Chapter 8: Being looked down upon

Song Zhao turned around upon hearing this and saw that the group of people coming was quite large.

A beautiful woman whose clothes were second only to the queen's in terms of luxury, was surrounded by twenty or thirty palace maids.

Two of her close servants held a canopy to provide shade for her, and two others stood on her left and right, fanning her. In front of her, several palace maids stood in front of her, holding ice trays filled with ice cubes.

The white mist rising from the ice passed by her eyes, and she felt cool just by looking at it.

Song Zhao quickly glanced at the woman.

The corners of her eyes were sharp with slightly upturned corners, and a scarlet teardrop mole at the end of her right eye reduced the aggressiveness of her look and added a bit of indescribable charm.

I have seen so many concubines since I entered the palace, and in terms of appearance, the woman in front of me is definitely the most outstanding among them.

In addition, her clothes and accessories were luxurious, and her eyes and eyebrows revealed a bit of arrogance.

It is not difficult to guess that she is the Concubine Chen who makes the entire harem hate her so much.

Song Zhao immediately bowed and said respectfully, "I promise to meet the Empress Chenfei. May the Empress be blessed and live in peace."

Concubine Chen glanced at her briefly and did not ask her to get up. Instead, she asked the palace maid Yingxiang beside her, "Did Song agree?"

Yingxiang said, "Your Highness, she is the daughter of the Duke of Huguo. She entered the palace yesterday with three other beauties."

After hearing this, the Concubine Chen said, "It turns out that she is Song Shicheng's daughter. Get up."

After Song Zhao thanked her for her kindness, she continued, "Your father and my father have some personal relationship. Although you are a concubine's daughter, you don't have to belittle yourself. When you have free time in the future, come to my palace often and I will definitely be able to ask for some benefits for you."

The most taboo thing in the harem is to form cliques among concubines.

The fact that Concubine Chen could openly say these words near the gate of the Queen's palace shows how domineering and arrogant she is and that she does not take the Queen seriously at all.

The Concubine Chen extended an olive branch, but Song Zhao did not dare to accept it.

There are so many palace maids passing by this place, who knows who is the Queen's sidekick.

She agreed with Concubine Chen's words. If the Queen knew about this, she would definitely have an opinion of her.

But if she didn't respond, the Concubine would stand in front of her and stare at her eagerly.

There are wolves in front and tigers behind, she can't afford to offend anyone.

Song Zhao's thoughts raced, and he soon came up with an idea.

Yunshan supported her from the side. She pretended to give another blessing gift to the Concubine Chen. She used her elbow to hold Yunshan's left hand holding the yellow pear wood box.

The yellow pear wood box fell to the ground, and Yunshan immediately bent down to pick it up.

Song Zhaoze pretended to be happy and said respectfully: "Thanks to the kindness of the Empress Chen, I, your concubine..."

"What is that?" Chen Fei's eyes were attracted by the yellow pear wood box that fell on the ground. She interrupted Song Zhao's words with a cold voice, then moved forward to take a closer look.

Everything that comes out of the Queen's palace is printed with phoenix patterns.

When Concubine Chen saw the phoenix pattern, she was stunned for a moment, then sneered.

"Oh, the Queen doesn't mind that you are just a small concubine, but she thinks highly of you."

She approached Song Zhao step by step and raised her chin with her hand.

The cold armor almost embedded into Song Zhao's flesh. Song Zhao quickly explained:

"The Empress, like the Consort Chen, is very considerate of me and other new ladies in the palace. She was concerned about the eczema and red sores on my face and was afraid that I would scare the Emperor in the future, so she specially gave me this box of purple gold blood-activating ointment."

The Concubine Chen snorted, "Hmph, since you have accepted such a great gift from the Queen, then accept it well."

After saying that, she shook her hand away and stroked her hair gently, "I still have to go pay my respects to the Queen, so I don't have time to chat with you. Please leave."

Song Zhao bowed to Concubine Chen again and left quickly with Yunshan.

After they walked away, Yunshan finally let out the breath she had been holding in her chest. "I was so scared. The Concubine Chen looked like she wanted to eat me alive."

Song Zhao looked indifferent, not taking it seriously. "She has no time to devour me alive. She only devours those who share her favor. Today, Li Guiren stole the limelight. How long do you think it will take for the good news of her sleeping with you?"

Yunshan said, "Tonight, the Imperial Household Department will present the green cards of the young lady and Li Guiren to the Emperor. A newcomer who has been in the palace for a month will definitely be favored by the Emperor. Li Guiren has pleased the Empress today, so I think the Empress will say a few good words for her in front of the Emperor, right?"

Song Zhao smiled, "Yes, then we must congratulate her."

"My lady, you have to heal the wound on your face quickly. You are prettier than any of them. I believe that when the emperor sees you, he will be very fond of you!" Yunshan shook the yellow pear wood box in his hand and said:

"Although this purple gold blood-activating ointment is good, the master said that the hearts of people in the palace are unpredictable, and any internal or external use must be tested by the imperial physician first. The imperial physician Liu in the palace is my own, and I will go to the imperial hospital later and ask..."

"No need to go." Song Zhao took the yellow pear wood box and played with it in his hands. "Whether it is tested or not, I don't know how to use this thing anyway, so don't bother yourself."

*

In the blink of an eye, it has been almost a month since Song Zhao entered the palace.

Logically, the redness and eczema on her face should have healed long ago, but when she went to pay her respects every day, everyone thought she was still the same as when she first entered the palace, with no difference.

When the queen asked about it, she explained: "I was greedy that day and ate two extra pieces of flower cakes. Later I found out that there was peach pollen in it. It was really my own mistake..."

The Queen shook her head helplessly upon hearing this. "You, if you knew your health was like this, you should have taken better care of it. A month has passed, and the people who entered the palace with you have all slept with the Emperor, but you haven't even seen the Emperor. This can't go on."

yes.

During this month, Li Guiren, Xiao Changzai and Liu Changzai were favored once each.

Only Song Zhao had never even met Xiao Jingheng.

Without the emperor's favor, life in the palace would be difficult.

Not only was the Ministry of Internal Affairs slack in her duties in the palace, but even Xiao Changzai and Liu Changzai, who entered the palace with her, often ridiculed Song Zhao, not to mention the popular Li Guiren.

On this day, Song Zhao was leisurely reading a book in the bedroom, Zhihua was sweeping the hall, and Xiying found a shady place outside the door to hide.

Someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs came to talk about something, and happened to see Xiying lazing around at the door, so he said:

"This month's allowance has come down. Come with me and get it back."

Xiying was not happy when she heard this. "I saw it for real. You just delivered the salaries of Concubine Li and Concubine Yao. It would be a good thing for you to deliver our salaries as well. But you let us go and get them ourselves?"

The eunuch didn't tolerate her, "Oh, you are so angry. What are the status of Lady Yao and Lady Li? Do you want this monthly allowance?"

The quarrel between the two outside the door was heard clearly by Song Zhao and Zhihua in the bedroom.

There was no change in Song Zhao's expression, but the speed at which he turned the pages of the book slowed down significantly.

Zhihua saw it and whispered to her, "My lady... don't take it to heart. The servants in the Ministry of Internal Affairs are always like this. When you sleep with them one day, there will be times when they will rush to smile at you."

Song Zhao raised his eyebrows, smiled and nodded to Zhihua.

Outside the door, the quarrel between Xiying and her father-in-law became louder and louder.

Zhihua couldn't stand it any longer, so she rushed out and stuffed the rag on Xiying, saying:

"Forget it, forget it. If you don't want to go, then don't go. I'll just go with my father-in-law. There are still two vases in the bedroom that haven't been cleaned. You can go in and do the work first."

Xiying then snorted at her father-in-law, took the rag from Zhihua's hand, and reluctantly entered the bedroom.