"Xia He, who do you think might be behind this?"
Chen Yuwei gently twirled the calligraphy brush in her hand. The tip of the brush was not stained with ink. As it lightly brushed across the back of her hand, she felt a slight itch.
Xia He pondered for a moment, "Your Majesty, I think that whoever it is, should have nothing to do with Changchun Palace."
Perhaps some concubines who disliked Consort Wei wanted to teach her a lesson, so they targeted Ying'er.
After all, Consort Wei was a noblewoman; there were two different outcomes if she attacked a concubine versus a servant.
No matter the time, a servant's life is never as precious as his master's.
It's a sad, yet unexpected, reality.
Xia He offered her own deduction, immediately eliminating the correct answer.
Chen Yuwei looked up at Xia He and thought to herself that this child was still too naive.
How can Changchun Palace be ruled out? Often, the most dangerous place is the safest place.
Moreover, it's inevitable that friction will arise when two people live together for a long time. Don't be fooled by the fact that the Empress is pregnant now; she's not the kind and benevolent person she appears to be. She's quite ruthless.
Besides, Ying'er, a servant girl, doesn't come out very often.
The person who can bring someone to the Imperial Garden so quietly must be someone close to them.
By clearly presenting these conditions and carefully eliminating any inappropriate ones, the suspicion surrounding Changchun Palace was immediately raised.
"But Your Majesty, the Empress just announced the good news of her pregnancy. Would she really invite bad luck at a time like this?"
People in ancient times were very superstitious about things like feng shui, and even the emperor was a frequent visitor to the Imperial Observatory.
Whether there was a reason or not, they would always summon officials from the Imperial Observatory to perform a divination.
Xia He, thinking in the pure way of the ancients, would have excluded Changchun Palace.
Chen Yuwei is different; as a mission taker, she has been to too many worlds.
The Qing Dynasty imperial harem? It was just an insignificant little task in her long life.
Chen Yuwei analyzed from a human nature perspective that Ying'er's death was inextricably linked to Changchun Palace.
However, Chen Yuwei will not continue to investigate this matter.
Following the proper procedures, Ying'er's death was ruled an accident.
That's the end of the matter, even if some people think it was a conspiracy.
But so what? No one says we have to get to the bottom of this.
Furthermore, the affairs of the inner palace have now been divided among three people by the Empress: Consort Shu (Chen Yuwei), Consort Xian (Huifanara Tanyin), and Consort Hui (Niohuru Huixin).
None of them like to cause trouble, so why would they hold onto this matter so tightly?
As for Consort Gao Hongshan, she was ill with a chronic illness and needed to rest in bed. She didn't even get a single palace duty assigned to her, so why was she complaining?
However, "Has Consort Gao's illness dragged on for too long this time?"
When Chen Yuwei asked about Xia He, she thought to herself that Gao Hongshan would also fall ill from time to time during the cold winter months.
Later, when she raised the ninth prince Yongqi, she became more prone to illness, and might even bring Yongqi with her.
Even so, Gao Hongshan would still insist on attending the winter festivals in previous years despite her illness.
This year is different. Even now, when Chen Yuwei is compiling the list of attendees at the New Year's banquet, there is still no place under Gao Hongshan's name.
Could it be that things are really not going to work out? It seems like Gao Hongshan's time to leave the show will be next January.
Gao Bin from the previous dynasty, although he was caught and reprimanded by the emperor several times, it did not affect his life or property. It was Gao Hongshan's older brother who was a bit unlucky. Not only did he not do a good job serving the emperor, but he also left behind traces of his own corruption and bribery. As a result, he was completely stripped of his official position by the emperor.
But at least Gao Bin didn't fall, and the backbone of the Gao family was still standing in the court. Judging from the occasional tone of the emperor's voice, he wouldn't take Gao Bin's life anytime soon.
Chen Yuwei thought that this way, Gao Hongshan could avoid the fate of being killed off early.
I didn't expect that in the end nothing could be changed. Tsk tsk, that's a bit pathetic.
Chen Yuwei felt a pang of regret without any sincerity, while Xia He, who was suddenly asked the question, was also taken aback.
I never expected my master's thoughts to jump around so much, already veerging onto Consort Gao.
However, as a servant, how could she question her master? Since her master wanted to know about Consort Gao's situation, Xia He simply told her what she knew.
Xia He knew more about Consort Gao's illness before the Lunar New Year than Chen Yuwei.
"Your Majesty, Consort Gao's health has deteriorated significantly this year."
Actually, it didn't drag on much longer than in previous years. It was just that Prince Yongqi was getting older and more active, and Consort Gao couldn't bear to let Consort Yu take care of the child, so she always had to take care of him herself. As a result, she exhausted herself and fell ill, which led to her spending much more time in bed recovering.
"Nowadays, Prince Yongqi is mostly cared for by the wet nurse chosen by Consort Gao."
A small number of Consort Yu came, and with the special permission of the Noble Consort, the mother and son were also allowed to meet.
Xia He's last sentence was somewhat forced, because it was exactly as it seemed on the surface: Consort Gao only allowed Consort Yu and Prince Yongqi to meet once, and then the wet nurse took Prince Yongqi away to play. Consort Yu had no choice but to go to Consort Gao's side to take care of him as a roundabout way to achieve her goal.
Currently, it seems that Consort Yu's method is not very effective. Consort Yu and Yongqi, mother and son, do not have many opportunities to meet, let alone cultivate their relationship.
Yongqi was at an age where his memory was changing every day.
Consort Yu had not left an impression on Yongqi for a long time, so whenever Yongqi saw Consort Yu, it was as if he had seen a stranger. Not to mention the emotional fluctuations he could feel, not crying out loud was considered an improvement.
Xia He felt that it was rather unfair of Consort Gao to have caused such a mess for a mother and son.
Consort Gao wasn't like this before, so why is Prince Yongqi getting more and more confused as he gets older?
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
