Dad, open the door. I'll bring your mistress back for you.

Dequan carefully brought out the bowl of thick medicine with trembling hands and stood aside respectfully.

Concubine Hui Mo Ruxing only took a glance, then stretched out a fair jade hand and said softly, "Bring it here."

Shen Chuning looked at Dequan's face and noticed something strange, so she asked with concern, "Eunuch Dequan, what kind of medicine are you carrying? Is the queen sick?"

Dequan didn't answer her question. Instead, he knelt on the ground and cried, "Miss Shen, please persuade Master Mo! Let her submit to His Majesty..."

After hearing this, Mo Ruxing sneered, "Submission? Haha, are you going to use my entire Mo family to submit?"

After saying that, she picked up the bowl of medicine in Dequan's hand without hesitation and drank it all.

Seeing this, Dequan quickly reached out to stop him, but it was too late.

He could only look at Shen Chuning with a look of help.

Seeing this, Shen Chuning realized the seriousness of the matter. She said to Dequan, "Eunuch Dequan, please go and report to His Majesty first."

After Dequan left, Shen Chuning asked Mo Ruxing with concern: "My Lady, what kind of medicine is in that bowl? Judging from the look on Eunuch Dequan's face, it doesn't look like ordinary medicine."

Mo Ruxing smiled indifferently and replied calmly: "Poison, what else could it be?"

Shen Chuning asked quickly, "Poison? Are you feeling unwell now? Do you want to call the imperial physician to come and see you immediately?"

She was extremely anxious and was ready to rush out after she finished speaking.

However, Mo Ruxing grabbed her.

She comforted him, "Don't worry, he won't die in a short time. He will have to endure for 49 days." After that, she pulled Shen Chuning to sit beside her.

Shen Chuning looked at Mo Ruxing with tears in her eyes and choked up, "Why did Your Majesty let you drink this poison? Is it because you are investigating the affairs of the late Crown Prince that you are being punished? It's all my fault. I shouldn't have given you that evidence..."

When she said this, tears welled up in Shen Chuning's eyes, soaking her cheeks.

Mo Ruxing looked at her distressedly, handed her a handkerchief, and said gently: "If you keep crying, your face will turn into a little cat."

Shen Chuning took the handkerchief, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and her mood stabilized a little.

Mo Ruxing sighed and said comfortingly, "This is the path I chose myself. It has nothing to do with you. On the contrary, I should thank you. If it weren't for the evidence you provided, it would have been difficult to trace it back to the Third Brother. Besides, being demoted to a concubine and banished to the cold palace doesn't make much difference to me."

"As long as Yuanqi can leave peacefully, our mother-son relationship will not be in vain. Unfortunately, His Majesty is too merciful. He only sent Xiao Yuanlang to Changye without even determining a crime." Mo Ruxing clenched his fists and said indignantly.

"Changye is bitterly cold, and for the prince, it's no different from exile. Besides, the Third Prince has such a personality, we won't have to worry about not being able to find his faults in the future." Shen Chuning comforted.

She coughed lightly and continued, "Your Majesty, please take care of yourself so that you can see the day when the Third Prince receives his retribution."

Mo Ruxing smiled bitterly, "I guess I won't be able to wait that long. If that day really comes and An Ning comes to my grave to burn a few pieces of yellow paper, I can finally close my eyes in peace."

Shen Chuning said anxiously, "Didn't Eunuch Dequan say that as long as you surrender to His Majesty, you can be spared the poison and return to your position as Consort Dao? Why are you talking about a matter of life and death?"

Mo Ruxing picked up the charcoal tongs and added a piece of charcoal to the charcoal basin. "Do you think His Majesty forced me to drink poison because of the Third Prince's incident? Why don't you guess he poisoned me to death all at once? He just wanted to scare me slowly so that I could get the silver."

"How much silver does Your Majesty want?" Shen Chuning asked.

"Ten million taels." Mo Ruxing replied.

Shen Chuning breathed a sigh of relief. "This isn't a lot. It's not impossible to get it together with some effort. It doesn't matter if she's Concubine Hui or not. What's most important is her life."

"Gold." Mo Ruxing gently uttered two words.

"Gold? Ten million taels of gold? That's ten million taels of silver, equivalent to several years' worth of national treasury revenue. What does Your Majesty want so much silver for?" Shen Chuning asked in surprise.

"Repairing the Imperial Mausoleum..."

Shen Chuning was filled with doubts and asked in confusion, "Wasn't the construction of the imperial mausoleum started when Your Majesty first ascended the throne, and it was already completed? Why is it being rebuilt now?"

Mo Ruxing chuckled and said with a hint of sarcasm, "The late Crown Prince unfortunately died young. His Majesty believed that it was due to the poor feng shui of the imperial mausoleum, so he decided to choose a new location for the mausoleum. To put it bluntly, it's nothing more than his fear of death."

Shen Chuning, fully aware of the sensitive nature of the matter, dared not comment further. She quickly changed the subject and asked with concern, "Then, Madam, what are your plans? Are you truly willing to drink a bowl of poison every day and wait for death?"

Shen Chuning had personally experienced the pain of waiting to die in her previous life.

At that time, Shen Jingwan told her that the pregnancy-maintaining medicine she had been taking for a long time was actually a deadly poison, and she was doomed to die.

Although she fell into a coma shortly after learning the truth and was reborn soon after, that moment made Shen Chuning feel endless fear and despair.

But the Empress had to endure torture for forty-nine days, which is horrifying just to think about.

"You've done so much for the Mo family, but the Mo family doesn't care about you anymore?" Shen Chuning cried out, tears sliding down her cheeks like pearls from a broken string and dripping onto the ground.

"Ten million taels of gold is not a small amount. Even if the Mo family goes bankrupt, they may not be able to come up with it. My father had a stroke before because of the salt field. I don't want him to worry about my affairs anymore." Mo Ruxing sighed, his eyes full of helplessness and sadness.

Shen Chuning held Mo Ruxing's hand tightly and said in a tearful voice: "There must be a way! There must be a way!"

Mo Ruxing gently tucked Shen Chuning's scattered hair behind her ears and said softly, "Don't waste your energy. It's not worth it to spend 10 million taels of gold to buy a concubine position. What's more, if His Majesty gets the silver this time, he will only intensify his evil deeds next time."

She sighed softly and continued, "I left some jewelry and a few shops. You and Jinyu can split them up. I'll return the Jiaoweiqin to your mother so she can remember it."

As he spoke, Mo Ruxing picked up an exquisite box and handed it to Shen Chuning: "And this box seal."

Shen Chuning took the box and opened it. Inside were seals with rabbit buttons engraved on them. Each one was small and exquisite, and lifelike.

Mo Ruxing explained, "I carved a few when I was free. You can take the rest back and carve them yourself or return them to that person."

Shen Chuning looked at the seal in the box, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind, "My Lady, do you want to leave the palace?"