Chapter 53 The Golden Hairpin Mistake "Your Highness, Shiyu entered the palace today. Did you see him...?"
Compared to Baojia's group, Xue Chan's group had a pitifully small number of people.
Aside from the palace servants who attended to her daily, there were only a few maids from the Xiao, Cheng, and Fang families. In the courtyard, one woman was wiping away tears while her husband was burying his face in his hands on the table, while two others whispered words of comfort to her.
"Huaizhu, stop crying, or your eyes will get swollen..."
"But this painting took thirteen months to complete. If she wakes up and sees it, I don't know how devastating it will be..."
"Cough cough," Wang Xu coughed twice.
Xiao Yangjun and Cheng Huaizhu stood up and bowed. When he saw that Cheng Huaizhu's eyes were swollen like walnuts, he softened a bit.
He raised his hand to indicate that he did not need to stand on ceremony, and then went to the inner hall.
The emperor glanced at the damaged Hundred Butterflies painting as he passed by, and this time he truly sighed.
He walked to the door, and the palace servants at the door immediately went to announce his arrival.
No need.
The palace maid lowered her head and silently lifted the curtain.
A short while later, Consort Xue and the imperial physician entered. The emperor asked her to sit down and then asked the physician, "How is she?"
The imperial physician said, "Fortunately, the palace maids provided timely assistance, saving her life. I have already administered acupuncture, and she is out of danger. She will recover once she wakes up. However, Miss Xue was frightened and nearly drowned, so she will need to rest for a while."
The emperor nodded.
Consort Xue said, "Your Majesty, she is still unconscious. I wonder if you could ask Your Majesty to keep her in the palace for the time being, and let her leave the palace when she recovers."
The emperor said, "This is a minor matter, I grant it."
Consort Xue rose and kowtowed in thanks. The emperor reached out to pull her up, but did not. He said, "Why does Consort Xue need to thank me for this? She would never have done this before."
Consort Xue said, "I have another matter to ask of Your Majesty."
"What is it?"
"I wish to reward the palace maid who pulled Qiao Niang out of the water and brought her back to safety, so I am asking Your Majesty about it."
The emperor scooped her up and pulled her to his side: "As a Noble Consort, if you want to bestow favors upon a palace maid, you can simply issue an order. Why do you have to ask for my decree?"
Consort Xue lowered her head slightly and said obediently, "If it were an ordinary palace maid, it would be fine, but that palace maid is a criminal slave from the Inner Palace. I dare not make a decision on my own, so I asked His Majesty."
The emperor remained silent for a moment, then asked, "Who is it?"
Wang Xu, who was standing beside him, had already figured it out and replied, "He is a musician from the Gonglefang, named Deng Run."
The emperor remained silent for a moment, stroking his sleeve.
Everyone held their breath. Consort Xue tilted her head and looked at him: "If Your Majesty minds, then just give him some silver."
He smiled as he gazed at Consort Xue's face and said, "Since the Consort is willing, then let her leave the inner palace and go to the Academy of Literature and History."
Wang Xu accepted the order and left, and Consort Xue rose and bowed.
The emperor looked at her with her head bowed and eyes downcast, and found the red azaleas in her hair an eyesore.
He took the flower off and threw it away, then reached out and lifted her face, bending down to caress it.
The emperor slightly curved his lips into a gentle smile, his voice filled with tender affection.
"Your Highness, that flower has faded and is not worthy of your beauty. Please choose another one."
Consort Xue met his dark, deep gaze and smiled slightly, looking quite beautiful under the lamplight.
She looks even more lovable now.
Sometimes, it's not good when flowers bloom too beautifully; the presence of bees and butterflies attracts unwanted attention.
The emperor squeezed it tighter until it turned red, and then his smile became even gentler.
"Your Highness, you've always known how to please people. You always have, and you're even more so now. You always make people feel both pity and love for you."
Xue Gui looked directly at him, clasped his hands in front of his knees, and laughed.
"If not for that, how could His Majesty have bowed down to you?"
The emperor stared at her lips as she opened and closed, the lip rouge on them alluringly red.
He suddenly stood up, grabbed Consort Xue's hand, and pulled her behind the screen.
She stumbled and bumped into a porcelain vase, which shattered on the ground. Those waiting outside immediately became alert, but all they heard was Consort Xue's angry voice.
"Summer is approaching, and His Majesty is busy with many affairs of state and has a lot of internal heat. He should have the imperial physicians prescribe more medicine to reduce internal heat."
The emperor silenced her by gagging.
"I am now dispelling the heat!"
Both harbored resentment and fought fiercely, neither willing to back down.
The emperor sat to one side and said calmly, "Consort Xue, I am the emperor. You cannot speak to me like that. As a consort, you should obey."
Consort Xue smiled brightly, her eyes calm: "Then let me out of the palace, and find ten or eight more docile ones."
The emperor looked up at her and said, "That won't do. Even if you're going to die, you'll die by my side."
"......"
Consort Xue gritted her teeth and ignored him, instead sitting down on one side of him while holding a pillow.
She ignored him and remained silent, while the emperor sat beside her, looking at the gold hairpin that seemed about to fall.
The tent fell silent for a moment, then he suddenly spoke again.
"Your Highness, Shiyu came to the palace today. Were you happy or sad to see him?"
His voice was soft and cold.
Is this person crazy?
Consort Xue glanced at him, met his eyes directly, raised an eyebrow and smiled: "Does Your Majesty want me to be happy, or sad?"
The emperor did not answer.
Consort Xue threw the pillow at him.
The emperor's head lolled to the side from being hit by the pillow. In a fit of anger, he rolled out of bed, stood by the bed, and pointed at her: "I have truly spoiled you too much in the past, which has given you such a temper! I really can't stand you!"
Consort Xue's eyes widened as she stepped barefoot onto the ground, causing the hairpin in her hair to clatter to the ground.
"You said you'd give me anything I wanted and would never let me suffer. Who insisted on keeping me in the palace?"
"Since Your Majesty is deliberately looking for trouble and dislikes me, what are you still doing here? Go away! You have so many concubines, go find them!"
Hearing the long-absent commotion, the people outside immediately raised their alarms. Cheng Huaizhu, listening to the noise, quietly hid behind a pillar to watch.
The group first heard the emperor's hurried breathing.
"Fine, I'm leaving! I'm never coming here again! Don't come begging then!"
Before they could finish listening, the door opened and the emperor stormed out.
"Wang Xu! Wang Xu! Where have you been?!"
Wang Xu jogged over: "Your Majesty..."
The emperor abruptly flung his sleeve and strode out of the Funing Palace: "Why aren't you preparing the carriage? If you stay here any longer, you'll die sooner or later!"
Ouch!
Wang Xu felt a headache coming on; these two were truly his living ancestors.
He didn't dare say anything, and first said to Yunyu, "Try to persuade your mistress to reconcile, this is not a good situation."
Before Yunyu could answer, the emperor shouted, "Wang Xu, do you want to die?!"
Wang Xuxin was exhausted, so he hurriedly followed to serve his ancestors.
Just as Yunyu was about to enter, she saw Cheng Huaizhu peeking out from behind the wall.
Upon entering the palace, Cheng Huaizhu saw this scene and couldn't help but blink, "Is this a big deal?"
Yunyu advised her, "Miss Cheng, please go back and take care of Miss Xue."
She knew her limits. She wanted to grab the palace servants and ask them questions, but everyone seemed very busy, so she shut up and went back to take care of Xue Chan.
When Yunyu entered the palace, Consort Xue was sitting in front of the mirror, leisurely arranging her hair and adorning herself with flowers.
"Why is Your Highness arguing with His Majesty again?"
Consort Xue slammed the jade comb down with a "smack": "He was the one who caused trouble back then, and now he's the one who needs to be questioned. No matter what I answer, he won't be happy. He does nothing good himself, yet he blames others for having something to hide!"
She poked hard at the flowers in the porcelain vase.
"So difficult to please!"
Yunyu sighed and combed her hair: "That person is waiting outside, does Your Highness wish to see him?"
Consort Xue: "In that case, let her in."
Before long, Deng Run came in with his head down and knelt down in worship.
"This servant, Deng Run, kowtows to thank Your Highness."
Consort Xue said indifferently, "Survival in the palace is not easy; everyone has to rely on their own abilities. What does it have to do with me?"
Deng Run smiled slightly: "I know. If it weren't for Her Majesty's secret protection, I would have died when I entered the palace, let alone survived until now."
"So, you came to see me just for this matter?" Consort Xue rested her chin on her hand and gently curved her lips into a smile.
Deng Run: "This servant has discovered that Your Highness and this servant are doing the same thing."
"oh?"
She wrote the two characters "Tongzhou" on the floor tiles.
"This servant is doing this to prove my innocence, Your Highness, what is your reason?"
Is it to repay a debt of gratitude or to seek revenge?
Consort Xue rose, combing her hair as she walked deeper into the screen.
"I have a wild heart, I want both."
Deng Run was led out again, and she sat in her room until dawn.
Everyone in the palace knew that the emperor was angry with Consort Xue, but no one dared to be negligent.
Because every time, the emperor would happily go to see Consort Xue within two days, and in the end, it was always the emperor who suffered the consequences.
So everyone counted down the days, waiting to see when the emperor would go to see the imperial concubine again.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. The emperor had even taken the time to listen to Jiang Ce's investigation results, reprimanded Bao Jia, and confined him to his palace. However, both Dongming Palace and Funing Palace remained perfectly normal, with no interaction between them.
He buried himself in politics until noon that day.
The emperor slammed the memorial on the table: "I have been far too lenient with her!"
What has he wanted in his life, and what hasn't he obtained? His smooth-sailing life has cultivated a rare good temper in him.
I've gotten so angry at this person, and every time I feel like I'm going to die from the anger.
But he was unwilling to give up. He was really angry with this woman. Even killing her would be too easy for her.
The emperor took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and sat back down in his chair.
He began to focus solely on reviewing memorials, and if he encountered a memorial with poor handwriting or writing, he would simply throw it on the ground.
"Send it back to me intact! Let him study more!"
And so, the memorials that had been lying on the ground piled up in just one afternoon.
After he had finished approving all the comments, the emperor slammed down his pen.
Wang Xu asked him cautiously, "Which concubine's palace does Your Majesty wish to visit, or would you like to have the meal served in the Dongming Palace?"
The emperor originally intended to go somewhere else to provoke Consort Xue, but before he could say anything, he changed his mind again and again. By the time he finally said it, things had turned out differently.
"Serve the meal here."
Dinner was served one dish at a time.
Wang Xuli stood to the side serving the meal, but the emperor was not in the mood, so he immediately picked up a dish of eight-treasure chicken.
The emperor stared at the tender chicken and remembered that Consort Xue loved this dish the most.
He slammed his chopsticks down on the table, startling Wang Xu.
"Go tell the department that they are not allowed to make Eight Treasure Chicken for the Funing Palace!"
The palace maid answered tremblingly, "Yes." Wang Xu silently poked at the vegetables before gently picking up a bamboo shoot.
As a result, the emperor got angry again and said, "Not only Eight Treasure Chicken, but also Hibiscus Cake, Crispy Fish, Sea Cucumber... none of them are allowed to be made for the Funing Palace!"
"..." Wang Xu remained silent amidst the palace servants' responses, only continuing to serve food to the emperor.
He comforted himself, "It's okay, it's okay, it will all pass."
Anyway, you have to endure it, so just bear with it and it will be fine.
It's not the first time; just bear with it.
Consort Xue, who was preparing to have dinner in the Funing Palace, looked at the dishes on the table and pursed her lips tightly.
Yunyu said, "It's fine if Her Majesty doesn't have what she likes to eat, but why do you keep making sour dishes? Don't you know Her Majesty doesn't like sour food?"
The palace servants in charge of the department smiled helplessly.
"This... His Majesty ordered that the dishes the Empress mentioned should not be sent to the Funing Palace. These dishes were all ordered by His Majesty himself."
Consort Xue said calmly, "Enough, you may leave."
She picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks and ate it slowly.
They must be incredibly bored.
As evening approached, the emperor finished reviewing the memorials and asked Wang Xu, "What is she doing?"
Wang Xu said, "Miss Xue is feeling better and is taking a walk with the Imperial Concubine."
The emperor's face darkened. He was furious, while she was enjoying her freedom.
Wang Xu said quietly, "Your Majesty has been reading memorials all day. Why don't you take a walk in the garden and enjoy the scenery?"
The emperor leaned back in his chair, stroking his chin, seemingly deep in thought.
Wang Xu secretly ordered someone to prepare a sedan chair.
To his surprise, the emperor shot him a glare, and he spat out each word while slamming his hand on the table repeatedly.
"I...will...not...go!"
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