The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

Chapter 425: Chapter 421: Bestow Divine Medicine_1

At this moment, Consort Lun has given birth to the first prince, and the Imperial Consort has no advantage, regardless of any moves she makes.

Even if she too gives birth to a prince, he would only be the second prince. To surpass the first prince, either the Imperial Consort would have to be promoted to Empress and legitimise her own son, or eliminate the first prince, to possibly make her child be the eldest son.

Thinking about this, Yingbao felt she should not mingle with the Imperial Consort.

The Lun Family is also a great family in Beijing, Consort Lun’s father is the current Prime Minister, and one of the founding heroes of the Zhou Dynasty, it would be foolish of her to get involved with Lun Family’s rivals.

“Jiang Yingbao! You insolent!” A guard’s face turned stern as he pointed at Yingbao, “We have received orders from the Imperial Consort to summon you to the palace. You dare to defy the Empress, do you want to die?”

“Whom are you saying wants to die?” Jiang Wu came out from the house with a cold expression, “You dare to fabricate imperial decrees, have you no regard for the emperor?”

The guard was momentarily rendered speechless and harshly rebuked him, “Very well, we’ll see! We will report this to the Empress and she will deal with you and your family’s crime!”

With that, they left Jiang House, climbed onto a royal chariot, and quickly drove away.

Yingbao watched the carriage move away with a twinge of unease in her heart.

What on earth does the Imperial Consort Yao want to do, haunting her continuously?

Jiang Wu took his sister back into the house, saying, “Sister, it’s not good news if the Imperial Consort Yao wants you in the palace at this time. You did the right thing by not going.”

In a few days, it will be the full moon banquet of the first prince. If anything happens prior to this, it would stir up a hornet’s nest.

Leaving everything else aside, the Imperial Consort Yao is close to giving birth. If anything unexpected, like a miscarriage, happens after she meets an outsider, Yingbao will certainly get implicated.

At that time, how would the Emperor appease the Yao Family’s anger and punish the Jiang Family? The very thought of it was unbearable.

“I know.” It’s not that Yingbao and her brother were being overly paranoid, it was because the political situation of the newly established dynasty was still unstable.

Many noble families seemingly pledged loyalty to the new dynasty, but were, in fact, constantly watching closely.

These people might think that if Zhou Wuchang could become the Emperor, then they could too.

It’s probably the reason why Emperor Zhou Wuchang has so many imperial consorts but has not appointed an Empress.

Once an Empress is appointed, other families may become disgruntled and restless, taking covert action.

As long as there is no Empress, everyone feels hopeful for their daughters, and this is why they temporarily suppress their desires.

Indeed, who would want to venture into danger when they could achieve their goal without combat?

The next day, Jiang Wu went with Lord Wu to attend the court meeting.

Both of them were fifth-grade officers permitted to see the Emperor in the main court hall.

However, the positions they stood in were only at the back of officers with first to fourth grades.

Without knowing, not long after the court meeting started, someone accused him of disrespect and lawlessness.

Jiang Wu was speechless and made a note of the person who accused him.

Officials who were accused also had the opportunity to defend themselves. Therefore, after Jiang Wu returned home from the court, he wrote a lengthy letter of defense. In it, he poured out everything about the people from the palace who dared to forge the imperial decree.

If it were other officers, they might be considerate and worry about ruining the Emperor’s face, after all, the people who falsified the imperial orders were his consorts.

But Jiang Wu didn’t care and he wrote down exactly what these people said in the letter to let the Emperor see.

Luckily, Emperor Zhou Wuchang paid much attention to this matter, asked for Jiang Wu’s defence letter from the Prime Minister, and roughly went through it.

After reading, Emperor Zhou Wuchang’s face darkened and he immediately went to Imperial Consort Yao.

Imperial Consort Yao was about a month away from her expected delivery. At this moment, she felt heavy and was confused when she was ordered to kneel, “Your Majesty, what have I done wrong?”

Zhou Wuchang, with his hands behind his back, asked, “What are you trying to do by repeatedly falsifying my imperial edict?”

Yao Shufei was taken aback, “I… did not.”

Zhou Wuchang flung the document at her face: “Look carefully, is there a single untruth in it?”

Yao Shufei, trembling, picked up the paper and examined it closely, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Your Majesty, I just wanted to invite Jiang Yingbao into the palace for a medical consultation, with no other intention… Nor did I falsify any imperial commands.”

Zhou Wuchang scoffed, “You have the Imperial Medical Bureau to consult with. Why do you need to bring a young girl into the palace? What? Do you think my Imperial Physicians are all useless?”

“No, I didn’t mean that,” Shufei sobbed, covering her face.

Zhou Wuchang gave her a cold stare: “I’ve warned you once before. Without arrangements from the Imperial Household Department, no one shall be allowed into the palace. Do you take my Imperial Palace for your Yao Family’s backyard? Do you take my words as a gust of wind by your ear?”

“I… I know I was wrong, ooh…,” she sobbed.

Zhou Wuchang was unmoved. He walked to the door with his hands behind his back, looked at the palace attendants kneeling on the steps of the grand hall, and asked in a cold voice, “Who forged the imperial edict the other day? Step forward!”

The two palace attendants crawled out from the crowd, constantly bowing their heads, “We were just following the orders of Consort Shufei…”

Zhou Wuchang: “Take them out and beat them to death!”

A few guards stepped forward, seized the two palace attendants, and hauled them outside the palace gate.

“Emperor, spare us… Emperor, spare us…”

The two eunuchs kept begging for mercy, but their mouths were soon gagged.

The sound of the rattan beating rang in the grand hall, causing Shufei consort to faint.

The palace attendants didn’t dare to help her until Zhou Wuchang spoke. Then they placed Shufei on the bed and called for the Imperial Physician.

That night, Yao Shufei gave birth to a baby girl. As she was premature, she was only a little longer than an adult’s palm, wrinkled and red, crying weakly like a kitten.

Imperial Physician Wen could only tell the truth to the Emperor, “The baby is premature and weak. It’s doubtful if she can survive.”

Shocked, Yao Shufei was also on the brink of death.

“Take this and feed it to both of them,” Zhou Wuchang took out two pills encapsulated in wax from a secret compartment and handed them to Imperial Physician Wen.

Wen Jingyan received the pills, and upon opening them up, a refreshing scent hit him. The scent was very familiar.

He didn’t dare to hesitate, feeding one of the pills to Yao Shufei and dissolved the other one in water for the infant. The mother and daughter were finally safe.

The news of Yao Shufei’s premature delivery reached the Yao Family, who were furious, especially Yao Qian, a scholar-official of the middle-ranking Imperial Secretariat. He slammed his fist on the table and rebuked the Emperor for his heartlessness and fickleness.

However, upon learning that her daughter and granddaughter were revived by the Emperor’s divine medicine, he reconciled his emotions and started to discreetly inquire about the origins of the divine medicine.

But people around the Emperor claimed that the Emperor could summon heavenly spirits, and that the divine medicine was a life-saving treasure given to humans by the Heavenly God. They also said that not only could the divine medicine save lives, it could also extend longevity.

This left the Yao family in shock. The 72-year-old Duke of Yao was particularly fascinated by the divine medicine.

It was said in the classics that once you reached 73 or 84, you would enter the realm of death willingly. These two ages are critical stages in life; if you can make it past, you will live; if not, you will die.

The old Duke was strong-willed and feared death greatly.

As he was approaching the critical age of 73, the old man lived in constant fear. He forbade his family members from mentioning his age and decided not to celebrate his birthday.

Upon hearing that the Emperor had a divine medicine, the old man, white-haired and aged, wished to rush into the Imperial Palace and demand a pill from the Emperor instantly.