Seeing that no one was in the hall, Hailanzhu stopped pretending and her face became terrifyingly serious. "Qilei Yinyu, you are really something. You have come to cause trouble for me time and time again. Do you really think I am a pushover?"
"What...do you want to do?" Qi Leiyinyu leaned back unconsciously, a sense of fear rising in her heart.
"Do you think you don't know what I'm planning to do?" Hailanzhu snorted coldly. Her tone was calm, but it gave Qilei Yinyu an invisible pressure.
"You want to kill me?" Qi Leiyinyu's voice trembled slightly. She had never been so terrified, as if the person standing in front of her was a ruthless demon.
"No...you can't kill me." Qi Leiyinyu panicked. "I am Wu Keshan's man, we are in the same boat. You must have heard the story of 'if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold'."
Unexpectedly, Hailanzhu said, "I have never had the thought of killing you. If I wanted to kill you, why would I do it myself?"
All of this was thanks to Qi Lei Yin Yu's lack of murderous intent towards Hai Lan Zhu; otherwise, Hai Lan Zhu would not have let her go.
Although they were just some petty tricks to win favor, they kept causing trouble every few days, which really annoyed Hailanzhu. So she decided to take this opportunity to teach Qileiyinyu a lesson so that she wouldn't cause any more trouble in the future.
"Really?" Qi Leiyinyu calmed down a little, but her voice still revealed a trace of fear.
Hailanzhu sneered, "This time it's for real, but next time it might not be."
After saying this, she picked up the silver needles beside her again and said, "This time I only pricked your hands and feet. Next time, I will prick your skull. Once I prick it, even a god will be unable to save you."
Upon hearing this, Qi Leiyinyu trembled all over. She looked at the needle tip and remembered the pain she had just felt. "I will never dare to do it again."
"Hmph!" Hailanzhu glanced at her contemptuously, put away the needle, and said, "Remember, this is the last time. If there is a next time, you will not even know how you died."
"I've noted it down," Qi Leiyinyu said, bowing her head.
"Don't try to play tricks on me. You're still too green to fight me." Hailanzhu's eyes were filled with threat.
In both encounters, Qi Leiyinyu was defeated, and utterly defeated. Only then did she realize that Hailanzhu was not the gentle and soft person others had described.
Her methods were even more formidable than she had imagined.
Her methods were something she could never learn.
Hailanzhu glanced at her and said, "Why aren't you getting out of here? Do you want me to change my mind?"
"Yes, Your Highness, I'll take my leave." Qi Leiyinyu felt as if she had been granted a pardon and hurriedly fled the palace.
Hailanzhu stood there, her gaze deep. "She is clever, but unfortunately, she has too much of a girlish mentality, which will prevent her from achieving great things."
As she thought about it, she walked towards the palace.
"Your Majesty..."
A voice announced something from outside the door, and then Qingluan walked in with a smile. "Your Highness, how are you so clever? You even knew that someone was going to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to invite the Emperor."
"What's so difficult about it? Qi Lei Yin Yu's tricks are limited to this." Hai Lan Zhu said calmly. "By the way, how did you manage to hold that person back?"
Qingluan smiled lightly, "That's not difficult. People are greedy. I just said that she found five taels of gold under the peach tree, and she couldn't wait to go there, forgetting all of Master's orders."
Hearing this, Hailanzhu chuckled, "You clever little devil, but this method can only fool her. Others probably wouldn't fall for it."
“Exactly, I suppose he’s back in the palace now, being scolded by Consort Qi Lei!” Qingluan nodded in agreement.
However, Hailanzhu shook her head, "Qilei Yinyu herself is quite frightened, how could she be in the mood to care about the palace servants?"
"Your Majesty is truly remarkable," Qingluan praised. Along the way, she had heard about the events at Guanju Palace. Hailanzhu, who was initially in a disadvantageous position, had turned the tide in an instant, which filled her with admiration.
However, there was one question she couldn't understand: "Why did Consort Qi Lei target Your Majesty as soon as she entered the palace?"
Hailanzhu smiled faintly, "She wants to become the second Empress, to receive all of the Emperor's favor. To achieve her goal, the first thing she needs to do is to make the Emperor hate her."
Upon hearing this, Qingluan couldn't help but curl her lips. "She really dares to dream. Doesn't she know her own limitations? She even dares to dream of becoming a phoenix by climbing the social ladder."
Upon hearing this, Hailanzhu was not angry; instead, she appeared to have seen through the illusions of the world.
"Actually... she wasn't wrong to do that." Hailanzhu said calmly, "Who doesn't want wealth and glory? Besides, she has experienced a life of wandering and displacement, and she desires wealth and glory more than anyone else. Her mistake was that she shouldn't have used other people as stepping stones for herself."
“Exactly, especially since she targeted you first, the more I think about it, the angrier I get,” Qingluan said, dissatisfied.
"To save her life, she'll keep a low profile and never dare to do it again," Hailanzhu said confidently.
“That’s good. Your Highness is too soft-hearted. If it were the Imperial Concubine, she would be skinned alive if not dead,” Qingluan said.
"When besieging an enemy, leave an opening; when pursuing a desperate enemy, do not push him too far." Hailanzhu did not believe that she was a good person because of Qingluan's words; she was naturally confident in what she was doing.
"This servant understands." Qingluan nodded.
...
Autumn comes quickly in the north; in just a few days, the leaves begin to turn yellow. The sky is a deep blue, with few white clouds drifting by, only endless fallen leaves.
Hailanzhu also began to wear cotton clothes. She looked at the withered and dying flowers outside the house and fell into deep thought.
Suddenly the door was pushed open, and she looked up to see Huang Taiji walking in from the doorway, dressed in a bright yellow brocade robe, his hair neatly combed.
Seeing that she was lost in thought, he tiptoed and slowly walked towards her.
"What are you thinking about?"
Huang Taiji reached out and touched her soft, long hair, and asked in a low voice.
Hailanzhu turned her gaze to the bare backyard, "I am lamenting that neither people nor things can withstand the passage of time."
Her words seemed to touch him. He paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "I knew Lan'er would be unhappy because of the flowers withering. So, I brought you something new to cheer you up."
After he finished speaking, he instructed the palace maids to bring out what he called his 'trinkets'.
"What's this?"
Hailanzhu looked curiously at what Huang Taiji was holding in his hands; it was a large box.
Huang Taiji lifted the lid, revealing a piece of crystal-clear jade inside.
"This is a gift from the Khalkha in an attempt to seek peace," Huang Taiji explained.
Hailanzhu's eyes flashed with surprise. She never expected to see a piece of glass-type jade as big as half a person. In modern times, it would be worth hundreds of millions.
"This is far too precious, I am overwhelmed with gratitude!" Hailanzhu quickly bowed.
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