"You said that Empress Dowager herself spoke to the Emperor, wanting to release Du Wanxiu" Su Jing sat up from her nap on the Xiangfei couch, still drowsy, and quickly got up after hearing Dai Man's voice. Latest chapter full text

  Su Jing rubbed her forehead, "What's the reason?"

  "It's said that Empress Dowager personally went to ask for Du Changjin, and the Empress Dowager was moved by the deep sisterly love between Du Changjin and her sisters. Later, she personally went to the Zichen Hall and took charge of promoting Du Changjin's position, now she is already a noble lady."

  Su Jing stood up, "What a deep sisterly love."

  Du Wan was originally not at fault, the only problem was that she was young and vigorous, which touched the brow of Shu Gui Fei. The mistake lay in the Emperor wanting to establish prestige for Shu Gui Fei, openly favoring her, and then Du Wan happened to be so unlucky as to become a scapegoat.

  But after being locked up for so long, even if she was released now, it was thanks to her younger half-sister. As soon as she came out, her younger half-sister had just been promoted, not too much or too little, just enough to suppress her.

  If Su Jinglian were her, she would rather stay in Zhujian Garden for a lifetime.

  Perilla frutescens garden

  Du Wan was indeed very resentful, upon learning the news that the Emperor had pardoned her punishment, at first she foolishly thought that the Emperor had remembered her and specially released her.

  Until her younger sister, with a big belly, walked over with a flirtatious and coquettish attitude, after a lot of teasing and ridicule, she endured it all. Only later did she tell her that it was she who personally begged the Empress Dowager, and the Empress Dowager pleaded with the Emperor, all because of her own doing.

  How can she swallow this tone?

  But she couldn't do anything, even when her half-sister stood in front of her, holding her belly and looking down on her with a superior attitude. She hated her so much that she wanted to kill her, but the months of confinement had already worn away her spirit.

  For her mother who was struggling to make ends meet at Du's house, she couldn't either.

  Personally threw away the things brought by the concubine-born sister, took a glance at the palace maid beside her, "Let's go and thank her."

  Ignoring the disdain of the palace maid, Du Wanxiu tidied herself up a bit before walking out.

  Cining Palace

  "Empress Dowager, Du Cairen requests an audience," Liu Moumou walked in and said after the Empress Dowager finished reciting a scripture.

  The Empress Dowager closed her eyes and fingered her Buddhist rosary, "Du Cairen"

  "Dou Cairen is actually the elder sister of Dou Guiren. Earlier, it was Empress Dowager and the Emperor who begged for mercy that she was released. This is a Buddhist scripture she specially copied to thank Empress Dowager for her kindness."

  The empress dowager's lips moved silently for a moment before she said softly, "Let her go back."

  Liu Momo responded with a sound, walked out, "Du Cairen has a kind heart, please go back, the Empress Dowager is reciting scriptures and it's not convenient to see people."

  "Understood, thank you, Mother," Du Yuanyan said, finishing her words and kowtowing three times in front of the small Buddhist shrine where the Empress Dowager was reciting sutras.

  Liu did not stop her, but a hint of appreciation appeared in his eyes, "Du Cai Ren returned earlier, and the struggle for imperial favor would not be in vain for Empress Dowager's efforts."

  The Empress was still in seclusion, and Consort Shu had ruthlessly replaced a batch of palace servants with her own people. The Emperor showed no signs of dissatisfaction, so naturally the lower-ranking officials did not dare to raise any objections.

  Most of the concubines who were affected were older and more experienced, having spent many years in the palace and accumulating a great deal of hidden power. They had all suffered losses to some extent. As for Su Jing, being new to the palace, she was naturally not affected much.

  Every day, I don't have to ask for peace, eat when I should eat, drink when I should drink, and the days are spent very comfortably. Of course, except that after she returned to the palace, there were nearly ten days when I didn't see the emperor, with a subtle sign of losing favor.

  Su Jingxi actually didn't worry too much, even after that night, the two of them hadn't been alone together, but after the Emperor returned to the palace, he only summoned Shu Gui Fei and no other consorts.

  Having fallen out of favor, what's the point of talking?

  It was the day when the Queen's confinement period was over and also the day for resuming paying respects.

  Kunning Palace

  "Concubines pay respects to Her Majesty the Empress, may Her Majesty be forever safe and prosperous," Su Jing walked in and performed a grand ceremony.

  According to the rules, imperial consorts and empresses would not see each other due to certain reasons, and a grand ceremony was required. However, this was just a rule, and whether or not to follow it depended on personal preference. People like Su Jingchu who gave face to the empress were rare.

  The queen's complexion indeed looked much better, "Quickly get up, Consort Chen, no need for excessive courtesy."

  "Concubine Xie," Su Jing found her own seat and sat down.

  It was just a previous courtesy call, Ning Xueying was still sitting below her, now once again she is above her, indeed the fortune has turned around.

  "Dear sister, it's been a long time," Ning Xuan Ying raised her teacup and said politely.

  Su Jing thought that even if she wasn't the most beautiful, she had a unique charm. The English air about her was something those women who were raised in seclusion didn't have, making her stand out among the crowd.

  But when did she become no different from them? Picking up sour plums and eating vinegar, these are all done with ease, without even furrowing her brow.

  "It's been a long time," Su Jing said lightly, and if they were to really compare their ranks, she had a title too, also fourth rank, it wasn't certain who was the older or younger sister.

  But she never wanted to bother with these things anyway.

  "It's been a long time since you've seen your sister and the emperor, hasn't it?" Ning Xueying asked with a hint of concern.

  Su Jing did not respond, but it was clear that she saw the ridicule in her eyes. Although the Emperor had only stayed in Chonghua Palace for a few days, he had gone to her Mengyu Hall twice at noon to have lunch with her. As a result, the other concubines in the harem did not dare to openly mock her again for the time being.

  But Su Jingxian was thinking that she really had a good father.

  The concubines came in one by one, after all, the empress was still the empress. As long as she had not been deposed, no matter how big a mistake she made, it could only be punished by the emperor himself, and had nothing to do with these small concubines.

  "Sister, you've come quite early today. It's not even time for morning greetings yet," the Empress said with a hint of acidity as she saw Consort Shu enter and pay her respects.

  Consort Shu actually didn't come too late, it's just that they thought this was the Empress's first courtesy visit after being released from her confinement, and couldn't help but look for excuses, so some of them came a little earlier. As a result, Consort Shu arrived at her usual time, which made her seem somewhat late.

  "Yesterday, the Emperor stayed in Chonghua Palace, and today my sister got up a bit late. Originally, the Emperor had excused me from paying respects, but I was thinking about it and remembered that the Empress Dowager had not allowed my sisters to pay respects for a long time. I also missed all of you sisters and wanted to come chat with you, but unexpectedly, this delay made me late. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

  The queen's face turned pale, then she smiled as if nothing had happened. "Look at what Shu sister said, I am the queen, how can I care about these things? You can come to pay your respects, and I'm very pleased."

  "The Empress is the mother of the country, so she naturally wouldn't bother with these trivial matters. Speaking of which, I have another matter to report to Your Majesty, but I don't know if you truly won't mind, Consort Shu said, adjusting her sleeve guards as if careless."

  The empress was choked by a single sentence, with anger in her heart, but not showing it on her face. This was the first time she had asked for an audience after being released from her banishment. If she couldn't establish her authority today, she feared that as empress, she would have no power in the palace and wouldn't be able to command respect from others.

  "Although Shu said it was nothing, thinking about it, it wasn't a big deal. As the sister of the noble consort, there were some things that even if she did them, her heart would naturally know what was important and what wasn't."

  Shu Gui Fei turned her head, glanced at the Empress, and hooked the corner of her mouth. "Indeed, as Your Majesty said, it's not a big deal. I mentioned it to the Emperor yesterday, and he agreed too."

  The queen furrowed her delicate eyebrows, secretly guessing what was going on, and remained silent.

  The Empress Shu did not mince words and said, "A few days ago, some slaves were disrespectful to their superiors and didn't put me in their eyes. I was so angry that I had them all sent to the Department of Punishment."

  "Empress Shu took charge of all the affairs in the six palaces, and sometimes it was necessary to establish her authority. The Empress thought that these were just trivial matters, but she had also heard about them before. Although she knew that her palace powers had been handed over, she would inevitably lose many people's support, which was an unavoidable situation."

  Shu Gui Fei stood up and curtsied, "Your Majesty the Empress is magnanimous and does not hold it against me. I am grateful for Your Majesty's kindness."

  The queen listened more and more uncomfortable, intuitively feeling that she had not finished speaking, only to be released from her ban this morning, although she also knew some things about the events in the palace, but they were not comprehensive. After thinking deeply, she couldn't help but follow her words, "Just say what you have to say."

  "The eunuch Huang Gonggong of the Imperial Palace was also sent to the Department of Punishment by me."

  "The queen's face changed suddenly, but it was only for a moment. Her hand clenched into a fist and she smiled faintly, 'I wonder why Huang Gonggong offended Sister Shu.'"

  Consort Shu seemed to be unaware of the change in Empress's expression, "This is not what I wanted to get rid of a few slaves, but that eunuch Huang insisted on not doing so, I was angry at the time and acted arbitrarily."

  "Which of you slaves?" The empress had already guessed something, but still asked with a lingering doubt.

  The Empress Shu picked up her teacup and took a sip, "Your Majesty's tea here is really good, it's been a long time since I've had such a nice cup of tea, I've been thinking about it all the time."

  Seeing the queen's tense expression, she smiled and said, "It's just a few slaves, after all. I'll say it out loud, but Your Majesty might not even know about it. Why bother disturbing your peace with these people? Anyway, they're all dead now."

  The queen was furious, but she noticed that there were still many concubines secretly paying attention to the movements of the two of them. She knew that at this time, even if she was angry, her words had already been spoken earlier, and she could no longer use the emperor to suppress her, nor could she really do anything to her.

  "Shu's sister said that disobedient slaves never live long."

  Su Jing sat on the side, quietly listening to their conversation, from the beginning of poking each other's weaknesses, almost every sentence was a sarcastic remark, until the queen completely lost her composure.

  Perhaps this is the real Shu Gui Fei, who didn't hold back and spoke out at the greeting ceremony today in order to crush the Empress's arrogance and establish her own authority.

  The queen is not convincing as a queen, let alone talking about being an empress.

  Maybe this is just the first step, and there will be more exciting things to come in the future.

  Palace Concubine (Yi) / 33 / 33265

  Gong Shu