Chapter 29 Illusion "How can I be more partial?"
Concubine Zhao's punishment came swiftly: she was demoted to a talented lady and confined to her house for half a year.
Palace servants also searched the Imperial Medical Bureau's pharmacy and discovered traces of tampering in the records regarding mud snakes. Later, the young pharmacist who purchased the coral snakes confessed that this was done at the behest of Consort Zhao.
Although the handwriting was a little inconsistent, it was just a few numbers and it was possible that his handwriting was unsteady in a panic. No one would ask him to change his statement because of this.
At first, Zhao Cairen did not completely believe Qingzan's words.
It was not until he learned that he had actually become a scapegoat that he realized that what Qingzan said that day was not empty talk or alarmist rhetoric.
When has she ever suffered such injustice on behalf of others?
Zhao Cairen sat in the empty room, looking at the room with most of the furniture removed and only four walls left. She hated Qingzan and hated the queen even more.
Chunhezhai had been demarcated as a prison. Even heavily armored soldiers weren't needed to guard it; a reed lock weighing less than a pound was enough to trap an unarmed woman.
But Zhao Cairen knew that her family wouldn't ignore her, and neither would her cousin. Even if she couldn't leave, she could still seek revenge. While Chunhezhai was about to be filled with dust, Chengluan Palace was bustling with activity.
Qingzan did plead for Zhao Cairen that day, even though Qingzan didn't feel that she was wronged at all. But as long as Zhao Cairen herself felt that she was wronged, that was enough.
Everyone in the palace praised Concubine Ying for her magnanimity and many of them offered their condolences, as if they had found a more just and respectable excuse for friendship. When times are tough, there is always goodwill around.
Concubine Hui was not implicated too much by this incident, but she fell seriously ill after kneeling in the heavy rain all night. She became much thinner and weaker, and could not even hold up the new summer clothes she had made this year.
Qingzan visited her once, and her maid was making her summer dress smaller in waistline.
When Concubine Hui saw Qingzan, she asked her what she had said to the emperor when she went to Taiji Hall that day.
Qingzan would never tell Concubine Hui.
She had put quite a bit of effort into pleading for Lady Zhao, throwing herself at him and pretending to be considerate and generous. "Lady Zhao told me that her family donated a lot of money to the southwest this year. I don't want to make things difficult for Your Majesty, so I'm here to plead for her. I just wonder if Concubine Yang will be upset."
The emperor, not knowing what he was thinking, smiled and said, "I sometimes think that I can't really care whether most people in this palace are sad or not. Even you."
The power of the Ice Mirror in the room was at its peak. Qingzan leaned closer to her and said softly, "Then I will take good care of myself."
The emperor smiled and said, "We have to do it."
As for the request for mercy, he did not give her a definite answer in the end, so Qingzan did not expect that Zhao Cairen would only be demoted one level.
Qingzan then realized that the emperor had not intended to punish her too severely, and her plea might not have changed anything.
She had to coax him into agreeing and even let him take advantage of her.
I hope Ms. Zhao won’t let her efforts go to waste.
*
On June 28, the wife of Marquis Yongning entered the palace again.
I heard that he went to the temple to ask for a blessing amulet, so he brought it over to his daughter.
Pingting was a little envious, and sighed to Doukou, who was leaning against the window, enjoying the breeze of lotus flowers: "After all, this queen is the queen. Which woman in the palace can see her family so often?"
Only the Yongning Marquisate has such grace.
Doukou saw that Qingzan was not there and whispered, "It's better to see each other in the future than never to see each other. We should be content."
They knew something about their master's background. They knew that she was an orphan whose parents had both passed away and that she had been a slave in the marquis's mansion for more than ten years. They could not help but be more cautious about this aspect in their daily lives.
In the afternoon, the queen came to visit, which was a rare occurrence.
Qingzan was making lotus seed soup in the small kitchen. The lotus seeds were ready, having been picked in the morning and were still covered with silvery morning dew.
Upon hearing the palace maid announce the arrival of the phoenix carriage, he naturally came out to greet it. His sleeves were still pulled high up on his arms, and his scallion-colored fingers were slightly wet, indicating that he had just washed. The towel he had used was obviously very hastily and sloppily.
Seeing that no one dared to neglect her, the queen reluctantly gave them a friendly look and said, "Sister, this is my first time in Chengluan Palace."
As he spoke, he sat down on the main seat.
Then he looked at Qingzan's appearance and said angrily, "Now that you are the master, why are you still like before?"
It was clearly sarcastic, but the tone was quite like a joke between sisters.
But anyone could hear that this was a hint that Qingzan didn't know how to stay away from the kitchen even though she was the master, which was no different from when she served her.
Qing Zan just handed over a cup of tea respectfully: "I'm used to it, isn't it?"
"It's okay once you're used to it." Perhaps wary of a repeat of the incident at the Qianqiu Banquet, the Queen didn't even raise her hand. "I wonder if my sister's hands are steady today?"
Qing Zan placed the tea on the table next to the Queen with amusement, and finally spoke: "Your Majesty, you don't even dare to accept my tea? It's lotus seed tea, fresh."
The Queen picked up her teacup and looked around at the palace servants standing around. Seeing that the people serving Qingzan all had clean-shaven heads, she sighed, "My sister is living a comfortable life. No wonder she doesn't come to see me. I guess Fengzao Palace isn't as magnificent as Taiji Palace, so it's not a good place to climb up the social ladder."
Qingzan always felt that the Queen's thorns today were neither thorns nor knives, and it didn't seem like she was here to cause trouble. But since she came here on purpose, she must have bad intentions.
The palace maids in Baoyuyou Pavilion were also secretly on guard, ready to call for help if anything went wrong, and never let their master bear it alone.
But today doesn't seem to be a tough battle.
The Queen pointed at the air with her long, armored finger and sighed, "Alright, let them all leave. I'll have a private conversation with my sister."
Qing Zan tilted her head to look at the person and asked without any emotion, "What advice does the queen have?"
Seeing that others seemed to be somewhat afraid of her, the Queen was somewhat pleased: "Can I still lay hands on my sister?"
The suffocation I had been feeling all the way finally made me feel better.
After all, the queen's identity was there, and the palace maids did not have the courage to disobey her openly. They glanced at their master and retreated one after another at Qingzan's nod.
After everyone had left and the room was quiet, the Queen placed a sandalwood amulet on the table and said, as if bestowing favors, "This is given to you by my mother."
Qing Zan's clear eyes fell on the wooden sign: "What do you mean, Madam?"
"Didn't I tell you, these are for you, one for each of us," said the queen.
Qingzan folded her hands in front of her abdomen. Her cool and elegant emerald green sleeves were tied up by her shoulder loops, revealing a pair of frosty white wrists that were clearly visible and firmly stationed in front of her body, without moving at all.
The queen glared sideways.
Qingzan understood the look in her eyes. It was like throwing meat to a pet dog, and the pet dog picked it up without any gratitude.
The Queen's face turned cold: "Why are you pretending to be confused? Cheng, Cheng, that's the surname of your lowly mother, right? You and I are sisters——"
If it weren't for her mother's repeated warnings today, teaching her to plan before taking action and to find out the other party's background, how could she have been so nice to him until now?
Speaking of sisters, the queen finally calmed down for a while. She stood up and held Qingzan's hand with both hands: "Sister, you are not still angry with me, are you? Do your nails still hurt?"
Qing Zan's fake smile had already frozen on her lips when she heard those unbearable words. She curled her lips coldly and pulled her hand away awkwardly: "I'm afraid I dare not accept the name of sister from Your Majesty. As you said, my surname is Cheng and yours is Duan."
The Queen snorted, "Your mother eloped with someone to the northwest. If the Marquis' Mansion hadn't taken you in, you would have been sleeping on the streets, maybe even dead somewhere! Even a dog knows how to be grateful to its owner. Even if I've been mean to you over the years, it was only because I was angry at your concubine's mother for destroying our family's happiness and stability. Besides, hasn't Grandmother always protected you?"
That is, she didn't know that her father's concubine's surname was Cheng, which was why she was careless and didn't understand it at the first time. This little bastard must have found out about her life experience from somewhere and thought that she should be a lady from a wealthy family, so she was not satisfied with the identity of a slave.
But A Niang said that we must be patient and find out how much she knows about what happened back then and how much she has told the emperor. If she knows too much, we can't keep her here.
She had to get this done.
The Queen sat down again and began to appeal to her feelings: "Today, my mother told me to treat you well. You may not know this, but the reason I brought you into the palace is because my parents repeatedly urged me to find a good future for you."
She tried to soften her voice, "Although I did some wrong in the past, didn't you also find a way out behind my back? My sister climbed into my husband's bed, isn't this aggrieved? But now that things have come to this, why not just write off the past and let me not hold a grudge against you? From now on, we sisters will be united and support each other in this palace, okay?"
Qingzan picked up the sandalwood Buddha amulet, which was only the height of a finger, and the profound Sanskrit inscriptions on it were deeply engraved. This should have been a blessing bestowed by the compassionate Bodhisattva on people, but when she held it in her hand, she only felt a pungent smell coming from it.
She took it and looked at it, her eyes sparkling with a smile. Just when the Queen thought that she had finally persuaded the man with her soft and hard tactics, Qingzan suddenly grasped one of the Queen's hands and placed the cold wooden sign back into her palm.
Qingzan put down her hand, her arm loosened, and the silk fabric fluttered down, covering her entire arm.
She turned around, her attitude distant and cold: "Your Majesty, please go back. I don't believe in Buddhism."
The queen was so angry that she almost fainted, and she wanted to throw the Buddha amulet at someone.
But then she heard someone say quietly, "Your Highness treated me like this in the past, how dare you drink my tea today? Aren't you afraid I might poison it?"
The queen's face suddenly turned pale, and she fell back into her chair in panic: "How dare you——"
Qing Zan smiled and said, "I really don't dare."
The Queen finally breathed a sigh of relief, but a pang of pain seized her heart. She secretly regretted that she had been so easily tricked and had shown her weakness in front of others.
How could a mere nobleman dare to poison the current empress? Even if she had no other relatives alive, wasn't she afraid that all the palace maids would be buried with her?
But when the queen returned to Fengzao Palace, she had a stomachache and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea.
As luck would have it, Imperial Physician Zhu had taken leave today and was not at the Imperial Medical Office, saying that his family had moved into a new house and was having a beam-raising ceremony. The Empress was inevitably suspicious, but she didn't dare send another Imperial Physician to see her. In the end, she tried every possible remedy to induce vomiting and detoxify the patient, which nearly exhausted her.
After finally getting through a day, he hurriedly asked Doctor Zhu to take his pulse.
When she heard that it was not poison, the queen felt that she had escaped death, but her hatred for Qingzan became even stronger.
*
In Baoyuyou Pavilion, Suoying was able to walk without a cane for the first time. She was about to give Qingzan a surprise secretly, but she saw the piece of linen she had used to wrap croton seeds next to the hairpin box on the dressing table.
Although the contents were empty, the shape of the folded linen was so unique and twisted that it was obvious that it was wrapped by her.
When she saw Qing Zan, Suo Ying whispered, "Is this the bag of croton seeds? Did you deal with the rest, sister?"
Qingzan didn't say yes, nor did she directly say how to deal with it.
"After I told you about it that day, I thought about it and decided it wouldn't be a good idea to keep it, so I asked someone to find a chance to dig it out. Now, I've finally put it to good use."
"Could it be that my sister... gave it to the Queen?" Suoying thought about what she had heard in the past two days.
Seeing that people agreed, she felt a panic in her heart. She had never thought that people could be so bold. Even if it was just a small amount of croton, that was the queen.
"Will the Queen just swallow her anger and let this go?"
After a short moment of fear, Suo Ying thought again, "But these were originally brought to me by the palace servants in the front hall. I heard about it and took it away first. Even if they wanted to investigate, I don't think they would find out about us."
"Then don't worry." Qingzan stood up and walked towards the small kitchen. Although she said this to comfort people, her worries were no less than Suoying's.
But if it happened again, she would still do it. Her original purpose was to irritate the Queen and make her never dare to enter the Baoyuyou Pavilion again.
In addition, he also wanted to test the emperor's attitude.
His punishment for Concubine Zhao was too light. She had clearly tried to make him see with his own eyes the venomous snake baring its fangs at her. If Concubine Yang had not been injured, wouldn't the punishment have been even less painful?
Perhaps, as she had thought, the emperor would indeed feel sorry for her and pity her, but he was far from standing on her side, even though he knew that her biological mother was killed by the Duan family.
As he said, he actually couldn't care whether most people in the palace were sad or not.
This is a rare truth.
She still needs to work harder.
*
When Qing Zan was brought to Taiji Palace, the Queen came out with a miserable look on her face.
Thinking that the pulse diagnosis written by the imperial physician had been submitted to His Majesty, he should be able to see the true face of this lowly maid, the Queen was able to swallow her hatred and continue to call her sister.
"Sister, why do you treat me like this? Do you really think you can stir up trouble in the harem and do whatever you want, relying on His Majesty's favoritism?"
After this incident, the Queen was convinced that Qingzan would never let go of their past grudges with her.
No matter how much she knew about the death of her concubine's mother, she was a vicious dog that would only bite its master.
Qingzan stopped and bowed to the person, then walked in without saying a word under the Queen's piercing gaze.
Doukou behind him was carrying a lacquered red food box with a lotus pattern on it.
The emperor was hunched over his desk reviewing memorials when Qingzan opened the food box. "Lotus seed soup, I picked it, peeled it, and cooked it myself. Your Majesty, won't you take a look?"
Qingzan saw the open pulse record on the desk, picked it up and flipped through it twice. It was clearly written on it that the queen's symptoms were caused by taking croton, and the time was when she left Chengluan Palace.
Then she laughed and said, "Your Majesty, you are so shameless as to resort to such crude tactics. If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, you can check where this croton comes from."
Xiao Fang curled his lips lightly: "I won't investigate, I'm afraid I'll fall into your trap."
Qingzan sullenly opened the porcelain lid of the food bowl and pushed the thick soup in front of the people: "It seems that His Majesty does not trust me. The Queen even said that His Majesty favors me."
"How much more biased?" Xiao Fang finally looked up.
After a while, he said, "This won't happen again."
Without waiting for Qingzan to say anything else, the emperor put aside the memorials, pulled the man to sit on his lap, seemed to weigh him, and found that he was not very heavy.
Then, he placed his hand on her waist, his fingertips resting exactly on the spot where the red mole was, and tapped slowly: "Do you want to go see the snow lion?"
Qing Zan asked, "Where can we go?"
Xiao Fang's fingertips slowly moved down again, pressing the person's tailbone neither lightly nor heavily. The rather light and even fragrance in his arms was completely agitated at this moment, and a pair of jade arms suddenly hugged him tightly.
When the woman opened her eyes again, they were as affectionate as spring dew.
The emperor smiled deeply and answered the question irrelevantly: "Go and see how lions eat."
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