Chapter 6 - Your highness, you are awake!

Nui ȧssisted Imperial Physician Wang. He tried to ascertain what exactly happened to Empress Yunqing and attempted to revive her.

She noticed a tear roll down the cheek of the empress and wiped it with a cloth. She only prayed that Imperial Physician Wang would be able to wake her mistress up soon.

Imperial Physician Wang was having a hard time figuring out the problem. So he asked Nui some questions concerning the empress's health, like her food, medicine, and generally on how she has been feeling.

"Her Highness only takes medicine sent from the kitchen by you, Physician Wang, and I'm always at her side, so she doesn't eat or drink anything I have not first tasted," Nui replied to his questions feeling troubled.

From the questions Imperial Physician Wang asked, it seemed that Empress Yunqing must have been poisoned.

Who could possibly have poisoned her? And how did they achieve it? Also, who could be so brazen to throw away their lives in doing so?

Imperial Physician Wang requested the bowl of medicine she had drunk from, which Nui said was broken in the garden. So he went quickly went there to check it out before the broken pieces were swept away.

Though he was the one who prescribed and sometimes prepared the medicine, he was not entirely there for the preparation at all times.

To find out if it was according to his prescription or something was mixed in with the prescribed herbs.

When he tested out the residue from the shards, he could smell a distinct odour of an herb that was not in his prescription.

So he requested that the remnants of the medicine be brought from the kitchen to him. With that, he was able to confirm that there was another herb mixed in with his prescribed herbs.

The herb mixed in with the Imperial Physician's prescription was Cao Wu [Aconiti kusnezoffi Radix (AKR), the root of Aconitum kusnezoffi Reichb. (Commonly known as Wolf's bane, Aconite, Autumn Monkshood, etc.) Contains fast-acting poison that causes severe side effects such as nausea, vomiting, weakness, or inability to move, breathing problems, heart problems, and even death in very severe cases of poisoning.]

Though it is a plant that can restore Yang, improve fire, and disperse cold, it is not utilized due to the amount of poison it has. Due to Yunqing's Yang deficiency and the little amounts of the poison, it didn't do much to her body. And luckily, it didn't affect the child.

Imperial Physician Wang immediately reported his findings to the emperor. They needed to get to the bottom of this incident.

Imperial Physician Wang went ahead to prepare a remedy that could neutralize the herb's effects in the empress's body.

After two (2) days of being unconscious, Empress Yunqing gradually regained consciousness. She noticed that she had been moved to her bed-chamber.

"Mmmm!" she croaked out.

She saw the Imperial Physician Wang as well as other palace physicians and helpers rallying about her bed-chamber. She asked in a hoarse voice, "W-what happened?" She felt tired and weak; after all, she's been lying down for two (2) days now. She moved her hand to her aching head as she tried to sit upright on her bed.

Nui uttered with a tearful face while seeing Empress Yunqing had woken up, "Y-Your..... Your highness, you are awake!"

"Thank goodness you woke up," Nui said, sniffling as she helped Yunqing sit up on her bed.

'Woke up? Have I been asleep all this time? What exactly was going on?' Yunqing thought while remembering her dream. Or could it even be termed as a dream? But it felt so real to her.

The Imperial Physician attending to the empress, immediately told someone to inform the emperor that Yunqing had woken up.

Not long after that, the emperor's personal eunuch announced the arrival of the emperor.

There seemed to be someone who had evoked the wrath of Emperor Jingli. He seemed like he could shred a person into bits with just his anger.

Emperor Jingli roared furiously immediately he entered the chambers, "ALL OF YOU GET OUT!!!"

Nui immediately Kowtowed in front of his majesty. She stammered while Kowtowing, "Your majesty, please keep calm. Her highness just woke up and… and she is not fully recovered yet. Please, you have to find out the truth. Her highness could never do something like that."

Emperor Jingli turned a bit to his side, where Nui was kneeling on the floor, on hearing her speak. He raised an eyebrow and retorted, "HOW DARING!! HAS BEIMING BECOME A STATE WHERE THE SERVANTS ORDER THE EMPEROR ON WHAT TO DO?!!"

Nui immediately pleaded frantically, "This... This servant would never dare to do that, your majesty. Please forgive this servant from speaking out of line."

Emperor Jingli spat out in a fury, "GET OUT!! LEAVE NOW!!"

All, including Nui and Imperial Physician Wang, immediately rushed out, not daring to stay any longer for fear of the emperor unleashing his anger on them.

Nui had tried her best. She only silently prayed her highness would be okay.

Though Empress Yunqing was lost and confused, it couldn't mask the scared look on her face at the same time. Her countenance seemed to be like a little rabbit curled up in its hole.

She couldn't fathom why the emperor was in so much rage. His raging aura was like that of a lion that had been starved for years that finally found a prey (her). She could even detect the killing intent in his eyes with the menacing gaze he directed at her.

His eyes flashed with immense anger and resentment.. She wished so much that his anger and resentment were not directed at her, but no matter how you look at the situation, that seemed to not be the case.