"You are the nurse of the Five Princes, but isn't that the grandfather of the Five Princes? Shouldn't he rely on the five princes for his future wealth? Besides, since ancient times, 'the mother is more expensive than the son, and the son is more expensive than the mother', the emperor is indeed very good to the five princes, but I have never heard that after a concubine is beaten into the cold palace, her son can be so favored for a long time. The eunuch said, "If you don't take advantage of the fact that the emperor has not forgotten Concubine Tian and the five princes, and quickly eliminate this matter, after a long time in the future, who knows what the result will be?" We also want to be good for the five princes. You have done this, you have also benefited, Concubine Tian, and the five princes have all benefited, what a good thing this is, what are you hesitating about! ”

"What Grandpa Zhang said makes sense, Mama Rong, what do you think?" Another palace maid also persuaded.

That Rong Mama thought about it, she didn't want to agree, but as soon as these people said it at this time, somehow, the god nodded like a ghost and said, "Since you all see it this way, then we will do it." It's just that you all know that if you let the family know, it will be a matter of destroying the family and destroying the clan, and if you keep your mouth tight, you will be dreaming, and you will not be able to speak in your dreams. ”

Several people said together: "Mama Rong, don't worry, are we the kind of people who don't know how powerful?" ”

……

That night, Emperor Chongde went to visit the five princes in the Qixiang Palace. At this time, the condition of the fifth prince was much better, the fever was almost gone, and he ate some Sydney porridge, and when he saw Emperor Chongde, he could still say a few words to him. Emperor Chongde was in a good mood, and asked Wang Chengen to pass on the decree and reward the imperial doctor of the Tai Hospital. He also said to Concubine Tian: "I heard people say before that the doctors in the Tai Hospital are quacks who do not seek merit, but seek no fault, and will only prescribe some licorice bellflower that 'cures all diseases'. There is really any disease, they are not as good as those bell doctors who go to the rivers and lakes. Now it seems that this statement is too much. ”

Emperor Chongde sat in the Qixiang Palace for a while and left.

Concubine Tian sat in the room where the fifth prince lived until the second watch, and saw that his condition was indeed very light, and he slept quietly, and he had been holding on for several days, and it was difficult to support him at this time, so he went back to the palace to rest. After a long time, Xuanwumen was playing three watches. In Qixiang Palace, except for a few palace maids and eunuchs who were on duty at night, all the people were asleep and very silent.

The rules in the palace are extremely strict. When a member of the palace is sick, the imperial physician cannot enter the palace to "look, smell, ask, and cut" the patient, and can only listen to the eunuch's legend of the illness outside the second gate of the palace, and then prescribe it. The fifth prince is a boy, and the great doctors can directly cut the pulse to diagnose the disease. Because the imperial doctors could not enter the second gate of the Qixiang Palace, Concubine Tian placed him in the west gate outside the second gate from the beginning of his illness, and asked Mama Rong and four palace maids who served him to live with him. The rest of the palace ladies who served the five princes lived in the inner courtyard. As a place for the daily doctors to discuss prescriptions and rest, there is a painting scroll invited from the Tai Hospital hanging on the wall in the middle of the east room, which depicts the king of medicine, with a medicine bag on his waist, sitting on the back of a tiger, holding a silver needle, looking at the air obliquely, and a dragon seeking medical treatment flew from the clouds, and the back half of his body was hidden in the clouds. Every day, Mama Rong and the palace maids burn incense to the statue of the god. Most of the eunuchs stayed in the Chengqian Palace, and a few came to the Qixiang Palace during the day to wait, and still returned to the Chengqian Palace at night.

Now in the middle of the night, in the courtyard outside the two gates, only Mama Rong and the two palace maids who were keeping vigil by the bedside of the sick child did not sleep. Mama Rong threw a palace maid and tiptoed into the courtyard to listen to any sounds in the inner courtyard where Concubine Tian lived. The maid soon came back and reported that the whole palace had slept soundly. So Mama Rong made a look, and walked towards the side room of the room where the five princes lived with two palace maids with gray faces and heartbeats.

The moonlight was shining in the courtyard, and the shadows of the dark trees swayed on the windows. From the side room of the room where the five princes lived, there was a sound of rustling, as if they were changing clothes. After a while, a bodhisattva in a strange robe and two fairies dressed in strange costumes appeared in front of the bed of the five princes.

A "fairy" stretched out her hand to shake the five princes awake. The fifth prince opened his eyes, but saw that under the pale yellow light of a half-dim palace lamp, there were three strangely dressed and terrifying-looking people standing, and they were about to cry. A "fairy" then looked angrily and threatened: "Don't cry! If you cry, I'll bite you! The fifth prince was suddenly so frightened that he didn't dare to cry, but just looked at them with frightened eyes.

At this time, the "Bodhisattva" said in a strange tone: "I am the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva. I am the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva. The emperor treats outsiders meanly, and I want to make his princes all die, all of them. She spoke slowly and heavily, hoping that every word would be imprinted on the child's heart. In line with the principle of "say important things three times", she said it three times in a row. After saying it three times, she asked, "Do you remember?" The voice was so cold and terrible that the five princes trembled unconsciously, and the five princes replied with a cry: "Remember...... Remembered. ”

"Then you can tell me again." The "Bodhisattva" still said in that strange, terrifying tone, "If you say it wrong, I will stab you to death with a needle!" ”

The five princes trembled and learned it again. Another "fairy" threatened again: "Remember! The Nine Lotus Bodhisattva wants to make you die, and also make the princes die! ”

The fifth prince couldn't bear it anymore and burst into tears. A "fairy" pulled the red Luo quilt on his body and covered his head. The five princes didn't dare to poke their heads out, and they were so scared to death that they cried loudly.

After a while, the quilt over his head was pulled apart. He saw Mama Rong who loved him the most and the two palace maids who could serve him the most standing next to the bed. The fifth prince just cried non-stop, and couldn't stop shivering. Mama Rong picked him up, hugged him in her arms, and asked him what he saw. While crying, the sick child intermittently said that he had seen the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva, and recounted the words of the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva over and over again. Mama Rong and the two palace maids on duty all looked very scared, and repeatedly asked the fifth prince to make it clear. The five princes repeated it several times in a row. Mama Rong hurriedly called the other elderly palace maids up, and everyone thought that the fifth prince had indeed seen the Empress Dowager Cisheng's manifestation, and she had no idea about surrounding him. Concubine Tian was awakened by the crying and ordered a palace maid to run to ask. Mama Rong hurriedly followed this palace maid into Concubine Tian's bedroom and explained the situation. Concubine Tian was so shocked that she didn't even have time to put on her clothes, so she ran out with Mama Rong and the palace maid.

No matter how Concubine Tian and the grandmothers coaxed and prayed to the gods and made wishes, the five princes still kept crying, constantly repeating the words of the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva, but their voices became more and more hoarse, gradually becoming weak, blurred, and began to throb their hands and feet, and then began to convulse all over. Everyone hurriedly poured him the pills that relieved the child's convulsions, but it was ineffective. The physician on duty was called, but was equally helpless. Tossed until dawn, the situation of the five princes became more and more unpleasant, that is, their minds were blurred, and they couldn't even recognize people. Concubine Tian sat on the chair and cried in despair, and before the emperor went to court, she ordered a palace maid to go to the Qianqing Palace to play a statement to Emperor Chongde.

Emperor Chongde just ate a bowl of lotus seed porridge, in the past, the emperor and the concubines used bird's nest porridge for breakfast, and now the wealth of the imperial court is tight, Emperor Chongde ordered that the bird's nest porridge was changed to lotus seed porridge, which can be regarded as saving some money. He looked at a draft of the edict placed on the imperial case, which was drafted by the celebrant overnight for him, and the content was to ask the royal relatives and honors in Beijing to donate for the national music. He was also going to change this manuscript again, and change the tone to be more severe, in case the imperial relatives tried to resist in vain, so he did not ask the eunuch in the clerical room to take it for transcription for the time being. He thought to himself:

"I don't think any emperor will dare to disobey my strict decree!"

When he stepped down from the Danqi and was about to go up, he suddenly saw a palace maid from Qixiang Palace running in a panic, kneeling in front of him and saying that the condition of the fifth prince was very serious and had turned into a convulsive wind. Emperor Chongde was shocked and trembled, he knew that if a child was sick, if it turned into a convulsive wind, it was often more than lucky. He settled down before asking, "What did you say?" Wasn't it good last night? Why did it suddenly turn into a convulsive wind? ”

The palace maid who was kneeling on the ground replied: "His Royal Highness the Fifth Prince was really good last night, but after the third watch, there was a sudden big change. At first, he was frightened, talked nonsense, and saw the gods, and then he started to burn. Now it has turned into a frightening wind, which is very bad. ”

Emperor Chongde scolded: "Bastard! Five-year-olds know what to see! ”

After scolding this sentence, Emperor Chongde didn't care about waiting for the palace maid to answer, and he didn't care about any etiquette and rules, so he spread his legs and ran towards Qixiang Palace. A group of eunuchs and palace maids could only run behind.

Emperor Chongde ran fast, according to the rules, the eunuch next to him should run to Qixiang Palace first, but at this time, he couldn't run in front of the emperor anyway.

When he arrived at the gate of Qixiang Palace, he didn't wait for the eunuch in front of the door to salute him, so he jumped in directly and rushed straight to the hospital room of the fifth prince, where a group of people were gathering, and Concubine Tian's hair was unkempt and she just sat on the side and wept.

Emperor Chongde didn't care about talking to Concubine Tian, so he rushed towards the hospital bed and said, "Let me see, Ahri, how is Ahri?" ”

Everyone knelt on the ground one after another, but Emperor Chongde ignored them, just stared at the five princes lying on the bed. But I saw him lying there, unconscious, and already dying.

"What's going on? Wasn't it okay yesterday? Emperor Chongde's voice was not high, but the anger in it made everyone tremble with fear. The grandmother and the palace maids all put their heads on the ground and did not dare to make a sound, only Concubine Tian replied crying:

"Your Majesty! The doctors said yesterday evening that with one or two more doses of medicine, Ahri would be cured. Why did it change suddenly after the third watch, and the concubines were also very strange. When the concubine arrived at the second watch, she saw that Ahri's condition was indeed very mild and she slept quietly, so she went back to the palace to rest. I had just fallen asleep, and I was suddenly awakened by the sound of crying, and then I heard that Ahri woke up in the middle of the night, very frightened, and how to say something strange. The concubine hurriedly ran over, hugged Ahri in her arms, felt that his head and body were hot, his limbs were cold, his expression was very abnormal, and he kept saying some strange things. The concubine was afraid that he would turn into a frightened wind, so she quickly ordered her grandmother to mix a spoonful of the baby's anti-soothing rejuvenation pill, poured it down, and pricked him with a needle. Who knew that the weather on the fourth watch, and it turned into a frightening ......"