All the ancestors in the capital begged me to be a substitute

In less than five days, both Chu Yan in the East Palace and the Tenth Prince in Shoukang Palace were getting weaker and weaker day by day.

During this period, the emperor took Zhu Lianxi to visit the East Palace in person.

I saw Chu Yan lying on the bed, his face was completely thin, his eye sockets were sunken, and his face was sallow. He looked like he was taking in less air and outgoing more. His originally sharp eyes were dim, as if he was just waiting to die. despair.

He looked at the emperor and moved his lips.

But even though his dry lips opened with great effort, no sound came out, and a trace of blood overflowed from the corners of his lips.

"Liu Lang, you can rest in peace and don't say anything." The emperor took Chu Yan's hand and said warmly, "Don't worry, as long as I am here, I will definitely let the imperial doctor cure you."

Chu Yan blinked hard.

Seeing his appearance, the emperor felt distressed and intolerable in his eyes.

"If you were fine a few days ago, how could it be like this so quickly?" The emperor turned his head, looked at Shen Lingxi, and asked displeasedly.

Shen Lingxi had been suffering for several days, and her eyes were red. She raised her handkerchief and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, "Your Highness has been feeling unwell since he came back from Zuihua Courtyard that night. He suffered from vomiting and diarrhea... He started vomiting blood again in a few days, and my wife and Dr. Cui tried several prescriptions over and over again, but they couldn't make His Highness feel better."

The emperor frowned slightly, "But he was poisoned?"

Shen Lingxi shook her head, "I originally suspected it was the poison of the blazing sun, but in the East Palace, the spices related to Tianxiang Pavilion have been cleared away long ago, and the imperial doctor who is best at detecting poisons in the imperial hospital has also No signs of poisoning were found..."

At the end of the story, Shen Lingxi felt sad, covered her face and sobbed.

The emperor frowned, "What should we do..."

As he spoke, he asked nervously: "Didn't I hear that Liulang got half an embroidered picture at Zuihuayuan that night? Did you find anything from the embroidered picture? Is it related to the curse?"

After he mentioned it, Shen Lingxi seemed to suddenly remember this matter.

"Yes, embroidery pictures..."

At this moment, Shen Lingxi was like a drowning person, grabbing the last straw to save her life, and quickly wiped away her tears, "My wife, I haven't had time to see it, I'm going to restore the embroidery..."

She said, no longer caring about the emperor, stood up in a hurry, confessed her crime, then quickly picked up her skirt and ran towards the side hall.

Seeing her reckless appearance, the emperor frowned even more tightly.

"Zhu Lianxi, I see that the Crown Princess is in such a bad state, why don't you stay here and take care of her for a few days. When Liu Lang is better, you can come back to the palace."

Zhu Lianxi bowed his head and agreed.

The emperor then let go of Chu Yan's hand, sighed, stood up and walked out.

Zhu Lianxi personally sent the emperor off.

When he returned to Chu Yan's bedside again, Shen Lingxi had returned to the dormitory.

She had someone carry the table table to the side of Chu Yan's couch, and by the candlelight on the table table, she held an embroidery stretcher in her hand and restored the broken embroidery picture stitch by stitch.

"Your Majesty, I heard from the palace servants that you have been working hard for several days. Your Majesty specially left this slave here. He is worried that your Majesty's body will not be able to bear it, so he asked your slave to take care of His Highness for you. You can go and have a rest."

Shen Lingxi seemed not to hear his words at all and embroidered the pattern in her hand.

As I embroidered, I seemed to be thinking of the sad place, and my tears fell down.

If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, no one would believe that the Crown Princess, who had always been calm and calm in every situation, could be so sad and fragile.

After all, the Crown Princess is still a woman. The one she loves is terminally ill and is about to pass away. How can she not be heartbroken and sad, and feel helpless.

Zhu Lianxi sighed lightly and looked at Chu Yan on the bed.

Chu Yan closed her eyes tightly and lay quietly, with her chest covered by the quilt barely able to see the rise and fall.

He sighed again, turned around and walked behind Shen Lingxi, found another candlestick, walked to the copper oil lamp tree nearby and lit it.

He raised his hand, lightly covering the flames of the candlestick, and carefully placed the candlestick on Shen Lingxi's desk, "My Lady, look carefully. If you are tired, take a rest. There are slaves here to look after Your Highness."

With that said, he carefully handed the veil to Shen Lingxi.

This time, Shen Lingxi did not refuse Zhu Lianxi's kindness.

She took the veil and said with a choked voice, "Thank you, father-in-law."

Zhu Lianxi said "I don't dare", turned around and gently instructed the palace attendants in the bedroom to do things.

Shen Lingxi embroidered for a while in front of the candlelight, and gradually felt a heavy sleepiness coming over her. Unknowingly, she lay down on the table and fell into a deep sleep...

*
"Empress? Empress? Wake up quickly, wake up quickly..."

Shen Lingxi was gently pushed awake by Zhu Lianxi.

She opened her eyes drowsily, and saw Zhu Lianxi pointing to the embroidered handkerchief in her hand with a surprised expression, "My Lady, look quickly, there are words on this embroidered handkerchief!"

Shen Lingxi trembled, and hurriedly looked in the direction of his finger, and saw a line of small needle-punched vermilion characters slowly appearing on the embroidered picture where it had been wet with her tears.

"Princess Yun, if you sacrifice your blood to heaven, you can break the curse."

Shen Lingxi read out the content in the small print word by word, as if she was so excited that her hands were trembling.

"Princess Yun Guo...Princess Yun Guo...the only remaining Princess Yun Guo in the world is Yun Liangdi in the Shouling Palace!" Zhu Lianxi said in surprise, "Your Highness really had the foresight to stand out from the crowd. We negotiated and spared Yun Liangdi's life. Congratulations, congratulations to the empress, your highness is saved, and so is the tenth prince!"

Shen Lingxi pursed her lips, hugged the embroidery pattern tightly with both hands, and her whole body was trembling.

It looked like he had finally grasped this life-saving straw, and he was extremely excited.

"Your Majesty, don't be too excited. Your Highness still has to rely on your Majesty to take care of you." Zhu Lianxi said with a smile, "I will return to the palace to tell the Emperor this happy event."

As he said this, he turned around and called the maid to come forward and take care of Shen Lingxi.

As for himself, he walked hurriedly outside the palace.

After Zhu Lianxi left, Shen Lingxi dismissed the people serving in the palace, walked to the bed, and reached out to hold Chu Yan's hand.

Chu Yan opened his eyes, and the dull and lifeless eyes he had seen before the emperor had returned to their previous sharpness and solemnity.

The two looked at each other in silence, with shock in each other's eyes.That night, Liu Meiren followed Chunshan's murderer and saw the man take off his night clothes and enter the inner guard camp.

"Our guess was indeed correct. As long as we follow the plan, the other party will definitely show up to verify your life and death. However, I originally thought that the man behind the scenes was hiding in the inner guard. But I didn't expect... that it would be him who took action today."

Chu Yan also said in a deep voice: "He just put a drug in the candlelight, took my pulse, and sprinkled powder on the embroidery to make those words appear on the embroidery... If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, , I really didn’t know that Zhu Lianxi had these abilities.”

Shen Lingxi hadn't completely calmed down yet, and she just felt how she felt when she saw the small words on the embroidered picture.

It was related to her little aunt's safety. She stared into Chu Yan's eyes and asked in a low voice, "Zhu Lianxi is the most trusted person by the emperor. With his status, he would never do such a thing easily. The person who instructs him will It’s not just…”

"No." Chu Yan knew who she was talking about and said firmly: "The emperor's uncle would never do such a thing, otherwise the emperor's grandfather would not have passed the throne to him. Although the emperor's uncle was not a perfect man, he was Nor are they those beasts that are bloodthirsty and have no regard for human ethics."

"Besides, the person who made up a big lie like a curse and hunted the emperor's heir behind his back must be aiming at the country. And the world already belongs to the emperor's uncle, so there is no need for him to do such a thing."

Hearing what he said, Shen Lingxi felt relieved.

"Zhu Lianxi is by no means the real behind-the-scenes instigator. Since they want to lure us to the imperial mausoleum, they should simply go and see what is going on." She said coldly.

Chu Yan held Shen Lingxi's hand instead, "Don't worry, I will definitely not let anything happen to the eldest princess..."

*
As expected by Shen Lingxi, the decree came from the palace early the next morning.

The emperor personally issued the imperial edict and went to the imperial mausoleum to offer sacrifices.

This time, in order to pray for His Highness the Crown Prince and the Tenth Prince, the Emperor specially ordered that the Crown Prince and the Tenth Prince, who were seriously ill and dying, be brought along.

Since the Si Festival, the tenth prince has been recuperating in the Queen Mother's Shoukang Palace.

Since the emperor wanted to take the tenth prince and the prince to the mausoleum to offer sacrifices, and the queen mother was concerned about the safety of her two grandchildren, she naturally wanted to go there as well.

Therefore, the Queen Mother sent maids and eunuchs from Shoukang Palace to assist Crown Princess Shen Lingxi in taking care of the Crown Prince and the Tenth Prince along the way.

The illness of the crown prince and the tenth prince affects the hearts of the civil and military officials in the court and the people of the world.

As soon as the news came out that during the memorial ceremony at the emperor's mausoleum, he would also pray for the crown prince and the tenth prince -

There are about thousands of officials who were appointed by the emperor to accompany him, as well as officials and common people who were not included in the imperial order but who accompanied him voluntarily.

The procession for the mausoleum ceremony moved towards the imperial mausoleum in a mighty manner.

Wherever there are people, there will naturally be rumors.

What's more, the emperor's impromptu decision was related to the life of the prince and the prince.

The original three-day trip was shortened to two days.

In addition to the night of the first day, as usual, the imperial chariot will stay overnight at Yongtai Palace, and will rush directly to the imperial mausoleum on the second day.

Ever since Shen Lingxi and Chu Yan got married, the East Palace has always been full of informants from all walks of life.

Therefore, at this time, they were extremely cautious in every move they made in the East Palace.

After leaving the East Palace, the number of informants around him began to decrease sharply.

So, on the night when they rested in the Yongtai Palace, after the night was quiet, they finally had a breather. From Chunjun, they heard the rumors that the courtiers and the people were discussing privately during the day...

"The Tenth Prince and His Highness the Crown Prince are critically ill one after another. Now no one doubts the authenticity of Emperor Ru's curse. Moreover, Chunshan's old friends during his lifetime have also come forward to speak out. They have seen with their own eyes the embroidery picture in Chunshan's hand, which is related to the embroidery picture that the East Palace has offered a huge reward for. The pictures are exactly the same.”

"Some people have already speculated that the emperor's sudden visit to the imperial mausoleum is probably related to the curse."

"...In addition to discussing the illness of His Highness and the Tenth Prince, some people also mentioned the death of the First Prince and the Eighth Prince. They all said that the curse was very powerful and evil. The way each heir died, They’re all different.”

Hearing this, Shen Lingxi had some doubts on her face, but she rarely asked, "When the eldest prince and the eighth prince died suddenly, I heard people talk about it among the people, and they all said that they died of illness. Could it be that this Are there any differences among them?"

Chu Yan was sitting on the bedside. Although his face was "sickly", his voice was deep and powerful, "The eldest brother fell into the water and died after getting drunk on Huafang in the second year after his father's death. It was midsummer at that time. The body was recovered for seven days and seven nights. When it was recovered, it was swollen to the point of disfigurement. In order to show dignity to the eldest brother, the emperor lied that he died of illness when announcing his death."

He said and paused, "Eight Lang did die of illness, but he had always suffered from heart palsy. After the death of the eldest brother, Concubine Wen deliberately concealed the matter in order to win favor, and even asked Eight Lang to go to the school field with the emperor for military exercises. Riding and shooting under the scorching sun... As a result, Hachiro's heart disease relapsed and he died."

"Jiulang is Prince An. You already know that he was killed by the Zhao family."

Shen Lingxi nodded.

It was less than half a year ago, so she naturally remembered it.

Her eyes were slightly cold: "Coincidentally, the Zhao family began to collect embroidery pictures not long after the death of King An. They clearly killed King An, but they believed in the curse. Not only them, but also the emperor This kind of person who does not believe in ghosts and gods and hates witchcraft is also very superstitious about embroidering pictures. It can be seen that the people behind the scenes have said a lot about embroidering pictures and curses in front of them. "

Chu Yan pondered and said: "The emperor has issued a hush-hush order on the true cause of death of the eldest brother and Ba Lang. The fact that this rumor can accurately mention this matter means that this person deliberately released the news."

Shen Lingxi smiled playfully.

"Knowing the secrets of each palace, he can also encourage the emperor and the Zhao family to listen to that person's words, and he can also command Zhu Lianxi, the most trusted person around the emperor. This person aims to 'control the country'. I am really getting more and more curious about his identity. .”

Chu Yan's eyes were extremely dark, "At this time, such news would not be released for no reason. It seems that not only we want to close the net, but that person also plans to close the net."

"We've been waiting for so long, pretending for so long, and finally it's time for that person to appear..."

*
Early on the next morning, before the sun had risen, the charioteer had already set off.

After rushing all the way, it was already dusk when the imperial driver arrived at the imperial mausoleum.

Even if the emperor was anxious due to the illness of Chu Yan and the tenth prince, he could not start the ceremony at night.

So, after the emperor rested for a while, he personally took the people to the Shouling Palace.

Although it was late at night, the Shouling Palace was brightly lit with candles.

The concubines, maids and eunuchs in the Shouling Palace had received the news early and stayed quietly in their respective courtyards.

Only Yun Liangdi, Yun Ya, and her maidservant were led by Little Eunuch Zhu and were waiting respectfully in the palace.

The emperor sat down and waited for Yunya to see the gift. He asked Zhu Lianxi to give her the embroidery picture that was repaired by Shen Lingxi himself. He asked straight to the point: "The Crown Princess discovered the crack on the embroidery picture that you brought as a dowry." You are a native of the Yun Kingdom, tell me about the method of cursing Emperor Ru, have you ever heard of this method?"

Yun Ya took the embroidery picture and looked at the red letters on it, her pupils suddenly tightened.

She trembled her fingertips lightly and stroked the small words, closed her eyes, and said slowly: "Your Majesty, I...have heard of it." (End of Chapter)