Chapter 75: Contraction-Inducing Drug
Sheng Qianheng sat in the palace of the new capital, flipping through the memorials on his desk.
Liu Deshan pressed his lips together and, after much hesitation, finally stepped forward. “Your Majesty, Daying Li requests an audience.”
Sheng Qianheng was slightly dazed. Who? Daying Li?
Seeing that Sheng Qianheng couldn’t seem to remember Daying Li, Liu Deshan reminded him, “Your Majesty, Daying Li is Ruotao. On the way to move the capital, she seems to be about to go into labor…”
Only then did Sheng Qianheng realize. That Ruotao who had framed him! He had almost forgotten about this person.
He waved his hand dismissively. “I won’t see her!”
Liu Deshan, for the sake of the imperial heir, did not dare to delay. He repeatedly tried to persuade him, “Your Majesty, it concerns the imperial heir.”
Sheng Qianheng glanced coldly at Liu Deshan and said sharply, “Liu Deshan, am Zhen the emperor, or are you the emperor?”
Liu Deshan immediately knelt and kowtowed. “This servant wouldn’t dare to overstep…”
Sheng Qianheng roughly scanned the already opened memorial. It was actually a petition to depose the Empress! He directly picked it up and threw it at Liu Deshan. “Still not getting lost for Zhen!”
Liu Deshan immediately scurried out of the hall.
Sheng Qianheng closed his eyes for a moment, forcing down the surging anger in his chest. When he looked up again, he reached out to flip through the memorials, but after flipping through several, he saw that they were all filled with various reasons, trying to petition for the deposition of Chu Yi, this male Empress.
In an instant, anger surged like a tide. He stood up in a rage, grabbed the memorials, tore them to shreds, and then threw them to the ground with a “swish.” Scraps of paper flew everywhere, and the room was filled with a state of rage.
He raised a hand to rub his brow, suddenly feeling a tightness in his chest and shortness of breath. When Sheng Qianheng sat back on the dragon throne, he only felt a splitting headache.
He looked at the darkening sky outside the window, wanting to get up and rush back to the Qianlin royal palace.
Sheng Qianheng quickly rushed to the city gate, mounted the horse he had ordered someone to prepare in advance, and galloped in the direction of Chu Yi.
Just as he saw the border of Qianlin in the distance, he suddenly heard the sound of wheels rolling from the city gate. A carriage happened to be slowly leaving the city. Sheng Qianheng had no choice but to rein in his horse and let the carriage go first.
As the carriage passed by Sheng Qianheng, a gentle breeze lifted a corner of the curtain. In Sheng Qianheng’s peripheral vision, he caught a glimpse of the person in the carriage. His appearance was somewhat similar to Chu Yi’s. But his heart was full of anxiety. He only hoped to be able to climb through the window into Chu Yi’s bedchamber as soon as possible, hold him in his arms, and accompany him to sleep peacefully. Therefore, he did not pay much attention to the person in the carriage.
The moment he stood in the Qianlin royal palace, he saw that everyone seemed to have an embarrassed expression, as if they didn’t even dare to breathe.
Sheng Qianheng stood before Chu Yi’s palace. From a distance, he saw Lianfang kneeling before Chu Rui, as if she had been crying and complaining.
Lianfang choked, “King, it’s all this servant’s fault for not taking good care of His Highness…”
Sheng Qianheng immediately stepped forward. He squatted by Lianfang’s side and asked, “What’s wrong with Chu Yi?”
Lianfang lowered her head, not daring to reply at all.
Sheng Qianheng could only pinch Lianfang’s shoulder and press, “Speak!”
The pain from his shoulder forced Lianfang to speak. “Your Majesty, His Highness is missing. This servant was just opening a window, and His Highness was gone!”
Sheng Qianheng stood up and looked at Chu Rui, saying slowly, “Still not sending people to look for him? He’s your younger brother!”
Chu Rui had already sent out all his men to search for Chu Yi’s figure in the palace. It had only been half an incense stick’s time since Chu Yi had disappeared. He should still be in the palace.
He tried his best to stabilize the chaotic situation and whispered, “Gu is already doing my best to search. Can you be more stable? You don’t look like an emperor at all.”
Sheng Qianheng let out a cold laugh. He looked at Chu Rui’s calm and composed appearance and only felt it was ironic. “Chu Yi is your younger brother, yet you are so indifferent. I wonder what A-Yi would think if he knew. You just stay in your royal palace and look! When Zhen finds Chu Yi, he won’t have to stay in your Qianlin royal palace anymore!”
“Sheng Qianheng, calm down!” Chu Rui released his xìnxiāng, trying to suppress Sheng Qianheng. “An emperor should be inscrutable. Which emperor is like you?!”
Sheng Qianheng didn’t understand what was the use of Chu Rui telling him this at this moment. He just wanted to go and find Chu Yi!
“Zhen has no time to listen to your lectures. If you like to lecture, then go and teach in a school! A-Yi’s life is in danger, yet you are so calm and composed. I see you’re probably a cold-hearted person.”
Chu Rui looked at Sheng Qianheng’s almost irrational appearance and only felt extremely helpless.
The root cause of Chu Yi’s repeated dangers was Sheng Qianheng. Didn’t he understand? Sheng Qianheng’s exclusive doting on Chu Yi had made his younger brother the object of others’ jealousy. Now, even though his younger brother was already living in his Qianlin royal palace, he still couldn’t escape the threat of the people around Sheng Qianheng…
He raised his hand and slapped Sheng Qianheng, cursing, “Sheng Qianheng, Gu is also half your older brother. Calm down. In these few months, which time was it not because of you that Yi’er was injured? It’s most likely the same this time. Instead of thinking carefully about who would want to use Chu Yi to threaten you, you’re here having a big fight with Gu?”
Sheng Qianheng was forced to take a step back. The pain from his cheek calmed his anger a lot. He licked the corner of his lips, as if tasting a hint of blood.
He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, then said slowly, “Zhen’s hidden guards have reported that the escaped Jiang Xinrui is colluding with others with the intention of rebelling. But Zhen has already moved the capital. The city they broke into is just an empty city.”
Chu Rui carefully analyzed the situation. “It should be Jiang Xinrui’s people who captured Yi’er…”
Sheng Qianheng summoned a hidden guard and ordered everyone to start from the royal palace and not miss a single clue. He tried his best to suppress his emotions and asked, “Chu Rui, do you have any leads?”
Chu Rui shook his head slightly. “Gu thinks they should still be in the palace and haven’t escaped! Gu has ordered the palace gates to be sealed. No one can leave.”
Sheng Qianheng rubbed his temples and suddenly remembered the carriage that had passed by him. He stood up abruptly and walked out of the hall.
Chu Rui called after him, “Sheng Qianheng, where are you going to cause trouble again?”
Sheng Qianheng didn’t look back and only left a sentence, “On my way here, there was a carriage leaving the city with someone who looked like A-Yi! Zhen will go and look for him immediately!”
Chu Rui always felt that something was strange. How could there be such a coincidence? Even if the person who had kidnapped Chu Yi had already left the palace, Sheng Qianheng had actually seen their tracks?
Chu Yi only felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck. When he looked up, he was at a loss, looking at the unfamiliar room layout.
When he tried to get up, he found that both his hands and feet were bound by chains. He tried to break free but to no avail.
Seeing that Chu Yi was awake, Jiang Xinrui put on a mask and limped to the bed.
He reached out to caress Chu Yi’s cheek and deliberately lowered his voice. “Such a beauty. It’s a pity she’s pregnant…”
Chu Yi turned his head to the side, dodging Jiang Xinrui’s hand. “Why bother with a mask?”
Jiang Xinrui raised an eyebrow, not expecting Chu Yi to be so sharp. “How did you guess who I am?”
Chu Yi analyzed the current situation but still couldn’t figure out why Jiang Xinrui had brought him here.
“Jiang Xinrui, what are you trying to do?”
Jiang Xinrui clapped lightly, and someone brought in a bowl of medicinal soup. After taking it, he sat by Chu Yi’s side and said, “How did you recognize me at a glance?”
Chu Yi looked at the dark medicinal soup and felt that something was wrong. He tried to move his body away from Jiang Xinrui.
But Jiang Xinrui seemed to have seen his movement, quickly turned around, and pinched his chin. “Don’t run~ Don’t you want to know what this medicine is?”
Chu Yi felt a pain from his chin. He had always prided himself on being able to endure pain that ordinary people couldn’t, but he never expected that his eyes would be filled with tears at this moment.
He pressed his thin lips together, glared at Jiang Xinrui, and said in a deep voice, “What on earth are you trying to do?”
Jiang Xinrui gently shook the bowl in his hand and said casually, “This is a bowl of contraction-inducing drug. I’ll help you deliver the baby. Then A-Yi will have another one for me. I know you cherish the child in your belly, so I won’t harm him. Believe me.”
Chu Yi’s whole body trembled slightly. He only felt that Shun’er seemed to be able to understand Sheng Jiang Xinrui’s words and was restlessly turning over. The pain from his abdomen had long since made his forehead covered in cold sweat.
He looked at Jiang Xinrui’s gradually approaching hand and only felt the pain in his abdomen become more and more intense.
He shook his head, not giving Jiang Xinrui a chance to force the medicine on him. But Jiang Xinrui was, after all, a Qianyuan. He easily suppressed Chu Yi with his xìnxiāng.
Chu Yi’s body was completely out of his control. He let Jiang Xinrui pinch his cheek and was forced to drink the bowl of contraction-inducing soup…
Tears silently slid down the corners of his eyes. He closed his eyes, unwilling to look at Jiang Xinrui. He could no longer tell if the increasingly intense pain in his abdomen was due to his resistance to Jiang Xinrui’s Qianyuan xìnxiāng or the effect of the contraction-inducing drug.
Chu Yi only felt his abdomen grow harder and harder, as if it were sinking.
The pain in his abdomen was like a surging wave, one after another. At first, it was just a slight bloating. Chu Yi barely managed to reach out and caress his abdomen, only feeling that it was already as hard as a rock… Before the pain had even had a chance to subside, it suddenly turned into a sharp sword, rushing straight to his lower abdomen, churning his internal organs as if they had been turned upside down.
Jiang Xinrui took a handkerchief and carefully wiped the beads of sweat from Chu Yi’s forehead, coaxing, “Does A-Yi want me to undo the chains?”
Chu Yi’s vision was already blurry. He nodded randomly.
Jiang Xinrui actually undid the chains on Chu Yi’s wrists.
The moment his hands were free, Chu Yi curled into a ball. He clutched his abdomen and whispered, “Shun’er, hold on for a while. Your father will come and save us…”
Jiang Xinrui could naturally hear every word Chu Yi said, but he didn’t care. No matter how prescient Sheng Qianheng was, he could not possibly find this place.
Lu Wenhan should have already had someone deliver the note about kidnapping Chu Yi to Sheng Qianheng. It was only a matter of time before the two of them took down Da Mo. It was even more a given that Chu Yi would become his!
When Sheng Qianheng rode his horse to the city gate, he followed the tracks of the carriage all the way.
But the tracks disappeared at a fork in the road. He immediately ordered his men to split into two groups.
One group would follow him, and the other would follow Suifeng.
Sheng Qianheng rode his horse, and just as he was about to return to his new capital, he still couldn’t find any trace of Chu Yi. He only felt extremely angry!
Suifeng also hadn’t found any clues. After returning the way he came, he reported the situation.
Just as Sheng Qianheng was at a loss, Suifeng asked, “Your Majesty, can you smell the Empress’s xìnxiāng? In the imperial palace, didn’t Your Majesty always rely on xìnxiāng to identify the Empress’s little tricks of disguise?”
But now, the permanent mark between Sheng Qianheng and Chu Yi had already disappeared. When Chu Yi was too far away from him, he couldn’t sense him either.
When he sat on the dragon throne in the new capital again, the joy from an hour ago was long gone.
Sheng Qianheng looked at the note left by Lu Wenhan and only felt exhausted.
Sheng Qianheng, you played the empty city strategy well. But between abdicating and losing your wife and child, I believe you will choose the answer I want.
Tomorrow at noon, we’ll meet at the post station ten li outside the city.
Sheng Qianheng sat on the dragon throne and couldn’t help but laugh.
He had originally moved the capital so that Chu Yi could travel freely between Da Mo and Qianlin, but now he had been outmaneuvered by Lu Wenhan…
Perhaps he was not suitable to be an emperor.
He crumpled the paper into a ball, but he seemed to faintly smell the xìnxiāng on the paper. Although it was not Chu Yi’s scent, this smell was Jiang Xinrui’s xìnxiāng!
He immediately ordered Suifeng to find a xiējiāo to carefully sniff the paper and find the source of this scent.
