suspicious."
Gu Chenzi, with his legs crossed and a nonchalant air, said, "You two sisters are both so cunning, it's normal for her to be suspicious."
"Ah Si also became suspicious."
“Wei Pingxi’s features are very similar to Ji Ying’s. Ji Ying is an emperor, and her scheming is even deeper than Yan Xiu’s. If he doesn’t suspect anything when he sees Wei Pingxi’s face, that would be even stranger.”
She smiled and said, "Can suspicion feed you? No matter how much you suspect, even members of the imperial family need evidence. Without evidence, suspicion is just suspicion."
"You are Wei Pingxi's 'birth mother,' which is known to everyone in the world. Those two are an emperor who rules the world and an empress who is the mother of the nation. They would never do anything to take your child away. Don't worry."
"Has Granny Nian been found?"
"That's exactly what I was about to tell you."
Gu Chenzi said solemnly, "We found it, but it's too late."
"The person is dead?"
"Um."
"Are you sure it's her?"
"It must be her... lame, disfigured, and killed by the old woman's men. Who else could it be but her?"
Upon learning of Granny Nian's death, Yan Qing, though unwilling, did not lose her temper: "It's good that she's dead, saving her from bad luck."
Gu Chenzi licked his lips and silently grabbed her waist from behind: "Stay with me?"
Yan Qing's breath hitched slightly: "No."
She wasn't interested, and Gu Chenzi didn't force her. Before leaving, he touched her shapely buttocks, and in the blink of an eye, the female Taoist was nowhere to be seen in the secret room.
Madam Wei closed her eyes, and the image that flashed through her mind was of her reunion with His Majesty at the Yu family's gate a few days ago.
"Ah Si..."
The stone wall is covered with portraits of the Great Yan Emperor, each stroke of which was painted by Yan Qing.
She opened her eyes, gathered her clothes, and knelt down, fantasizing about her wise and powerful emperor.
"Why won't you even look at me? Why would you risk your life for another woman? I raised her for eighteen years, eighteen years! She makes me so angry..."
She couldn't bear to part with a concubine who had died.
Why be reluctant to part with it?
Isn't it a pet kept in the yard?
Yan Qing didn't understand.
She spent eighteen years of her life building a deep bond with her daughter, raising her for eighteen years just to watch her fall in love with another woman.
If she can't have the big one, can't she have the small one either?
That's really awful.
Why live?
Why are you standing between her and Xi Xi?
She would never allow eighteen years of scheming to benefit someone else!
...
Lady Wei was obsessed with the two A-Si in a secret room, while in the palace, in the imperial study, the diligent and benevolent emperor was reviewing memorials.
He was multitasking, keeping the imperial affairs in mind while asking about the empress's schedule.
The chief eunuch Yang Ruo respectfully replied, "Your Majesty, the Empress is still at the Yu family's residence with the Fourth Miss."
"Um."
After asking that question, he said no more.
Yang Ruo swallowed the words "it doesn't make sense" that were on the tip of his tongue. He thought that the Fourth Miss was the child that the Emperor and Empress had longed for for many years, and the truly noble little princess of the Great Yan Dynasty. He calmed his mind.
Now, the one in the Bright Moon Palace only calls him a "castrated dog," while the Fourth Miss treats him much more sincerely in comparison.
I remembered to bring him two catties of Lingnan specialty tea during this trip to Beijing. He felt warm inside, but he just stood there like a wooden stake and didn't try to persuade me anymore.
The Empress has legs, and she loves her daughter dearly and doesn't want to return to the palace. Even His Majesty didn't object, so why are those ministers making such a fuss?
They're just being silly.
"Is the old woman who pretends to be old dead?"
"He died, killed by people sent by the Empress Dowager."
The real old woman was hidden in a side hall of the Gan Ning Palace.
The fake old woman was actually a death row inmate imprisoned in the dungeon. The death row inmate sacrificed himself to ensure his family's livelihood, so he died a worthy death.