Chapter 199
Chapter 199: Caring Too Much
Luo Ning chatted a few words with the Empress at the gate of Shoucheng Palace.
The Empress showed concern for her.
Luo Ning said that she was fine and thanked the Empress for her care.
Xiao Huai Feng stood to the side and spoke at the right time: “Let’s go in. Imperial Mother is waiting.”
“Your Ladyship, please go first,” Luo Ning stepped half a step back.
The Empress nodded slightly and walked into Shoucheng Palace first. Prince Yong and Luo Ning walked side by side, two steps behind her.
The Empress Dowager had not slept all night.
She had turned over the words Prince Chen told her again and again.
She was also worried about Luo Ning.
Seeing that Luo Ning still had a healthy color in her face, the Empress Dowager’s heart relaxed a little. But when she saw the wound on Luo Ning’s left hand, where a piece of skin had been sliced off by a rock and bright red flesh was covered with ointment but had not yet closed, the Empress Dowager’s heart tightened again.
She could not help feeling pain for Luo Ning.
“…Go find Court Physician Gu. We need the best medicine for external wounds,” the Empress Dowager held Luo Ning’s hand as she spoke and ordered Eunuch Wei.
Then she asked Xiao Huai Feng: “What medicine did you use? A whole night has passed and the wound still hasn’t closed.”
Xiao Huai Feng also looked over, his eyes deep: “Imperial Mother, a piece of skin was torn off. It will not heal so fast. The medicine is a very good one for external injuries.”
The Empress Dowager’s eyes were full of heartache.
Luo Ning comforted her: “Imperial Mother, it doesn’t hurt.”
“Your whole hand is swollen and you still say it doesn’t hurt. You really are a silly child,” the Empress Dowager said.
She asked again, “Did you have nightmares last night?”
“I dreamed all sorts of things all night.”
“After suffering so much, how could you sleep well? We should have called Court Physician Gu yesterday. Later we’ll ask him to give you some calming powder,” the Empress Dowager said.
The Empress advised from the side: “Imperial Mother, please don’t worry too much. You must also take care of your own health, or Sister-in-law will feel guilty.”
Luo Ning nodded: “Yes.”
She had come in from outside and had caught some cold wind. The main hall of Shoucheng Palace was tall and wide, and even though two bronze braziers were burning, Luo Ning still felt a chill.
She really wanted to cough.
Prince Yong had told her not to hold back, but she did not want the Empress Dowager to worry even more.
In the end she could not hold back and started coughing and choking.
As expected, the Empress Dowager’s face changed again. “Is this your old illness coming back?”
Luo Ning wanted to speak, but she could not stop coughing. She should not have held it in before. Holding it back had only made her chest feel worse.
The Empress Dowager gently patted her back to help her breathe.
“…It’s just a bit cold. I choked on the wind,” Luo Ning said.
The Empress Dowager said: “We will still ask Court Physician Gu to write you a few more doses of medicine.”
She asked a palace maid, “Court Physician Gu still isn’t here? Go urge him again.”
Watching the Empress Dowager so nervous, the Empress thought of the time when the Eldest Prince was ill.
The Eldest Prince was the Emperor’s only son and was tied to the stability of the court. When he had a high fever that would not go down, the Empress Dowager had shown this same raw, unhidden worry on her face.
“Imperial Mother, I only choked on the wind,” Luo Ning said after her coughing eased. “I really am fine. Please don’t worry about me.”
The Empress Dowager let out a soft sigh: “You still need to take medicine, to stop problems before they happen. Winter days are long. If it drags into a serious illness, it will be troublesome.”
Luo Ning said: “Please give me a cup of hot water, Imperial Mother.”
“Hurry, pour some water,” the Empress Dowager ordered.
A palace lady went herself to pour the water.
Prince Yong took the cup from her and handed it to Luo Ning: “Slowly, it’s a bit hot.”
Luo Ning slowly drank a cup of warm water and felt a little better.
“You will stay at Shoucheng Palace and live here for three days,” the Empress Dowager said to Luo Ning again. “Tell them to heat the floor channels in the side hall a bit more. We can’t let you get cold. I won’t be at ease otherwise.”
Luo Ning agreed.
The Empress quietly watched all of this. The smile at the corner of her lips looked a little distant.
Court Physician Gu arrived very soon.
He asked Xiao Huai Feng: “What medicine did the Prince use on the Princess Consort?”
Xiao Huai Feng said the name of a medicine.
It was one the army often used.
Court Physician Gu said: “…This medicine is good. Keep using it on the Princess Consort. I have some herbs here too, we can add them.”
He then asked why Luo Ning was coughing.
Luo Ning told him the reason.
“Empress Dowager, the Princess Consort’s cough this time is because dust has settled in the lung channels and blocked her qi. We should rely heavily on codonopsis to strengthen the middle qi. Three doses will cure it,” Court Physician Gu said.
The Empress Dowager said: “Write the prescription.”
Court Physician Gu wrote the prescription, and the Empress Dowager told Eunuch Wei to personally take it to the imperial pharmacy to get the medicine and have it decocted.
“…Empress, you have a pile of matters in the imperial palace. Go back first,” the Empress Dowager said to the Empress.
The Empress agreed, bowed, and took her leave.
She did not return to Kunning Palace but went to the imperial study instead.
The Emperor had told her to find things out.
The explosion at Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple had shocked the whole court and the common people. At this morning’s court session, everyone was talking about it.
“Sister-in-law is fine, she was just frightened,” she told the Emperor.
The Emperor said: “Have Aunt Jia Hong enter the palace as well and ask her too. She was also there yesterday.”
The Empress answered and sent someone to pass the message to the Princess’s manor.
Luo Ning, Xiao Huai Feng, and the Empress Dowager moved to the warm pavilion of the main bedchamber to talk.
“…The Grand Princess invited me again and again. I am not yet married and did not dare put on airs in front of a Princess. She asked me to go to Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple. When I saw the pilgrims there like a sea of clouds, I relaxed my guard a little,” Luo Ning said.
The Empress Dowager’s face grew dark.
Xiao Huai Feng said: “Zheng Qing has already checked. Fourteen people died. When they dug open Your Highness’s secret room, there were five corpses, three of them dressed in tight fighting clothes and the other two a pair of grandparent and grandchild.”
Luo Ning’s heart sank.
She thought of that grandparent and child, wearing straw shoes in winter, their toes red from the cold. They might have come to pray for blessings, only hoping to have enough to eat and wear, yet had died for no reason in this “accident.”
Fate was unpredictable.
In the eyes of powerful nobles, the lives of common people were just that cheap.
Luo Ning felt that this whole play had probably been arranged by Grand Princess Jia Hong.
In her eyes, Luo Ning was like that pair of grandparent and grandchild, small and thin, wearing a pair of broken straw shoes, easy to crush.
“These three men never had clear backgrounds to begin with, and now they are dead with no way to question them. It is hard to investigate,” Xiao Huai Feng said to the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager asked: “What do you think?”
“Eight or nine times out of ten, it was Aunt who did it. But we can’t catch any handle on her. At today’s morning court, everyone was talking about the bones under Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple. That is what they fear,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
“Your aunt planned from the start to have Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple take the blame for her,” the Empress Dowager said. “Any matter will leave traces. We will investigate slowly.”
Xiao Huai Feng agreed and glanced at Luo Ning. “We will get you justice.”
Luo Ning nodded.
The Empress Dowager asked Luo Ning: “Are you afraid?”
“I am. But I have escaped danger three times now,” Luo Ning said.
She carefully told the Empress Dowager and Xiao Huai Feng everything that had happened at the time.
The three people who died in the secret room had planned to take advantage of the chaos in the main hall to grab Luo Ning directly.
By accident, Luo Ning had triggered and opened the mechanism.
After talking, Luo Ning was tired and took a short nap.
After the noon meal, Grand Princess Jia Hong arrived.
She had first gone to Kunning Palace and talked with the Empress all morning. The Empress had kept her for lunch, and only then did she come over.
Luo Ning went out to meet her.
“…We also almost got hurt. I heard that Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple secretly dug for gold, hollowed out the ground under the main hall, and then it suddenly caved in.
They dug out quite a lot of gold. All the craftsmen who knew about it were killed, and their bones were in the secret rooms under Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple,” Grand Princess Jia Hong said, looking as if she was still frightened.
The Empress Dowager asked: “They have already found out this part?”
“Yes. People from Dali Court just came to report back. The Emperor had them tell the Empress, and I overheard it,” the Princess said.
The Empress Dowager said: “Such sin.”
“Imperial Sister-in-law, it is lucky that both I and A’Ning are safe and sound,” Grand Princess Jia Hong said.
Luo Ning sat beside them, watching the Princess’s words and actions, and could not see the slightest bit of guilt.
It was as if all the suspicions were just slander from Luo Ning and Xiao Huai Feng.
What was her true reason for doing this?
To say it was just to steal Luo Ning away?
Who would believe that?
Grand Princess Jia Hong sighed and talked with the Empress Dowager for quite a while, then finally took her leave.