8 Nazhi
◎That is her future arm◎
It was already quarter of an hour after lunch.
Wei Ming said goodbye and left the palace to review his studies. Empress Dowager Wei was also sleepy and needed a nap, so Xu Qinghe hurried back to her own bedroom.
Her bedroom was actually a side hall that Queen Mother Wei had reserved for her in Kangning Palace, not far from the warm room of Kangning Palace.
Before she even entered the palace, a palace maid ran over, knelt on the ground, sobbing and begging her.
"Princess, please save Sister Nanzhi!"
Xu Qinghe's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly asked, "What happened?"
Nanzhi was a personal maid who had been with her since she was a child. She was a child rescued by her mother on the battlefield. Because she had lost her parents, she was brought to the Nan'an Palace to be raised.
From the southern border to Kyoto, from the Nan'an Palace to the dense imperial city, Nanzhi is the only person around her who has some attachment to the southern border.
The little palace maid was crying and talking incoherently.
Xu Qinghe was anxious, and immediately frowned slightly, scolding him lightly: "If you can't explain it clearly, I can't save her. Do you want to harm her?"
The princess had a cold and beautiful face. For some reason, the little palace maid subconsciously stopped crying:
"Yesterday, the princess was robbed. Sister Nanzhi came back to report the incident. She wanted to leave the palace to look for the princess, but was stopped by Concubine Zhao. She said that the palace rules were there and could not be violated. Sister Nanzhi did not try again and just waited in the palace for the princess to return.
"Who would have thought that early this morning, the nanny and several maids beside Concubine Zhao suddenly and quietly rushed in, blocked Sister Nanzhi's mouth, and forcibly took her away. Now two hours have passed. Princess, please save Sister Nanzhi!"
The current queen is ill, and the affairs of the six palaces were handed over to Concubine Zhao a few years ago.
Concubine Zhao was already deeply favored by Emperor Yongshun, and had the powerful Zhao family behind her. She was ruthless and a bit domineering.
Because of the incident with the eldest princess when she was young, Concubine Zhao had hated Xu Qinghe to the core, and now she probably wanted to take advantage of her being kidnapped to break her arm.
Now that Queen Mother Wei had gone to bed, Xu Qinghe naturally could not disturb her, so he had to take a few palace maids and eunuchs with him.
Everyone hurried to Concubine Zhao's bedroom. Xu Qinghe was worried that he had already wasted a lot of time, and Concubine Zhao's bedroom was some distance away. He was so anxious that he didn't care about the so-called etiquette and finally almost ran.
Who knew that when they had only walked halfway and just arrived at the Imperial Garden, they heard screams coming from not far away.
Xu Qinghe heard it clearly, it was Nanzhi's cry!
She walked over and saw Concubine Zhao leaning on a soft couch under the octagonal pavilion, her fingers stained with scarlet nail polish resting on her chin.
In front of her, a large group of palace maids and eunuchs stood with their heads bowed, their bodies facing Nanzhi who was being tortured in the center.
Nanzhi was pinned down on a bench by two strong maids, and two eunuchs were beating her with bamboo sticks.
"stop!"
The two eunuchs who carried out the execution were from Concubine Zhao's palace. Although they were indeed frightened by the princess's cold voice, they were very clear that they only obeyed Concubine Zhao's orders.
The beating of the bamboo clappers did not stop, but Nanzhi's wailing stopped silently after she saw Xu Qinghe coming.
Xu Qinghe walked over quickly and stood in front of Concubine Zhao. Concubine Zhao just looked at her lazily and said nothing.
She bowed to Concubine Zhao and said in a cold voice, "May I ask, Concubine Zhao, what fault did Qinghe's personal maid commit that Your Majesty would not hesitate to punish her with a cane?"
The personal maids of each master are supposed to serve the master at his side. Therefore, unless the master makes a mistake, the personal maid will be punished. Under normal circumstances, they will not be beaten with a stick, so that the master will not be unable to find anyone when he needs her.
The cold wind blew over the pavilion, carrying the unmelted snow, emitting tiny dots of light under the dome.
Concubine Zhao gathered her cloak and handed the hot water bottle in her hand to the palace maid beside her, who immediately replaced it with a new one.
She placed the new hand warmer in her palm, then raised her head and looked at Xu Qinghe and said:
"Thankfully, the princess returned safe and sound, but why would the princess keep such a lowly servant who couldn't protect her? Why don't I take care of her for her? Or I can send her a few more clever ones who will definitely not let the princess be kidnapped in broad daylight."
She wanted to use yesterday's accident to cut off her future arms, and even wanted to take this opportunity to plant spies around her.
Xu Qinghe's expression turned even colder. "Qinghe's maid, if she makes a mistake, I will punish her myself. I won't bother the Imperial Concubine. Please allow me to take her back and punish her separately."
"Punish her separately?" Concubine Zhao sneered. "I am in charge of the affairs of the six palaces. There is no place in the harem that I cannot control, Princess Qinghe. You have entered the harem. This is not your former Nan'an Palace. How can you have the courage to take her back and punish her separately?"
Concubine Zhao was spoiled since childhood. When she was at home, few people would go against her ideas. But after entering the palace, she often suffered losses at the hands of this little girl.
Now that she finally found an opportunity to fight back, how could she let it go?
Thinking of the rumors that had been circulating since early this morning, she couldn't help but smile again. "At this time, the princess herself is in a difficult situation, and instead of taking care of herself, she is busy begging for mercy for her maid. Are you still hoping that everyone will praise you for being a good master?"
"What do you mean?"
Since returning to the palace, Xu Qinghe was accompanied by Nanny Zhang directly to Kangning Palace. She did not talk to other palace servants along the way. Later, after having lunch and returning to the palace, she brought the palace maids directly to find Concubine Zhao.
Therefore, she could not immediately understand what Concubine Zhao meant by "this time".
Seeing her bewildered, Concubine Zhao just smiled. Finally, the smile on her face became deeper and deeper, and she had no choice but to pick up the hot tea on the stove to cover it up.
In the end, the little palace maid who came with him briefly told Xu Qinghe the rumors in the palace.
"My princess, now you understand the situation you're in, right? The Spring Examination will be held soon, and after that, the Wei family will be arranging a marriage for the eldest son of the Wei family. But at this critical moment, my princess has encountered this situation."
She lowered her head and smiled, the mockery in her eyes obvious. "My Lady, you should go back first and think about how to dispel the rumors. As for this maid, I will deal with her according to the palace rules."
She said all this to disturb Xu Qinghe's mind, to make her scared and panic, and to make her feel that she was in a huge crisis.
Xu Qinghe had a gloomy face and remained silent. It was obvious that he had forgotten how to rescue Nanzhi.
Seeing that she didn't say a word, Concubine Zhao was happy. How could a young girl like her defeat her?
I thought the other party was about to go home, but Xu Qinghe suddenly looked up, her eyes looking straight at me, with a smile on her lips and curved eyebrows.
But there was not a trace of smile in those clear eyes.
Concubine Zhao felt a chill down her spine. Just as she was about to question him, she heard him say, "The Concubine just said that Qinghe should go back and figure out how to dispel the rumors."
"That's right." Concubine Zhao subconsciously straightened her back, not wanting to be at a disadvantage in momentum.
The girl opposite her, wearing a green dress, stood in the imperial garden where all the flowers had withered. She was like a green plum tree isolated from the world, making people happy when looking at her from afar and solemn when looking at her from close.
"The Imperial Concubine just said that she was torturing Nanzhi in order to uphold the palace rules?"
"...nature."
"That's strange." Xu Qinghe raised her eyebrows for a rare moment and said, "Your Majesty is now in charge of the affairs of the six palaces, yet you allow rumors to spread freely and tarnish my reputation. Why don't you follow the palace rules and put an end to these rumors? Could it be that the source of these rumors is Your Majesty?"
It was clearly a question, but her tone was full of certainty. Concubine Zhao had never done such a thing. Even though she was justified in doing so, her momentum was inexplicably diminished.
"I have never done this. Don't slander me!"
"Since it has never been done, Your Majesty should dispel this rumor according to palace rules."
"Your Highness, there's no need for me to remind you. I'll do it naturally. But you can't take this maid with you. She wasn't loyal enough to protect you at the critical moment, and that's why you've been subjected to these rumors. According to palace rules, she deserves forty lashes of the cane."
She turned around and asked the two eunuchs, "How much is left?"
"My Lady, there are still fifteen left, but the person has already fainted."
Xu Qinghe looked over and saw that Nanzhi had indeed collapsed on the bench with her head down.
She gritted her teeth and took a moment to calm herself down. "Your Majesty, you said Nanzhi failed to be loyal to her master. Do you have any evidence?"
Concubine Zhao found it amusing: "Evidence? The accompanying guards and palace maids, the common people on the street, and the arrested assassins, which one of them is not evidence?"
"So the Imperial Concubine also knew about this. Qinghe was accompanied by guards on her birthday yesterday." Xu Qinghe seized on the loophole and said slowly, "The Empress is concentrating on recuperating, and the Empress Dowager is not interested in the trivial matters of the harem. All harem affairs are handled by the Imperial Concubine. Imperial Concubine, is what Qinghe said correct?"
"So what?"
"In that case, the list of guards accompanying the float yesterday was also approved by Her Majesty. But when the assassin attacked, was it the guards who failed to protect their master, or was it me, a powerless maid, who failed to protect her? Her Majesty should also know."
Concubine Zhao was so angry that her teeth were itching!
This is putting the blame on her again!
The list of accompanying guards did pass through her hands, but at that time, no one could know what would happen later, so she didn't take it to heart and just hastily picked a few people.
Who knew that this would become a loophole for her to control herself.
Seeing that she was speechless, Xu Qinghe went over personally to rescue Nanzhi from the two maids, and then found a young eunuch to carry her away.
"Since the fault is not Nanzhi's, Qinghe will take the person away. I hope the Royal Concubine will clear up the rumors. Qinghe would like to thank you very much."
Concubine Zhao looked at Xu Qinghe's tall figure after she left, and felt a tightness in her chest.
Just wait, sooner or later she will make Xu Qinghe kneel down and beg her!
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