A group of imperial physicians claimed they were helpless because of a stomachache!

A stomachache! Had the imperial physicians become so stupid? They couldn’t even treat a simple stomachache?

She originally didn’t want to make things difficult. Since you’ve spoken up, she’d give you some face, but at least make your excuse sound reasonable!

If she let this pass, wouldn’t it make people laugh at her, the Empress Dowager, for being too foolish?

This wasn’t a plea for mercy—this was blatant disrespect!

“If it really doesn’t work, go outside and find a physician to take a look,” the Empress Dowager said with a mocking smile. “Any random street doctor could cure this stomachache.”

The little eunuch also looked embarrassed.

He had already told them—the people from the Imperial Medical Academy needed to change their explanation, because this one definitely wouldn’t work!

This was just asking for a scolding!

“Your Majesty, this stomachache shouldn’t be taken lightly either,” Qi Yue hastily said.

The Empress Dowager smiled.

“This dowager knows, this dowager hasn’t taken you lightly,” she said. If earlier there had only been sarcasm hidden in her words, now the Empress Dowager’s displeasure was undisguised on her face.

“This commoner woman doesn’t mean that. I’m saying that a stomachache could also be a very serious illness,” Qi Yue said with lowered head again.

“Yes, did you hear that?” The Empress Dowager looked toward the little eunuch. “Tell the imperial physicians that stomachaches are very serious, and they should examine him properly. Don’t let them fail to cure even a stomachache and lose face for imperial physicians.”

The little eunuch didn’t want to stay there for even a moment longer—it was simply too humiliating. He quickly responded and retreated.

Qi Yue sighed inwardly. Whatever. She had struck a dignified Little Prince—it would be too heaven-defying if no one spoke ill of her. She had expected this long ago, so she would just endure it.

When the Emperor arrived, Qi Yue was no longer listening to the Empress Dowager’s lecture.

“Why has the Emperor come? Isn’t this a busy time?” the Empress Dowager asked with a mocking smile.

“I heard that Mother’s health was uncomfortable?” the Emperor asked.

“No,” the Empress Dowager replied very directly with a smile. “Someone in the palace asked this dowager to have this Lady Qi examine an illness. Everyone has admired this divine physician’s great reputation for a long time. It’s just that this Lady Qi is not very easy to invite.”

Speaking, she looked at the Emperor.

“Emperor, you won’t be displeased, will you?” she asked with a smile.

The Emperor smiled.

“She’s indeed not very easy to invite,” he said, then picked up the tea beside him, took a sip, and asked the Empress Dowager about other matters, changing the subject.

The Empress Dowager didn’t say anything else and followed his lead in conversation.

The Empress stood behind the pearl curtain in another room, watching the mother and son chatting happily over there, and smiled.

“No matter what, His Majesty hasn’t spoken with the Empress Dowager like this for a long time,” she said.

A middle-aged palace maid beside her responded in agreement.

“It seems that being able to keep this female physician is still a good thing for the Empress Dowager,” the Empress said again.

“That’s her good fortune,” the palace maid said with a smile.

The Empress looked outside the curtain, where the Emperor was showing a smiling face, apparently having said something to the Empress Dowager.

“Indeed, it’s her good fortune,” the Empress murmured.

The time for a cup of tea passed quickly. No one came to the room the entire time, and the Empress Dowager didn’t send anyone out either.

The Emperor picked up his tea and took a sip.

“Your Majesty should attend to your duties,” the Empress Dowager said with a smile. “There are many matters in the front court, so Your Majesty need not worry about this dowager’s affairs.”

The Emperor nodded.

Just as they were speaking, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, people from the Imperial Medical Academy have come!” The eunuchs came running in.

The Empress Dowager’s face immediately darkened.

Were they really going to be stubborn about this?

The Emperor showed no expression, still holding his tea.

“This dowager hasn’t reached the point where she needs those people from the Imperial Medical Academy!” the Empress Dowager said sternly. “Tell them that when this dowager is dying, she’ll naturally go find them!”

Oh my, these words were quite harsh. The eunuchs all knelt down, but no one retreated.

“Your Majesty, people from the Imperial Medical Academy have carried the Little Prince here,” they shouted.

What?

Everyone in the room was stunned.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please have Lady Qi come take a look quickly,” Zhou Maochun’s voice rang out from outside.

Only Zhou Maochun could think of and dare to do such a thing.

The Emperor put down his teacup and smiled slightly.

The Empress Dowager had also recovered her senses by now, and her complexion was very ugly.

Too excessive! To actually play such a trick!

“Carry him in!” the Empress Dowager shouted. “This dowager wants to see just how this stomachache has left the Imperial Medical Academy helpless!”

A series of chaotic footsteps, and indeed four eunuchs carried in a stretcher.

“Oh, this is the kind of stretcher that Lady Qi’s medicine factory produces,” Cai Zhong hastily pointed out to the Emperor.

The Emperor nodded and looked at the stretcher with interest.

Others looked at the person lying on the stretcher.

Little Prince Sima lay on the stretcher, letting out cry after cry of pain.

“Hey, those straps, are they originally part of the stretcher?” the Emperor asked, pointing to the wide straps that secured Little Prince Sima to the stretcher.

“They should be,” Cai Zhong guessed.

“Quite thoughtfully designed,” the Emperor smiled.

While the master and servant talked here, the Empress Dowager had been frightened into standing up by Little Prince Sima’s condition.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” she shouted.

Was it really a stomachache?

And it hurt this severely?

“Did you, did you deliberately not treat him?” the Empress Dowager suddenly pointed at the imperial physicians who had followed in.

The imperial physicians were stunned.

“Your Majesty!” Zhou Maochun shouted. “You can accuse us of being stupid, of not being able to cure patients, but you cannot say we haven’t given our all to treat them!”

The Empress Dowager snorted.

“Peng-ge’er? Peng-ge’er?” She temporarily couldn’t be bothered with these imperial physicians and bent down, grasping the Little Prince’s hand anxiously, “How are you? How did it become like this?”

Apart from crying that it hurt, that he was dying of pain, the Little Prince couldn’t answer anything else.

The Empress also came out, and a group of people surrounded the stretcher, anxious and panicked, crying and shouting in chaos.

“What exactly happened?” the Emperor finally stood up and asked.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, the Little Prince’s abdominal pain worsened last night. Upon inquiry, he had previously experienced abdominal pain symptoms, but they were mild and he paid no attention to them. Counting roughly, it’s been about four or five days,” an imperial physician said with a bow.

“No diarrhea. Mild vomiting,” another imperial physician added.

“No high fever or chills,” yet another imperial physician said.

The Emperor frowned.

“Who asked you about this!” he said. “This Emperor only asks what happened!”

“Your Majesty, we suspect that the Little Prince ate something he shouldn’t have,” Zhou Maochun said.

“Nonsense,” the Empress Dowager frowned beside him. “Of course stomachaches come from eating the wrong things. Since you know this, why don’t you quickly use medicine?”

“We’ve used everything, nothing works,” Zhou Maochun shook his head. “That’s why we need to invite Lady Qi.”

Again, this Lady Qi!

She didn’t believe it at all. This Zhou Maochun was clearly trying to coerce her!

Wasn’t he doing exactly that right now?

Dominating the position of Imperial Medical Academy Director, wasn’t it just to deal with those who had offended him?

He was actually using this trick on her too!

For this so-called adopted daughter! For this inexplicable woman! He actually used Little Prince Sima as a target!

What kind of person was Little Prince Sima?

Had both the Emperor and Zhou Maochun gone mad?

“What could inviting her accomplish? You’re such a large group, all with white hair and beards, have you all lived your years in vain? Why must you insist on calling for a young woman? What could she do when she comes? Does she have an extra hand or an extra eye compared to you?” the Empress Dowager shouted angrily.

“When she comes, she can take out what the Little Prince ate wrong from his stomach!” Zhou Maochun looked at her and also raised his voice.

What?

Take things out from the stomach?

The Empress Dowager was stunned.

“Your Majesty, it’s been a whole night already. If we delay any longer, the Little Prince’s life can’t be saved! The pain alone will kill him!” Zhou Maochun stepped forward again.

“Go invite Lady Qi,” the Emperor said, sitting down to the side.

With the Emperor’s command, a palace maid hurried toward the back of the hall. After waiting for a long time, no one came out.

“What’s going on? Is she putting on airs, waiting for this Emperor to personally invite her?” the Emperor suddenly shouted, sweeping a teacup from beside him to the ground.

The Emperor’s sudden anger frightened everyone in the great hall into silence.

In the quieted great hall, the Little Prince’s cries of pain became even more frightening, as if he might die at any moment.

“Reporting to Your Majesty,” a palace maid had no choice but to come forward with courage. “Lady Qi, Lady Qi has been invited away by Noble Consort Xian…”

The Emperor said nothing, his expression dark and uncertain.

“Why don’t you quickly go invite her back,” the Empress Dowager said in a low voice.

Someone had already gone to invite her. But the palace maid still responded and ran out.

At this moment, Qi Yue was in Noble Consort Xian’s palace, where a five or six-year-old girl was leaning against Noble Consort Xian’s side, crying and shouting while throwing things from her hands at Qi Yue.

“Bad person go away, bad person go away!” she shouted.

“Good girl, Rong-rong. Let the female physician examine you—why don’t you like to eat?” Noble Consort Xian said gently, not stopping the child’s crying and fussing.

After speaking, she looked at Qi Yue with some dissatisfaction.

“Do you actually know how to treat illness?” she said. “Why do you just stand there stupidly? Examine the Little Princess!”

This child wasn’t sick at all! Look at the strength and spirit in her crying and shouting! Qi Yue felt somewhat helpless.

“Your Majesty, the Little Princess is perfectly healthy,” she said again.

“Oh, so you mean this consort is deliberately making things difficult for you?” Noble Consort Xian said with a dark expression.

Qi Yue straightened her posture and looked at this consort.

“I don’t mean that,” she said.

“How dare you! You actually refer to yourself as ‘I’ before Her Majesty!” a palace maid beside her immediately scolded. “What kind of thing are you!”

“I’m not any kind of thing,” Qi Yue said. “Your Majesty, since you say I’m a female physician, but then you don’t believe what I, this female physician, say, then what exactly did you call me here for?”

My goodness, no wonder the Empress Dowager deliberately wanted to make this woman look bad!

Look at this arrogant attitude!

Just because she had Zhou Maochun’s backing, she was running rampant in the palace?

She hadn’t even saved the Grand Empress Dowager’s life!

She actually dared to strike Little Prince Sima, who was very precious in the Empress Dowager’s eyes!

How could the Empress Dowager not vent this anger!

Noble Consort Xian was furious and heavily slapped the table.

“How dare you, base slave, speak to this consort like this! Someone drag her out and give her thirty strokes of the rod,” she shouted.

Before her words finished, four or five palace maids and eunuchs came running hurriedly into the hall.

These were people from the Empress Dowager’s side. Noble Consort Xian was very pleased.

But those people entered as if they hadn’t seen Noble Consort Xian, and went straight to bow to Qi Yue.

“Lady Qi, quickly, quickly, the Empress Dowager and His Majesty request you to come quickly. Little Prince Sima is ill and waiting for you to save his life,” a palace maid said breathlessly.

What?

Waiting for her to save his life?

Everyone was stunned, and Qi Yue was also stunned.

“Then…” She didn’t lift her feet, but looked at Noble Consort Xian with a serious expression. “Your Majesty, should I receive your rod punishment first before going, or should I come back later to receive it?”