“I am not afraid.”
Concubine Xiao Xian’s tone was resolute, looking straight at the Emperor with prayer in her eyes, without a trace of fear of death.
The emperor’s throat tightened and the words came out with a clear tremor, “Concubine Xian, I don’t want to lose you, I ……”
The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are getting into.
Zhu Zhihong stepped forward and advised, “Your Highness, you should listen to the Emperor.”
“Yes, Your Highness, the smallpox is very serious. If you don’t think of yourself, you must think of the Fourth Prince.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
……
The Minister of the Sixth Ministry also came forward to advise.
Tianhua is no joke, once infected the chances of surviving are slim, the fourth prince is already hopeless, Consort Xian cannot afford to get herself involved again.
Xiao Xianfei was unmoved, “I have made up my mind, and I ask for Your Majesty’s permission.”
“Concubine Xian ……”
The emperor tried to pull her up, but Consort Xiao Xianfei was as immobile as if roots had grown in her knees.
The emperor’s eyes were full of sadness, “Concubine Xian, can’t you think of me?”
“I promise you, when Feng’er gets well, I will stay by my side every day.”
This is obviously a lie, the emperor covered his eyes for a while before he said in a dull voice, “You go.”
Consort Xiao Xian knocked her head Avray on the ground, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
After saying this, she got up and without hesitation, she got into the palanquin.
His Majesty took a step after him and watched as the palanquin walked farther and farther away ……
At the entrance of the Fourth Prince’s palace, seeing the palanquin that had gone and returned, Sun Qi’s heart lifted up.
The palanquin came to a halt close by, before he could go forward, Consort Xiao Xian came out of the palanquin and ordered a group of palace staff, “You all go back, this palace alone can go in.”
“Your Majesty ……”
All the palace attendants who had come with her all knelt down, “Please take the servants in with you.”
Consort Xiao swept her gaze over them all, “You have been with me since you entered the palace, you are like my family, if I fail to come out, I will ask the Emperor to place you properly.”
“Your Majesty ……”
The palace people sobbed uncontrollably.
The steward aunt was even more tearful, “Your majesty, take your slave servant with you, whether you live or die the slave servant is with you.”
Consort Xiao shook her head and walked past her to Sun Qi, “Open the door.”
Sun Qi opened his mouth, but in the end did not say a word, personally went forward to open the palace door, helplessly watching Consort Xiao Xian walk in step by step, watching her walk righteously to the fourth prince’s bedchamber.
Inside the bedchamber, the Fourth Prince sat leaning against the bed, looking calm and flipping through the book in his hands.
The two eunuch doctors looked at each other.
They expected the Fourth Prince to cry, fuss and collapse when he found out he had smallpox, and they had prepared a bellyful of persuasive words, but the Fourth Prince’s reaction was unexpected, as calm as if what he had was not smallpox, but an ordinary illness.
The sound of the palace door opening came while shrieks rang out in the backyard. The two men were busy looking outwards and were so shocked to see Consort Xiao Xian walk in slowly that they covered their mouths.
The Fourth Prince, sensing the difference in them, also raised his eyes towards the outside, and seeing the familiar figure, his eyes widened and he lost his composure and shouted, “Mother Consort, don’t come over.”
“If you don’t come in, Mother Consort will only have to stay in the courtyard.”
With those words, Consort Xiao Xian had already crossed the threshold and was walking straight towards the bedside, one eunuch doctor tried to stop, his foot was just about to move when he was stopped by another person. Since Her Highness Consort Xiao had come in, it was impossible for her to go out again, and it was useless to stop her.
“Mother, Mother Consort ……”
The fourth prince’s eyes were red. They had guarded against a thousand things, but they hadn’t guarded against this move, but he wasn’t afraid, without him, his cousin would find a way to clear the injustice for the Qin Wang couple.
Cousin would also treat his mother consort well and treat the Prince Ding family well, there was nothing he couldn’t let go of, so he calmly waited for death to come.
But he did not expect his mother consort to come. He did not want her to die with him, he wanted her to live and lead a good life. Mother Consort had suffered too much in this life.
Consort Xiao sat down in front of the bed and touched her hand to his forehead, the fourth prince subconsciously avoided it, Consort Xiao smiled gently and pulled him in, placing her hand on his forehead, feeling his scalding body heat and smiling, “Don’t be afraid, you have Mother Consort with you.”
The Fourth Prince choked back a sob, “Mother Consort, you shouldn’t have come.”
Consort Xiao Xian changed to touch his head, her eyebrows gentle, “Don’t worry, both Mother Consort and you will be fine.”
……
The harem was in a state of panic.
Smallpox was not a trivial matter, and if it was infected it would be the end.
All the eunuchs went into the palace and began to disinfect all parts of the palace, brewing herbal remedies and distributing them to all the people in the palace.
Even the civil and military officials who had not been ordered to leave for morning court were given a bowl of this medicine.
It was a good thing that Sun Qi had the palace gates sealed off as soon as he learned that the fourth prince had smallpox, allowing only entry but not exit, so it did not reach the outside world and caused no panic among the people.
It was not until noon, when all parts of the palace had been disinfected and Si Xi had been carried to the Cold Palace, and no one else in the palace had a fever apart from him, that the head of the Imperial Hospital went to report to the Emperor.
The Emperor sat in a wide chair, full of sorrow, and upon hearing Eunuch Huang’s words, he waved his hand, “Temporarily suspend the court for three days, send all the officials home, and tell them that no one is allowed to say anything.”
“Yes.”
Eunuch Huang came out and spoke the Emperor’s words to Zhu Zhihong and the six ministers.
Several of them also knew that the matter was of great importance, so they answered in a respectful voice and went back to the Hall of Taihe to inform the ministers.
The ministers were relieved and left the palace in pairs, each getting into a carriage and not daring to mention a word about the smallpox when they returned home.
Zhu Zhihong walked last.
When he was about to reach the entrance of the palace, he was called to stop, “Lord Zhu.”
He looked at the voice and it was Sun Qi.
He and Sun Qi had never crossed paths and it was strange.
Sun Qi walked up to him, “Could Lord Zhu do me a favour.”
“Please speak, Commander Sun.”
“I may not be able to return home in the next few days, so could Lord Zhu send a message to my family and ask them to send some change of clothes over.”
In this situation, as the Commander of the Praetorian Guard, he naturally had to stay in the palace at all times.
Zhu Zhihong just did not understand why Sun Qi wanted him to send a message to his family.
But without giving it much thought, he responded, “Good.”
“Good.”
Sun Qi arched his hand, “Thank you, Lord Zhu.”
Zhu Zhihong left the palace gate, got on the carriage, and instructed the coachman to go to the Sun family and give Sun Qi’s words to the Sun family’s housekeeper.
After thanking him, the housekeeper went to the main courtyard and reported to the madam, who immediately packed a few changes of clothes and had the housekeeper send them over.
When the housekeeper arrived at the palace gate, the guards at the gate had long since been ordered to wait and ran to call Sun Qi.
Sun Qi quickly came over and reached for the bundle, and when his hand met the butler’s, he slipped him a slip of paper.
The steward clutched it in his hand without changing his expression, and waited for Sun Qi to turn around and walk towards the palace before he hurried back to the carriage and unfolded the note, which contained only a few words, “Send it to the Xu family.”