Chapter 176 Missed Opportunity
"Stand up."
The emperor said, without stopping, he walked past Mei Niang, leaned over to the bed and supported the queen's shoulders, smiled and looked at his son, and said: "Are you really not going to vomit? Qin Meimei is not bad, she knows a little bit about everything, and is more useful than the imperial doctor."
The queen smiled and said to him coquettishly: "Then Your Majesty, please give Meimei a reward. Her method has solved a big problem for us."
"Give Qin Meimei the reward you want..."
The emperor suddenly braked, which reminded Qin Meimei. She immediately knelt down and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for giving me this gift. I only want..."
"Slow down, get up, get up"
The emperor's face darkened: "You are really fast. I think you have earned so much reward from me last time. Is it not enough? No more this time. I will give you half of my meal at lunch later. That's all."
Meimei bit her lip and stood with her eyes downcast: she was a step slow, she should have been faster. She should have knelt down to thank the Queen as soon as she finished speaking, but she lost the opportunity.
The Queen didn't know what the Emperor was thinking. Seeing him treat Meimei like this, she felt a little embarrassed and whispered, "Your Majesty..."
The emperor withdrew his gaze from Meimei and comforted her: "I have given her the greatest gift. Apart from the Queen Mother and the Empress, who else can share the imperial meal with me?"
The Queen glanced at Meimei and smiled, "That's true, but Your Majesty can't talk like that. Look at her face, it's so pale with fear."
The emperor laughed: "Don't worry, Queen. Your best friend is not the coward Qin Meimei. Did I scare you?" He didn't skip a word.
Meimei pretended to be stupid, lowered her head and knelt down, saying: "I am terrified."
"Madam Weiyuan"
The emperor spoke in a long voice, deliberately making his tone relaxed: "Junying said that after you recovered from your illness, you remembered the past and then forgot it. So you forgot that you had a title, right? Or has no one taught you to be cautious and proper when speaking in the palace? It seems that I have to appoint two palace maids to follow you day and night and teach you etiquette and titles. After a year or so, you will remember it well--"
"No, no."
Meimei raised her head quickly: "I don't need you to teach me, Madam. I remember now."
The emperor turned to the queen and smiled: "Can you send lunch to Kunning Palace? The emperor is doing well today. I am happy. The queen will have lunch with me."
The queen smiled like a flower and said in a sweet voice: "I obey your order, but I can only stay on the bed..."
The emperor raised his chin towards Meimei and said, "Maybe he can get out of bed. Let's ask her."
Women who are in confinement cannot get out of bed or leave the room for a month. This is the experience passed down by our ancestors. Throughout history, every woman who has given birth has gone through this. Even children of a few years old understand this.
Meimei couldn't figure out why the emperor would deliberately test her like this. She thought about it for a moment and said to the queen seriously:
"Medical books say that women can get out of bed and walk around occasionally a few days after giving birth. How many steps or how far you walk depends on your physical condition. This is good for your body and helps you get back in shape..."
The Queen was skeptical, but the Emperor stared at Meimei and asked, "You can get out of bed a few days after giving birth? This is absurd. Did you do this on purpose?"
"No, I have tried it before, but the Queen is a precious daughter, so I'd better be cautious and follow the advice of the imperial physician."
Meimei smiled and said: This is the maternal care and health care knowledge of the future, which is taught for free. Believe it or not. If you want me to reason with you, I'm sorry, but I'll pay you for the consultation.
The emperor was very smart and did not fall for it. Instead, he asked the queen, "How do you feel about yourself?"
The queen held her forehead and said: "I don't feel anything unusual, I don't feel dizzy, everything seems to be fine."
"It's good. Zhang Jingyun and Lingxuzi are not ordinary people. Do you know how much effort I put in to find them? With them around, you don't have to be afraid of anything."
The queen leaned against the emperor, looked at the prince who was sleeping soundly in the bed, and said happily: "The emperor treats me so well, I am very satisfied."
The emperor gently held her hand, smiled and whispered in her ear: "I can't be with you all the time, I'm afraid you will be bored during the confinement period, let Meimei come to accompany you for a few days. Even if you are good friends, you have to teach her well when she needs guidance. If you want to promise her any rewards, wait for me to come and discuss it first - she is very smart, don't let her fool you."
The queen smiled and nodded: "I know."
In the end, the Queen was unable to get out of bed to have lunch with the Emperor and Meimei. The maids took turns to persuade her earnestly, bringing up all kinds of terrible sequelae, which frightened the Queen. The Emperor was also frightened, and the couple gave up the idea of daring to try.
So the Queen had her meal in her bedroom alone, while the Emperor and Meimei went to the flower hall two rooms away. Meimei thanked him and sat in the lower side seat. The imperial meals were brought up continuously, and she was stunned: there were hundreds of dishes, all of which were exquisite, tempting in color and fragrance. The Emperor gave her half of the meal, which was more than fifty dishes. She could only taste twenty or so at most, and she would definitely be full.
The eunuchs who served the imperial meal tasted the dishes on the table one by one with silver. The emperor then asked Ji Qing to dismiss all the eunuchs and palace maids, and said to Meimei: "The seat you are sitting in is usually occupied by Junying - no other woman has ever received the imperial meal I have given her. You are forcing me to do this today."
Meimei lowered her head and said: "I dare not, I am terrified."
The emperor couldn't help laughing: "What are you afraid of? You are very brave and bought property outside without telling Junying. I have heard that Xiankelai's business is booming, and dignitaries love to go there to host banquets. Junying said that he often patronizes there. Why, you even accepted his money?"
Meimei was stunned for a moment: Xu Junying told the emperor this as well?
She looked at the emperor and said, "I am just the one who took over Xiankelai. The real manager is the shopkeeper. The hotel needs capital to operate, and the people working in the store need to support their families. Everyone who comes is a guest. People ask for a reward for their labor, and Xu Junying is no exception."
The emperor nodded: "That makes sense. One day I will go to Xiankelai to have a meal and I will charge money as well."
Meimei said: "I dare not accept money from the emperor when the emperor is the emperor and owns the whole world. Even the life of a concubine belongs to the emperor."
"You are a good speaker. I'm afraid Xu Junying can't win the argument. Let's eat."
Only when the emperor started eating did Meimei dare to pick up her chopsticks. Seeing that the emperor lowered his eyes to eat, she quickly stretched out her chopsticks to pick up the dish in the middle. She had always thought that the dish was strange and weird, and she wanted to taste it. It didn't matter if it didn't taste good. If it did, she would go back and ask the chefs at Xiankelai to make it for her. The name of the imperial meal could not be used randomly, so she could just come up with a new name for the dish.
But the emperor saw it and said: "When a woman picks up her chopsticks, she cannot eat food beyond the dish in front of her. Hasn't anyone taught you that?" No skipping of words.
Meimei was stunned. Is there such a rule? She looked at the emperor, her face turned from pink to red, and she said timidly:
"Your Majesty, please forgive me...I forgot"
The emperor endured and endured, and finally controlled himself from laughing. He waved his hand gently and said, "Eat. You can try any dish you like on the table. If Xiankeli has dishes from the imperial kitchen later, I will eat there, and I won't pay for it."
Meimei looked at the emperor and felt cold sweat on her back: What kind of emperor is this? He is smarter than a fox. He guessed everything she was thinking.
After eating and drinking, the emperor finally gave Meimei a chance: "Tell me, why do you have to leave Xu's house?"
Meimei thought about it and felt that she couldn't use the excuse of marrying a concubine as an excuse. That would just be asking for trouble. The emperor already had three thousand beauties in his harem. What could the queen dare to say?
She could only say: "I am born in a very humble family, and my family is poor. I am not a good match for Lord Xu. Lord Xu only saw my beauty and did not take these into consideration. He asked for the imperial decree to grant me marriage. After we got married, I realized that he and I had many different habits and ideas, and our relationship gradually faded. The elders in the Xu family were unwilling to marry someone of a lower status. After Lord Xu went to war, they disliked me even more... I had a serious illness last time and escaped death. I finally figured it out: If I continue to live in the Xu family, I will have to die. I have a young son, an old mother, a brother and a sister-in-law. I don't want to die. Lord Xu married me against my grandmother's wishes, and I didn't expect that the relationship between the couple would eventually become as thin as dew. The two have different tastes and don't get along... I don't want to burden him with the name of being unfilial. I would rather he abandon me and find another beauty. I have no regrets and only hope that he can take my son with me."
After the emperor heard what she said, he frowned and said, "Think carefully, are you telling the truth? If you tell even a single lie, you will be punished."
Meimei's expression was resolute: "If I tell even a single lie, I will take the blame."
"One of you must be a fake. Why do I feel that you are lying?"
Meimei glanced at the emperor, mustered up her courage, and said boldly: "Because the emperor and Lord Xu are good friends, the emperor has selfish motives and favors his old friend, so he naturally thinks that I am a fake."
Ji Qing, who had been silent all this time, said slowly: "Bold!"
The emperor also glared at her: "Don't look at me like that. No matter how partial I am, I will never bully a weak woman like you."
He sighed, looking troubled: "But I can see that Junying's love for you is sincere. He told me personally that he only has you in his heart and does not love your cousin. It was only because he disobeyed Old Madam Xu when he married you, and he did not want to make the old grandmother sad or even hurt himself by refusing to marry a co-wife, so he asked me to come forward and stop the Queen Mother from issuing an imperial decree. He went out to do an errand and asked me to issue an order... to protect you. Your words now sound the same as if they were true... What happened to you two? If you dare to play tricks on me, you will be punished together."
Meimei lowered her head and said, "I dare not. I am telling the truth. I am indeed despised and humiliated in Xu's mansion. I cannot survive there. I beg the emperor to allow me to leave Xu's mansion."
The emperor looked at Meimei and said, "This... Let's talk about it later. You just dared to blame me for being partial. If I only listened to your one-sided words and made a decision, it would be unfair to Junying. Don't you think I am right? Now I understand a little bit. You want to leave the Xu Mansion, but Junying doesn't want you to leave. As for whether you two have feelings for each other, I really can't figure it out. Junying is not at home. You are afraid of his elders. If you want to live in the Cen Mansion, you can live there. But there is one thing: you must accept Junying's arrangement and let Baoju Baizhan protect you. I still think you are lying. If Junying is ruthless to you, how could he leave Baoju Baizhan to follow you?"
Meimei's eyes wandered: "Your Majesty, I have Heng'er with me. Lord Xu might be worried that his son might get into an accident."
The emperor was silent for a while, then said: "The queen is weak, I don't want her to worry, you can't say this to her"
"I understand."
"Go ahead and keep the queen company. She seems to like you very much."
Meimei stood up and bowed to the emperor. Just as she took two steps back, the emperor called her back and held out his hand to her:
“Bring it here.”
Meimei was puzzled: "What does the emperor want me to bring?"
The emperor smiled and said, "The Empress Dowager's decree has been abolished. It is useless for you to have it."
Meimei lowered her eyes and said: "I didn't bring it with me."
"Didn't bring it? Forget it. I have issued an oral order: Before sunset today, if the Prince of Qi does not return the Queen Mother's edict that he stole, within this year, the Prince of Qi will have to stay in the palace and walk around in circles. He can't even think of leaving the palace. He is so willful that he will definitely disobey the order and leave the palace. I have long wanted to punish him severely and am waiting for him. It would be best if he is demoted back to his fiefdom and is never allowed to enter the capital."
The emperor said this and left in a huff.
Meimei was stunned for two seconds, pulled out the imperial edict from her sleeve, and hurriedly turned around and chased out the door:
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, wait a minute."
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