Chapter 105 I Will Skin You Alive
After sending Lin Yanrong away, Mrs. Jiang picked up the tea bowl, took a sip, and said lightly, "The tea is cold. Bring me another bowl."
The tea was clearly served just before Concubine Xuanhe came in, and it was summer, so how could it have gone cold in just a moment?
Although Zang Xiu thought so, she still went to pour another bowl of boiling hot soup.
Empress Dowager Jiang took the tea in her hand, but did not drink it and remained silent.
Concubine Xuanhe looked embarrassed and said with a smile, "Lin... Concubine Lin is ignorant of etiquette and has displeased the Empress Dowager."
She wanted to call her Lin girl, but seeing the empress dowager's cold face, she swallowed the intimate name back.
"If she doesn't know etiquette, that's nothing." Empress Dowager Jiang's eyes turned slightly, staring at Concubine Xuanhe's face. "But if she develops other thoughts and plots to gain something that doesn't belong to her, then don't blame me for not being able to tolerate her. This Lin family's talent is really ordinary. I kept her name card in the first place because of our sisterly relationship. What about meeting for the first time in the Imperial Garden, and having the honor before entering the palace? I think a girl raised in the Nanping County Prince's Mansion should know her duties."
Concubine Xuanhe's forehead was covered in cold sweat. She kept saying, "Your Majesty, you must have heard it wrongly. People in the palace are always prone to spreading rumors. You know that too..."
Empress Dowager Jiang raised a hand to stop her, adding, "I consider the past events to be misunderstandings, and they're over. But I don't want to hear anything like it again." Having said this, looking at Concubine Xuanhe's extremely embarrassed expression, she felt that the warning had been enough. Thinking about the war situation in the southwest and the situation in the court, she relaxed her expression and smiled, "The youngsters may be naughty, but they won't ruin the relationship between us sisters. This time when we go to Mount Tai, I will also burn incense on your behalf to the Emperor Dongyue, praying that he blesses both of us with longevity and health, so that we can look forward to holding our grandchildren."
The originally uneasy heart of Concubine Xuanhe was calmed down a little, and she also chatted and laughed with him for a while.
After she left, Empress Dowager Jiang stopped smiling, looked a little tired, and leaned back without saying a word.
Zang Xiu instructed the young palace maid to come over and clear the tea bowls and fruit plates, and said with a smile, "The Concubine Dowager came over today and sat for quite a while, which made the Empress Dowager tired."
Empress Dowager Jiang said calmly, "She just wants me to raise her niece. The Nanping County Prince's Mansion is too ambitious. They are not satisfied with having a concubine like her. If it weren't for the elimination of Yang, she would have made the greatest contribution..." She stopped talking before asking, "Has the commoner been behaving well lately?"
Zang Xiu knew the situation and did not ask any more questions. She just replied, "Everything is normal, don't worry, Your Majesty."
Empress Dowager Jiang nodded slightly, a fierce look suddenly appearing on her face. "If it weren't for the mother and son who planned this vicious plot to kill Hao'er, I wouldn't have..."
She didn't say anything more and there was a dead silence in Shoukang Palace.
Meng Yan returned to the Yangxin Palace and continued to stay by Lu Hao's bed.
Lu Haozhi was in a deep sleep and she had nothing to do. She just sat on a chair and stared at his face in a daze.
"What on earth is wrong with you?"
Meng Yan couldn't help but mutter to herself, and she couldn't tell what she felt in her heart.
You seem to have changed a lot, and those things... you never told me.
Only then did Meng Yan realize that she had no idea what Lu Haozhi was thinking. Everyone had told her that the power of heaven was unpredictable and that one shouldn't presume to interpret the divine will. She had always believed whatever Lu Haozhi said.
So, when Lu Haozhi said that he would never see her again, she said nothing, left Changchun Palace and went into the cold palace.
"Yan'er, tell me...it wasn't you who did it!"
Lu Haozhi suddenly spoke from his dream, startling Meng Yan. She bit her lower lip tightly and stared at Lu Haozhi.
What did he dream about?
Lu Haozhi was trapped in a deep dream, his body seemed to have fallen into a quagmire and he couldn't get out no matter what.
In a trance, he seemed to wake up and was still in the Yangxin Palace.
Meng Yan was not there, but the newly appointed Lin Chang was by her side.
She was dressed in the attire of a concubine, not a formal one, and said timidly and gently, "Your Majesty, please allow me to serve you once."
Lu Haozhi was disgusted and was about to open his mouth to rebuke her when a voice spoke before him, "Go down, remember your duty, and remember clearly why I sent you here. If you offend me again, don't blame me for overstepping my bounds."
It was his voice, but it didn't come from his mouth.
Lin Yanrong was about to cry, but she bowed and retreated as she was told.
Inexplicably, Lu Haozhi seemed to recall something. In this dream, he often suffered from this heartache. Like Xiahou Yu, he was helpless and no medicine could cure it. But as long as Lin Yanrong was by his side, the pain would be much relieved. So, he often asked Lin Yanrong to come to the Yangxin Palace. At first, she was only there to serve at the desk during the day, but gradually, she was summoned at night and asked to stay in the Tishun Hall. Although nothing happened, the palace was full of rumors that she was favored. Everyone praised her for being gentle, generous, kind and virtuous, and a role model for all concubines. Although he disliked this woman in his heart, he confusedly promoted her to the position of concubine. Coincidentally, the virtuous concubine Ren Shuyi passed away, and this title was given to her.
At the same time, Meng Yan's dispute with him became increasingly intense. From the initial quarrel, it developed into smashing objects in the Yangxin Palace. Anything that Lin Yanrong touched was destroyed by her.
He thought this could be explained, but in his dream, he was just sitting on the dragon throne, letting the woman go crazy with a stern face.
Later, they got along well for a while, and Meng Yan became pregnant at this time.
In his dream, he was also ecstatic, even planning to make him the crown prince if he was born a boy. However, the child was lost without reason. Although he was not heartbroken, he could only suppress this pain deep in his heart and go to court and handle state affairs as usual.
Meng Yan hated him from then on, and every time she saw him, her eyes were filled with resentment.
Later, she seemed to have done many bad things, and everyone in the palace criticized her, saying that she was narrow-minded, jealous and cruel, and often excluded and bullied Lin Yanrong, who was already a virtuous concubine.
Although the Ministry of Punishment had never really investigated these messy things, he never really believed them - even if they were true, so what?
Until that day, an autumn afternoon, Imperial Noble Consort Liang Chengbi and Virtuous Consort Lin Yanrong came to the Yangxin Palace together.
Liang Chengbi first reported to him that poison was found in Lin Yanrong's food. The poison came from the hands of the former medicine king Ning Zhonghuai, and it was the only one of its kind in the world.
In the dream, Lu Haozhi sat behind the desk without even raising his eyelids.
But it was just another trick of the women in the harem, he thought in his dream.
Seeing he ignored her, Liang Chengbi smiled and said, "Your Majesty, there's one more thing. Someone has revealed that Concubine Meng is secretly practicing witchcraft in Changchun Palace, cursing the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. There's also a rumor that Concubine Meng, jealous of the Emperor's favoritism towards Concubine Lin, took an abortion drug and aborted the baby as revenge."
As soon as these words fell, Lu Haozhi in his dream suddenly raised his eyes.
"If you dare to joke, I will skin you alive."
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