Chapter 73: Zhao Fang's Ordeal [Heartfelt Thanks for Everyone's Support! A Second Bow]

【In the previous chapters, Gu Gu Tingbing belonged to the fourth branch of the Gu family! This has been corrected. Special note.】

The weather today was somewhat hot, and the court happened to be on its rest day.

When Sun Shi and Xu Xu Zaijing arrived at the Empress's palace, Xu Xu Zaijing noticed that the number of attending maids and eunuchs seemed to have increased significantly; they appeared to be from the Emperor's entourage.

After announcement, Xu Xu Zaijing and his mother entered the Zhengdian where the Empress was located.

Upon entering, they heard the Emperor waving his hand and saying:

"I don't want this hot tea; bring some cold plum soup, I am extremely thirsty. Where is the Imperial Prince?"

The Empress hastily waved her hand to signal the servants to make the change,

"He is asleep in the Side Hall."

"Sleeping is good; then do not disturb his sweet dreams."

Soon, two cups of soup were brought over and went down the Emperor's throat.

The Emperor let out a comfortable breath.

"Your Majesty, why are you so thirsty?"

"The sky is too hot; I walked just a few steps and became thirsty."

"Did the attending maids not prepare tea soup?"

"Is it not that the soup in the Empress's palace tastes better? I miss it dearly."

Speaking thus, he looked at his own Empress, feeling that no matter how he looked, it was never enough.

Although he had rested last night in Concubine Rong's palace, his heart had been thinking of the Empress.

Seeing Sun Shi and Xu Xu Zaijing enter, the Emperor smiled and nodded; the Emperor still had an impression of this sensible and capable young junior.

"Greetings to Your Majesty and Her Majesty the Empress," Xu Xu Zaijing said as he performed the rites along with his mother.

"Rise. Someone, bring Fang'er here to meet the guests," the Empress ordered. (Fang is pronounced with the first tone.)

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The female official responded affirmatively and went forward to carry the child.

The Imperial Prince was already four years old this year, an age for being sensible and speaking, yet he was also slowly starting to become mischievous, causing the Empress both trouble and joy.

The female official turned past a door into the room and saw the attending maid fanning the Imperial Prince on one side of the bed.

The Imperial Prince slept very restlessly, his head facing the maid who was fanning.

Because the Imperial Prince was lying on his side, the entering female official could see the Imperial Prince's face, but the attending maid fanning in the room could not.

The female official's pupils dilated in shock; she discovered there was a problem with the Imperial Prince!

For at this moment, the Imperial Prince's face was completely red, and his forehead was covered in heavy sweat as he wiped his own neck with his hands.

This discovery caused a shock in the female official's heart, startling her until she nearly went limp.

Forcing herself to stand straight, the female official shouted loudly: "Help! Come quickly!"

Hearing the female official's loud cry, the Empress's expression in the hall changed drastically.

The Emperor wore a solemn expression, his eyes filled with dissatisfaction.

"What matter causes such loud clamor!" the chief eunuch behind the Emperor scolded.

"Your Majesty, summon the imperial doctors quickly! Quick! Something has happened to His Highness," the female official cried out, running a few steps while going limp before collapsing at the doorway.

Hearing the female official's voice, the Empress rushed swiftly toward the room where the Imperial Prince was located.

The ruddiness vanished from her face, and she visibly turned pale.

The eunuchs attending the Emperor hurriedly ran outward to summon the accompanying imperial doctors into the hall.

The Empress arrived at the room and, looking at the Imperial Prince on the couch covering his neck with both hands, his face red and swollen, the color turning toward purple, the Empress screamed extremely loudly:

"Call the imperial doctors! Call the imperial doctors! Imperial doctors! Where are they?"

Her voice behind had already become extremely shrill and mournful.

The Emperor's face also looked ugly and panicked; suppressing his voice, he roared:

"Go summon them in quickly! If anything happens to my royal child, I will make their entire families die!!!"

While speaking, the Empress had already forcefully pushed aside the attending maid and personally began patting the Imperial Prince's back.

But the thing in the Imperial Prince's mouth had already blocked his windpipe; there was not the slightest sign that it might be spat out.

Sun Shi and Xu Xu Zaijing naturally followed the crowd to the outside of the room.

A middle-aged imperial doctor was pulled in by a eunuch, running quickly.

"Make way, the imperial doctor is here! Make way!"

Shouting this, the imperial doctor arrived before the Empress; before seeing the Imperial Prince, the doctor was still relatively calm.

Passing through the crowd and seeing the Imperial Prince's condition clearly, the imperial doctor instantly turned ashen!

He already understood that the Imperial Prince was nearly suffocated to ruin.

The imperial doctor's hands trembled as he knelt on the ground, saying, "Your Majesty, forgive my crime; the Imperial Prince has had his throat blocked by a foreign object for a long time, I, I..."

The Emperor forcefully and viciously kicked the imperial doctor away!

"Summon again, quickly! Quickly!"

Through the gap trampled open when the imperial doctor entered, Xu Xu Zaijing caught a glimpse of the Imperial Prince's appearance.

In an instant, knowledge Xu Xu Zaijing had seen in his previous life flooded into his mind.

Xu Xu Zaijing pushed aside the eunuchs and maids blocking the way in front.

Sun Shi was also full of anxiety, but she was powerless; seeing her own son walk forward, Sun Shi hastily scolded in a low voice:

"Jing-ge'er, what are you going to do?!"

He arrived before the Empress.

The Empress was already panicked, her eyes filled with tears of worry.

"Fang'er, Fang'er, spit it out with all your might! Where are the imperial physicians?! Why haven't they arrived yet?"

"Your Majesty, the imperial physician, he... he..." the female official stammered, looking toward the imperial physician kneeling on the ground.

"Your Majesty, let me try," Xu Xu Zaijing said in a calm tone.

"Get out of my—" the Empress shouted, her face fierce and her expression utterly panicked!

This was her healthiest son; he had dodged so many open attacks and hidden arrows, so how could things end up like this!!!!

The Empress's mind was on the verge of collapse.

But upon seeing clearly that the person before her was Xu Xu Zaijing, the Empress's eyes brightened slightly.

Seeing Xu Xu Zaijing walk forward, the Emperor's eyes were filled with panic and murderous intent toward the imperial physician; he rebuked Sun Shi dissatisfiedly, "What is he going to do?"

Sun Shi hastily knelt to the ground, saying, "Your Majesty, please forgive this offense; Han Han Wulang is merely concerned for the Imperial Prince."

Looking at his royal son's complexion, the Emperor said with a tearful voice:

"He is just a child of ten-odd years; what can he possibly do? Oh, my royal son!"

The latter sentence already carried a tone of utter despair; had it not been for the senior palace eunuch behind him propping him up, the Emperor would have nearly collapsed onto the ground.

The imperial physician trembled even more violently as he knelt on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Empress seemed to have spotted a straw that could save her life.

"Jing-ge'er, Jing-ge'er, what are you going to do? Speak quickly!" the Empress urged, her hands trembling with anxiety and her voice full of pleading.

The Imperial Prince Zhao Fang, held in the Empress's arms, was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe; he had never experienced such a sensation in his entire life.

His mother's patting on his back was utterly useless; he felt as though his chest were about to explode, and his throat emitted a death-rattle akin to that of a dying chicken or duck.

His body was desperately striving to draw in air.

At the moment of his greatest agony, wishing he could tear open his own chest, just as he was on the verge of fainting, he heard Xu Xu Zaijing's words: "Your Majesty, let me try."

The Empress, who had patting the Imperial Prince's back countless times, placed the child, whose face had turned extremely ghastly, into Xu Xu Zaijing's hands.

The Empress collapsed onto the ground, whispering:

"Jing-ge'er is blessed! Jing-ge'er is blessed! My child! My child! Oh, my child!"

At this moment, the Empress was no longer the mistress of the Great Zhou harem, but merely an ordinary mother.

The Empress had also seen the state of the imperial physician and had already prepared herself for the worst; she had previously endured the heart-rending pain of losing several children to early death.

Xu Xu Zaijing was merely the last sliver of hope and consolation in her heart.

The author's bowl holds no oil; readers' support resolves ten thousand sorrows.

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Thank you all for your support; if there are any typos or awkward passages, please do not hesitate to point them out, esteemed readers.

(`) Heart fingers.

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(End of Chapter)