Chapter 399 Establishing Authority
Seeing that Chunyue had also left, Qi Yuxuan slammed her teacup down on the table and then rubbed her temples.
Just then, an unfamiliar second-class palace maid stopped at the door. Qi Yuxuan remembered her; her name was Fuwei. Fuwei respectfully said, "Your Highness, Aunt Bihui says she has something important to ask of Your Highness!"
Bi Sui? Didn't she stay up all night? Shouldn't she be resting now?
A bad feeling crept into her heart, and she quickly let the person in.
To everyone's surprise, as soon as Bihui entered, she knelt down with a thud. With her beautiful, excited eyes wide open, she said directly, "Your Majesty, this servant has something very important to report to Your Majesty. Please dismiss everyone else!"
Qi Yuxuan was startled by her posture and resisted the urge to help her up herself. She glanced at the two second-class maids standing on either side and said, "You two go out first."
"Yes—" Upon hearing this, the two immediately lowered their heads and backed out.
Only the master and servant remained in the front hall.
Bihui then recounted in detail her conjectures about Yinling and the things she had asked over the past hour.
From Yinling's initiative to serve the Emperor and Empress on their wedding night, to her running away early in the morning and returning with sandalwood scent on her body, to finally asking Yinling if she was a second-class palace maid in Cining Palace and if she was related to Zhang Mama, who served the Empress Dowager.
Bi Sui reiterated, "Your Majesty, you must be wary of Yin Ling and the Empress Dowager! All these incidents show that Yin Ling is definitely not as pure as she seems. Now that you have just taken charge of the inner court, it is the time to be extremely careful. You must not let any villains take advantage of the situation!"
After hearing what she said, Qi Yuxuan completely relaxed.
As the saying goes, it's not the thief you should fear, but the one who has his eye on you. Now that the fox's tail has been revealed, it's even easier for her to catch him in one fell swoop.
However, everything Bihui said seemed to point to something else entirely...
She looked at Bi Sui, who was kneeling in front of her with an air of righteous indignation and seemed eager to personally expose her spies. She found it amusing, but then she remembered that Bi Sui was doing this because she was loyal to her.
Qi Yuxuan wanted to test her, so she didn't mention that she already knew about it in advance and had just learned her lesson at Cining Palace. Instead, she asked her, "Come, stand up and speak first. I'll ask you, what do you think we should do so without alerting the enemy?"
Bi Sui was taken aback. The young lady had never asked her these questions before. Why was she suddenly asking them today?
She was a little nervous and embarrassed: "This, this servant doesn't know... this servant just feels that we should tell Your Highness as soon as possible, and then let Your Highness decide..."
After she finished speaking, she felt embarrassed. How could she still be so cowardly as to say that she didn't know when Her Majesty had asked her such a question? She was no longer a maid in the Xiao family, or even a maid of the princess!
As the girl's status rose, so did Bihui's. Now, when she went out, everyone would respectfully address her as Aunt Bihui.
Even if it's not for her own sake, but just to avoid disgracing the Empress, she should stand up!
Thinking of this, Bihui suddenly straightened her back a bit, and she mustered up her courage to speak out what she had just thought:
"Your Majesty, I believe that Your Majesty need not worry about alerting the enemy."
"Your Majesty is the head of the harem, the mother of the nation, and the mistress of Qi. Not to mention, Your Majesty now has the Emperor and the Grand Princess backing you up. As long as you can establish your authority, it's not a problem to make an example of someone!"
Faced with absolute power and status, those petty schemes are nothing but harmless trifles. As for the silver bells and golden bells, with just a word from the Empress, she can easily find a fault to smear them away. Would anyone really come to the Empress to ask if someone actually made that mistake?
Bi Sui's idea was simple: whoever tried to harm the Empress, she would make that person die first.
Moreover, their masters could easily decide their life or death with a single word, without having to explain to anyone.
Qi Yuxuan was stunned for a moment when she heard Bi Sui say such a thing for the first time.
She hadn't been unaware that Bi Sui would advocate killing Yin Ling directly, but Bi Sui actually understood the idea of making an example of someone to deter others, which showed how much of Bi Sui's intelligence she had missed in the past!
Below, seeing Qi Yuxuan sitting silently in the distance, Bi Sui thought that she had been too fierce and her words too cold and ruthless, frightening the Empress. She bit her lip and knelt down again with a thud: "Your Majesty, it was this servant who overstepped her bounds!"
Qi Yuxuan was immediately brought back to her senses by the voice. Seeing Bi Sui's expression, she knew that her reaction earlier had caused Bi Sui to misunderstand. For a moment, Qi Yuxuan was both amused and exasperated: "No, get up quickly. What's wrong? It's only been two days since you entered the palace, and your knees are already kneeling so easily?"
The Empress was still teasing her when Bi Sui's heart, which had been hanging in mid-air, finally settled down.
"This servant was just saying that, Your Majesty, please don't be angry..."
"I'm not angry with you." Qi Yuxuan wasn't used to referring to herself as "this palace" yet, and she didn't bother to put on airs in front of familiar people. She said gently, "I'm just surprised that you know so much. You used to be so lazy! If I had known, I should have let you give me ideas for everything, so that you wouldn't have such a smart brain that you didn't use it."
These words didn't seem like sarcasm, and Bihui realized that she had overreacted, her face turning slightly red.
"Your Majesty, this servant knows her mistake."
Qi Yuxuan said, "Here's what we'll do. Is Yinling still asleep? Go and call two palace maids to tie her up, wake her up, and tell her that I know everything..."
As she spoke, Bihui's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and in the end, she nodded repeatedly: "This is a good idea! Your Majesty, rest assured, this servant will definitely handle this matter perfectly for you!"
"Go, have someone keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't commit suicide, then go and get some rest and wait for my summons." After Qi Yuxuan finished speaking, Bi Sui took the order and left.
At the same time, a handsome young imperial physician was brought over by Lanxin.
Just now, when Sun Miao took the snacks he stole from the small kitchen of Cining Palace to the Imperial Hospital, they were prepared to be summoned by His Majesty and the Empress. As soon as Aunt Lanxin arrived, someone immediately carried a medicine box and followed.
Lanxin was puzzled as to why it was so fast, but upon closer inspection, she realized it was someone she knew, and she instantly burst into laughter.
"Xing'er?!" Qi Yuxuan could hardly believe her eyes.
Since she was kidnapped and taken to the Yue Kingdom, the Pei family grandfather and grandson bid farewell to their mother and volunteered to travel to the Qi Kingdom to practice medicine. She thought she would not be able to see the grandfather and grandson again for a while!
Unexpectedly, Pei Xing'er went to the Imperial Hospital without saying a word!
"Your humble servant pays respects to Your Majesty the Empress—" Fourteen-year-old Pei Xing'er, her face still very young, bowed to Qi Yuxuan with great seriousness.
However, her uniform from the Imperial Medical Academy looked somewhat out of place, like a child wearing adult clothes.
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