Guan Zhiyue looked at Bilian, who was still sitting on the ground, and decided not to pull her anymore. After taking the small basket from her hand, she turned around and headed towards the door without looking back.
Seeing Guan Zhiyue had already walked away, Bilian quickly got up from the ground and chased after her towards the door.
Guan Zhiyue walked ahead, and Bilian followed behind. There were very few pedestrians on the road to the Cold Palace, and there were basically no guards patrolling there. After passing through the Cold Palace, they arrived at the main road, where they encountered many guards patrolling in shifts.
"Yue'er... Sister-in-law, what are you doing here?" Li Qishang had just come from the Emperor's side with his personal guard Shang Yao. He had gone to ask about Liuli.
His elder brother told him that everything was ready and they were just waiting for a good day to start firing the kiln, so they could see if Guan Zhiyue's method would work.
"I was on my way to the Imperial Garden, what are you doing here?" Guan Zhiyue asked, looking at the two of them.
"Greetings, Your Majesty the Empress! May Your Majesty be blessed!" Shang Yao bowed.
"Greetings, Your Highness, may you be blessed!" Bilian said.
Guan Zhiyue and Li Qishang exchanged a smile, finding the two of them rather amusing.
So the two-person team became a four-person team. The two in front chatted and laughed, while the two in the back kept their heads down as if they were doing something wrong.
"Why are you picking flowers in the Imperial Garden? It's so cold now, there aren't many flowers left to see."
Guan Zhiyue said dismissively, "Aren't there still winter plum blossoms?"
Li Qishang seemed to understand, as if he had suddenly unlocked his full potential. He walked ahead of Guan Zhiyue, turned around and looked at her, saying, "I know, you must have come to collect plum blossom dew, right?"
Guan Zhiyue rolled her eyes and looked at Li Qishang, saying, "I don't have time for that. I'm here to pick winter plum blossoms."
"What? You're going to pick the wintersweet?"
Guan Zhiyue nodded firmly, then looked at Li Qishang with some regret and said, "Alas, it's a pity there are no red plums. If there were, we could have drunk a pot of good red plum wine."
Li Qishang found it somewhat unbelievable. He suddenly opened his fan and gently fanned himself, displaying the demeanor of a dashing young gentleman.
Guan Zhiyue quickly moved away, saying with some disdain, "Stay away, I'm afraid of the cold in the middle of winter."
Li Qishang realized that it must have been his fanning that made her feel cold, so he quickly put his fan away and looked at Guan Zhiyue with an apologetic smile, "Hehe, my mistake, I'll apologize to you later!"
The four of them chatted and laughed as they arrived at the Imperial Garden. It was clear that there were more than just Guan Zhiyue and her three companions in the Imperial Garden. In the distant pavilion, opposite those few winter plum blossoms, there was a large group of people chatting and laughing happily.
"Cough cough..."
Just as the people inside the pavilion were chatting away, Li Qishang coughed twice, and everyone began to look over. The women, led by the Consort, all looked over. When Consort Shen saw the people following Li Qishang, she immediately bowed in unison as if facing a formidable enemy.
"Greetings, Prince Xiaoyao!" This was a unified shout from all the women and palace servants.
However, it was Consort Shen Na who called out, because apart from Shen Na seeing Guan Zhiyue when she went to the Cold Palace to show off, everyone else had heard of Guan Zhiyue's existence, but no one had ever seen her. "Greetings, Your Majesty the Empress."
Upon hearing this, the other women and palace servants quickly bowed again and said, "Greetings, Your Majesty the Empress! May Your Majesty enjoy boundless blessings and peace!"
Guan Zhiyue looked at this large group of women and felt a headache coming on. They were all dressed up in a flamboyant manner, and the smell of rouge was unbearable.
"Get up! Come and admire the flowers too!" Guan Zhiyue followed Li Qishang and the other into the pavilion.
I glanced casually at the group of people in the pavilion. There were about a dozen of them, some plump and some slender, but all of them were definitely thinner than Guan Zhiyue. Even the fattest one was thinner than Guan Zhiyue.
As soon as Guan Zhiyue entered the pavilion, everyone respectfully made way for her, and even the rather arrogant Shen Na stood up and dared not sit down anymore.
Guan Zhiyue glanced at the furnishings on the stone table, which consisted of nothing more than four or five plates of snacks and a pot of boiling water, the water inside of which was bubbling away. Li Qishang, quite lacking in martial ethics, plopped down in the spot where Shen Na had just been sitting.
Guan Zhiyue glanced to the side and saw a plush cushion on the stone bench. She chuckled and sat down beside it, then turned to the crowd surrounding them and said, "Everyone's being so reserved, please sit down. What were you talking about? Continue your conversation..."
Shen Na sat down to Li Qishang's right, somewhat sullen. Looking at this handsome man, who bore a resemblance to the emperor, she couldn't help but feel aroused! She could only blame the emperor; they had been in the palace for so long and he still hadn't summoned them to his bedchamber. It was practically torture for them.
"It's quite funny, really. I've been in the palace for so long and haven't met any of you ladies yet. Now that I'm here, why don't you all introduce yourselves?"
The women looked at each other, and one of them, sitting next to Shen Na, said sarcastically, "That's right. Ever since the Empress entered the palace, she has been the Emperor's favorite and was assigned to the Cold Palace. Isn't this the first time she's seen us sisters?"
A woman in pink sitting around the pavilion picked up her handkerchief, smiled sweetly at Guan Zhiyue, and said in a coquettish voice, "If we're talking about the Emperor's favorite, it must be our Consort Shen. She's the only woman the Emperor has ever slept with in all this time."
Shen Na was furious when she heard this. What do you mean by exclusive favor? The Emperor did come to her palace twice because the ministers and the Empress Dowager weren't urging him, but both times it was late at night and he didn't even touch her clothes. Every time she heard others say that she had been favored by the Emperor, she really wanted to stab them to death, but she still had to pretend to be happy that she had been favored.
"Yes, yes! The Imperial Concubine is truly remarkable!" said Consort Zheng.
"Alas, some people, once they enter the palace, are kicked away by the Emperor to a place a hundred and eight thousand miles away, and they are still a hundred and eight thousand miles away now!" said Consort Wang.
"Sigh, people are just shameless..." Lin Baolin quickly chimed in.
Guan Zhiyue looked at these people, a cold smile curling at the corner of her lips. Looking at the women present, she said with some disdain, "Sigh, she really is a piece of rotten meat. So many flies want to swarm around her and tear her apart."
"puff...."
"Sister-in-law, what you said is so insightful." Li Qishang, who had just taken a sip of water, couldn't help but spit it out and coughed after hearing Guan Zhiyue's words.
Seeing the changed expressions on everyone's faces, Guan Zhiyue said with a hint of glee, "Boring!"
"Let's go! Prince Xiaoyao, let's continue searching for other winter plum blossoms!"
Consort Shu couldn't stand it any longer and looked at Guan Zhiyue, who was about to leave, with a hint of exasperation, and said, "Your Majesty, I heard this morning that you have an inextricable relationship with Prince Xiaoyao. Now it seems that the rumors are not just wild gossip, but that's the truth."
"I think so too. I wonder where Her Majesty the Empress and our carefree Prince are headed to admire the plum blossoms together?" Consort De chimed in from the side.
As soon as the two said this, the people in the pavilion began to stir, gossiping about them in small groups.
Guan Zhiyue turned to look at the women in the pavilion and said casually, "You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. I see that you are all prominent people with excellent family backgrounds, so I don't want to bother with you. But if I hear you using any foul language again, don't blame me for not warning you."
"As the Emperor's women, you should just worry about the Emperor and not bother me. If I find out you're still gossiping, you'll know what kind of person I am."
After Guan Zhiyue finished speaking, she straightened her back and strode away amidst the shock of others, taking Li Qishang, who was still following behind, and headed in another direction.
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