Chapter 111: The Joyous Event of the Empress Dowager (4)

But Qi Sheng smiled. He approached me and said in a low voice, “Luckily you don’t want to meet them. If you do, I would have no way to make up several living persons for you.”

I felt there was something hidden in his words and stared at him blankly.

He smiled and caressed my hair. He whispered, “Pengpeng, how am I supposed to watch you being tortured by your conscientiousness? They… I’ve let them go. Though I can’t guarantee them wealth, they can choose their own life.”

He sighed and took me out of the temple. After we returned to the Palace, his mood was lightened up again. He turned around and smiled at me, “It’s been twenty years. I’ll give you a surprise at your birthday this year.”

I nodded and because I was extremely happy about what happened in the day, I served him at night in return. Qi Sheng wouldn’t admit he was getting old so he was late for the morning court the next day.

Before my birthday, Qi Sheng left the Palace for a hunt in Jiangbei, saying he’d hunt some white foxes for me as a gift.

Actually I didn’t like those furs but he was happy so I nodded, “Since you’ve said it, you have to keep your words.”

He nodded in smile and jumped on the horse.

One night half a month later, a post horse came hurtling into the place and delivered a message, saying the horse was startled when Qi Sheng was hunting. Qi Sheng fell down and died.

My whole body turned stiff and I lost whole control of it. But I was still able to have some sense in me and secretly marveled that it was indeed a surprise!

The Crown Prince had already grown up and he had been helping Qi Sheng deal with government duties for years. Though he was sad hearing the news, he wasn’t panicked. With the help from his brothers, he arranged Qi Sheng’s funeral according to the laws and rules, then ascend to become the Emperor.

And I moved my place and finally became the Empress Dowager.

It had been twenty years and I finally became the Empress Dowager but why didn’t I feel happy at all? And why did I want to cry?

But I couldn’t cry and I felt suffocated in my chest.

I reasoned to myself that I had been living with Qi Sheng for twenty years. Even if you raised a cat or a dog, you would grow attached to them after such a long time, let alone a living person. Of course, I would feel sad. When I recovered, everything would just be fine.

I was already the Grand Empress Dowager, the Emperor was my birth son, and I didn’t have a real mother-in-law, so as long as I was not planning on treason or taking over the power, nobody would dare to step into my way.

So I was thinking when my health got any better, I’d move out of the Imperial Palace and build myself a big mansion in some place with beautiful scenery. Then I would keep all kinds of beauties there. Every day they would be eye candies to me.

Then I thought I wasn’t old and was still pretty. In order to avoid endocrine imbalance, I should keep myself several secret lovers.

But I should do it in a concealed way and save some faces for the Emperor.

…

I had quite some planning about the future, good planning, but my body failed me and I couldn’t get out of the bed no matter what.

Qi Wei, the Princess Weiyuan had come into the palace and kept me company for days. Watching me eating, sleeping, and collapsing on bed, boneless, she called all her brothers and sisters and knelt in front of my bed. They pled, “Mother, please restrain your grief. If father sees you like this, he will be saddened!”

If Qi Sheng saw this? How the hell could he see this. He’d been dead for more than two months so he must have reincarnated.

Qi Hao was the Emperor so he was the most thoughtful one and he immediately continued, “If mother refuses to see the doctor and have some medicine, we all won’t stand up.”

I had no other way but compromise, asking them to find me an imperial doctor and then get back to their own business.

The imperial doctor soon arrived and knelt down to check my pulse. However, beads of sweat the size of beans rolling down from his forehead.

I was surprised and asked, “Am I sick with an incurable disease?”

The imperial doctor trembled even harder. He stooped over the ground and stuttered, “Nnnn… no.”

I was confused, “Then what are you trembling for?”

The imperial doctor continued to stutter, “Your Majesty, you… you are pregnant.”

I was taken aback. Closing my eyes for a while, I told him in a low voice, “You shall leave now and tell no one of this, not even the Emperor.”

The imperial doctor made a loud kowtow and left.

I lay on the bed and felt bitterness in my heart as well as in my mouth. Qi Sheng left in such a swift way but left me a posthumous child, so how should I tell this to our kids?”

The next day, Zhao wang came to the palace to visit me. Seeing me still leaning against the bed, he made face to me and smiled maliciously. He told me, “I know how to cure you, Your Majesty.”

I was confused at hearing this and asked, “How?”

Zhao wang clapped towards the door and someone walked inside. He was tall and wearing a hoodie so I couldn’t see his face.”

Zhao wang smiled at me and said, “This man can surely cure you. I shall excuse myself now.”

Then he went past the man at the door and left, and he even closed the door on his way for me.

Judging from what he meant, he was sending me, the new Empress Dowager, a catamite? It was still daytime and he was so bold? Wouldn’t he fear that Qi Sheng would crawl out of the imperial grave?

The man at the door took off his hoodie and slowly raised his head, revealing his tough and carved features. He grinned at me and asked in a low voice, “Pengpeng, you’re finally an empress dowager. Are you satisfied now?”

I immediately sat up and looked at him in shock, unable to mutter a word.

He smiled again and asked, “Is it a surprise?”

I sat in a trance for a while, until everything in front of my eyes muddled. Then I was finally back to reality and nodded, “It is. It is such a surprised.”

He smiled even more brightly.

Then I said, “Qi Sheng, it is rude not to reciprocate. I’ll give you a surprise as well, is that alright?”

Qi Sheng raised his brows in surprise and asked, “What is it?”

I grinned at him as well and replied, “The Empress Dowager… is pregnant.”