The silver note fell into Divine Doctor Yu's hands, it was like grasping the Empress's lifeline.
Everyone's gazes instantly turned to the Empress,
She was also panic-stricken, covering her chest with her hands, and could not think of how to refute for a moment.
As for Divine Doctor Yu?
He remained composed and unruffled, did not even glance at the Empress.
To tell the truth, the Empress was truly too careless this time,
What kind of person was Divine Doctor Yu?
When the Former Emperor wanted to keep him in the palace to serve, he could reject it outright with one word,
Having lived to this age, he was well-versed in human affairs and had long become a sly old fox, how could he be easily coerced by the Empress?
At this moment, Xiao Jingheng's gaze, mingled with anger, fell on the Empress.
She could only explain in pale desperation, "Your Majesty, this subject truly has a heart condition! Or... or perhaps... Divine Doctor Yu diagnosed wrongly, who knows!"
"Your Majesty, why not let other imperial physicians come and diagnose this subject!"
"Heh heh."
Consort Chen cut off the Empress' words with an arrogant, cold laugh,
Then sized up the Empress condescendingly from head to toe, and said:
"If I were you, I would rather say that Judge Chu's wonderful hands have already completely cured your heart condition just now."
She stepped closer and closer to the Empress, her face froze in a smile and her tone gradually became vicious,
"Empress! I have no injustice or enmity with you, yet just because I opposed you a few times, you want to plot against me like this? You are already the Empress, what more do you want?"
"I have never plotted against you!" The Empress suddenly raised her voice, as if to embolden herself. She pointed a trembling finger at Consort Chen and said:
"It's you! It's you who told Consort Yun to serve me daily with fragranced sachets added with breath-calming powder, it's you who harmed me and caused me to miscarry in blood! All of this is..."
Seeing that the Empress' fingertip was nearly poking Consort Chen's nose,
Consort Chen pushed her hand away, flipped her sharp eyebrows upwards, and said even more unbridledly:
"Consort Yun has already confessed, what are you still pretending for?"
"Confessed?" The Empress was stunned, "Confessed what?"
"Naturally whatever you did, she confessed to that."
With every step Consort Chen advanced towards the Empress, she slammed down her words sonorously,
"It was you who gave the breath-calming powder to Consort Yun, and then staged this show in front of His Majesty, wanting to get rid of me first!
If not for the Empress Dowager caring about your health today, bringing Divine Doctor Yu to come and diagnose your pulse, exposing your act of faking illness in front of others, I'm afraid I would have already been framed by you for scheming against the Empress!
Scheming against the Empress is punishable by execution of nine familial exterminations! Empress, you really are vicious!"
Hearing Consort Chen's powerful words, the Empress paled even further,
She stared blankly at Consort Yun kneeling on the ground, the astonishment in her eyes almost brimmed over,
"Your slander! When did I ever order you to..."
As soon as the Empress opened her mouth, Consort Yun shrank back in great fear,
The Empress was briefly stunned, before she came to her senses and realized she had fallen victim to Consort Chen and Consort Yun's scheme.
She smiled bitterly again and again, raised her eyes to glare at Consort Chen,
"Good! Consort Chen, you're impressive! To plot against me, you actually went through so much trouble?"
"I have never plotted against you, everyone knows clearly who plotted this!"
What followed next was the Empress and Consort Chen's mutual recriminations,
going round and round with the same few words over and over again, even Lady Song felt her ears going numb, let alone Xiao Jingheng?
From the corner of her eye, Lady Song saw his ominous expression,
She knew, with Xiao Jingheng's suspicion, he would surely trust no one.
But the matter of the Empress faking illness was set in stone, the evidence was right before them, so this matter had to have an explanation.
"Silence!"
Xiao Jingheng shouted, and the hall instantly quieted down.
Only the Empress still cried to Xiao Jingheng:
"Your Majesty, this subject is truly innocent! You saw with your own eyes how I risked my life to give birth to Jinghe for you, and that I did miscarry in blood is indisputable! Consort Chen said I wanted to plot against her, but how could I, as the mother of the nation, use my own inability to conceive again as the stake, to plot against a consort who does not yet have children?"
The Empress wept bitterly, as if suffering great injustice.
But Xiao Jingheng wasn't blind,
No matter how good the Empress' acting was, Judge Chu beside her had turned white with fear, who couldn't see that?
If he wasn't guilty, he should have spoken up long ago, so why did he remain silent?
Xiao Jingheng must have also realized that the Empress was implicated in these evil deeds.
But she was the Empress, the one he had painstakingly selected to grant the golden book and seals, the respected Mother of the Nation,
if this matter spread today, wouldn't it make the entire nation and people laugh at the imperial family?
Deceiving the ruler was a grave crime, but deposing the Empress abruptly would also bring all kinds of trouble that Xiao Jingheng had to consider.
So after brief contemplation, Xiao Jingheng still spoke relatively calmly,
"Divine Doctor Yu's wonderful hands have cured the Empress' heart condition. The thousand taels of silver is your deserved reward, there's no need for you to decline."
He threw the silver note back to Divine Doctor Yu, then looked down at Judge Chu,
"As for Judge Chu, you have served the Empress for many years, yet you had no solution for the Empress' stubborn illness, how do you know it wasn't because your skills were lacking, that you just ate and lived here for nothing? Since you're so useless, there is no need to keep your post in the Imperial Medical Bureau."
"Eunuch Jiang Deshun, go and strip him of his official uniform and carry out palace punishment, throw him into the workshop for hard labor."
"Your servant obeys!"
Jiang Deshun obeyed the order and immediately blocked Judge Chu's mouth.
Judge Chu did not even get to plead his case fully before he was dragged away.
What Xiao Jingheng meant by "palace punishment" was not as simple as the literal meaning.
Palace punishment meant cutting Judge Chu with a blade, turning him into a eunuch.
Eunuchs could not marry or have children, so Xiao Jingheng's intention was that Judge Chu's wife, three concubines, two daughters and one son outside the palace would all have to die.
After taking care of these inside and outside matters,
Xiao Jingheng walked straight to the Empress' side and patted her shoulder gently, speaking gently:
"The Empress injured her health from the bleeding, and had a heart condition again today, it's really tiring. In your current condition, it's not convenient for you to handle the matters of the six palaces anymore. From now on, Consort Yin and Consort Chen will handle the affairs of the six palaces together."
"Your Majesty, this subject..."
"As for Jinghe. You need to recuperate now, young children are always noisy, also not suitable to be by your side. "
The Empress Dowager immediately understood Xiao Jingheng's intention, and said,
"This old woman's health has been great recently, and I'm often idle. Why not send the princess to me, pamper my grandchild, that would be good."
Xiao Jingheng nodded, "Then let it be as the Empress Dowager says, send the princess to the Empress Dowager's side."
Everything Xiao Jingheng said sounded like he was caring about the Empress' health,
but this concern subtly stripped the Empress of her power, took away her daughter who wasn't even a month old,
it was taking away everything she valued.
What difference was there between such "concern" and deposing her?
It only left her an empty title, and saved some face between them.
[There are two more parts]
