Chapter 228 People in the Rain
Meng Yan smiled slightly when she saw the unfamiliar face of this woman. "I have never seen this girl before. When did she come to Changchun Palace?"
Yunxiang and Ruizhu had never expected that the little girl would be so bold, and their faces turned pale.
Yunxiang hurried forward and scolded the young palace maid, "How dare you approach and offend me without the Empress's summons? Back off!"
The young maid remained unmoved. She stepped forward, bowed to Meng Yan, and smiled sweetly, "To answer the Empress, I was transferred to Changchun Palace by the Chief Steward of the Imperial Household Department five days ago. I've only been tending bird cages and sweeping in the corridors, never serving Her Majesty, so Her Majesty doesn't recognize me. Today, it was Aunt Yunxiang who came to the corridor to say that Sister Tongxiang, the broom in the room, caught a cold last night and took sick leave. Her Majesty was missing someone to accompany her on her journey, so she needed to choose a replacement. That's why I had the honor of accompanying Her Majesty today."
His words were as smooth and pleasant as the flow of a mountain stream.
Yunxiang and Ruizhu were even more surprised to see that she didn't listen to any advice.
Meng Yan stared at the little palace maid.
But I saw that her delicate chin was slightly raised, and a soft and sweet smile was on her fair oval face. Her watery eyes were like grapes hanging under the awning in July and August, dark, shiny, and she looked around with radiance, and she greeted him fearlessly.
In the colorful light like glass, there was not much humility and respect for the superior, but even a hint of pride and conceit.
Meng Yan curled her lips and smiled, "What a charming girl! With such a clever tongue, it's a real waste of her talent to sweep the corridors. What's your name? How old are you? Which aunt did you learn these rules from before coming to Changchun Palace?"
The little palace maid in front of them had offended him so much, but her master was not annoyed at all and continued to ask her questions with a smile. If this scene had happened in the past, Yunxiang and Ruizhu would have been dumbfounded and would not have been able to hold back and scold her.
However, today, both of them have become a little more cunning under Meng Yan's guidance. They just looked at each other and said nothing more.
Seeing the Empress's affectionate words and easygoing attitude, the maid blushed with excitement and quickly replied, "Your Majesty, my humble name is Hongyu, I'm sixteen years old, and when I was in the Four Stewards' Warehouse, I always followed Aunt Biyue and waited for her orders."
Sixteen years old is the best time for a woman. Her beauty is just beginning to bloom, brilliant and warm, just like spring onions, so tender that you can squeeze out water from them.
It’s no wonder that this little girl dares to be so presumptuous. At this age and with such beauty, she does have the capital to be proud.
It's a pity that my brain is not very smart...
Meng Yan's eyes darkened slightly as she sneered, "The Imperial Household Department has really chosen excellent servants, and the Four Stewards have taught them good manners! How dare such a clueless and unmannered girl be sent to Changchun Palace? I guess I've been so busy with my pregnancy lately that I've had no time to take care of other things, and these servants have become lazy. When things calm down a bit, I'm going to use some tricks to deal with them!"
Although the Queen's voice was not loud, it was resounding, and anyone could hear the hidden anger in it.
Everyone in the pavilion was startled and knelt down, saying, "We are guilty!"
Only the red fish was left, standing there blankly, not knowing what had happened.
Yunxiang crouched on the ground, raised her head slightly, and saw her master's gaze shooting at her like lightning. She immediately understood and hurriedly got up from the ground, shouting, "Why don't you come in and take this maid away? Are you just making the queen angry for nothing?!"
At that moment, the eunuchs serving outside the pavilion came in one after another and pressed Hongyu to the ground.
Yunxiang asked again what to do.
But the Queen spoke in a cold voice, "This maid came forward without permission and spoke nonsense. She will be punished with twenty strokes of the cane and handed over to the Imperial Household Department to select a strict maid to teach her the rules again." At this point, she paused slightly and continued, "The Imperial Household Department failed to judge her. The chief and deputy chief stewards will be fined three months' salary. And Bi Yue, her supervisor, was not strict in her discipline. She will be fined twenty strokes of the cane, her salary will be cut for two months, and she will be demoted to the lowest rank of maid. She is not allowed to be a maid again."
This was the first time Meng Yan had reorganized the palace since she became queen.
A fine layer of cold sweat broke out on everyone's back, and everyone shivered wherever the wind blew.
Yunxiang quickly accepted the order and first ordered the eunuchs to take Hongyu away. Then she quickly went to the Jingshifang and other places to pass on the message.
No matter how clever Hongyu was, she was only a sixteen-year-old girl. How could she withstand such a scene? She had no idea why the Queen suddenly got angry. She was frightened and dumbfounded. She could not utter a word and just let the eunuchs take her down the pavilion.
Only after the incident was over did Meng Yan allow everyone to get up.
Ruizhu saw the empress's pale face and sweat on her forehead, and hurriedly brought a cup of jasmine tea over. "Empress, the weather is dry, drink a cup of jasmine tea to calm your heart. It's not worth getting angry about these things that are not worthy of being presented on the table."
It turned out that since Meng Yan was pregnant, she should not drink strong tea anymore. Changchun Palace only prepared scented tea, floral dew and other soups for her on a daily basis.
Meng Yan glanced at her, took the teacup from her hand, opened the lid, took a sip, and then continued, "How do you do your job? I trust you so much, and you two just let outsiders fool you? You even stuffed someone like that into Changchun Palace. Fortunately, she couldn't hold it in and jumped out, otherwise who knows what kind of trouble would have happened tomorrow."
Ruizhu's face flushed. She replied awkwardly and then asked, "Your Majesty, do you mean that this maidservant... has someone else behind her?"
Meng Yan chuckled and poured all the remaining tea onto the ground.
"How could such a clever and wonderful person come here solely to serve me? When we get back later, send someone out to find out..."
She was carefully instructing her trusted maid when suddenly a strong wind blew outside the pavilion, sending sand and rocks flying. A leaden cloud drifted in from the western sky, covering the entire sky. A moment later, thousands of raindrops, each as big as a bean, fell from the sky, creating tiny craters in the muddy ground of the flower garden.
Ruizhu looked at the dense rain curtain outside the pavilion and couldn't help but exclaimed, "Your Majesty, the weather was fine just now, but it started raining so heavily in the blink of an eye." As she said this, she was afraid that her master would catch a cold, so she hurriedly took out her cloak and put it on Meng Yan.
Meng Yan smiled and said, "The so-called unpredictable weather is just like that. Raining now will alleviate the spring drought, which is a good thing."
The master and servant were chatting, when Ruizhu suddenly pointed to the distance outside the pavilion and said, "My lady, look, there are people walking in this heavy rain!"
Meng Yan looked in the direction she pointed, and saw a man wearing a crane cloak and a jade crown, walking towards them from afar in the heavy rain.
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