The tall maid said, "It's true what they say, fortunes change. In the past, the prince sent the princess to Hanshan Village for her sake, and now he's sending her away for the princess's sake. We always said that Guangfu protected her like the apple of his eye, but we never expected that she would be the bastard child of Guangfu's affair. With such a lowly status, she still has the nerve to be arrogant towards us. I never thought her status was even lower than ours."
After the tall maid finished speaking, she spat out the door.
The short maid said, "That's right. In the past, Guangfu and Cuixiang relied on their power to act arrogantly in this palace. I heard that their expenses even exceeded those of the princess. I don't know where they got the nerve."
"She usually looks gentle and kind, with an innocent appearance, but she can only pretend in front of the prince. If she were really that harmless, she wouldn't go to the princess's courtyard every now and then to pretend to faint, causing the prince to wrongly accuse the princess and causing the princess to be beaten. The princess was really heartbroken, which is why she wanted to leave the Yun Prince's Mansion."
After the tall maid finished speaking, knocking and crying sounded again from outside the door.
"Get out of here! The prince won't see you, and we won't let you in. Just give up on that idea."
After the tall maid finished cursing at the door, she left with the short maid.
Seeing the two maids leave, Cuixiang quickly put down the chamber pot, went to the back door, and opened the bolt. There she saw Shen Qianqian sitting on the ground, wiping away her tears sadly.
"Concubine~"
"Cuixiang?"
The two, who were once master and servant and held such high positions in the Yunwang Mansion, found themselves in a state of utter disarray upon meeting again, embracing each other and weeping bitterly.
After crying for a while, seeing many people outside looking at them, Cuixiang finally led Shen Qianqian into the Yunwang Mansion.
Cuixiang cried, "Consort, where did they take you? How did you get back?"
Shen Qianqian also cried, "They sent me to a courtyard on South Gate Street, which is also the prince's private property."
"How do they treat the concubines?" Cuixiang asked.
It turns out that on the day Mu Jin divorced her husband, Shen Qianqian was sent out of the mansion by the servants of the Yun Prince's mansion.
It was only because Su Yuntian hadn't specified where he was going that the servants, seeing how much Su Yuntian used to dote on Shen Qianqian, were unsure whether Su Yuntian's act of sending Shen Qianqian away was just an act in front of Mu Jin.
Therefore, the servants did not dare to send Shen Qianqian to a place that was too far or too bad, but instead arranged for her to stay in a house on Nanmen Street.
These past two days, the servants haven't treated her badly, but compared to before, they've been much more negligent, only providing her with three meals a day and nothing more.
Shen Qianqian begged the servants to let her out of the house. She wanted to go back to the Yunwang Mansion to find Su Yuntian. She didn't believe that Su Yuntian was so heartless as to abandon their friendship of more than ten years. However, the servants were watching her closely, and she couldn't leave the mansion.
In order to lower the guard of the servants, Shen Qianqian pretended to accept her fate and stopped crying and making a fuss in front of them for the past two days. As a result, the servants relaxed their watch on her a little.
Last night, while the servants were asleep, Shen Qianqian secretly left the house and headed towards the Yun Prince's Mansion.
When she arrived at the Yun Prince's mansion in the morning, she was chased out by the guards. She thought that since there was no one guarding the back gate, she could knock on the door and see if she could run into some greedy servants who would give her some silver to let her into the mansion to see Su Yuntian. However, those servants who used to fawn over her not only refused to let her into the Yun Prince's mansion, but also hurled insults at her.
These past few days, the two of them have finally experienced the coldness of human relationships and the fickleness of the world. After talking for a while, they couldn't help but hug each other and cry again.
Cui Xiang wiped away Shen Qianqian's tears.
“Consort, you must cheer up. I don’t believe that the Prince doesn’t care about you. The Prince did that the other day just to show Mu Jin. After all, Mu Jin has a good reputation among the people of Dongyue because she cured the plague. At this critical moment, the Prince is keeping her around only to win the hearts of the people.”
Shen Qianqian nodded quickly: "I know, that's why I swallowed my pride and came back to the Prince's Mansion to see the Prince."
Cui Xiang combed Shen Qianqian's messy hair and used a towel to wipe the smudged makeup off her face.
"Come with me, and I'll find you a maid's outfit to change into. That way, no one will suspect anything, and you can go to Yunjing Courtyard."
Hearing Cuixiang say this, Shen Qianqian stopped crying and smiled.
Cuixiang helped Shen Qianqian change into a maid's dress, then carried a chamber pot by herself, head down, and walked towards Yunjing Courtyard. When she reached the entrance, she was unexpectedly stopped by the guards.
"Stop! Didn't you just replace the toilet today? Why are you replacing it again now?"
Seeing the guards scolding them, Cuixiang was afraid that Shen Qianqian would be recognized by the guards, so she quickly stepped forward and stood in front of Shen Qianqian, who was bowing her head, and said with a smile.
"Brother guard, the toilet was delivered to the wrong place, so we've come here to replace it."
The guard who was blocking them sneered, "Cuixiang, this isn't our first day working at Yunjing Courtyard. Today, we'll pretend we've never seen you before. Go back to where you came from. There's no need to make things difficult for either of us."
Shen Qianqian and Cuixiang were both taken aback by the guard's words. Did that mean he recognized them? Cuixiang thought that there was no need to pretend anymore. She tossed her hair, took out a silver ingot from her bulging chest, and stuffed it into the guard's hand with affection.
“Brother Guard, since you have already recognized me and Consort Shen, you should know how much the Prince used to dote on Consort Shen. The Prince was only angry for a moment, and his anger should have subsided by now. When the Prince sees Consort Shen again, he will surely restore her former favor, and then Consort Shen will naturally receive your share of the benefits.”
The guard worked at Yunjing Courtyard every day, and while he wasn't entirely familiar with Su Yuntian's current attitude towards Mu Jin and Shen Qianqian, he knew at least seven or eight tenths of it.
Now, Su Yuntian only wants to bring Mu Jin back to the Yunwang Mansion, and he cares about her every move, but he doesn't mention Shen Qianqian at all.
If Shen Qianqian really could regain her former favor simply by seeing Su Yuntian, as Cuixiang said, it would be utterly a fantasy.
The guard said impatiently, "Go, go, go! Stop talking nonsense. If you don't leave now and disturb the prince's rest, I won't be polite to you."
Seeing that the guard was so difficult to talk to, Cuixiang gave Shen Qianqian a wink, then grabbed the guard and shouted loudly.
"Consort, hurry inside and find the Prince."
Startled by Cui Xiang's shout, Shen Qianqian paused for a moment before realizing the meaning behind Shen Qianqian's earlier glance. She immediately mustered all her strength and ran into Yun Jing Courtyard, shouting loudly.
"Your Highness, where are you? Qianqian has come back to find you."
Seeing Shen Qianqian run into Yun Jing Courtyard, the guard panicked and turned to the servants inside, saying, "Stop her, don't let her go in and disturb the Prince."
After the guard finished speaking, he turned around, kicked Cui Xiang away, and ran into Yun Jing Courtyard to chase after Chen Qianqian.
Several servants stopped Shen Qianqian from crying and making a scene.
"Your Highness, it's me, Qianqian! Your Highness~" Shen Qianqian's pitiful cries echoed in Yunjing Courtyard.
As several servants dragged Shen Qianqian to the courtyard gate, the door of the main house creaked open, and everyone was stunned to see Su Yuntian walk out of the room.
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