On the other side, Shang Shaoyan followed the female official to Kunning Palace.
It was still early, but the palace was already quite lively. Outside Kunning Palace, the concubines who had finished paying their respects were walking out, and each one of them was a beauty.
Shang Shaoyan waited with the female official at the entrance of Kunning Palace. She glanced at the various beauties out of the corner of her eye, while also listening to the snippets of conversation they exchanged.
"The Imperial Concubine...palace power..."
Shang Shaoyan's heart stirred, and he wanted to listen more carefully, but the concubines had already gone far away.
After a while, someone inside called Shang Shaoyan in; she was extremely humble and respectful, and her bow was flawless, making her appear to be a gentle and modest young lady.
Empress Li did not tell Shang Shaoyan to get up, but made her kneel; while subtly observing Shang Shaoyan, her dissatisfaction grew stronger when she saw her bright and beautiful face.
Like the Li Shuangyan and Li Shuangsi sisters, she was born plain-looking, not ugly, but definitely not pretty. Empress Li hated Consort Zhao's bright and aggressive appearance the most. After Consort Zhao was disfigured, she was happy for three days and three nights.
The Princess of Heyang carried the shadow of that vile woman, Li Langhuan—Thinking this, Empress Li clenched the Buddhist prayer beads in her hand.
"Kneel properly," Empress Li said sternly. "So this is the Princess of Heyang? Does she not respect the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion?"
Shang Shaoyan kowtowed swiftly and readily, and said respectfully, "This humble woman dares not."
Empress Li's expression softened slightly, but only "slightly": "I see you dare to do this! The Duke of Zhenguo's mansion is truly quite powerful!"
Shang Shaoyan seemed frightened and immediately shrank back before lowering his eyes to listen to Empress Li personally reprimanding him.
Logically speaking, this kind of thing should have been left to the female officials, but Empress Li took it personally. How much must she have hated herself?
Shang Shaoyan was lost in thought, and all of Empress Li's nagging went in one ear and out the other, and she would just say "This subject dares not" or "This subject knows her mistake" to brush it off.
Empress Li, feeling like she'd punched cotton, was speechless.
No, according to what Li Shuangsi and Li Shuangyan said yesterday, Princess Heyang was clearly a eccentric and rebellious person, so why is she so...so polite now?
Empress Li's suspicious gaze lingered on Shang Shaoyan, who quickly replied, "This subject knows her mistake."
Empress Li: "..."
She was feeling incredibly frustrated—if Shang Shaoyan had been making a scene or remained silent, she could have found a reason to lash out; but now Shang Shaoyan seemed completely unresponsive, yet he was putting on airs, leaving her in a dilemma of whether to speak or not.
Shang Shaoyan was not afraid of Empress Li, nor was he afraid of her anger.
Judging by the time, Shang Yunlan should have finished making her accusations.
The brother and sister's so-called complaint was not actually to get the tyrannical emperor to do anything, but rather to get those court officials with daughters as concubines to join forces to suppress the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion.
Another thing is to get Consort Zhao and her brother, who are practically tied to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, to take action.
As for whether Consort Zhao can strike accurately, Shang Shaoyan doesn't need to worry about that—according to what she told Shang Yunlan, "If she didn't even have that much skill, the position of Consort would have been taken by someone else long ago."
Sure enough, not long after, Consort Zhao's maid arrived at Kunning Palace. She was a neat and efficient palace maid.
Shang Shaoyan felt relieved, after all, her legs were sore from kneeling.
The palace maid smiled and said, "Your Highness, please forgive me. My mistress wanted to inquire about the Marquis's marriage with the county princess, so she sent me to find her."
A hint of guilt flashed across Empress Li's face: "The marriage of the Marquis of Yongle?"
Shang Shaoyan inadvertently caught a glimpse of Empress Li's strange expression out of the corner of his eye, and realized that Li Langxuan's blindness was probably related to Empress Li.
The palace maid nodded: "Indeed, Her Highness the Imperial Concubine is very concerned. She heard that Princess Heyang has a cousin who is about to be married, so she wanted to ask about her."
Just as Empress Li was about to refuse, Zhu Sha shook her head slightly and mouthed the words "phoenix seal." Empress Li immediately became serious and realized that this was a good opportunity to trip up Consort Zhao.
If something happens to He Yang in Zhaoyang Palace...
Empress Li couldn't help but feel a little excited when she thought of this.
Shang Shaoyan saw all of this and realized that he had inadvertently become a pawn in the game between the two empresses.
Shang Shaoyan was almost laughing out of anger. Consort Zhao was one thing, she would protect him for the sake of her younger brother, but now Shang Shaoyan saw that the malice in Empress Li's eyes was almost overflowing. Who would believe that she didn't intend to take action?
As for Consort Zhao... Although Shang Shaoyan admired her somewhat, she was still someone he didn't know well, and he absolutely couldn't entrust his life to her.
Despite all the planning, no one expected that Empress Li would try to take action against Consort Zhao these past few days.
Thinking this through, Shang Shaoyan knew that he couldn't go to Zhaoyang Palace today and could only apologize to Consort Zhao another day.
I just hope everything goes smoothly for Shang Yunlan.
However, she did not show it on her face. She simply lowered her head and followed behind Consort Zhao's maid. As soon as she stepped out of the gate of Kunning Palace and saw Granny Li waiting there, she rolled her eyes and fainted.
Granny Li was immediately terrified, her voice shrill: "Princess!!!"
Shang Shaoyan, who was almost woken up by a shout: "..."
The palace maid sent by Consort Zhao was stunned for a moment, but she was clever and knew that this was a good opportunity to strike at Empress Li. She did not investigate why Shang Shaoyan had fainted, and put on a panicked look: "Someone come here - Princess Heyang is dying!"
Shang Shaoyan: "...?"
Very good, this is very much like Consort Zhao.
It seems she will have to stay in bed for the rest of her days.
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