Adoption brings disaster

It is said that the Imperial Concubine was able to compete with the Empress in the palace. In addition to having the Prince of Zhenbei standing behind her, her own strong ability was also a big factor.

As expected, the day after Prince Zhenbei returned, the imperial concubine informed the emperor and the empress dowager and opened the door of Qianqiu Pavilion.

After being locked up for so long, I was finally unblocked. I should be in a good mood, but I am a little unhappy about the treatment of the servants.

Logically speaking, after being locked up for so long, it should have been proven that everyone was free of the plague. However, for the safety of the palace, even though I argued with them, the guards still took away all the doctors and servants.

Chunyu knew in her heart that this would be the outcome, and she did not dare to beg for mercy. She just led the servants in the yard and bowed and cried to me and Chongguang again and again.

These servants knew in their hearts that if they left there they would have no way to survive. How could they not be sad and desperate? As it would bring disaster to their families, they did not dare to cry loudly and could only sob quietly.

Seeing them crying like this, the eunuchs serving nearby said, "His Highness the Seventh Prince and His Highness Yuan Qing are kind-hearted. It's only natural that you're reluctant to let them go. However, for their safety, we have to send you out of the palace for observation a few times."

Seeing that the Emperor, the Noble Concubine, and I hadn't said anything, the eunuch continued, "When the observation is over, someone will escort you home. Isn't it worth being happy to have your family reunited? Stop crying."

There was no mention of coming back, and I didn't understand. I really thought they were being sent home. I looked at everyone with relief, thinking that this matter had ended successfully. Except for Asan, everyone else survived safely.

"Yuanqing, please say something. After all, you have tried your best." Seeing that I didn't understand what he meant, the Taoist priest just sighed and flew away.

I watched everyone being forced out by the imperial guards, and suddenly I understood what the Taoist priest wanted to say. However, the imperial concubine and His Majesty were both there, so for the sake of his sect, he couldn't say it.

I hurriedly stopped the imperial guards who were holding everyone down and said to the Emperor and the Imperial Concubine, "This Qianqiu Pavilion is quite large. If they want to observe, they can just stay in the backyard. There's no need to go all the way here. We might end up in trouble."

"The plague is a serious matter and we must act with caution. Yuan Qing has worked hard, so you should stop worrying about these things." said the emperor.

I pretended not to understand the emperor's meaning and said boldly, "If we are to be cautious, then we should stay in Qianqiu Pavilion."

"Yuan Qing, are you crazy?" Before I could finish my words, the furious voice of the Seventh Prince came into my mind.

Chongguang also knew my bad temper. He cursed me in his mind for a few words, but finally went up to take the imperial concubine's arm and said, "Yuanqing is kind-hearted, and these servants serve you wholeheartedly. Why don't we lock them up in Qianqiu Pavilion for observation? Yuanqing and I will go to the hot spring villa in the suburbs to stay for a few days. It can also be considered as a way to cleanse ourselves from the filth."

"Who would go to a hot spring resort in the scorching summer and not feel too hot?" The imperial concubine rolled her eyes and said helplessly.

"Ancient records show that treating winter diseases in summer has miraculous effects. Yuan Qing has caught a cold in winter. Going to the hot springs at this time of year to dispel the cold and dampness might have miraculous effects."

The emperor only talked about the benefits of hot spring baths in summer, and did not say anything about how these servants should deal with it. I don’t understand what he meant.

The emperor doesn't like others to disobey him. He has already given me this way out. I am afraid that if I continue to insist, I will not end well. I was afraid to retreat and said nothing for a while.

The Imperial Concubine also understood the meaning of this and quickly said with a smile, "Your Majesty is so knowledgeable that he even knows these miscellaneous subjects so clearly. Fortunately, Your Majesty has cleared up my confusion, otherwise I would have wrongly blamed Guang'er."

The Seventh Prince naturally defended me. Now I did not say anything, and naturally said nice words to coax His Majesty and the Imperial Concubine. For a while, the scene was rare and warm.

Chongguang was afraid that I would make a mistake, so he kept saying in my head, "They are just slaves. If they die, they die. Don't anger the emperor because of them."

I know that if I anger the emperor and the imperial concubine, I will definitely suffer the consequences, but as a modern person, I really can't bear to watch someone I know die.

So I took a deep breath, mustered up some courage, stood up abruptly, and knelt before the Emperor, saying with a stone face, "Your Highness, protect me, Your Majesty, bless me. This favor is something many people wouldn't even dream of. But if I let innocent people die tragically while I try to protect myself, I truly cannot do that. I hope Your Majesty will extend this favor to these servants as well."

When the Seventh Prince saw me like this, he was also very speechless. He kept cursing me in his mind and kept defending me with his mouth.

His Majesty did not express his opinion, but just looked at me with a smile and said nothing.

After a long time, I still had my neck stiff, looking ready to die.

The Emperor suddenly chuckled and said to the Imperial Concubine, "Everyone in the palace, even the Crown Prince, who is most reluctant to boast about others, says that Yuan Qing has a kind heart. Today, it seems that he is indeed kind-hearted."

"Mr. Yuan is kind-hearted. There are some things we didn't want to tell you, but seeing your attitude, we have to tell you some things." The imperial concubine said as she helped me sit on the chair.

The Seventh Prince held my hand and kept persuading me in his mind. The true energy was flowing through my veins. If I said anything that would anger the Emperor and the Imperial Concubine again, the Seventh Prince would immediately make me speechless. Then the whole palace would know that Yuan Qing had become ill from overwork in taking care of the Seventh Prince and had fainted. As for whether he could recover and when he would recover, that depended on the Seventh Prince's wishes.

The imperial concubine saw everything Chongguang did, and her eyes were complicated but she didn't say much. She just gave a look to a palace maid in the dark, and then the palace maid left quietly. Not long after, several guards came in with a eunuch.

The eunuch had obviously suffered great torture. His body was covered in dirt, and his clothes were torn in many places by the whip. The wounds under his clothes had already festered, and some of them were crawling with insects.

The man had disheveled hair, and occasionally one could see his lifeless eyes through his hair. He looked somewhat familiar, but I really couldn't tell who he was. I thought to myself that this person probably didn't serve me all the time.

The man was wearing handcuffs and shackles. When he was forced to kneel by the guards, there was a tinkling sound. The sound was very harsh, like some devilish sound urging death. It made me want to vomit. Of course, the reason I wanted to vomit was probably because of the foul smell coming from the man.

"Yuanqing, do you know who this person is?" asked the imperial concubine.

After hearing what the imperial concubine said, my heart skipped a beat. I suppressed the discomfort in my stomach and looked at the man carefully. He seemed very familiar, but I really didn't know him.

After looking at it for a long time, he still couldn't recognize it. He could only shake his head and said, "Maybe I recognize it, but I really can't recognize it in this look."

"Yuan Qing, take a closer look." After saying that, the two guards escorting him pushed aside the man's hair from his eyes, revealing his face.

The man had many wounds on his face and marks of burns from a branding iron on his forehead. He might have been beaten very hard, and his facial features were a little deformed. The sense of familiarity was even stronger, but I still didn't recognize him.

I didn't recognize her, but Chongguang did and said coldly, "This is Xiao San."

"Who is this?" I shouted in surprise, and then looked at the person again. The more I looked, the more she looked like a mistress. In the end, I was sure that she was a mistress.

"Yuan Qing, why don't you ask what he did wrong to become like this?"

"What's there to ask? Could it be that the Imperial Concubine has been busy with something else recently? It's not the Seventh Prince who has contracted the plague. I guess he was the one who put the plague-infected rag under the Seventh Prince's pillow."

I was a little nervous and my tone of voice was a little inappropriate.

"Yuan Qing is intelligent." The imperial concubine spoke softly, looking at me with a smile. However, her eyes gradually grew colder, and finally, she said angrily, "Don't you have anything to explain, Yuan Qing?"

"What's there to explain? If Your Majesty didn't have absolute certainty that I had nothing to do with this matter, would I still be sitting here talking to you?"

"I knew you couldn't scare Yuan Qing. Even the Prince of Zhenbei couldn't scare Yuan Qing. How could you possibly scare him?" The emperor suddenly laughed.

The coldness in the imperial concubine's eyes disappeared completely. She looked at me with admiration and said, "Yuan Qing is smart, brave, and kind-hearted. No wonder father insisted that you be Guang'er's concubine."

After hearing such high praise, I smiled embarrassedly and said with a blushing face: "How can I be as good as what the Imperial Concubine said."

"Father, Your Majesty, and Mother, Yuan Qing is very knowledgeable and talented, and the things he said are very interesting."

Everyone was chatting away, looking quite affectionate. I wasn't very good at this, so I could only smile and watch as the family enjoyed themselves, occasionally chiming in to keep the atmosphere afloat.

"Why did Xiao San do this?" I murmured as I looked at the numb Xiao San.

The sound was extremely quiet, but they were so powerful that they heard it clearly. The atmosphere suddenly became cold. I reacted and said in a panic, "I'm not trying to excuse him, I just don't understand why he did this."

"There hasn't been a kind-hearted person like Yuan Qing in these palace walls for hundreds of years, and I'm afraid there won't be one in the next few hundred years either. It's understandable that they don't understand."

The Imperial Concubine praised me again, and I felt even more embarrassed. I chuckled and said, "The Seventh Prince treats him very well, as do A-Da and the others. I'm not the only one who treats him well."

After saying this, I no longer understand why the mistress did this.

The imperial concubine smiled and said nothing, but gave the guard a look. The guard immediately tapped Xiao San a few times. Xiao San howled in pain, then lay on the ground and said in a barely audible voice: "Lu Gongshi... Weaver Girl, riding Dianxi... stupid... Woquan Chicken."

Although the voice was low, I could hear it clearly. However, it was useless because I had no idea what he was saying.

The guard saw my puzzled look and immediately translated, "Your Majesty and all the nobles, this bastard is saying that the person Mr. Lu saved was his niece, and that the Seventh Prince killed his entire family."

After hearing this, I was horrified and couldn't help but ask, "What you did is a serious crime that will lead to the confiscation of property and the extermination of the clan. Is it really worth it?"

Xiao San looked at me, her eyes lit up a little, and she said with tears in her eyes: "My eyes... are broken."

"He has no relatives anymore," the guard translated.

"Who said you have no relatives? Your great-grandfather had two brothers, each of whom had his own clan of hundreds of people. Now they are all in prison awaiting execution."

After hearing this, Xiao San's eyes lit up and he kept bowing his head, saying something. However, this time the guard did not give us an answer, and we had no idea what he was talking about.

In fact, it cannot be said that he did not know. He was just begging for mercy. Unfortunately, it was too late. Such a serious crime had already been committed. Now he could only wait for the whole family to be buried with him.

Xiao San was filled with remorse and kowtowed repeatedly, but the imperial concubine did not give him a chance to speak. With just a glance, the guards took the struggling Xiao San out.

I understand what the Imperial Concubine means. Although this matter has nothing to do with me, the fact that Chongguang was infected with the plague was indeed due to my lax governance, which led to this disaster. So she wants to deal with this group of servants and replace them with some of her people.

I wanted to say something, but the Seventh Prince's true energy moved, and I was unable to move. The Seventh Prince's words came to my mind: "Don't panic, Yuan Qing, I will handle it."

"I've learned a lesson from this incident. Mother, please tell me if I agree with you."

The Imperial Concubine doted on the Seventh Prince so much that she didn't notice his thoughts for a moment. She just thought he really had a point to make and said happily, "Guang'er has grown up and can think. Come on, tell me so I can learn from you."