Chapter 523: Vicious Empress
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor. Dragon Boat Translation
That night, Su Ying waited in the inner hall without sleeping. She had instructed her people to find out the real facts before dawn the next day.
Xiao Jin could feel Su Ying’s depressed mood, so he stayed by her side throughout to keep her from getting too anxious.
Hurried footsteps could be heard from outside the door. A moment later, Bai Shuang pushed open the door and walked in.
“Your Imperial Highness, the people who were investigating have returned.
Su Ying gestured for them to come in.
A middle-aged woman in her forties walked in.
“Greetings, Your Imperial Highness.”
“Tell me outright. Did you find out anything?”
The woman replied, “After I received the order today, I secretly asked people about it. I didn’t find anything unusual after asking everyone. However, there was one thing. During this period, students were falling sick frequently. They left the academy on the day they fell sick and came back after a night. However, when they came back, their condition didn’t look good, so they were sent home by the people of the academy. There was nothing unusual after
that.”
Su Ying asked with a frown, “What was wrong with those students? Didn’t they receive any medical check-ups from the academy’s female doctor?”
“Your Imperial Highness, there were no records on the female doctor’s side.
Oh, it’s not that there were no records at all. It’s just that there are no records of any consultation with the female doctor. The students’ illnesses were reported by the Student Affairs Teacher. They were also sent away by the Student Affairs Teacher.”
“Where’s this Student Affairs Teacher?”
“I searched the academy today, but I couldn’t find her.
Su Ying felt that this person definitely knew something.
“Did the students who fell sick and went home return to class thereafter?
The woman shook her head. “I have not seen them since.”
Su Ying took a deep breath. “Bai Shuang, immediately send someone to bring this Student Affairs Teacher to me.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness.”
While they were talking, news came from the Imperial Guards.
“What have you found?” Xiao Jin asked in a deep voice.
“Your Majesty, these few days your subordinate and the others did not discover anything unusual. But just a few days ago, a patrol team saw a female student and the Student Affairs Teacher appear in the back courtyard before dawn.
Before that, the guards even heard the student screaming in fear. At that point, they felt that something was wrong and went to check. At that time, the female student looked very unwell and her eyes were bloodshot. The Student Affairs Teacher said that the student was sick and wanted to take her to see the female doctor. Later, the Imperial Guard personally confirmed it with the female student before allowing them to leave.”
It was this Student Affairs Teacher again!
After the Imperial Guard excused himself, Su Ying stood up from her chair at
once.
“I want to go out of the palace.”
Xiao Jin frowned slightly. It was almost midnight, and the palace gates were locked long ago.
“Where are you going?”
Su Ying wanted to go to Moon’s house to check on her situation. “I can’t sleep if
I don’t go and find out the truth.”
Xiao Jin knew her personality and did not intend to stop her. “I’ll go with you.” Su Ying shook her head. “I don’t know when we’ll be back if we go there. Don’t delay the morning court session.”
“I’ll just come back before dawn.”
Su Ying didn’t want to waste any time on this matter, so she and Xiao Jin changed into a set of night-travel clothes.
After Xiao Jin summoned a few more secret guards to tail him, the group quickly left through the back gate of the palace.
In order to get to their destination as soon as possible, the couple could only ride horses. The streets were empty in the middle of the night, and the sound of horse hooves reverberated everywhere.
Two hours later, they finally arrived at the location of the slums.
In order not to disturb the sleeping commoners, Su Ying and Xiao Jin dismounted and left one of the guards to keep an eye on their horses. The rest of the guards followed the couple to Moon’s family home.
Su Ying recalled the letter asking for help from the Zhao family. Hence, she took off her night-travel clothes and gestured to Xiao Jin to wait outside the door. She went in alone to investigate the situation.
This time, Xiao Jin didn’t object and waited quietly outside the door.
Knock, knock, knock! Su Ying knocked on the door.
After a while, a wary voice rang out from the house. “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Susu.” Su Ying had told them her name was “Susu.’
When the Zhao family members heard Su Ying’s voice, they opened the door without further thought.
Mr. Zhao held a dim yellowish oil lamp in his hand which illuminated Su Ying’s eyes. He didn’t notice that Su Ying’s eyes were so dark that they glinted brightly.
“Why are you here so late at night, Madam?”
Mrs. Zhao had also gotten up when she heard the commotion. Under the dim light, Su Ying noticed that the creases on their faces had deepened.
“I received your message late at night. I was worried, so I came over to take a look.”
The couple felt very touched by her words. They had only met Su Ying by chance, and they hadn’t expected her to think of them so much.
“Madam, you are very kind…”
Su Ying asked, “Where’s Moon? How is she? What happened exactly?”
When the couple heard her mention Moon’s name, they felt overwhelmed by a wave of grief in their hearts. Mrs. Zhao could not help but wipe her tears.
“It… it was our fault. If we had known that that place was the Devil’s Den, we would not have let that child go no matter what…”
“Don’t be sad. First, tell me what exactly happened.”
Mr. Zhao wiped his tears and was calmer than Mrs. Zhao. “It’s the Empress. The Empress is a vicious woman!”
Su Ying’s eyebrows twitched violently. “What does this have to do with the Empress?”
“In order to win over the officials in the Imperial Court, the Empress could not openly send girls to the officials’ residences. Therefore, she used the convenient excuse of opening a women’s academy to send poor children from families like ours to those people for them to play with…It’s really too despicable!”
-Moon has suffered a great shock and that’s why she ended up in this state. Oh, what should she do for the rest of her life…”
The husband and wife were still in grief and did not notice the change in Su Ying’s expression at all.
All the muscles in her body tensed up, and the veins on her forehead bulged dangerously.
“Who told you that this was done by the Empress?”
“It’s her people. It’s her people who can’t stand what she did and told us the truth. They even told us to seek justice for Moon! Even if we couldn’t make the Empress pay the price, we must ensure her reputation gets tarnished!
“Who told you all this?”
The husband and wife could hear the frostiness in Su Ying’s voice and only thought that she was feeling sympathy for Moon. “It’s a teacher from the academy called Teacher Fang.”
Su Ying took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Did she tell you guys what to do?”
The husband and wife told them the plan that Teacher Fang had told them. “Tomorrow… tomorrow, we will definitely destroy this vicious Empress’s reputation!”
The veins on Su Ying’s forehead kept twitching, indicating that her anger had reached its peak.
She tried to make her voice sound calm. “1’11 go take a look at Moon first.” Moon had yet to regain consciousness. Just as Imperial Physician Ruan had said, an affliction of the heart must be treated with heart therapy. The injuries on her body were not minor, but they were not fatal. Moon was the one who did not want to wake up.
Su Ying’s expression was icy as she pulled aside Moon’s clothes and gave her acupuncture treatment. There were some things that she had to ask her in person.
The silver needle stimulated Moon’s acupoint of pain. This pain in her body forced her to wake up.
Moon slowly opened her eyes, and when she saw Su Ying’s face, she was stunned..