"Yes, I pushed her... so what? She took my things and I just asked her to give them back. Was that wrong?"
Mu Jingyan stood up excitedly and glared at Xiao Yujue angrily.
When the eunuch chief steward saw this, he just sighed silently and shook his head.
In the entire harem, only Mu Jingyan dared to speak to Xiao Yujue like this.
Xiao Yujue saw that Mu Jingyan was angry, and realized that her tone was a bit harsh, so she smiled gently, took her hand, and said, "Look at you, I haven't said anything yet, and you're already angry."
"Humph." Mu Jingyan pulled his hand back from Xiao Yujue's palm. "You still say you didn't say anything about me? What do you mean by saying anything about me?"
Xiao Yujue felt a little tired and pinched her temples. "Okay, okay, just pretend I didn't say anything, okay?"
Mu Jingyan felt a little distressed when he saw Xiao Yujue's appearance. He stood up, walked around behind him and massaged his shoulders.
"Your Majesty, Concubine Duan requests to see you."
Mu Jingyan stopped what he was doing, turned around and was about to walk into the room. She didn't want to pay any attention to him, but Mu Jingyan grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
"You are the head of the six palaces anyway. If you don't even have such a magnanimous demeanor, who will obey you in the future?"
Mu Jingyan didn't want to embarrass Xiao Yujue, so he had to sit down obediently.
Not long after, Wu Pianpian came in with the help of Nanny.
Due to the injury on the back of her head, she did not tie her hair up in a bun, and most of her black hair fell to her waist. Her face was pale and she was not wearing any makeup. She had just walked out of the cold, her body was trembling slightly, and she looked very pitiful.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you, Your Majesty, and to your Majesty, the Empress."
"You are injured, so there is no need to be so polite."
Xiao Yujue made a gesture and the chief eunuch stepped forward to support him. This was already an extraordinary favor.
"Your Majesty..." Wu Pianpian raised her eyes to look at Xiao Yujue, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
She took the green plum from the nanny and slowly walked in front of Mu Jingyan.
"Your Majesty, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me, Your Majesty. I will never dare to do it again."
As she spoke, Wu Pianpian knelt down in front of Mu Jingyan again, holding the green plum blossoms in both hands and raising them above her head.
Mu Jingyan frowned, feeling very disdainful.
Wu Pianpian didn't have this attitude this morning, but now she is acting in front of Xiao Yujue.
"Xiao Yan, since Concubine Duan has apologized, let it go."
Seeing that Wu Pianpian was struggling to lift the green plum and Mu Jingyan was indifferent, Xiao Yujue said on behalf of Mu Jingyan: "The queen won't blame you, you can get up. This matter is over, and no one should mention it again in the future."
Wu Pianpian did not get up, but looked at Mu Jingyan with tears in her eyes, as if she was very afraid of her.
"Someone, take the green plum and put it away." Mu Jingyan accepted the green plum, as if he wanted to put an end to the matter.
"Thank you, Queen. I'll take my leave."
Wu Pianpian bowed and stepped out, but after taking only two steps his body began to stagger.
The palace maid beside her hurriedly supported her.
"Your Majesty, the imperial physician told you not to get out of bed and move around. Why didn't you listen?" The nanny started crying as she spoke.
Seeing this, Xiao Yujue stepped forward and supported Wu Pianpian. Wu Pianpian leaned into his arms, looked at him affectionately, and then fainted completely.
Xiao Yujue had no choice but to pick her up.
"Call the imperial physician."
Mu Jingyan watched Xiao Yujue carrying Wu Pianpian away, and stood there in a daze, not coming back to his senses for a long time.
This was the first time she realized that Xiao Yujue did not belong to her alone.
However, she still had a small expectation in her heart.
She kept waiting and waiting... She thought Xiao Yujue would come back after sending Wu Pianpian back to the palace, but...
From dusk to dawn, Xiao Yujue never came back.
Mu Jingyan's heart grew colder little by little.
"Your Majesty, Concubine Duan...pay your respects outside the door."
Mu Jingyan's thoughts were pulled back by the palace maid, and she realized that the weather had turned cold. She had actually sat by the window all night.
"What is she doing here?"
"Yesterday... the emperor asked her to sleep with him. According to the rules... she should..."
Mu Jingyan's tears fell instantly.
She had already understood and accepted that Xiao Yujue would not have only her as a woman. However, she could not accept that Xiao Yujue favored Wu Pianpian under the circumstances of yesterday.
This was equivalent to telling everyone in the harem that she was wrong.
"No, tell her to go back." Mu Jingyan said angrily.
The maid went out, but came back after a while. "Empress, Concubine Duan said that if you don't accept her greetings, she will kneel down and not get up..."
"Then let her kneel down. I want to see how long a delicate young lady like her can hold on."
After Mu Jingyan finished speaking, he went to bed in a huff, wanting to temporarily escape from what was happening in front of him.
Perhaps she was too tired, or perhaps she felt too wronged, she leaned on the pillow for a while and actually fell asleep.
Everyone around her knew her temper and no one dared to disturb her.
Mu Jingyan slept until the afternoon. When she woke up, the palace maid told her that Wu Pianpian had left.
However, she did not leave by herself; she fainted while kneeling outside and was carried away by people from her palace.
Mu Jingyan felt vaguely uneasy.
This matter was originally a common jealousy in the harem, but for some reason, it was brought to the court.
The censors wrote a letter to impeach Mu Jingyan, saying that although she was the head of the six palaces, she was intolerant of others; after marrying into the royal family, she failed to give birth to children for the emperor, but was extremely jealous and restricted the emperor from summoning other concubines, so that the newly selected beauties into the palace became decorations.
Xiao Yujue could sense that Wu Pianpian's family must have put in a lot of effort in secret on this matter.
Otherwise, who would have the time to take care of the affairs of his harem?
Xiao Yujue originally planned to pretend that he hadn't heard or seen anything, hoping that it would be forgotten, but he didn't expect...
It's not as simple as he thought.
The more he pretended to be indifferent, the more memorials the censors submitted to him, until Mu Jingrui's confidants could no longer stand it.
Mu Jingrui was not in the capital, and these people fought back to protect Mu Jingyan. The situation developed to the point where Xiao Yujue had to intervene.
In order to calm things down, Xiao Yujue had to punish Mu Jingyan on the grounds that she was jealous.
The monthly fine is half a year and the house arrest is one month.
This little punishment is actually nothing.
Even if there was no monthly allowance, Xiao Yujue would not treat Mu Jingyan unfairly; what's more, with the current power of the Mu family, Mu Jingrui would not let his sister suffer.
As for the one-month house arrest, that was insignificant. In fact, Xiao Yujue was protecting Mu Jingyan.
Xiao Yujue hopes that the incident can be settled.
He thought Mu Jingyan would understand, but when he went to visit her, he was kicked out. He had no choice but to go to the imperial study to review memorials.
Late at night, a loud noise broke the silence of the night sky.
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