The Golden Partridge of An Lingrong's Rebirth

"Now that she has left the palace, there is no reason to come back. Don't you know her thoughts when looking at the Ai family?" The Queen Mother suppressed her anger and said, "She insisted on leaving and hurt the emperor's heart. Now she has figured it out. Now, should the emperor give in to her? What kind of place does she think this harem is, where she can come and leave whenever she wants?"

Shen Meizhuang was speechless. He knelt down and wanted to speak again, but the Queen Mother raised her hand to stop him.

"The Ai family has treated her with the utmost benevolence and righteousness. You don't need to say anything more." The queen mother closed her eyes, not wanting to say anything more.

Shen Meizhuang pursed her lips, closed her eyes, and thought: "Isn't the Queen Mother also worried that the Queen's family will be the only one in the palace? If Mochou can return to the palace, with her intelligence and wit, she will definitely be able to check and balance the Queen. If the Queen Mother can If she is allowed to return to the palace, Mochou will definitely appreciate the Queen Mother's kindness and obey all the Queen Mother's orders."

The bedroom suddenly became quiet.

Shen Meizhuang knelt on the ground and did not dare to raise his head to look at the Queen Mother's expression. It took a while before he heard the Queen Mother's voice: "Concubine Hui, these words don't sound like your usual self. Who taught you this?"

Shen Meizhuang lowered his head and remained silent.

"You should go back first and let the Aijia think about it." The Queen Mother finally relaxed and thought to herself.

Since ancient times, there has been no precedent for deposing a concubine and returning to the palace. It is not that she is afraid that Zhen Huan will cause trouble again after returning to the palace, but that she will take revenge on the queen after knowing that she was the mastermind.What the Queen Mother wants is peace in the harem, whether it is real peace or a pretense of peace, as long as it does not affect the Emperor's handling of the previous government affairs. However, the Queen and Zhen Huan will fight to the death.

However, the Queen Mother did not have much time to think about it. Shen Meizhuang left and returned, followed by the frightened Fourth Brother.

The fourth elder brother knelt down and crawled towards the Queen Mother in tears: "My grandson, please pay your respects to the Queen Mother."

"Brother Si, why are you here?" The Queen Mother was surprised, but she was startled when Brother Si raised his head, "A man won't shed tears easily, why are you crying? Come on, come on, come to the Ai family."

"It's no wonder that Fourth Brother is crying. He was so scared that he lost his mind." Shen Meizhuang stepped forward and explained, "Your Majesty, Fourth Brother's nanny mistakenly ate Fourth Brother's mung bean soup and died of poison on the spot."

"What did you say?" The Queen Mother's pupils shrank, and she immediately thought of the Queen, and a chill ran down her spine.

"My grandson knows he is humble and unlovable, but his grandson has never meant any harm to others. Why would someone want to kill his grandson?" The fourth elder brother cried pitifully. The Queen Mother saw it and was extremely worried. She thought of An Lingrong some time ago. Speaking of Si Age's study and hard work, I can't help but feel a little more pity for him.

"I have thought about it. The fourth elder brother has no biological mother and has no one to take care of him in the palace. For the sake of safety, I kindly ask the queen mother to let the fourth elder brother live in Shoukang Palace to ensure that he is safe." Shen Meizhuang said from the side.

The Queen Mother naturally had no objections, but when Shen Meizhuang asked if she wanted to investigate the matter of mung bean soup, she hesitated and struggled in her heart for a long time before speaking: "I'm afraid it's difficult. How many people have touched a bowl of mung bean soup? How many people have handled it, if the investigation goes on to cause a big problem, wouldn't it become a scandal in the palace?"

Zhu Xi, who was on the side, felt like a mirror, pursed his lips and lowered his eyes.Although the Queen Mother is dissatisfied with the Queen, she will still choose to protect her when something happens. Now that there is no one in the palace who can suppress the Queen, I am afraid that the days will become more difficult in the future, and the Emperor's heir will not be able to maintain prosperity.

After Shen Meizhuang left, the Queen Mother asked the Fourth Elder Brother to go down first. After being silent for a long time, she said to Zhu Xi: "After the Queen had Third Elder Brother as her adopted son, in order to pave the way for him to become a prince, the Queen became even more intolerant of the Fourth Elder Brother. It's gone. With the emperor's heirs withered, the country will never be stable forever. The queen is so unscrupulous, and the Ai family cannot just watch her destroy the Qing Dynasty." She raised her head and told Zhu Xi, "Tomorrow, please ask the emperor to come."

Zhu Xi couldn't hear the sound of the Queen Mother's words, so he hid the joy in his eyes and leaned forward to accept the order.

The winter snow was melting and it was getting colder in the first month, but An Lingrong was rarely in the mood and asked someone to move a deck chair and sit on the porch to enjoy the snow.

"Greetings to the imperial concubine, may she be blessed with peace and prosperity." Gui Shun, Shen Meizhuang, and Concubine Jing came back from outside with their three children. They saw An Lingrong sitting on the porch with her big cloak folded up and a stove in her arms. They hurriedly stepped forward to say hello.

An Lingrong's eyebrows were as gentle as water, and she raised her hand: "Get up."

Brother Seventh walked forward holding a cluster of blooming white plums, looked at An Lingrong with his big black eyes, and put the white plums in his hand to her hand: "Mother, are you feeling better?"

"It's so beautiful." An Lingrong put down the stove, picked up the white plum, put it on the tip of his nose and sniffed it gently, then showed a faint smile to the seventh elder brother, "Whose child are you? You are so good-looking."

There was no disappointment in Brother Seven's eyes, he just looked at An Lingrong seriously and stubbornly: "I am E Niang's child, and my name is Honghao."

Shen Meizhuang and Concubine Jing stood behind, feeling sad in their hearts.

The seventh elder brother is only one and a half years old, and he can only walk steadily at that age, but he is calmer than anyone else. He doesn't know why his mother-in-law forgot about him overnight, and he doesn't know why Ankang What does his death mean? He just repeated to An Lingrong day after day, over and over again, "I am E Niang's child, and my name is Honghao." Even if he didn't get a response, even if An Lingrong turned around and would Forgetting, he still persisted, his little face full of expectation and persistence.

Shun Guiren stepped forward and picked up Brother Seven, and comforted him softly: "Brother Seven, it's time to take a nap. Can Madam Shun take you to find your grandma?" She couldn't bear to look any further, so she walked away quickly with Brother Seven in her arms.

Shen Meizhuang walked to An Lingrong and sat down next to her. When he saw that she was in a daze again, he sighed lowly.

Concubine Jing asked her sixth brother to take Long Yue to play in the yard. She gently patted Shen Meizhuang on the shoulder and comforted her: "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

Shen Meizhuang smiled bitterly and nodded, then took An Lingrong's hand and talked about what he had seen today: "I went to greet the queen this morning. She looked very ugly. I knew it was done. I asked someone to go and inquire about it carefully later. After some time, I found out that the Queen Mother summoned the Emperor and the Queen yesterday afternoon and finalized the matter of Huan'er's return to the palace. The Queen had no idea about it at all and had no room for argument at the moment. The Emperor had already prepared everything and was waiting. The Queen Mother nodded." She put the hand stove back into An Lingrong's hand and continued: "Huan'er is a deposed concubine. No one in the palace knew it, so the emperor re-canonized her as a concubine. Even the title was changed. Xi, and she was worried that her identity as the daughter of a guilty minister would be discussed when she returned to the palace. Her status was low and she had never given birth to a prince, and she did not even know the gender of the child in her belly. So he gave her the surname Niu Hulu and recognized her as her The righteous daughter of Duke Chengen also assigned the fourth elder brother to her name, and declared to the outside world that she left the palace to pray for the country after giving birth to the fourth elder brother. Now that her merits have been fulfilled, she will naturally return to the palace."

"The emperor has made such thorough arrangements, the queen has no place to find fault even if she wants to." Concubine Jing said with a smile, "It has been decided to welcome her back to the palace on the third day of March, and the Yongshou Palace has also started to be renovated. By then you will be next to each other. If you stay here, you can be the same as before."

"The queen will not be willing to give in. I guess she will ask the courtiers to report their objections. Even if they can't stop Huan'er from returning to the palace, it is still good to throw dirty water on her." Shen Meizhuang smiled coldly, "But Uncle An is leaving. Arrangements have been made before the capital, and there are many people available in the court. Shun Guiren's father was sent back to the capital and is now serving in the Supervisory Council, as well as Mr. Ji from Dali Temple..."

An Lingrong looked up at the dazzling skylight and counted the time in his mind.

It was the third day of March, and with less than two months left, she had to act quickly.

Waking up in the middle of the night, Fang Chunyi sat up from the bed sweating profusely, holding her chest and gasping hard, as if she could only breathe in this way. She didn't know that the knife hanging over her head was about to fall.

"Su Yun!" Fang Chunyi called Su Yun sharply, "Go, go get my medicine."

Su Yun, who was keeping vigil at night, jumped up and quickly poured the warm medicine in the small vat into a bowl and handed it to Fang Chunyi: "Your Majesty, please use it more slowly. The medicine you just poured out is still a bit hot."

Fang Chunyi couldn't care less about this. She took the medicine bowl and drank it in. She drank so fast that a lot of the brown medicine leaked out, streaked down her cheeks, and then fell down drop by drop. She finished drinking the medicine. , looking at the colorful curtains on the top, feeling the warm concoction falling down the throat into the stomach, only then did I feel more comfortable.

Suyun took the empty bowl with worried eyes, and watched Fang Chunyi lie back with a face full of enjoyment, while the hand holding the bowl couldn't stop trembling.

I don’t know when her mother-in-law started to have nightmares. She couldn’t sleep all night long. No matter how much medicine she took, she didn’t get better. She looked like she didn’t look like a human anymore. That’s why she found a folk prescription from Dr. Zhou. , it is said that it can provide some relief, but you must use it with caution and do not overdo it, otherwise you will become addicted.

But Fang Chunyi couldn't listen. Because of this disease, she fell out of favor again. Now even Kang Changzai dared to ride on her head and do whatever he wanted. The queen saw that she was useless and refused to take a second look. She turned around and praised her. Qi Bin and Jin Bin also went to beg the Queen, but the Queen only asked Jian Qiu to give her one sentence - if you can't save yourself, don't expect others to save you.

This sentence reminded Fang Chunyi of Qi's concubine back then. She was so scared that she drank the medicine like water regardless of Suyun's obstruction, and finally stabilized her condition.

But such recovery is ultimately short-lived.

Before she could be favored again, the after-effects of the medicine showed up. Fang Chunyi began to wander between waking up from nightmares and falling asleep after taking the medicine. Until now, she had become like a human being and a ghost.

"Your Majesty, my concubine's time is running out." Daukou whispered back to An Lingrong.

An Lingrong stopped knocking on the wooden fish, and with the weak candlelight, he joined his hands and bowed deeply to Guanyin. Then he stood up and walked out with his hand on the nutmeg: "Let Zhou Nan tell Brother Ji, It’s time to take action.”

"Yes."

The Fang family's decline came unexpectedly, and it was the Xu family that had problems in the first place.

That day Xu Tong was preparing to go to court. As soon as he left the house, an old woman rushed out and stopped his carriage, accusing him of plundering people's wealth, forcing good people to death, causing her family to be destroyed. After saying this, without waiting for Xu Tong to defend, the old woman The woman hit her head and died on the steps in front of Xu's house.

This incident caused an uproar in the court.

Xu Tong was impeached and dismissed from office. Dali Temple took over the investigation of the case, but unexpectedly found out that the Xu family had lent money to Beijing and made money wantonly. They followed the clues and found the Fang family. Fang Zhiwen, who was already a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, even betrayed the family. There were several life-threatening lawsuits, and for a while, the government and the public were in a state of excitement.

"Your Majesty, it is a serious crime to illicit Beijing debts. Although Xu Tong may not know that all the debts of the Xu family are in the hands of his eldest daughter-in-law, it is a fact that his housekeeping is lax and must be severely punished." Zhang Tingyu stepped forward to show his strength. The remonstration was in a sonorous and powerful voice, "But Fang Zhiwen ignored the emperor's kindness and relied on the protection of the concubines in the palace to act recklessly outside the palace and disregard human lives. It is really intolerable. I sincerely ask the emperor to get rid of the treacherous villain and bring justice to the people of the world."

"I second the proposal!" Liu Chang'an, Shun Guiren's father, stood up immediately.

Afterwards, Ji He and a group of civil servants also came out one after another.

The emperor sentenced Fang Zhiwen to be executed after Qiu, and the rest of his family members were all exiled to Ning Guta.

The Xu family escaped by chance, but Xu Tong was demoted three levels in a row. After returning home, he involuntarily pressured his eldest son to divorce Fang Zhiyi on the grounds that he had "nothing to do", and angrily denounced "ignorant and stupid woman". "Since you are devoted to your mother's family, then go back to your Fang family." Fang Zhi felt ashamed and angry, but she also knew that she had brought trouble to the Xu family, and she had also harmed the entire Fang family. Before the divorce letter was received, she Hanged by the neck.

The situation of the Fang family was over, and Fang Chunyi in the palace became a street rat that everyone yelled at. She wanted to beg the queen, but before going out, An Lingrong blocked the door.

An Lingrong Gujing Wubo's eyes reflected Fang Chunyi's face. She approached slowly, stood in front of her, and said coldly: "Chun'er, long time no see."