Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

In the third year of Qianlong's reign, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the second elder brother Yonglian died at the age of nine.The emperor lost her beloved son and was heartbroken, so she was posthumously named the crown prince, and her posthumous title was Duanhui.

When he heard the news that Yong Lian had finally become Crown Prince Duanhui, Ruyi was in the warm pavilion of Chuxiu Palace, and together with Hailan who had changed into plain clothes and silver jewelry, they were slowly stacking gold and silver ingots And ghost paper.She tilted her silver-inlaid broken jade armor slightly, and said leisurely: "You didn't see, the emperor was so sad that he almost didn't faint yesterday, and I was moved when I looked at it. Now that the crown prince is posthumous, I don't know what the concubine Mei and Concubine Yi's child, Quanxia, ​​will you address me as 'His Royal Highness the Prince'?"

Hailan took off the twisted silk silver bracelet, and said slowly: "What kind of crown prince, it's for the living to see, and it's a comfort for the queen. The emperor really loves, but does he feel sorry for the second elder brother or is it gone?" My son, I don't know."

Just as she was talking, she heard the door of the Nuan Pavilion suddenly being pushed open, and a pure green concubine flashed in like a shadow. There was obvious confusion on her usually peaceful face, as if she was lost.Ruyi raised her face to signal Yizheng Yexin to go out, and snorted softly: "There are many things in the palace now, you come to Chuxiu Palace with a face of fear and panic, if you are seen by others outside, how many lives will you have?" Do people suspect?"

The pure concubine forgot to salute, sat down in front of her, poured a cup of tea and drank it hastily, and said from her heart: "The imperial concubine is still saying such things! Do you know how the second elder brother died? He died in the middle of the night. Shifen was breathless and suffocated to death. The reason for his suffocation was that some reed flowers and cotton wool were found in his nose."

Ruyi shook her head, and sighed pitifully: "It's really careless. The second elder brother's lung fever is easy to be overwhelmed, and this season is prone to reed flowers. Where the elder brother is near the imperial garden, which gust of wind blows?" I don’t know about the reeds by the pond. There are also those cotton wools. There are so many palace officials and doctors coming in and out. In winter, who doesn’t have cotton wool on their clothes to keep warm. These palace servants are so careless, they should all be sent away Go out of the palace."

The pure concubine caressed her heart, slowly calmed down, only stared at Hailan and said, "You should know better than anyone else where the reed flowers and cotton wool closest to the second elder brother's lips and nose come from."

Hailan sneered and said, "Of course it's the Fushou pillow that the empress stole the sky for the day with her own hands."

Concubine Chun was startled, put down the teacup in her hand heavily, and said angrily: "You have left everything behind now, the bed pillow was clearly made by you, you can tell it by the stitches, how dare you deny it! "

Ruyi waved her hand, and said coolly: "Is the pure concubine here to ask the teacher for the empress's empress? Poor you love the second elder brother, and no one loves the third elder brother." She paused, There was a look of sarcasm on his face, "The emperor was in Yikun Palace that night when the accident happened. You know that Li Yu came over in a hurry to say what happened to elder brother. What did the emperor ask first?"

The pure concubine was taken aback: "What?"

"The emperor asked, what happened to the third elder brother? Is it the third elder brother?" Ruyi said in a steady tone, seeing the pure concubine's face sinking, "It's not that you don't know what the emperor cares about. Do you still feel sorry for the second elder brother now? Your most urgent task now is to tell the emperor that the nuns and palace people where the elder brother lived did not take good care of him, which caused the second elder brother to die early, so you ask to keep the third elder brother by your side to raise him. If someone came back to his senses first and made up the idea of ​​the third prince, you will be hard to guard against."

The pure concubine nodded in a daze, tears welled up in her eyes, "Your Majesty, he... Yongzhang is ignorant, after all, he is also his son, and he...!" She closed her eyes, pressed back her tears, and said with red eyes: "I Understood, I still want to tell the emperor and the empress to severely punish those servants who do not serve well, and hope that the emperor will not pay attention to me."

"Of course the emperor won't pay attention to the empress. The second elder brother's belongings were burned at noon today. The pillow was covered by the second elder brother day and night, and it was also the empress's heart. It's all quiet now." Hailan comforted her confidently, "And my mother has the third elder brother who is personally raising her by her side. When the third elder brother comes to the top of the world, he will definitely be grateful for all the pains that the empress has put in for him today."

Ruyi advised the pure concubine on what to do in the future, then got up and sent her out with Hailan.It was night, and the dark clouds covered the bright moon, and even the dim starlight could not be seen.Due to the death of Prince Duanhui, white palace lanterns were all hung in the palace, and even the number was reduced by half compared to usual.In the Forbidden City, apart from the gloom and darkness, there is the weeping like wind and rain, and even the usual splendor has become a rusty and blunt color.

"God also knows about people." Ruyi stood at the gate of the palace, looking at the twilight and said leisurely.

The pure concubine also looked around, and suddenly raised her finger suspiciously to a corner on the front right, and asked Ke Xin next to her, "Go and see who is there? What are you doing sneakily?"

Ruyi and Hailan looked over after hearing it, and sure enough there was a white figure flashing past at one end of the palace wall, and Sanbao was also walking fast, bringing two little eunuchs from Chuxiu Palace to catch up quickly, not long after Then she came back with a little maid in plain clothes, and the little maid was holding a charcoal basin in her hand, the inside was pitch black, it seemed to be some scraps of paper.

"Where are you from the palace?" Ruyi asked in a low voice, but the little palace lady just begged for mercy tremblingly and didn't answer.

"Hey, this seems to be the Caizhu girl from Huiguiren's Palace." Kexin looked at her carefully, half hesitantly said, "But what is in this charcoal basin?"

Hailan ordered someone to hold the lantern. Looking at it by the light of the horn lantern, it turned out to be a half-burned paper doll, painted with colorful patterns, and an unburned puppet, the upper half of which was already burned. It's so gray and black that you can't make out clearly, but you can vaguely see the word "Lian" underneath.

Concubine Chun also glanced at Hailan's hand, feeling puzzled for a while, knowing that this thing was burned for people underground, she asked the kneeling Caizhu: "Did Huigui arrange for you to burn it here?" The ghost paper ghost weapon? You can just say it straight, what are you doing sneakily?"

But Caizhu still hesitated: "Yes...it's the young master Hui...not...servant...servant..."

"Yes, yes, no, no. What, your little master is also sneaky when he burns the ghost paper for the second elder brother?" Ruyi's high-pitched tone contained suppressed anger, "I can't even understand a sentence, Sanbao sent her to the Punishment Department!"

"Great concubine, please spare me! Servant... Servant..." Caizhu rolled down her tears, unable to beg.

"It's weird, it's just burning some dark objects, why are these colorful beads so scared?" Chun Concubine was puzzled.

"If you're burning some ordinary ghost artifacts, of course you don't have to." Hailan raised her head, held the puppet in her hand with a silk cloth, and handed it to Chun Concubine, "Sister Chun Concubine, take a closer look at the back of this puppet."

The pure concubine took it over and saw a series of small characters written on the back of the puppet. She repeated it a few times, and suddenly her face turned pale with shock, and she lost her voice: "This... this is... this is..."

Ruyi also took a closer look, frowned and said coldly: "This is... the birth date of Prince Duanhui."

Prince Duanhui died young, and the empress was heartbroken. She had already cried several times and passed out. She couldn't take care of everything. Fortunately, the empress dowager presided over all the matters personally, and she was considerate and decent.In this way, the empress dowager's prestige in the harem was much higher.

But having said that, the Queen Mother is old after all, so she can only preside over the funeral during the day, and Ruyi, the only noble concubine, leads the concubines to watch the funeral in the hall in turn at night.Because of all the chaos, the third elder brother didn't stay alone in the elder brother's house anymore. The emperor thanked the pure concubine for pity on the youngest son, and allowed the third elder brother to stay with his biological mother in the future.

After May [-]th of this day, all the concubines went to the Changchun Palace to pay their respects to the Empress, and the Emperor also accompanied the Empress in the Changchun Palace because of the Queen's phoenix body.On the contrary, Huigui kept complaining of illness and did not come.Concubine Chun took the opportunity to explain clearly what happened that night in front of the Chuxiu Palace, and there were Caizhu's testimony and the puppet with Yonglian's birth date as testimony. The emperor is no longer superstitious. The crime is still out of the question.

The emperor and the empress were originally very sad for the death of their son-in-law. Apart from such things at this time, it undoubtedly gave the empress an excuse to vent.At that time, the empress was still ill, but she was wearing a satin palace dress with plain color and dark silver thread, and the Baohua bun on her head was adorned with some dark pattern bead flowers, her face was pale but livid and trembling Pursing her lips, she said, "Huigui...she...why did she curse Yonglian?"

The pure concubine immediately knelt down, and Yiyi said: "The empress knows that the concubine is the most timid and fearful, and the incident happened a few days after the death of Prince Duanhui. The concubine was thinking about the matter of the empress being the prince Duanhui Sad, don't rush to report, the emperor and sisters are here today, the concubine dared to say it, Caizhu has confessed that Huigui ordered her to burn these dirty things!"

Concubine Mei also said: "After Mrs. Hui was guilty and deposed, the concubine also heard her behind her back saying that the empress did not intercede for her, and she felt resentful. No wonder Prince Duanhui's illness has changed from good to bad since she said she was out of illness. Yes, there will never be a perfect time, and I am afraid that this curse will not last for a day or two."

The empress has lost her beloved son, hearing these words, she felt as if her heart was crying, how could she hear someone cursing her beloved son like that.She thought about it carefully, although her son was not well before Huigui's demotion, but after that, the child's condition kept recurring, and he died suddenly, which almost cut off her life's hope as a mother.Now that I think about it, with this reason in it, my eyes are almost bleeding with hatred, and my hands are tightly clutching the brocade quilt, the veins on the back of my hands are bulging, as if I want to swallow someone.

"Immediately order the Punishment Department to strictly interrogate the people of Xianfu Palace. Those who are related to this matter will be killed on the spot." Although the emperor spoke slowly, he bit each word fiercely and said, "Gao Shi, Huigui , Curse the son-in-law and demote him to a commoner, once found out, he will be thrown into the cold palace immediately."

The emperor came down in a thunderous rage, what else could not be found out?However, within three days and three nights, the Jingqi Madam of the Punishment Department asked many things, besides cursing the son-in-law, she was also accused of murdering Concubine Mei, Concubine Yi, the heir of the emperor, and framing Ruyi.Gao Xiyue was in Xianfu Palace. Although she kept begging to see the emperor, the emperor didn't want to see her anymore.Because of Princess Duanshu's marriage, the Empress Dowager mixed medicines for both qi and blood deficiency into Gao Xiyue's medicinal materials for treating cold syndrome, so she said that she was sick these days, but in fact she was really lingering and sick, and her body was getting worse every day.

On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month of the following year, Concubine Jia successfully gave birth to the fifth son of the emperor, Yongxuan.Because his son Yonglian had just passed away, this child inevitably made up for his great pain and emptiness of losing his beloved son.But before the proud concubine received the long-awaited favor from the emperor, there was another happy event from Yikun Palace—Ruyi was two months pregnant and her fetal gas was stable.

Concubine Xian, who had two elder brothers by her side, was pregnant again, which undoubtedly easily aroused everyone's envy and jealousy.Before Qixiang Palace had time to celebrate the birth of the fifth elder brother, it began to worry about the dragon fetus in Ruyi's belly.The emperor was overjoyed, showing his gratitude to Yikun Palace, but the newly born Fifth Elder Brother gradually fell silent, and few people mentioned it.

However, the concubine Jia is Li Chaogong's daughter after all, and the fifth elder brother was born. Li Chao still sent a special envoy all the way to the court to congratulate the people who participated in the special products, and sent the concubine Jia's favorite hometown snacks to comfort her homesickness. Affection.Thinking of the relationship between Concubine Jia and Prince Li Chao, Ruyi knew how happy Concubine Jia would be without even looking.

This time she was pregnant, Ruyi knew that the concubine must hate her deeply, so Jiang and Bin asked Jiang and Bin to carefully check the daily diet, soup and medicine. The child is also carefully stored, and Hailan has to check it personally every day, so as not to let others play tricks easily.

However, the queen of the Changchun Palace was immersed in the pain and shock of losing her parent and child, and became seriously ill day after day.

In March, the weather gradually warmed up, and Ruyi was four or five months pregnant.It is as if the spring breeze turned into rain in one night, full of green willows, glowing peach red, moistened by rain and dew, and blooming the spring of the palace garden full of flowers.

Unfortunately, Gao Xiyue did not have such good luck.

Moving from Xianfu Palace to Leng Palace, Gao Xiyue's illness became more and more serious, and she didn't even have the strength to get up.Ruyi thought of the Lenggong that she had also been to in the book, and couldn't help feeling funny, so she ordered Yizheng: "Find a chance to go to Lenggong and tell Gao about the lotus bracelet. Don't worry if there are too many. If you want to say something to the emperor, let us do you a favor."

Ruyi is pregnant now, so it's inconvenient to go there in person, and she doesn't want to see Gao's face.After Yizheng came back, she said that Gao wrote a blood letter and sent it to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. It contained nothing more than talking about the old story of the lotus bracelet and Concubine Zhe, and the matter of putting cinnabar on Concubine Mei and Concubine Yi. Gao said Instigated by the Queen.

I don't know if the emperor believed Ruyi or not, but in the following days, the emperor did neglect the queen.In those three months, he never set foot in the Changchun Palace except for the necessary ceremonies, and even such a big event as the empress going to the silkworm altar at the north end of Taiye Lake in Xiyuan, he only cares about it carelessly.

Originally, apart from Hailan, concubines Jia and Concubine Mei were the most favored in the harem, but the emperor gradually went to Zhongcui Palace a lot.Soon, the pure concubine who gave birth to and raised the third elder brother was promoted to the title of pure concubine. For a while, she went from being unknown to being very important, and the limelight was quite strong.The emperor also called the late concubine Zhemin who gave birth to the eldest son of the emperor, and pursued Jin as the noble concubine Zhemin.

On June 25th in the fourth year of Qianlong, Gao Shi, a commoner in the cold palace, had a cold attack and died peacefully.After all, the emperor gave her face after death, gave her the position of concubine Hui, and buried her in the concubine Yuling's garden with concubine Yi.I just don't know how the concubine Yi under the nine springs will feel when she finds out.