AWB Chapter 328 Acupuncture
Chapter 328 Acupuncture
"My son knows."
Yongyan nodded obediently, then without hesitation, lifted his clothes and knelt down to salute Yanwan.
"I thank you, Mother, for your careful cultivation over the years. Without your tireless teaching, I would never be where I am today. In the future, I will do my best to repay you for your kindness in raising me."
After saying this, Yongyan kowtowed heavily.
In fact, Yongyan has known in his heart for years that if he had not been born in Yanwan's womb, such a good life would not have come to him.
People always say that the mother in the palace is honored by her son, but in fact the son is also honored by his mother.
If it weren't for the fact that his mother was deeply favored by the Emperor and had been promoted all the way to Imperial Noble Consort and even to the position of Empress today, the supreme throne would have been nothing but a pipe dream for him.
There were many concubines in the palace, and many of them had prominent family backgrounds. However, the emperor finally chose him to inherit the throne. The reason was all because of his mother.
My mother is truly extraordinary. On the one hand, she is very smart and has been favored by the emperor for many years, and is loved and doted on by the emperor. On the other hand, she manages the harem in an orderly manner, and all the concubines in the harem look up to her.
His current situation was the result of the right time, right place, and right people.
If he was born in the womb of other concubines, he would probably follow in the footsteps of his eldest, third and twelfth brothers, and be reprimanded and suspected by the emperor, eventually becoming depressed and spending the rest of his life.
He will definitely keep his mother's kindness in his heart and spend his whole life repaying this deep kindness.
To show filial piety as a son and repay the kindness of raising me.
"Good boy, quickly stand up. You are naturally gifted, which is why you have earned the favor of your Emperor. From now on, you should devote yourself to governing the country and protecting the prosperous Qing Dynasty. This is your top priority."
Yanwan helped Yongyan up with a smile and spoke earnestly.
"Don't worry, mother. I will follow your Majesty's example and work diligently. But when you mention your Majesty, I suddenly feel worried. Is there anyone in the Old Summer Palace who is taking good care of you?"
Yongyan frowned. The concubines had all returned, and the people who had served in the Yangxin Palace had also dispersed. Could the people in the Old Summer Palace serve the emperor well?
"Of course. Your Empress Yu is quite knowledgeable in medicine. She volunteered to stay in the Old Summer Palace and serve your father personally. Seeing her deep devotion, I agreed. With her by my side, everything will be fine. You don't have to worry..."
Speaking of the emperor, Yan Wan's smile became even brighter, and her heart was filled with joy.
There was something in her words.
The emperor finally fell into Hailan's hands.
No one in this palace hates the emperor more than Hai Lan. She will definitely serve the emperor well...
"Then I'll be relieved..."
Yongyan was born late and had no knowledge of the past events. Moreover, the emperor was worried that the leak of the matter would ruin the reputation of the royal family, so he blocked all news of that year.
Therefore, Yongyan was unaware of the previous conflict between the two of them.
The mother and son exchanged pleasantries for a while before leaving the Qianqing Palace.
The ceremony of enthroning the empress and the ceremony of enthroning the crown prince were only seven days apart, and both were held one month later.
The emperor whom Yongyan missed day and night was now lying in the dimly lit room, falling into a deep sleep.
Since he suffered a stroke, he has been paralyzed in bed, and his daily life of eating, drinking, defecating and urinating all depends on the careful care of his servants.
However, the smell of human excrement and the bitter medicine were intertwined and entangled with each other. Even if the windows were opened for ventilation, the smell still stubbornly permeated every inch of the room as time slowly passed.
The stench was difficult to completely dissipate, and the entire house was filled with an extremely unpleasant smell.
At this moment, a "creak" sound was suddenly heard in the silence. It turned out that the door was slowly pushed open, breaking the original silence.
Then, a series of light footsteps gradually approached.
"The time has come, Your Majesty, it's time to take the medicine..."
The person who spoke was Hailan.
Her tone was cold, as if it came from the depths of the underworld, carrying with it a chill that grazed the bones.
And deep in her eyes, the strong hatred was like a never-extinguished fire, burning fiercely and spreading wantonly.
In this dim space, there is a bit of eeriness and weirdness.
The emperor was awakened from his slumber by the sudden noise, and his whole body trembled violently involuntarily. The uncontrollable saliva slowly flowed out from the crooked corner of his mouth, meandered down his cheek, and dripped onto the pillow, leaving a wet mark.
Hai Lan witnessed this scene, but still had a seemingly gentle smile on her face. She walked to the emperor's bed and sat down gently.
She reached out, took the silk handkerchief in her hand, and slowly brushed it across the emperor's cheek, carefully wiping away the annoying water stains.
However, strangely, as long as Hai Lan got a little closer, the emperor's body would tremble like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind.
"Uh... um... ah..."
The emperor tried hard to express something, but the words that came out of his mouth were all unclear and fragmented syllables.
But the palace servants who had served in this palace for a long time were already accustomed to this. They stood numbly by with cold eyes, turning a blind eye to the emperor's embarrassment.
"All of you please withdraw. I will personally serve the emperor with medicine."
Seeing the emperor in this state, Hai Lan felt even more pleased, so she dismissed everyone in the room.
The emperor watched with pleading eyes as the palace maids filed out one after another until the door closed, and the only glimmer of light in his eyes was extinguished in despair.
He was left alone with this crazy woman in the room.
The emperor was almost driven crazy by her.
"First, have some soup to nourish yourself before taking the medicine, Your Majesty. You still remember that when my sister was alive, she loved cooking soup. Now it's the right season, and delicious mushrooms have just been offered as tribute, so I have personally made this soup. Your Majesty, please try it..."
After saying that, Hai Lan did not allow any further explanation. She picked up the soup spoon and forced the soup into the emperor's mouth one spoonful after another.
Hai Lan's strength was so great that before the emperor could swallow the soup in his mouth, a new spoonful came swiftly.
In an instant, the emperor's face, neck and clothes were all stained by the soup.
The soup was so hot and steaming that the emperor felt so scalded that his pain was beyond words.
Hai Lan had no patience at all. Seeing that feeding him spoonful by spoonful was too slow, she simply picked up the soup bowl and poured the full bowl of hot soup directly into the emperor's mouth in an irresistible manner.
"Uh... Ugh..."
The emperor let out painful whimpers and struggles from his throat.
The bowl of scorching hot soup went all the way from the mouth to the stomach, and wherever it passed, it felt like a burning fire.
The emperor's face was severely distorted by extreme pain. He tried his best to call for help or protest, but he could not utter even a clear word.
He could only let the boiling hot soup wreak havoc in his body, trapped in this endless torture and unable to break free.
Ever since Yan Wan cruelly poured the mute potion into the emperor's mouth that day, the strong effect of the drug quickly paralyzed his throat.
From then on, the emperor was like a beast imprisoned in a cage with its tongue dug out. No matter how hard he struggled, he could no longer utter a single word.
Even though countless doctors from the Imperial Hospital carefully examined and treated the emperor, they were unable to find a cure for his strange loss of voice.
We could only blindly attribute it to a serious illness caused by a stroke and prescribe dose after dose of bitter medicine.
Hai Lan looked at the emperor who had lost his power and was speechless, with disgust in her eyes. She suddenly threw the soup bowl in her hand to the side. The bowl drew an arc in the air and fell to the ground with a crisp sound.
Then, she casually pulled out a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and gently wiped the remaining oil stains on her hands, as if the violence just now had nothing to do with her.
Then she turned around and picked up the medicine that the emperor usually took from the table. The medicine emitted a cold light in the exquisite porcelain bowl.
Hai Lan repeated the same method as before, grasping the emperor's jaw and pouring the medicine into his mouth mercilessly.
After this cruel torture, the emperor no longer had the majesty he once had.
Her hair was scattered messily behind her head, and her clothes, stained by soup and medicine, were tightly attached to her body, emitting an unpleasant smell.
The mushroom soup that was forced into her stomach was made with mushrooms that were treasures that Hailan had spent countless efforts to find.
In this life, she was finally enjoyed by the emperor.
The mushroom's toxicity was so strong that it quickly wreaked havoc in the emperor's body, producing horrific effects in an instant.
The emperor only felt that the world before his eyes was being stirred up by an invisible giant hand, and everything began to become erratic, illusory and blurry.
Before his eyes, phantoms appeared one after another, like a bizarre nightmare.
Sometimes, he seemed to see himself when he first ascended the throne, full of vigor and glory, dominating the world; sometimes, he saw a group of hungry ghosts with bared fangs and claws rushing towards him, their faces were hideous, greedy gleams in their eyes, and they let out creepy screams from their mouths, coming to claim his life and drag him into the endless abyss of hell.
Sometimes, he even met those concubines who had passed away long ago.
Concubine Gao, Empress Xiaoxian, Concubine Jia, Concubine Chun... and his several sons.
One after another, they looked at him with smiles like young people, but as soon as they got close, they turned into hungry ghosts with purple faces, grew a pair of sharp claws, and strangled his neck tightly, wanting to take his life.
These purgatory-like hallucinations would occur every day, and a strong sense of regret suddenly surged in the emperor's heart.
He regretted that he had abandoned Ruyi so decisively.
The woman who had been with him for many years and was sincere to him.
He thought that without Ruyi's "troublemaking" around him, his life would become smooth and happy, but he never expected that two vicious women, Yanwan and Hailan, would appear in the harem.
They were like hungry ghosts, torturing him day and night, making him unable to live or die.
At least, when Ruyi was around, although there were conflicts and disputes, she would never kill him.
Now, he was trapped in this desperate situation, full of regret but unable to escape.
And after Hailan has done all this, it is just the beginning.
Hailan's expression suddenly became gentle, but the gentleness was indescribably weird.
She completely ignored the sticky soup stains on the emperor's face, reached out her hand, gently stroked the emperor's cheek, and then slowly leaned close to his ear, her voice soft but every word as sharp as a knife.
"The Imperial Physician has instructed that Your Majesty requires regular acupuncture to maintain the flexibility of his hands and feet. Since that's the case, I will serve you well. I have learned this acupuncture technique from the Imperial Physician with great care. Your Majesty, please be patient and accept it. Hahahaha..."
After she finished speaking, she burst into laughter, and the laughter echoed in the empty house, causing dust to fall from the beams.
Her behavior had become abnormal, revealing a hint of madness.
Ever since her loved ones died one after another because of the emperor, the endless grief and hatred were like a surging tide, completely drowning her sanity.
From then on, her heart fell into this crazy state.
At this time, the cloth ball filled with silver needles slowly unfolded in front of the emperor. The silver needles on it were long and thin, and the sharp edges flashed with a cold and intimidating light from time to time.
Hai Lan waved her slender hand, picked up the silver needle, and completely ignored the emperor's clothes, and performed the so-called "acupuncture technique" directly through the layer of pajamas.
It was called acupuncture, but in fact she was just arbitrarily pricking the emperor's body.
She had studied acupuncture points carefully, and now she chose those inconspicuous parts to pierce them fiercely. In this way, she could not only torture the emperor but also ensure that it would not be easily noticed by others.
If the emperor were to die so easily, it would be difficult to relieve the hatred in her heart.
She wanted to torture him slowly, bit by bit, like cutting meat with a blunt knife, and take back from him double the endless suffering she had endured over the years.
She was determined to make the emperor suffer pain day and night, and make him pay the most painful price for his past actions.
The slender silver needle pierced into the emperor's body again and again as Hai Lan's hand moved.
The silver needle was thin and long. If it weren't for the tiny drops of blood slowly oozing out of certain parts of the body, it would be impossible to discover the wounds hidden under the clothes.
The emperor was already trapped in the hallucinations caused by mushrooms, and now because of Hailan's sadistic behavior, he was even more miserable in the hallucinations.
He felt as if his whole body was pierced by countless sharp needles at the same time. The tingling sensation surged towards him in waves like a tide, but his body was soft and powerless. No matter how hard he struggled, he could not break free from this nightmare-like shackles.
This desperate situation of being unable to live or die filled the emperor's heart with sorrow.
It is better to die than to live like this. Death is just a moment of pain.
But now this torture seems like a journey into purgatory that will never end.
Hailan tortured him like this every day, using the finest medicine to nourish him, making him unable to live or die.
"I forgot to tell the Emperor that Yongyan has become the Crown Prince, and the ceremony for Imperial Noble Consort Ling's coronation will be held soon. It must be a tough feeling to have it ruined by the woman you personally raised."
Hailan leaned over and whispered in his ear.
The more pain he suffered, the happier she felt.
She gave up the idea of seeking revenge on Yan Wan because she had lost everything since her rebirth.
No matter what she does, she cannot change the outcome. Instead of doing that, it would be better to point the finger at the culprit so that her life will not be in vain.