Chapter 140 Chapter 140
[Chapter 140]
Ruan Jun's right eyelid twitched violently. She had been feeling uneasy just now, but she never expected that something real would happen.
She took the note from Yingning's hand, glanced at it, and then suddenly crumpled it in her palm.
Before Ying Ning could ask anything, Ruan Jun got off the bed, picked up a tinder and lit the note.
Ying Ning looked at him in shock, "My Lady, be careful."
Ruan Yun threw the note that had been engulfed by the flames onto the ground, with hatred and irritation growing in her eyes. "You said, was this something Ji Zhaoyi ordered someone to give to me?"
Ying Ning nodded, squatted down and picked up the note, "Yes, Yicui brought it over personally, there is no mistake."
Ruan Yun bit her lower lip unconsciously and said, "Help me to do my makeup, let's go to Xihua Palace."
…
Ji Zhaoyi was sitting on the couch, holding a book in his hand and reading with a calm expression.
The palace maid came in from outside, not daring to disturb the queen, and whispered, "Your Majesty, Concubine Ying is here."
Yicui glanced at Ji Zhaoyi, but Ji Zhaoyi acted as if he didn't hear her and said nothing.
The frequency of turning pages in the book in hand was no different from before.
When Ruan Yun came in, the only palace maid left in the inner hall was Yicui, who was serving Ji Zhaoyi.
Seeing Concubine Ying Gui waving at her, Yicui glanced at her own queen, bowed, and retreated.
Ji Zhaoyi still had that neutral expression on his face, and his hands did not pause at all as he flipped through the book.
Ruan Jun glanced at Ji Zhaoyi and bit her lip uncomfortably, "Weiwei."
Ji Zhaoyi paused, and then turned another page of the book, "Your Highness, you are very busy, why did you come to my place?"
Just hearing this, Ruan Yun knew that she must be angry. It was her own fault. "Are you blaming me for not telling you about him?"
Ji Zhaoyi put down the book in his hand and glared at Ruan Yun. "Sister has her own ideas. How can I let her tell me about this? I really wronged her."
Ruan Yun said in a soft voice as she sat next to Ji Zhaoyi, "Weiwei, I'm just afraid that this will implicate you, I'm not hiding it from you on purpose."
Ji Zhaoyi turned aside, unwilling to look at Ruan Yun's sincere expression, "If the person who received this note today was not someone close to me, but someone from Concubine De, have you ever thought about what would happen?"
Fortunately, she had arranged Fu Wei to be in charge of the kitchen and purchasing affairs early on, so no one else got the note.
Ruan Jun held Ji Zhaoyi's hand, and she couldn't get rid of it no matter how hard she tried.
Ji Zhaoyi angrily put the book on the table, then turned his head to look at Ruan Yun.
Ruan Yun smiled at her softly, and Ji Zhaoyi snorted, "Sister, just keep it a secret from me, and wait until something happens before telling me."
Ruan Yun hurriedly pulled Ji Zhaoyi's hand and said anxiously, "How can that be possible? I'll be able to speak and call you auntie in the future. Can you be so cruel as to not see me?"
His hand moved casually without much force, and Ji Zhaoyi originally had no intention of shaking off Ruan Jun's hand, he was just pretending.
Ruan Yun smiled again and said softly, "Have you read the contents of the note?"
Ji Zhaoyi looked over and said, "How dare I look at your Majesty's things?"
Ruan Yun quickly grabbed Ji Zhaoyi's hand and said, "Blame me, blame me. Please don't be angry anymore. If you continue to be angry, I don't know what to do."
Seeing that Ji Zhaoyi didn't say anything, Ruan Yun stood up and handed the teacup to Ji Zhaoyi, "Weiwei."
Ji Zhaoyi took it, glanced at Ruan Jun and took a sip of tea. Seeing this, Ruan Jun finally smiled.
"The person who delivered the note was Ji Juebai. After my parents passed away, I was at his home."
Ruan Yun did not mention the note first, but instead talked about the past.
Ji Zhaoyi put down the teacup, and when he looked at Ruan Jun, there was no more resentment in his eyes, only heartache.
Ruan Yun smiled bitterly and continued, "After my father died, all the family's money was given to the Cui family in Yangzhou. He originally thought that since the old man of the Cui family was his good friend and had such a large sum of money, the Cui family might not care much about me, but they would not be too bad. It was indeed the same as what my father thought at the beginning."
Although Ji Zhaoyi came from a humble family, her parents and brothers loved her very much. Her parents were reluctant to let her go to the palace for the selection, but unfortunately the rules were like that and her father could not change them.
Hearing Ruan Yun talking about her life experience, Ji Zhaoyi felt sorry for her.
Ruan Yun seemed much calmer when talking about these past events. Perhaps it was because they had remained in her mind for too long and she had dreamt about them many times. Now that she mentioned them, she could talk about them easily.
"The first year was fine. I had a maid to serve me. But the next year, the Cui family lost a lot of business, and the whole family started to go downhill. The business was getting worse and worse, and the number of servants in the mansion was getting fewer and fewer. The maid who took care of me was the first to leave the Cui family. In less than three months, the only people left in the mansion were the former housekeeper and the personal servants of the three Cui family members."
"There was no one to cook, wash, or mend. How could the maidservant beside Madam Cui handle it? Madam Cui came to me and told me that if I wanted to stay in the Cui family, I would have to serve the whole family in the mansion."
Ji Zhaoyi first looked at Ruan Yun's arm, which was thin and weak. Calculating the time, Sister Ying was only twelve years old at that time.
At that time, she was still naive and well protected by her parents, so she was not asked to do these things.
Ruan Yun opened her palms. There was no trace of it now, but she could still feel the pain she had felt back then.
"I am all alone and helpless. If I leave the Cui family, I don't know where to go. I have no choice but to do whatever Madam Cui asks me to do."
"Ji Juebai is the son of the Cui family. He would come to help me fetch water and secretly apply medicine to me when he saw me working every day. I was young at that time, so I felt more grateful to him."
"He even gave me a turquoise hairpin on my birthday."
Ruan Yun placed the hairpin in her hand in front of Ji Zhaoyi. The crack on it was too obvious for Ji Zhaoyi to ignore.
Looking at the hairpin with almond eyes, Ruan Yun raised a sarcastic smile, "The first half of my birthday that year was the happiest time of my life. Even in that situation, someone suddenly thought of me, as if my father and mother were still alive and would celebrate my birthday every year."
"I put the hairpin under my pillow and went out to buy food, but when I came back, I saw Madam Cui in my room, and the hairpin was in full view of everyone."
"I don't know what happened, but I know that Madam Cui's face was full of anger. When she saw me, the maid beside her pulled my arm and made me kneel down. Before I could say anything, I heard her say that I stole Madam Cui's money and secretly bought this hairpin for myself."
"How could I accept it at that time? I said it was given to me by Ji Juebai. The maid wanted to take the hairpin away, but I thought, it was a birthday gift I had worked so hard to get, why would she slander me? I had to accept it and went forward to grab it regardless. During the scuffle, the hairpin fell to the ground and cracked on it."
Ji Zhaoyi's breathing became heavy. "It's my fault. Please don't say anything."
Ruan Yun shook her head and said to Ji Zhaoyi with a smile: "Let me speak. It has been suppressed in my heart for so long. I will feel better if I speak it out."
Hearing this, Ji Zhaoyi didn't know how to stop her, but just held Ruan Yun's hand, wanting to use this method to tell her that he was there.
Ruan Yun added: "I saw the hairpin fall to the ground and was heartbroken. Madam Cui pointed at the tip of my nose and said that I stole the property of the mansion and even damaged it at will. She wanted to sell me off. The servants were about to rush forward to kidnap me, and at that moment, Ji Juebai appeared at the door."
At this point, Ruan Yun's eyes revealed a hint of hatred, and the smile on his lips became even bigger:
"I saw Ji Juebai and rushed forward to ask him to tell me the truth. Ji Juebai admitted that he gave me the hairpin, but he said that it was because I promised him that I would be his concubine, and the hairpin was my betrothal gift."
Ruan Yun closed her eyes in despair. When her vision went dark, she seemed to be back to that moment. "My body was shaking. I couldn't believe he would say that. Mrs. Cui first accused me of seducing the young master and then asked me if it was true. I refused to confess, so Mrs. Cui wanted to sell me off."
"Ji Jubai stopped the servants and asked Madam Cui and the others to leave first. He only said to me, 'This is the only way now.' He said that he had loved me for a long time and wanted to take it step by step, but he didn't want to be discovered for embezzling my mother's money. Now is a good opportunity."
"When I didn't obey him, he tried to... use force."
Ji Zhaoyi frowned, his fingertips digging into his palms, "How can he be so shameless! He is a newly-minted Jinshi. How can a person with such behavior have the face to serve as an official in the court?"
Ji Zhao stood up angrily, his usually gentle temperament turned into anger today.
Perhaps it was because every time she woke up in the middle of the night, she would remember what happened at that time. Ruan Yun pulled Ji Zhaoyi to sit down and said, "So now, I don't want to let him go."
"I screamed so hard that Ji Juebai had to let me go. Madam Cui had long disliked me and used this as an excuse to sell me to a human trafficker. I was sold to the capital and entered the palace. You almost know what happened next."
Ji Zhaoyi just listened to Ruan Jun say this, and tears welled up in his eyes.
He quickly wiped away his tears and said, "Now he is so successful that death is a blessing for him."
Ruan Yun took Ji Zhaoyi's hand, bit her lip and asked her, "Do you still blame me?"
Ji Zhaoyi paused while wiping her tears and said, "Sister, you are still saying these things at this time. Do you want to see me die of guilt?"
Ruan Yun smiled and said, "It's OK as long as you don't blame me."
"He brought the hairpin to me during the dragon boat race, and I saw Ji Juebai at the Mid-Autumn family dinner. He looked exactly the same as before."
"This time he sent me a note saying he wanted to see me again at the annual banquet and asked me to go."
Ji Zhaoyi frowned, "Sister Ying is going to see him?"
Ruan Yun opened her palm and grasped her wrist with her hand, just like she did at that time, "Of course I have to see her."
"But before we meet, we have to resolve the threat."
…
Purple Palace
Ruan Yunlian approached slowly, and Wei Maoyuan didn't have time to look at her before he hurriedly walked over with a smile on his face, "Greetings, Your Majesty."
Turning her head to look towards the inner hall, Ruan Yun's hair full of jewels and jadeite swayed slightly, "Is the emperor in there?"
Wei Maoyuan quickly said, "Yes."
Seeing Ruan Yun about to go inside, Wei Maoyuan rolled his eyes, thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, the Emperor is not in a good mood today, please be careful."
Ruan Yun looked at Wei Maoyuan suspiciously. What he said sounded strange, so she couldn't help but ask, "But the government is busy?"
Wei Maoyuan glanced at Ruan Yun, touched the tip of his nose and said, "Not entirely. You'll understand once you go in, Your Majesty."
Hearing Wei Maoyuan's words, Ruan Yun nodded and said, "Thank you, eunuch."
She walked slowly towards the main hall, and as soon as she stepped in, she saw the emperor sitting at the top, his eyes fixed on her.
Ruan Jun paused for a moment, then walked towards Yan Shiyu with her slender waist trembling.
Yan Shiyu lazily leaned on the back of the chair without moving, so Ruan Jun boldly walked to Yan Shiyu's side, hugged the emperor's neck, and whispered in a delicate voice, "Your Majesty..."
Before she could finish her words, Yan Shiyu bit her lips and inserted his long tongue into them. The tip of his tongue unconsciously hooked Ruan Jun's upper jaw, causing her to shudder.
The round fingertips unconsciously grasped the collar of the emperor's back, and Ruan Jun's lips and teeth loosened, which made it easier for Yan Shiyu's movements.
After a long time, Ruan Yun was released by the emperor, panting. Her face was flushed and her black hair was a little messy. She grabbed the emperor's clothes on his shoulders, as if that was her only support.
Her almond-shaped eyes were filled with water stains, and all the lip balm on her lips was eaten by Yan Shiyu, but her lips were even redder than before, with a blush that made people want to pick them up and hold them in their arms.
Yan Shiyu's fingertips kept rubbing Ruan Yun's lips, and his big hand dangerously clasped Ruan Yun's waist. Feeling her trembling under his hand, he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Are you trying to seduce me on purpose?"
Ruan Yun immediately widened her eyes, and holding the emperor's chest, she said: "It was the emperor who saw me and wanted to do this. I am really wronged."
Yan Shiyu chuckled and saw that she had nothing in her hands. "Now you won't even give me a perfunctory response?"
He looked at Ruan Yun dangerously. Ruan Yun threw herself into the emperor's arms and said in a trembling voice, "How can the things in my little kitchen compare with those in your emperor's private kitchen?"
Yan Shiyu couldn't help but pinch her waist, "What are you thinking! You want to take something good from me when you see it!"
I wanted to shake off Ruan Yun's hand, but I didn't expect her grip to be so firm. Ruan Yun felt so depressed and said, "I didn't do that. I came to the emperor today to ask for something else, but the emperor hasn't even heard what I said. You are just accusing me."
As she said this, she was about to get off Yan Shiyu's body, but Yan Shiyu held her tightly with his arms and pulled her closer into his arms.
Ruan Jun played with the jade buttons on the emperor's dragon robe, fiddling with them unconsciously with her fingertips, which gave Yan Shiyu a different feeling.
"I help the Empress to manage the six palaces, and I found that there are many maids in the palace. They are all old, but they have no children or other families in the palace. It is not appropriate to release them from the palace, but it is also not appropriate to keep them in the palace. I think it is better to let them go to the temporary palace to be raised and give them some easy work."
Yan Shiyu glared at Ruan Jun with his dark eyes, and his fingertips pinched Ruan Jun's earlobe unconsciously, causing Ruan Jun to shudder.
Eyelashes falling, Ruan Yun ignored the dark color in the emperor's eyes and said to herself: "Originally, this matter should be discussed with the Empress, but the Empress has been ill, so I... came to ask the Emperor."
Yan Shiyu held her head and asked Ruan Jun to get closer to him. "Is this the case, or do you have other ideas?"
Ruan Jun raised her eyelashes, and her watery eyes fell into Yan Shiyu's dark eyes.
She wanted to move her fingers, but Yan Shiyu grabbed them and played with them. A smile appeared on her face, and Ruan Jun said softly, "I... miss the emperor too."
Regardless of whether this was true or false, it made Yan Shiyu inexplicably in a good mood.
He picked up Ruan Yun and carried her to the side hall, and when Ruan Yun wanted to speak, he covered her lips and teeth.
It was clearly still daytime, but the curtains covered the heated scene on the bed. Fingers moved everywhere, lighting fires. Ruan Jun had no choice but to step weakly on the bed, holding on to the quilt under her with both hands.
The charcoal basin in the side hall was extinguished, but none of the palace servants outside dared to enter and they all waited in the outer hall.
When the noise inside died down, Ruan Yun's black hair fell on her shoulders. Yan Shiyu pushed aside her hair and kissed her shoulder. His hot lips returned to her red lips and sucked them. "Would you like to have dinner?"
Ruan Yun was so tired that she couldn't even lift her fingers. Now she just wanted to push the emperor away. She shook her head and her voice became hoarse, "I am thirsty."
She said this with a hint of grievance, her tears had just rolled down so quickly that a large area of the bed was wet, and now she just felt discomfort in her throat.
Yan Shiyu smiled contentedly, got down from the bed, poured a glass of water and fed it to Ruan Yun himself.
After she finished drinking, he moved the cup away and said, "Tonight, we will stay in Zichen Palace."
Before Ruan Jun could even say no, Yan Shiyu didn't give her any chance to refuse. He grabbed her wrist and started making love with her again.
…
With the emperor's approval, Ruan Jun was able to do things much more conveniently. That day, she asked Yingning to tell all the palaces that if there were any maids who could be released from the palace but whose relatives were no longer alive, they should be sent to the temporary palace to live out their old age.
When this happened, the Queen also heard the news in Fengyi Palace.
Putting down the Buddhist scriptures in his hand, a puzzled look flashed across his face, "Why does she care so much about these trivial matters?"
Ran Xia peeled an orange and gave it to the empress, "Your Majesty, would you like to ask Concubine Ying?"
The Queen smiled and said, "No need. She is doing a great job managing the six palaces. There is no need to ask her to come all the way here. We can ask her later when we have the chance."
Ran Xia placed all the tangerines in her hand in front of the Queen. The Queen looked at the tangerines in front of her and had some different guesses in her mind.
As soon as Concubine Ying Gui's oral order was announced, all the palaces were talking about it.
After hearing the news, Lady Zhang panicked and fell onto the couch. Liu Jin hurried into the hall. When Lady Zhang saw Liu Jin, she stepped forward, grabbed Liu Jin's hand and asked, "What's wrong?"
Liu Jin said in embarrassment: "The maids in Concubine Ying's palace went to the West Third Residence in person, saw the nanny, and took her away...
Miss Zhang felt hopeless and sat on the ground with dull eyes.
Liu Jin hurriedly supported Lady Zhang, "My lady, maybe it's just a coincidence."
Lady Zhang shook her head desperately, a chill coming over her. "No, no, that bastard must have known something, otherwise why would he go to West Third House so often, wear autumn clothes, and have someone go to the palace for recuperation? How could there be such a coincidence in the world? That bastard must have known something!"
Liu Jin bit her lower lip and looked at Lady Zhang with worry, "But Madam is a lunatic. How can a lunatic still remember things from the past?"
Lady Zhang tried to stand up by herself, but her legs were weak and she couldn't get up.
Her eyelashes were blinking fiercely, and she kept swallowing her saliva, saying, "No, she's not crazy, she must have seen through it, it must be that nanny pretending to be crazy and told that bitch Ruan Yun, or maybe that bitch Defei and Ruan Yun teamed up, the two of them must have done it on purpose, Defei has been waiting for so many years, isn't it just for this moment!"
Lady Zhang held onto Liu Jin's hand tightly and said calmly, "Use all the manpower in the palace to kill Madam! In this world, only the mouths of the dead are the most reliable!"
There was a lot of cruelty in her beautiful eyes. Seeing Lady Zhang like this, Liu Jin no longer felt it was scary. He could only say, "My lady, I have tried it before, and you have seen it. Moreover, if the Imperial Concubine already knows about it, doing this would be like stirring up trouble and falling directly into the Imperial Concubine's trap."
Lady Zhang turned her head slowly, "Then tell me! What should I do? Should I just sit there and wait for that bastard to bring the nanny to the emperor and tell him everything that happened in the past?"
Tears fell, and Lady Zhang was angry at first, then trembled with fear, "What should I do? What should I do?"
Liu Jin held Lady Zhang's shoulders and said, "My lady, why don't you go and tell the emperor the truth? It's been so long. If you can take the initiative to admit your mistakes, I'm sure the emperor won't say anything. I'm sure the emperor would also like to see you admit your mistakes and correct them."
Lady Zhang sat there in a daze at first, but then she seemed to come to her senses and heard something, "You said the emperor is willing to see me correct my mistakes?"
Liu Jin nodded, thinking that the young lady had figured it out. She was about to continue talking, but she didn't expect Lady Zhang to say, "Yes, merits should be rewarded and mistakes should be punished, but if merits and mistakes are equal, no one can say a word more."
She quickly grabbed Liu Jin's hand again, her eyes extremely fierce, "Has Shen Chongyi done anything recently?"
Liu Jin cried and shook her head, "My dear, please don't do anything stupid."
Lady Zhang walked to the dressing mirror and turned around. Her layered skirt made her look extremely gorgeous.
She looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes were lifeless and she was no longer as beautiful as before. She muttered to herself, as if she was talking to herself:
"The emperor likes the little princess, Ji Zhaoyi is willing to pay for the little princess, and I am willing to do the same. Shen Chongyi, that fool, gave the child to someone else, thinking that she would have a chance to come out in the future, but I don't want to do that. I want her to die without a burial place. The little princess should have been my child, but Ji Zhaoyi helped me raise her for a period of time."
She turned around and looked at Liu Jin with a smile in her eyes, "You said, if Ji Zhaoyi was not good at taking care of the little princess, and the little princess's biological mother did something treasonous, but I was the one who saved the little princess, even if the emperor knew what happened in the past, he would definitely believe that I sincerely repented."
"By then, the past will be nothing but a thing of the past, and it was said by a person who has been crazy for a long time. But I have become the mother of the little princess. No matter what the emperor does, he will not punish me again. This palace can still be warmed up."
Liu Jin was so frightened by what Lady Zhang said that her heart was beating fast. "My lady, please think twice!"
Lady Zhang, however, seemed to be deaf to Liu Jin's words and whispered with a hint of smile on her lips:
"Yes, I want His Majesty to see that I am the one who understands His Majesty the most and can share His Majesty's worries the most."
"The Empress, the Imperial Concubine, and the Virtuous Concubine, they mean nothing!"
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