vrcanaries Chapter 1196 Empress Dowager Liu Asks Concubines to Take Turns to Care for the Sick
Chapter 1196 Empress Dowager Liu Asks Concubines to Take Turns to Care for the Sick
Some people in the crowd turned their heads away, unable to bear to watch any longer.
Some people stared with wide eyes at the bloody and cruel scene, with a complex expression of fear and morbid satisfaction on their faces.
"It's too awful……"
"It's really true that evil will be punished! You deserve it!"
"That's right! What's so pitiful about such a villain? If it weren't for the fact that Concubine Chen was so perceptive and saw through the old villain's evil ambitions, our Great Zhou... Alas!"
"Your Majesty, you are doing this to eliminate harm to the country! To relieve His Majesty's worries! Such ungrateful people who bring disaster to the country and the people should be cut into pieces!"
"..."
In between Liu Chongshan's inhuman howls and the supervising officer's counting, the people were discussing with awe and admiration.
People were whispering to each other, their eyes looking towards the imperial city intentionally or unintentionally.
Shen Zhinian's name was mentioned repeatedly on this bloody execution ground.
"One thousand and nine..."
The count continues.
Liu Chongshan's howling had turned into intermittent "ho ho" sounds, and the amplitude of his body twitching became smaller and smaller.
The ray of resentment in his staring, cloudy eyes was gradually swallowed up by boundless pain and the shadow of death, leaving only a hollow, dead ash...
……
Cining Palace.
The strong smell of medicine lingered in the air and could not be dispelled.
On the golden nanmu step-out bed, layers of brocade curtains hung low, blocking out the already thin sunlight from outside.
Empress Dowager Liu lay on a pillow piled with bright yellow brocade. Her face was so thin that only a thin layer of skin remained, covering her prominent cheekbones.
Her eye sockets were sunken, revealing only a pair of cloudy eyes. When they occasionally moved, a glimmer of insight, that belonged to a superior, remained.
Empress Dowager Liu's body was like a candle in the wind, swaying for a long time, but always stubbornly keeping that faint flame lit.
Besides her extraordinary abilities, another reason why she was able to sit in this position was that she had a good physique.
She outlasted one opponent after another and finally sat on the throne of the supreme woman in the world!
Sometimes, the rise and fall of the harem is not about the level of one's temporary means, but about who can survive to the end.
Nanny Yuan stood quietly beside the couch, holding a bowl of medicine that had just been heated to warmth, her breath very lightly.
She had followed the Empress Dowager for most of her life, and the tacit understanding between master and servant had long since transcended the need for words.
The Empress Dowager should have guessed the shocking news without her saying anything...
The entire family of Duke Dingguo... has been executed.
Liu Chongshan... the Empress Dowager's biological brother, was even executed by slow slicing, cut into pieces 3,600 times...
There was dead silence in the tent.
Empress Dowager Liu did not exclaim nor cry.
This face, etched with the vicissitudes of life and the torture of illness, did not even reveal a trace of obvious sorrow.
Only in the deep eye sockets, the turbid pupils suddenly contracted, spreading a circle of silent vibrations.
Beneath the shock, there is the dizziness of collapsing foundations.
It was the excruciating pain of a hundred years of glory being turned into dust in an instant!
It was more like... a kind of uprooting, bone-chilling coldness...
The Liu family...fell!
The most solid support for Liu Shuying in this deep palace, her mother's family with whom she shared the same blood, was completely gone.
From then on, she was truly just a lonely and dying person in the Cining Palace...
Time flows slowly in the thick medicinal smell and dead silence.
After an unknown amount of time, Empress Dowager Liu looked away from the empty brocade ceiling in great pain and turned to Nanny Yuan who was standing by the bed with her hands hanging down.
Her lips moved slightly, the cracked lines on her lips were like cracked earth, and her voice was very hoarse: "Madam Yuan..."
Nanny Yuan immediately bowed and put her ear close to the woman's ear: "Your Majesty, this old servant is here!"
"Pass on my imperial decree..."
Empress Dowager Liu's voice was soft, with a sense of exhaustion and weakness, yet it also carried an undeniable sense of pressure: "From tomorrow on... have the concubines in the harem... take turns to come to the Cining Palace... to attend to the patient."
Nanny Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly, then she lowered her head. Her voice was steady and composed, expressing absolute obedience: "Yes, Your Majesty the Empress Dowager."
"I will go and pass on the order right away."
She gently placed the medicine bowl on the small table beside the couch and retreated quietly with steady steps, as if she was just going to do an ordinary errand.
Empress Dowager Liu's decree caused ripples in the harem.
No one dared to object.
The Liu family is a traitor, and it is not a pity to cut them into pieces.
But Empress Dowager Liu is still the Empress Dowager respected by the whole world!
She is the emperor’s mother!
The Zhou dynasty ruled the world with filial piety, a sword hanging over everyone's head. No one could avoid it, and no one dared to disobey it.
When the empress dowager is seriously ill, it is only natural for the concubines to take care of her.
Anyone who dares to shirk responsibility is considered disobedient and unfilial.
Once this big hat is put on you, even if you are favored by the emperor, you will not be able to escape the gossip of the world.
Those ladies of low status were not even qualified to step into the Cining Palace, let alone serve the Empress Dowager.
The only ones responsible for this matter are the six main ladies.
Concubine Zhuang paused slightly as she twisted the Buddhist beads, and an elusive light flashed across her gentle and peaceful brows.
She raised her head and looked towards the Cining Palace, a trace of compassion on her lips, and whispered to Ruoji: "Go, find the thickest copy of the Ksitigarbha Sutra in the small Buddhist hall and prepare it. Be prepared to accompany me to serve the Empress Dowager."
Reciting scriptures and praying for blessings is the safest way.
Ruoli said respectfully, "Yes!"
……
The chill of late autumn seemed to be particularly favorable to the Yanx Palace.
The best silver frost charcoal was burning in the hall, bringing warmth, but it still couldn't dispel the innate cool aura that surrounded Concubine Xue.
She was wrapped in a plain moon-white brocade jacket, reclining on the warm kang by the window, holding a yellowed ancient book in her hands. Her fingertips unconsciously caressed the edges of the pages.
The dead branches outside the window swayed in the wind, casting sparse shadows.
Yu Mei entered quietly, bowing her head and reporting, "Your Majesty, Madam Yuan from the Cining Palace has just conveyed the Empress Dowager's decree, ordering the concubines in the harem to take turns attending to the patient at the Cining Palace starting tomorrow."
Xue Fei's fingers, which were turning the pages of the book, paused slightly.
She raised her eyes, like cold springs on the top of snow, and looked at the gray sky outside the window. There was no ripple in the depths of her eyes, only a silence that was clear in her heart.
Waiting for illness?
Ah……
The Liu family had just been uprooted and all members of the family had been killed. Even Liu Chongshan had been cut into 3,600 pieces.
The Empress Dowager, who was bedridden in the Cining Palace, was like an ancient tree whose last roots had been cut off.
Even though the exterior still maintained the dignity of the Queen Mother, the interior was already a shaky shell.
The so-called "attending to the sick" is probably an unspoken drama.
After losing the support of her maternal family, the Empress Dowager tried to use the invisible shackles of "filial piety" to seek a little comfort for her last lonely and desolate time.
Or in other words... it proves that Empress Dowager Liu is still the emperor's unshakable mother!
The corners of Xue Fei's lips curved upward ever so slightly. She put the book down and said in a clear, unpretentious voice, "I understand."