Chapter 525: Discovering the Secret

Chapter 525: Discovering a Secret

Hua Feixue: "..."

Hua Feixue: "!!!"

He was completely dumbfounded!

What had he just heard?

The Grand Preceptor called Empress Dowager Yuan "cousin"?

Empress Dowager Yuan nestled in the Grand Preceptor's arms, all coy and clingy like a delicate little bird.

She said, with a spoiled, petulant air, "Cousin, besides you, who else in this palace would dare to cross me?"

The Grand Preceptor pressed, "Then what's got you so upset?"

She took his hand and sat down, a flicker of malice flashing in her eyes before she said, "On my way here just now, I saw Chu Yi. He nearly choked me to death."

The Grand Preceptor was so startled he shot to his feet. "What? Chu Yi?"

"Cousin, are you sure you weren't seeing things?"

Empress Dowager Yuan's gaze darkened slightly, and she said in a low voice, "Absolutely not. Even if Chu Yi were ground to dust, I'd still know him anywhere."

"It's just that I never expected that after I've had people searching for him for two solid years, he'd be hiding right in the palace, even dressing up as a ghost to scare me."

Empress Dowager Yuan clenched her fists, her face turning green with rage. Just thinking about how Chu Yi had made her lose her cool in front of the imperial guards made her want to kill him.

The Grand Preceptor frowned and said, "Cousin, I think you're being paranoid."

"Think about it—you wiped out Chu Yi's entire family and threw his father, the emperor, in prison. If he had really been hiding in the palace all along, why hasn't he so much as shown his face all this time?"

"Furthermore, Chu Yi bears a deep, burning hatred for the Yuan family. If the person you saw really was him, why would he have let you walk away instead of going for the kill?"

Empress Dowager Yuan was momentarily stunned, then looked at him and asked, "Cousin, what are you suggesting?"

The Grand Preceptor poured himself a cup of tea and said, with a grave look, "Tomorrow is the day the fake crown prince is to be buried. I think someone doesn't want you to bury him together with the Empress, so they deliberately dressed up as Chu Yi to scare you, just to make you drop that idea."

"Although we've already eliminated a number of civil and military officials loyal to the Chu imperial house, there are still some that slipped through the cracks. This matter might very well be their doing."

"Cousin, don't fall for their tricks and get rattled!"

Hearing this, Empress Dowager Yuan felt a bit more grounded. She'd actually had the same thought—that someone was playing ghost to scare her.

If it really were Chu Yi, the palace was so vast—even if he had a place to hide, he would still need to eat every day, wouldn't he?

It was impossible that no one would have discovered him in all this time.

Moreover, given how much Chu Yi cared about Emperor Chu, if he had learned that his father was imprisoned by her, there was no way he wouldn't have tried to rescue him.

The only explanation that made sense was that the person she saw wasn't Chu Yi at all.

Empress Dowager Yuan had just calmed down, but she quickly thought of another problem and her heart tightened again.

"Cousin, if the person I saw tonight really was arranged by those who oppose me, then do you think he might oppose Chao'er's ascension to the throne?"

"This person is loyal to the Chu imperial house and definitely won't agree to let Chao'er take that seat. I'm worried that when Chao'er participates in the Crown Prince Investiture Ceremony the day after tomorrow, he might come out to cause trouble."

The Grand Sorcerer gave a dismissive sneer. "What's there to be afraid of? As long as the Four Great Families don't object, we have nothing to worry about."

"Now the Yuan family dominates the court, and most of the military power in the Xishu Kingdom is in your hands and the Yuan family's. If anyone dares to be dissatisfied, we can trump up corruption charges, confiscate their property, and wipe out their whole clan. After that, I doubt anyone will dare to oppose Chao'er taking the throne."

After speaking, the Grand Sorcerer suddenly noticed something and looked at Empress Dowager Yuan.

"By the way, cousin, don't you usually suffer from severe headaches at night? Why haven't I heard you complain about your pain today?"

Previously, every time Empress Dowager Yuan came to him, she'd cry and complain about her terrible headaches, then curse the Late Emperor and the Chu imperial clan to vent her anger.

But today, Empress Dowager Yuan was acting completely out of character, not complaining once about her headache.

This made the Grand Sorcerer curious.

Empress Dowager Yuan took his hand and said with a smile, "I was just about to get to that!"

"Coincidentally, these past couple of days, a highly skilled female doctor from outside the court has come to our Xishu Kingdom. She happened to be brought in by the Zhenguo General's household and cured Miss Shen's illness. Word spread all over the capital, and lots of noble ladies have gone looking for her, wanting to invite this physician surnamed Yun to treat them."

"Imperial Physician Wei's medicine hasn't worked for me, so I figured I might as well give her a shot. What if she can cure me?"

The Grand Sorcerer asked curiously, "And then?"

Empress Dowager Yuan took a sip of tea before speaking calmly, "Her medical skills are indeed excellent, but she doesn't know much about court manners. I deliberately put her to the test at first, having her do the silk-thread pulse diagnosis on the palace servants. To my surprise, she nailed each person's symptoms exactly. Now those servants have taken her medicine and they're already getting better."

She paused, then turned to face the Grand Sorcerer.

"Cousin, guess what? When she performed the silk-thread pulse diagnosis on me, she immediately said I'd had a premature baby about seventeen or eighteen years ago, and that my headaches were just a side effect of the drugs I took to induce labor."

"Aside from Imperial Physician Wei, almost no one in the palace knows about this. Imperial Physician Wei also said that I'd taken too strong a dose back then and didn't rest properly after giving birth, which wrecked my health, making the headaches very difficult to cure."

"But this Doctor Yun, with just one treatment, she eased my headaches. She only performed acupuncture on me twice, and I already feel much better. Now I don't have any headaches or ringing in my ears at all."

"Just now, when someone pretended to be Chu Yi and scared me as a ghost, I was extremely agitated, but my head didn't hurt at all. I feel totally normal now!"

Upon hearing this, the Grand Sorcerer immediately embraced Empress Dowager Yuan, saying with great excitement, "Cousin, this is wonderful! All these years, watching you suffer day and night, it's been tearing me up inside. I wish I could take the pain for you."

"Now that your headaches are cured and the Chu imperial clan has been eliminated, once our son ascends the throne, our little family of three can enjoy riches, glory, and happiness together. No one will ever be able to separate us."

The two stared at each other lovingly and slowly moved in for a kiss, which had Hua Feixue cursing out loud.

"Damn, these two dirty lovers really are hooking up. Not only were these cousins sneaking around behind the Late Emperor's back, but they also had a secret son."

"So my guess was right after all. The crown prince that dog sorcerer shoved onto the throne is actually the bastard kid of these two scumbags. No wonder he's also got the surname Yuan. This whole family is absolutely shameless!"

------------