Yun Fenghuang thought for a moment, looked up and asked, “Although My Lady can’t get me out of Hu Zhu Palace now, what about later in the future?”
“If there is a chance in the future, I will get you out. I surely don’t want my aunt and Qingman to be sad.” Noble Consort Shu looked at her with appreciation and her tone softened, “Although you are not the daughter of Yun’s Family, you are my aunt’s niece, which makes you my cousin. We are relatives. I don’t want to make things difficult for you if I could.”
“My Lady,” Hearing this, Yun Fenghuang felt like being in relief inwardly and was more daring. She asked tentatively with bright eyes, “Although Hu Zhu Palace seems to be a dangerous place, Consort Yue is not a forgiving and kind person, and I offended her greatly now... Now that you are willing to tell me the truth in detail, My Lady, does that mean I still have a chance to live?”
Otherwise, she had no need to tell these things to a person doomed to die.
The appreciation in Noble Consort Shu’s eyes grew stronger, “This is one of the reasons why I want you to join the Imperial Harem...You are really smart.”
She pointed out, “In the final analysis, this thing is caused by Empress Ji. She wants to make trouble for Consort Yue and Queen Mother Yuan, which has nothing to do with us. Consort Yue is impulsive and jealous, but Queen Mother Yuan is not a woodenhead. Queen Mother Yuan arranged a noble lady to live in Hu Zhu Palace. She wanted to prove that her niece was not jealous and narrow-hearted. Although Consort Yue is stupid and does not understand her aunt’s good intention, Queen Mother Yuan definitely would prohibit her from going beyond her bounds after this drama. Therefore, you have no need to be too scared now. Consort Yue has to obey Queen Mother Yuan finally.”
... Yun Fenghuang came out of Tong Xia Palace with Yun Qingman’s constant apologies. On the way back to Hu Zhu Palace, Yun Fenghuang told Nian Xuan briefly about the former conversation in the front hall, but Nian Xuan was doubtful, “Is this thing really that simple? If so, why did Duke Yi choose you to be the scapegoat of Mei Ren Yun? I think Noble Consort Shu might cajole us, My Lady.”
“Even if she lied, we can do nothing.” Yun Fenghuang said lightly, “We joined the Imperial Harem without any preparation. How could we know so many details? There is no way to find out the truth right now, so we can’t prove whether Noble Consort Shu lied or not. However, I just fell into the water yesterday. If I have any trouble immediately, Consort Yue could not prove her innocence even if she jumps into the Tai Ye Pool. At this point, Noble Consort Shu’s words make some sense.”
However, it could only keep Yun Fenghuang’s safety for a while, not for long.
Nian Xuan was in relief inwardly after hearing that, but frowned again after thinking about it, “Noble Consort Shu has mentioned our family. What did she mean?”
She didn’t believe Noble Consort Shu would really take care of Xie’s Family.
“Chut!” Yun Fenghuang didn’t take Noble Consort Shu’s implying threat to her heart at all, and tittered, “Our family locates in Dingbei Army’s domain. It is not so easy for Duke Yi’s Mansion to reach their forces there! Besides, I am now the daughter of Yun’s Family, which was personally announced by Duke Yi. If Yun’s Family dares to do anything to Xie’s Family, I will assassinate the Emperor and the Empress tomorrow, implicating all the nine generations of Yun’s Family to be capital crimes.”
Nian Xuan said anxiously, “How does this work? You are more important than Yun’s Family, My Lady.”
Such a stupid maid... Forgot it. Anyway, she’s loyal.
Yun Fenghuang sighed inwardly, and then said expressionlessly, “Do you really think Noble Consort Shu would send people to the north to threat Xie’s Family because of me? You think too highly of me. I’m just a Bao Lin!”
She bet that Noble Consort Shu just mentioned it casually. It would be great to scare her, but it didn’t matter if not.
It didn’t matter at least for the time being.
After all, Yun Fenghuang joined the Imperial Harem for a short time. It was hard to say whether she would be useful in the future. The manpower of Duke Yi’s Mansion was limited. As her current status, they would at most learn more about Xie’s Family to prepare for the future... If Yun Fenghuang couldn’t reach a relatively high status, Noble Consort Shu herself would deal with her. She didn’t have to bother threatening Xie’s Family at the north.
… Yun Fenghuang and Nian Xuan walked back to Hu Zhu Palace leisurely. When they walked to a deserted place, Yun Fenghuang turned her eyes and suddenly stopped. She asked Nian Xuan to look for a clean place nearby if she could, planning to sit for a while before going back.
Nian Xuan looked at the lush grass and trees on both sides of the palace road, hesitating, “Bao Lin, there might be snakes and bugs. If you are tired, let’s walk forward. I remember there is a gazebo ahead.”
“Just be obedient. Don’t act on your own.” Yun Fenghuang frowned. She took off her Pibo (a long chiffon that was used to put on women’s sleeves as decoration) to slash the grass, trying to startle the snakes and bugs. Then she walked on and found a hibiscus hedge to sit. This hedge seemed like a path that was about 10 zhang (about 33 meters) before, and it must be beautiful when the flowers blossomed. But after years of disrepair, now it was about three or four zhang (about 9.9 to 13.2 meters). In this season, the tender leaves were swept in the wind, looking lovely.
Although it was not dense enough, Yun Fenghuang and Nian Xuan didn’t wear luxurious or complicated clothes. When they hid behind it, people on the palace road wouldn’t see them if they didn’t detour here.
After Yun Fenghuang sat down without hesitation, Nian Xuan also sat down. Nian Xuan was about to speak, but was glanced by Yun Fenghuang severely and was signaled to be silent!
Nian Xuan was puzzled, keeping quiet for a while. See nothing happened, she was about to say something. But after a glance of the expressionless face of Yun Fenghuang, she had to shrink her head, hold back the impulse to ask, and pull the grass in front of her boringly.
After a while, a group of people came from the direction of Hu Zhu Palace with maids’ cries of injustice and others’ hilarious conversation, seeming very boisterous... Nian Xuan couldn’t help but stop pulling the grass, subconsciously peeking from the gap between the leaves of the hibiscus. The more she saw, the bigger her eyes were. She even held her breath. A while later, those people went away. She carefully asked her lady with no sound if she could speak.
“Say it.” Yun Fenghuang stood up contentedly, “Whom did you see just now?”
“The head seems to be a maid of the Empress.” Although Yun Fenghuang said that she could speak, Nian Xuan still murmured in fear of being heard by anyone, “The ones they arrested... are the maids of Hu Zhu Palace. The head of them is Consort Yue’s leading maid.”
Yun Fenghuang was not surprised to hear this. She chuckled and said, “As I expected, the Empress had dismissed with us, but Queen Mother Ji still didn’t let Consort Yue go. Either she was waiting for Queen Mother Yuan to beg for leniency, or she kept Hu Zhu Place having no charger at the moment, which would be convenient for the Empress to replace Consort Yue to punish some maids in Hu Zhu Palace.”
Consort Yue did a bad job in taking charge of Hu Zhu Palace and got the new Bao Lin Yun almost murdered, which gave a reason to the Empress to take charge.
Bao Lin Yun was the person who was supposed to serve the Emperor and deliver the offspring for the royal family. However, she was pushed into the water as soon as joining the Imperial Harem... This case had to be thoroughly investigated.
Although Hu Zhu Palace had a charger, the charger failed to stop the case from happening when the incident occurred. Obviously, Consort Yue’s ability showed in this matter was not enough to convince the public. In this way, as the head of the Imperial Harem, the Empress should help investigate the case thoroughly without question.
“Maybe Consort Yue is going to lose most of her confidants.” Nian Xuan’s eyes were bright and she rejoiced, “Even if she supplements the manpower latter, who knows whom they are working for? Although she wants to make trouble for Bao Lin at that time, she would be powerless!”
When she was thinking that her lady was really thoughtful and intelligent, Yun Fenghuang said faintly, “No need to feel happy about this. In the future, Consort Yue will dare not do something too rashly to us, but others are not out of options, such as the Empress.”
Nian Xuan asked confusedly, “The Empress...?”
“Since the Empress is able to get a Cai Nv who slept with the Emperor secretly to make Consort Yue uncomfortable, she is also able to make a new Bao Lin dead in Hu Zhu Palace so that she could condemn the charger of the palace.” Yun Fenghuang sneered and said, “Fortunately, I responded quickly. When I knew that I had been arranged to Hu Zhu Palace, which had the worst reputation, I knew that probably there was something behind this. So, I took advantage of the opportunity of seeing the Empress to make up the story that I was pushed into the water. Do you believe it? If I hadn’t done it in this way, we two would have been killed by the Empress.”
That’s right. The story that Yun Fenghuang was pushed into the water was made up by her, not the hint of the Empress’s trusted attendant at all.
Yun Fenghuang was not sure if she could fool Noble Consort Shu. After all, she joined the Imperial Harem as the daughter of Yun’s Family. Besides, Yun’s Family and Ji’s Family had different standpoints in the Imperial Court, so it was easy to speculate that the relationship between their two daughters in the palace must not be very harmonious. In this situation, the Empress didn’t know anything about Yun Fenghuang, the one who just joined the Imperial Harem, so she wouldn’t trust her to frame Consort Yue on this.
In fact, the Empress’s maid just told Yun Fenghuang to tell the truth and she needn’t to fear Consort Yue when she got there.
Noble Consort Shu originally took the initiative to make it difficult to Consort Yue. The Empress was happy to mediate between them, and took advantage of the situation to suppress Consort Yue. There was no need for her to let Yun Fenghuang lie.
According to Yun Fenghuang, if Consort Yue and Noble Consort Shu both believed in her lie, this showed the defense and suspicion among these three women were deeper than she estimated.
It also meant that there was an irreparable rift among the forces of the Imperial Court they respectively represented.
This thought flashed through her mind. She had no ability to reach her hands to the Imperial Court currently. Now her focus was still the issues in the Imperial Harem.
“Previously, Noble Consort Shu didn’t explain the situation in the Imperial Harem, so I had to sound out the situation by making up the story that someone pushed me into the water.” Yun Fenghuang sorted out her plan and whispered to Nian Xuan. Although this maid was not clever, she was loyal anyway. At present, Nian Xuan was the only one she could count on in the Imperial Harem. If she didn’t explain this to Nian Xuan clearly, maybe she would do a disservice. “I didn’t expect that my trick worked, and it unintentionally caused the battle between the two groups of Queen Mother Ji and Queen Mother Yuan... Now Consort Yue is falling behind. Even if she wants to deal with us, Queen Mother Yuan will certainly not let her do so. Even Your Majesty would do the same.”
“However, Queen Mother Ji and the Empress have something on Consort Yue that she treated concubines harshly. As long as any concubines, especially me who had been murdered by Hu Zhu Palace once, die and are injured in Hu Zhu Palace at present, they can plant it on Consort Yue.”
Therefore, compared to Queen Mother Yuan and her niece, Queen Mother Ji and her niece were more dangerous for Yun Fenghuang now.
The most terrible thing was that these two women were more prominent and honorable than Queen Mother Yuan and her niece, and the former ones were also more powerful than the latter in the Imperial Harem!
Targeted by the former, Yun Fenghuang’s situation could be imagined!
Seeing Nian Xuan’s face get pale slightly, Yun Fenghuang explained faster, “Fortunately, Queen Mother Yuan and her niece have backup in the palace. There is one who will not allow them to fall anyway!”
Nian Xuan asked subconsciously, “Who?”
Yun Fenghuang looked at Nian Xuan as if she was looking at a fool, “Of course... the one is Your Majesty!”
Emperor Chunjia would probably not care about the death of a new Bao Lin. Moreover, Yun Fenghuang had made Consort Yue so shameless in his presence. But given his caring to Queen Mother Yuan and her niece, especially his respect to Queen Mother Yuan, he would definitely stand with them.
After all, everyone knew that Yun Fenghuang had been pushed into the water by a maid of Hu Zhu Palace!
If something bad happened to this Bao Lin, the first ones to be suspected were Queen Mother Yuan and her niece!
Unless Emperor Chunjia didn’t care about them, or he had to protect Yun Fenghuang’s life even if he was unwilling to do so!
However, to be honest, Yun Fenghuang didn’t trust the asylum of the Emperor who had never been in charge of the imperial court. Her main purpose at present was, “Even if Your Majesty has to compromise for Ms. Yuan and her niece, it’s impossible for an emperor to spend too much time on me, an insignificant Bao Lin.”
Therefore, anyone could imagine what Emperor Chunjia would do with this matter: found an excuse as soon as possible to get Yun Fenghuang out of Hu Zhu Palace.
As long as she was no longer in Hu Zhu Palace, it was not so easy to plant her death on Consort Yue if she died in the future.
However, the concubines’ daily life had always been charged by the Empress. Although Emperor Chunjia was noble, he had no power now. He couldn’t go beyond the Empress to make the decision... Yun Fenghuang thought for a while and figured out the only way for the Emperor to achieve his purpose indirectly.
After a long while, Yun Fenghuang and Nian Xuan returned to Hu Zhu Palace leisurely. Knowing that Ning Bi Hall probably was messy at the moment, they went back to Xi Xing Building by taking a detour, avoiding making trouble.
As soon as Yun Fenghuang just sat down and drank the tea, an inferior maid in the outside room took a little eunuch in. The eunuch said that he had been ordered by Jiang Lan, the leading eunuch of Emperor Chunjia, to inform Bao Lin Yun to prepare for serving the Emperor at night.
According to the tacit tradition, the Empress would arrange the order for the new concubines to sleep with the Emperor. Generally speaking, the order would be according to their titles, the official positions of their fathers or brothers, or the preference of the Emperor... Whatever order it might be according to, it couldn’t be Yun Fenghuang to sleep with the Emperor first.
Emperor Chunjia had a reason to make Yun Fenghuang the first one though, “Your Majesty said that Bao Lin must be frightened to fall into the water yesterday. Therefore, Your Majesty decides to come here to see you tonight.”
Yun Fenghuang gave a reward to the little eunuch who passed on the message, and awarded some silver to the inferior maids who came to congratulate her and the eunuchs who ran errands. After that, she urged Nian Xuan to serve her to bathe, dress and make up.Although she knew that Emperor Chunjia might be unwilling to name her to sleep with him...However, every man loved beauties. Even if the Emperor might be unhappy to come over, he might relent after seeing her so beautiful.She was very confident in her appearance!In addition, the Imperial Harem had the hidden rules that the low-grade concubines would be advanced after they slept with the Emperor. However, Yun Fenghuang had only seen Emperor Chunjia once, and was not clear about his character. What should she do if he deliberately found her fault, blamed her in the name of misconduct and bad service, and then demoted her grade and expelled her out of Hu Zhu Palace?
Since Consort Yue, the hostess of Hu Zhu Palace, was still grounded, Yun Fenghuang went to Tong Xia Palace with Nian Xuan after dressing up.“Be careful later.” Noble Consort Shu let her in right after hearing the reporting, enjoining her while dressing, “The Empress has planned and informed Mei Ren Xue, the one lives in Zhao Yuan Ji’s palace, to be the first one among all of you to sleep with My Majesty. However, the Emperor suddenly said that he was going to see you. I don’t know about Mei Ren Xue’s temper since she is new here. However, the hostess of her palace is tough.”If Mei Ren Xue (Ms. Xue) was an ordinary person, Zhao Yuan Ji might not be so concerned about her. While Ms. Xue, who got the title of Mei Ren firstly like Yun Qingman, was not ordinary. Her father and brother were prominent. Moreover, she was Zhao Yuan Ji’s cousin. There was a big chance that she would stand up for Ms. Xue.Yun Fenghuang was aggrieved, “I didn’t expect My
“Although I am humble, I’m still cordially invited to join the Imperial Harem.” Yun Fenghuang calmly said, “At this moment, both your servants can speak. Why can’t I?”She turned to the Empress, and respectfully saluted, saying, “I just think that Your Highness has a prominent family. Getting married with His Majesty at a young age, you are regarded as a born phoenix (queen) with nobility. As noble as you, Your Highness, how could the homophonic sound of my name offend you? If this name truly offends you, what about those people who make phoenix-shaped hairpins and robes with phoenix pictures? Should all people whose surnames are Long (dragon, as a symbol of the Emperor in ancient China) or Feng (phoenix, as a symbol of the Empress in ancient China) change their names?”“You want me to avoid the taboo. Come on. Let’s do it together.” Yun Fenghuang thought.Long and Feng as surnames had existed for many dynasties. No former emperor or empress ha
“What are you doing here?” A maid of Ning Bi Hall was mad to see Yun Fenghuang and Nian Xuan, “Consort Yue has no time to talk with you. Just leave and mind your own business.”Yun Fenghuang smirked and walked around her in a circle, tiding her sleeves, and indifferently said, “You didn’t even get in to report. How do you know that My Lady has no time? Are you trying to bully her when she is grounded? How dare you, a little maid, to make the decision for your master?”The maid was enraged, and thought to herself, “So, you do realize that Consort Yue is still grounded!”Although there was no explicit stipulation in the palace that the people grounded couldn’t summon anyone, the hidden rule was that the one who was grounded could meet nobody except for her personal servants. In this way, she could show that she was penitent and had no time to handle other things. Thereby, she didn’t need to hear any report of the arrivals. Moreover, it would be f
“Cheng Gui?” Nian Xuan froze for a moment. But when she was about to ask the reason, Yun Fenghuang had already made a smile on her face, and said joyfully, “Hurry, greet him!”After a while, a little eunuch of Emperor Chunjia walked in quickly, and also smiled, “When His Majesty passed by Tai Ye Pool after school just now, he saw a few beautiful apricot blossoms on the other side and wanted to go around to appreciate them. I remembered that there is a hundred-year-old apricot tree in your yard, so I told this to His Majesty. Hearing this, His Majesty said that he didn’t finish the game of chess with Cheng Gui last night!”Yun Fenghuang went forward with a smile and saluted him, saying sweetly, “Thank you very much. I will keep your kindness in my heart.”“I really don’t deserve this.” The little eunuch avoided her salutation immediately and murmured, “It’s just a matter of coincidence... “Then, Cheng Gui, you make the preparation first, and I’m
Emperor Chunjia knew that Consort Yue had set rules for the people of Hu Zhu Palace, but he was not clear what the rules were.Although as his childhood sweetheart, Consort Yue had neither cared about showing her nature in front of him, nor specifically told Emperor Chunjia how she treated those little bitches in the palace. She was merely a consort now and had limited time to be with Emperor Chunjia. Therefore, she cherished the time very much and wouldn’t waste it to talk about others, especially the low-grade concubines who were unimportant in her eyes.Therefore, Emperor Chunjia did not know Yun Fenghuang’s real intention to dance for him. He thought it was only the concubines’ minor means to gain his favor.At this moment, Cheng Gui had changed her clothes and came out. This set of clothes seemed to be more gorgeous and elegant than the previous one. She walked lightly and smiled, seeming like she was about to perform one more dance, so th
At midnight, when Consort Yue awakened from her dream in Ning Bi Hall, she happened to see a familiar figure moving in within a blink.Instead of being panic, she choked with sobs, “It’s so late. You shouldn’t come here.”As she said, she got up and lighted up a lantern beside her bed, which was used for bathroom use at night, and then a pale face showed under the light. With tears in her eyes, she looked more dejected.“I worry about you, so I have to see you in person.” Emperor Chunjia sounded a bit exhausted. He came forward and held her hands, and then the two of them sat down on the bed. The Emperor said softly, “I just haven’t seen you for two days. Why do you look thinner? Haven’t eaten anything?”Consort Yue smiled bitterly and said, “I have no appetite.”“That’s exactly how Queen Mother Ji and the Empress want you to suffer.” Emperor Chunjia stretched out his hand to fix the shattered hair at her temples, and
The candlelight was dim, but a few red eye-catching scratches across the Emperor’s chest could still be seen under the light.At this moment, the blood had dried up, but it stuck to the middle clothes. Consort Yue did not notice it when she unfolded his clothes, so the wounds bled again.Yuan Lianniang covered her mouth subconsciously, and her tears could not stop falling.She did this with a jealous mind originally, but she did not expect to see such a scene. No wonder when she fell into Emperor Chunjia’s arms just now, he was clearly stiff for a moment. She thought he had psychological reactance to her at that moment, but now she knew it was just because she pressed these wounds.“That bitch!!!” Consort Yue who originally hated Yun Fenghuang very much wanted to rush to Xi Xing Building immediately and tear up that bitch! Fortunately, she kept the sanity in her mind.As an experienced woman of sexual life, she had had