Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Palace Maid Seven Days
Shen Qingqing finished an hour of study with Master Wanxia and hurried back to the palace maids' dormitory before dusk.
Last month's monthly allowance had already been distributed. Before she could even put it in her arms to feel warm, she handed it back to Dong'er. The feeling of owing money was never very comfortable.
Just as she turned to leave the front hall, Qian Quanzhong, the chief steward of the emperor, entered Jingyang Palace. The eunuchs in the outer hall of Zhiyun Palace saw this and quickly informed Concubine Du in Zhiyun Palace.
Upon hearing this, Concubine Du hastily packed up and walked out of the palace, running into Qian Quanzhong who was looking for the palace maid Wanxia.
Du Jieyu raised the corner of her lips and said, "Why did Eunuch Qian come to Zhiyun Palace? What does the emperor want?"
Qian Quanzhong still did not forget to pay his respects at this time, and said in a serious tone: "Hello, my lady. The emperor ordered me to send Miss Wanxia out of the palace today. Please find Miss Wanxia as soon as possible."
Du Jieyu thought that it would be useful for her to keep Wanxia, but before she could try to persuade her to stay, Wanxia came out, bowed to her, and looked at Qian Quanzhong with a little doubt.
Qian Quanzhong saw someone and reached out to take the imperial edict brought by the young eunuch behind him: "Palace maid Xu Luotu accepts the order——"
Xu Luotu is the name of Wanxia, and Wanxia is the name given to her by Du Jieyu later.
Xu Luotu took a deep breath, stepped out of the line, and knelt in front of the imperial edict: "I am the palace maid Xu Luotu."
Qian Quanzhong began to announce the decree: "To the brother of your palace maid Xu Luotu, Xu Chunling, the deputy director of the Outer Capital Water Conservancy Bureau, has made great contributions in river management and has offered good strategies for flood control. Now I will give special favors to his sister..."
The imperial edict specially allowed Xu Luotu to leave the palace early, and bestowed a certain amount of gold and silver, as well as praised the Xu brothers and sisters. Finally, it urged Xu Luotu to leave the palace as soon as possible.
After Qian Quanzhong finished reading, he handed the imperial edict to Xu Luotu, who was thanking the emperor for his grace, and then urged, "Miss Xu, you have to hurry up, otherwise it will be troublesome to lock the palace gate. I have already asked someone to notify the Ling Mansion to bring a carriage to pick you up."
Before Xu Chunling became an official, the Xu family was not wealthy, and was even very poor. The Xu family's house and carriage were all given by the emperor, so Qian Quanzhong knew a little about these things.
If Concubine Du had not made any mistakes and had sent Xu's daughter away properly, there would not have been a need for this imperial edict. But now the situation has changed, and this imperial edict will save Xu's reputation in the palace for many years and allow her to leave the palace in glory.
Xu Luotu said yes, and hurried back to the maid's room to pack her things. Shen Qingqing knew that there was no time to waste, so she hurried to help her master. Together, they packed their luggage quickly.
Shen Qingqing hurriedly said: "Congratulations to Master for leaving the palace early. I wish Master a smooth journey and happiness every day in the future!"
Xu Luotu instructed her, "I noticed that Eunuch Qian's attitude towards Concubine Du was different. Now I am in a hurry to leave the palace. I am afraid that there will be turmoil in Zhiyun Palace. After I leave, you should stay out of the spotlight and act according to circumstances."
"I remember, Master, don't worry about me."
Shen Qingqing had never met Qian Quanzhong, so she couldn't tell how she was different today from usual, but she had an advantage in the position she was standing in. If she saw correctly, there was a group of eunuchs waiting outside Jingyang Palace, and their whereabouts were unknown.
After sending Xu Luotu off, she decided to hide away together with Dong'er.
Xu Luotu nodded, put on her bag and said goodbye to Shen Qingqing at the door of the palace maids' house. Then she walked towards Qian Quanzhong: "Eunuch Qian, I'm done."
Qian Quanzhong led the way: "Then let's go."
After being ignored for a long time, Concubine Du shook her handkerchief and felt angry. Qian Quanzhong refused to listen to her words or tricks and remained silent no matter what she asked. When she met the emperor later, she would definitely report him.
In comparison, Wang Jigui, who is beside the emperor, is more knowledgeable and interesting.
After Qian Quanzhong's men took Xu Luotu away, Qian Quanzhong's apprentice Qian Ji, accompanied by an old and mean-looking nanny and several strong eunuchs, passed by them and entered the Jingyang Palace.
Du Jieyu was startled. Daimao recognized that this was someone in the imperial court and quickly said to Du Jieyu, "Master, this is Eunuch Qian's apprentice, Eunuch Qian Ji, who is on duty in the imperial court."
Because Qian Ji lacked the ability, he had been kept in the Palace of Heavenly Purity by Qian Quanzhong for training. This was his first time to go out and do some work.
Daimao often followed Concubine Du's orders to recognize most of the people in the imperial court. She also gave gifts as instructed by the lady in the mansion. Otherwise, with Concubine Du's temper, how could she have had such a smooth journey when she first entered the palace?
There were many beauties in the palace. The reason why Du Jieyu was able to win the first place was not only because she later understood the emperor's temper, which was that he would respond to soft tactics but not to hard ones, but also because of the trial and error in the early stages.
Du Jieyu waved her handkerchief in disdain: "What are you doing?"
Qian Ji raised his voice very high, trying to make sure that everyone present could hear: "In compliance with the Emperor's oral order, Concubine Du Mingyi allowed her slave to kill two palace maids, defied the Emperor's authority, and disregarded palace rules... The palace maid Liu Shun who committed the crime was sentenced to death, and the palace maid Daimao who knew the truth but did not try to persuade her was sentenced to 30 strokes of the cane and expelled from the palace. Concubine Du Mingyi was demoted to Baolin and moved to Siguozhai. A nanny was also appointed to teach her and reprimand her every day. I hope you will mend your ways..."
"Du Baolin, have I conveyed the emperor's intentions clearly?"
Du Mingyi frowned slowly. His Majesty wanted to demote her to Baolin?
This is impossible! This is impossible!
Du Mingyi grabbed Daimao's hand and pinched it unconsciously: "Daimao, do you understand what the emperor said?"
Daimao felt a pain on his hand, and fear showed on his face: "The emperor said that he would demote you to Baolin and beat me with thirty sticks. It was Liu Shun! Yes, it was because of Liu Shun. Didn't you only order Liu Shun to teach Xia Chan and Wen Xin a lesson? But he only taught two maids a lesson, how could this be..."
There was confusion in Daimao's eyes. She listened to the whole process as her mistress asked Liu Shun to teach the two palace maids a lesson, preferably one that would disfigure their faces so that they would have to do menial work all day long.
After Liu Shun finished his work, he came back to report to Du Mingyi, who was so happy that she promoted him.
But Du Mingyi had done worse things before, such as slapping Concubine Gao twice in public, humiliating Concubine Mei who had an affair with the emperor in the imperial garden, deliberately breaking the pipa strings that Concubine Wei had practiced for half a month so that she could not show off at the banquet, and so on.
But even if each of these cases was reported to the emperor, the punishment would not be as severe as it is now.
"Yes, I just asked Liu Shun to teach two people a lesson. How could he demote a dignified concubine to Baolin?" Du Mingyi felt it was absurd and pointed at Qian Ji's nose with hatred.
Qian Ji said without blinking: "Baolin missed that it was you who ordered Liu Shun to kill those two palace maids. No matter how cheap the lives of palace maids are, you cannot decide their life or death."
The palace had to punish palace servants according to palace rules. One of the rules was that private punishment was not allowed, let alone killing two people.
"I...Liu Shun, everything will be clear once we find Liu Shun. I was wronged!" Du Mingyi pushed Daimao to find someone.
Liu Shun was standing nearby. He quickly came out and knelt down. “It was I who misunderstood Baolin’s order and drowned the two maids Xia Chan and Wen Xin in the pond outside the Shang Palace Bureau. It was all my own decision and had nothing to do with Baolin.”
When Liu Shun said this, Du Mingyi believed it, but Qian Ji and others only thought that Liu Shun was a loyal servant, and these words were to clear Du Baolin of suspicion.
Du Mingyi sniffed and said to Qian Ji, "You little slave, now that everything is clear, why don't you report it to the emperor?"
Daimao pulled Du Baolin's arm, knelt on the ground with her legs softened, and slowly sorted out the logic in her mind: If what Liu Shun said was true, he had indeed misunderstood his master, thinking that Jieyu was not a straightforward person, but was giving him hints to test his ability to do things and his ruthlessness. This was indeed a mistake, but who else could agree with this statement except her, Baolin, and Liu Shun?
Who would let eunuchs teach palace maids a lesson? Are eunuchs' slaps powerful and their voices sharp when they humiliate people?
What made her even more frightened was that her master had not come up with a solution at this moment, and her ideas were still frighteningly simple and straightforward. This kind of unreasonable behavior in the eyes of others would only increase the distrust of the palace people in front of the emperor.
"Oh..." Qian Ji lowered his head and said, "Please ask Baolin to move as soon as possible. If Baolin's palace servants are slow, these servants I brought can serve Baolin."
"You dog slave, you don't even listen to my orders? Fine, then I'll go to the Qianqing Palace to find the emperor!" Du Mingyi was about to leave, but was stopped by Qian Ji.
He said in a deep voice: "Du Baolin, you are Baolin, I am afraid you will not bother to move the people in front of the emperor, and even if you go to the emperor's front now, you can't enter if the emperor doesn't want to see you. The work of us dog servants cannot be delayed. Since Du Baolin won't give up and move, we servants will do it for him."
Qian Ji waved his hand and said, "Let's do it."
Liu Shun was instantly pinned down and taken away by two eunuchs, while Daimao was executed on the spot. Because of all the trouble, it might take until tomorrow to send Daimao away from the palace.
Daimao is a servant boy of the Du family, brought into the palace by Du Mingyi. He is not a servant trained in the palace. Although the emperor only said that Daimao should be demoted away from Du Baolin, how far can the distance between them be from outside the palace?
The rest of the people began to take the books to help Du Baolin move. All the things that were originally in Zhiyun Palace remained in Zhiyun Palace, and any items that Baolin was not supposed to have in his position were not allowed to be taken. As for the palace maids that Du Baolin exceeded the number, they also had to hand over the list to the virtuous concubine who had half the power to manage the harem tomorrow. She was in charge of these things.
But Du Baolin had received many rewards throughout history, and the emperor had not really considered taking back the rewards. Besides, the Du family was not bad, so they could still give some money to the daughters in the palace.
Du Mingyi was not at the end of her rope.
But seeing her favorite Zhiyun Palace in such a state, Du Mingyi couldn't bear it and fainted.
The nanny who came with them quickly grabbed Du Mingyi and clamped Du Baolin's arms with both hands to prevent him from fainting on the ground.
After Du Baolin fainted, Qian Ji took the opportunity to ask the eunuch to speed up, otherwise what would happen if Du Baolin woke up and caused trouble?
Thinking of this, Qian Ji's brows relaxed. Du Baolin fainted at the right time.
Shen Qingqing and Dong'er stood together. They knew that the situation was no longer something they could decide, so they started to move.
Dong'er asked, "What happened?"
They only saw Du Jieyu, no, now she should be called Du Baolin, who was called Baolin by a high-ranking eunuch. Du Baolin fainted, Daimao was beaten with a stick, and they began to move from Zhiyun Palace to Siguozhai without stopping for a moment.
Shen Qingqing shook her head: "It's always right to be cautious. But, is there a Siguozhai in the palace?"
"I have never heard of any palace called that name."
Think about it, think about it. It turns out that the concubine who moved in was at fault.
They carried their bags and followed the crowd to the Siguozhai. The young eunuch in front of them was particularly fair and tender, and was about the same age as Shen Qingqing and Dong'er. Listening to the two people's chat, one of them couldn't help but reveal: "There was no Siguozhai originally, it was Wensizhai that was renamed by the emperor himself."
Shen Qingqing and Dong'er uttered "Oh" in a low and long voice, showing an expression of understanding.
Shen Qingqing asked curiously, "What did our master do wrong? She was demoted from Concubine to Baolin all of a sudden. If you can't tell me, forget it."
She and Dong'er looked at the little eunuch with bright eyes.
The young eunuch said, "You will also know tomorrow. It doesn't hurt to tell you in advance. The two third-class palace maids who walked beside Du Baolin were found dead in the pond. What were their names..."
Shen Qingqing and Dong'er looked at each other, a chill welled up in their hearts, and they said silently, "Xia Chan and Wen Xin."
"Yes! Oh - look at my memory, you should know each other. In fact, Du Baolin ordered Liu Shun to kill the two palace maids. They killed two living people. Du Baolin was so cruel."
More than just knowing each other, they live in the same room!
Although the two of them did not get along with Xia Chan and Wen Xin, they also felt uncomfortable at this time. Compared with their petty fights, Du Baolin's methods were chilling.
Shen Qingqing only knew that Du Baolin would not let Xia Chan and Wen Xin go, so wouldn't it be better to just give an order and let the people below secretly target them? He had to take the lives of the two, and he personally assigned them, as if he was afraid that he would not be able to catch her.
Didn't Du Baolin read the palace rules before he entered the palace? The palace rules not only apply to palace servants, but also have a great restraining effect on concubines.
But considering Du Baolin's aggressive style in the past, this is not surprising...
Shen Qingqing was thinking about all sorts of things and soon arrived at Siguozhai. The plaque on the Siguozhai was obviously new, because apart from the plaque, everything in Siguozhai was old.
Alas, her dream of becoming a chief palace maid has not yet been realized and her backer has fallen. Should she run away, or continue to stay in Siguozhai to keep Du Baolin's wishes?
Du Baolin's premature outburst was not all bad. At least it let Shen Qingqing know that this master was a scum who regarded human life as worthless.
It's like riding a donkey and looking for a horse, then choosing a master with a promising future.
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