In the second year of Huining, spring.
　　Zheng Taiyi traveled between the Cining Palace and the Imperial Hospital. The various discussions were initially spread in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a while, and they were so rampant that they almost broke through the palace ban and penetrated into the ears of officials. But then, no one knew who wrote it, and these voices disappeared overnight without a trace.
　　When people with a mind speculate, most of them will classify it as the order of the Queen Mother. Queen Wang is noble and proud, and she has always been strict in dealing with the disaster of gossip and does not allow any discussion. But in the eyes of the eunuch Xuan Jingyun, this is the first time that Queen Mother Dong, who finally got out of the political affairs, has treated the young man beside her with love.
　　Thanks to such love, Zheng Yuheng does not have to "meet in battle" with his family, which is already full of cracks, for the time being.
　　After Dong Lingjiu did this thing separately, he received the military report from Ganzhou as he wished in late spring. In addition to the military reports, many veterans with outstanding military achievements also wrote greetings.
　　In many things, in their not-so-sensitive political sense, trusting the Empress Dowager was more natural than trusting the new emperor.
　　During the more than ten years that Emperor Mingde was in power, she never avoided politics. During the years when Meng Zhen was bedridden, Dong Lingjiu even held the imperial edict and issued the imperial edict on his behalf. Her seniority, status, and insight were enough to make people often ignore her gender and regard her as another master of this dynasty, not just the master of the inner palace.
　　When Dong Lingjiu read these military reports, the eunuch Xuan Jingyun was kneeling at the bottom of the steps, asking for forgiveness for the poor performance of his eunuchs. She left him there for half an hour and almost forgot about it. It was only when Xuan Jingyun frequently asked for help from the imperial physician Xiao Zheng beside her that she put down her pen. When the Empress
　　Dowager glanced at him, Xuan Duzhi immediately knelt straight, with a kind of humility that came naturally on his face.
　　Dong Lingjiu laughed and asked, "Why are you looking at him?"
　　Xuan Jingyun couldn't say that in the whole room, only the young doctor Zheng, who was ignorant of the world, was the easiest to deceive, the most soft-hearted, and was favored by you recently? He said, "I was secretly begging the queen in my heart, but I didn't dare to look you directly at you, so my eyes were erratic, so I disturbed Doctor Zheng."
　　Zheng Yuheng was flipping through the records of serving medicine to the empress dowager. He looked up blankly and looked away. Before he asked "What's wrong?", Dong Lingjiu said, "Look, even if you throw your eyes down and roll in front of him, what can the young master see? How can he understand what you mean, this wooden head and fish eyes, how can it be understood in one or two days?"
　　Zheng Yuheng was stunned, and the female officials next to him were already smiling, covering their lips and lowering their heads. Under their not-so-completely concealed smiles and Xuan Duzhi's embarrassed expression, even a real wooden man could understand the teasing in it.
　　Zheng Yuheng held the recorded case file, stroking the paper with his fingers, and whispered: "Empress Dowager..."
　　He now dared to protest a little, treating her as a friend of noble status, and maintaining a proper but not alienated sense of propriety in his advance and retreat.
　　After that cloak, there was no more incident that contained soft shadows of beautiful thoughts and made people speculate. Dong Lingjiu treated him with pure care and concern, mixed with a trace of innate grace and majesty.
　　Dong Lingjiu said: "Okay, how can I say that? You have ruined this ink and it also cost me my pen."
　　This means that Zheng Yuheng was not good at serving the ink and delayed the imperial pen. The young imperial physician spent a long time in the palace. During the day, he spent half of his time in the Imperial Hospital and the other half in the Cining Palace. The female officials performed their duties. Occasionally, when there was a close exchange of imperial edicts, Zheng Yuheng, as a first-class decoration in the palace, would get up to help, add tea, incense, wash the pen and serve the ink. He did not think that doing these trivial things in the palace was humiliating.
　　Serving in the Imperial Hospital was hardly considered as entering the government, but one had to address the doctor as "sir" and treat him with the courtesy of a civil official. Most of them also tried their best to get close to the civil service class to improve their status and show that they were different from the slaves in the palace. So it was almost a miracle for the female officials that he was willing to take the initiative to help and personally handle these details.
　　Dong Lingjiu just watched, without commenting or stopping. It was not until the young imperial physician was distracted and delayed the famous ink in his hand to explore the lingering fragrance of the medicine powder at the bottom of her bowl that Dong Lingjiu, who was reviewing the case files in the palace, knocked on the back of his hand, leaving a light red mark on it.
　　For this reason, Zheng Yuheng did not roll up his sleeves to serve ink for several days. Such a temperament was more reserved, stubborn, and more backbone than the cat that fawned on the empress dowager. When
　　Dong Lingjiu said this, Zheng Yuheng felt a little ashamed for a moment, mixed with a layer of guilt, so he lowered his head to listen to the lecture, and his hand holding the book could not help but tighten.
　　Before he could answer, there was a sudden noise outside the palace. A eunuch in blue clothes said something to the female official at the palace gate. Not long after, Ruixue got the news and came to report to the empress dowager in a low voice: "Something happened to Concubine Xu."
　　Dong Lingjiu raised his eyelids.
　　"Concubine Xu was three months pregnant, and the fetus was stable. This morning, she took a dose of abortion medicine, and the child was gone. The people who served her and the imperial physician responsible for this have been detained. The servants are detained in the inner prison, and the imperial physician is sent to the Ministry of Justice."
　　"Submit it to the Ministry of Justice?" Dong Lingjiu asked, "Is this the emperor's decision?"
　　Ruixue said, "Your Majesty has been reading military reports and attending court affairs for several days and has just fallen asleep. This is the decision of Fengzao Palace. Please give your seal and decision, Queen."
　　Before the two of them finished speaking, another eunuch came and knelt outside the hall and kowtowed. His eyes were red and he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Empress Dowager, please move away. Master Xu is about to die!" As soon as he
　　opened his mouth, Xuan Duzhi, who was kneeling on the ground, hurriedly stood up, slapped him in the face, and said angrily: "Who is this in front of? Don't you look? Her Majesty the Empress Dowager is in there. What are you talking about? You have no manners!"
　　If it was the empress dowager who was in power, there would be nothing wrong in addressing His Majesty respectfully, but Dong Lingjiu had never done so, so when he addressed him like this, it sounded a bit flattering.
　　The eunuch was stunned. When he saw that it was Xuan Duzhi, his eyes were moist and tears flowed like a spring. He clung to the corner of his robe: "Duzhi, please, Duzhi..."
　　Dong Lingjiu looked from a distance and knew that Xuan Jingyun was insulting on the surface, but in fact he was giving this eunuch and Concubine Xu a way out. Without him coming out to scold, this person would probably be expelled immediately before he could explain the matter clearly.
　　She waved her hand and asked Ruixue to bring the person in.
　　The eunuch came to him and cried, "Please, Madam, please save my child. The doctor has sent him to the Ministry of Justice. The adults who were invited back from the Imperial Hospital to treat him said that they couldn't save him. They all shook their heads and said that there was no way... Your Majesty, not to mention people, not even a message can be sent in!"
　　Dong Lingjiu said, "Where is the Queen?"
　　The eunuch was terrified. This fear only flashed on his face for a moment, and then evolved into a kind of sorrow: "Queen... Madam Fengzao Palace has tried her best..." Dong
　　Lingjiu pressed his lips and said nothing, holding a scroll in his hand.
　　Zheng Yuheng knew what this was. He had served in the Cining Palace for many days, so he naturally understood how many heavy things were placed on the Queen Mother's desk. On one side were important matters of state affairs, most of which were approved by the emperor and sent from the Guiyuan Palace, asking the Queen Mother to correct and instruct. On one side were the important affairs of the inner palace. These affairs were originally supposed to be handled by Queen Wang, but after Queen Wang made a mistake a few years ago, she became unusually obedient and classified all the decisions and events she had handled, transcribed them into files, and reported them to the Queen.
　　Dong Lingjiu originally declined, but the Queen was cautious and did not want to make mistakes again, so she often asked for instructions. Over time, the Cining Palace also accepted these files, but did not often reply.
　　In the short few months that Zheng Yuheng watched and served, he had seen more than once that when Queen Dowager Dong was resting from the chaos of state affairs and headaches, she would take out the scrolls that transcribed the important affairs of the inner palace and bow her head to read them to rest.
　　There is actually such a way to rest in the world.
　　Zheng Yuheng was surprised, and at the same time, he was deeply worried. This almost became his concern. He was fully aware of the illness of the previous emperor, which aggravated his fear of "exertion damages the spirit and the decline of heart blood".
　　When he occasionally lost his mind, there were also several times when he thought about the health of the Queen Mother Dong, and the gentleness and mercy she bestowed on him.
　　Just as Dong Lingjiu was pondering, Zheng Yuheng suddenly said: "Your Majesty, you can take me there."
　　Several glares immediately blew towards him, especially the scrutiny of Aunt Ruixue. Facing the knife-like gaze, Zheng Yuheng said uprightly, clearly, and almost indifferently: "Although I am young and ignorant, if one more person tries, there will be more hope. I can give it a try."
　　This was not, as others thought, to show loyalty to the Queen Mother and to show his value to the people in power. Instead, he was describing it purely as a doctor. He felt that he could give it a try, so there was no reason to stand by and watch someone die. If he had to say that he had any selfish motives, Zheng Yuheng thought that if he could make the Empress Dowager less embarrassed and let him learn something useful, then that was a selfish motive enough to try.
　　Dong Lingjiu looked at him carefully, and under the eunuch's sobbing, he said, "Get up."
　　Ruixue was stunned for a moment before she hurriedly took the order and left. When these two words fell, the eunuch who was shouting at full strength seemed to have grabbed a fragile blade of grass from a cliff, and was reborn, and almost fainted. It was
　　Xuan Duzhi who ordered people to take care of him. Half an incense stick later, outside the Xu Fei's bedroom, more than a dozen imperial doctors knelt in front of the Empress Dowager with their heads bowed.
　　Dong Lingjiu took a seat and only said to Zheng Yuheng, "Go." He bowed and turned to enter the inner hall. The almost dry cough sound came from the screen, and there was a lingering bloody smell.
　　Dong Lingjiu stroked his sleeves and said, "Don't you have any solution?"
　　The imperial doctors were sweating profusely. Seeing Zheng Yuheng enter the inner hall, they felt a faint hatred from their fear and panic. But in this situation, the choice they made to protect themselves could not be retreated. Some people even hoped that Concubine Xu would die at the hands of Zheng Yuheng, and implicate this favored young man. It
　　's not that Concubine Xu cannot be saved, but the detoxification method is also a tiger and wolf medicine. If it fails, it could have been delayed for three or five days, and she would die immediately. Out of consideration for their own and professional lives, they chose to keep silent and protect themselves, and dared not come forward to make this extremely dangerous attempt.
　　Sometimes, adults who have already supported the family will have an extra cowardice of having no way to retreat and cannot be thrown away. For Zheng Yuheng, this was just his own adventure. For the experienced and senior imperial physicians, women, children, old and young, hundreds of people were all tied to him. If they lost their official positions and their future was bleak because of a momentary adventure, it would not only implicate themselves.
　　Dong Lingjiu only asked this question, and did not make things too difficult. She closed her eyes and
　　rested, and there was silence all around. It was not until the eunuch reported that the queen was coming that she heard hurried footsteps. She opened her eyes and saw that the young queen's hair was slightly loose, and her face was worried and flustered. When she saw the queen mother, she bowed her head and saluted respectfully, and then she called out with tears in her eyes: "Mother..."
　　Dong Lingjiu raised her hand, and Queen Wang immediately threw herself into her arms, holding her hand and crying, saying: "My son's children, and Concubine Xu..."
　　All the children of the concubines belonged to the queen, and they were all the children of her, the legitimate mother, so it was reasonable for Queen Wang to feel sad for them.
　　Dong Lingjiu stroked her slightly messy golden hairpin and whispered slowly: "Was it in Guiyuan Palace just now?"
　　Queen Wang nodded with red eyes: "Your Majesty didn't want to come, but after hearing that mother came here, there was some movement. I interrogated those servants in the inner prison for two hours, but there was no result. However, it has been determined that Concubine Xu was poisoned. If there is no mastermind, who would be willing to take such a big risk and have such courage? Please ask the Ministry of Justice."
　　What she meant was that she suspected that the imperial physician who served had colluded with others to murder the Dragon Clan.
　　Dong Lingjiu stared into her eyes, and the two looked at each other. Her voice was even lower, and she kneaded Queen Wang's fingertips slowly, and said softly: "Yes, who has such courage."
　　Queen Wang's shoulders trembled, and she was shocked and frightened in place. Her face with tears in her eyes showed a humble plea. She said: "My son..." But
　　Dong Lingjiu had closed his eyes.
　　She thought of the grievances between Concubine Xu and the Empress when she was in the East Palace. Before the Emperor ascended the throne, Concubine Xu was in her prime and was favored by the Emperor. But after he ascended the throne, she and the fetus in her belly were both rejected.
　　The reason is very simple, because for the Emperor, the Minister Xu who had always supported the Prince and praised him for his benevolence and filial piety was more valuable than the domineering Xu family who had relied on the Emperor to break the law repeatedly and left countless things to talk about.
　　When she was thinking silently, a hoarse gasp of pain came from the inner hall, like the sound of a dry bellows, accompanied by a sudden draught and a pungent smell of blood.