Chapter 264: Make Them the First to Come Out
It was still early, and it got dark late in the summer, so there was still some time before the dinner.
The emperor had already eaten his fill, and wiped his mouth. A palace maid handed him a cloth to clean his hands and mouth.
After rinsing his mouth with tea soaked in flower petals, he stood up with the help of Wang Dequan: "Yuer, I'll ask Tang Shiliang to pick you up later."
Jiang Xinyue nodded and watched Emperor Xuanwu leave.
Not long after the emperor left, Jiang Xinyue and her sister finished their meal and took a walk in the garden of Changchun Xian Pavilion to digest their food, thinking that it would not be too late to get dressed after a nap.
However, Concubine Cheng's personal maid in the Yueyue Pavilion knelt at the door crying and begged for an audience: "Royal Concubine, please save Concubine Cheng. Concubine Liu... Concubine Liu is going to destroy Concubine Cheng's hands!"
What's going on?
Jiang Xinyue remembered that she had taught Concubine Liu a lesson in the morning. She should be bedridden now. How could she still bully others?
Besides, she was no match for Concubine Cheng.
"Go and see what's going on?"
She was now the nominal ruler of the harem. If there was a dispute between the concubines and she pretended not to know when the dispute came to her, it would be unreasonable.
Yueyue Pavilion——
"Cheng Nianhe, why are you pretending? I just pushed you lightly, are you so weak?"
Cheng Jieyu, who was lying on the ground, hissed, and when she sat up, her hands were bloody, looking very scary.
Because the news of Liu Guiren's injury spread here, Zhang Meiren and Zheng Cainu, who lived in a more remote location, came to visit.
"Ah! Cheng Jieyu, you...you are bleeding!"
There was a medicine bowl on the ground that was smashed by Liu Guiren when Cheng Jieyu and Liu Guiren quarreled just now. Cheng Jieyu was pushed to the ground by Liu Guiren, and her hands just happened to be on the broken porcelain pieces.
"Noble Lady Liu, if you are jealous of my ability to attract butterflies by playing the piano, just say so. Why are you so cruel and deliberately destroy my hands?"
Lady Zhang shouted in surprise, "Go and call the imperial physician. What's going on? There is a dinner tonight. One of you broke a bone, and the other has both hands bloodied. How can you attend?"
The concubines in the harem dared not show their heads. They were just waiting to see how far Noble Lady Liu and Concubine Cheng could go. Only then could they choose whether to continue to lie low and be invisible, or to gamble for their future.
If these two were destroyed in the internal struggle, where could they find two more fools who were so brave and fearless to confront the Imperial Concubine?
Cheng Jieyu always thought she was very intelligent, but she didn't know that everyone was watching secretly and only regarded her as the first to come out.
"The Imperial Concubine has arrived--"
As Xiao Xiangzi's voice fell, everyone in the room knelt on the ground.
"Greetings to the Imperial Concubine."
"No need to be polite!"
Jiang Xinyue waved her hand casually: "You guys should find less work for me every day. I am very content without your invitations."
No one dared to respond.
The Imperial Concubine's eyes were sharp: "Tell me, who has been wronged again?"
The two sides were fighting, and the one who started the fight first was the loser.
Yan'er quickly stood up and said, "Your Highness, please allow me to report that when our young master went out for a walk this morning, she found that the soles of her shoes were greased by Concubine Cheng, which caused her to fall and break her bones. The doctor said that she would have to stay in bed for at least three months, and there was no guarantee that she could fully recover. It was Concubine Cheng who had harmed our young master, but she pretended to feed her medicine. Our young master had a straightforward temper and could not hide her thoughts like her, so she got angry and threw the medicine bowl. I saw clearly that our young master just pushed her lightly, and she fell to the ground by herself, and she happened to press on the fragments and hurt her hand. Your Highness, you must make a decision for our young master!"
"What are you talking about?"
The one who followed Jiang Xinyue in on purpose came out from behind her to help her own queen: "Our queen is a big person who does not bear grudges. Thinking of the friendship in the past, she did not care about what happened before with Noble Liu, and even came to visit Noble Liu. You put the blame on my queen without any explanation, and even beat her. Now you are complaining in front of the Royal Concubine. You are too much."
The two sides were arguing over whether Concubine Cheng had greased the soles of Noble Liu's shoes.
Jiang Xinyue stretched out her hand to lift the hair on her forehead that was not messy. Her eyes were not at all guilty, and she looked at Noble Liu's injured back with righteousness.
She is the Imperial Concubine. As long as she says a word, there will be many people to help her.
How easy it is to grease the soles of a little noble without anyone noticing!
She didn't even have to say anything, Lady Liu herself associated it with Concubine Cheng.
So how did she think that she could get away with it after insulting the Imperial Concubine for her low bloodline?
"Stop arguing, is this a vegetable market? Look at what you look like?"
Like what? Like
a swearing woman in the street!
Jiang Xinyue was too lazy to judge the case for them, so she gave each of them fifty lashes, asked Lady Liu to apologize to Concubine Cheng, and scolded Concubine Cheng for deliberately angering Lady Liu. Finally, she asked her subordinates to find out the real culprit who greased the soles of Lady Liu's shoes.
But no matter how they investigate, it is estimated that it will eventually circle back to Concubine Cheng. As for how she will retaliate, let them fight! If
they fight among themselves, they will not have the energy to plot against her.
It is better to die than to die poor!
"What did you say?"
"The young master met the Imperial Concubine today, and..."
flirted with her?
Pei Zhongshu slapped the mahogany round table: "Is he crazy? I have tried my best to make that old fox Jiang Yankun agree to the marriage between the two families, and he ran away...he...is he trying to kill himself?"
Pei Zhishuo, who was standing outside the door, blushed. He couldn't run in and tell his grandfather that it was because the Imperial Concubine was so beautiful and attractive that he couldn't control himself!
Grandfather hated lustful and stupid people the most. He shook his robe and took a deep breath: "Grandfather, I know I was wrong, but this was actually Jiang Xinyue's evil plot. In order to prevent Miss Jiang San from marrying me, she took the initiative to seduce me. I was not careful at the moment and thought she liked me, so she... was so reckless."
The fact that he was a good wife was not known to everyone because he knew who he could touch and who he could not touch. If he wanted to have fun, he would look for those pretty widows who had lost their husbands in the capital.
After the affair, he would give her a lot of wealth. Which woman would make it known that she had lost her virginity?
Even if there were a few who refused to stop, he would take them into his house and keep them in his room. In name, they were maids, but in reality, they were his bed-warmers.
Those widows had been living in poverty for a long time, and suddenly they were spoiled and became arrogant. They thought they could become Pei Zhishuo's concubines, and they could not make trouble anymore.
Why would the Pei family want several widows to be concubines of the eldest grandson? It
can only be said that they were blinded by the wealth of the Pei family. Who would believe them if they said they were forced at the beginning?