108 Birthday Banquet
◎I can only do some crude work to make my mother smile◎
Cui Rumei saw her sincerity and felt she had nothing to fear, so she didn't try to hide it from her. "I know a way to help you and me regain our favor."
Rong Ruoyu is very good at talking. Her motherland's mission is to share the emperor's favor, but she didn't expect that Rong Qianyu would not be favored. Fu Hua has not seen anyone in the past few days. She had to join forces with Cui Rumei no matter how reluctant she was.
She condescended to kneel down and expressed her gratitude, "Sister, I am so grateful for your support."
Cui Rumei was the same. It seemed that in the palace, except for the Empress, every woman depended on the Emperor's favor to survive. She hadn't previously cared about this, believing Fu Hua loved her the most. But now, she felt a sense of crisis. If she didn't fight for it, her son would have a hard time making a name for himself.
Rong Ruoyu asked, "I wonder what my silly sister has prepared for the Empress Dowager?"
Cui Rumei didn't say it directly, keeping it a secret. After all, she was the one who knew about this first. She could tell her, but she still had to figure out who came first. "Don't worry, sister. The Queen's gift won't please the Queen Mother as much as yours or mine."
As the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet approaches, Rong Qianyu has rarely appeared in public recently and has been copying scriptures for the Empress Dowager. The palace is in an uproar over trying to make the Empress Dowager smile, but she pretends not to see it and seems to not want to pay any attention to it.
Rong Pan Yuanqing served by her side every day, and Yuanqing asked in confusion, "My Lady, if you give the original plan to Cui, won't she steal your limelight?"
Rong Qianyu lowered her eyes and copied the scriptures. Now she was much more stable than before. No matter what happened, she remained calm and composed. She was no longer as irritable as before. She also knew that impatience was useless.
After surviving a serious illness, she became indifferent to many things and understood many things. She knew that it was useless to deal with Cui Rumei by simply sharing her favor, and she disdained such favors.
"They are spoiled by their favor. If you want them to make mistakes, you should first let them feel comfortable. Lord Cui is like this, and so is Cui Rumei. This way, they will both gain face in front of Your Majesty, and they will definitely make mistakes. Flowing water does not compete for the lead, but for the flow. I am the Queen, and my limelight is not as important as the Queen Mother's happiness. Besides, who said I was settling for second best?"
This method was indeed brilliant, but Yuanqing was still worried, "I just don't know if this will calm the Queen Mother down."
"The Queen Mother is a sensible person and won't be petty. Besides, as long as we have the same goal, which is for the Great Zhou, I don't care whether we calm down or not."
Even so, seeing Cui Rumei regain favor, he still felt worried. Rong Pan murmured, "I'm afraid that after tonight, Cui Rumei will regain favor again."
Rong Qianyu still lowered her head to copy the scriptures, "Don't be impatient, be patient."
The Empress Dowager's birthday banquet arrived as scheduled. This time, because the late emperor was still in mourning, it was not a grand celebration and was only slightly larger than a family banquet.
Everyone bowed and greeted Bai Yi, "May the Empress Dowager live a long and healthy life, and may she live a thousand years!"
Bai Yi wore a relatively expensive dress today, which was a rare opportunity for the royal family to get together after Fu Hua ascended the throne.
"Stand up!"
Golden light danced, everyone was toasting each other, singing and dancing, it was a lively scene, the royal family who attended the birthday banquet came in one after another, bringing gifts and greeting each other.
When the banquet began, Bai Yi first called out to Rong Qianyu, "I wonder what birthday gift the Queen has prepared?"
At this moment, she didn't want to steal the limelight, so she had to give this opportunity to Cui Rumei. "Mother, why don't you take a look at the gifts from the sisters first? After seeing these, I'm afraid my own gifts will be too embarrassing to present."
"Alright." Bai Yi nodded. "Who will go first?"
The concubines looked at each other, but no one responded.
Cui Rumei was the first to stand up and ordered her servants to bring a land deed. "Your Majesty, your Majesty, your concubines and Concubine Min have found a vacant lot outside the capital and have made a golden statue for the eldest princess. The princess died young, and you know that your Majesty misses her deeply and is deeply concerned about her. We have provided oil lamps and have asked the master to chant sutras day and night to pray for the princess's rebirth in heaven. We hope that your Majesty will be happy and content."
She continued, "These are the furnishings of the temple, all arranged according to the eldest princess's preferences. Please have your review, Your Majesty."
Bai Yi took the deed with trembling hands. There were some details about the golden statue and the lamps marked on it. Looking at the portrait of Fu Tao, she was so excited that she almost lost control and cried.
She looks exactly the same as she did when she was alive, even more lifelike.
She covered her face and wiped away her tears, not expecting her to take it so seriously. "Concubine Ke is really thoughtful."
Cui Rumei smiled happily, "Thank you for the compliment, Her Majesty the Queen Mother." She was a very honest person and would never take credit for herself by bringing Rong Ruoyu along. "It is already a great honor for us sisters to be able to share the worries of Her Majesty the Queen Mother."
Bai Yi's eyes swept over Rong Qianyu, "Where's the Queen?"
After the last quarrel between them, Bai Yi never summoned her. In fact, he had calmed down a long time ago, but he just didn't want to admit his anger.
Rong Qianyu originally wanted to build a temple for Fu Tao. Given their relationship, as the eldest sister-in-law, she should do so. But this time, she took the initiative to give up the opportunity.
"Mother, I am not as intelligent and attentive as Concubine Ke and Concubine Min, so I can only do some crude work to make you smile. I have copied Buddhist scriptures for you to pray for your blessing, and I have added my blood to the ink as a token of my filial piety. I wish you good fortune, health, longevity and peace."
The scripture was slowly unfolded. The handwriting was delicate and small, with red bloodstains visible between the black ink. The red color was particularly obvious under the sunlight.
She did compromise and chose a standard gift, but she mixed her blood into the ink, and even though it was clumsy, it showed her sincerity and filial piety.
Bai Yi was not angry to begin with, and was even more moved by her filial piety.
"You're going to put your blood into ink? Your health hasn't been good to begin with, and you had a serious illness last year. Why torture yourself?"
"The scriptures say that Bodhisattvas peeled their skin for paper, split their bones for pens, and pricked their blood for ink to write the scriptures. To make the blood red, ever since your mother's last admonition, I have been a vegetarian, bathing, burning incense, and reciting scriptures day and night. I have added cinnabar to the blood. These little thoughts of mine are nothing; I only pray for the forgiveness of the gods and Buddhas and your mother."
Hearing her say this, Bai Yi felt distressed, "Come up, let me take a look at your arm."
Rong Qianyu stepped forward to show her the wound and bandaged it layer by layer. Blood was still seeping through the white linen. Seeing her like this, Bai Yi almost cried.
"Such fair and tender skin... why do you have to do this? I have always loved you like my own child. Tao'er is no longer with us. You are tearing my heart out!"
Rong Qianyu was very polite and knelt down to answer: "As long as your majesty mother is not angry with me, your son will do anything. Your son only hopes that your majesty mother will live a long and healthy life and not be angry anymore."
Bai Yi helped her up and said, "Silly child, your mother is no longer angry. You need to apply medicine to your arm and get better soon."
The two acted out the deep love between mother and son on the stage, which made Cui Rumei in the audience furious. In this way, with such a good daughter-in-law and a good queen as an example, her efforts seemed in vain.
This method was found by her brother in the palace of Rong Qianyu. He actually deceived her so early. She was so angry that her face turned green, but she had to pretend to be calm.
Bai Yi took Rong Qianyu's hand and said to Fu Hua, "It is a blessing for the Great Zhou Dynasty that the Emperor has such a virtuous Empress."
Fu Hua followed Bai Yi's words without refutation, "Yes."
After ascending the throne for so long, he gradually discovered that Rong Qianyu was indeed the best candidate for the mother of the world. Although he did not like her and knew the close relationship between her and Xue Ji, he did not care.
Since the two of them didn't like each other, they should just do their own job and just be good emperor and empress. As for Xue Ji, he never took him seriously.
She would not let the emperor lose face because of a eunuch. If she liked him, she would keep him as a pet. When she disliked him, she would drag him out and kill him.
Rong Qianyu was the first to kneel down and kowtow, "Mother, may you live long and healthy, and may you live a thousand years!"
Everyone followed the Queen and knelt down, "Long live the Queen Mother!"
It seemed that everyone was very satisfied with the birthday banquet except Cui Rumei. She returned to the palace and couldn't help complaining.
"Isn't she just settling for second best? She's giving us the time-consuming and laborious work, while we're busy, and she's finding shortcuts. Fasting, blood period? Who knows if it's cinnabar or something else? With just a few words, the Empress Dowager forgave her, and even His Majesty has to follow suit. She's really like a barking dog that bites!"
This time, Cui Rumei seemed to have shot herself in the foot. After all her hard work, she ended up making wedding dresses for others. She worked hard and couldn't sleep for several nights.
Just to please the Queen Mother, he didn't expect that someone would get there first, and that person pretended to be indifferent to the world.
Rong Ruoyu didn't think too much about it. As long as he could gain face, he would be happy. "Sister, don't be discouraged. The Queen Mother has also seen our sincerity today. I believe His Majesty feels the same way."
But Cui Rumei wouldn't listen. "Rong Qianyu has learned to fight for things now. She used to act so nonchalant, but now she's resorting to such despicable tactics."
Rong Ruoyu fanned the flames, saying, "She has Xue Jiming by her side. What good ideas can that eunuch come up with? Sister, please be patient. If she acts so domineeringly, His Majesty will sooner or later dislike her."
But Cui Rumei didn't listen. She only had Fu Hua in her heart. Now Fu Hua didn't want to see her. Even after giving birth to the child, she was still worried.
"Your Majesty is disgusted with her, and I'm afraid he's disgusted with us too. Your Majesty hasn't come to see me for two months since I gave birth. Is it because I'm particularly unwell after giving birth that Your Majesty doesn't want to see me?"
Rong Ruoyu had no feelings for Fu Hua and could only comfort her hollowly over and over again: "No, sister, you still look the same."
"Then why...why didn't you see me? Is Your Majesty still angry?"
As the two were talking, a young eunuch entered the room with an imperial edict. "Your Majesty has decreed that Concubine Ke and Concubine Min be summoned to the emperor's bedchamber today!"
【Author’s words】
① From the Chapter on the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva
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