Seeing the change in the expression on the Imperial Concubine's face, Concubine Chen obviously knew that the Imperial Concubine had remembered it, and snorted coldly: "The Empress is good to us, but as a human being, you can't forget your duty."
As soon as she finished speaking, the Queen's palace door opened and Si Yin walked out: "This servant greets all the ladies. Your Highness, please come in."
After she finished speaking, she led people in, and the Concubine Chen was the first to walk in. Everyone followed her in and saw the Queen sitting high up.
"Greetings to Her Majesty the Queen!"
The queen looked at the group of people kneeling below and couldn't help but smile: "Stand up."
Everyone stood up and sat in their respective seats. Because of the argument outside, no one dared to speak, which made the atmosphere a little awkward.
In fact, the Queen knew what happened outside just now, but she didn't care. She looked at everyone and smiled: "Why is it so quiet today?"
Concubine Chen glanced at the Queen and suddenly stood up: "Queen, I have something to say. Please ask each of us to come and pay our respects at the beginning of the morning at the hour of Mao every day."
"But the Imperial Concubine only comes at noon every day. She is always late when she comes to pay respects. This is disrespectful to the Empress!"
When the Queen heard this, she just looked at the Imperial Concubine and said, "I wonder if the Imperial Concubine has anything to explain about this? Speaking of which, I can't just listen to the Imperial Concubine's words."
The imperial concubine looked at the queen, speechless. In fact, on the first day, she also arrived at the beginning of the morning hour, but every time the queen opened the door, she let people in.
It was always during the Mao hour, and sometimes even at the beginning of the Chen hour. But the queen was the queen, and it was up to her to open the door whenever she pleased, and the concubines could not say anything.
So now the Imperial Concubine is really speechless. But the Concubine Chen snorted coldly: "Your Majesty, it's not just me who says that. What time does the Imperial Concubine die every day?"
"Not only me, but all of you sisters have seen it. If the Queen doesn't believe it, you can ask."
As she spoke, Concubine Chen's eyes swept over the concubines and then fell on Imperial Concubine. She felt a chill in her heart. She couldn't do anything to the Emperor, but she could still cause trouble for the Emperor's favorites.
She was wrong before and thought she could win the emperor's heart, but now the emperor treated her so badly, Concubine Chen was really angry.
Anyway, the worst that can happen is that she will be out of favor. With the Empress Dowager and the Ren family around, the Emperor can't do anything to her. Now he has to start making trouble for the Imperial Concubine every day.
She looked at the imperial concubine provocatively, and the queen was very puzzled. She didn't understand what the concubine was thinking, why did she confront the imperial concubine? Although she was outside the palace, because of the matter of entering the palace.
The two of them were also unhappy, but after so long, why did Concubine Chen suddenly explode? The Queen also glanced at the concubines: "Who of you can tell me, what's going on?"
The Queen originally thought that since the Imperial Concubine was powerful in the palace and favored by the Emperor, these concubines would at least be cautious. But who knew that after the Queen asked this question, more concubines would speak up.
"Your Majesty, I can testify that what Your Majesty said is true!"
"Your Majesty, I can also testify..."
"I can testify..."
After going around, there was no concubine who hadn't spoken. Even the nobles spoke. The corners of the Queen's mouth twitched.
How much do these people hate this imperial concubine? The imperial concubine was also frightened, always feeling that today was a conspiracy against her, and she knelt down directly.
"Please forgive me, Queen, I didn't mean to be late..."
Before she could finish her words, Concubine Chen spoke up: "Oh, you didn't come late on purpose? I remember that the Empress's palace and the Imperial Concubine's Qinghe Palace are very close."
"Every day, I only leave for half an hour, and then it's over. Or is it that something is delaying the Imperial Concubine every day? How come I don't know that the Imperial Concubine is so busy?"
At this moment, the imperial concubine really wanted to bite the concubine to death. She hadn't figured out why the concubine had turned into a mad dog today all morning!
The Queen was helpless when she saw this: "My Royal Concubine, it's not that I don't understand you, but as the master of this harem, I cannot let anyone look down on me like this!"
"Since you don't take me seriously, I will be sorry if I don't do something. So, your disrespect to me is not punishable by death."
"I will bring this up with the Emperor. I will make you Consort Wan and place you under house arrest for a month. During this period, you will have to copy Buddhist scriptures. In addition, I will also add the female precepts, which I will recite three hundred times!"
Concubine Chen smiled and looked at the Empress: "Your Majesty is wise. For such a serious crime, you only gave Concubine Wan such a small punishment. Concubine Wan doesn't even want to thank you!"
The imperial concubine felt so sick in her heart. She was changed from an imperial concubine with a title to an imperial concubine, and now she has become a concubine. If she doesn't do something about it, she will definitely be beaten to death!
What was most infuriating was that even though I was the one being punished, I still had to express my gratitude and kneel on the ground: "Thank you, Queen, for your mercy!"
The Queen raised her eyebrows: "Okay, if there's nothing else, let's go. I'm tired too!"
Everyone left one by one. As soon as they went out, they saw Concubine Chen waiting on the side. Seeing Concubine Wan coming out, she laughed and said, "Your Majesty, wait a moment!"
"Oh, I'm afraid this title of mine is a little inappropriate. You are no longer a noble concubine, but a concubine like me."
"Wan Fei, it sounds nice, really nice, much nicer than Gui Fei's."
Concubine Wan was really angry this time. She looked at Concubine Chen with gritted teeth and said, "I don't know how I have offended Concubine Chen that you treat me like this?"
The concubine smiled, revealing her white teeth: "Angry? Are you angry? Actually, you didn't offend me, but the emperor embarrassed me, and I will embarrass you too."
Concubine Wan was so angry that she almost died: "You are totally unreasonable. The emperor embarrassed you. What does this have to do with me?"
The concubine smiled and said, "It has nothing to do with you, but I feel uncomfortable when I see the emperor treats you so well. If I feel uncomfortable, you can forget about feeling comfortable either."
After saying that, he laughed and strode away. Concubine Wan was so angry at this point that she couldn't say anything. She was still gloating over other people's misfortune last night, but now she was really about to die of anger.
Seeing those concubines still watching the joke, he shouted angrily: "What are you looking at?"
Concubine Han couldn't stand Concubine Wan's arrogance, so she retorted, "Oh, Concubine Wan's temper is getting worse."
"What's the matter? Can't I even look at you now?"
Concubine Liu also smiled: "Sister Wan Fei, as your elder sister, I'm giving you a piece of advice. Don't be too arrogant. Otherwise, the result will be that everyone will push you down when you fall."
The two of them left talking and laughing. Concubine Wan looked at these two women who dared to treat her like this. Her chest kept heaving, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
Lianzi was startled: "My Lady, My Lady, are you okay?"
At this time, Lady Yu came over and looked at Lianzi. "You palace maid, the master has fainted, and you haven't taken her back to see the imperial physician. What are you calling me here?"
"If you disturb the Queen later, the punishment will be even more severe."
After she finished speaking, Lady Yu left. Lady Zhen followed her and said, "You have good intentions. Why are you reminding her? For someone so arrogant, it's okay to punish her more severely."
Lianzi was very angry with these two beauties, but at this moment, he thought what they said was right, so he carried Concubine Wan onto the sedan chair and then carried her back to the palace.
Lianzi asked someone to invite the imperial physician, and then asked someone to tell the emperor the news, while she stayed by Concubine Wan's side. Concubine Wan's position was demoted again and again.
It has become the biggest joke in the palace. After the queen made this decision, she wrote the imperial edict and handed it to Si Xia: "Si Xia, wait until the morning court is over."
"Take it to the emperor and have him stamp it with the imperial seal."
Si Xia bowed, and the imperial decree said, "I understand."
After he finished speaking, he took the imperial edict out. When he came to the front, the morning court session had just ended. Si Xia had no intention of hiding it, so he went in directly with the imperial edict.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. This is the imperial edict sent by the Empress. Please affix your imperial seal. This is the imperial edict from the Imperial Concubine who was disrespectful to the Empress and was labeled as Concubine Wan."
One sentence explained what happened today. The emperor blinked his eyes. Why did the queen suddenly attack the imperial concubine? Well, Concubine Wan, it still sounds good.
After Eunuch Xiang took the imperial edict, he gave it directly to the emperor. The emperor just read the content once and found it was the same as what Si Xia said, so he stamped it directly.
Looking at Eunuch Xiang, he said, "Go ahead and deliver it to Concubine Wan."
Si Xia and Eunuch Xiang looked at each other and had the same thought in their minds: He changed his words so quickly! But this had nothing to do with them.
The two of them took the imperial edict and prepared to announce it, but then a maid from Concubine Wan's palace came. Eunuch Xiang looked at the maid and asked curiously, "Do you want to see the emperor?"
The maid was also bold and spoke directly: "I want to see the emperor. Our imperial concubine has fainted from anger. Please make the decision, His Majesty!"
The emperor also heard it inside and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. It seemed that he had never noticed it before. The harem was managed by the queen, but any maid in Concubine Wan's palace dared to come to see him.
She dared to seek justice. Could it be that she wanted to say that the queen bullied her? Before the emperor's eye makeup, everything about Concubine Wan was good, but after revealing Concubine Wan's true face.
Of course, the Queen thought everything was good, so she hated Concubine Wan more and more. But when the Emperor thought about the person behind Concubine Wan, he decided that he couldn't slap the Queen in the face.
"Eunuch Xiang, what's going on outside? Who dares to make a noise here?"
When Eunuch Xiang heard what the emperor said, he immediately understood: "Come here, drag her away. If she is still arguing with the emperor, hand her over to the empress and deal with her according to palace rules."
After saying this, Eunuch Xiang and Si Xia left as the palace maids looked horrified.