"Just get up if I tell you to."
Yang Wan leaned in He Yu's arms and urged him.
Deng Ying was startled by her urging, and hurriedly thanked her and stood up, "Yes, Your Highness, I thank you."
After saying this, she turned sideways and bowed to Concubine Ning again, "I still have factory duties to attend to, so I will take my leave first."
"Director Deng, please stay."
Deng Ying stood up and asked, "Does the queen have any other instructions?"
Concubine Ning nodded at him, then bent down and said to Yi Lang, "Help your aunt in first, and mother will follow in a while."
"yes."
Yi Lang responded respectfully and gently took Yang Wan's hand, "Aunt, let's go in."
Yang Wan held Yi Lang's hand and walked while looking back at Concubine Ning.
She probably guessed what Concubine Ning wanted to ask Deng Ying, but Concubine Ning never turned her head to look at her.
Deng Ying watched Yang Wan walk behind the screen, then retracted her gaze and bowed to Concubine Ning. "Your Majesty, I have something to ask you."
Concubine Ning stepped aside on the steps and said, "There are people coming and going here. Director Deng, please let me take a step."
"yes."
Deng Ying followed Concubine Ning into the front hall of Chengqian Palace. At this time, there was no one else in the front hall except the two of them.
Concubine Ning closed the door herself, turned around and said to him, "Director, please take a seat."
"I dare not, Madam, speak frankly."
Concubine Ning turned sideways, and the shadow on the brocade window gradually moved to her face. She was even whiter than Yang Wansheng, and the gray-brown shadow of the leaves on her skin looked like dried blood scabs. She folded her hands in front of her abdomen, took two steps closer to Deng Ying, bent her knees and knelt in front of Deng Ying, and bowed down to kowtow.
Deng Ying quickly knelt down and held Concubine Ning's arm, "Your Majesty, please."
Concubine Ning raised her head and said, "I know this is against palace rules and will embarrass you, but what I am doing today is already giving my entire life and property to you. Please listen to me."
Deng Ying tried to help her up, "Let me help you stand up."
Concubine Ning shook her head, slowly pulled her arm out of Deng Ying's hand, and looked up at Deng Ying.
"I am very grateful that you saved Wan'er. I understand that Zheng Yuejia will not survive... Although I am not as smart as Wan'er, I am not a stupid person. Don't worry, I don't have excessive expectations of the factory supervisor, and I dare not make any unreasonable requests to Your Majesty. I just want... if possible, can you let me see him one last time."
Deng Ying lowered her head. "I will take him to the inner East Factory for custody tomorrow, but for the sake of the queen and the prince, I will not let you see him."
Concubine Ning said, "Just one time. I want to say something to him."
Deng Ying was silent for a moment, still shaking his head.
"Even if it's like this, it's still good to the queen."
"good… "
Concubine Ning's eyes darkened, she coughed and sighed, then knelt down and looked at the shadow on the ground with a pale face.
"Just pretend that I... never mentioned this."
Deng Ying knelt down and kowtowed, "I apologize to the queen."
Concubine Ning looked at Deng Ying's back and shook her head gently. "Xiao and Wan'er have done their best. They haven't let anyone down. It's just that I am the one who survived and I am happy. But..."
She looked towards the window and said, "I really can't let you, my brother and Yi Lang take any risks."
Deng Ying stood up and said, "Don't worry, Madam. I will forget what you said to me today when I leave."
Concubine Ning pursed her lips and smiled, "You don't have to forget it. Zheng Yuejia and I have kept this matter in our hearts for almost ten years. I haven't told anyone except Wan'er. As for Yuejia, I don't know if he has mentioned it to me."
Deng Ying shook her head.
Concubine Ning sighed, "Yes... At the beginning, only He Yixian knew that he entered the palace for me. Ten years have passed..."
Her voice choked up, "Director Deng, I told you this because I hope you can understand Wan'er's thoughts. You don't want to be like Yuejia, who can't talk to me and never understands what I'm thinking."
As she spoke, she raised the back of her hand and pressed the corner of her eye, saying with a melancholy voice: "I liked him when I was young, collected his calligraphy and read his poems. Later, when I was older, I met him and knew that he was a very good and decent man. If my father had sent me to the palace, my relationship with him might have ended up like today. But until now, I have not regretted it. We have been looking at each other in the palace for ten years. Although I have never said a word to him, as long as I see him, I feel that I can live a very peaceful life and not think about your majesty's attitude towards me, and not get entangled with other concubines. I never think that liking Yue Jia is a shame. If only I am punished, I really want to tell the world what is in my heart. I want to be his dignity, but it is a sin he imposed on himself, but I did it..."
She paused here, her fingers clenched on her knees, "So, I hope he regrets, regrets suffering so much for me, regrets ending up like this because of me. If there is an afterlife, I beg him to explain his happiness in this life to the King of Hell, cross the Naihe Bridge carefully, drink Mengpo soup, and forget about me completely in the next life."
Deng Ying looked at Concubine Ning's face. She was very similar to Yang Wan. She didn't like to cry. Her eyes would turn red when she was sad, but she would always hold back her tears. But her words were always sadder than Yang Wan's.
Deng Ying lowered her eyes and said softly, "I will help the Majesty to see him."
Concubine Ning was stunned.
"May I?"
"Yes. Tomorrow at noon, the guards of the East Factory will take him into the palace, through the Dong'an Gate, then through the Donghua Gate, and past the Wenhua Hall. The little prince will be lectured in the Wenhua Hall. Your Majesty can stand on the west side of the Wenhua Hall to take a look at him and talk to him. He has injuries on his body, so he will walk too fast, but the guards cannot stop. Please don't blame me, Your Majesty."
"Okay... Thank you."
As she spoke, Gu Dengying tried to stop her and she bowed to him.
Deng Ying helped her stand up, stepped back and bowed, saying, "I hope your Majesty will not show grief in front of His Majesty no matter what. The clearing of land in the south has not yet ended. You are on the verge of life and death. Please take care of yourself, your Majesty."
Concubine Ning held back her tears and nodded.
Deng Ying couldn't bear to face her any longer, so she walked out.
**
Concubine Ning stood alone in front of the door, looking up to calm herself down for a while, then walked towards the back hall.
In the bedroom of the back hall, Yang Wan had just taken medicine, and He Yu was feeding her a bowl of porridge. Yi Lang was sitting on a stool, reading a book.
Concubine Ning rubbed her swollen eyes and tried to make her voice sound more natural, "What is Yi Lang doing?"
Yang Wan gently pushed the bowl of porridge away from He Yu's hand, "It was quite painful after applying the medicine. Your Highness took the book "Dream Shadow" and read it to me."
Concubine Ning took the bowl of porridge from He Yu and sat next to Yang Wan.
"I didn't protect you well. You should rest and recover these few days, and I will take care of you."
Yang Wan hurriedly said, "My queen, you can't stay with me all the time, you need to go see His Majesty."
Concubine Ning put down her bowl of porridge and said, "How can I meet you..."
As she spoke, she lowered her eyes and looked at the rice crust on the edge of the porridge bowl. "What can I say if I see it?"
"Nothing to say, just spend a day or two with His Majesty."
"For the future?"
"… "
Yang Wan was speechless.
Concubine Ning glanced at Yi Lang beside her, motioned He Yu to take him out to eat something, and then whispered to Yang Wan: "If it was your sister, could you do it?"
Yang Wan's heart was stabbed by these words, and she hurriedly held Concubine Ning's hand and said, "I'm sorry, sister, I'm too self-righteous. I shouldn't have said such a thing. I..."
Concubine Ning pinched her hand and said, "Don't move, don't move, you might get hurt."
"I'm in pain."
"Why… "
Concubine Ning sighed softly, "I am doing this for my sister's own good. I understand, but humans are not plants or trees. We all have places where we cannot bear to go."
As she spoke, she touched Yang Wan's cheek and said, "Can you promise me one thing?"
"You say."
Concubine Ning moved her legs and sat closer to Yang Wan, so that the shadow of the bed curtain would fall on her and wrap her whole body.
"Although our Yang family has my brother in the cabinet, His Majesty is wary of relatives outside the family. Yi Lang and my brother have rarely seen each other for so many years. I know my brother well. He has been upright all his life, and his body and mind are all for the court and the people. Even though Yi Lang is his relative, he only disciplines him as a prince. Although there are teachers, lecturers, and tutors in Wenhua Palace, who have always been dedicated to Yi Lang, they are foreign officials after all. They don't know the young son's cold and warm, and they don't see his tears. This child is worried that his teachers will be disappointed, and he is also worried that his father will not believe in him. Although he may say something, he actually lives a life better than ordinary children, and you don't know how much suffering he has..."
"What do you want to say, sister?"
Yang Wan interrupted her, "Yi Lang is your son, and you are the only one who can feel sorry for his suffering."
Concubine Ning shook her head and said, "Yes, of course."
"I can... Sister, I can."
As she swayed, she pulled the wound and gasped in pain, but she paid no attention to anything else and grabbed Concubine Ning's sleeve.
"I can't bear it. He is the prince of the Ming Dynasty, and I am just a... no... sister. I am nothing."
Concubine Ning hugged Yang Wan and said, "Don't be afraid, Wan'er. I'm not imagining things. I'm just afraid that His Majesty will be suspicious and resentful, and I'll implicate Yi Lang and others."
Yang Wan shook her head and said, "Let him bear grudge if he wants, but my sister must live!"
"Wan'er, be careful with your words."
Yang Wan did not respond to her, and continued in a raised voice: "He is just a man. If a man hates a woman, let him hate her. He is the one who is tossing and turning, and he is the one who is at peace. Sister will live peacefully with us, and she doesn't care what he does!"
"Wan'er!"
After saying this, Yang Wan was a little out of breath, and her chest felt stuffy and painful, making her feel a little dizzy.
She knew how absurd and outrageous these words sounded in this era, but she said them to Concubine Ning, even though she knew that ideas that had been separated by hundreds of years could not really penetrate Concubine Ning's heart. Moreover, that man was just a man. The emperor's "grudge" could build a cage and a pair of shackles to lock this weak woman in front of him for life.
"elder sister… "
"Um."
Yang Wan hugged Concubine Ning's waist and said, "I promise you, no matter what, I will take good care of Your Highness, but you must promise me to live a good life and not think so much. One day, we will be able to walk out of here."