Chapter 92: Wings Hardened
Time flies like a white horse, and day by day is wasted, just like sand in the palm of your hand, which slips away without you noticing.
In the blink of an eye, it has been exactly half a month since the emperor arrived at the hot spring villa.
In the past, when serving in the imperial palace, the Concubine Chen almost exclusively enjoyed favors, and others could not even share their favors.
Normally, Xiao Jingheng only brought four concubines with him to the hot spring villa this time. Concubine Xiao was pregnant and it was not suitable for her to serve in the emperor's bedchamber, so Concubine Chen's favor should be given priority.
But this time, Song Zhao was an exception.
Concubine Chen privately calculated that in the ten days since she came to the hot spring villa, Xiao Jingheng had seen Song Zhao once more than he had seen her.
Moreover, Song Zhao was very much liked by the Queen Mother.
I heard that the empress dowager gave her a hairpin with kingfisher feathers. Although the style was ordinary and the kingfisher feathers were not exquisitely crafted, the empress dowager had only given gifts to the empress and the concubine for so long. Now Song Zhao was only a concubine. How could she have such a blessing?
The Concubine Chen couldn't stand others competing with her for favor.
Song Zhao lost his composure, so she naturally had to remind him.
So she told Song Zhao not to hang around Xiao Jingheng all the time and to know her limits.
Song Zhao agreed on the surface, but that night, Xiao Jingheng stayed with Song Zhao again.
Now the Concubine Chen was completely annoyed. When she was throwing a tantrum in her room at night, Xiying happened to come.
As soon as Song Zhao entered the palace, Concubine Chen arranged for Xiying to monitor Song Zhao.
Xiying reported everything to Concubine Chen, but she never found any mistakes made by Song Zhao.
But this time, she was about to "accomplish merit".
She handed the Concubine Chen a letter and said, "Your Majesty, this is a letter from Concubine Song to her mother's family, asking me to deliver the letter. I saw something wrong with the content, so I brought it to you for your inspection first."
The concubine took the letter and unfolded it anxiously:
[How is my father? My daughter is doing well in the palace. Recently, she has been accompanying him at the Hot Spring Villa and has even had a happy event.
It turned out that the Empress Dowager and my aunt were close friends when they were young. The Empress Dowager valued friendship and, thinking of my aunt, she treated her daughter very well.
I believe that with the Queen Mother's protection, my daughter's life in the palace will not be too difficult in the future.
If my daughter is lucky enough to get a good position in the future, she will definitely be filial to her father.
I wish my mother well. 】
"She's going to turn the tables!"
After reading the letter, Concubine Chen became angry and threw it away.
Yingxiang immediately picked up the letter, folded it again, and handed it to Xiying, saying:
"Just send her the letter as it is."
Yes, no matter how angry the Concubine Chen was, she couldn't use this family letter as an excuse.
Firstly, Song Zhao didn't say anything presumptuous in the letter. Secondly, if she intercepted the letter, it would alert Song Zhao and make her realize that someone had spies around her.
Concubine Chen asked Xiying angrily, "Today, the emperor went to her place for dinner. Did she say that she was not feeling well and asked the emperor to go back and rest?"
Xiying shook her head and said, "Not really. On the contrary, she had a very pleasant conversation with the Emperor. Before they even finished their dinner, they went to bathe in the hot spring together..."
"What a shameless vixen!" The Concubine Chen slammed the table in anger, her palms numb from the shock, "What else has she done to seduce me these past two days? Explain everything to me!"
Xiying replied timidly: "Mrs. Song has always followed the rules and taken the Majesty's words as her guiding principle. But I don't know why she has been forgetting the Majesty's instructions recently..."
She didn't know why, but Concubine Chen knew.
It was probably because Song Zhao had attached himself to the Queen Mother and had a bigger backer, so he was no longer afraid of her.
While Yingxiang was trying to persuade Concubine Chen to calm down, she said to Xiying:
"Go back and keep a close eye on her. If there is any movement, come and tell the queen immediately."
After saying this, he gave Xiying a few taels of silver as usual and sent her away.
After everyone left, Yingxiang said to Concubine Chen, "Your Majesty must be on guard against the Song family now. She had no one to rely on in the harem before, so she chose to surrender to Your Majesty.
The Queen Mother likes her very much now, she must have had second thoughts about the Queen. After all, the Duke of the Protectorate is also a second-rank official. Although there is no precedent for a concubine's daughter to be promoted to the position of concubine, looking at the Emperor's favor for her now, I'm afraid it's..."
The words were only half said when Chen Fei suddenly narrowed her eyes and glared at Ying Xiang, saying fiercely:
"Which eye of yours saw the emperor favoring her?"
Yingxiang immediately knelt down and stammered, "I, I said something wrong. The emperor only wants Song's novelty and will get tired of her in a few days. But the queen mother has such a relationship with Song's biological mother, your majesty has to make plans early..."
Although Concubine Chen was angry, she was not confused.
Yingxiang is right.
The person who adheres to rules the most in the harem has always been the empress dowager. Song Zhao is a concubine's daughter. Even if she is lucky enough to give birth to an heir to the throne in the future, if Xiao Jingheng wants to raise her status, the empress dowager will definitely stop her.
But now, seeing that the Queen Mother loves Song Zhao more than Xiao Jingheng, I am afraid that if Xiao Jingheng really gives Song Zhao a high position in the future, the Queen Mother will just turn a blind eye and pretend not to see it.
The concubine thought for a moment and sneered:
"Song Shicheng's title of Duke of the Protectorate was given to him because of his ancestors. It was just an empty title for him, and the emperor didn't even bother to care about him. If he hadn't been fawning on my father and brother like a bastard, the dirty things he did in private would have been reported to the emperor long ago. How could he have the glory he has today?"
As she spoke, she sneered with disdain and continued:
"Her father is just a dog raised by my Ning family, so who is Song Zhao?"
Yingxiang said, "That's why you should prepare for a rainy day. If you want Concubine Song to be your dog wholeheartedly, you have to let her know that the meat in her bowl is given to her by you, not her own ability. Now that you are unhappy, kick over her begging bowl and let her starve for two days, she will naturally learn her lesson."
The Concubine Chen thought for a moment and said, "The family of the Duke of the Guard is well-known and prestigious. If a concubine's daughter sticks up to them, she can at least get some credit. But fortune and disaster go hand in hand. If her mother's family is convicted, this family will become a burden to her."
She leaned lazily against the back of the chair and said with a smile:
"A bastard daughter may still have a chance to turn things around, but if she is born out of wedlock and is the daughter of a guilty minister, even if she has the ability to move mountains and seas, she will never be able to show off in front of the emperor again!"
What the Concubine Chen said makes a lot of sense.
The empress dowager might not care about Song Zhao's status as a concubine's daughter, but if Song Zhao became the daughter of a criminal, then even if Xiao Jingheng wanted to give her a position in the future, just one word from those old ministers of the previous dynasty who were content with the status quo would be enough to give him a headache.
Then the concubine smiled and said:
"The Duke of the Protectorate still has to work for my father, so he cannot be touched for the time being. But I heard that his wife, Jiang, is not a good person either. She wears gold and silver every day and walks around the city in a flashy way. She looks so rich.
Go write a letter to my brother and ask him to help me keep an eye on it and see if he can find any mistakes. I'll see how long she can stay in this glory!"
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