Chapter 114 Asking for Trouble Her stepsister didn’t want to kick someone when they were down…
As Shupin was speaking, she thought of Lu Bingzhi, another person involved in this matter.
Her face darkened, and she gritted her teeth, "This time, the Emperor favors his nephew, Lu Bingzhi. For his sake, he stripped me of my position as Imperial Consort, reducing me to a mere concubine. The loss of face is minor, and the Emperor's indifference to me is fine, but how can he not even show any compassion for his own son? Ze'er has looked thinner and more depressed these days. He no longer has the energy and spirit he once had."
Nanny Duan was startled to hear her own madam say this. She said sternly, "Your Majesty, be careful with your words. If this gets to the Emperor, and he thinks you're unhappy with his treatment and harbors resentment, that would be disastrous. Your Majesty is in a difficult situation right now. Even for the sake of our Highness, you must restrain your words and not give anyone a handle to plot against you."
Concubine Shu felt choked up, lowering her voice slightly as she angrily said, "I'm just so angry that the Emperor is so partial to Lu Bingzhi. Even if he's Princess Shuning's biological son, he's still just a minister. How can he possibly hold that position in the future? The Emperor's partiality truly chills my heart."
Nanny Duan knew exactly how distressed the Empress was, so she could only offer comfort, "The Emperor is not favoring his nephew, Prince Lu, but simply caring for the Empress Dowager. Your Highness has angered Prince Lu to the point of sickness, and there are so many rumors circulating in the capital, with everyone in the court and harem knowing about this. If the Emperor doesn't deal with it, who knows how others will judge him. Furthermore, it's only been a few months since Prince Lu was poisoned. Honestly, Your Highness acted with a certain lack of prudence this time, acting with such haste, which is why this has happened."
"The Emperor has more than one prince under his wing."
Concubine Shu was unhappy, but she understood what Madam Duan said. It was just that her son, having suffered injustices in the palace since childhood, had a different temperament and lacked steadiness and method in his actions. She wanted to persuade him, but her son acted recklessly and was extremely jealous of Lu Bingzhi, the prince of the Duke of Wei. He felt that the emperor favored him and frequently summoned him to the palace. In comparison, Ze'er didn't seem like a prince, and his favor seemed so meager.
Ze'er was unhappy, so he came up with such a method to use Cui Linghui to humiliate Lu Bingzhi.
As a mother, she was both angry and distressed when she heard her son behave like this.
She sighed softly and said, "I know this is the truth, but I have tried to persuade him, but he won't listen to a word I say. I have never seen the emperor favor Lu Bingzhi before, and he even lightly glossed over the poisoning incident. Why is he so cruel this time, disregarding the father-son relationship and wanting to vent his anger on his nephew Lu Bingzhi? I always feel that since Cui Lingyan married into the Weiguo Mansion, Lu Bingzhi's luck has improved a lot. It was clear that the poison was not yet cleared and she was said to be unwell, but now she is in good health, and the imperial physician said that it will not affect her offspring in the future. This time the emperor dealt with it like this again. Tell me, isn't there something wrong with Cui Lingyan? If I had known that she could bring such blessings to Lu Bingzhi, I would definitely have interfered and would never have allowed Cui Lingyan to enter the Weiguo Mansion!"
Even though Nanny Duan had served her madam for so many years, she was still very surprised to hear the madam's words. Shocked, she subconsciously said, "Cui is just a weak woman, and she has been raised in her mother's family since she was a child. Why does the madam think this?"
"Besides, I know about her story. She was a curse to her younger brother in the womb, causing Cui Shenbo to be born weak. She was born strong, so her mother, Qi, disliked her and sent her to live with her maternal grandparents since she was young. She only returned to the capital with her aunt a few months ago."
"She has a strong horoscope, so it's good that she doesn't harm anyone. How can she be good for Master Lu?"
Concubine Shu snorted and said gloomily, "Perhaps Lu Bingzhi is also a tough guy. Not only can he withstand it, but they will be blessed to be married. Otherwise, how can we explain all the troubles that have happened since Cui Lingyan came to the capital? What happened to everyone who plotted against her?"
Nanny Duan thought about it carefully, and couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.
Kezi doesn't talk about strange things. Although there are some coincidences, she actually doesn't believe in them.
And even if it is true, Cui Lingyan has now become the wife of the prince of Weiguo. In Her Majesty's current situation, can she still plot against Cui Lingyan and cause her to lose her life?
If she were to explain it, the Empress had suddenly lost her position as Imperial Concubine, and she was extremely anxious and worried, so she had been thinking about these things all day long, and she even thought of Cui Lingyan.
"Your Majesty, you're overthinking it. If Cui Lingyan had been blessed by heaven, why would her biological mother have sent her to her maternal family? She even got the position of Crown Prince's Consort because her stepsister Cui Linghui didn't want to give it to her. Later, there was even a rumor that she had been having an affair with her cousin. Have you forgotten how big a fuss this incident caused in the capital? She was literally standing on the edge of a cliff. How many people thought that her bad reputation would definitely prevent her from entering the gate of the Duke of Weiguo's mansion, and if she lost this marriage, she didn't know what her fate would be. She was able to become the Crown Prince's Consort because of Lord Lu's magnanimity and his indifference to those rumors. If Lord Lu cared about a woman's reputation as much as other men do, even if Cui Lingyan had entered the house, she would definitely not have the respectability she has today, but would have been just a resentful woman in the boudoir."
After all, how could Cui Lingyan, a weak woman who had no control over her own destiny, have such a great weight?
Rather than thinking that it was because of Cui's coming to the capital, Her Majesty would rather think that it was because Lu Bingzhi was the son of Princess Shuning and had the Empress Dowager as his backer.
The Emperor's decision this time was certainly due to the Empress Dowager's reasons.
If the Empress Dowager becomes seriously ill because of this, the Emperor will be blamed by the people of the world.
"Your Majesty, instead of dwelling on these trivial matters, you should focus on arranging the wedding of our Highness. The wedding is only a little over ten days away."
Hearing Nanny Duan's words, Concubine Shu put away her thoughts and her expression softened a bit. "Alas, I just hope that Ze'er will be more mature and sensible after getting married, and not do the ridiculous things like before that people criticized, angering the emperor and the court officials."
"By the way, tomorrow you should send someone to invite the eldest daughter of Kangshou Houfu, Zheng, to the palace."
Nanny Duan hesitated after hearing her instructions.
Concubine Shu's face darkened, and she smiled coldly, "Why? Do you also feel that I have lost my position as Imperial Concubine and cannot even summon Zheng, my future daughter-in-law, into the palace?"
"I just want to see if Zheng still treats me, her mother-in-law, with the same respect as before after this incident."
Nanny Duan opened her mouth to persuade, but seeing her queen's expression, she swallowed all the words that were about to come out of her mouth.
I just hope that His Highness will leave the palace and set up his own household. After getting married and having Zheng as the Crown Princess, His Highness will be able to become more mature and stable, and cause Her Majesty less worries.
......
The news that Cui Linghui had sent Yulan, who served him, to Xiao Ze's bed through his concubine Qiu Ning spread throughout the harem in less than half a day.
Knowing that Cui Linghui acted like this, and remembering her identity as the legitimate daughter of the Ningshou Marquis's Mansion, some people sighed, some laughed, and some even compared Cui Linghui with Cui Lingyan. In comparison, they felt that Cui Linghui had ruined a good hand and gave up a good future to her stepsister Cui Lingyan.
If she hadn't used the excuse of catching a cold after falling into the water to break off the engagement, and hadn't asked her stepsister Cui Lingyan to clean up the mess for her and marry Lu Bingzhi, even if someone else were to marry Lu Bingzhi now, others wouldn't have laughed at her like that.
I wonder if Cui Linghui, in order to win favor, pushed the maid to Xiao Ze, while his stepsister Cui Lingyan has now become the wife of the high and mighty prince, and is also valued and loved by Lu Bingzhi. When thinking about these things late at night, will he feel regretful and unable to sleep?
The news soon spread from the palace.
Song Xuetang
When Cui Lingyan heard the news, she didn't say a word for a long time.
She thought that Cui Linghui would be in a difficult situation as Xiao Ze's concubine, and would also be abused and humiliated by Shupin.
But she didn't expect that her stepsister would use Qiu Ning to send Yulan, the maid who had served her since childhood, to Xiao Ze's bed.
Being so impatient and disregarding face shows how bad Cui Linghui's situation is in the palace.
Otherwise, with her proud character, how could she lower herself to do such a shameful thing.
But Cui Lingyan felt no sympathy. In that dream, Cui Linghui hadn't shown any mercy even when plotting against her stepsister. Furthermore, Cui Linghui had never considered her his own sister. Given this, Cui Lingyan felt a pang of sadness for her situation, but she simply felt she had deserved it.
After all, even though Cui Linghui lived in seclusion, she had undoubtedly heard about the Second Prince Xiao Ze's twisted nature, and even Lu Bing's poisoning. She doubted that Cui Linghui hadn't considered these things before wanting to cling to Xiao Ze. Just as she had heard in her dream, after Cui Linghui married Lu Bingzhi, because she couldn't win his favor, she secretly had an affair with Xiao Ze. They were caught together at a palace banquet, losing face, and were ultimately sentenced to death by the Emperor with a cup of poisoned wine.
Whether it was a dream or reality, it could only be said that Cui Linghui's choice to cling to Xiao Ze was destined to backfire. It was good enough that her stepsister did not want to add insult to injury, so how could she feel any sympathy for him?
Cui Lingyan picked up the tea in her hand and took a sip. Just as she was about to speak, she heard hurried footsteps outside.
Her gaze fell to the doorway, and soon she saw Qiu Zhi coming in. She walked up to her and whispered, "Young Madam, Madam Liu fainted after being punished by Madam, but she was found to be pregnant. The doctor felt her pulse and said there were signs of miscarriage. The master was furious, saying that Madam must have known about Madam Liu's pregnancy and was deliberately trying to cause her to have an abortion. In a rage, he beat Madam. The old lady sent someone to inform Young Madam of this and told her to return home immediately."
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