This beautiful lady was trying to praise the fox for being beautiful, but she made the bad choice of using her wardrobe’s fur clothing as a comparison. Not all the consorts and concubines in the inner palace were people with deep schemes. There were also some sweet and naive ones mixed in.
The moment the little fox heard her talk about fur clothing, her fur rose on end and she barked sharply at the beautiful lady. Huo Qing glanced coldly at Beautiful Lady Lin, then stroked the little fox to comfort her. “Don’t worry, we’re here. No one would dare to do anything to you.”
When the consorts and concubines saw how gentle Huo Qing was being, they were all taken aback. They had never seen him like this. He was gentle enough to make a person’s heart melt, but this gentleness was actually directed towards an animal.
They were envious to the point their hearts itched.
After Huo Qing promised this, the little fox lifted her chin haughtily. However, she still felt angry, so she jumped onto Beautiful Lady Lin and used her claws to mess up her hair.
Beautiful Lady Lin shrieked, looking completely wretched. The little fox was delighted. Look, she was always pretending to be so lovely, but now her true nature was showing through. Humph, what a bad woman! She even wanted her fur! It was seriously malicious! And her goal was obvious, she just wanted to fight for favor!
The little fox lifted her claw and scratched Beautiful Lady Lin’s face. Several bloody lines immediately appeared on Beautiful Lady Lin’s face.
Beautiful Lady Lin fell to the ground in pain and covered her face, but blood streamed out through the gaps between her fingers. “My face! My face…”
Ning Shu stood up to call for an imperial physician, but Huo Qing spoke first. “Beautiful Lady Lin has displayed failure of etiquette in the palace and is demoted to the lateral courts.”
It was just a beautiful lady, so Huo Qing wasn’t concerned at all. If it had been the empress or a consort with a strong background, he definitely wouldn’t have done this.
He was punishing her as an example.
There were two reasons for this. First, he wanted Hu er to be at ease and know that there was no one in the palace that could hurt her. The other reason was to warn these women that this fox belonged to him and none of them were allowed to hurt Hu er.
The little fox walked to Huo Qing with her chin lifted haughtily. Her actions counted as enforcing justice on behalf of the Heavens. She knew that this beautiful lady actually had a very bad temper in private. She had seen this beautiful lady beat and scream at a palace maid just because the maid made a little mistake.
It counted as retribution for her to be sent to the cold palace.
The little fox jumped into Huo Qing’s arms. Huo Qing poked her pink nose with a sigh. “You little thing.” The doting affection in his voice was obvious.
Ning Shu: …
Huo Qing was seriously willing to do anything just to win a smile from the beauty. When she saw how smug the little fox was, she felt like she was seeing the literal meaning of the fox exploits the tiger’s might.
Beautiful Lady Lin was stunned. Her face was ruined, and now she was to be sent to the cold palace? She only snapped out of her senses when the guards came to take her. She shrieked fearfully, “Your Majesty! Your Majesty! This subject concubine is innocent! This subject concubine has made a mistake, but please have mercy…”
Beautiful Lady Lin was dragged off, her face covered with blood. The sight was so shocking that everyone felt uneasy. They felt no happiness at the fact that there was one less person to compete with. Instead, they felt sympathy for her.
She had fallen to this due to an animal. It was absurd.
