“Your family is really rich and powerful. I heard that the precious Buddha statue is only worth 300 taels of silver. But I don’t know that the ancient jade of thousands of years is only worth that. I also wonder if your family will have a guilty conscience. Dare to put this ancient Buddha statue stained with blood in front of divine Buddha, even pray for the Empress Dowager.”
In the imperial study room. Wearing a peevish expression on his face with the nerves jumping, Emperor Zongwen picked up the teacup on the table and smashed it fiercely at the feet of the Imperial Noble Consort Su. He snorted coldly.
The Imperial Noble Consort Su’s feet were stuck by several pieces of the broken jade-red porcelain Tang teacup, and the corner of her skirt became faintly red. Obviously, she got her skin pierced. But she had no eyes for her sharp pain, and just begged with a pale face and tears. “Your Majesty, please spare my family. It was all because I wanted to do good deeds in front of you, but I am too eager to succeed, that my family was so anxious to find such a psychic Buddha statue for me.”
“Psychic Buddha statue? If it did work, your family should be paid blood for blood!” Emperor Zongwen thundered.
“Your Majesty, please punish me and spare my brother. I beg you. My father only has such a son. Could you please spare him?” The Imperial Noble Consort Su was totally unconscious of the pains on her knees and stepped forward on her knees. She pulled Emperor Zongwen’s sleeve and cried.
She never thought that the thing was blown into such big trouble just for competing against the Empress. Now, the Imperial Noble Consort Su’s brother even committed murder for the Buddha statue. And it was reported to the Emperor. Thinking that her father only had a legitimate son whom the whole Su family would rely on to steer in the future, the Imperial Noble Consort Su screwed her face into an expression of pain and terror.
If Feng Yuxuan wanted to ascend to the throne in the future, it would largely depend on his mother’s family. Without strong support from the mother’s family, how could Feng Yuxuan stand out to win the throne? This thought wrenched her heart. She clenched her fists, and sharp nails pierced her palms. She looked anxiously at Liu Xi beside.
Since she had been in the palace for many years, Liu Xi respected her every time he saw her and did not forget to send gifts and presents to her at usual times.
Naturally, Liu Xi saw the appeal in her eyes. In fact, he got many good benefits from the Imperial Noble Consort Su at ordinary times. Feng Yuxuan was a refined and elegant person and never stingy about giving rewards, so he won warm support. So Liu Xi thought he could not turn a blind eye to the appeal. Then, he stepped up, served a new cup of tea to Emperor Zongwen and said, “Your Majesty, please calm down and have a cup of tea. It happened so suddenly. Her Highness made efforts to show her filial piety, but unexpectedly, her intention led to bad results.”
“Filial piety? Her filial piety is stained with others’ blood. How can the Empress Dowager be cured by her filial piety? I’m afraid it will cut short her normal span of life!” Emperor Zongwen said chilly with a gloomy look, and cast a glance at Liu Xi’s serving tea but did not take a sip.
Obviously, the Emperor had made up his mind to punish the Su family’s eldest son! So Liu Xi did not dare to say more and just stepped back and bowed his head down. Being in the palace for so many years, Liu Xi knew well who his master was indeed. Without the Emperor Zongwen’s trust, Liu Xi would be nothing in this palace, and why was the Imperial Noble Consort Su polite to him?
He had said the words he could. As for those he could not, he would not naturally cause trouble for himself.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, could you please look it up again? Look it up again? It was not my brother’s fault, but it was I who asked my brother to buy it. And we never forced…” Seeing Emperor Zongwen was still in a rage, the Imperial Noble Consort Su said quickly with a pale face. There was only one legitimate son in the Su family, and she only had a legitimate brother. How could she be hard-hearted to see her brother pay for life with life?
She cried and kowtowed unceasingly. Her white forehead thumped heavily on the blue-stone ground.
“Buy? This is a family heirloom passed on from ten generations. It has been blessed by several generations of senior monks and worshiped in the ancestral hall. It is the family’s treasure. So how much did your Su family spend buying it? It was claimed that over one million taels of silvers were needed to offer it. Your family is really wealthy. In such a condition, you dare to come to the family. Apparently, you do have an extremely large amount of money.” Emperor Zongwen gave a sudden sneer with a flash of coldness in his eyes.
The Imperial Noble Consort’s face became ghastly pale, and she could not help quivering. A chill soared up from the bottom of his heart and rushed to her limbs immediately. She was impotent as if being soaked in the ice. She fell on blue-stone ground feebly. Suddenly, she seemed to realize something from the mishap, and her lips trembled, about to speak.
But Emperor Zongwen looked at her and said coldly, “The lianghu disaster relief fund is said to be over one million tales of silver. But it disappeared without a trace. No official of lianghu could tell where the fund has gone. I remember your Su family in lianghu is a greatly influential family.”
The Emperor’s words cut her heart like a knife. The Imperial Noble Su could not tolerate any longer, as her face turned livid with blackness in front of her eyes. She fell backward involuntarily. The two palace maids kneeling behind hurried to support her and looked at Emperor Zongwen in fear, but did not dare to yell.
Emperor Zongwen took no notice at the weak the Imperial Noble Consort, but just turned to Liu Xi and said, “Pass the order that the three law divisions hear the case together. No leniency shall be shown in punishment. Dare to take advantage of the royal power to do such an illegal thing! It is to despise the dignity of the royal family. How did they think of the majesty of the royal family?”
“Yes, I will declare it.” Liu Xi bowed his head and answered respectfully.
The Imperial Noble Consort Su still felt weak in her own palace after being supported back from the Imperial Study Room. She looked paled and sat on the front of the couch. One of her hands held the desk besides, and the other smashed a beautiful vase into pieces.
The flowers in it suddenly withered, and the broken branches and porcelain badly marked a dark trace of water on the ground.
“Your Highness, please calm down. please.” The palace maids knelt down in fear and begged involuntarily.
“Get out, get out of here all!” The Imperial Noble Consort Su yelled sharply, as she looked ferocious without any tenderness on her beautiful face.
Several little palace maids stumbled up from the ground and scampered away the hall, not daring to take a look at her.
“Your Highness, please don’t get angry. The senior master may think about some methods.” Qiong’er, her close-fitting palace maid, held a cup of tea and put it in front of the Imperial Noble Consort Su. She patted the Imperial Noble Consort’s back and pacified. “No matter how angry you are, you should not hurt yourself. You still have His Highness, right?”
She was a close-fit maid brought by the Imperial Noble Consort Su from the Su family, so she dared to say something that others did not dare to say.
“Bitch, bitch…” The Imperial Noble Consort Su snarled in rage as she grabbed the corner of the desk and widened her eyes as large as a brass bell.
“Your Highness, no matter how angry you are, those people will be happy. So, please take care of yourself. Even if you don’t care about yourself, you should care about His Highness, King Chu. Right?” Qiong’er comforted, as she held a fragrant towel to softly wipe the Imperial Noble Consort Su’s face.
The fury on the Imperial Noble Consort Su’s face faded away, but a look of viciousness took on.
“If the Empress had not brought that Buddha statue and said those words, I would not have asked my father to find a more precious Buddha statue to steal her thunder. In fact, my brother was a person holding aloft from the affairs. So how could my father feel assured to leave that matter to my brother? Now, it was the crucial juncture for Xuan’er. No matter how unruly my brother was, it was impossible for him to provoke a murder case at this moment.
“And at last, even the formerly uproar case about the lianghu disaster relief fund was also involved in!”
As so many coincidences were present, if the Imperial Noble Consort Su still had not come to realize the truth, she did waste her life in the palace for more than two decades!
She was fooled! Fooled by the Empress!
Although she did not know who provoked her brother to do that, she was pretty sure that it must have something to do with the Empress.
A few days ago, King Yan was scolded by the Emperor. And the Empress was also upbraided due to the matter that a second consort was brought into the family ahead of the unseemly first consort. The Imperial Noble Consort Su only thought that the opportunity for Feng Yuxuan was coming, so she behaved more proudly. But the Empress forbore patiently and did not argue anything against her. So the Imperial Noble Consort Su thought the Empress finally confessed her fate. But out of her expectation, the Empress had dug a trap waiting for the Imperial Noble Consort Su to jump in.
“Qiong’er, you ask someone to send a message to my father and tell him to let my brother confess the crime.” She said as she gritted her teeth.
“Your Highness.” Qiong’er was shocked and put down the fragrant towel in a trance, not knowing what to do. She was a servant from the Su family and knew well how highly the Su family thought of the eldest son. The Su family had made great efforts cultivating him, and now, he also worked in an important department, laying a foundation for supporting King Chu in the future.
How could the Imperial Noble Consort Su give such an order at this time?
A life for a life! If confessing the crime, the eldest son of the Su family had no way but to pay his life for the crime!
“Your Highness, you are planning…” Qiong’er asked but ceased when feeling it inappropriate.
“The woman actually wanted to use my brother to harm Xuan’er and drag Xuan’er into the lianghu case. I will protect Xuan’er even at the cost of my brother’s life. Father still has some concubine’s sons. I believe that Father will understand me. You just have the words passed.” The Imperial Noble Consort Su said in a deeply sorrowful but firm voice.
Choosing Xuan’er instead of brother, the Imperial Noble Consort Su believed that her father would understand her tough decision. It was the Imperial Noble Consort Su herself who was too careless to be framed by the Empress. But fortunately, her Xuan’er still had chances. As long as her brother confessed the murder for the Buddha statue and the Emperor punished him, there was nothing to be investigated more. As for the so-called the lianghu disaster relief fund, it had little to do with Xuan’er.
Feng Yulei was reprimanded and confined as a punishment. If Xuan’er was also reprimanded, he would be confined at most. There was no conclusive evidence, and the brother confessed the crime, so the Emperor had no ground to conduct a thorough investigation to the Su family any longer.
And the impact would not spread too much!
At this point, the Imperial Noble Consort Su wanted nothing but let Feng Yuxuan keep out of the affair.
“Yes, I will as someone to send the message.” Qiong’er responded respectfully.
Having been serving the master for so long, Qiong’er was quite familiar with the Imperial Noble Consort Su’s consummate tactics and knew that the Emperor’s favorite concubine was good at pleasing the Emperor. Even if the Imperial Noble Consort was not young anymore, the Emperor still heaped his favor on her and came to the palace from time to time. To investigate the reasons, for one thing, the Imperial Noble Consort looked always ravishingly charming and beautiful; and King Chu was another reason.
Since the Imperial Noble Consort who could even read others’ minds suffered such a great setback, how was she willing to leave the matter at that easily?
“You go to the Buddha Hall and turn over the things in the Hall to the Imperial Noble Consort Wen. You just say I suddenly suffered a heart attack and fainted.” The Imperial Noble Consort Su gritted her teeth and called Qiong’er who was about to leave, and her face became atrocious. “Then, you go to the Empress Dowager’s Cining Palace and report that I was scolded by the Emperor and fainted in the Imperial Study Room. So I am now unable to host the praying ceremony. Please ask the Empress Dowager to forgive my impiety.”
Two explanations were made for one thing: one was for the rumors on the surface; the other was to incur the wrath between the two Palace.
It was known to all in the palace that the Empress Dowager believed in Buddhism. But now, the grand event to pray for the Empress Dowager had been interrupted, as the host had been changed temporarily and even a serious murder had been caused. As long as the Empress Dowager used her head, she could guess that it was all conspired by the Empress, which would inevitably stir up resent in the Empress Dowager’s heart.
The Imperial Noble Consort Su heard that the Empress and the Empress Dowager were at odds these days, which made Ding General Manor in a dilemma!
The Imperial Noble Consort Su could recognize her situation very well now, that was, she should act discreetly to seek survival in the whirlpool of the discord between the palaces.
“Yes, I will do it now.” Qiong’er replied in a low voice.
“If anyone of the Su family enters the palace, no matter who he is, he should be allowed to be in after getting the imperial permission.” The Imperial Noble Consort Su said calmly and firmly after some contemplation.
“How about the Old Sir and Madam?” Qiong’er asked hesitantly.
“No matter who will be treated equally!” The Imperial Nobel Consort Su clenched her teeth. She would no longer let the Empress find any chance to defame Xuan’er and thought that the pressing matter of the moment was to behave herself to turn over a new leaf so that she could arouse the Emperor’s pity…
