Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 340 His Spring, My Doomsday

When Li Zisheng was leaving the palace, he happened to meet Deng Changen who was summoned into the palace.

As far as Li Zisheng could remember, this was the first time Deng Changen had been summoned by the emperor in recent months.

When the two of them looked at each other, Li Zisheng's eyes showed a hint of murderous intent, a kind of resentment that was almost like hatred, which was something Li Zisheng absolutely could not tolerate...

At the beginning, I was almost squeezed out of my living space by your alchemy skills, Deng Chang'en. This time, the emperor is desperate and has given you a chance to make a comeback. How can I let you succeed?
Li Zisheng returned home.

After arriving at the main hall, he sat there alone sulking, shaking with anger and with his eyes bulging, but no one dared to go in and disturb him. In the end, they had to rely on their aide Pang Qing to pour a bucket of cold water on Li Zisheng's gushing anger.

"Master Dao, what happened?"

Pang Qing asked cautiously.

Li Zisheng said: "Your Majesty summoned Deng Changen, and it seems that he wants to use Deng Changen's elixir to treat the disease."

Pang Qing asked, "Didn't you get two prescriptions from Zhang Hanlin earlier? Why? They don't work?"

"It's all the fault of those quack doctors at the Imperial Hospital!"

Li Zisheng said angrily, "Yesterday they gave your majesty a new medicine without authorization, causing your majesty to have vomiting and diarrhea from yesterday to now. Your majesty's body has been greatly damaged, and his illness has been made worse."

Pang Qing asked tentatively: "Then the Taoist should suggest that Zhang Hanlin come to the palace to diagnose the illness for Your Majesty. At this time, there is no time to care about other things."

"I was about to mention it, but your majesty interrupted me directly."

Li Zisheng said, "His Majesty only told me to give the fifth prince a crowning ceremony, to confer titles of nobility on several princes, and to promote Concubine Chen to Imperial Concubine. Apart from these, he never mentioned anything about curing my illness.

"As soon as I came out of the Qianqing Palace, Qin Chang told me that His Majesty had summoned Deng Changen to the palace to offer elixir, and I happened to meet him when I was leaving the palace."

"call……"

After listening to this, Pang Qing let out a long sigh.

Li Zisheng glanced at him and asked, "What's your reaction?"

Pang Qing said: "Master Dao, it seems that the root of all this is that no one can cure your majesty's illness... Do you think Deng Changen has the ability to cure diseases and save lives?"

"of course not."

Li Zisheng cursed, "He is just a charlatan, what ability does he have? It's good that his pills didn't kill people... Your Majesty and Concubine Wan's illness may be caused by taking his pills!"

"Then what are you worried about?"

Pang Qing asked.

Li Zisheng said coldly: "At this critical moment, His Majesty summoned Deng Changen again, giving him a chance to show up. Don't you think I shouldn't be worried?"

Pang Qing said: "In fact, what I am worried about is not whether the elixir Deng Changen presented is effective, but that Your Majesty chose to rely on the so-called elixir to treat the disease at a critical moment, instead of being pragmatic, and even... before the big event happened, he put these people on the table. How can this be tolerated..."

"Just speak your mind!"

Li Zisheng said, "There are no outsiders here, so we don't have to worry about the walls having ears."

Pang Qing gritted his teeth and said, "To put it bluntly, before His Majesty passed away, Deng Changen actually jumped out to stir up trouble, which made the Taoist very unhappy!"

"Bah, why are you still trying to hide it when you can just say it clearly?"

Li Zisheng said, "You bunch of pedantic scholars like to hide things. You say you have some taboos, but in fact you just keep pretending to be confused! You are like this, and Zhang Laizhan is almost the same as you."

Pang Qing said: "Master Dao, please don't compare me with Zhang Laizhan. I am far inferior to him."

Li Zisheng stood up and paced back and forth, saying, "What do you think I should do now? Zhang Laizhan's medicine is obviously no longer effective. To put it bluntly, your majesty's illness is now hanging on, and the longer it can be delayed, the better. This is the fundamental reason why Zhang Laizhan was unwilling to come forward to treat the disease."

"Correct."

Pang Qing echoed, "Who would be willing to come out to treat an incurable disease? Isn't this just asking for trouble?"

Li Zisheng said: "I just don't believe it, it can be more difficult to treat than smallpox?"

Pang Qing said: "After all, smallpox is an acute disease, belonging to the category of epidemics. If it gets better, it gets better, and if it dies, it dies. But liver disease is different. Your Majesty is already terminally ill, and Zhang Laizhan is powerless to save him. What else can we do except delay it as much as possible?

"But you don't have to worry too much, Master. Deng Changen can't handle it alone. He just offered an elixir, right? Can he be allowed to rebel? At best, he is just a minister of the Ministry of Rites."

Li Zisheng said coldly: "The Minister of the Ministry of Rites can do a lot of things. You don't understand. If something unexpected really happened, the Ministry of Rites has a closer relationship with the palace, and they want to do something... Wait, has Deng Changen been in contact with Wan'an and Liu Ji recently?"

Pang Qing asked, "Why do you ask this, Taoist?"

"them……"

Li Zisheng became more and more nervous. He stamped his feet and said, "It's bad. Although Wan'an and Liu Ji are incompetent, they have woven a dragnet in the court. Their biggest disadvantage is that they can't communicate with Your Majesty directly, so they can only rely on me at ordinary times. But recently they are not in harmony with me. If there is a Deng Chang'en who can help them communicate with Your Majesty at any time, then I will..."

"That's something we should be on guard against."

Pang Qing also felt the seriousness and urgency of the problem and hurried to remind them.

Li Zisheng's hands were shaking. He said, "I have never been more nervous than I am now. I don't know why."

Pang Qing said: "Because the Taoist is now in power, and it can even be said that he is second only to one person and above ten thousand people. Any change now will cause the Taoist to lose the power he has obtained."

"Yes."

Li Zisheng nodded.

Pang Qing asked: "Then what should we do? Find someone to bring Deng Changen to..."

"What are you talking about?" Li Zisheng said, "When Deng Changen suppressed me like that, I never thought of doing anything to him. Everything still depends on my own ability."

Pang Qing said: "But the Taoist priest himself said that if Deng Changen and Wan An got involved, what would it have to do with you, Taoist priest?"

"Humph!"

Li Zisheng gnashed his teeth and said, "That group of people are just a bunch of mediocre termites, not even as good as me. Do they still want to fight Zhang Laizhan?"

"..."

After listening to this, Pang Qing suddenly felt that his worldview was shattered.

Li Zisheng now actually thinks that Zhang Luan can handle all challenges?
This is too outrageous!
"They are forcing me to stand on the side of the crown prince now." Li Zisheng said viciously, "I used to have great concerns about getting close to the crown prince. I thought it was taboo to have secret dealings with the crown prince when His Majesty was around. But now the situation is different. I can only consider myself as a member of the crown prince's party..."

Pang Qing hurriedly asked, "Master Dao, what are you talking about? Are you planning to...go directly to visit the Crown Prince? Or are you planning to visit the lecturer in the East Palace?"

Li Zisheng said, "If I want to get close to the crown prince, do I have to meet him directly? Even if I go to see the lecturers in the East Palace, those blockheads will definitely report my affairs to His Majesty. Wouldn't it be better if I go directly to Zhang Laizhan?

"As long as Zhang Laizhan's daughter, our Crown Princess, speaks a few good words to the Crown Prince and lets him know my position clearly, isn't that enough?"

"Can you gain the prince's trust?"

Pang Qing asked tentatively, "Should we do something? What can we bring to the prince?"

Li Zisheng frowned and said, "Your brain is quite useful. What can you give the prince... What does the prince need? This... The prince doesn't lack money, and he doesn't lack women. He lacks power. Can I give it to him? And then...

"Help me think about this carefully. If you can't figure it out, don't even eat! Use every possible means to help me figure it out in the next few days! How should I surrender to the prince so that he will trust me? Go and think about it!"

……

……

In the Qianqing Palace.

Deng Chang'en presented his elixir to Zhu Jianshen.

Zhu Jianshen did not hide anything and swallowed the pill in front of Qin Chang, Wei Tai and others.

Afterwards, Deng Chang'en was not summoned alone, but was dismissed by the emperor and asked to wait outside.

More than an hour later, Deng Chang'en was summoned again. At this time, the windows in the Qianqing Palace had been opened, and Zhu Jianshen had people prepare the fragrant bath water. He was finally going to take a hot bath.

It was only when he became so dirty that even he couldn't stand the body odor that he thought of changing.

"Mr. Deng, your medicine is quite effective. I suddenly feel stronger and a fire is rising from below my navel to my head, and my whole body is warm."

Zhu Jianshen said.

Qin Chang and others couldn't help but look out the window.

I thought to myself, wow, it’s already the end of May and the weather is almost as hot as June, and Your Majesty actually feels warm?
Still feeling comfortable?

Shouldn't it be hot?
Are we celebrating the same season?

Deng Chang'en said respectfully, "Your Majesty, the elixir I presented to you does have such an effect. It can make people feel like they are in heaven, and any disease can be cured without medicine. Because the immortals never need to take medicine."

Tan Chang asked: "Since you don't need to take medicine, why do you still take pills?"

Deng Chang'en glanced over and said with a smile: "Eunuch Qin, you don't understand. What I mean by taking medicine is taking medicine because of illness. Immortals will not get sick. The pills they take are not medicine at all, but are used for daily conditioning. They can make immortals feel relaxed and comfortable, and can keep them young forever..."

"Hehehe."

Zhu Jianshen was all smiles.

Qin Chang quickly fell silent.

Because Qin Chang felt that he hadn't seen the emperor smile for a long time, and the emperor's smile now seemed to tell him that Zhu Jianshen had adopted Deng Changen's ridiculous theory.

"Okay, you all can go out."

Zhu Jianshen said, "I need to take a bath. Also, Mr. Deng, go see the Concubine Chen. She wants to see you for something. She is in the Jiaotai Palace."

"Yes."

Deng Changen bowed respectfully and said, "I'll go right away."

……

……

Deng Chang'en continued to walk into the palace with the eunuchs, and Qin Chang and Wei Tai were not allowed to accompany them.

When Tan and Wei came out of the Qianqing Palace, they saw that a group of palace maids had already gone in to help the emperor bathe and change clothes.

Wei Tai pointed inside and asked, "Is your Majesty healed? It's really miraculous. After taking one pill, your Majesty's vomiting and diarrhea stopped."

Qin Chang said: "This has lasted for a day and a night, it's time to stop! This has nothing to do with your majesty's illness. Your majesty said it was caused by eating sea fish, but I always feel that there is something wrong with the new medicine used by the Imperial Hospital... By the way, where are Zhang Yuan and others?"

Wei Tai said helplessly, "He has no face to show up. Originally, they said that the people in the Imperial Hospital were proud. Your Majesty used two prescriptions to reduce jaundice, but they dared to introduce new ones... Who knew... I think Your Majesty is just merciful and didn't do anything to them."

Qin Chang turned his head and glanced in the direction of Jiaotai Hall, and said, "First, Li Zisheng went to see the Concubine Chen, and now it's Deng Changen. What exactly does Your Majesty want?"

Wei Tai shook his head and said, "To put it bluntly, this may be... an ominous sign."

(End of this chapter)