Chapter 6 — The Queen Mother Returns to the Dynasty

4Lanh palace — a place even worse than Linh An pagoda. I deliberately chose the furthest hospital in the harem to entrust Tham Ngoc Dao. The well in the hospital has been dry for many years, and weeds have grown taller than people. The eaves were dilapidated, the walls were peeling off, and mice were running loudly on the rafters without any hesitation. "Nien Nien... no, commoner Tham," the eunuch leading the way deliberately said in a high-pitched voice, "The Queen Mother is kind, allowing you and the Second Prince to stay here. Every day someone will bring food, you can rest assured to stay and consider your mistakes." Tham Ngoc Dao held her mute son in the middle of the yard, looking around, with fear in her eyes. little concealment. “Isn't this the worst place in the cold palace?” Her voice trembled, "Even the window paper was torn..." "When you took the Queen Mother to Linh An Pagoda in the past, didn't you also choose the worst meditation room?" The eunuch grinned, cold and scary, "As the Queen Mother said, she ordered everyone to kneel in the yard and chant hundreds of sutras every morning, praying for the Queen Mother and the Emperor. This was originally a rule established by you that year." Tham Ngoc Dao's face immediately turned pale. Chu Hanh Chi's soul was restless around her: "Ngoc Dao! Don't be afraid, I'm here!" Unfortunately, she didn't hear it. People in the palace are good at seeing the colors of the wind. In the past, they raised Tham Ngoc Dao to trample me, but now they try to lift me and trample her even more cruelly than before. The first month, the palace maid who brought rice "accidentally" knocked over the entire tray, telling Tham Ngoc Dao to pick it up and eat it herself. "Concubine Tham, don't you know that the palace has been spending a lot lately, and food is very precious?" The palace maid smiled gently and said, "The Queen Mother has told me, don't waste it." Tham Ngoc Dao looked at the tray of rice covered in mud on the ground, then looked at the hungry child crying in her arms, and finally knelt down and used her hands to pick up the rice. Chu Hanh Chi next to him screamed in pain: "Don't! Ngoc Dao, don't eat!" But she couldn't hear it. She cried and put each dirty rice ball into her mouth. I stood in the hallway outside the cold palace, quietly watching that scene. In the past, she ordered someone to throw dumplings on the ground and then step on them with her feet, forcing me to eat them - at that time, she acted much more quickly than now. The second month, winter comes. There was an "accidental" error in the supply of heating coal at the palace. Not a single piece of coal was delivered for half a month. Tham Ngoc Dao and her child huddled under a tattered blanket, both hands were so cold that their skin ulcerated. She hugged her child and begged the eunuchs to guard the door, kneeling on the snow and kowtowing: "I beg you, please give the child a little something to complain about, he will freeze to death..." The eunuchs peeled the melon seeds and laughed: "Civilian Tham, isn't it the one who once said 'being kicked doesn't kill you'? Why are you scared now?" She knelt for an hour and finally fainted in the snow. It was her mute child who crawled out of the yard, was discovered, and reluctantly asked for some damp coal. The damp coal burned up in smoke, causing both mother and child to cough and choke, tears and runny noses streaming down their cheeks. Meanwhile, I sat in the pavilion, listening to the palace maid's report, holding the stove in my hand, hugging Vinh An. "Mother," Vinh An raised her head to look at me, "why do Miss Tham and her child have to endure such cold?" "Because in the past, mother and child, were also so cold." I replied softly, "It's just that we're even more miserable. After all, they still have a bit of damp coal, and me and you, there's not even a wisp of smoke." Vinh An nodded vaguely, her small hand holding my hand tightly: "So is the mother warm now?" "Warm." I smiled, "With Vinh An by my side, mother is always warm." The third month, Tham Ngoc Dao fell ill. The high fever wouldn't go away, the cough wouldn't stop - just like the illness she pretended to have back in Duong Tam Palace. The royal doctor "coincidentally" was everyone busy, and no one was willing to come into the palace to examine him

a people. She was so feverish that she was unconscious, holding her mute child's hand, calling over and over: "Hanh Chi... Hanh Chi, where are you, save me..." Chu Hanh Chi's soul knelt beside the bed, helplessly reaching out to touch her forehead: "Ngoc Dao, I'm here, I'm right here..." His hand passed through her body. He suddenly raised his head to look at me, for the first time there was an emotion other than pleading in his eyes. That is - deep helplessness. "Co Thu Nguyet," he flew in front of me, "beg you, please get a doctor for her. She will die." I did not answer, I continued to approve the chapter. "I know it's wrong!" His voice was hoarse, "I shouldn't have treated you like that in the past! But it's okay if you want to take revenge on me, why should you torture Ngoc Dao? She's just a weak woman..." I put down my pen, looked up at him: "Chu Hanh Chi, when I was sick in Linh An Pagoda, where were you?" He was stunned. "I have written letters over and over again, saying the blood under my body had been flowing for more than a month, saying I had a high fever. retreat.” I said each word clearly, "Have you ever sent someone to invite a doctor? Have you ever given me a medicine?" He moved his lips, but couldn't say a word. "No." I answered for him, "At that time, you were busy with the new queen setting off fireworks to celebrate the wedding. You never read those letters. Or maybe, Tham Ngoc Dao never showed them to you at all." Chu Hanh Chi's soul trembled violently, about to dissolve into smoke. "So now," I picked up the pen again, "don't come to beg me anymore." Tham Ngoc Dao is still alive after all. She survived, relying on buckets of cold water that her mute child went to the dry well to draw every day to wipe her fever down, and a few pieces of dry food she secretly stored. Based on a single thought in my heart - "I can't die, what should I do when I die?" Just like me that year. The day Tham Ngoc Dao overcame his illness, I ordered someone to bring two bowls of thin porridge. The eunuch brought the porridge and said: "The Queen Mother said, the subject Tham's illness is cured, it is heaven's mercy. Give two bowls of porridge to congratulate." Tham Ngoc Dao looked at the two bowls of clear porridge that could reflect people's silhouettes, suddenly burst into laughter, and the more she laughed, the louder she cried. "Co Thu Nguyet... you are so cruel..." Murder, there is nothing more cruel than killing to the heart. Chu Hanh Chi stood next to her, watching her cry while feeding her child porridge, but he himself only drank half a bowl. He whispered as if telling himself: "If that year, I had treated Thu Nguyet a little better... would it be right now..."