Chapter 40: Curtain Call

Inside Xuanshi Hall, Liu Che walked over aggressively, threw the bamboo slip in his hand in front of A Jiao, his eyes narrowed, and his tone was unkind: "You look at what this is."

Hearing this, a flash of surprise crossed A Jiao's eyes. Under Liu Che's glaring gaze, she reached out and unfolded the bamboo slip, checking the content written on it one by one. After reading it, she gasped and looked up at him: "Where did you get this?"

Liu Che narrowed his eyes: "I saw it in the Wan Pavilion today." He observed A Jiao's expression and said firmly: "Did Zhang Tang already investigate it? You knew about this matter long ago, why didn't you tell me?" He didn't like the feeling of being kept in the dark.

Seeing his cold and furious expression, A Jiao hurriedly got up and walked toward him: "If you knew about this, you would definitely be as angry as you are now, so I didn't tell you. The imperial physician said that your emotions will affect the child in your belly."

At first, A Jiao deliberately investigated this matter, indeed wanting Liu Che to know what his uncle had done behind his back, wanting him to be angry.

But she didn't expect that Liu Che's emotions would affect the child in his belly, so when Zhang Tang came to report, she didn't want Liu Che to know about this matter anymore.

Anyway, according to her memory from her previous life, it was at

But A Jiao didn't expect that Liu Che would inexplicably know about this matter.

Liu Che said coldly: "Tell me the results of Zhang Tang's investigation."

A Jiao reached out to support him, attempting to soothe his emotions: "Liu Che, calm down, let's not worry about this matter for now."

"Not worry? If I don't worry, then I'm afraid Tian Fen will really reach out for my throne," Liu Che said angrily: "I let him be the Prime Minister, let him be one person below ten thousand in the court, let him expand his private residence in Chang'an City; have I not been good enough to him?"

A Jiao nodded repeatedly: "Ah, yes, yes, it is he who doesn't know what's good for him, don't be angry, watch out for the child."

"He is my own uncle, and he actually hoped for my death just when I had just ascended the throne?!"

A Jiao: "But you are still alive and well now, so just treat what he said as farting, let's not be angry, watch out for the child."

Liu Che: "No, you summon Tian Fen to me, I really can't swallow this anger." He held a burst of anger in his heart, and in his rage, he lifted his foot and kicked over the table in front of him. The things on the table clattered and scattered all over the floor.

A Jiao held him in fear: "Liu Che, what are you doing?" Watch out for the child!

After Liu Che kicked the table, the anger in his heart was vented a little, and then he felt a burst of unbearable abdominal pain.

He protected his stomach with both hands, his whole face turned pale instantly, and finally, he couldn't hold on and leaned his head into A Jiao's arms, spitting out words through his teeth: "Pain, my stomach suddenly hurts so much."

Bursts of pain like knife cuts came from his lower abdomen, making him break out in cold sweat. Liu Che gradually had a bad premonition in his heart.

A Jiao was terrified by him like this and shouted: "Someone, come quickly, summon the Imperial Physician!"

"Liu Che, don't scare me," A Jiao hugged him nervously.

Liu Che's face was pale, and the pain in his stomach made him almost roll on the ground.

A Jiao picked Liu Che up horizontally and placed him on the soft couch in the back hall to rest, but after a while, a pool of blood actually flowed out on the soft couch.

A Jiao was stunned.

Liu Che grabbed A Jiao's hand tightly: "A Jiao, the child..."

Why did he feel that something was about to slip from his lower abdomen? He instinctively covered his stomach, his lips pale: "Our child..."

The Imperial Physician arrived quite quickly, after all, they were on standby at the Imperial Hospital at any time. After seeing that the "Empress's" situation was so critical, Imperial Physician Zhang hurriedly applied needles to Liu Che to protect the fetus, but this time he was not as lucky as the last time.

After a long time, Imperial Physician Zhang reported to A Jiao with a look of panic: "Your Majesty, this subject is incompetent, the Imperial Prince in the Small Lord's womb... could not be saved."

A Jiao gasped, her eyes widened, and she stood frozen in place for a long time without speaking.

Imperial Physician Zhang

also maintained a kneeling posture and dared not get up, for fear that the Emperor would kill him to accompany the little Imperial Prince in a fit of rage.

After a long time, A Jiao rolled her throat and asked in a hoarse voice: "What about the Empress? How is the Empress?"

Imperial Physician Zhang said: "The Empress has fallen into a coma, this subject needs to feed the Empress medicine to induce labor and bring out the little Imperial Prince, which can reduce the damage to the Empress's body."

A five-month-old fetus actually already has a form, but the Imperial Physician diagnosed the pulse and found that the "Empress" had stopped the pregnancy, thus concluding that the little Imperial Prince might have already died.

A Jiao closed her eyes, seemingly unwilling to face such a result, and finally she whispered: "Go."

When Liu Che woke up, it was already the next day. The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was to touch his stomach, but the originally bulging lower abdomen now had nothing.

His expression was a bit dull for a moment.

A Jiao, who was guarding the bed, saw that he was awake and breathed a sigh of relief: "Liu Che, you are awake, the Imperial Physician even said that you might not wake up until noon."

Hearing the familiar voice, Liu Che turned his head slightly to look over. When he saw his own face, his expression was a little dazed, and then he recalled that he and A Jiao had swapped bodies.

"Where is the child?" Liu Che moved his dry lips.

A Jiao turned her head slightly, picked up a small bowl from the side, and said softly: "You slept all night, you must be hungry, this is the egg stewed by the Imperial Kitchen, I will feed you some."

Liu Che said with a pale face: "Is our child... gone?" Before he fell into a coma, he felt that the pain in his lower abdomen was different from the previous pain, and looking at A Jiao's reaction, he actually understood everything in his heart.

"Eat something first, we will talk about this later." A Jiao was also sad in her heart.

At this time, Liu Che had no appetite to eat. He blinked his somewhat sore eyes, and a drop of warm liquid flowed from the corner of his eye. He asked: "Is it a boy or a girl?"

A Jiao choked slightly and whispered: "It's a girl."

Actually, it was a boy.

After the Imperial Physician used medicine to induce labor, A Jiao witnessed with her own eyes the fetus that was already formed lying in the blood, and it could be vaguely identified as a boy.

If this child had been born safely, he would have been a natural favorite, destined to receive the most noble things in this world.

But no.

This child was gone.

If Liu Che knew it was a boy, he would probably be even sadder, so A Jiao chose to hide it and told him it was a daughter, at least his heart would feel better.

For a time, the whole hall was quiet. Liu Che, lying on the bed, closed his eyes and let the tears in his eyes slide from the corners of his eyes. Then he slowly opened his mouth: "Draft an edict, dismiss Tian Fen from his position as Prime Minister, arrest him for treason and put him in prison, and behead him in Wei Cheng in a month to show the public. By the way, also execute that Guan Fu together."

A Jiao was stunned: "This..."

Liu Che's voice was cold: "I want them to accompany my little princess." At this time, Liu Che could be said to be killing madly. As for whether Tian Fen really wanted to rebel, it was no longer important; he needed killing to calm the anger in his heart.

After this edict was issued, the ministers were all stunned, and then many officials who had been promoted because of Tian Fen came to plead for Tian Fen, indicating that it was impossible for Tian Fen to rebel.

In just three days, the memorials pleading for Tian Fen had piled up into a mountain. A Jiao suppressed all these memorials and ignored them. Even when the Wang Taihou came to see the Emperor in person, A Jiao did not see her.

And everyone in the Weiyang Palace also knew about the Empress's miscarriage in the Xuanshi Hall.

Wei Zifu of the Pixiang Hall was stunned after hearing the news, then gently picked up little Liu Ju and whispered: "Ju'er, it is truly Heaven helping our mother and son. It seems that it is destined that the future Emperor of the Great Han will be you. This time you must grow up safely and healthily. After your uncle makes contributions to the Great Han, you can be the Crown Prince."

And inside Liu Ling's bedroom in the Changle Palace, after knowing the news of the Empress's miscarriage, she turned to look at the attendant and questioned sternly: "What did you do?"

The attendant said: "The slave prepared a memorial of Prime Minister Tian's crimes, because the secret guards could not sneak

into the Xuanshi Hall, so the memorial was placed in the Wan Ge of the Jiaofang Hall. The Emperor has recently favored the Empress alone, and after the Empress sees the memorial, she will definitely report it to the Emperor, and that is how it is."

Liu Ling frowned tightly, she just couldn't understand how "Sister A Jiao" could have a miscarriage for no reason.

After all, no one expected that the Emperor and the Empress had swapped bodies, and the Empress would be so angry that the child was gone after seeing this content.

Because the child was just gone, Liu Che's body was still very weak, so he had been living in the Xuanshi Hall for the past three days. A Jiao, considering his mood, had also been by his side, and by the way, she had also brought Liu Li over.

During this time, A Jiao was exceptionally gentle to Liu Che, even giving him whatever he asked for.

Liu Li didn't expect that in the time it took for her to sleep, the child in Liu Che's stomach was actually gone.

This change was a bit too fast!

"Father Emperor." Liu Li lay on the edge of the bed and called him softly, reaching out her small hand to hold his left hand: "Don't be sad anymore."

Liu Che turned his head to meet Liu Li's watery eyes, and then reached out his right hand to gently touch her head: "Hmm."

When he first became pregnant, he didn't want this child. But after five months, he had long accepted this child from the bottom of his heart, and even looked forward to his birth. Whether it was a boy or a girl, he would love him very much.

But now that this child was gone, Liu Che had an indescribable feeling in his heart.

Liu Li also didn't know what to say to comfort Liu Che, she couldn't say, let's have another one later. She took off her little shoes, climbed onto the bed, and lay gently beside him, just accompanying him quietly.

But Liu Li, who closed her eyes, was not idle either. She searched for a long time in the system store and finally found a gynecological medicine—Black-Bone Chicken White Phoenix Pill.

It's just that the price is a bit expensive, 2,000 points per bottle.

Liu Li clicked to check it and found that this medicine has the effect of replenishing Qi and nourishing blood, and can appropriately regulate a woman's body, especially after a miscarriage.

Seeing this, Liu Li clicked to redeem without hesitation, and a bottle of 100 Black-Bone Chicken White Phoenix Pills appeared in her palm.

Liu Che soon fell asleep again. After Liu Li heard his steady breathing, she carefully climbed out of bed and quietly left the bedroom to find A Jiao.

A Jiao stood on the corridor outside the Xuanshi Hall, looking into the distance with empty eyes, not knowing what she was thinking.

Liu Li appeared beside her: "Mother, don't be sad anymore."

Hearing her daughter's voice, A Jiao suddenly came back to her senses. Seeing that there was no one else around, she slowly squatted down in front of Liu Li and then took her daughter into her arms.

Although this child was not gestated by her, for A Jiao, this was after all her child, so the sadness in her heart was no less than Liu Che's when this child was gone.

She even buried the child who had already taken shape with her own hands. But she couldn't show her sadness and grief because she was the Emperor now.

Liu Li raised her arms to hug A Jiao and then gently patted her back to comfort her.

After A Jiao's mood improved a little, Liu Li handed the Black-Bone Chicken White Phoenix Pill in her hand to A Jiao: "Give this to Father Emperor to eat, it can be combined with food supplements to regulate his body. After a woman has a miscarriage, she needs special care, and this cannot be sloppy."

A Jiao took the medicine handed by Liu Li and nodded solemnly: "Okay."

"There is one more thing, I don't know if I should tell you." Liu Li pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, and said her thoughts: "Actually, a normal fetus will not miscarry because of the mother's anger, let alone it is already five months old, and it should have been stable long ago."

A Jiao listened to what Liu Li said and gradually frowned: "What does this mean? Could it be that someone wanted to harm him?" Thinking of this, her expression became serious.

Liu Li shook her head: "I don't mean that, of course, I'm not sure if my statement is correct."

She swallowed her saliva and popularized a piece of knowledge to A Jiao: "Mother, you and Father Emperor are cousins with a blood relationship. In our modern society, you are not allowed to marry."

A Jiao: "?"

Ancient people didn't know about the existence of genes, they only knew that

cousin marriage is a relationship of "kin on top of kin." Liu Li tried her best to explain to her in a language that A Jiao could understand: "Because you have a set of similar genes in your body, if you must combine to have children, this child may be unhealthy."

"So I suspect, could it be that the child in Father Emperor's stomach was unhealthy to begin with, which is why it died in the womb in the end."

Liu Che's pregnancy process was very torturous before, and there was even a time when he saw blood. At that time, Liu Li hadn't realized this point, but now such a sudden miscarriage made Liu Li think of this possibility.

A Jiao fell silent.

After a long time, as if thinking of something, she slowly opened her mouth: "So my original A Li was also unhealthy?"

Liu Li nodded and shook her head: "I can't be sure that it must be like this, after all, there is nothing here to test gene samples."

Although she didn't quite understand what Liu Li was saying, A Jiao felt inexplicably heartbroken.

It turned out that she and Liu Che were not suitable for each other, so she didn't even have children in her previous life. Even if she had children by accident in this life, they were still unhealthy.

After recuperating in the Xuanshi Hall for a few days, Liu Che was finally able to move and move back to the Jiaofang Hall. The Empress Dowager Dou, who had been worried about her daughter, came early in the morning. Seeing her "daughter" with a pale face, she swallowed the words she had prepared to lecture her and touched her daughter's head pityingly: "How did you get like this?"

Liu Che had been slapped by his biological mother before, and now facing the Empress Dowager Dou, he unconsciously leaned towards Liu Piao: "Mother."

Liu Piao reached out to hug her daughter and comforted her: "It's okay, take good care of your body, there will be more in the future." After a pause, she added: "Fortunately, it was a girl who was lost this time."

When A Jiao walked in, she heard this sigh from her mother. She frowned and called out: "Aunt."

Liu Piao saw "Liu Che" and was immediately furious: "Liu Che, oh Liu Che, is it because you did something to make Jiao Jiao angry again that caused Jiao Jiao to miscarry?"

Theoretically speaking, it really had something to do with her, so A Jiao didn't defend herself.

It was Liu Che who spoke first to plead for A Jiao: "Mother, this matter is not the Emperor's fault, it is because I didn't control my own emotions." In the past few days, Liu Che had also been reflecting on himself. If he had listened to A Jiao's words at that time and hadn't been so angry, perhaps the child would have been fine.

Liu Piao saw that her daughter was the same as before, starting to speak well for "Liu Che," she didn't know what to say for a moment, and could only scold her silly daughter in her heart.

As for the Wang Taihou, ever since she heard that her brother had been arrested by her son for treason, she had been wanting to see her son. However, at that time, A Jiao was busy caring for Liu Che, so she didn't pay attention to the Wang Taihou.

It wasn't until later that Liu Che's body gradually improved that she had time to deal with this matter.

A Jiao put the evidence investigated by Zhang Tang aside, and then asked Su Wen to invite the Empress Dowager from the Changle Palace so that the Empress Dowager could see these evidences with her own eyes.

Of course, the Wang Taihou didn't believe that her brother would have the heart to rebel. After all, Liu Che was his own nephew, and he was still the Prime Minister now, so there was no need to rebel at all.

The Wang Taihou scolded: "Don't you know what kind of person your uncle is?"

A Jiao nodded: "Of course I know what kind of person my uncle is, and it is precisely because he is accustomed to flattery that it is not surprising that he said those things to the Huainan King."

"Since you know that what your uncle said was unintentional, why do you still..." The Wang Taihou only felt that the son in front of her was so strange: "He is your own uncle, and you actually want to kill him?!"

A Jiao looked up at the Wang Taihou and said softly: "But Mother, the child in A Jiao's stomach is gone, that is your eldest grandson."

The Wang Taihou's breath choked: "What did you say, didn't they say it was a girl?"

"A Jiao was pregnant with an Imperial Prince, I was afraid he would be sad, so I lied to him that it was a girl." A Jiao turned and walked to the window, looking at the big tree in the backyard, and said softly: "It was I who buried the child who had already taken shape with my own hands. Can you understand my mood?"

The Wang Taihou was stunned for a moment and then said: "What does A Jiao's matter have to do with your uncle

?"

A Jiao thought for a while and said: "He was angry for me, and felt it was not worth it for me."

The Wang Taihou: "..."

A Jiao recalled what Liu Che said when he was in a rage before, so she imitated his appearance and said angrily: "I let Tian Fen be the Prime Minister, let him be one person below ten thousand in the court, let him expand his private residence in Chang'an City; have I not been good enough to him? He is my own uncle, and he actually hoped for my death just when I had just ascended the throne?!"

After a pause, A Jiao added another sentence: "Mother, if someone else said this, I would definitely have this person's clan exterminated!"

The Wang Taihou gasped. She stared at the son in front of her for a long time and knew "Liu Che's" determination to kill Tian Fen. All along, Liu Che had been indulging Tian Fen's actions. Even if Tian Fen collected wealth and sold official positions, Liu Che had not been angry.

But this time it was different. Tian Fen touched Liu Che's bottom line, which was why Liu Che was so angry.

In fact, when Tian Fen said those things to the Huainan King back then, it was purely bragging. Tian Fen, who had no ability, was just a small official in the second year of Jianyuan. When he saw the Huainan King, he habitually flattered him just to make the Huainan King happy, and had no other intentions at all.

Does Liu Che know this? As long as he calms down and thinks carefully, he can figure it out, but because of these things about Tian Fen, his child is gone, and he can no longer calm down.

So Tian Fen must die.

"Che'er, you have really grown up." After the Wang Taihou slowly said this to A Jiao, she turned around in a somewhat decadent manner and walked out of the Xuanshi Hall slowly.

The Wang Taihou had always known that her son was a smart and ambitious child. In those years, he pretended to be a playboy, not only deceiving the Empress Dowager Dou but also deceiving her, his mother.

She thought that after the Empress Dowager Dou passed away, she could also learn from the Empress Dowager Dou and control the government affairs of the former court, but her son was not the late Emperor and could actually be so ruthless.

After the Wang Taihou returned to the Changle Palace, she kept claiming to be ill and not going out. Those who wanted to save Tian Fen through the Wang Taihou also had no way. Liu Che saw that A Jiao was having a headache because of the memorials of these people, and sneered: "If anyone pleads for Tian Fen again, they will be punished for the same crime."

Once this edict was issued, the voices of pleading disappeared instantly.

Half a month later, Tian Fen actually died of illness in prison. According to the jailer's report, ever since Tian Fen was arrested, he had been talking nonsense, often calling for help in the middle of the night, and his physical condition was getting worse and worse. Because he did not receive treatment, he died last night.

For this result, Liu Li was not surprised, because in history, Tian Fen seemed to have been frightened into illness by something and died in the end.

However, this historical event did not announce its completion with Tian Fen's death, and the task card on Liu Li's system interface was still in an unfinished state.

Liu Li didn't quite understand, one of the protagonists of the "Tian-Dou Dispute" event was already dead, why was this matter not considered complete?

It wasn't until Su Wen came to report to A Jiao: "Your Majesty, Marquis of Weiqi Dou Ying requests an audience."

A Jiao and Liu Li were both stunned. Liu Li wondered: "Tian Fen is dead, why does Dou Ying still want to request an audience?" Intuition told her that Dou Ying's request for an audience this time must not be simple, and he might even take out the edict from history.

A Jiao was helpless: "I'll go see him, I guess he should be here for Guan Fu."

That's right, when Liu Che issued the edict before, he was going to execute Tian Fen and Guan Fu together. And the Dou Ying in history was the one who took out that fatal edict in order to save Guan Fu.

A Jiao went to the Xuanshi Hall to meet Dou Ying. Sure enough, as Liu Li thought, Dou Ying took out the late Emperor's legacy edict that he had cherished for a long time.