bookrandom Chapter 506 Suicide
Chapter 506 Suicide
She was not worried about trouble, but was more worried about Wen Nuan's temper. If something happened, she would end up swallowing it down because she was too embarrassed to speak up.
"Your Majesty, please don't let the kitchen be busy. I won't have meals in the palace. I didn't send the visiting card to the palace in advance, but hurriedly brought you in. I was reckless. Please forgive me, Your Majesty." After saying this, Wen Nuan stood up and was about to kneel down to apologize.
Just as Wen Nuan knelt down, Gu Jianchu reached out and supported her arm, then helped her up. "What's the point of talking about guilt or not? I told you earlier that you can enter the palace anytime you want. We finally meet each other, so why bother with so much formality when we sit down and talk?"
Wen Nuan felt a little relieved under Gu Jianchu's gaze and sat back down. She rubbed her hands back and forth under her sleeves and spoke again after a while. "This humble servant hurried into the palace to see Your Majesty today for two reasons. One is that when I followed my father to Jiangnan for business, I came across some good things there. I found them so rare that I bought them and wanted to send them to Your Majesty."
Wen Nuan said as she pulled out two items from her sleeve. "This is pigeon blood jade, which is very rare. I saw that it was of excellent quality and hadn't been polished yet, so I bought it directly. I thought I could send it to the palace to make some jewelry for Your Majesty. It hasn't been polished anyway, so you can just ask the Imperial Household Department to make whatever you want. Also, this is a coral hairpin I saw in the hands of a Nanyang person. It's of good quality, and the coral on it is also top-grade and very rare. I know Your Majesty has everything, but when I saw this good thing, I thought of sending it to Your Majesty."
"A Nuan is so thoughtful. These two things are both top-quality items and extremely valuable." Gu Jianchu asked someone to put the things away.
Wen Nuan rubbed her hands and continued, "Giving Her Majesty something is a small matter. In fact, the main reason I came to the palace this time is for another matter."
Gu Jianchu didn't ask, but stroked the teacup with his fingers, waiting quietly for Wen Nuan to speak.
Wen Nuan simply stopped trying to be polite and spoke frankly, "Yesterday, your servant and I were transporting a shipload of goods back from Jiangnan. We had just arrived at the port, before we even disembarked, when we heard a splash in the water. We thought it was a crew member who had fallen overboard, so we quickly called for help. One of the crew members who was a good swimmer jumped in and quickly rescued the person. We then discovered it wasn't one of our crew members, but a woman. After helping her change her clothes, your servant discovered she was the niece of the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, also known as Lady Li."
"It was freezing cold, and Lady Li couldn't swim. After falling into the water, she choked on the water and immediately passed out. She also had a high fever. I had no other options, so I took Lady Li back to the Marquis' Mansion and settled her down there. I arranged for a doctor and maid to stay by her bedside. Lady Li kept talking nonsense during her high fever, mumbling that she was innocent. I immediately realized that something might be wrong, so I sent someone out to find out what was going on."
"After some inquiries, I found out that Concubine Li was bathing in the hot springs when a man broke in and raped her. Later, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works discovered her. He felt that Concubine Li's innocence had been tarnished, so he wanted her dead, saying that if she lived, none of the daughters in the family would be able to marry. He prepared poisoned wine and white silk, and told Concubine Li to choose one of them and commit suicide. Later, someone in the palace was kind enough to secretly release Concubine Li."
"But her innocence was gone. Lady Li had no intention of living. According to the peddlers near the dock, she had been wandering around the harbor all afternoon. At first, they thought she was waiting for someone, so they ignored her. When it was almost dark, she still hadn't left. Before anyone could react, they saw Lady Li jump directly into the water. Only then did they realize she wasn't waiting for anyone, she was going to commit suicide."
"Luckily, my ship came back and encountered it. If it hadn't, I'm afraid we would have only seen a corpse."
"After a night of treatment by the doctor, Lady Li's fever finally subsided this morning, and she slowly woke up. Although she was awake, she just lay there, refusing to eat or drink. I asked her what happened, but she wouldn't say anything. Her eyes looked like she wanted to die. I was worried something might have happened, so I arranged for people to take turns watching her. I also went to the palace to ask the Empress to send someone to investigate. What exactly happened? I feel like there's something fishy about this."
Wen Nuan looked at Gu Jianchu worriedly, afraid that Gu Jianchu would refuse.
The Queen is kind-hearted, especially to women who have suffered injustice.
Thinking of this, Wen Nuan felt a surge of earnest hope, thinking that Gu Jianchu would not refuse.
Gu Jianchu's grip on the teacup kept tightening. She never expected that these women who left the palace would suffer so much injustice.
But it's also true that from the moment they entered the palace, we were more or less chess pieces thrown in by our families. If we were favored, we would be useful chess pieces; if we were not favored, we would be useless chess pieces.
So from the moment they entered the palace, they were abandoned by their family. How can an abandoned person expect to be treated well after leaving the palace?
How many people are like Wen Nuan? Even if her biological parents don’t love her, she still has a father who loves her so much and lets her do what she wants.
Cases like Wen Nuan are exceptions.
If I had known this earlier, I would have moved them all to the palace to live out their retirement. However, leaving them in the palace would be too lonely. I'm afraid they would have to spend the rest of their lives like this, and perhaps they themselves would not be willing to accept that.
Moreover, both she and the emperor gave them the right to choose whether to leave the palace. It was they who chose to leave the palace. They chose to trust their relatives, but they did not expect that what they would face was the sharp knives of their relatives stabbing them. Perhaps even they themselves did not expect such an ending. Perhaps they are regretting it.
Gu Jianchu's eyes were filled with coldness, and his tone was not as gentle as before, "But she is the niece of the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works who came in advance."
Hearing this, Wen Nuan nodded repeatedly, "Yes, it's her. Her parents took her back to their hometown to worship their ancestors, but they encountered a mudslide on the way back. They all died to protect her. She had nowhere to go, so she lived with her uncle and aunt until the emperor ascended the throne, and they stuffed her into the palace. Some time ago, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works wanted to marry her to a wealthy businessman as a concubine, but then, for some reason, the people from the Censorate found out and impeached her for two days. The Left Vice Minister's official position was not very high, and if the matter got out of hand, his career might end, so the matter was temporarily shelved, and the Left Vice Minister did not mention the idea of marrying his niece to a wealthy businessman as a concubine again."
"Since this matter has been temporarily shelved, I stopped paying attention to Miss Li. I didn't expect that when I returned to the capital, such a big thing would happen."