Upon hearing her words, Yinzhen lowered his gaze and casually said, "Then from today onwards, you will copy the books yourself. I don't have the time to write for you."

Nan Yi was taken aback by what he heard, then gave a mocking smile, "You should have just said you didn't want to. Why did you have to put on such a sour face first thing in the morning? Humph, I'll never ask you for anything again."

After she finished speaking, she got out of bed, quickly put on her robe, and ran to the outer room, where Eunuch Su was standing to the side holding a stack of papers.

Nan Yi felt inexplicably annoyed. She took the paper and flipped through it a few times. It was copied very well, but what was the point of writing it so beautifully if it wasn't going to sell? A surge of pride rose in her chest. When she saw the person who came out from behind the screen, it was still the constipated face that made her stomach ache.

Fine, the old man was putting on airs with her, but she couldn't be bothered with him. She raised her chin at him and said, "Fine, starting tomorrow, I'll copy it myself. However, I feel it's really not good for several people to copy different fonts, and it's inevitable that the Empress will find out about the forgery, so..."

She smiled at Yinzhen, then tossed the copied paper into the air with her delicate hand. The black characters on the white paper flew all over the room, scattering everywhere. Nan Yi then turned and left triumphantly.

Yinzhen was initially captivated by her smile, but when he came to his senses and saw her being so audacious and openly provoking him, his face turned ashen and tense, his thin lips pressed into a straight line, and his hands clenched into fists behind his back.

He feared that if she had stayed even a moment longer, he would have grabbed her delicate neck and strangled her to death, to teach her a lesson for her arrogance.

Seeing this, Su Peisheng feared he would suffer an undeserved disaster, so he instinctively shrank back. Seeing the study floor covered with papers, he had no choice but to stand up and tidy up, otherwise, if someone saw him, it would cause another uproar.

When Nan Yi returned to the courtyard and lay down on the bed, she was filled with remorse. But it was too late. She had managed to copy some things with great difficulty, but her poor spirit got the better of her and she burned them all.

The copies she had made before were no longer usable; she had completely offended him. If she tried to use their copies to fill in the gaps, she would only suffer a worse fate if she were exposed.

Alas, impulsiveness is the devil.

When her lover and his wife learned that she had returned to the courtyard, they came over to pay their respects. When they entered the room, they saw that their mistress looked very conflicted, so they went over to ask her why.

"Master, have you finished copying the Admonitions for Women?"

"What the hell?" she cursed in anger. She glanced at the two girls and, sure enough, both had blank, pretty faces that twitched slightly.

"I'm sorry, it was a slip of the tongue in my haste," she explained sheepishly. Her lover, regaining his composure, coughed lightly, pretending not to hear. "Master, what happened? Why are you so anxious?"

Nan Yi muttered to himself, "Oh no, I'm doomed. I've offended your master, and I'll probably have to copy the book myself."

Upon hearing this, Yiren dismissed it, saying, "If you want to copy it yourself, then copy it yourself. It's not like you can't write."

Nan Yi covered her face and sighed dejectedly, "I just forgot how to write it." She couldn't even recognize all the traditional characters, let alone write them with a brush. It was simply laughable. The two girls looked at each other, wondering if it was possible to forget how to write.

"What has she done?" Nan Yi was so annoyed he was about to explode. Suddenly, he sat up and said to his lover, "Girl, go to the Fujin's courtyard and ask for two months' leave. Tell her that your mistress needs to study etiquette properly and is temporarily unable to pay her respects. Please forgive her."

“Oh, but then you won’t be able to see the master,” the lover said with some worry.

Nan rolled her eyes at her and said irritably, "So what? It doesn't matter. Does it mean I'll miss out on your food and drink?" She didn't want to see him anyway; without him, she could live a little longer.

"But..." The lover wanted to say more, but Yiren pulled her back.

"Also, from today onwards, after your lover returns, the Lan Courtyard will be kept tightly closed. No one is allowed to enter or leave. As for the necessary items, have Xiao Shunzi handle them. Go now," Nan Yi instructed, then waved weakly to the maid.

"What if Master wants to come in?" Yiren asked.

"Same reason, I have to learn the rules. I dare not disobey the Empress's decree." With a ready-made excuse, she could use this trivial matter as a command.

Yiren took her lover and went out to deliver the message.

As the two walked into the corridor, the lover said with slight annoyance, "Why didn't you let me speak? The mistress is willful, and you just let her have her way. Two months is too long, and the opportunity will be lost."

Yi Ren smiled mysteriously, "Don't worry, I guarantee that the master won't fall out of favor. Just do as she says."

Since that night when her master injured his foot, and the various ways her master treated her afterwards, she was certain that her master's position was very secure.

"Where do you get your confidence?" her lover glanced at her.

"Let's bet, two taels of silver to decide the winner," Yiren said mysteriously, while her lover remained silent.

Main Hall

Nara was chatting with her concubines when Li smiled at her, covering her mouth, and said, "Madam, where is Sister Tong? Is today the fifteenth?"

Nara's expression changed slightly.

Li said again, "Sister, I really envy her. Ever since she returned to the manor, the master has been spoiling her rotten. Now he's even becoming more and more negligent in paying his respects to the Fujin."

Lady Li felt resentful. She had given birth to two sons and a daughter for the master, making her the first in the household and the one who should be most favored by him. However, since returning from the frontier, the master rarely came to Fangfei Courtyard. When she sent someone to invite him, he was either in the study or in Lan Courtyard. This only fueled her jealousy and resentment.

She wanted to cause trouble for Madam Tong, but that person was very clever and rarely left the Orchid Courtyard, leaving her powerless. The primary wife remained unmoved, which she resented inwardly, so she could only vent her anger through words.

“That’s right, Madam. You have to do something about it. I haven’t seen you for quite some time. Sister Tong is hogging you all, which is unfair to the other ladies.” She then turned to the concubines and princesses present and said, “Don’t you all agree?”

Having not served the emperor for a month, Lady Song seized the opportunity to incite everyone.

The crowd was filled with righteous indignation and anger, and they begged the Princess Consort to take charge.

Nara sneered, everyone thought she was a fool. They had no ability to keep people, yet they encouraged her to take the lead. She glanced at Li, who froze and dabbed her lips with a handkerchief to hide her unease.

Empress Nara remained silent. She had her own ways of dealing with Consort Tong. The time was almost here to see her mother intervene after her last visit to the palace.

Just as everyone was fiercely criticizing Tong Shi, the Fujin's head maid, Linglong, came in to report that someone from Lan Yuan had come to pay their respects. Everyone stopped talking and stared at the door.

To everyone's disappointment, the head maid of Lan Courtyard, the lover, entered the hall alone and said, "Greetings to the Princess Consort, may the Princess Consort be well."

"rise"

The lover stood up and said to the Fujin, "Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager De has issued an imperial edict in the palace, instructing the secondary Fujin to learn etiquette in the courtyard. The secondary Fujin is uneasy and says that she is very afraid of not being able to come and pay her respects to Your Majesty in person for the next two months. Therefore, she has asked me to apologize on her behalf."

"Tch, serves her right," Madam Song muttered under her breath. She was just thinking about how to deal with Madam Tong when Consort De made her move. Even Heaven couldn't stand it.

The others also looked on with schadenfreude. Wu, who was sitting at the very end, whispered to her lover, "That's right, vixen, even the maid looks seductive, a shameless slut."

The lover was furious, trembling with anger, and cursed inwardly that she deserved to be unfavored, only hating that she was a servant.

They went too far; how dare a mere princess like Wu insult her master?

“It’s not that she’s lowly, look at her scornful eyes,” a princess next to Wu Shi interjected.

Unable to contain himself, the lover glanced sideways at the woman below and sneered, "I wonder who is the lowly bastard. If you have the guts, go and curse in front of our concubine. Don't bark in front of me. Don't let a servant look down on you."