Harem Daily Life

Eunuch Qin returned to Changchun Palace. The Queen Mother saw him coming back with a food box and looked at him eagerly.

Eunuch Qin collected his thoughts and took out the two dishes given by Lady Tao. The lion's head was still warm and ready to eat. The Queen Mother had two vegetarian dishes prepared. They ate the lion's head and white-cut chicken and had a satisfying lunch.

After they finished eating, the Queen Mother asked, "Have you taught me everything that needs to be taught?"

Eunuch Qin nodded and said, "I have taught her everything. Lady Tao is smart, but she lacks experience. She said she will try her best."

The Queen Mother was very satisfied: "Then you can go and have a rest. I also need to take a nap. You don't need to wait on me."

Eunuch Qin hesitated for a moment, but decided to express his guess first and let the Queen Mother recall it together.

"Empress Dowager, there is something that I suddenly remembered today. It is about Young Master Jin'an's life experience..."

When the Queen Mother heard this, she frowned and looked at him.

Eunuch Qin asked, "Does the Queen Mother still remember Concubine Yin?"

Speaking of which, the Queen Mother did have some impression of her: "Yin Jieyu, the niece of the Princess of Zhao? When the Kings of Qi, Zhao, and Chu rebelled, Yin Jieyu was also implicated and had a hard time in the palace."

"That's right. At that time, all of Yin Jieyu's family members joined the camp of King Zhao and followed him in rebellion, and were all killed. Your Majesty spared Yin Jieyu's life because she was pregnant, but kept her in the palace and did not allow anyone to visit her." Eunuch Qin looked at the Queen Mother's expression.

Sure enough, the Queen Mother frowned.

"Later, Concubine Yin's belly grew bigger and bigger, and only you, the Queen Mother, dared to send a servant to visit her. You, the Queen Mother, thought it was rare to have an heir, and you took care of her baby. But just when she was about to give birth, Concubine Yin suddenly drank a labor-inducing drug and gave birth to a child. The child died not long after, and two days later, Concubine Yin also passed away."

The Queen Mother frowned even deeper, looking at Eunuch Qin in confusion: "Are you trying to say that the child was not dead? Impossible, the imperial physician has checked it!"

Eunuch Qin shook his head and said, "At that time, Concubine Rong also gave birth to the eldest prince on the same day. The Queen Mother and the Empress were both in Yongxing Palace. When someone came to report that Concubine Yin had just given birth to a son and died shortly afterwards, we actually didn't go to see him. We only sent the imperial physician to check. The actual situation... oh, we were afraid that someone would be substituted for the dead!"

"Didn't you go to see the poor child in person later?" the Queen Mother asked Eunuch Qin.

"The child was just born, and nothing could be seen. I took a quick look and saw that he was dead, so I had him taken away for disposal. In addition, Concubine Yin's condition was not good, so no one had the time to think about the child. And... and the strange thing was that... an old nanny in Concubine Yin's palace suddenly disappeared." Eunuch Qin was a little panicked when he talked about this.

The Queen Mother usually doesn't have time to take care of such trivial matters, let alone an unknown old maid in the palace.

"Don't hesitate, just speak up and tell me whatever you think." The Queen Mother said anxiously.

Eunuch Qin had no choice but to say, "Because Concubine Yin passed away within two days, and Concubine Rong gave birth to the eldest prince, there was one happy event and one sad event in the palace, and everyone's attention was focused on Yongxing Palace. Who would care about Concubine Yin? After the old nanny disappeared, perhaps the Ministry of Internal Affairs was worried about taking responsibility, and the imperial guards guarding the palace were also worried about taking responsibility, so they didn't dare to report it. I... I was also worried that the Queen Mother would blame me, so I didn't dare to say anything. I just thought that the old nanny ran away because she was worried about being implicated in Concubine Yin's matter."

Eunuch Qin knelt down and said, "Please spare my life, Queen Mother. I didn't investigate it carefully at that time. I was careless for a moment and may have made a big mistake, causing the real prince to be exiled to the people and suffer humiliation!"

The Queen Mother took a deep breath, but it had been a long time and there was no way to verify it now. All the speculations were just Eunuch Qin's own guesses and could not be taken as facts.

The Queen Mother glared at him and said, "Then how do you associate Yin Jieyu with Jin An?"

Eunuch Qin sighed and said, "Today, I went to Yingyue Pavilion and saw Young Master Jin'an planting saplings. I saw that scene a few years ago. I was ordered by the Queen Mother to visit Concubine Yin from time to time, and I also saw Concubine Yin planting saplings. That scene was in my mind, so I looked at the young master's face carefully again. It seemed that the more I looked, the more he looked like Concubine Yin..."

The Queen Mother pondered for a moment: "If Concubine Yin deliberately exchanged the child, secretly took her own child out of the palace, and replaced it with another child, how could you know? After all, it has been too long, and there is no way to verify the truth of the matter."

The Queen Mother sighed and said, "Well, first check if the child who died that year is still there. Then find out all the palace servants and maids who worked in Yin Jieyu's palace at that time, and interrogate them quietly one by one. Check the records of who was guarding the palace gate at that time. It has been a long time, and I don't know if it can be found. Also check the imperial physician who treated the case at that time. As for the missing nanny... she has been out of the palace for many years, I am afraid she can't be found. See if she has any family members. Go and check them."

Eunuch Qin took the order, and the Queen Mother said, "Don't let anyone know about this. If you really find out that Jin'an is Concubine Yin's child, don't make it public yet. To him, being the son of a guilty concubine might be worse than being the brother of Concubine Tao. Also, go ask Doctor Xu, if we use blood test to identify the relationship, can we confirm it 100% that it is the father and son relationship?"

After saying this, the Queen Mother rubbed her temple with one hand and waved to Eunuch Qin, who then stood up and took his leave to go back to his work.

After Eunuch Qin left, the Queen Mother was delighted for a while, and then sighed with a sad face the next. When the palace maid Lan Xin came in to serve her, she didn't dare to breathe, for fear of angering the Queen Mother.

"Empress Dowager, do you want to take a nap?" Lan Xin asked carefully.

The Queen Mother nodded, took off her clothes and lay down, but she tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep.

Finally, the Queen Mother sat up straight and said: "Eunuch Qin is not here, you go to my storehouse and pick out two valuable things to send to Lady Tao. Oh, and give her another 1,000 taels of silver, and say it's my subsidy for her to take care of Master Jin'an."

Lan Xin didn't know why the Queen Mother suddenly treated Concubine Tao and her brother so well. She didn't dare to ask and hurried to do it.

Tao Yanyan had just woken up from her nap when she saw Qingfeng helping her to get up with a smile on his face: "My beauty, Lan Xin from the Queen Mother's palace has come and brought you two vases given by the Queen Mother. I have put them away. There was also one thousand taels of silver, which was said to be a subsidy for you to raise a young master."

Tao Yanyan was very surprised: "Why is there another reward for no reason? Could it be that the Queen Mother is..."

Tao Yanyan pondered, was the Queen Mother using this generous reward to encourage him to seduce her son more?

It seems that the Queen Mother really spent a lot of money to bring down Concubine Xian!