Chapter 80: First Snow Prayer 1

The next morning, the Ministry of Punishment indeed reported:

Yinzhi could not bear the torture and died suddenly late last night.

The next day, the body of a criminal justice official was also found in the Thousand Carp Pond.

The death of a servant was originally a trivial matter in the palace. The people in the Ministry of Punishment did not want to make it public, so they simply did not report the matter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and let them deal with the body privately.

Therefore, the incident of encountering a snake in Meiyuan has become an unsolved case.

Concubine Xiao is destined to be unable to prove her innocence.

However, relying on her precious belly, she was able to enjoy Xiao Jingheng's "favor" for a long time.

In the next few days, wouldn't she be the most glorious one in the harem?

Xiao Jingheng doted on her to the sky, and all the good things were sent to her palace first.

The queen also knew how to behave. Seeing that the weather was getting colder, all the palaces started to light charcoal basins.

Concubine Xiao's rank was only that of a noble, so logically she could only use silver charcoal. However, the Queen replaced it with red charcoal that only concubines could use, so that she could live warmer in the winter.

The attitudes of Xiao Jingheng and the Queen were very clear, so gradually no one mentioned the incident of encountering a snake in Plum Garden anymore.

However, after this incident, the Empress and the Concubine Chen had completely become enemies with each other.

Although the Concubine Chen was domineering and arrogant in the past, she still took into consideration the Empress's status as the Empress's empress, and went to pay her respects every day reluctantly. Even if she did not come, she always had a reasonable reason to ask for leave.

But her reasons for taking leave have become more and more absurd recently.

Yesterday, Yingxiang actually told the Queen that her cat had died and she was in a bad mood so she would not come to pay her respects to the Queen.

The Queen's face darkened when she heard this reason, but she did not scold the Concubine Chen and just let the matter go.

This morning, when Song Zhao went to pay his respects to the Queen, Concubine Chen was rarely late.

But she looked depressed and kept sighing after she sat down.

The Queen probably thought that it was not a good idea for them to be so awkward with each other, so she smiled and tried to make peace with the Concubine Chen:

"I heard that the cat that my sister raised, Edelweiss, died. It's such a pity. I know that my sister loved it very much, so I asked someone to find a white cat that looks very much like Edelweiss and give it to you. Please take a look at it and see if you like it."

She raised her eyebrows and looked at Shuangruo, who immediately went to the inner hall and brought out a snow-white cat and brought it in front of Concubine Chen.

When Concubine Chen saw the white cat, she forced a smile, which was also to give face to the Queen. After taking it from Shuang Ruo, she politely said, "Thank you, Queen."

Later, when the concubines were chatting, the queen said, "It has been getting colder these past two days. I thought I would stop paying respects to the emperor and let everyone move around in their rooms after the first snow falls. This is to prevent anyone from falling or getting hurt. It's always bad."

Everyone thanked the Queen for her compassion.

Concubine Chen also said, "Your Majesty, what you said makes sense. Your Majesty, do you know how Xuerong in my palace died?"

The Queen shook her head.

The Concubine Chen stroked the cat's soft, white fur in her arms and sighed:

"It's a bad fate for that little guy. He usually stays in his nest and doesn't want to move. He looks lazy no matter what he does. I asked a servant from the Flower and Bird Department to take a look. He said his heartbeat was half a beat slower than other cats since birth. It's a disease he brought from his mother's womb and there's no cure. Now it's winter and he was shocked by the cold air. He died before he could make it."

The hall was originally harmonious, but as soon as the Concubine Chen said this, the smiles on everyone's faces froze, and they all began to drink tea to cover up their embarrassment.

Her cat has a heart disease and won't survive the harsh winter. The irony in this statement is a bit too strong.

Except for Concubine Hui who only cared about eating, who else present could not hear that Concubine Chen was obviously using her dead cat as a metaphor for the Queen.

The queen's expression was also very ugly.

But the Concubine Chen turned a blind eye to this.

She held the cat in her arms and teased it for a while, then continued to talk to herself:

"It's better to stay in the Empress's palace. Apart from the Emperor's Chaoyang Palace and the Empress Dowager's Xianshou Palace, only your Fengluan Palace has a ground heating connection, so it's naturally warm. Unlike me, I can only use some red charcoal to keep warm in the palace, and I can't even keep a weak cat alive."

As he said this, he threw the white cat to the ground, and it ran away in fright.

"It's better to keep this cat in the Queen's palace. When I am lucky enough to have my palace as warm as the Queen's, it won't be too late to keep it."

She stood up, raised her silk to cover her face, yawned, and said lazily:

"Your Highness, the palace is very warm. I feel tired after staying here for a while. I will take my leave now."

The Empress Chen has always been like this.

After showing off his power and making the queen very angry, he waved his sleeves with a smug look on his face and turned away.

But Song Zhao loves watching this play.

After watching the show that day, Song Zhao returned to the palace and sat on the warm seat to continue studying the music score.

The people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs had brought some new charcoal, and Yunshan was adding more charcoal to the charcoal basin next to the warm seat.

"The Emperor always thinks of you, my lady. Look, the Imperial Household Department sent you red charcoal that only concubines can use. In the entire harem, only Concubine Xiao has this treatment. But she is pregnant. If we put aside all this and only talk about the favor, it is definitely not as good as yours."

She lowered her voice and asked, "My lady, Concubine Yao still uses silver charcoal. How about I pick some and send it to her? Then tell her that it was sent specially to our Yaohua Palace by the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs?"

"Just do as you say." Song Zhao glanced at the red charcoal in the charcoal basket, then looked at Yunshan with a smile.

"Hiss~ I always feel like you seem to be a lot smarter recently. In the past, even if you wanted to give it to Concubine Yao, you would probably be so reckless as to say that this red charcoal was given to me exclusively by the Emperor, and I gave it to her out of kindness. It sounds like someone else is taking advantage of you."

Yunshan stuck out her tongue a little embarrassedly. "These were all taught to me by Xiao Fuzi. He said that entering the palace is different from the mansion, and I should be more careful in everything. Otherwise, I might say something wrong and offend someone, and let them hold a grudge against me, which would be bad."

Song Zhao nodded with some satisfaction, "Xiao Fuzi is smart, it won't do you any harm if you listen to him more."

"Oh!" Yunshan responded with a smile, picked out a basket of good charcoal quickly, and sent it to Concubine Yao who lived in the main hall.

Not long after, when she turned back, before she entered the hall, Song Zhao heard her joyful voice from a distance:

"My dear, come out and look, it's snowing!"

Hearing this, Song Zhao pushed the diamond-shaped window open a narrow gap.

Outside the window, heavy snow was falling like goose feathers, and the red walls and green tiles decorated looked like a painting.

She pushed the window open a little further and reached out to catch a snowflake.

Watching it gradually shrink into a pool of colorless water in the palm of my hand,

Somehow, her heart sank as well.

She always remembered that her mother also closed her eyes forever on such a snowy day...