541 Exposed, The Emperor’s Suspicion
Unlike the Queen’s dignified and gentle voice that was like a long stream, this rooster cry was sharp and ear-piercing, making all the royal relatives, palace maids, and even the Empress and the Emperor shiver.
Everyone still did not know the expressions of the others. Their first reaction was that they had heard wrongly. After all, the person standing there was none other than the Princess of Nanzhao Nation, who was the most talented and respected the rules. How could she make such a terrifying and ridiculous sound? Wouldn’t this be a hen that laid eggs?
Not to mention that no one believed it, even the Queen did not believe it. What happened just now? Wasn’t she supposed to thank everyone for coming to attend her birthday banquet? Why did the moment she opened her mouth… it became strange…
The Queen refused to say those words in her heart. She was stunned, so much so that she did not figure out what was wrong with her immediately. She was born and raised in the royal family. She had the noblest etiquette. She was a born politician. She was good at dealing with any complicated situation, but it did not include this situation.
This had simply exceeded her imagination. She had never learned it since she was young, let alone thought of dealing with such a situation one day.
It was only when the servant at the front kept winking at her, as if asking her what was wrong, that she suddenly came back to her senses.
She took a deep breath and quietly glanced at the dumbfounded crowd, as well as her father and mother, who were trying their best to suppress their shock. She smiled and pretended that nothing had happened. Then, she would gently and appropriately thank the Emperor and the Empress and the relatives who had come to attend the banquet. However, she did not expect that the moment she opened her mouth, it was still an ear-piercing “cluck—cluck—cluck—”
This time, everyone confirmed that they had not heard wrongly. The Queen of the Nanzhao Nation really let out a rooster cry in public. The worst thing was that there was a pheasant for viewing in the flowers. The pheasant was affected by the Queen and also let out a resonant sound. “Cluck cluck—”
The Queen: “Cluck cluck—”
Don’t scream!
The pheasant: “Cluck cluck—”
I’ll scream!
The man and the chicken called out to each other from afar.
The Queen simply did not understand what was wrong with her. She was anxious to explain herself, but the moment she opened her mouth, she could not help but cluck. She could only shut her mouth, but so what if she shut her mouth so tightly? She had already made a fool of herself.
Everyone looked like they had seen a ghost. Some of the babies were so frightened that they cried, while some of the bold children could not help but laugh. The servants lowered their heads and held it in. They were not allowed to laugh!
A two-year-old child who came to attend the banquet suddenly pointed at the Queen and said, “Chicken! Mother, chicken!”
This became the last straw to bend the camel. The scene instantly lost control.
When the Emperor saw that the situation was bad, he quickly asked the servant to pull the stunned Queen down. The Queen did go down, but the heated discussion about her did not subside.
No one would believe that the Queen was joking with everyone. Looking at her dumbfounded expression, it was obvious that she could not control herself. In the crowd, someone whispered, “Hey, do you think the Queen looks like she’s been poisoned?”
Nanzhao was the holy land of the Gu Clan. Almost every large family would raise one or two Gu Masters, so everyone accepted the fact of being poisoned by Gu.
“Nonsense!” Another person said. “The Queen has the artifact. How can such an inferior Gu get close to her?”
The holy artifact was the King of Ten Thousand Gu. Ordinary Gu worms would either hide far away or be frightened to death when they saw it. How could they bite its master? Wasn’t this blatantly challenging the authority of the Ten Thousand Gu King?
Everyone thought about it and felt that it made sense. The Queen had a Gu King, so it was unlikely that she would be poisoned by such a small Gu. But if she was not poisoned, what was with her rooster crowing just now?
A guest said, “Let’s not guess blindly. Let’s wait for the Emperor and Empress to explain.”
The birthday banquet was ruined before it even started. In the history of Nanzhao, there had never been such a disgraceful thing. The Emperor was very angry.
After the Queen was pulled down, she fainted from anger. When she woke up again, it was fifteen minutes later.
What the guests could guess, the Emperor naturally guessed after he came back to his senses. He got someone to call a Gu Master over.
After the Gu Master diagnosed the Queen, he confirmed that she had been poisoned by a Gu. However, it was not a strong poisonous black Gu, but a white Gu used to tease people. The Gu Master spent some effort to take out the Gu worm. Then, he smoked some mugwort to remove the Gu worm for the Queen to ensure that there was no more left on her body.
“You can leave first. Don’t announce that the Queen has been poisoned.”
When the Queen regained consciousness, she heard the Emperor giving the Gu Master a gag order. So she was poisoned? Her eyes, which had almost opened, immediately closed in shock. She would rather be poisoned by a poisonous black Gu that made her want to cry than by this white Gu that seemed to be harmless but shamed her in front of everyone.
Thinking of her embarrassing state at the banquet, the Queen wished she could die on the spot! Her buried hand clenched into a fist. She did not understand how she had been poisoned. From the beginning to the end, she had never let outsiders get close. She only felt a sharp pain on her head after putting on the phoenix crown. Did she get bitten by a Gu worm at that time?
But the phoenix crown was personally handed to her by her father and mother. Why did they want to harm her? No, there must be a mistake. She was the only Princess they had raised. No one would harm her. So what went wrong?
On one hand, the Queen was thinking hard with her eyes closed. On the other hand, the Empress entered the room with the help of a palace maid. Such a big thing had happened just now, and the Empress had almost fainted. Only now did she catch her breath under the imperial physician’s acupuncture.
“Why are you here?” The Emperor personally held the Empress’s hand and said.
The two of them were childhood sweethearts. After so many years, the Empress was no longer beautiful, but the Emperor’s feelings for the Empress were not inferior to before. He still doted on her very much.
The Empress sat down by the bed and looked at her unconscious daughter. Her heart ached as she said, “How can I not come over after such a big thing happened? What did the Gu Master say? Was she really poisoned?”
The Emperor nodded.
“Then is she alright?” The Empress asked worriedly.
Upon hearing this, a trace of bitterness flashed across the Queen’s heart. Her mother was indeed the person who doted on her the most in the world. After such a thing happened, the first thing she did was not to suspect that her holy artifact was gone, but to care about her body. She was so lucky to be the daughter of her mother in this life.
When the Emperor heard the Empress’s tone, he knew that it would be difficult to say what happened next. The Emperor nodded. “She’s fine. The Gu poison has been cleared. I believe she’ll wake up soon.”
The Empress’s expression relaxed. She raised her hand to touch the Queen’s forehead. “It’s good that she’s fine.”
“Ah Zhen.” The Emperor thought for a while and decided to remind the Empress. “She shouldn’t have been poisoned.”
The Empress stroked her daughter’s forehead lovingly. “Indeed, she shouldn’t. She’s the Queen of the Nanzhao Nation. I want to see who has the guts to poison her.”
The Emperor understood that the Empress did not understand what he meant. He sighed and finally made it clear. “If she had the holy artifact, she shouldn’t have been poisoned.”
The Queen’s heart skipped a beat. The thing she was most worried about still happened. Her mother was a woman and always doted on her children unconditionally, but her father was the ruler of a country. His heart was filled with the entire Nanzhao Nation. He was not as easy to fool as his mother.
The Empress turned around and asked the Emperor, “She didn’t bring the holy artifact with her?”
The Emperor looked at the Empress with a complicated expression and said, “Ah Zhen, once the holy artifact recognizes its master, it won’t leave its master easily. You understand this.”
The Empress said, “Then let’s wait for her to wake up and ask her what’s going on.” A few minutes later, the Queen slowly “woke up”. She weakly called her mother and husband. The Empress held her hand and said lovingly, “You were poisoned just now. You’re fine now. Tell Father and Mother, why were you poisoned? Is your holy artifact not with you anymore?”
The Queen looked at her worried mother and then at the cold-faced Emperor. She nodded and said aggrievedly, “I was afraid that Father would be angry that the holy artifact was missing, so I didn’t dare to tell you.”
“Why was the holy artifact missing?” The Empress asked in shock.
The Queen shook her head and said in shame, “I don’t know either. When I woke up, the holy artifact had been stolen.”
This was the truth. However, the holy artifact was not stolen from her, but from the treasure vault of the Queen Manor. Of course, there was no need to tell the Emperor and Empress about this.
The Emperor looked at the Queen and said, “You should know that the holy artifact is not an ordinary Gu King. No Gu Elder in Nanzhao can force it to leave its master, not even the new Seventy-feet Gu Elder. Unless it doesn’t recognize its master.”
The Queen’s face turned pale!
