Song Yushu looked at the queen and said casually, "Of course I have a grudge against Miss Lin, but she is her, and you are you. You are still the biological mother of King Jing."
"As a member of Prince Jing's Mansion, I know what's more important than what's less important. Besides, the things Miss Lin has on her body need to be used where they should be used, right?"
Although she was very perfunctory, the Queen did not really want to get to the bottom of it. After all, they were just using each other, and the Queen did not want Song Yushu to know what was on Lin Zhiyao.
After all, Concubine Yu came from a humble family. Even if she mobilized the power of her mother's family, she would not be able to take care of the family banquet.
She could only find the Minister of Rites, Du Jingtong, and said, "Sir Du, the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet still needs the Ministry of Rites to take more care of it."
Du Jingtong nodded quickly, "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites will do its best."
"Master Du, words are useless." Concubine Yu said with a pleasant expression, trying to reason with him. "This family banquet concerns the reputation of the royal family, and yet they still haven't figured it out. This is absolutely unacceptable."
Du Jingtong pretended to be surprised. "What do you mean, Madam? The Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet has its own rules. We are also following the etiquette and dare not neglect it in the slightest."
The previous Minister of Rites was the Crown Prince's man, so Concubine Yu could still speak frankly, but the current Du Jingtong was Lu Zhixing's man, so Concubine Yu really didn't dare to speak frankly.
"I know that you are a little stretched to hold a family banquet recently due to the shortage of money in the national treasury, but you also have to consider His Majesty and think of other ways." Concubine Yu coughed lightly, and almost said that the Ministry of Rites should find a way to fill the hole themselves.
Du Jingtong sneered in his heart. This Concubine Yu was really dreaming. The family banquet should have been simple, but she insisted on making it grand and exquisite, using only the finest items.
The list they listed is enough to make them laugh out loud. They don’t have the ability but still insist on taking the blame!
Now that you can't handle it yourself, you want to shift the blame to the Ministry of Rites?
Du Jingtong frowned, his face full of sorrow. "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites is extremely concerned about this family banquet, but after the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet, His Majesty still needs to start the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the heavens. It is really impossible to continue!"
They actually brought up the name of offering sacrifices to heaven! Concubine Yu's face began to look grim. "Minister Du is asking me to give in to the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven?"
"Both ceremonies are very important, and I have tried my best. But if you want me to favor one over the other..." Du Jingtong would not flatter a concubine who was only favored by the emperor but had no real power.
What's more, he did not make any mistakes, and even if he brought the case to the emperor, he would have reasons and evidence.
"I didn't ask you to favor any particular ritual." Concubine Yu controlled her temper and continued to persuade her kindly, "It's just that everything has its priorities. The Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet is imminent, so naturally we should prioritize this."
"That's right, Your Majesty, don't worry, I will do my best." Du Jingtong started laughing again.
This was not what Concubine Yu wanted to hear. She wanted Du Jingtong to agree to pay for the family banquet.
You won’t know until you do it, and you’ll be shocked when you do it. The Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet will cost at least one million taels of silver!
She scraped together money for half a day and finally managed to gather 300,000 taels of silver, which was far from enough. Even if she found Lu Yanzhou, he would not agree to use the money that Lin had on hand.
In Lu Yanzhou's view, the subsequent sacrifices to heaven and disaster relief are the time to win over people's hearts.
No matter how extravagant this family dinner is, it will be useless and may even lead to impeachment by the censors.
It would take a while for her to persuade Lu Yanzhou, so she could only turn to the Ministry of Rites.
But she forgot that the Ministry of Rites would not listen to a noble concubine, especially since she was not on the side of the prince.
"You're just saying you're doing your best, but I haven't seen any progress!" Concubine Yu couldn't help herself and spoke harshly, "I haven't seen any of the East China Sea pearls or Jinzhou brocade I wanted!"
The list that Concubine Yu had drawn up was long and expensive. Du Jingtong only glanced at it briefly before forgetting it. He nodded again and again, "Don't worry, Concubine. I will do my best to get it. His Majesty has also instructed me to do something immediately. Your Majesty, please forgive me."
Du Jingtong's patience has reached its limit. Originally, the harem was not allowed to interfere in political affairs. If it weren't for the family banquet, Du Jingtong could have just found an excuse to avoid seeing him!
Seeing Du Jingtong turn and leave after he finished speaking, Concubine Yu was so angry that she trembled all over and threw the teapot next to her to the ground, "Asshole!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down." The palace maids knelt on the ground.
Seeing Concubine Yu's sullen face, Nanny Zhao offered an idea. "Your Majesty, why don't we summon Concubine Lin Lin and have her help?"
"Don't I know that I can find her? What else can I do if the prince doesn't allow me?" Concubine Yu frowned, she really couldn't think of any good solution.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince won't allow it, but Concubine Lin will agree, as long as she wants to stay in the Crown Prince's Mansion." Madam Zhao continued to persuade, "Perhaps His Highness is afraid that if we do things too well, it will arouse suspicion from others, so he doesn't want you to go to Concubine Lin."
"But this concerns the reputation of Yanchun Palace and His Majesty. We can't do it in such a shabby way that it will become a laughing stock."
Nanny Zhao was brought in as a dowry by Concubine Yu, and her horizons were not much broader. They only thought about doing it well and not embarrassing themselves, but did not think about the future.
"But..." Concubine Yu was still a little hesitant. After all, Lu Yanzhou's reaction was very strong, and he became increasingly opposed to many of her actions.
"Your Highness, you are the Crown Prince's biological mother. You are the elder. His Highness shouldn't treat you like this." Nanny Zhao, concerned about her own future status, kept goading Concubine Yu. "You want to hold a good family banquet just to save His Highness's face, don't you?"
After all, the more powerful Concubine Yu became, the more power she gained as someone close to Concubine Yu.
"Zhou'er will go to the imperial study in the afternoon to handle official business with His Majesty. You can bring Lin Liangdi here at that time." Concubine Yu finally listened to her. She had controlled Lu Yanzhou for so many years and was very dissatisfied with his current attitude.
"Yes, your majesty." Nanny Zhao was overjoyed and nodded immediately.
"Don't disturb too many people when you go, do you understand?" Concubine Yu glanced at Nanny Zhao and gave her a meaningful instruction.
Madam Zhao immediately understood, "Yes, Madam, I understand."
However, Zhao Ma was a flamboyant person, and before she even left the palace, Song Yushu had already received the news.
"Pass this news to the Queen, she will naturally find a way to intercept the person." Song Yushu didn't care much, this was expected.
Concubine Yu could neither bring herself to ask the concubines in the palace for help nor ask the emperor for help. She also suffered a loss at the hands of the Ministry of Rites, so she could only go to Lin Zhiyao for help.
After all, Lin Zhiyao is now her "daughter-in-law"...
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