Fright and Miscarriage
To understand why Emperor Jing'an reacted this way, one had to go back many years.
Back when Emperor Jing'an was still the crown prince, he had been about to take a secondary consort. Although she would not be his principal wife, she would hold the highest rank among the many women in his residence at the time.
The Empress Dowager, who had still been the empress then, held no real power, but she had nevertheless asked Emperor Jing'an carefully what sort of wife he wanted.
In the young Emperor Jing'an's mind, his wife could not be timid and afraid to voice a single opinion in his presence.
He would one day be emperor, and his wife would be the empress who stood shoulder to shoulder with him, the mother of the nation, not one of those servants who waited on people!
Apart from Emperor Jing'an himself, only the Empress Dowager and Nanny Ming, who had attended her at the time, knew what he thought.
Over the years, though the women in Emperor Jing'an's harem were far fewer than those of the Late Emperor and the two emperors before him, they were still somewhat more numerous than the Grand Ancestor's.
He had met all kinds of women, each with her own manner, but whatever their temperaments, they were all afraid of him when they faced him.
Even Consort Ru, who had initially seemed unafraid of Emperor Jing'an, had merely appeared that way because of her aloof nature, as he later discovered.
Thus, after all these years, it was only when he met Hua Meng that Emperor Jing'an truly encountered someone who dared say "no" to him.
In an excellent mood, Emperor Jing'an decided to return to Phoenix Approaches Palace and see how Wei Fugui and Si Yi's investigation was going once the imperial physicians confirmed that the Empress Dowager's injuries had been brought under control for the time being.
Just as Emperor Jing'an was preparing to leave, Hua Meng came back after resting for two quarters of an hour.
"Why have you come?"
No sooner had Emperor Jing'an spoken than Hua Meng smiled at him. She turned slightly and gestured behind her to Nanny Qing, who had followed her in. "I saw through the window that the Empress Dowager's medicine was ready, so I thought I would come and see how she was." With a somewhat embarrassed smile, Hua Meng continued, "Besides, I was a little hungry, and I thought there must be something to eat here, so I came over."
As soon as Hua Meng finished speaking without the slightest hesitation, Nanny Ming smiled and said, "Your Ladyship Consort Jing guessed quite right. The Empress Dowager does have a few plates of easily digested pastries here." As she spoke, Nanny Ming invited Hua Meng to have some refreshments off to the side.
Hua Meng shook her head at Nanny Ming and said, "Since I'm here, I'll help the Empress Dowager take her medicine before I have any."
After speaking to Nanny Ming, Hua Meng turned to Jiang Chan. "Go and see whether I can eat the pastries here."
Nanny Ming had been about to urge Hua Meng to go straight to the refreshments, since she was there to attend the Empress Dowager, but when she heard Hua Meng tell Jiang Chan to check the pastries, she held back from stopping her at once.
That pause gave Hua Meng the chance to pick up the medicine bowl from the tray in Nanny Ming's hands.
With the bowl already in Hua Meng's hands, Nanny Ming could hardly ask her to put it down.
When Hua Meng made sure to call on Emperor Jing'an, who had not yet left, to help give the Empress Dowager her medicine, Nanny Ming found it even harder to speak up.
The Empress Dowager was unconscious. After hearing Hua Meng's request, Emperor Jing'an thought he might not do a good job on his first attempt, but, remembering that he was nearly thirty and had never tended his mother, he immediately felt guilty and agreed to try.
Hua Meng had experience administering medicine. She asked Emperor Jing'an to help the Empress Dowager sit up gently, and only once she was resting against him did Hua Meng begin feeding her the medicine.
And just now, while Emperor Jing'an, Nanny Ming and Nanny Qing had been helping the Empress Dowager sit up, Hua Meng had finally found a chance to put a drop of Spirit Spring that restored vitality into her medicine bowl.
Though Hua Meng fed her the medicine carefully, in the end she managed to get less than half the bowl into her.
Even so, Hua Meng breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the Empress Dowager take less than half.
Presumably, without taking a full drop of Spirit Spring, the Empress Dowager would not recover quite so quickly.
That shouldn't arouse the imperial physicians' suspicions, should it?
After watching the Empress Dowager take her medicine and eating two pastries, Hua Meng left White Egret Palace with Emperor Jing'an.
Emperor Jing'an was returning to Phoenix Approaches Palace to ask how the hunt for the assassins was progressing, while Hua Meng wanted to go back and rest. In Consort Ru's White Egret Palace, she could never truly rest easy.
Such a major incident had occurred in the palace that the well-informed court officials naturally submitted memorials one after another, requesting permission to enter the palace and visit Emperor Jing'an.
Nearly every high-ranking official at court sent in a memorial. The sole exception was the Elder Princess's husband, Wei Heng, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Punishments.
"Could Wei Heng be feeling guilty?"
Though Emperor Jing'an knew that if Elder Princess Yue Shu really had done this, it was quite possible Wei Heng knew nothing about it, he could not help murmuring those words.
Wei Fugui knew Emperor Jing'an disliked the Wei Family. Otherwise, back then, he would not have bestowed the surname Wei on him when Wei Fugui clearly remembered his own surname.
Hearing Emperor Jing'an's words, Wei Fugui unobtrusively signaled to Xiao Jiangzi in the distance. Only after Xiao Jiangzi withdrew did Wei Fugui look at Emperor Jing'an and speak. "Your Majesty, the identities of those old eunuchs are somewhat suspicious."
At first, Wei Fugui and Si Yi had also suspected the Elder Princess.
After all, the Elder Princess was the only one who had both the ability and a grudge against their emperor.
But once they investigated, they found that something was amiss with the identities of those old eunuchs.
Emperor Jing'an had originally suspected Yue Shu as well, but when he heard Wei Fugui's words, he knew the matter was probably not so simple.
Emperor Jing'an said nothing, only looking directly at Wei Fugui and signaling for him to continue.
Wei Fugui did not hesitate. He quickly gathered his thoughts on what he and Si Yi had discovered, then said, "Those old eunuchs usually keep a low profile in the palace, almost deliberately so. Today, after Commander Si and I subjected the palace maid who tried to assassinate Her Ladyship Consort Jing to severe interrogation, we learned roughly who they were."
At the mention of this, Wei Fugui could not help sighing inwardly.
"Almost every one of those old eunuchs has several godsons and goddaughters. That palace maid was one of the old eunuchs' goddaughters. They do the hardest work in the palace and are often bullied." Wei Fugui paused, remembering that he himself had nearly taken an old eunuch as his godfather back then, before continuing, "I originally investigated only the old eunuchs' godsons and goddaughters. Later, Commander Si happened to wonder aloud whether the old eunuchs had godfathers of their own, so I followed that lead and investigated further."
Wei Fugui raised his eyes to glance at Emperor Jing'an. Seeing no expression on his face, he continued, "Those old eunuchs' godfathers were godsons of the eunuchs the Grand Ancestor had killed back then."
Emperor Jing'an listened quietly to Wei Fugui the whole time. Only when Wei Fugui had spoken his last word and fallen silent did he look at him with some surprise. "So these old eunuchs are the god-grandsons of the eunuchs the Grand Ancestor killed back then?"
Though Wei Fugui found Emperor Jing'an's wording a little odd, he still nodded in confirmation.
Emperor Jing'an had not expected this matter to have any connection to the Former Dynasty.
"Can you be certain they acted alone, with no one else involved?"
Emperor Jing'an still felt that the matter could not be so simple. To put it plainly, he suspected Yue Shu was involved.
After serving Emperor Jing'an for so many years, how could Wei Fugui not understand what he was thinking?
Thinking of the confessions obtained from interrogating the few old eunuchs left alive, Wei Fugui shook his head. "They insisted to the bitter end that they carried out the assassination attempt because they saw that Her Ladyship Consort Jing was pregnant and that Your Majesty would have an heir."
Wei Fugui was himself a eunuch in the palace, so how could he not know what those people were capable of?
It would have been no great difficulty for them to find out the arrangements for Consort Qi's Flower-Viewing Banquet or arrange for a palace maid to go in and serve, but how had they obtained the weapons?
After Wei Fugui told Emperor Jing'an that both he and Si Yi had doubts about this, Emperor Jing'an nodded. "You have done very well. If this was done, it must have left traces. Keep investigating!"
Just as Emperor Jing'an finished giving the order, Xiao Jiangzi returned from finding out why Wei Heng had not sent a memorial to the palace.
Xiao Jiangzi's expression was somewhat strange. He was close to Qiu Die of Sparrow Plume Palace, so he naturally knew what Hua Meng had said in Chaohuang Palace back then.
Now, when he considered that alongside the news he had just gathered, it seemed to him from every angle that the matter could not be simple.
Xiao Jiangzi's expression was so peculiar that Emperor Jing'an and Wei Fugui both looked at him curiously at the same time.
Seeing Emperor Jing'an waiting, Xiao Jiangzi hurried to speak without delay. "They say Commandery Lady Ningyin could not bear the heat, so yesterday her husband accompanied her to a dowry estate in the suburbs to escape it. Who would have thought that early this morning, a servant woman's daughter at the estate, ignorant of the rules, offended Commandery Lady Ningyin and angered her into a miscarriage? The Elder Princess was distressed for her daughter and, as soon as she heard the news, took Vice Minister Wei with her to seek justice for Commandery Lady Ningyin."