Mrs. Fengyang followed the palace maid and came to the main hall.
She and the Queen Mother were somewhat distant cousins and had been quite close in the past. If it had not been for her niece, she would not have been in such a hurry to submit a note to the palace. Fortunately, the Queen Mother still remembered their old friendship and approved her note as soon as she submitted it.
She couldn't wait for this matter, and there was nothing she could do even if she was so anxious to see the Queen.
The Empress was sitting high up in the hall. When she saw Lady Fengyang coming in, she smiled faintly. After Lady Fengyang performed the greetings, she said, "No need to greet me. Come and sit down. How come you have time to come and see me today?"
"Please, Queen... help me." Madam Fengyang bowed deeply on the ground and refused to get up. Instead, her eyes turned red at the Queen's words and she spoke in a choked voice.
"What happened?" The smile on the Empress' face slowly faded. As soon as she saw the look on Lady Fengyang's face, she knew something had happened. In the past, when Lady Fengyang came to the palace, she was very tactful and would say things to make the Empress happy and amuse her. This was also the reason why the Empress thought highly of Lady Fengyang.
Otherwise, how could the Queen care about a distant relative whose whereabouts she didn't know
"Empress, it's about my niece. She just wants to die quickly!" Mrs. Fengyangbo came to the palace today to ask the Empress for help. She wiped her tears and said sadly.
The Queen Mother nodded. She actually knew about this matter. The wife of the Marquis of Fengyang often talked about this niece, repeatedly saying that she was pitiful, had always been in poor health, and was too gentle. She was worried that if she got married, she would be bullied by her husband's family.
From Xu Qinglu's mother's side, it seems that the Queen and Xu Qinglu are somewhat related.
Of course, that's also very far away.
But this did not stop the Queen Mother from wanting to take care of her. She had asked Lady Fengyang to bring Xu Qinglu into the palace before, and she praised her highly afterwards. If Xu Qinglu's health had not been so poor, which might have affected her future offspring, the Queen Mother would have wanted to send Xu Qinglu to the Eastern Palace.
It was impossible for her to be the principal wife, but it was possible to be a concubine. With the Empress behind her, the other concubines in the Eastern Palace would not dare to bully her.
But later she gave up the idea. On the one hand, Xu Qinglu's health was really poor. She heard from Lady Fengyang that if she entered the royal family with her health condition, she would be worried about being bullied by others, not to mention being afraid of being bullied by others. She might not live long. It would be better for her to marry into someone else's family and become the principal wife. With her own queen to look after her, no one would dare to do anything to her.
At least with the dignity of being the principal wife, she can stand firm in anything she does.
Pei Luoan listened to the Queen Mother's idea at that time and rejected her opinion, saying that he had not officially married Ji Hanyue yet, and it would not be good to have a concubine at this time.
These two reasons made the queen give up the idea, but in her heart, she still felt that Xu Qinglu was a good person, but it was a pity that she seemed to be a beauty with a tragic fate.
Because Xu Qinglu was in poor health and rarely went out, few people knew that the Queen Mother valued her. Only around the end of the year, if she was still in good health, she would follow Lady Fengyangbo into the palace to kowtow to the Queen Mother, and nothing else happened.
"What happened to Qinglu?" The Queen frowned.
He frowned, his face darkening.
"Your Majesty, Minister Qu's family is forcing Qinglu to come in and become his concubine. Qinglu is unwilling and is now crying and wanting to commit suicide. I have no choice but to come to the palace and ask Your Majesty to make the decision."
Mrs. Fengyang wiped her tears with a handkerchief as she spoke.
"Minister Qu, he...how dare he!" The Queen was furious, thinking that Qu Zhizhen wanted to take Xu Qinglu as a concubine. She put the teacup in her hand heavily on the corner of the table and said sternly.
"Empress, it's not Minister Qu, it's the second son of Minister Qu's mansion, the one who sounded very talented before. I wonder if you have heard of him, Empress?"
Mrs. Fengyang explained hurriedly.
If this happened in the past, the Queen Mother might not be aware of it. Qu Zhizhen was just a minister at that time, and the Queen Mother did not pay much attention to him. At most, she heard from someone that Qu Zhizhen had only one son. But recently, there have been a lot of troubles in the Qu Mansion, and now there is a Princess of England. How could the Queen Mother not pay attention to it
"Is it the child of Princess Ying's half-brother, the Yu who killed Princess Ying's mother?" As soon as the Queen heard what Lady Fengyang said, she knew who she was talking about, but she still asked.
"Yes, that's the one." Mrs. Fengyang nodded repeatedly.
"He has taken a fancy to Qinglu and wants to take her as his concubine? Isn't he... just a bastard now? How can he be so brave to do such a thing? Doesn't Marquis Fengyang care about this?" The Queen Mother glanced at Marquis Fengyang's wife and asked back.
The Earl of Fengyang is a lord with real power, which is naturally different from the ordinary powerless lords. The son of the Earl of Fengyang is also very capable and is holding an office at this time, which is considered to be quite impressive among the lords.
The son of Qu Zhizhen used to be a legitimate son, but later it came to light that his biological mother had killed the biological mother of Princess Ying. He and the one from Prince Jing's mansion both became illegitimate children. The Queen Mother did not think that such a illegitimate son would dare to snatch someone from Marquis Fengyang's mansion, and wanted to bring Marquis Fengyang's wife's niece in as a concubine.
It's true that Qu Zhizhen is a Shangshu, but according to the emperor, he has not yet secured the position. But we have to see how capable he is in the future. Among the Shangshu, his qualifications are the lowest. How this position will turn out in the future depends on the emperor's wishes. In this case, Qu Zhizhen should not help his son do such a thing, right
In the past, the Queen Mother had also met Qu Zhizhen and thought he was a cautious person.
"Queen, in fact, this matter is not the fault of the second master Qu. Someone plotted against him and Qinglu, forcing Qinglu to be a concubine, and she will always be a lowly concubine, not the main wife." Mrs. Fengyang thought of Xu Qinglu who almost fainted from crying in the mansion, and her eyes became red again. "Qinglu was so depressed that she thought about committing suicide to prove her innocence, but was persuaded by me to stop. This matter... I ask the Queen to make the decision."
"Tell me, what exactly is going on here?" After the Queen pondered over it, she realized that Lady Fengyangbo was talking about something else.
When Lady Fengyang heard the question, she told him everything in detail. Of course, this so-called story was only her one-sided account after listening to Xu Qinglu's explanation.
According to her, the engagement that Qu Mingcheng had made was forced upon him by Yu, and he actually never liked it. Therefore, although the two families were engaged, they seldom visited each other and basically did not communicate with each other. Yu originally thought that her son would finally agree. After waiting for so many years, her son
Still unwilling.
She just wanted to cancel this marriage, after all, it was not a good one. Later, Yu asked for divination, and the divination also said that the two people's horoscopes were not compatible. It was probably because the girl paid money that they said the two people's horoscopes were compatible and that they were a match made in heaven. No matter how vicious Yu was, she had to consider her son.
He told the girl about the cancellation of the engagement, and she agreed. However, before he could officially announce it to his relatives, Yu's affair became public, and no one cared about it anymore after that.
In this matter, the mothers of both parties agreed to cancel the engagement. Later, when Qu Mingcheng became a bastard, their family backed away from them. However, the old lady, who was unaware of the situation, thought that the girl had become estranged from her family, and she specially invited the girl to come over to meet and talk.
Unfortunately, the marriage ended in a bad mood. The reason was naturally that the two families were incompatible. The woman wanted to make the Qu family famous and the marriage was cancelled.
It was at this time that Qu Mingcheng met Xu Qinglu by chance. Once when Xu Qinglu was traveling, his carriage broke down. Qu Mingcheng passed by and helped, but both of them were very polite and only exchanged a few words. After that, they met twice from a distance at other people's banquets. Xu Qinglu was very well-behaved both times, bowing from a distance and avoiding him from a distance.
Xu Qinglu had no idea that this incident would turn out like this. She went out of the city to relax and then returned. She was hit by someone at the city gate. She went to the clinic nearby for treatment. Coincidentally, she met Qu Mingcheng again. The two were talking. Xu Qinglu was hit and felt dizzy. After saying a few words, she could not hold on and was about to fall down. Qu Mingcheng helped her up.
But just like that, the door of the clinic was kicked open, and the young lady from the family that Qu Mingcheng had been engaged to came in and said that Qu Mingcheng wanted to kill her in order to be with Xu Qinglu. She also said that there was something ambiguous in the words the two had just said, and she reported the second son of Qu to the government, and the matter became a big deal...
Although the woman later sat down to explain the situation and dropped the case, the damage had already been done and it was inevitable that the Qu family and the other party would cancel the engagement. In fact, it was just a missing procedure. The woman knew a lot of things and didn't want to bear the responsibility of canceling the engagement, otherwise it wouldn't have made such a big fuss.
“Empress, it’s fine if they don’t want to, and they don’t like the illegitimate son of the Second Young Master Qu. But why do they have to drag Qinglu into their daughter’s affairs? She is a pure and innocent girl, but now people are saying that she and the Second Young Master Qu had an ambiguous relationship before, saying that the two of them… the two of them said something very unpleasant… The Qu family is blaming Qinglu for the whole thing, saying that such an unchaste daughter cannot enter their Qu family openly, and if she goes there, she will be a concubine, and she will be a concubine forever.”
Lady Fengyangbo felt heartbroken when she thought of Xu Qinglu. This was the child she raised as her daughter, how could she bear to see her become a concubine? In the past, Xu Qinglu had repeatedly hinted to her that he wanted to be the main wife and not a concubine.
"Empress, please save this poor child. She is really innocent. The marriage contract between the Qu family and that place has been cancelled long ago. Now they are using it to discredit Qinglu. They are just taking advantage of Qinglu's weakness and lack of support to suppress her."
The wife of Marquis Fengyang kowtowed twice on the blue bricks, tears streaming down her face.
"This is really too much!"