“He did not want to create an image of being ruthless to the world. He asked you to wait for a bit longer, then the whole thing would come in its natural course,” Zhou Huailing said, embarrassed.
Honored Princess Jing was sad, but she also noticed the strange look on Zhou Huailing’s face.
The title of the Queen was important, but not as important as Huailing.
He was blaming himself for the failure, and Honored Princess Jing was worried that he would be too worried about what he had failed to do. Her son had never been entirely confident, because of her position in the court.
Honored Princess Jing said with a smile, “It is fine, that is not very important right now. I have been a Princess Jing for 22 years, and an Honored Princess for one year. I am not in a hurry. What your father has said makes sense. Huailing, you should pay more attention to the major thing, not such trivialities.”
Hearing her words, Zhou Huailing let out a sigh of relief, as he looked at Honored Princess Jing. “I got it, mother.”
Honored Princess Jing nodded and let out a sigh of relief.
Huailing was her only supporter right now. She did not want her son to hold a grudge against her.
The title of the Queen was not that important.
If Huailing made it to the throne, she was going to be the only Empress Dowager, which was far better than just a small Queen.
Zhou Huailing walked out after he was done passing on the message.
He was the heir, so he should not keep visiting his own mother.
That would make him look bad for outsiders.
Honored Princess Jing’s expression sank when Zhou Huailing was gone. She was not at all pleased.
She had been with the King for more than 20 years, and yet the King never cared about their long relationship. He even refused to offer her the position of Queen because of Jiang Shuang!
She felt quite annoyed.
Maybe the King did have some affection towards her when they were both young, but years had passed, and their affection was gone. Interests came before everything else.
“Honored Princess…” the auntie next to her said with worry.
“It is fine, don’t ever mention the position of the Queen again.” Honored Princess Jing stressed with a cold expression on her face.
***
At the Qianqing Palace.
The Empress Dowager came after Zhou Huailing was gone.
The King looked at his own mother with annoyance and said unhappily instead of getting up. “Mother, what is it?”
The Empress Dowager looked at the King.
She did not care about how he reacted to her arrival.
The King was not a young man any more, but he was still kind of childish, especially when it came to something he disliked.
She could tolerate that as his mother.
She had just heard how the heir came to mention about getting his mother the Queen title. The heir was just like his mother, dumb and slow, a kind-hearted one of course, but it could still annoy the King.
So she was not going to mention this matter any more.
The Empress Dowager said, “King, it is already March, and the summer is around the corner. We normally arrange some princesses to spend the summer away from the palace. We have recruited some new girls, and we have to set up a meeting like this. Do you have any plans for the summer holiday? Or should we build a new one?”
Summer holiday?
That sounded like a faraway thing.
The arrangement would normally start ten days before, but this year, it was a couple of months earlier.
“We have the town, don’t we? Summer holiday is such a small thing that we don’t have to make a fuss about it.” The King said impatiently.
“But the Queen died there. That doesn’t sound very auspicious.”