"Princess, the families of the imperial concubines will never let this go," Zhihai said with a heavy heart.
Zhao Shu sighed. People with such deeply ingrained beliefs cannot be persuaded. She said to Wan Dong, who was standing to the side, "Go and invite the Dowager Consorts here. They can discuss their conditions with me."
Late winter is not like the time when one is at sea; one simply bows and goes down.
As the winter nights fell, Zhao Shu continued to watch Wang Jiyang eat, just like watching her own child. In her previous life, she had grown up in an orphanage, where the director would often look at them with loving eyes and teach them to study hard and become successful people in the future.
Before long, Wan Dong had invited everyone over. There were six imperial concubines in total. They all looked very young and well-maintained. They were naturally beautiful and, despite being in their thirties, looked no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight. They even looked younger than the Empress Dowager.
It seems that the Dowager Queen herself had a psychological disorder, which affected several people.
Zhao Shu stood up, bowed to the Dowager Consorts with a junior's greeting, and said with a light smile, "You Dowager Consorts are still as beautiful as flower buds, truly adding splendor to the Sanqing Temple. With your arrival, this place, though inauspicious, seems much more lively."
The imperial concubines gave Zhao Shu a strange look. As expected of the Empress Dowager's granddaughter, her tone was exactly the same as the Empress Dowager's. She didn't seem like an eight or nine-year-old girl at all; she was simply a little devil.
Consort Yang stepped forward, wearing a proper smile, and said, "Your Highness is too kind. The reason I, an old woman, have been staying away from seeing the late Emperor is because I want to pray for the Empress Dowager every day."
"May the Empress Dowager die on this day," Zhao Shu thought, her eyes darting around before turning to Consort Yang. "And who is this?"
“Princess, this is Consort Yang,” said Consort Yang’s maid.
Zhao Shu said "Oh" and carefully examined Consort Yang.
Consort Yang appeared to be around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old. She wore a plain silver-embroidered dress with butterflies and flowers, her black hair was simply tied up in her hair with a jade hairpin, her lips were bright red, and her voice was extremely pleasant to hear.
With such a beautiful face, yet imprisoned in this place, like a prison, she must hate the Empress Dowager to the core. Zhao Shu thought to herself as she walked over.
"My imperial grandmother is blessed with great fortune and doesn't need the Dowager Consort to go through the trouble of praying for her every day. The Dowager Consort should pray for herself instead, since she still has a long life ahead of her." Anyone can be sarcastic.
As expected, Consort Yang's face immediately turned cold. Having been imprisoned for so long, her patience was not as good as before. If no one provoked her, she would remain calm, but if someone did, it would be like adding fuel to the fire. Especially when facing Zhao Shu, a child, her contempt overwhelmed most of her reason.
"Eunuch Hai," Consort Yang said with a light laugh, looking at Zhihai kneeling on the ground, "Have you conveyed the words of this Consort and my sisters to the Princess?"
"I've conveyed it, and I've conveyed it very clearly," Zhao Shu immediately replied, not giving Zhihai a chance to speak. This old man would do anything to gain benefits for the Empress Dowager, but Zhao Shu did not want to be coerced.
She glanced at the several imperial concubines, whose eyes shone with hope. "Have you heard of the Dao Emperor? Rumors say he has attained enlightenment and ascended to heaven. If you have nothing else to do, please come to the Sanqing Hall often to soak up some of his divine aura. Oh, by the way, Concubine Xie, you must not have been home for a long time. Why don't you come with me to visit him later? Lord Xie has gone to Jiangnan and will probably be home soon."
The first sentence was full of hostility, but the second sentence immediately changed the tone, leaving the concubines wondering why Zhao Shu had suddenly changed her attitude.
Zhao Shu didn't keep them waiting long before saying, "Lord Xie is a diligent and benevolent official. My grandmother often says that he has made great contributions to the country and the people, and we always respect him."
Consort Xie felt as if she had been hit by a pie falling from the sky. Just now she was calculating how far she could get the Empress Dowager to back down by using the matter of the Wang family's younger sister as a bargaining chip. At most, she thought she could get a palace maid to go out and buy some pastries from outside.
If it weren't for the matter of the Wang family's younger sister, she wouldn't even dare to think about it. After all, the matter of the Wang family's younger sister is not a big deal. If word gets out, who would dare to marry a girl from the Wang family? It's one thing if their family background is not as good as the Wang family's, but if their family background is equal to the Wang family's, then the Wang family girls who have already married into the family will probably be sent back.
But what she didn't expect was that this princess would dare to say so brazenly that she could take her out. Was she dreaming?
Immediately, the other concubines felt indignant, believing that Concubine Xie had betrayed their agreement, and their gazes towards Concubine Xie changed.
However, Consort Xie was too excited to notice that her gaze was fixed on Zhao Shu, and she asked in a trembling voice, "Is what you say true, Princess?"
Zhao Shu did not recognize that the person was Consort Xie. She knew it when Consort Xie became too agitated after she said those words.
“Of course it’s true.” After saying that, she pointed to a young eunuch who came out of the palace. He was also a confidant of Cining Palace. She said, “Eunuch, please go back to the palace and ask the Empress Dowager for a favor on my behalf. In gratitude for Lord Xie’s loyalty to the emperor and the country, I would like to ask the Empress Dowager to grant Consort Xie permission to return to her residence to visit her family.”
If all the imperial concubines were to return to their residences to visit their families, the Empress Dowager would surely say it was unreasonable. However, Xie Yun went to Jiangnan, which must have been with a secret imperial decree, suggesting that she might have been of some help to the Emperor's uncle. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to allow Concubine Xie to return to her residence to visit her relatives as a reward.
As for the rest, we'll see how they perform.
The young eunuch bowed and quickly withdrew. With Lady Zhang absent, he didn't know who to consult, so he simply let the princess do as she pleased. After all, the Empress Dowager liked the princess, although he felt it was highly unlikely that the Empress Dowager would return to her residence to visit her family.
When Consort Xie saw that Zhao Shu had actually sent someone back to the palace to request an imperial decree, she was overjoyed and burst into tears. She had not been home for many years and wondered if her father and mother were still alive and well, and whether her brother and sister-in-law were still as beautiful as before.
She was so excited and thrilled that she didn't know how to thank Zhao Shu.
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