14 Hidden Dangers
◎Has anyone caught you?◎
On the first day of the first lunar month, the front court held a grand court meeting under the leadership of Emperor Yongshun, and the harem had to go out together to pay their respects to the empress dowager and the queen.
The Empress Dowager and the Empress were both from the Wei family. The Empress Dowager Wei sent her niece from her mother's family into the palace to be the Empress in order to consolidate her own power. At that time, Emperor Yongshun was only sixteen or seventeen years old, and his power was not yet consolidated, so she could only let it go.
However, for some unknown reason, Empress Wei's health deteriorated day by day after she became the central harem. Later, she suffered a miscarriage which seriously damaged her body and she was bedridden ever since. Emperor Yongshun had become very powerful by then, so he handed over all the affairs of the harem to the very favored Concubine Zhao.
At that time, the Empress Dowager Wei had been childless for many years and was bedridden. Even if she didn't want to, she really couldn't.
From then on, Empress Wei stayed in her palace all year round to recuperate, and would not show up except on grand banquets such as New Year's Eve, Lantern Festival, or the Emperor and Empress' birthdays.
The place for paying respects was in Empress Dowager Wei's Shoukang Palace. Xu Qinghe was in the palace, so she stood outside the Empress Dowager's warm room early, waiting for Empress Wei and Concubine Zhao to lead the concubines and princes and princesses in the harem.
Not long after, Queen Wei walked in front in a bright yellow palace dress. The solemn palace dress seemed to cover her thin body. Even though she had gorgeous makeup, it was difficult to hide her sickly condition, and her face still looked a little haggard.
Following closely behind was Concubine Zhao, who was wearing a bright silver-red long dress and a coral and jeweled headpiece. She looked radiant and her appearance was no less beautiful than the other young concubines who were about to enter the palace.
Xu Qinghe first bowed to several concubines, and then followed with his head down in the procession of princes and princesses behind him, congratulating Empress Dowager Wei on the New Year with everyone else.
The Queen Mother Wei sat in the hall with a loving look in her eyes and asked everyone to stand up quickly. Then everyone bowed or kowtowed in the order of concubines, princes, and princesses to wish them a happy new year.
What the elderly like most is to see their children and grandchildren sitting at their laps. At this moment, Empress Dowager Wei temporarily forgot the open and secret struggles between herself and Emperor Yongshun, and smiled as she asked Nanny Zhang to give red envelopes to all her grandchildren.
Everyone thanked each other and finally sat in the warm room to chat about family matters.
The forces in the harem are roughly divided into two factions, similar to those in the previous dynasty.
One faction is the concubines who are dependent on Queen Dowager Wei and Empress Wei. Most of these people's family brothers also work for the Wei family.
One faction supports Concubine Zhao, who is now in charge of the six palaces. In fact, fundamentally speaking, these people are more like those who are directly dependent on Emperor Yongshun. After all, Concubine Zhao is the person whom Emperor Yongshun favors and has entrusted with full power in the harem.
Therefore, the daily conversations at this time could no longer be considered daily conversations, but rather an open and covert verbal struggle between the two factions.
Xu Qinghe listened silently with her head down, taking a sip of tea from the cup from time to time. Anyway, no matter how much these people fought, it would not involve her.
However, she forgot that she had offended Concubine Zhao not long ago.
Concubine Zhao glanced with her almond-shaped eyes and saw that Xu Qinghe was hiding there as if she was watching a show. She remembered that not long ago, she turned the tables and blamed the assassination and rumors on herself, which led to Emperor Yongshun putting the blame on her for the imperial guards' failure to find the true identity of the assassin and ignoring her for several days.
In addition to this, there was also the rumor. There were already many things in the palace that required her to make decisions on New Year's Eve, and Xu Qinghe had also caused the rumor, forcing her to devote her energy to dealing with it.
During that period of time, she wished she could be split into two people. Fortunately, nothing went wrong at the New Year's Eve banquet and the rumors were suppressed. Otherwise, who knows how many unkind words would be spread about her in the harem and among the people.
"Speaking of which, everyone has been happily preparing for New Year's Eve these days, and most have been going smoothly. Only Princess Qinghe, at such a young age, has suffered such a tragic fate. She was assassinated on her birthday. Fortunately, the princess was fine in the end, otherwise I would have been heartbroken."
She brought up this matter on purpose to disgust Xu Qinghe.
For her, Xu Qinghe's assassination was a great humiliation. No matter where the rumor came from, it actually had an adverse impact on her. After hearing this, Xu Qinghe recalled what she had experienced during that period of time. There was no reason for her not to feel uncomfortable.
At the same time, he also wanted to deliberately disgust the Queen Mother Wei and Empress Wei.
Now, who in the capital doesn't know that Xu Qinghe will be the wife of the Wei family in the future? Her beauty already makes the Queen Mother Wei feel uneasy. Now there are such rumors, which hurt not only Xu Qinghe, an orphan, but also Wei Ming, the prince.
But Xu Qinghe didn't really feel uncomfortable, and she didn't succeed in making Concubine Zhao feel disgusted.
Apart from the knife wound to her chest, she also unexpectedly got help from Wei Che and even found the surviving relative of the Southern Border Army directly. It can be said that she gained a lot.
So she took it lightly: "Thank you for your concern, Imperial Concubine. On Qinghe's birthday, an assassin attacked unexpectedly. It's really not the Imperial Concubine's fault for not protecting her well enough. It's really not the Imperial Concubine's fault. Qinghe should thank you, Imperial Concubine. After that incident, rumors were rampant in the palace. Thanks to you for upholding justice and proving Qinghe's case. Qinghe sincerely thanks you, Imperial Concubine."
Concubine Zhao's punch was like hitting cotton, and it made her feel uncomfortable.
But fortunately, she succeeded in disgusting Queen Mother Wei.
How could Empress Dowager Wei, an old woman who had been in the deep palace for decades, not understand Concubine Zhao's thoughts?
His eyes turned cold and he was about to attack.
"Noble Concubine Zhao has been in the palace for many years, how could she be so ignorant of the importance of things? Princess Qinghe is the only bloodline left by the Prince and Princess Nan'an. She is of noble status and deserves the respect of our royal family. Noble Concubine has been in charge of the six palaces for many years. She failed to protect the princess on her birthday. Now she suddenly brings it up again. Are you deliberately trying to upset the princess on such a good day?"
But the person who spoke was not the Queen Mother Wei, but the sick and silent Queen Wei who had been sitting beside the Queen Mother.
Empress Wei has ignored the affairs of the harem for many years. Even when it comes to matters involving the Wei family, the empress never shows up. It has always been handled by the Empress Dowager Wei. Why did she go against her usual behavior and speak to Xu Qinghe, an orphan princess, today?
Xu Qinghe was also puzzled.
Since entering the palace, she had never met Queen Wei many times. She thought she did not have enough power to make the Queen contradict the Queen's favorite Concubine Zhao for her sake.
However, Empress Wei was the empress after all. Even though she had been living in the deep palace and had been ill for many years, she still surpassed Concubine Zhao in terms of momentum.
What's more, the power that Concubine Zhao now holds in the six palaces was taken back from Empress Wei. No one in the room is more qualified to say these words than Empress Wei.
At that moment, she could only swallow her grievances and fear, stood up and leaned towards the Queen and said, "It's all my fault. Please punish me, Queen."
Empress Wei smiled faintly, "How did it escalate to a punishment? The princess said she didn't blame you. Why should the imperial concubine take the blame? You should sit down and rest first."
Concubine Zhao was so angry that her teeth were itching.
Your tone was so harsh, weren't you just trying to punish me? Now you're pretending to be a bodhisattva, who are you trying to impress?
But even so, he could only bow and say yes, then sit back in silence and no longer speak.
Queen Wei continued to smile calmly, then looked at Xu Qinghe and said softly, "I heard that the princess was unwell and left the banquet yesterday. Is she feeling better today?"
Xu Qinghe thought she was referring to how she and the other princesses had left the banquet early last night under the pretext of being drunk, so she stood up and replied respectfully, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. After leaving the banquet last night, I went back to the palace and drank some hangover soup before going to bed. I'm fine now."
Queen Wei's lips were still curved, and her voice was as gentle as before, but the words she said made Xu Qinghe feel cold on the back.
She said, "My Lady, you misunderstood me. I was referring to the incident yesterday when you went out to sober up and then returned to the banquet with Ming'er."
Xu Qinghe only went out once during the banquet yesterday, and that was to meet Wei Che!
But later she was accidentally seen by Wei Ming, so she came back with him. She would rather others misunderstand her and Wei Ming than involve her in the private meeting with Wei Che.
In fact, what the Queen said can be completely regarded as the aunt's concern for the whereabouts of her nephew and future niece-in-law, and she was deliberately making fun of her today.
But when Empress Dowager Xu Qinghe looked into Queen Wei's meaningful eyes, she knew that Queen Wei's words were not referring to her and Wei Ming, but to her and Wei Che.
But at this time she had no choice but to play dumb, and even deliberately misled everyone into understanding their conversation in a different way.
She lowered her head, as if somewhat shy, and remained silent as if trying to form her words. She then spoke, "Yesterday, I left the table drunk and wanted to go out to sober up. I happened to run into my cousin from the Wei family, and he... asked about the Empress Dowager's recent situation. Qinghe answered some more questions from outside to comfort him, as he missed his elders."
When she said these words in this manner, it made people feel that it was not Young Master Wei who was concerned about the Queen Mother, but it was clearly a young couple who had finally met and were having a private conversation to comfort each other.
All the concubines who stood by the Wei family thought that the Queen and the Princess were joining hands to fight back against Concubine Zhao, to show that the rumors were useless. Even if the matter got too out of hand, it would not affect the relationship between the Princess and the Wei family.
They immediately joined in, pretending not to understand the meaning of the words, and praised Young Master Wei for his filial piety and his constant concern for the Empress Dowager. They then took the opportunity to praise Young Master Wei for his young talent and said that he would definitely win the first prize in this year's spring examination.
Queen Mother Wei was initially displeased when she heard that Xu Qinghe had privately met with her nephew during the New Year's Eve banquet. Wouldn't this disrupt her nephew's studies? Furthermore, she had even resorted to using her as a scapegoat, indicating she was completely disregarding her and only caring about becoming a wife of the Wei family.
Later, when everyone began to praise Wei Ming, praising his noble bearing and handsome appearance, and saying that he was a young talent with a promising future, the anger in her heart subsided a little.
Xu Qinghe didn't have the energy to guess what Queen Mother Wei was thinking now. She just wanted to know if anyone else had seen her meeting Wei Che yesterday.
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