discipline
The next morning, Qingping sent the newly grown flowers in the greenhouse to Changxin Palace as usual.
Her steps were so quick that her arms were already sore that she couldn't help but curse in her heart, "Isn't it just a broken swing frame? Wasn't it just left there before she repaired it? Now, it's owned by someone else after she left. Even if the entire palace belonged to him, it wouldn't make sense!"
With a thud, the flower bed shattered to the ground. Before she could even look up, she heard someone scolding, "Where did you come from, you servant? Don't you have eyes? You're bumping into people! If you hurt the lady, I'll see what you'll do!"
"Madam, please forgive me, Madam, please forgive me!"
From a distance, Qingping smelled a strong scent of perfume and couldn't help sneezing. Madam, the most popular person in this palace is Madam Zhao.
Zhao Chunfang sat on the sedan chair and looked down at the people kneeling below. "Which palace are you from?"
"I am from Changxin Palace, carrying flowers and trees for the Queen."
Zhao Chunfang's expression turned cold when she heard this. It was the little maid in Changxin Palace who seduced the emperor yesterday. She wanted to see what this girl looked like.
"look up."
Qingping raised his head and saw the gorgeously dressed and heavily made-up woman on the sedan chair. He didn't react much at first, but then he was a little stunned. She looked so familiar... as if he had seen her somewhere before.
The moment Zhao Chunfang saw Qingping, she almost thought she had seen a ghost. It was He Qingping! Wasn't that woman already dead? How could she...she actually be in the palace? How could she be in the Queen's palace?
She quickly calmed down. Since she was just a maid, the emperor must be unaware of her. But they had met yesterday. Had he seen the mark on her palm? Perhaps he was already preparing for the enthronement ceremony. But this morning, before the court, the emperor had been so kind to her as he left. If he knew she had deceived him, he would surely be furious.
He hadn't noticed. She was relieved. She had to get rid of this person before he found out.
"The rules of the Queen's palace are the strictest. If I had known you were so reckless, I would have driven you out. Today, I will discipline you. Come, drag her over there and beat her. Start with fifty strokes of the cane until she is speechless."
The palace servants around Zhao Chunfang hesitated, "Madam, fifty strokes of the cane could be fatal."
"What are you afraid of? If anything goes wrong, I will take the responsibility. If you feel bad, you can take the blame for her..."
The palace maid didn't dare to say anything else. She immediately grabbed Qingping and started beating him with a long stick.
At first, Qingping endured a few blows, thinking Zhao Chunfang would stop. But after thirteen, she could no longer bear it. No matter how much she begged for mercy, Zhao Chunfang ignored her. She began to scream, "I am the Queen's close friend. If you beat me to death, how will I explain to the Queen?"
"You are just a servant in the Queen's palace. What do you want to explain?"
Zhao Chunfang looked at the finger he was nursing coldly and ordered, "Keep hitting. Haven't you eaten yet?"
Blood began to seep from her buttocks, and the beating of the board only grew heavier. Her consciousness began to blur. She opened her mouth, her lips cracked and painful. She began to feel nauseous and dizzy in her chest and abdomen. The pain could no longer mask the nausea of her flesh being hammered into a blurry mess.
She felt a sense of trance. Her parents had died shortly after she was born, and everyone called her a jinx. No one came to marry her, and she had no close friends. She lived alone in her shabby house, washing clothes for herself and others, farming, weeding, chopping wood, and repairing the house. She did it all, all by herself. Her hands were rougher than those of a young man. Even washing clothes in a pond could lead to someone inexplicably stabbing her and pushing her into the water. This seemingly endless period of hardship made her feel that life was hopeless and meaningless.
But then she met the empress, who took her into the palace and made her a maid. She discovered that even the lowest-ranking servants in the palace lived better than she had. She lived in a room shared by two people, with carved doors and windows, brocade curtains, and new clothes and shoes year-round. She also had rouge and powder, something she had never seen before. All she had to do was plant flowers, weed, and move things around. The empress's rewards, on occasion, covered her expenses for the previous two years. For her, it was like a paradise.
She had been dreaming for too long, and misfortune had befallen her so quickly. She felt despair and anger. In the past, even if people had gossiped about her, they had only talked behind her back, keeping her distance but not bullying. They knew everyone had the right to live, that life was difficult for everyone, so as long as it didn't affect them, they allowed her to live away from the crowd.
But it was different here. A slave was always a slave, even if he dressed beautifully and ate delicious food. A slave was inferior to others, and his life and death were in the hands of others. Killing her was like stepping on an ant, insignificant.
She looked at the arrogant woman in front of her with hatred. From her proud face, she seemed to see another person - Wu Chen. She was Wu Chen's illegitimate daughter, Zhao Chunfang, who lived not far from her! It turned out that this Mrs. Zhao was her!
She still remembered the time Wu Chen's wife came to her house and beat Zhao Chunfang until her teeth fell out. Her mother had an affair with Wu Chen and gave birth to her, but she later died of illness. Wu Chen refused to care for her, simply renting a house for her to live in and giving her a small amount of money every month. Later, Wu Chen's wife learned that the dead could not be dug out of the grave, so she vented her anger on Zhao Chunfang.
She was dragged by her hair and slapped left and right, leaving her face bruised and bleeding. She begged for mercy with tears in her eyes, her sobs heart-wrenching.
But now, adorned in emerald green, she'd completely forgotten her past humbleness, even going so far as to dwarf those as humble as herself. Why is it that people are like this? It's as if they're constantly changing, the next moment completely forgetting the last, the causes of pain and joy, all flowing eastward, never to return.
She hated so much, perhaps she hated power, or perhaps she hated being humiliated.
Just when she lost hope, a man appeared from a distance behind Zhao Chunfang. It was the man in black clothes she saw yesterday - the emperor.
His dark eyes darted towards her. It was the maid he'd seen yesterday. Zhao Chunfang was punishing her; it was obvious she'd learned of his meeting with her. She'd been rather irritable lately, no longer the timid woman she'd been when she first entered the palace. He took this as a good sign; she was gradually regaining her outspoken personality.
Qingping looked at him pleadingly, hoping that the glance she gave him yesterday would leave a lasting impression in his heart. She opened her mouth and said, "Your Majesty..."
She hoped he would rebuke Zhao Chunfang's cruelty, or coldly ask the palace maids to leave and rescue her. She hoped he would be a lenient emperor. But good moral character is only a dreamy hope born of the weak who are powerless to resist the strong.
The emperor obviously didn't think so.
"Your Majesty, this maid rushed right up to me with the flowerpot and hit me pretty hard. Look, it's all red."
She showed Liu Che the arm that she had just grabbed, and secretly looked at Liu Che's face. She was not sure whether he had other thoughts about Qingping. Neither Qingping nor she was considered a beauty, but after being raised in the palace for so long, when she saw her suddenly, she found that Qingping was actually more beautiful than her.
Liu Che saw at a glance that the injury was nothing. The woman's delicate voice and cautious, probing gaze made him uncontrollably annoyed. He hated pretentious women the most. But his reason told him that this was Ah Jiao, she was Chen Ah Jiao. No matter what he did, he would always love her.
In the past, Gillian had never taken anyone seriously. When she encountered a foolish palace maid, she had no idea what dignity, steadiness, or restraint and leniency meant, and she would often scold them to the point of utter bloodshed. As for violence, that was when he was having an affair with another woman, and he was extremely fed up with her unreasonable behavior. But now, he actually missed the two of them, the tense situation, one chasing the other and scolding each other.
Although she was still far from perfect, at least she was moving in a positive direction. So he didn't expose her, but instead looked at her hands with a look of concern. "This palace maid doesn't know the rules, she deserves to be punished. Take her to the palace for execution."
Zhao Chunfang breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Qingping heard the tragic verdict on her fate. A lifetime of suffering, this short life, ended in such a pathetic way. What a pair of bastards! she thought bitterly.
Liu Che noticed the resentful look from the palace maid. How dare she glare at him? He suddenly stood up and walked towards Qingping from the side of the sedan chair.
She was going to die anyway, so why was she afraid? Qingping didn't retract her gaze, staring straight at Liu Che. Suddenly, she grabbed a few stones from the ground and threw them at the man.
A cloud of dust blew up in Liu Che's face, which made him even more furious. He stopped where he was and stared at her. The palace maid beside him immediately grabbed her hand and brought her a whip.
"You little bastard, you're so audacious! How dare you lay hands on His Majesty? How many heads do you have? I don't think you want these hands anymore!"
They began to forcibly pry open her clenched fists, and when they saw the cloth wrapped around her right hand, they clicked their tongues impatiently and began to tug at it. "What a rotten thing this is! These filthy hands deserve to be chopped off."
Zhao Chunfang's heart suddenly tightened. She remembered that the copper coin seal was on her right palm.
"etc!"
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