If Dong Lingjiu came back a few steps later, the nurse's crime would not be "harboring hatred and secretly harming the queen", but her two children would be the victims, the eldest son of the Great Yin and the only princess at present.
　　This is not just the gains and losses of interests between women in the deep palace.
　　This is a killing strategy between political parties, and a fight for the power of the court. If the emperor's eldest son died in the trial of medicine for the emperor's sister, the day after the funeral, Concubine Qin and her party dared to go straight to the tiger's beard and ask for orders to force Emperor Mingde to depose the queen, even the reason is not important.
　　That night, everyone from the Imperial Hospital rushed in the wind and snow. Liu Tong, the imperial physician who was responsible for checking the queen's pulse, even fell on the road. He came to Fengzao Palace with snow all over his body, his face was gray, and his beard was trembling, and he faced the wrath of His Majesty the Emperor with trembling fear.
　　Liu Tong examined the bowl of fever-reducing medicine and found that it was extremely poisonous. If it was given to a child of four or five years old, even if he was just testing the medicine on behalf of the emperor's sister, and only tasted a little bit, it would be dangerous to kill him... Dong Lingjiu took the bowl of medicine, which was actually a blessing in disguise. The
　　Imperial Hospital, the female doctors of the Shang Pharmacy, and all the people who studied medicine in the palace tried their best to treat her for several days. The empress finally got out of danger, but her vitality was still seriously damaged. Not only was her qi and blood depleted, but her body was no longer suitable for childbirth.
　　The lights in Fengzao Palace were bright.
　　Emperor Mingde also did not sleep all night.
　　Snow piled up outside the eaves, and the red walls and green tiles were covered with a vast expanse of pale white.
　　When Dong Lingjiu opened his eyes, he saw the translucent window screen, the veil was hazy, the snow light was soft and bright, and there was a pot of dead Junying grass in front of the window frame.
　　It had bloomed. Dong Lingjiu remembered that this pot of Junying grass had already bloomed in the appropriate flowering period. Now it was a severe winter, and it was not easy for plants to survive the winter, so it was normal for them to wither.
　　As she opened her eyes, a hand held her, warm and generous, it was the emperor's hand.
　　Meng Zhen lowered his head, his breathing was a little uneven, and the trembling feeling of fear and loss slowly withdrew from his body. He whispered: "Zitong."
　　Dong Lingjiu looked at him and asked: "Cheng'er and Yingying..."
　　"They are fine." Meng Zhen said.
　　Dong Lingjiu didn't have the strength to nod, so she lay down on the pillow again, feeling a hallucination of tinnitus in her ears - noisy, long, and difficult to stop.
　　Her breathing was a little difficult, her chest was forced to open, and the bitter air mixed with the taste of soup and medicine poured into her lungs, mixed with the warm smell of charcoal fire. She thought it was nothing and was completely tolerable, but after breathing a few times, Dong Lingjiu couldn't resist it at all and felt strongly nauseous.
　　She kept retching, unable to spit out anything, and choked with a very rapid cough. Meng Zhen held her in a panic, feeling distressed and not knowing what to do, repeating his words of comfort over and over again.
　　Dong Lingjiu leaned in his arms, took a breath, was silent for a long time, and said in a voice that was barely audible: "That wet nurse..."
　　"I have cut her into pieces!" Meng Zhen replied.
　　"Then..." Dong Lingjiu glanced at him. The tacit understanding between husband and wife over the past few years almost made her instantly hear the hidden meaning of Meng Zhen's words. The implicit meaning of disposing of the wet nurse was - let's stop here, Concubine Qin will have her own time to die, but not now.
　　Dong Lingjiu was silent for a long time, and felt that in front of her, there seemed to be only four words in front of her: "Cease the war", otherwise she would not be the virtuous queen he wanted.
　　She paused and said softly: "Do you want to depose the queen?"
　　"No." Meng Zhen hugged her tightly, "No, no, you will always be the most noble woman around me."
　　Dong Lingjiu asked him: "Is that all?"
　　Meng Zhen was stunned.
　　She looked into his eyes. She thought, Meng Zirong, you are really a good emperor.
　　She had no doubt about the other party's sadness, pain, and resentment, but it was precisely because his pain was as strong as hers that Dong Lingjiu tasted a hint of intense bitterness in his choice of forbearance. This bitterness had only appeared from time to time before, but at this time, it was like poison strangling her throat and chains tying her hands and feet. It was so bitter that it made people want to cry out loud.
　　The love between husband and wife sometimes does not allow for reason or "the overall situation".
　　Dong Lingjiu took a long breath to resist her own loss of composure.
　　But she failed.
　　So, in Meng Zhen's eyes, the queen, who had always been smart and decent, was clearly too weak to get up, but she still curled up her palms and smashed them against the edge of the wooden bed. She used up all her strength and only made a little useless sound on the soft mattress, like an insignificant chess piece in a chess game, thrown aside and spinning.
　　At this moment, the only outlet for her to vent her pain could only make herself more painful.
　　Meng Zhen held her hand and hugged her tightly in a panicked voice: "Zitong, Zitong... I remember, I will not let her go, I will kill her."
　　His hands began to tremble, and he said incoherently: "Wait a little longer... Let's... Let's wait a little longer..."
　　Dong Lingjiu turned her eyes away from him and looked at the gauze curtain. She didn't understand her mentality and murmured: "It would be great if I were the emperor and you were the queen."
　　Meng Zhen stared at her in a daze.
　　Dong Lingjiu continued: "If I were the emperor, and she came to harm you today, I would rather perish the country than kill her."
　　After that, she slowly withdrew her hand and didn't complain anymore. It seemed that these words were not told to Meng Zhen, but a guess, a hypothesis that would keep the two of them together forever.
　　The emperor sat beside her bed for a day, and then he took care of her daily life and medicine, meticulously and lovingly. This matter, like every secret palace scroll, was stored in the mottled old years, and even the archives of the Imperial Hospital did not have a corresponding record.
　　Under the emperor's indulgence, the arrogance of Concubine Qin's party reached its peak after the army returned. She made several moves afterwards, but Dong Lingjiu calmly prevented them. All the waves of palace fighting disappeared in her hands until the day when the Qin party fell. That year
　　, the imperial city ushered in an unexpected late spring cold.
　　Dong Lingjiu put on thick clothes, with a cloak, a hand warmer, and a charcoal basin at his feet. Everything was available. She was still the queen, but the former Concubine Qin had become a prisoner implicated after the fall of the party. She was imprisoned in prison and was still looking forward to the emperor thinking of her love for her and taking her out.
　　Dong Lingjiu reached out and picked up the copper hook for picking up charcoal, and fiddled with it from time to time, sparks flew up and crackled.
　　She lowered her eyelids and said, "Qin Shishu, the decree you've been waiting for has arrived."
　　Upon hearing this, the eunuch at the side unfolded the imperial edict and read out the emperor's decree to Concubine Qin in clear words - the Qin family was guilty of treason and treason, and the three clans were exterminated. Those who colluded with the Qin party and other treacherous ministers and treacherous officials were to be executed and
　　their crimes were unforgivable. This concubine, who had lived a brilliant life for half her life, was actually still very young. Her expression was dazed after the imperial edict was read out, and then she suddenly looked at the weak, cold-fearing, and infertile woman in front of her. She seemed to have found some kind of natural enemy and the source of evil, and suddenly pounced on her fiercely.
　　Someone immediately held her shoulders, and the prisoner couldn't even get close to Dong Lingjiu.
　　"Qin Shishu," she said, "I don't hate you anymore."
　　Qin Shishu's face was hideous, her beauty was ruined in an instant: "I should hate you! My Qin family conquered the northwest and made great contributions. We have been loyal for generations and will never rebel. I just want to be the queen. I am the only one in the world who deserves this position! What have I done wrong? Ah? What have I done wrong! It was you who instigated the discord and made His Majesty--"
　　"No." Dong Lingjiu said lightly, "The emperor wants you dead more than anyone else."
　　Qin Shishu was stunned, and quickly said: "It's impossible. Although he respects you, I...but he loves me."
　　"Is it an honor to get his love," Dong Lingjiu said?"
　　Qin Shishu looked embarrassed.
　　Dong Lingjiu was still fiddling with the charcoal brazier in front of him. Sparks crackled and splashed out of the charcoal brazier, burning for a moment, and then disappeared silently.
　　She said, "When I wanted to kill you the most, you were in your prime. But now, I have begun to pity you."
　　"What qualifications do you have to pity me?" Qin Shishu said sarcastically, "You should pity yourself. Your beauty is fading and your love is fading. How long can you keep this face? What about the first wife? I have only heard of the wife who has lived through the hardships of life. In the future..."
　　"I pity myself too." Dong Lingjiu followed her words, "But it doesn't matter anymore. The emperor has already sentenced you to death, Qin Shishu. Just live your next life as I once thought."
　　She clapped her hands gently.
　　Several eunuchs came forward silently, took out the white silk, and put it around the white neck of the imperial concubine. She cursed angrily, and then begged for mercy in fear. Then the white silk was tightened, the screams disappeared, and everything vanished.
　　A young jade body fell to the ground.
　　Dong Lingjiu had been fiddling with the charcoal basin, staring at the sparks in front of her. She didn't even look at them, and didn't pay attention to the remains of this former enemy.
　　She brushed the corner of her clothes, and someone asked beside her: "Madam, this Qin is extremely evil, you say..."
　　"Bury her properly." Dong Lingjiu stood up.
　　The moment she stepped out of the prison, the illness that had troubled her for many years came like a tide, and a sharp tinnitus sounded in her ears again, like the endless tremolo of a gong after it was struck at its loudest. The tremolo ended, and the world was silent.
　　She walked through the plum garden covered with snow.
　　This late spring cold extended the flowering period of plum blossoms for a long time, and also delayed the melting of this snow too late.
　　After Dong Lingjiu walked through the plum garden, she found that Ruixue hurriedly came forward, stretched out his hand to shake her arm, and kept saying something. She came back to her senses, and the sounds of all things returned to her mind at this moment. She suddenly realized that she had just lost her hearing for a moment.
　　That's why the world can be so peaceful.
　　Dong Lingjiu smiled at her and said, "It's okay, let's go."
　　"Madam..."
　　"It's okay." She repeated, "Don't worry... I'm fine."
　　She seemed to have said this for many years.
　　August 15, the second year of Huining, a full-moon night.
　　When Dong Lingjiu finished telling this story in a concise manner, her emotions were still calm.
　　But Zheng Yuheng didn't seem so calm.
　　Although he had some guesses, without the confirmation of his teacher and the evidence of the pulse case, Zheng Yuheng couldn't be sure that this was a legacy of poison, rather than a congenital weakness or illness caused by overwork as everyone thought.
　　He looked at Dong Lingjiu's face with wet eyes, and felt an indescribable heartache. This heartache was different from Meng Zhen's back then. Meng Zhen did it for his lover, but Zheng Yuheng felt - why is it like this? People like the Queen Mother should have a smooth and peaceful life.
　　Those who carry firewood for the people should not be allowed to freeze to death in the wind and snow.
　　Zheng Yuheng couldn't help but move closer to her and whispered to her, "You can do whatever you want to me. I won't resist."
　　Dong Lingjiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and flicked his forehead pretending to be upright: "What are you talking about? Am I that kind of person?"
　　Zheng Yuheng actually said sincerely, "As long as Your Majesty is happy, it doesn't matter what kind of person he is."
　　Dong Lingjiu smiled and said, "If you say that, you will become the same as the other people in the Cining Palace? You will become my confidant, my lackey, and maybe even a treacherous and cruel official in the future." The
　　drunk Zheng Yuheng didn't even have a bottom line, and he forgot to put on the reserved airs of a monarch and his subjects. His eyes were clear, and he said very bluntly, "It doesn't matter, I don't care. But if Your Majesty is not doing well or is unhappy, I will be very sad."