As soon as Xu Qinyu walked out of the second room's hanging flower door, she saw Xu Qinhui standing under a locust tree not far away. Hearing the noise, Xu Qinhui turned around and saw that it was Xu Qinyu. She immediately smiled and greeted her, "Second sister, are you going out?"

Xu Qinyu realized that it was Xu Qinhui who was waiting at the door on purpose. It was obvious why.

Xu Qinyu had no intention of paying attention to her and continued to walk outside with Lianhua. She was going out with Lianhua today because her fourth brother was worried about her safety. Lianhua had been following her since she returned to the capital. Even when she returned to the Dechang Marquis Mansion, Lianhua basically never left her side.

Now Lianhua is basically hers.

Seeing that Xu Qinyu had no intention of paying attention to her, Xu Qinhui secretly pinched her palms. Although she was angry in her heart, she did not dare to show it on her face. She had to smile and approach Xu Qinyu, "Second sister, you haven't been back to the capital for a long time, and your second aunt is not with you today. Where do you want to go? Can I take you there?"

Seeing that Xu Qinhui was still unwilling to give up, Xu Qinyu raised her head and said, "You don't have to accompany me, Xu Qinhui, you don't have to do this. No matter what you do, I will never forgive you. Right now, we are just living together temporarily because we haven't separated yet. It's good for everyone to be at peace. If you must come to me to say something, I will be unhappy and I don't know what I will do. So the two of us should just pretend that we don't know each other."

The original body died because of Xu Qinhui.

If Xu Qinhui had not secretly colluded with the palace with the wife of Marquis Dechang, Emperor Shengyuan would not have issued an edict to let the original body marry the fourth brother, and the original body would not have died on the way to exile. So it was impossible for her to forgive these people on the original body's behalf. She even wanted to avenge the original body, but she didn't know what to do. Xu Qinhui did not break the law, and it was impossible to bring her to justice.

Xu Qinhui's eyes were red. "Second sister, did you misunderstand something? None of this was my idea. When Second Aunt was locked up by Grandmother, you were also sent to Prince Shu's Palace in a sedan chair. But do you know? I was also locked up by Grandmother at that time. If it wasn't for this, I would have rushed out long ago. At that time, the emperor was my fiancé. I loved the emperor and had feelings for him. I never thought of letting you marry in his place."

She was almost twenty-two and had been waiting for seven years. This was her only chance.

Otherwise she would be made a laughing stock by everyone in the capital, so she had to marry Pei Weixuan no matter what.

Lianhua was stunned watching from the side. The third young lady of Marquis Dechang’s Mansion was too shameless.

They are secret guards, so they naturally know a lot of things that outsiders don't know.

When Your Majesty was still the Fourth Prince, he had just reached marriageable age, so the late Emperor chose Xu Qinhui for the Fourth Prince from among the daughters of ministers.

Because at that time Xu Qinhui was ranked among the top in the capital city in terms of music, chess, calligraphy, and appearance among the daughters of aristocratic families, so after much deliberation, Xu Qinhui was chosen. At that time, Xu Qinhui was actually a little unhappy, because the Fourth Prince had a weak body since childhood and was a sickly child. He would definitely not be able to compete for the throne in the future, so Xu Qinhui was unwilling. But this was a marriage bestowed by the late emperor. However, seeing that the Fourth Prince and Xu Qinhui were not old at that time, the imperial edict was not issued. The late emperor only verbally told Marquis Dechang.

Unexpectedly, two years later, the late emperor was killed. However, many people knew about this marriage, almost half of the people in the capital knew about it.

Until the Fourth Prince was conferred the title of Prince Shu and was about to be exiled, Xu Qinhui had been unwilling to be engaged to him before, and was even more unwilling to be exiled with him now, so she found a way to go to the palace, meet Emperor Sheng Yuan, and then seduce him with her beauty. Only then did Emperor Sheng Yuan issue an imperial edict to let the Empress marry in his place.

But in order to achieve this, Xu Qinhui naturally also paid other prices.

When she went to the palace to ask for Emperor Sheng Yuan's favor, she had already had an affair with him. So even though she broke her leg and disfigured herself on purpose and was soon able to enter the palace to be Emperor Sheng Yuan's concubine, Emperor Sheng Yuan did not think it was a big deal, after all, he had already received his reward.

This was also something that the secret guards did not quite understand. It was clearly Xu Qinhui's own request, but when the prince was exiled, she suddenly changed her mind and was unwilling to enter the palace to be Emperor Sheng Yuan's concubine. However, the emperor seemed to have guessed the truth but just did not tell them.

It is ridiculous and shameless for Xu Qinhui to say that she has feelings for the emperor. Isn't this trying to destroy the relationship between the queen and the emperor? The emperor has not contacted her in all these years.

Xu Qinyu was also a little annoyed. At this time, Xu Qinhui still dared to touch the fourth brother. It was too much. She was about to say a few words, but Lianhua was already furious and said, "Xu Qinhui, what are you talking about? You dare to destroy the relationship between the Empress and the Emperor. The Emperor finally fell in love once in these years and liked the Empress. You want to deceive the Empress with your little tricks. When the late emperor wanted to give you and the Emperor a marriage, you were not happy at all. Later, when the Emperor was going to be exiled, you hurriedly asked the old lady of Dechang Marquis to enter the palace. After entering the palace, what did you do? Don't you know why Emperor Shengyuan helped you issue an edict to let the Empress marry in your place? Do you have to let me say it in public and pollute the Empress's ears?"

Xu Qinhui's face suddenly turned pale.

How come this maid knows everything?

Could it be someone from His Majesty's side? If everyone around His Majesty knew about her, then wouldn't His Majesty also know that it was her who asked Emperor Sheng Yuan for help, and that between her and Emperor Sheng Yuan... His Majesty also knew about it?

Seeing that Xu Qinhui's face turned pale and she was speechless, Xu Qinyu ignored her and walked past her with Lianhua.

But Xu Qinhui was not willing to give up. She looked at Xu Qinyu's figure getting farther and farther away. She shouted, "Second sister, have you forgotten Song Bingjian? He has never forgotten you in his heart. Since you went to the border town, he was forced by his family to marry another wife, but he has always been thinking about you in his heart. He even divorced his wife two years ago and has never remarried. He is still waiting for you. Second sister, what you told me before, that you admired Song Bingjian and hoped to become his wife, was it a lie? Could it be that you forgot him just to become the queen? Or does His Majesty know about these things about you?"

What she said was true. Song Bingjian did divorce his wife, but that was because his wife saw that he was a hypocrite.

At that time, Song Bingjian married someone else immediately after his original body was exiled to the southwest.

At that time, Song Bingjian was actually hooking up with several girls, all of them following a similar routine: he would inquire about the girls' backgrounds and then meet them by chance, then write poems and start pursuing them. Xu Qinyu had the highest status among the girls, after all, she was the granddaughter of a marquis. Song Bingjian was ready to send a matchmaker to propose marriage, but he didn't expect that the original girl was suddenly forced to marry and exiled to a border town, and then Song Bingjian married another girl.

The girl's family was from a noble family and she was also a legitimate daughter. Her family originally did not agree with the marriage, but the girl was bewitched by Song Bingjian and cried and made a fuss about marrying him.

Later, the girl had no choice but to nod in agreement.

But unexpectedly, after getting married, he still always went to the brothel. Not only that, he was dark and narrow-minded. He took out the anger he suffered at his wife's house on innocent animals on the roadside, and tortured and killed many wild cats and dogs. When his wife found out, she realized that he was not a good man and divorced him.

Because of this incident, no one was willing to marry into the Song family after Song Bingjian's divorce.

It was not until Song Bingjian knew that Xu Qinyu had become the empress and that she owned a Xu's wine shop and restaurant in the border town, and that he knew that the two wine shops and restaurants also had other businesses, and that Xu Qinyu could make at least ten thousand taels of silver for free every year, that he became interested.

Of course, he was not so bold as to dig into the emperor's corner, but just wanted to use their previous friendship to coax Xu Qinyu, hoping to get some money from her, or coax her to share some of the restaurant and wine house with him. But these days, he has been wandering at the gate of the Marquis's mansion, but he has not met Xu Qinyu, but he has met Xu Qinhui several times. Seeing this, Xu Qinhui even chatted with him. He begged Xu Qinhui to tell Xu Qinyu that he wanted to meet Xu Qinyu.

Xu Qinhui even tempted Song Bingjian to write letters to Xu Qinyu, but Song Bingjian didn't dare to. If he communicated with the Empress Dowager, it would be a capital crime if people knew about it. How could he dare to do that? He didn't even dare to dream of the Empress Dowager. He just wanted to make some money.

Xu Qinhui mentioned it several times, but Song Bingjian disagreed, so Xu Qinhui had no choice but to give up.

Now Xu Qinhui naturally had to mention Song Bingjian, and she also hoped that Xu Qinyu might have some feelings for Song Bingjian, which might give her a chance.

When Lianhua heard this, her face changed a little. She turned around and looked at Xu Qinhui. She didn't expect Xu Qinhui to be so bold as to even dare to say such a thing. If she didn't say this, she might be able to live a peaceful and stable life in this life. Now it's difficult...

Xu Qinyu ignored Xu Qinhui. She was not the real second daughter of the Marquis of Dechang Mansion, and had no feelings for Song Bingjian. No matter what this man was like, it had nothing to do with him even if he died.

Song Bingjian was the man that the original body almost married, but he was a scumbag and deceived several girls at the same time.

Fortunately, the original body was quite self-respecting and self-loving. Before getting married, she did not dare to have too close contact with Song Bingjian. She had not even given Song Bingjian letters or personal handkerchiefs. They only met at the market, had meals in restaurants, and talked about music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Xu Qinhui was anxious. Seeing Xu Qinyu about to leave the yard, she immediately shouted, "Second sister, aren't you worried that this matter will be known to everyone? Aren't you afraid that this matter will be known to the emperor?"

Lian Hua finally couldn't bear it anymore, so she turned around and slapped Xu Qinhui twice on the face. As a martial artist, she was ruthless. The two slaps immediately made Xu Qinhui's cheeks swell up, and blood was oozing from the corners of her mouth.

Lianhua scolded, "How dare you make up stories about the Empress like this."

Xu Qinhui was shaking with pain, and she was more and more certain that the maidservant knew martial arts and must be someone close to the emperor. However, she dared not say anything at the moment. She was anxious just now and forgot that Xu Qinyu was the empress now. The time was different now. It was a serious crime to dare to make up stories about the empress.

Xu Qinyu also turned around. She really didn't understand Xu Qinhui. Things had already come to this, why did she have to think about marrying Fourth Brother? Was it just for power?

There is nothing wrong in seeking power and position, but the problem is that the methods she uses are to hurt others in exchange for her own interests and opportunities to climb up.

After the beating, Lian Hua raised her foot again and kicked Xu Qinhui directly to her knees in front of Xu Qinyu.

Lianhua said: "Why don't you hurry up and apologize to the Empress."

Xu Qinhui endured the humiliation and kowtowed three times to Xu Qinyu, "Please forgive me, Her Majesty. I offended Her Majesty by speaking without restraint. Please forgive me this time."

Xu Qinyu looked at Lianhua and said, "Lianhua, let's go."

Lian Hua then glared at Xu Qinhui and left with Xu Qinyu.

After the two left, Xu Qinhui looked up, her nails already digging deeply into her palms. She had never hated a person so much before. She also hated this old man. Why didn't he let her be reborn before she regretted her engagement, so that she would be the queen now.

Ping'er, who was standing next to her, was so frightened that she tried to help her master, but Xu Qinhui stood up and kicked Ping'er, scolding her, "You lowly maid, you are like a dead person, watching me get beaten, right?"

Ping'er's face turned pale, she didn't understand why her master had become like this.

Xu Qinyu lost all desire to go out for a stroll after being interrupted by Xu Qinhui. However, she still walked around outside, looked at the shops and restaurants in the capital, and finally went to her uncle's house for a while before returning home.

At night, Pei Weixuan came to the Marquis Dechang's Mansion.

On weekdays, Fourth Brother would come to the Marquis Dechang's Mansion to rest, and Xu Qinyu would prepare the evening meal for him. She wanted Fourth Brother to eat more. Fourth Brother had been eating the evening meal she prepared for him recently, and he had gained some weight, but he was still skinny and felt hard to the touch.

When the two fell asleep, Xu Qinyu told her fourth brother about what happened in the afternoon when Xu Qinhui blocked the gate of the second courtyard, and everything Xu Qinhui said.

She didn't want to hide it from her fourth brother and wanted to tell him about it.