"Everyone in the world flatters the powerful and bullies the weak. I've been repeatedly turned away at Chang'an Palace. Have you ever considered that if this gets out, I'll lose face, but not my status."
Xiao Qin'er was angry and in a bad mood.
Liu Yi snorted, "You are just trying to save face and end up suffering."
Xiao Qin'er was furious. "If I don't care about face, how can this family support itself? Can I count on you? Look at yourself. How many years have you been decadent? How long has it been since you asked about the affairs of the mansion? Have you ever cared about the children's marriages? Weddings and funerals all cost money.
If they lost face, with the mercenary attitudes of the people, would they continue to associate with the palace? Would those merchants be willing to do business with the palace? They would have run away long ago, and run away faster than anyone else.
As she spoke, Xiao Qin'er began to feel aggrieved.
Her eyes were red.
Liu Yi sighed.
Xiao Qin'er rubbed her eyes and said, "Things are different now. Merchants are willing to cooperate with our palace and share profits because of our face. If we lose face, with so many children in the palace, each of them reaching marriageable age, where will I get the money from? The little money we saved up in the past is far from enough."
If you could hold a position in the court and reconcile your relationship with His Majesty, I wouldn't have to work so hard to curry favor with the Empress. Since you're His Majesty's brother and someone who will be in a position of power, I wouldn't have to worry about it. People will come and offer money."
"Don't accept money that is delivered to your door." Liu Yi reminded solemnly.
Xiao Qin'er snorted, "You are in this state now, and you haven't shown up for a long time. No one would give us money."
Liu Yi frowned, "Is the palace really that difficult? After investing so much in the Empress's businesses, it makes no sense for the palace to be out of money!"
Xiao Qin'er sneered, "Didn't you hear anything I just said? Investing in the Empress's assets does bring in dividends every year, enough to cover the expenses of the palace. But don't forget, the children are grown up, and the places to spend money are ten times more than before.
Do you need money for a girl's dowry and a boy's betrothal gift? Do you need to repair the courtyard and redecorate it when marrying a wife? Do you need money for socializing? Fortunately, the palace has a small population, which saves us a lot of money. Otherwise, just socializing in the palace would cost at least 20,000 taels of silver a year."
Listening to Xiao Qin'er's account settlement, Liu Yi was overwhelmed.
He hurriedly said, "Alright, alright, tomorrow I'll go to the palace to pay my respects to the Queen Mother and plead for you."
Xiao Qin'er reminded her, "You must make sure that Queen Mother is exempted from the punishment of copying the Diamond Sutra. Tell her that I have admitted my mistake. From now on, if there is any disturbance in the royal family, I will send someone to inform Eunuch Wen."
"If you had done this earlier, why would your mother punish you?" Liu Yi complained to her.
Xiao Qin'er snorted, "It's because my mother is getting more and more nagging. Every time she enters the palace, she always scolds me. She also accuses me of being harsh on your illegitimate children. Honestly, have I ever been harsh on your illegitimate children? I'm certainly not nice to them, but I'm definitely not bad either. I paid them every penny I owed them."
Liu Yi chuckled twice, "You've made them kneel and copy scriptures as punishment many times."
Xiao Qin'er sneered, "Who told your bastards to disobey the rules and embarrass themselves outside? Naturally, I have to punish them."
"Don't keep calling them 'your bastards'. They are your bastards too, and they have to call you mother, too."
"Thank you for the inconvenience! You should have taken good care of your concubine daughters a long time ago. After being beaten by Ruyang last time, they behaved themselves for half a year. But recently, it seems that they have returned to their old ways."
"Disciplining children is the responsibility of the mistress of the house." Liu Yi reminded Xiao Qin'er.
Pooh!
Xiao Qin'er said bluntly, "I can indeed help you discipline them, but I'm not happy about it. If I discipline them strictly, people will say I'm being harsh on my illegitimate children. If I discipline them laxly, people will say I'm neglecting them and letting them become useless.
In short, I'm a nobody, and whatever I do is wrong. Since everything I do is wrong, I might as well do nothing. I'll just provide them with food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Their biological mother will take care of everything else, so it's not my turn to worry about it. Besides, if you, as their father, don't worry about it, why should I, their stepmother, worry about it?
These words are really harsh, straightforward and rude.
Liu Yi rubbed his brows and said, "I know you've worked hard these years, so stop complaining."
"Then don't make any demands on me." Xiao Qin'er frowned and refused to give in.
Liu Yi surrendered, "I won't make any demands, so don't complain."
After living as a stay-at-home for several years, Liu Yi is no longer good at arguing with others.
He didn't even bother to speak.
The life of a stay-at-home is almost ruining him.
Yet, he felt good about himself.
But, we can't keep going like this.
A faint voice in his heart told him so.
Liu Yi was very distressed.
…
The next morning, he dressed neatly and prepared to go to the palace to pay his respects.
He asked Xiao Qin'er, "Are you really going to the palace with me?"
Xiao Qin'er shook her head, "Plead for me first. If my mother forgives me, I will go to the palace to pay my respects."
Liu Yi smiled and said, "I didn't expect you would give in sometimes."
Xiao Qin'er bared her teeth, wishing she could bite Liu Yi.
Liu Yi took a carriage to the palace, handed over a sign, and entered the palace smoothly.
All the way to Weiyang Palace.
There were sounds of laughter in the hall.
Liu Yi asked the eunuch, "Who's in there? Is there anyone coming to the palace to pay their respects to the Queen Mother today?"
"Your Highness, the Empress Dowager has drawn up a schedule where the concubines take turns visiting the palace to pay their respects and chat with the Empress Dowager. Today, it is Concubine Xiao who is visiting the palace to pay her respects."
"Empress Dowager Xiao?" Liu Yi frowned and wanted to turn around and leave.
He didn't want to see Xiao Shu'er, the late emperor's Concubine Xiao.
But Eunuch Wen had already come out and invited him in.
Liu Yi took a deep breath and had to bite the bullet and walk into the hall.
"Son pays respects to the Queen Mother!"
"You finally decided to come to the palace to visit me." Empress Dowager Pei complained, felt sad and heartbroken.
She gave birth to two sons, one became an emperor and the other became a prince. Everyone thought she was lucky.
Who could have imagined that the emperor's son was alienated from her, and would only come to the Weiyang Palace to pay his respects on two fixed days a month, leaving after only a few words.
The prince's son was listless all day long, staying at home in the palace without going out, feeling depressed and frustrated.
Empress Dowager Pei felt sad whenever she thought of her two sons.
In addition, with Hu Yang gone, no one dared to argue with her anymore. Empress Dowager Pei really felt lonely and her heart grew colder.
Even though she was accompanied by women from the royal family and the concubines of the previous emperor came to the palace to talk and cheer her up, she still chose to be alone.
"My son is unfilial and makes my mother worry." Liu Yi was respectful and never looked at Xiao Shuer.
Queen Mother Pei beckoned him, "Come here, let me take a good look."
Liu Yi stepped forward and allowed Empress Dowager Pei to look at him.
Xiao Shu'er took the opportunity to say goodbye, "The Queen Mother and the Prince must have a lot to say, I will take my leave first."
Empress Dowager Pei naturally would not try to keep her.
Liu Yi watched her leave, his brows furrowed slightly. "If your Majesty Queen Mother doesn't like seeing her, just send her away. There's no need to waste words with her."
"It's not as serious as you think. She came to the palace to pay her respects to me and chat to relieve her boredom. The little princes and princesses left by the late emperor have grown up and are still hoping that the palace will arrange a good marriage for them."
"My brother and the Queen will take care of this matter. Mother, don't worry about them."
Empress Dowager Pei said cheerfully, "I will listen to you and ignore them. How did you come to your senses today and come to the palace to pay your respects to me?"
Liu Yi couldn't help feeling a little guilty.
Fortunately, they were mother and son. When Empress Dowager Pei learned that Liu Yi had pleaded for Xiao Qin'er, she was indeed a little angry. However, she was only angry for a short while.
"Why didn't Xiao Qin'er come to the palace to apologize herself? Instead, she ordered you to do it."
"Firstly, he knew his son hadn't been to the palace for over six months, and his mother missed him terribly. Secondly, he was timid and afraid that his mother would scold him."
"She does get scared sometimes, but that's rare. Why didn't she seem afraid when she was pretending to obey me? She just sees that I'm old and not energetic, so she starts to act clever."
"Qin'er does like to play tricks, but she has no bad intentions. She has always been respectful and filial to her mother. She refused to enter the palace before, not to please her mother, but because she was afraid of losing face."
"Why would she lose face? Could I eat her?"
Empress Dowager Pei snorted, extremely dissatisfied. She couldn't even come up with a decent excuse.
I didn't know that I was afraid of passing on the disease when I was sick, so I didn't go to the palace to pay my respects several times when I should have.
Liu Yi did not hide the fact, "Qin'er was turned away several times at Chang'an Palace. She felt deeply ashamed and didn't enter the palace after that."
Empress Dowager Pei smiled contemptuously, "Oh! I heard about this. The Queen was busy and didn't have time to chat with her. She must be upset that she was turned away. She was afraid that someone in the palace would gossip about her, so she just gave me a perfunctory treatment and refused to come to the palace to pay her respects. Look at her lack of ambition."
Liu Yi laughed and said, "She is a person of little promise. Mother, there is no need to bother with her. It would be better to exempt her from copying the Diamond Sutra."
Empress Dowager Pei glanced at Liu Yi, feeling very dissatisfied.
"When did you and Qin'er become so close that you even came to me to plead for her."
"As an old couple, no matter how many conflicts they have, they can talk it out."
"She has indeed improved. Well, well, I will forgive her the punishment. Go back and tell her that she must come to the palace to pay her respects to me on the first day of next month. Otherwise, I will punish her again."
"Thank you, mother! Don't worry, your son will come to the palace with you to pay his respects on the first day of next month."
"You will also enter the palace next month!" Empress Dowager Pei was overjoyed.
This was the first time she felt so happy since Hu Yang passed away.
Liu Yi accompanied her for lunch and left only after she took a nap.
Empress Dowager Pei slept very contentedly.
Liu Yi left the palace and, being a stay-at-home, planned to go straight home.
But he didn't expect that Xiao Shu'er would block him halfway.
"Prince Duan, are you free? I have something to say to you." Xiao Shu'er lifted the curtain of the carriage with a smiling face.
Although it was just an inquiry, his attitude was very firm and he would not allow Liu Yi to refuse.
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