Chapter 38:
Promoted from the Cold Palace "The Emperor, in compliance with the Will of Heaven, declares: Jiang Xinyue, a virtuous woman, is well-educated, respectful, filial and prominent. I am very pleased that you, Jiang, have long been instrumental in domestic affairs, dedicated to your duties and have the demeanor of a noble family. I hereby confer the title of [Zhen Guirong] on you to show the Emperor's grace. I hope you will accept the grace, be respectful,
filial and fraternal. I respectfully do this--" Guiyi, Guirong and Guiyuan are all concubines of the fourth rank.
Wan Guiyi was in this position before, and now Jiang Xinyue is here, and Wan Guiyi has been demoted two levels and is even worse than her.
It only took her half a year to go from Guiren Jiang to Zhenji, then to Zhen Fangyi, and now to be named Zhen Guirong after jumping several levels.
This is a promotion speed that an ordinary concubine may not be able to achieve in her entire life.
Even for Concubine Li Gui, it took three years to go from a small talent to Li Guirong.
Now everyone has not reacted yet, and they just think that this position is what Jiang Xinyue exchanged for her own life, and there is nothing rare about it.
But if they think about it carefully, they will be shocked. It seems that every time Jiang Xinyue is harmed, she will be promoted two levels.
When it comes to life-threatening matters, she will jump four levels, which is simply terrible.
"Your concubine, thank the Lord for his grace."
When Jiang Xinyue got up from the ground, her face was already full of tears. Those tears contained the grievance of being vindicated, the tears of joy for finally being able to see the emperor again, and the venting of the suffering during this period.
Wang Dequan couldn't help but feel sad, and couldn't help saying: "Empress Guirong, please stop crying. The emperor asked me to bring people from the Shanggong Bureau to help you change clothes and wash. Now, all the people in the palace are at the gate of the cold palace, waiting to welcome you back to Hexi Palace!"
This is a great honor.
No concubine has ever been so valued by the emperor, including the empress and Li Guifei.
From now on, no one will dare to look down on Zhen Guirong, and no one will think that Jiang Xinyue is anyone's substitute.
She also has the capital to share the same glory with Li Guifei.
The two chefs were still regretting that they couldn't learn the strange dish called "fried chicken". Unexpectedly, Zhen Guirong turned around and said: "You will move all these things to Hexi Palace in a while. I want to treat the emperor and the empress to eat fried chicken."
It's the first snow!
Fried chicken, beer and handsome men are all available.
Outside the cold palace -
the emperor and the empress stood under the eaves, with
the eaves to protect them from the snow, and heaters stuffed in their sleeves, surrounded by a group of palace maids, but they still didn't feel too cold. Li Guifei, De Fei and Liang Fei were all high-ranking concubines, and they were taken care of by people. Although they dared not stand side by side with the emperor and the empress, there were palace maids holding umbrellas for them, so they didn't get wet in the snow. Only
those concubines who were not favored and had low positions suffered. They stood in the rain, freezing, and in the snow, watching the emperor bestow all the honors and favors on another woman, and they couldn't complain.
The heavy snow showed no sign of stopping. Empress Zhu glanced behind her and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you let them wait in the corridor?"
Emperor Xuanwu saw that the carefully dressed concubines were drenched in snow. The snow melted when it came into contact with body temperature, ruining their makeup and hair, like female ghosts.
That's right!
Not everyone is his Zhen Guirong. Even without makeup, they are stunningly beautiful.
But they didn't really come to welcome Zhen Guirong out of the cold palace. Before they could retract the anger on their faces, they were seen by Emperor Xuanwu.
"Jin Chongyi will stay, and the rest of you can go to the corridor to avoid the snow."
Jin Chongyi, who was caught red-handed, felt embarrassed and her face showed a little red. She lowered her head in shame and anger, not daring to look at the emperor's expression again.
Everyone went to the corridor, which made her look even more ferocious.
"Zhen Guirong is out!"
She was wearing a pure and elegant snow-gray satin embroidered four-season flower basket cotton robe, with a dark fur coat on the outside. A circle of light pink fur wrapped around the woman's chin, which made her jade-like face look only the size of a palm.
After living in the cold palace for so long, her appearance was not damaged at all. On the contrary, because she was a little thinner, she looked a little broken and cold.
But her eyes were full of affection, and she looked so affectionate that she wanted to speak but tears came out first, which made people want to pick the moon in the sky and give it to her. She
didn't wear any makeup on her face. She was only sixteen years old, at the age of tenderness and beauty. She perfectly interpreted what it meant to not need light green or deep red, and she was the best among flowers.
"I have seen the Emperor and the Empress..."
As soon as her knees bent, her arms were firmly held by a big hand. Emperor Xuanwu's eyes were burning, and he suppressed his longing for her. He hugged her and said, "My beloved concubine has suffered."
Regardless of the truth of Concubine Li Gui's fall into the water, she must have been cleared of suspicion to be able to leave the cold palace so gloriously.
Jiang Xinyue shook her head, and a crystal tear rolled down, burning Emperor Xuanwu's heart: "Your Majesty still remembers me, so I am not suffering."
She was telling Emperor Xuanwu that he understood all the decisions he made and trusted him.
Emperor Xuanwu felt soothed and treated her even more fondly.
Xiao Xuanzi stood behind the door, Jiang Yuan's eyes shot out a reluctance and malicious light: "See? Now that she is rich, does she have the slightest intention to promote you? You are so good to her, but you are just feeding an ungrateful person."
Although Xiao Xuanzi knew that Zhen Guirong was not such a person, he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed when he thought that after they left, he would still have to guard this cold palace without people.
However, just when he thought that he would have to say goodbye to Zhen Guirong from now on and could only avoid her from a distance when he met her on the road to the harem, Emperor Xuanwu looked over at him.
After a while, Wang Dequan, the chief eunuch beside the emperor, came over and said, "Are you Xiao Xuanzi?"
In Jiang Yuan's shocked eyes, Wang Dequan said, "I heard that you took good care of Empress Zhen Guirong in the cold palace. The empress was grateful and asked the emperor and the queen for you. You will serve in Hexi Palace in the future."
What a good life!
But this good life was also earned by his kindness.
Xiao Xuanzi's eyes were hot, and he knelt on the ground with red eyes and kowtowed: "Thank you, the emperor, the queen, and... Empress Zhen Guirong."
After Wang Dequan brought Xiao Xuanzi back to Jiang Xinyue, a large group of people escorted the emperor and Zhen Guirong back to Hexi Palace.
Li Guifei and others certainly had no chance to taste the delicious fried chicken, but today the Hexi Palace was more lively than during the Chinese New Year.
Li Guifei, Jin Chongyi and others who were turned away could only shut up and return to their own palaces to find their own mothers.
The Queen, Liang Fei and De Fei thought that Zhen Guirong would be eager to rekindle the old relationship with the Emperor after just coming out of the cold palace.
But no...
Not only did she not order her to leave, she also asked Xi Que and Shuang Jiang to bring the eldest princess, the second princess and the third prince over: "Today, Empress Zhen will make a delicacy that you children will definitely like very much. Just consider it as Empress Zhen's way of thanking you for taking care of Hexi Palace!"