Chapter 039 Another Show
A few days later, the Xia family sent someone to tell them that the emperor wanted to select a few women from aristocratic families to attend the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, and specifically notified Xia Lu to make preparations.
Everyone in the Xia family was delighted, except Aunt Jia, who did not sleep all night.
Xia Xue asked around through her connections to see which ladies from aristocratic families had been notified. She found out that in addition to Xia Lu, there were three other ladies: Chen Qing, the youngest daughter of the Minister of Revenue, Mr. Chen; Su Yan, the legitimate daughter of the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War; and Li Pingting, the fourth illegitimate daughter of the Li family.
When Xia Xue heard Li Pingting, she was stunned for a moment.
"How come Li Pingting is here?" Xia Xue asked Xia Chun.
"I also asked, and the eunuch just said that it was the emperor's choice." Xia Chun replied.
"The Li family is really powerful. Even a concubine's daughter is directly appointed as the emperor's consort." Fu Yuqing interrupted.
Suddenly, Fu Yuqing's eyes widened, as if she remembered something.
"Was she the one you impersonated last time?"
Xia Xue nodded slightly.
"Could it be because you pretended to be Li Pingting last time and Li Pingting became famous in Beijing?"
"Are you a storyteller telling stories?"
"Why would that be?" Fu Yuqing looked puzzled.
"I think the emperor wants to warn the Li family more."
After the Qingliang Mountain incident, the Emperor must be annoyed with Concubine Rong and Li Tingting. Concubine Rong is now refusing to see Li Tingting, just to show her gesture to the Emperor and to draw a clear line with Prince Lu.
But the emperor might not buy the deal, so he pushed out all the concubines of the Li family.
"If Li Pingting had slept with the emperor on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival and continued to be favored for several days, how would others evaluate Concubine Rong?"
"A joke that Concubine Rong is not as good as her sister?"
Xia Xue shook her head. "Jokes are trivial. If Li Pingting is favored, it means that Concubine Rong has lost favor. If Li Pingting is only favored but her position is not high and she does not advance in position, that would be even worse."
"More..." Fu Yuqing was really not used to the intrigues of ancient times.
"The impression that this would give to outsiders is that the Li family is finished."
"Having two daughters enter the palace is a very taboo thing in the first place, especially the fact that Concubine Qingliangshan Rong had a miscarriage. Although no one in the palace talked about it, it had long been known to everyone. Now that Li Pingting is brought in, it is clear that they are trying to make things difficult for the Li family."
"We owe Li Pingting a favor, so should we do something?" Fu Yuqing asked.
"What can we do?" Xia Xue sighed. "This year, the old lady suddenly stopped caring about the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts and handed it all over to me. This is even more of a headache. I hope nothing goes wrong."
Xia Xue turned around, and suddenly, her eyes lit up.
“We can definitely do something.”
Fu Yuqing: “?”
"If someone sleeps with Li Pingting before her at the Mid-Autumn Festival dinner, and Li Pingting cannot sleep with him for a while afterwards, the Li family will not be too sad, and naturally Li Pingting will not become the target of criticism."
"But who the emperor favors is not something we can decide."
"We can't, but someone can."
Fu Yuqing looked at Xia Xue, who was full of confidence, and her mood instantly improved. Xia Xue was such a clever girl.
Here in Prince Lu's Mansion, Li Tingting was sitting in the most secluded corner of the garden with a depressed look on her face. The last thing she wanted to see right now was people!
After she came back from Qingliang Mountain, she went back to Li's house first. Her father and mother seemed to have known about the Qingliang Mountain incident for a long time. They asked her to reflect on her mistakes first. No one wanted to see her, and the servants also started to point fingers at her. When had she, Li Tingting, ever suffered such humiliation!
However, her own mother, Aunt Luo, loved her and secretly gave her some silver and asked her to go to Hua'an Temple to worship Buddha and hide out for a while. She would then let her go back to apologize after her father and mother had calmed down.
Naturally, she didn't want to go to Hua'an Temple to suffer again.
She went to Hua'an Temple to worship Buddha in order to please Old Madam Chu. Now she couldn't enter the Chu family's door. She never wanted to go to that shabby place Hua'an Temple again!!!
So, she shamelessly came to Prince Lu's mansion again.
The servants in Prince Lu's mansion were not as polite to her as before. She didn't know if it was because of what that bitch Princess Lu said, but now she felt that people were laughing at her everywhere!
"Hey, have you heard that the fourth young lady of the Li family is going to enter the palace to become a queen." The voice of a maid broke Li Tingting's thoughts.
Li Tingting frowned. Which fourth young lady of the Li family?
"Is it Miss Li Pingting, also known as the 'mysterious lady'?" another maidservant asked.
"Yes, she is the younger sister of our mansion."
Li Tingting naturally knew that the "one in the mansion" they were talking about was her.
Holding her breath, Li Tingting continued listening.
"It's true that the same person has different fates. They are both concubines, but she will be the queen as soon as she gets married, while the one in our house will stay here without a name or status. The princess has also said that since she has no name or status, she will be treated as a concubine first. If the prince gives her a status, she will serve according to the status. However, no matter how much the prince favors her, she can only be a concubine at most."
Li Tingting dug her palms hard with her nails. These two girls actually dared to look down on her. Now that she had admitted her mistakes to her parents and they doted on her again, how could she deal with these two ignorant little girls?
But how did Li Pingting enter the palace?
She had wanted to enter the palace before, but her father and mother told her clearly that no daughter from the Li family would enter the palace anymore, and that entering the palace would only embarrass Sister Rong. But now they let Li Pingting enter the palace, why? Why?
It is obvious that her father and mother have always doted on her, so what is Li Pingting?
"But the Li family is also powerful. They actually sent a concubine's daughter into the palace." The maid continued.
"What do you know? The princess said that Li Pingting's mother will definitely be promoted. Sending a concubine's daughter to the palace is indeed disrespectful to the emperor. I heard that the Xia family also has a concubine's daughter who will enter the palace. In the past two days, the Xia family has been preparing to make the concubine's mother a legal wife."
"Legal wife?" Li Tingting's eyes almost popped out. Who was Li Tingting's biological mother, Aunt Zhou? If she was given a higher position, what would her mother, Aunt Luo, do?
If Li Pingting becomes favored after entering the palace, she and Aunt Luo will not be able to face anyone in the Li Mansion.
No, no, Li Pingting cannot enter the palace, and even if she does, she is not allowed to be favored!!!
Li Tingting's teeth were grinding, as if she wanted to eat someone.
"I don't know what this Li Pingting looks like. How does she compare to the beauty sent from Dali to our mansion?"
"Dali beauty?" Li Tingting's brain felt like it was going to freeze. How come there is another Dali beauty? How lustful is this dead man, Prince Lu!!!
"Hey, hey, please keep your voice down. I heard that this beautiful girl from Dali is absolutely stunning. The envoy from Dali wanted to present her to the emperor through Prince Lu, but the prince liked her very much when he saw her and wanted to keep her for himself, so he has kept her in his house for the past two days and has not reported her yet."
"Besides, I also heard that this Dali beauty's charm is first-rate. If she can enter the palace, then Miss Li and Miss Xia will have to stand aside."
Li Tingting stood up suddenly, and a smile finally appeared in her watery eyes. These two damn maids had been talking nonsense for so long, and finally they said something useful.
Li Tingting raised her head and walked slowly to the two maids.
When the maid saw the visitor, she knelt down and kowtowed in panic, "Greetings to Miss Li."
Li Tingting was very happy to see the servants see her panic-stricken look, and her vanity was instantly satisfied.
"Although I should have taught you a lesson for daring to gossip behind my back, you did say something useful, so I won't bother with you. In the future, serve me well, and I won't hold you accountable."
"Yes, yes, I obey your command."
Li Tingting shook her sleeves and left with her head held high like a proud peacock. She didn't notice that the maid in front of her was the one she had picked on when Prince Lu took an eight-concubine last time.