Heroic Wife Reborn

Chapter 109: The Eldest Princess’s Grudge Against Consort Zhao

Consort Zhao was lying unconscious on the bed. Even now, she was still bleeding, the blood collecting as a small pool on the ground. Xianzong couldn’t find any place to stand by her bedside. A few crying momo were kneeling in the blood. Their sobs intensified at the sight of Xianzong’s approach.

One of them kowtowed to him and cried, “Your Majesty, please save esteemed consort!”

Xianzong was floored at the sight of Consort Zhao and loudly cried, “Where are the imperial physicians? What’s happened to Consort Zhao?”

There were seven to eight imperial physicians in Consort Zhao’s room, all of them expert doctors. They knew her prognosis as soon as they examined her and took her pulse, but none of them wanted to stand out to answer the emperor’s question. Anyone who could successfully plot against Consort Zhao like this wasn’t someone they could afford to offend as mere imperial physicians. It was clear that the Zhao Clan and Zhao Qiuming had already earned Xianzong’s detestation, so to offend that lofty schemer in the shadows for the sake of an uncertain consort was simply foolish.

Xianzong saw that no one was answering and grew even more incensed. “Have you all gone mute?!”

Yu Xiaoxiao walked forward impatiently and pulled away the covers over Consort Zhao’s body. “Let me take a look.”

Just like that, the smell of blood beneath the covers soon overpowered the room. Xianzong staggered from the assault on his senses. Jing Zhong supported him as he asked urgently, “Your Majesty, are you alright?”

Xianzong was afraid to breathe in the presence of so much blood. He was about to order the imperial physicians to examine her when he caught sight of his daughter pulling down Consort Zhao’s pants. “Linglong, what are you doing?!” he cried. They could ignore the eunuchs in the room, but there were still plenty of imperial physicians present! How was Consort Zhao supposed to live after being exposed before them all?!

Yu Xiaoxiao turned to give him an impatient look. “How am I supposed to know where she’s hurt if I don’t take off her pants?”

Jing Zhong and the momo looked at Yu Xiaoxiao with trepidation. She’s probably seizing this chance to force Consort Zhao to her death, right? How could the eldest princess be so malicious? She won’t preserve Consort Zhao’s good name even when she’s already on the verge of death?

All of the imperial physicians had their heads bowed to stare at their toes. When it came to the emperor’s woman, they didn’t even dare to look at her clothes, much less when she was undressed.

Xianzong said to Yu Xiaoxiao, “There are outsider males present!”

Yu Xiaoxiao gave a snort of contempt. She’s already dead, so who cares about some ‘outsider males?’ With a ripping sound, Her Royal Highness tore off Consort Zhao’s pants. A few momo all rose to their feet, preparing to throw themselves over Consort Zhao’s body. They couldn’t let others see her naked, ah!

Xianzong was trembling too hard to speak. The air in the room seem to stagnate as it turned as silent as a cicada in the cold¹ Only Yu Xiaoxiao examined Consort Zhao’s body as if there was nobody there, before telling Xianzong, “No external injuries and it’s not a miscarriage. Did she get catch some strange gynaecological disease?”

Xianzong took a while before he found his voice again, and his first thing was to shout at his daughter. “Where’s your brain? She’s living in the palace, so how could she have been hurt down there?!”

Yu Xiaoxiao gave Xianzong a reproachful look before she said meaningfully, “Don’t bully me just because I haven’t read much books. Do you think she wouldn’t be hurt as long as she stayed in the palace? Suppose you got too excited one day?”

“That’s not–ah, Zhen, you,” Xianzong ended up sputtering.

Everyone tried to bury themselves in the ground. Would His Majesty kill them all for overhearing such things?

Yu Xiaoxiao looked at Consort Zhao’s bleeding form once again and said, “If they can’t stop the bleeding, she’ll die, won’t she?”

Xianzong didn’t dare to look at his beloved consort’s body. Heaving for breath, he looked at the imperial physicians and cried, “You’re all just going to watch? Look until Consort Zhao dies?!”

The physicians remained with their heads bowed, each hoping that the other would step out to answer Xianzong’s question.

“Speak!” Xianzong pointed at one of them.

Without a way to pretend he was invisible, the doctor fell to his knees. “Your Majesty, we subjects have already given Consort Zhao medicine, but her illness came so violently that it had no effect.”

Xianzong’s heart seized up. In other words, there’s no saving Consort Zhao?

“Oh,” Yu Xiaoxiao murmured in the quiet voice. So this woman’s finally gonna die?

“Your Majesty,” a eunuch called out from outside the bedchambers. “Consort Hua, Consort Rong, and Consort Ming…”

“What are they coming here for?” Xianzong interrupted. “Have them go back.”

“Your Majesty.”

“All of you get lost!” Xianzong cried when the eunuch spoke up again.

There was a brief moment of silence before the eunuch stammered, “Your Majesty, Junior Master Fenglin of Eternal Life Temple asks for an audience.”

“What?” Xianzong couldn’t believe his ears.

Yu Xiaoxiao knitted her brows as well. What’s Wen Fenglin running over to Consort Zhao’s for?

“Your Majesty,” the eunuch repeated, “Junior Master Fenglin of Eternal Life Temple asks for an audience.”

Xianzong whipped his head towards the unconscious Consort Zhao before folding his hands behind his back and striding out the door. “Invite the junior master inside.”

Yu Xiaoxiao was looking at Consort Zhao too. She didn’t recall Wen Fenglin having any connections with Consort Zhao. During the cruel female emperor’s time, the two of them had never even talked. Did they become friends this time when I reincarnated into this body?

The momo waiting on Consort Zhao carefully formed a respectful shield around her, afraid that the eldest princess would take this chance to suddenly kill their mistress. Everyone in the palace now knew that the eldest princess had formidable martial arts and killed people like dogs. No amount of Consort Zhaos would be enough to feed her slaughter.

“You don’t even have any good blood-staunching medicine,” Yu Xiaoxiao said while shaking her head. In a small voice, she added, “There’s no way to fool around at all.”

The momo looked bewilderedly after the eldest princess’s retreating form. What does she mean by “no way to fool around?” Isn’t Consort Zhao already wretched enough?

By the time Yu Xiaoxiao left the bedroom, Xianzong was already waiting in the corridor for Junior Master Fenglin. Seeing her emerge, he couldn’t help asking, “What could the junior master want in looking for Zhen?”

Yu Xiaoxiao shot back, “How am I supposed to know?”

Xianzong looked at Yu Xiaoxiao and suddenly lost all energy to lose his temper. Yu Xiaoxiao felt that he must be sad, so comforted, “There’ll be tens of thousands of other Consort Zhaos even if this one dies. Don’t be sad. How about you get an extra good cinerary casket for her?”

Cinerary casket?

Inside the courtyard, even the likes of Xiao Zhuang and Xiao Wei felt their hairs stand on end. Just how much does Her Royal Highness hate Consort Zhao? She doesn’t even want to leave her with an intact body, ah!²

1. 噤若寒蟬 – jinruo hanchan idiom that means to “keep quiet out of fear.”
2. In modern China, it’s customary to burn the body after death, especially in populated areas, because there just isn’t enough room to bury everyone. In apocalypse China, this is probably a necessity so they don’t become zombies/fodder. In ancient China, however, Confucian values dictated that one’s body comes from one’s parents, and to destroy any part of it is a big No-No. Burying an incomplete body (even if it was missing an arm or a leg) meant suffering for the deceased in the afterlife as well. What Xiaoxiao is suggesting now is not only a big taboo for a royal consort, but the common people as well. You’d only wish to destroy a person’s body after death on your gravest enemies, and even then only if you’re the ruthless one. You can read up on more ancient Chinese burial rituals via Google.