It's all ruined, who cares about the chastity arch

"what!"

The scream penetrated the palace walls, attracting the hurried footsteps of the maids outside the door.

"Mother, what's wrong with you?"

The anxious voices of the maids came like a breeze, trying to blow away the heaviness in the room.

The concubine's consciousness was slightly brought back by this sudden call. She tried to raise her confused eyes and look at the maids, but found that their faces were blurred, like Pei Jingliu's last miserable and distorted face, which made her heart shudder and her face turned pale as paper in an instant.

She covered her forehead in pain and screamed, "Get out! All of you get out!"

The maids exchanged uneasy glances with each other, and none of them dared to take a step forward.

At the critical moment, Cuifang, the personal maid who had always been following her, stepped forward. She strode to the side of the concubine and slapped her shoulder firmly, using her clever strength to make the concubine fall into a temporary coma.

As the concubine's eyes closed gently, she fell weakly into Cuifang's warm arms.

"Quick, summon the imperial physician immediately!"

Cuifang's hurried voice broke the silence of the bedroom. The palace maids scattered like frightened birds, and the bedroom was in chaos.

Soon, the imperial physician rushed over, took the patient's pulse, asked questions, and performed a series of actions quickly and orderly. However, after all the trouble, the exact cause of the disease could not be found.

Finally, the imperial physician looked at Cuifang helplessly and said, "I'm afraid your majesty has some kind of psychogenic hysteria."

"Hysteria?"

Cuifang was shocked and repeated the word in disbelief, with doubts rising in her heart.

She dismissed the other palace maids and looked around the bedroom alone, with a searching light in her eyes: "Imperial Physician, please help me check if there are any unusual spices in the bedroom, especially those that can cause insanity."

The imperial physician followed Cuifang's request and searched every corner carefully, but in the end he could only shake his head in disappointment: "Except for the incense that the queen usually uses, I didn't find anything unusual."

Cuifang's brows were furrowed tighter and tighter, undercurrents surged in her heart, and her intuition told her that this matter was not simple.

The imperial physician tried to comfort her: "Miss Cuifang, you personally take care of the queen's diet and daily life. The palace is well guarded, and it is difficult for outsiders to have the opportunity to harm the queen."

"Perhaps it is simple hysteria."

He added, with a hint of uncertainty in his tone.

Cuifang sighed and nodded: "Okay, you can prescribe a few medicines for the queen first, and we can talk about the rest after the queen wakes up tomorrow."

The imperial physician bowed respectfully in response, and Cuifang then escorted him out of the palace personally. She stayed by the dowager concubine's side all night until the next morning, when Concubine Pei slowly opened her eyes.

The first thing he said when he woke up was to ask about the hairpin that symbolized so many secrets and memories: "Where is my hairpin? Have you seen my hairpin?"

Cuifang was confused: "Madam, which hairpin are you talking about?"

Concubine Pei's eyes revealed a trace of fatigue and anxiety, and her eyes were dark and blue: "Didn't you see the red coral one?"

Cuifang hurriedly searched everywhere in the bedroom, but found nothing.

She returned and reported: "Madam, there is really no red coral hairpin in the palace that you mentioned."

Concubine Pei insisted: "Impossible, absolutely impossible, I clearly remember it was placed by my bed yesterday!"

Cuifang checked again, but still found nothing.

"Could it be that you have been too tired recently and saw it wrongly?"

Cuifang asked cautiously.

Concubine Pei shook her head firmly: "No, I definitely didn't see it wrong!"

Seeing her mistress's sad face, Cuifang couldn't bear it, so she brought the boiled medicine and said, "Madam, please drink the medicine first."

Concubine Pei looked pale. After hesitating for a while, she finally reached out and held Cuifang's hand: "You really didn't find the red coral hairpin here?"

Cuifang nodded heavily, and her determined look made the concubine begin to question whether she had really remembered something wrong.

She gradually calmed down and fell into deep thought.

In the end, Concubine Pei reluctantly drank the bowl of bitter medicine.

But the truth is hidden in the shadows of the night. The red coral hairpin did appear at Concubine Pei's bedside last night. It was Siqi who brought it into the palace with great effort.

No matter how strict Concubine Pei's vigilance was, she could not completely isolate herself from external conspiracies.

This palace has never been her stage alone, but belongs to the almighty emperor.

Among the eunuchs and palace maids, there might be one or two who were spies planted by the emperor. Although they could not get close to the core of power, they were capable of carrying out some covert actions, such as small matters like changing bed covers.

An inconspicuous palace maid took advantage of her position to hide the hairpin in the bedding and completed the delivery silently.

When it was late at night and everyone was asleep, she took the hairpin away without anyone noticing. The bedding, which had been carefully arranged by Su Wanyu, looked normal on the surface, but actually held a secret.

She cleverly blended a colorless and odorless poison into the fabric of the bedding, which slowly seeped through the skin, causing hallucinations that were difficult for even the most perceptive healers to detect.

The poison erodes silently, and even the most careful protection seems pale and powerless.

For Su Wanyu, this was just the beginning, and Concubine Pei's illness became a long and uninterrupted torment. Day after day, night after night, she struggled with the shadow of the past.

It was not just Pei Jingliu's shadow, but also Song Yulin's face, and even more ghostly figures appeared one after another, as if silently questioning and demanding something.

In just a few days, Concubine Pei's appearance changed drastically, and her eyes showed the vicissitudes of life.

When Pei Chi'an, the family's niece, learned that the girl was seriously ill, she brought precious ginseng to the palace to visit her.

"Girl, what happened to you? Why did you fall ill?"

Her caring words were like a spring breeze blowing across the wilderness, but they could not blow away the haze that shrouded the palace.

Concubine Pei was reclining on a gorgeously decorated rosewood couch, a soft fox fur cloak gently covering her thin shoulders. The sunlight filtered through the carved window lattices, casting mottled shadows on her body, reflecting a gentleness of a peaceful life.

Seeing the handsome young man approaching steadily, a rare joy flashed across her eyes, like a dead tree coming back to life: "You, you still remember to visit an old man like me. If you were a few days later, I would have really thought that you had a new love and had forgotten all about us old friends."

Hearing this, Pei Chi'an quickly put down the exquisite gift box in his hand, his sleeves fluttering in his movements. He then carefully lifted the edge of his robe, showing the etiquette of a nobleman, and half-knelt on the soft brocade carpet: "Miss, what are you talking about? How dare your nephew forget your kindness? I approached Miss Wu purely for the benefit of my family. I want to use the power of the Wu family to pave the way for the future development of our Pei family."

Hearing this, Concubine Pei raised a gentle smile and stretched out her jade hand to gently wave at him: "Okay, come and sit here with me."

"Okay, girl."

Pei Chi'an stood up in response, moved gracefully to her side, and half-knelt down again.