Chapter 31.2 - One corpse, two deaths
Her lowered eyes became deeper as Lou Qingwu followed her memory towards Liuhua Palace.
Because the command plate in her hands was imperial consort Rong’s, she was easily able to gain access to the Liuhua Palace.
But she hadn’t entered before hearing the emperor’s angry roar, “What do you people do for a living! If you can’t even save consort Ying, don’t even think about leaving this palace alive!”
“Emperor, please don’t be angry! Emperor, please don’t be angry! This subject will definitely try his hardest, definitely try his hardest, definitely!”
Lou Qingwu entered and found that the hall outside of the Liuhua palace congregated quite a large amount of people.
The atmosphere was dark and heavy with the empress and imperial consort Rong comforting the emperor by his side.
Xiahou Rui and Xiahou Rui were standing close by with the other princes and they all had deep expressions on.
Following her past lifetime’s memory, this consort Ying had been poisoned to allow for a more difficult birth which lead to her giving birth to a stillborn.
Furthermore, it would be one body and two deaths.
And the person who poisoned her was allegedly …
Lou Qingwu’s eyes carelessly fell upon Xiahou Rui but quickly moved away.
His watery eyes were filled with quick moving emotions, it was hard to decipher what he was thinking and it was almost as if he felt Lou Qingwu’s gaze on him because he slightly turned his head towards her.
He saw the Lou Qingwu who stood at the corner and when he met her eyes, he froze for a second.
But then as if he thought of something, his thin lips pressed into a thin line and his whole body stiffened.
Outside of Liuhua palace, palace maids carried out bowls of water that had been dirtied with blood in and out.
The whole atmosphere was tense and stern as the emperor stood imposingly like a pole, his whole body emitting coldness.
Everyone else didn’t dare to even take a large breath in.
In an unknown amount of time, the bedroom palace’s door finally opened when a midwife and imperial doctor came out, both covered in blood.
They cradled a child swathed in bright yellow brocade but kneeled strongly on the floor, their faces filled with despair and grief, “Emperor … your subject has tried his hardest!”
The emperor’s red eyes stared unwaveringly at the stiff child in the arms of the midwife.
The other people there also had grave expressions because the child … wasn’t crying.
Their hearts couldn’t help but shake, thinking that tonight definitely wouldn’t be too peaceful.
“Emperor, the little prince was stillborn. Consort Ying also suffered bleeding when she gave birth and also … has died.”
The imperial doctor and midwife kowtowed as if their lives depended on it, their foreheads hitting the ground as if they were afraid the emperor would truly order them to be beheaded in a fit of anger.
Before the emperor had reacted, the midwife who was carrying the child quickly spoke, “Emperor, this old servant … found this under consort Ying’s bed.”
After the midwife spoke, she presented an object in front of the emperor.
It could be seen that the midwife was holding some sort of cloth doll and on the cloth doll’s stomach was attached a small cloth doll.
Both of them were covered and stabbed all over with silver needles.
An imperial guard close by grabbed the dolls and presented them to the emperor whose face was dark enough to squeeze out of ink.
The emperor flipped over the dolls in his hands and on the backs were consort Ying’s birthday written boldly.
Everyone was frightened: this was … voodoo!
**
TL note:
Empress’ aide - (嬷嬷 mo mo) really old female servants, one of them’s probably the empress’ wet nurse but saying momo straight up looked a bit weird so I’ll just call them her aides or her servants depending on the situation. They’re female servants who most likely have not married and will probably spend the rest of their lives serving their masters.
Voodoo doll - Chinese people were (and still are!) very superstitious so the discovery of these cloth dolls is a huge uh-oh also foreshadowing that some unlucky bugger’s going to get framed. Probably. But someone’s going to get killed for this.
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