"Li'er, what exactly do you want to say?" Feng Qihe asked with a solemn expression, looking at Chu Qianli and then at the Empress.
"Mother, what exactly... have you been hiding from me? If you don't make it clear today, I won't leave!"
"Her... son..."
The Empress calmed down for a moment, then began to recall, and a sharp pain shot through her abdomen.
She frowned, her hand instinctively going to her abdomen: "Her... son..."
"This son understands. This son will not listen." A flicker of disappointment crossed Feng Qihe's eyes.
He had been too anxious just now and had forgotten his mother's pain.
His mother was already in so much pain, any secret could be asked about later.
He turned, looking at the eunuchs and palace maids who were all bowing their heads and trembling: "Scram!"
A group of people immediately stumbled out, rolling away as far as possible, lest they hear what they shouldn't.
Feng Qihe turned, about to leave as well, but his stiff back carried a heavy disappointment.
"Her... son!"
The Empress gritted her teeth, as if she had made a decision, and finally, with gritted teeth, said, "Stay."
Feng Qihe's tall frame suddenly trembled, and he turned to look at her.
The Empress was in too much pain to speak further, and slowly walked to the bedside.
Feng Qihe immediately stepped forward and helped her, letting her lie down on the bed.
He looked at Chu Qianli: "Li'er, please save Mother quickly."
Chu Qianli had already placed the needle bag on the table beside the bed.
With them here, she couldn't retrieve the medicine box, but a small item like a needle bag could be pretended to be taken from her pocket.
"Prince He, this illness involves a woman's privacy. I trouble Your Highness to wait in the outer room."
Feng Qihe left the inner room without a word, standing in the outer room, with his back turned to them across the screen.
Chu Qianli took out the needles, and the Empress stared at her, sweating profusely even in the cold weather, indicating she was in extreme pain.
"Whatever you have to say... you can say it. This matter, this Empress doesn't need to... continue to hide from Her son."
"Empress, what you call 'stagnant qi' in your abdomen is merely the residue left by the fetus."
Fetus!
Feng Qihe, in the outer room, trembled all over. This was completely unexpected!
There was still a fetus in his mother's abdomen. When did this happen?
The Empress's eyes instantly dimmed, but she quickly calmed down, gritting her teeth and looking at Chu Qianli: "Your Majesty..."
"It must be that in the past, Empress Dowager casually took medicine, causing the dead fetus to miscarry, but the placenta did not detach, thus leaving a root of illness."
"Afterward, the Empress often suffered unbearable abdominal pain. Doctors could only attribute it to stagnant qi in the abdomen, unaware it was caused by residual matter."
"When Master Wu Chenzi gifted the Empress medicine back then, did he not say that before the abdominal pain was completely cured, you could not serve His Majesty? But Empress, you likely did not adhere to this, did you?"
Every word Chu Qianli spoke was like a needle, piercing deeply into the Empress's heart.
It made her breathing erratic, her chest ache, and her eyes fill with hatred.
The Empress's palms were clenched so tightly that even the pain could not overshadow the chill that permeated her.
"Empress, Master Wu Chenzi's medicine is excellent. If you had listened to him back then and allowed the residual matter to be completely expelled, you would not be suffering today."
Uncle Jiu's medical skills were indeed remarkable. Without taking her pulse, just by looking at her complexion, he could prescribe the right medicine.
Even Chu Qianli might not be able to achieve this.
She only had the advantage of coming from the twenty-first century and learning much of its knowledge.
If she were starting from the same point as Feng Dingchu, she would absolutely, unequivocally, not be able to surpass that peerless expert in snow-white robes.
"This Empress... as Empress, what could I do?"
The Empress clenched her palms, her eyes dimming: "For women in the harem, if... they cannot serve His Majesty, how can they... survive?"