She pushed the door open with a loud creak, and saw that the hall was quiet and deserted, without even half a person's shadow. The empress suddenly felt something was off, and called out: "Mother..."

  She saw no one responding, and suddenly a sense of foreboding arose in her heart. She rushed straight into the bead curtain, not caring that her face was stinging from the impact. Her eyes scanned around quickly, only to see the back hall filled with smoke and mist, an incense burner knocked over on its side, and two figures lying on the ground.

  "Mother, behind you!!"

  She was so frightened that her scalp was numb, her whole body was as soft as cotton, struggling and shouting hoarsely: "Come on, someone!!!!!"

  As they surged in like a human tide, some bold ones trembled and touched their noses: "There's still hope!"

  Yu Yi and Yuan Qi arrived almost at the same time. Yuan Qi's face was solemn, with a fierce glint in his eyes that made people dare not look straight at him.

  "What's going on here?!"

  The queen told the emperor about what had just happened. The imperial physician had finished taking his pulse and looked troubled, clearly hesitant.

  "What happened to the Empress Dowager?"

  Yuanyu asked in a low voice.

  "The Empress's pulse is irregular, and her face has a faint greenish tint... This seems, seems to be..."

  "What is it?!"

  "What... poison did I ingest..."

  The imperial physician finished speaking, the empress let out a cry of shock and almost fainted to the ground. Her entire body convulsed as she tightly grasped the hand of the empress dowager, refusing to let go no matter how much the palace maids tried to persuade her.

  Her vermilion lips were tightly pressed against the pale wrist of the Empress Dowager, as if she was grasping at a last straw for survival.

  "Let go quickly, don't be ridiculous!"

  Yuan Qi looked at her with a mixture of disdain and boredom in his eyes, as if he was tired of her crazed expression.

  "No... I won't let go... none of you are kind-hearted..."

  The queen's whole body was trembling, the water-colored satin on her frail body heaved and flashed, with a kind of pitiful weakness that I couldn't help but feel sorry for. Yet, between her eyebrows, there was a hint of madness.

  "Your Majesty... you, you also wish for Empress Dowager's death, don't you... You resent our Lin family..."

  The queen whispered, smiling very strangely——

  "And you too!"

  She turned around, with her black and shiny eyes scanning the hurrying concubines one by one: "Among you... who is truly sad, who is secretly rejoicing in their heart, this palace knows it all..."

  Her eyes were surging with a fierce and unbridled energy, beneath which the palace maidens had already been frightened into tears.

  The empress gazed at Imperial Noble Consort Zhou...

  That woman, on the day of the banquet, wore a black dress, as if she was in mourning... Was it her?

  She gazed at Imperial Noble Consort Qi again——

  She, as the daughter of a senior minister who disagreed with the Empress Dowager's political views, was the most likely person to covet the throne of the Empress...

  It was she who had her own child taken away from her, and now the emperor's new favorite is Mei Gui Fei?

  She looked at each of them, only to think that everyone was suspicious. The anxious and worried expressions all turned into the sinister smiles of a female ghost... She became even more frightened, grabbing the empress dowager tightly, muttering incessantly, but no one could make out what she was saying.

  "That's enough!"

  Yuan Qi could no longer bear her frantic and distracted behavior, and said to those around him: "The Empress is overly anxious, let us first ask her to return to the palace to rest!"

  He signaled two palace attendants to support the empress and dragged her out of the grand hall.

  The queen struggled, turned her head, and stared at Yuan Qi with a fierce gaze that had never been seen before.

  "Your Majesty, don't be too heartless! The Empress Dowager is your own birth mother!!"

  As soon as she said this, everyone was silent like a cicada in winter, and the timid ones were already trembling with fear.

  Yuan Qi listened to her vicious and obscure accusations, furious, he took a deep breath, suppressing the fire in his chest, and continued to ask the imperial physician: "Can you elaborate?"

  The imperial physician ordered his apprentice to give the empress a bowl of cow's milk, and after wiping away the beads of sweat on her forehead, he said: "To be honest, I'm ashamed to say that as the head of the Imperial Hospital for over twenty years, I've never seen such strange symptoms. The empress's face is turning green, it looks like poisoning, but this pulse... sometimes rapid, sometimes slow and almost stopping... I'm incompetent, I really can't identify what kind of poison it is!"

  "May I, an old slave, have a try?"

  It was Aunt E who spoke up, having rushed over in a hurry. Seeing that her master's life or death was still uncertain, she anxiously stepped forward to ask for instructions.

  Yuan Qi saw that it was her, and thought of Qu Yun's secret report. He felt a surge of anger in his heart, but now the Empress Dowager's life was at stake, he couldn't pursue the matter further, so he simply said: "You go take a look!"

  Auntie Wu stretched out her hand to explore, and a ripple of light flashed in her eyes, revealing an incredulous expression.

  "How is this possible?!"

  Under the emperor's inquiring gaze, she no longer had the heart to hide anything and knelt down to report: "This old slave was born in the wilderness and has some knowledge of poisonous substances... but as for the poison that harmed the empress dowager, I have never seen it before!"

  She gritted her teeth, took off a strange-looking jade bead from her neck, ground it into powder with a hairpin, and fed it to the Empress Dowager. There was some left over, so she also fed some to Aunt Ye.

  Yuan Qi watched her behave strangely, but didn't stop her either, only staring intently at the Empress Dowager.

  Half a moment after swallowing the pearl powder, the Empress's complexion turned slightly pale, but her breathing was still rapid.

  "This pearl is a rare treasure that can ward off poison, but it can only protect the Empress Dowager for forty-eight hours... If we still can't find an antidote, I fear..."

  Auntie O choked with sobs and couldn't say another word.

  Yuanyu ordered her to go down, and also let Gong'e carry the Empress Dowager and Ye Gu into Cining Palace. After dispersing the onlookers, she asked the imperial physician a few more questions before returning to Qianqing Palace.

  He did not go to bed, but instead ordered his attendants to bring all the eunuchs from the Empress Dowager's palace and prepare for a thorough interrogation.

  After listening to everyone's account of the empress dowager's daily life today—

  In recent days, the Empress Dowager's mood has been very poor. The heart palpitations that she usually doesn't get have also become more frequent. Under the circumstances where the imperial physician was at a loss for what to do, she summoned Yu Xuan Zhen Ren, whom she trusted deeply, to exorcise her illness and pray for blessings.

  Zhenren ignited a talisman, inviting Sanqing Zunzhe to descend. He then recited the secret incantation from the Huangzang, refining the ashes of the burned paper into the Queen's medicinal pill. This process took up an entire afternoon.

  In this process, the concubines who came to pay their respects also silently prayed in front of the alchemy furnace according to Zhen's request, hoping that the empress dowager could take the medicine as soon as possible.

  Yuan Qi had always been skeptical of such supernatural powers, and as for Yu Xū, who pretended to be a divine being every day, he had an even worse impression - the Dragon Tiger Mountain sect had been acting recklessly in the capital for years, and he had long since heard about it.

  He had the eunuchs search for the remaining paper pellets in the palace, took some to test on the palace cats and dogs, and indeed they all turned green and died.

  Yuan Qi was shocked and angry: "Hurry up and go, bring Yu Xū this savage back!"

  The guard was about to take orders when a clear and cold female voice rang out: "Your Majesty, wait!"

  He looked up and saw Chenlu wearing a cloak, looking dusty and travel-worn.

  Yuandi frowned and said: "You finally came back, you've been gone for several hours - why did you want to stop me?"

  Chenlu took off her cloak and gazed at Yuanqi's anxious appearance, softly uttering a sentence: "The Empress Dowager's illness, it would be best if the Emperor kept it confidential."

  "What?!"

  Today is relatively quiet, as it's a special day - although I don't know how many more months I can do this, but anyway, here's to wishing myself a happy Teachers' Day!

  Also, my friend Yezi helped me set up a group: 46541628 Everyone can join, just write "Chen Gong reader" and you'll be let in... Now I'm worried that the later batches of readers might not have enough space to join, looks like I'll have to go create a few more groups