After all this, the Qixi Festival banquet could not go on. The eunuchs checked the number of people brought into the palace by madams and ladies one by one, and the number of people for the time being. But in the end, they found nothing. When they entered the palace, there was a definite number of people of each family, and only the mandated women brought a few maids close to them.
Those maids had been serving their master all the time, and none of them left.
The guards of each manor scattered at the gate of the palace. There were guards in the palace, so none of the outside guards was allowed to enter the palace.
Apart from these two kinds of possibilities, Ma Er might be brought in under the order of the master in the palace, but there was no result. This ruffian named Ma Er seemed to have suddenly appeared in the palace and rushed into the banquet. The eunuch, who was the last one to saw him, also said that he saw the man in the aisle. At that time, the man said he wanted to see a young lady.
What happened today was rather mysterious. First, it was a maid appearing in the palace when no one brought her in. Then, it was a man who should not have appeared here showed up in the palace. The two of them had died in the end. Besides, nothing was found out. It made one feel as if someone had done something in the dark.
“It seems that this matter has to be investigated. Otherwise, no one would be convinced and His Majesty would not understand.”
The eunuch’s words gave the Empress a new idea, so she asked maids to check the young ladies again, but still, they did not find any clues.
So this matter came to a standstill. Before the Empress could find out the truth, the Emperor sent someone over to end the banquet. Then everyone left, and the Empress was called to the Qianqing Palace. The Emperor didn’t even allow her to enter the palace and asked her to kneel outside the door. The imperial servants of the Empress’ palace could only kneel with her.
As the situation had escalated to this point, everyone felt a sense of danger. No one knew if they were the next person to die. Normally Yan Miao was the Empress’ most favored lead palace maid, but before she told about the truth, she had died with Ma Er. Thus, no one dared to speak more. Even though a large group of people had knelt outside the Qianqing Palace, it was completely silent.
In the Qianqing Palace, the bronze cauldron, which was carved into the shape of a vengeful lion whose head was held high, exuded the aura of a sovereign ruling over the world. There was a bead inside its big mouth, making it seem sinister and domineering.
The Emperor sat on a rosewood chair, his face gloomy. Although he looked calm, Consort Zhao, who was familiar with his personality, knew that he was in a rage at this time.
Since she knelt in the study, Consort Zhao didn’t dare to say anything and looked at the Emperor with tears in her eyes. The Emperor threw a cold glance at her and said with a sneer, “I still didn’t know you had stretched your hand so long. You have something to do with Lian An. I haven’t known for so many years that even the maids in Lian’s Manor are similar to you. He even sent the selling indenture to the palace. What did you want to do? Did you try to plot against Old Eight?”
“Your Majesty, how, how could you say that? How, how could I do something like that? King Xuan is the only child that my elder sister left behind. He is related to me by blood. How would I do something like that? When I entered the palace, my elder sister told me about Minister Lian. She only said the He family had done Minister Lian a favor, and so I could ask him for help if I got into trouble.”
“But even having been in the palace for so many years, I have never troubled Minister Lian. I don’t understand why the maids in his manor are like me and my elder sister. That indenture has nothing to do with me. Your Majesty, someone wants to frame me.”
Consort Zhao knew what the problem was, but she pretended to be confused. Her act was flawless. She had been kneeling for a long time, but since she was already prepared, she did not panic. She looked at Emperor Zongwen and tears rolled down her long lashes. She looked even more pitiful.
“Oh, is someone trying to frame you? Why did they send the selling indenture to you? This dead maid escaped from Lian’s Manor to King Xuan’s Manor. Consort Xuan kindly took them in, so how could she let them enter the palace to harm the people in the palace? She even deliberately brought up the matter of Consort Chu. With her poor body, it’s possible that Consort Xuan was framed by others. How could she scheme against others?”
Emperor Zongwen’s tone was grave. It sounded so heavy, like the air before a storm. The aura in the entire study was so heavy that it was nearly difficult for one to breathe.
“Your Majesty, I really don’t know about this. I have been living in the imperial harem and just come out of the Mingyue Palace. For so many years, no one has come to see me. Although the He family is my closest relative, they have been indifferent to me for so many years. So how could I have so much affection for them? In my heart, they can’t compare with King Xuan.”
Consort Zhao’s tears rolled down her pale cheeks one by one as she spoke. They were like pearls and crushed jade. Coupled with her beautiful features, it made Emperor Zongwen heartbroken especially when she looked like the person he cared for.
“Your Majesty, the He family has something to do with Minister Lian, but what does this have to do with me? Could it be that I have schemed against King Xuan, so what’s the benefit of me? My sister has passed away and I only want to guard King Xuan and live. In my heart, he is just like my child. As a mother, how could I scheme against my child?”
She cried more and more sadly as she spoke. She looked so weak that she couldn’t even breathe.
“So you really don’t know what happened to that maid?” Emperor Zongwen’s expression softened when he thought of Consort Xian and looked at Consort Zhao’s crying face.
“I really don’t know about it. If the selling indenture was from Minister Lian’s Manor, why did Minister Lian send it to the palace? Did he send the maid to me? But there is everything in the palace. How could I lack some servants? And he sent it secretly. It is clear that he wants to frame me. I feel very wronged. I don’t know who hates me and wants to deal with me.”
Consort Zhao knew that her cries had taken effect, so she continued weeping.
She still had not figured out what was going on. The maid named Ming Xia was naturally brought in by her man. She originally planned to ask the palace maid called Fei Huan to pour watermelon juice onto Mo Xuetong’s clothes. Then Ling Rui’er would definitely push the blame onto her and get her to kneel down and beg for forgiveness.
No matter if Mo Xuetong had punished her or not, the maid had to die. After the eunuch who was dead now and Ming Xia killed her, Ming Xia would take the fall for the crime. The whole thing would be bent—the maid made the watermelon juice spill on Mo Xuetong’s clothes, and thus Mo Xuetong tried to get back at her and killed her.
Ming Xia’s appearance attracted everyone’s attention to King Xuan’s Manor. The two maids from Lian’s Manor had long wanted to go to King Xuan’s Manor. Then, the series of events that happened in Lian’s Manor might have been caused by King Xuan or Consort Xuan. They were also here to exact revenge on He Yufen for harming Mo Xuetong. And Lian An had only been implicated.
If everyone’s attention was drawn here, the Emperor would definitely regain Lian An’s position. And if Mo Xuetong killed people one after another and caused trouble, she would definitely be punished by the Emperor.
But who would have thought that things would change one after another? Right now, Consort Zhao didn’t care about Lian An anymore. She only wanted to extricate herself from this matter. Moreover, if she said more about Lian An, it would inevitably arouse the suspicion of the Emperor. She had just shifted the blame on Consort Xian that Lian An’s maidservants looked like her.
What she meant was that Lian An had a relationship with the He family and so he must have seen Consort Xian before. Maybe he had been in love with Consort Xian for a long time. Therefore, he chose the maidservants looking like Consort Xian in his manor.
“I remember that the eunuch whose face had been cut was from your palace, right?” Even though her words made sense, Emperor Zongwen could not stop being angry and rebuked her harshly.
“That eunuch seems to be from my palace. I was brought here by Your Majesty’s people before I could see him clearly. I thought about it just now. If anyone wanted to harm me, they would definitely use the servant of my palace. Just like Her Majesty, the maid of her palace was also used by others. Even Her Majesty who has a high status was schemed against by someone, not to mention me, who had been living alone in the Mingyue Palace for more than 10 years.”
Consort Zhao had heard someone reported that something had happened to the Empress. It was said that it was the lead palace maid of the Empress, which made her words more convincing. Therefore, she didn’t argue that the eunuch was not from her palace. It was easy to find out whether he was actually from her palace or not with just a check.
At this time, the way she defended for the Empress was, in fact, just proving for herself. The maid of Lian’s Manor had come to the palace in a dubious way. There was also a man who had appeared unclearly in the Empress’ matter. Then her words sounded much more credible.
Emperor Zongwen had already started to believe what she claimed, but the Empress might be the real culprit behind the incident. It was not a secret that the Empress had been wanting King Yan to ascend the throne. So it was possible that she would frame her niece. As for Consort Zhao, she was King Xuan’s aunt, and she would suffer if King Xuan was in trouble. As such, she might not have something to do with the incident.
However, what did Lian An mean? Could it be that he had really chosen the maids who looked like Consort Xian because he had seen her? Emperor Zongwen felt as uncomfortable as if he had swallowed a fly when he thought of that. Consort Xian was his favorite woman. How could he allow his subject to have maids who looked like the one he loved?
It seemed that the Emperor could not keep Lian An beside him anymore.
“From now on, watch out the people around you. If something like this happens again, I can’t protect you either. Besides, Old Eight would deal with the affairs in his manor by himself, so don’t send people to his house for no reason. Are your nieces of the He family closer to him than you are? I’m not allowed to hear the news that a girl of the He family is going to marry into the royal family.”
Emperor Zongwen began to calm down.
“Yes, got it. I only care about King Xuan. After all, he is the only child of elder sister. Since the He family had tried to plot against Consort Xuan, I had never treated them as relatives. Elder sister and I had done good for the He family, but the He family had done something so shameless. In the future, even if I don’t have relatives of the parents’ home, I don’t want these vicious people.”
Consort Zhao was good at playing the trick of sobbing. First, she mentioned that she and Consort Xian were one; then, she said that she would rather abandon her family to protect Feng Yuran. All of this was for Feng Yuran. No matter how cold and hard one’s heart was, it would become soft. Furthermore, Emperor Zongwen had been missing Consort Xian for so many years.
However, as the Emperor, Emperor Zongwen was more suspicious than others. Moreover, the person in front of him was not the genuine Consort Xian. Even though Consort Zhao’s words were reasonable, there was still a trace of clarity in his eyes. His expression was dark. “Alright, off you go. You should stay in the Mingyue Palace and not come out.”
Was she going to be grounded in the Mingyue Palace again? Consort Zhao felt a chill in her heart, but she dared not to say anything more. She kowtowed respectfully and supported by a palace maid to leave with sorrow.
When they had just arrived at the door, a eunuch ran over and passed by her. He knelt down in the palace and reported, “Your Majesty, Imperial Noble Consort Wen asks to see you!”
