Chapter 61 Pipa Tribulation 4
It must be said that although Song Zhao had only been in the palace for a short time, she was still somewhat confident in her guessing of the emperor's intentions.
After three rounds of drinking, Prince An, Prince Rui and Prince Qi left the palace together.
After they left the table, Xiao Jingheng, who was sitting at the top seat, suddenly looked gloomy.
He was playing with a string of eight-treasure beeswax Buddhist beads in his hand, and suddenly raised his hand and smashed it hard on the table.
The loud noise stopped the musicians from playing. The queen stood up first and walked to the hall, leading all the concubines to kneel down.
"Your Majesty, calm down!"
Jiang Deshun stepped forward and presented the broken phoenix-head pipa to Xiao Jingheng.
"Your Majesty, the palace musicians have checked the broken strings of the pipa. The musicians said that the strings broke because the wood was damp, and the song "Ten Sides of Ambush" that Xiao Chang just played was an impassioned song, which is why..."
Xiao Jingheng glanced at him and said in a grim tone:
"Are you going to tell me that this was purely an accident?"
Jiang Deshun was so frightened that he dropped his knees to the ground, "I dare not."
Xiao Jingheng said: "This Phoenix Pipa has always been looked after by a special person. Go and bring the person who is in charge."
He looked at the concubines who were kneeling on the ground, and with a cold light in his eyes he sized them up one by one before asking them to stand up.
Everyone stood up, except the Queen, who then knelt down and said:
"No matter what, I am responsible for this matter. I was careless for a moment and did not send someone to check on the Fengshou Pipa in advance, which led to this disaster. But the emperor said that this was not an accident?"
The Queen paused and said hesitantly, "Then we must conduct a thorough investigation to see who came up with such a vicious plan to plot against Xiao Changzai."
"No one wants to plot against her. This is just a mistake." Xiao Jingheng's eyes slowly fell on Song Zhao. The cold light in his eyes dissipated a little, and his tone became much softer. "Originally, Song Changzai was the only one who played the pipa today. If she hadn't injured her hand in an accident, she would be the one with a disfigured face now."
When Song Zhao heard this, a gleam of disbelief flashed in his eyes.
Then she became visibly panicked, her hands hanging down in front of her body fidgeting with the hem of her clothes.
She wanted to say something, but she swallowed it down as soon as she opened her mouth.
Then, she lowered her head timidly, her body shrinking slightly, like a delicate rabbit that had been wronged, which made people feel pity for her.
At this moment, I heard Concubine Ying suddenly say,
"Just now when Concubine Xiao said she wanted to play the pipa, it seemed to me that Concubine Chen didn't want her to touch the phoenix-head pipa. Alas, it must be because Concubine Xiao herself is unlucky. Even though there were people who came forward to persuade her, she still couldn't be persuaded."
At first glance, Ying Fei's words seemed to be expressing regret for Xiao Changzai's situation.
But if you carefully savor the deeper meaning of these words, you will notice something is wrong.
She said this for no reason. Wasn't she indirectly saying that Concubine Chen was a suspect?
It sounds like the Concubine Chen wanted to deal with Song Zhao, but something went wrong and she failed to do so.
So she simply stopped Xiao Changzai from touching the Fengshou Pipa, so that she would not only fail to harm the person she wanted to harm, but also have to take the risk of her evil plan being exposed.
Everyone in the harem knows that Concubine Chen is extremely jealous, and it is also something that everyone has witnessed recently that Xiao Jingheng has been doting on Song Zhao.
After a while, she even had the motivation to do this.
I didn't expect that Concubine Ying, who usually doesn't talk much, could hit the nail on the head when she spoke.
Concubine Chen was not a fool, and of course she could hear the deeper meaning in Concubine Ying's words.
She turned her head and glared at Concubine Ying, saying unhappily:
"What do you mean by that? Do you think I tampered with the pipa?"
Ying Fei said: "You, Chen Fei, got this for yourself. I didn't say anything."
"you......"
While the two were arguing, the people in front of the emperor happened to bring the palace servant who was in charge of looking after the Phoenix-head Pipa.
The palace maid was so frightened when she saw the emperor that her legs trembled and her face turned pale. She knelt down in the hall with a plop and said with trembling lips and teeth:
“Your Majesty, please forgive me. The Phoenix Pipa of the Holy Mother Empress Dowager has always been in the care of this servant… However, since the Holy Mother Empress Dowager passed away, the Phoenix Pipa was sealed by the late emperor and has never been taken out.
I was lazy for a moment and forgot to apply tree oil to the pipa last month, so the strings were too hard and broke... It was an unintentional mistake on my part! Please forgive me, Your Majesty! Give me a chance to make amends!"
The palace servant recognized it very well. After saying all these words, he kowtowed to Xiao Jingheng repeatedly.
Xiao Jingheng stroked the tourmaline ring on his thumb, with a look of doubt on his face.
He obviously didn't believe what the palace servant said.
But after being silent for a while, he still said:
"If a clerk is so careless, drag him away and beat him to death."
The palace maid didn't even have a chance to defend herself before the guards covered her mouth and dragged her away.
Xiao Jingheng drank a lot of wine today. At this moment, he had his elbows on the table and his forehead supported by his palms, looking dizzy.
The queen helped him up.
"Your Majesty, I have made some hangover soup in my palace. You may feel better after drinking it."
Xiao Jingheng did not refuse, so the queen supported him and left first.
Now that the protagonist has left, it’s time for the concubines to disperse.
When the show was about to end, Concubine Chen called Concubine Ying, and her aggressive attitude seemed as if she was going to cause trouble for Concubine Ying.
It is not advisable to stay in a place of controversy for too long, so Song Zhao did not stay for a moment and hurriedly left with Yunshan.
When she passed by the side hall, she deliberately glanced at the porthole.
She heard Xiao Chang asking the imperial physician,
"Tell me the truth, can my face be restored to its original state?"
"This... I dare not deceive you. The scar on your face is very deep, and it is unlikely to recover completely. But use gouache to cover the scar tomorrow, and if you don't look closely, you won't see anything wrong."
After that, no more conversations could be heard in the hall, only Xiao Chang's heart-wrenching cries were left.
Yunshan supported Song Zhao and whispered, "It's late at night, my lady, please go back to the palace and have some rest."
After returning to the palace, Yunshan said as she helped Song Zhao wash up:
"It seems that the emperor is pretending to be drunk today."
"Oh?" Song Zhao raised his eyebrows and looked at her, "What do you mean?"
Yunshan said, "There are few stupid servants in the palace. Even if they make a mistake, they will not admit it directly. Most of them will find some excuses to try to survive. But the eunuch guarding Pipa admitted his crime very quickly, as if he was afraid that he would not die. I feel that he deliberately wanted to be a scapegoat for others."
Song Zhao looked at Yunshan for a moment, and said with some satisfaction: "After following me for so long, you have finally made some progress."
"Then do you think it will be the Concubine Chen?"
"I don't know." Song Zhao shook his head. "Whether it was her or not, I have to be more alert in the future. From what happened today, I have been restrained for so long, but I am still being targeted by others."
Recalling the miserable state of Xiao Changzai, Yunshan couldn't help but shudder, "Fortunately, it wasn't the young lady who got into this trouble today, otherwise the emperor would be heartbroken."
Song Zhao sneered when he heard this.
Just as she finished praising Yunshan for his progress, she became confused again.
"Why would he feel bad? You should be thankful that my face wasn't hurt, otherwise what do you think the emperor would do? Do you think he would punish Concubine Chen for me? No, at most he would just pretend to care about me for a few words, and then his beauty would fade and his love for me would fade, and he wouldn't even look at me again."
'Bang, bang, bang'
Several rapid knocks on the door interrupted Song Zhao's words. She asked, "What's the matter?"
Xiao Fuzi said outside the door:
"My lady, the emperor is here."
Ps: The introduction says it is a high-IQ palace fight, so in addition to the heroine, the villain is also smart. The palace fights in this book are not the simple ones where A harms B, and then B uses a wave of brainless reasoning to directly fight back. The plots are basically linked one after another, such as the last time Shu Fei had a miscarriage and this time the Pipa game. The truth is definitely not as simple as everyone sees on the surface. But I will try my best to write it without burning your brain, so that everyone can understand and enjoy it. I wish you all a happy weekend~
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