Five years after her death, she awoke on the dragon bed.

Chapter 322 Innovation for the Lantern Festival
Empress Dowager Chen, no longer wanting to entangle with Lady Chu, said in a deep voice to Fang Ruo, "Send the guests out. The Duke's mansion doesn't need to send anyone to the palace anytime soon; I will not see them!"

Upon hearing this, Chu's expression changed. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but seeing Empress Dowager Chen's gloomy face, she immediately dared not utter another word.

No wonder everyone says the Empress Dowager values ​​the Empress more; it seems to be true now. She only said one bad thing about the Empress, and the Empress Dowager got really angry. This clearly shows that she values ​​the Empress more than the Chen family, which is not a good sign.

If neither of the two daughters of the Chen family can be helped, it will be even more difficult to reverse the decline of the Duke of Fuguo's mansion in the future.

Lady Chu left the palace with a heavy heart, pondering all the way how to report back to the old lady.

Shou'an Palace.

Although Lady Chu was gone, Empress Dowager Chen was still so angry that she could hardly breathe: "The Chen family has relied on women for generations, why don't they know how to work on their male offspring? The Chen family has so many boys, if just one of them were capable, would the Chen family be unable to stand firm in the court?!"

Seeing that Empress Dowager Chen was angry, Fangruo advised, "Your Majesty, please don't worry and ruin your health. You have done enough for the Chen family over the years. If the men of the Chen family do not know how to improve themselves, that is their own problem."

Empress Dowager Chen did not want to continue this unpleasant topic, but the resentment lingered in her heart and could not be dispelled.

Fangruo didn't know what to do and could only wait and see.

That evening, Empress Dowager Chen suddenly developed a high fever. Fangruo immediately sent someone to fetch the imperial physician and also went to Xianfu Palace to invite Murong over.

Lou Suyi was also worried about Empress Dowager Chen's health, so she and Murong went to Shou'an Palace to visit her in the middle of the night.

Murong asked Fangruo what had happened, but Fangruo didn't dare to get to the point and only said that Empress Dowager Chen had caught a cold.

Lou Suyi, however, could tell that Fangruo was not telling the truth. While Murong was questioning Physician Liu, she called Fangruo aside and asked, "What exactly happened? Aunt, please tell the truth."

Fang Ru hesitated for a moment, but Lou Suyi could guess the gist of it: "Is it related to the Duke of Fu's wife entering the palace?"

Murong told her about Chu's entry into the palace. After a little thought, she could guess why Chu had entered the palace. It was simply to get Empress Dowager Chen to help Chen Xing ascend the throne.

Empress Dowager Chen only gave birth to one son, Murong. It is said that during the reign of the late emperor, she was framed by other concubines, which caused her to be unable to have children again and also damaged her health. Her health is not very good now.

It must have been something that Chu said that stirred up Empress Dowager Chen's worries, which is why she suddenly fell ill after being unable to resolve her depression.

Seeing that Lou Suying guessed correctly, Fang Ruo could no longer hide it: "The Empress Dowager only resents that the Duke of Fuguo's mansion always pins its hopes for the revitalization of the Chen family on women. During the late emperor's reign, the Empress Dowager was often pressured by the Chen family, who said that Chen family women should dedicate their lives to the family, and that His Majesty's lack of favor with the late emperor was due to the Empress Dowager's incompetence. In fact, the Empress Dowager lived a very repressed life during the late emperor's reign, and Consort Kang caused her a lot of suffering. Now that His Majesty has ascended the throne and is finally living a good life, the Chen family is still putting pressure on the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager's sudden illness must be because she is thinking of those unpleasant things from the past."

As a close attendant to the Empress Dowager, how could she not know the Empress Dowager's inner turmoil?

Perhaps it's because the Chen family never treated the Empress Dowager as family, but only as a pawn to be used?
Lou Suying asked in a low voice, "Was it because I put you in a difficult position that Mother fell ill?"

Fang Ruo chuckled and shook her head: "Empress Dowager also knows that the problem is not with Empress. His Majesty's dislike of Consort An is His Majesty's business, what does it have to do with Empress? What Empress Dowager hates is that the Chen family is inactive and places all their hopes on the Chen family girl."

Lou Suyi thought to herself that Empress Dowager Chen had it tough. She had been pressured by the Chen family during the reign of the late emperor, but now that she was Empress Dowager, the Chen family still had to teach her how to do things. Who would be happy in that situation?
"If the Empress Dowager's inner conflict is not resolved, her illness will heal slowly, and you will need to persuade her more." Lou Suying was at a loss for what to do.

"This servant tried to persuade Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, but she wouldn't listen. In my opinion, the way to cheer Her Majesty the Empress Dowager up is to divert her attention, for example, by having Her Majesty the Empress give birth to more imperial heirs. Once Her Majesty sees that, Her Majesty the Empress Dowager will definitely not have any extra thoughts about the Chen family." With just one sentence, Fang Ruo put pressure on Lou Suyi.

Lou Suyi subconsciously looked at her stomach.

Fangruo then realized she had misspoke and quickly added, "This servant was just saying, Your Highness, please don't take it seriously."

Lou Suying sighed softly, not avoiding the topic: "I don't know what's going on. I got pregnant with Chen'er very quickly, so why is there still no sign of the second child?"

Fangruo thought that the Empress was a magnanimous person and wouldn't get angry with a mere maid like her.

"I believe that even family ties depend on fate. Perhaps Your Highness will conceive soon. Your Highness is still so young, and you already have a little prince. It's not too late to take care of your health before trying to conceive again," Fangruo advised.

Lou Suying was not so optimistic: "I'd better have Physician Liu take another look at me another day, just in case there's something wrong with my health."

However, Empress Dowager Chen's health is the most important thing right now.

Soon, Imperial Physician Liu gave Empress Dowager Chen acupuncture, and she also took antipyretics. After the fever subsided, Empress Dowager Chen's condition stabilized in the latter half of the night.

Murong then accompanied Lou Suyi back to Xianfu Palace. The couple were both exhausted and fell asleep as soon as they lay down on the bed.

Empress Dowager Chen's illness came on quickly but recovered slowly, not fully recovering until the tenth day of the month, though she had also lost weight.

Lou Suyi went to Shou'an Palace every day to attend to the ailing Empress Dowager Chen, often trying to make her happy. Perhaps it was because of her company that Empress Dowager Chen was always smiling.

Before we knew it, it was the Lantern Festival again.

This time, Lou Suyi intentionally innovated by holding a large-scale lantern festival in the palace and preparing some fun indoor sports, such as pitch-pot and ball-throwing.

In addition, there was a riddle-guessing activity where participants could win prizes, making it much more enriching than the usual Lantern Festival banquets with their dances and music.

Consort De had heard early on that Lou Suyi would be making some innovations for this year's Lantern Festival. She had wondered what kind of tricks the ancients could come up with.
Upon arriving at the scene, she suddenly realized that Lou Suying might also have traveled from another time.

Although these things are nothing new, Lou Suyi brought the folk lantern festival into the palace and let unmarried young men and women play together, which was quite bold.

Even she, a modern person, thought it was quite creative, but some old-fashioned people were unhappy about it, feeling that having young men and women hanging out together would damage the reputation of young ladies.

With so many people present, it was impossible to exchange gifts privately.

Moreover, it was the Lantern Festival organized by the current Empress, so who can say that the Empress was wrong?

Murong saw the young men and women guessing riddles nearby and whispered to Lou Suyi, "Do you remember that time you almost bumped into me on the Lantern Festival one year?"