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Chapter 167

Black smoke surged out from Bao He Hall to the sky above. A group of people was kneeling outside of the hall with Eunuch Chu at the head of the group. They repeatedly shouted, “Your Majesty!”

A short while later, Eunuch Chu finally returned to his senses. He looked towards the stunned palace servants and guards and said, “Why are all of you doing nothing? Hurry and put out the fire! If anything happens to His Majesty and Her Majesty, none of your lives can bear the responsibility.”

The guards and palace servants hurriedly returned to putting out the fire and carried wooden buckets back and forth.

Eunuch Chu continued to kneel in front of Bao He Hall with his palms put together in prayer as he mumbled his prayer to a bodhisattva, “Compassionate Bodhisattva, Guanyin, please protect His Majesty and Her Majesty. This servant is willing to give up ten years of my life…”

On the other side, Zhao Jie hurriedly carried Wei Luo the nearest residence hall, which was Zhao Yang Hall. Zhao Jie’s hands were sweaty and the muscles on his forehead were violently twitching. As soon as he arrived at Zhao Yang Hall, he sternly said, “Summon the imperial doctor!”

The palace servants in Zhao Yang Hall didn’t know what was happening, but seeing how nervous Prince Jing was, they left the hall in a flurry without asking questions.

Qiu Mama was the only one with a clear head. Seeing that Wei Luo’s expression looked wrong, she guessed that Wei Luo was going to be giving birth soon. This being the case, what was the use in summoning an imperial doctor? Prince Jing was probably so worried that he had lost the ability to think logically. Qiu Mama hurriedly went outside, stopped the palace servants that were leaving to get an imperial doctor, and told them to bring back a midwife instead.

The palace servants looked towards the hall, and one of them hesitantly said, “But His Highness said…”

Qiu Mama said, “His Highness is just confused because he’s too worried. Why are you following along with his foolishness? Just do as I say. Hurry!”

The palace servants finally understood. They anxiously and hastily went to the place where the midwives stayed.

There wasn’t enough time for the midwives in Prince Jing’s residence to enter the palace. Fortunately, the palace had its own midwives for when the imperial consorts gave birth. These dependable midwives worked in the palace and had experience with assisting in the birth of imperial descendants. There definitely wouldn’t be a problem with them helping Wei Luo deliver her baby.

Wei Luo was lying on Empress Chen’s red sandalwood babu bed. Because she was too nervous, her fingers were tightly clutching Zhao Jie’s dark green sleeve embroidered with hornless dragons. Although it wasn’t hurting as much as before, her eyes were red and she couldn’t help feeling terrified. If Zhao Jie stayed here to keep her company, perhaps, she would feel a bit better.

However, Qiu Mama said to Zhao Jie, “Your Highness, the birthing room isn’t auspicious. Please leave the room and wait outside for the princess consort’s news.”

Wei Luo pursed her lips. Her fingertips trembled and she held Zhao Jie’s sleeve a little bit tighter. She didn’t want Zhao Jie to leave.

Zhao Jie became aware of Wei Luo’s trepidation. He held her hand and didn’t allow Qiu Mama to have a say in the matter, “It’s fine. This prince will wait here.”

“This…” Qiu Mama helplessly furrowed her eyebrows. She wanted to continue persuading, but then she saw Zhao Jie’s quiet and solemn appearance. He was utterly serious, so she closed her mouth in embarrassment.

Not long after, two midwives that were wearing dark reddish purple clothing came into the room. They were startled when they saw Zhao Jie sitting by the bedside. They haltingly saluted, “Your Highness…”

Zhao Jie wasn’t in the mood to deal with others. He waved his hand and told them to rise. “Come here and help the princess consort with delivering the baby.”

The two midwives had never encountered a situation like this. It was a huge taboo and very inauspicious for a man to see a woman give birth. Any man with status would generally avoid doing something like this. Against expectations, Prince Jing, who had such a highly noble status, didn’t care about avoiding this and only cared about Princess Consort Jing’s condition. The midwives didn’t dare to ask any other questions. Fortunately, Zhao Jie was sitting by the side and wouldn’t be interfering with the birthing process. They hurriedly put away their stray thoughts and walked to the bed to check Wei Luo’s situation.

At this moment, Wei Luo was extremely nervous. Her child wasn’t even coming out yet, but she had already driven herself to an unbearable fearful state. She stared at Zhao Jie with her limpid eyes and worriedly said, “Don’t go.”

Zhao Jie stroked her face, tucked her loose hair to the side, and said, “I won’t go. I’ll stay here with you.”

Wei Luo finally stopped worrying.

The two midwives were awfully frightened. They had heard that Prince Jing was extremely ruthless. Why did he seem different from the rumors? Why was he using such a gentle tone to speak? It seemed that Prince Jing’s heart was definitely set on Princess Consort Jing. They definitely had to muster up 120% of their energy. If anything happened to Princess Consort Jing, they would definitely die.

As the two midwives carefully moved Wei Luo’s body to the proper position, they internally hoped that Wei Luo would be able to smoothly give birth.

Outside Bao He Hall.

Clearly, only fifteen minutes had passed. But, Eunuch Chu felt as if half a lifetime had passed. Emperor Chong Zhen and Empress Chen still hadn’t come out from the hall. The fire was only getting worse the more it burned. It had even spread to the surrounding halls. Fortunately, the other halls weren’t important. It would be fine to just repair them later. But if something happen to the emperor and empress, then it wouldn’t just be a matter of repairing…

Eunuch Chu was crying profusely. He kowtowed several times towards Bao He Hall, “Your Majesties, please hurry and come out…”

Perhaps, the bodhisattva heard Eunuch Chu’s prayer. He saw a pitiful looking emperor walking out of the blazing fire while carrying an unconscious empress. Just as Zhao Zhi Qing walked out of Bao He Hall, one of pillars behind him suddenly collapsed and loudly fell onto the ground. It almost crushed the emperor and empress.

Eunuch Chu cried with joy, “His Majesty! Her Majesty!” As he said this, he hurriedly walked forward to check their conditions.

There was an obvious burn on Zhao Zhi Qing’s shoulder, along with big and small burns on his hands and legs. His clothes were also disheveled and shabby. At this moment, the emperor, who usually paid special attention to his appearance, was completely unconcerned about his image. Using the last of bit of his strength, he placed Empress Chen onto the ground. Before he fainted, he hoarsely said, “Save Wan Wan.”

His Wan Wan, she couldn’t die.

Despite being shocked, Eunuch Chu hurriedly ordered people to bring the emperor and empress to Yang Xin Hall and summed all of the imperial doctors to examine the emperor and empress. From the start of the discovering the fire and until everything had been settled down, four hours had passed.

The burn on Emperor Chong Zhen’s shoulder was the most serious injury. The clothing had stuck been stuck to his skin and it was very difficult to remove. In the end, a small knife had to be used to scrape off the burnt flesh before the bleeding could be treated. However, as soon as Emperor Chong Zhen woke up, he didn’t care about his own body. He grabbed an imperial doctor and asked, “How’s Wan Wan?”

The imperial doctor’s hand trembled and he fearfully said, “To respond to Your Majesty, the empress has inhaled too much smoke and is still unconscious. This official has examined the empress. She doesn’t have any serious injuries and will probably wake up soon.”

Emperor Chong released the imperial doctor and leaned against a large red pillow embroidered with a flower pattern. His expression showed that he was clearly more relaxed.

The imperial doctor applied medicine to the rest of injuries on Emperor Chong’s body and warned him to not touch water for the next several days before withdrawing from the room.

Emperor Chong blankly sat for a while before asking the quietly waiting Eunuch Chu, “Where’s the empress?”

After Eunuch Chu knew that the emperor and empress would be okay, he had thanked the bodhisattva countless times and had already calmed down. He said, “To respond to Your Majesty, the empress is sleeping in Yang Xin Hall’s side chamber. This servant has already arranged for servants to wait on her.”

Emperor Chong Zhen thought for a moment before he pushed the quilt aside and got up from the bed. He said, “This emperor will go there to look.” He still felt worried.

“Your Majesty, the imperial physician said you should stay in bed to rest…” Eunuch Chu felt sympathetic towards the emperor and couldn’t help feeling distressed.

But, Emperor Chong Zhen didn’t listen to his words. After he put on a black robe, he stubbornly hobbled towards the side chamber.

Eunuch Chu looked at the emperor’s back figure before following after him. He had originally thought the emperor and empress was a normal couple that treated each with mutual respect. But after today, Eunuch Chu’s view had completely changed.

How could he have thought that the emperor didn’t care about the empress? He clearly cared about the empress to the core of his bones. For the empress, he had even been willing to sacrifice his life. How many emperors in the world would be able to do this?

Don’t even mention a man born in the imperial family, even a man from an ordinary family wouldn’t love this deeply.

With these thoughts in his mind, Emperor Chong Zhen became an even greater figure in Eunuch Chu’s mind.

—

In the side chamber, Emperor Chong Zhen reached the bedside and looked at Empress Chen, who hadn’t woken up yet. Empress Chen’s clothes had been changed. She was motionlessly lying on the bed with her eyes tightly closed and her hair loosely scattered on the red bedding. If he couldn’t see the slight movement of her breathing, he would have though that her vitality had been sapped away.

Emperor Chong Zhen tightly clutched Empress Chen’s hand and lowered his forehead to touch the hand he was holding. It felt as if his throat had been blocked by gravel. He wasn’t able to say a single word.

He recollected the scene he had seen in the fire. Empress Chen had been quietly sitting on the praying mat with her eyes closed as if the surrounding fire had nothing to do with her. She had looked aloof as if she wasn’t concerned about her mortal life and this mundane world. By the time he found her, she had already been unconscious for a long time.

Emperor Chong Zhen’s entire body trembled. Overflowing painful and remorseful sobs came out from his throat. He had never known she would have this type of idea. She had probably premeditated this fire and decided to leave a long time ago. He was the one that had forcibly taken her back from the underworld.

Wan Wan, was he that unworthy of forgiveness? Why was she so resolute? Why couldn’t she spare any of her thoughts for him?

Emperor Chong Zhen raised his head and looked at Empress Chen, who still hadn’t woken up. He couldn’t restrain his emotions and stretched out a hand to touch her face. He stared at her for a long time before slowly lowering his head and burying his face in Empress Chen’s hand.

“Sorry…” His voice was hoarse. He had probably also inhaled a lot of the smoke. “Wan Wan, this emperor is sorry.”

Empress Chen’s eyelashes fluttered, but she still remained unconscious.

Emperor Chong Zhen sat by her bedside and said a few more words. He had serious injuries and it wouldn’t be good for him to stay here for too long. A short while later, Eunuch Chu persuaded him to return to his own bed. Before the emperor left the side chamber, he severely ordered to the palace servants to properly take care of the empress.

Shortly after Emperor Chong Zhen left, the empress slowly opened her eyes.

She had already woken up when Zhao Zhi Qing sat down by her bed, but she kept her eyes closed because she didn’t know how to face him. While she had been unconscious, she had been somewhat aware of her surroundings and faintly remembered what had happened during that period. She knew who had risked his life to rescue her from Bao He Hall.

It was outside of Empress Chen’s expectation that Emperor Chong Zhen would personally rescue her. She had originally thought he was the type of person that only cared about his throne and power. Everything else was dispensable to him. Unexpectedly, she had a leading position in his heart. It was exactly because of this reason that Empress Chen didn’t know what type of expression to face Emperor Chong Zhen with.

She hadn’t expected that he would apologize to her.

Zhao Zhi Qing had been haughty and conceited since he was young. After he became emperor, it would be easier to reach the heavens than get an apology from him. She didn’t expect that she would hear his apology while she was pretending to be asleep.

With her eyes opened, Empress Chen’s gaze fell on the canopy curtain above her head that was embroidered with butterflies and golden bees. She looked at it for a long before slightly returning to her senses.

Empress Chen called a palace servant to her side, “What’s the current situation in the palace?”

Such a large disturbance had occurred in the palace. Everyone in palace should know about today’s events.

The palace servant said, “To respond to Your Majesty, the fire in Bao He Hall has been extinguished, but the damage done by the fire was very serious. The golden statue in the hall was also burned down…”

After the palace servant said this, she added, “Princess Consort Jing’s felt contractions on the way here. She’s currently in labor in Zhao Yang Hall. Prince Jing is with her.”

Startled, Empress Chen blurted out, “Ah Luo’s giving birth?”

Immediately after, she asked, “Has the baby been born?

The palace servant shook her head and said, “Not yet.”

—

Zhao Yang Hall.

Four hours later.

Inside the delivery room, there were gushes of heat.

One midwife was keeping watching at the head of the bed and the other was at the end of the bed doing the same as they said words of persuasion and encouragement to Wei Luo. The hair in front of Wei Luo’s forehead had been soaked with sweat and her small face was deathly pale. By now, she was completely exhausted and didn’t even have the energy to speak. There was only the faint sound of her breathing. She resembled a weary porcelain doll and didn’t even have the strength to raise her eyelashes. Her lowered long eyelashes covered the light in her black eyes.

Wei Luo felt that she didn’t have much longer to live. It was too painful. She almost didn’t want to continue giving birth. But, she was also unwilling to give up. Besides, it had already reached this point. It wasn’t like she could forcefully return to before. Her limpid, black eyes turned and turned until her gaze met the midwife’s. Her voice had already become hoarse from yelling, “Where’s Zhao…?” She was in so much pain that she couldn’t even say his full name.

The midwife looked at the ashen Prince Jing, who was standing near the bed. Zhao Jie had previously been sitting at the head of the bed and had been disturbing the birthing process. The midwife had rallied her courage to ask him to stand at the side. Ever since Wei Luo hadn’t been able to push the baby out, his face has looked this way. It made the people in the birthing room feel even more frightened.

She fed Wei Luo a piece of ginseng and gave an irrelevant answer, “Your Highness, slowly chew this piece of ginseng. You can’t give up. The baby is still in your belly…”

Wei Luo felt so much pain that tears fell from her eyes and hanged on her eyelashes. She looked both pitiful and made people feel distressed. She said, “Tell him to come over here.”

Just as the midwife was about to call him over, Zhao Jie had already stridden to the head of the bed and tightly held Wei Luo’s hand. Zhao Jie brushed the sweaty hair on Wei Luo’s forehead to the side. His previously fierce expression had already turned gentle. “Ah Luo, hold on for a little bit longer. The baby will come out soon.”

Wei Luo sobbed, “It hurts so much. I don’t want to give birth anymore.”

Zhao Jie stroked her small face and in an extremely helpless voice, he said, “How can you stop halfway? Be good, push harder. I’ll be right here with you. I won’t go anywhere else.”

Wei Luo wanted to say something else, but a sharp pain came from her belly and her words turned into a scream. She grabbed Zhao Jie’s hand, placed his wrist in her mouth, and bit down.

Seeing this sight, the midwife hurriedly rushed over and encouraged Wei Luo to use more energy. The baby would be born soon.

Wei Luo bit down on Zhao Jie’s wrist in pain. It seemed as if she had a made a decision when she deeply inhaled, put all of her strength into her lower body, and desperately tried to push the baby out. She tasted blood in her mouth, but Zhao Jie didn’t even blink, much less cry out in pain like her. Wei Luo felt as if her mind had left her body and she could only fell her body slackening.

The midwife exclaimed out in surprise, “It’s born! It’s born!”

Wei Luo slowly closed her eyes in fatigue. Her baby had finally been born. She thought if it continued to stay in her belly, she would have died from the pain.

Zhao Jie took out a handkerchief to wipe Wei Luo’s sweat. His eyes never looked away from her.

The midwife gently slapped the baby’s butt and the baby’s responded with a resounding cry. The midwife brought the baby to the side to clean it, wrapped it swaddling clothes, and brought it to Wei Luo and Zhao Jie, “Your Highnesses.”

Zhao Jie finally raised his head and asked, “Is it a son or daughter?”

The midwife said with a smile, “Congratulations Your Highnesses, it’s a baby boy.”

So, it was a son. No wonder he was so troublesome. Wei Luo had the midwife bring the baby closer. She tilted her head to glance at the baby. She asked in surprise, “Why is he so ugly?”

At first, the midwife froze in surprise. Soon after, she laughed and said, “All newborn babies look like this. The wrinkles on his face will smooth out later.” This was the first time she had seen a mother be disdainful of her own child and think it was ugly.

Zhao Jie took the swaddled bundle from the midwife and had both of the midwives leave the room. It was comical to see a grown man holding a baby. So, his hand that had become accustomed to hold swords could also gently hold a baby. Zhao Jie lowered his head to look at the little fellow, then he looked at Wei Luo. He held her hand and said, “He looks like you.”

Wei Luo frowned. In her mind, she thought that she didn’t look this ugly.

His wrinkled, red face looked remarkably liked a hairless monkey’s.

But, Wei Luo couldn’t say any of these words. She had already fainted from fatigue.