"If you can't even do this, how can you serve the Emperor!" The Queen Mother said in a low voice, "Go and pour me a cup of tea, Concubine De, you come and apply the medicine to me."
Ye Jun held his breath, got up and went outside to pour tea.
The concubine Wende, who was being ordered around, did not look very good either. She took the ointment and applied it to the empress dowager.
To put it bluntly, no one wants to serve this old woman.
In fact, the empress dowager is only in her forties. She entered the palace to serve the late emperor at the age of seventeen, gave birth to Ning Chen at the age of twenty, and is only forty-three now.
She has taken good care of herself and her skin is still delicate. Judging from her appearance alone, she is still a woman with charm.
But in recent years, the empress dowager's temper has become worse and worse. She is always full of resentment and dislikes everyone. Gradually, she has become somewhat sarcastic and mean.
It looks like someone you don't want to get close to.
Ye Jun really couldn't imagine that Ning Chen could be born to such a woman. In fact, the mother and son had similar eyes and noses, but they were not alike in other places.
Judging from the way his personalities look, he probably looks more like the late emperor.
After calming down a little, Ye Jun took the tea and went into the inner room.
The Queen Mother took the teacup and wanted to find fault, but she didn't expect that Ye Jun poured a cup of warm tea, neither cold nor hot, just right for the taste, so she had to give up.
He took two sips and threw it away.
At this moment, the palace maid who was decocting medicine came in. On the tray was a bowl of black Chinese medicine and an eight-treasure box of candied fruits at the back.
Concubine Wende first scooped a spoonful of medicine into the small cup beside her, tested the temperature, and then picked up the medicine bowl, sat down beside the couch, and fed the empress dowager with a spoon.
Ye Jun watched from the side and thought, why not just drink the bowl in one gulp? Why did he have to drink it slowly and it tasted so bitter
But she would never say this. The empress dowager had been so malicious in finding fault with her just now. It would be better for her to suffer a little more so that the old lady would not be so energetic and jump up and down every day.
Perhaps the bitter medicine really made the empress dowager feel uncomfortable, and Ye Jun helped her eat two candied plums before she lay down.
But even when she was resting, she would not ask the two of them to go downstairs to rest, but instead rushed them all to the outer room to copy Buddhist scriptures.
It's a blessing, and it will make her feel better.
This copying took another hour and a half, and the Queen Mother fell asleep inside.
After all, I was injured and always felt a little tired.
When the two men outside had their wrists sore from copying, it was time for the Empress Dowager to have lunch, so they went in again to serve her.
It was inconvenient for the Empress Dowager to get out of bed, so the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs made a small wooden table for her to eat on the couch.
In the palace, people are sick and do not eat heavy food, so all the dishes served are bland, mostly steamed or boiled.
Obviously the Queen Mother doesn't like to eat these. She always likes to eat meat, and prefers spicy food.
I feel uncomfortable just looking at the steamed pork ribs with rice flour and boiled cabbage.
"How do the people in the kitchen cook? How can I eat something like this!" The Queen Mother picked up the chopsticks and poked the dish of stuffed tofu with minced chicken closest to her, very annoyed.
Fuzhi knelt down and advised, "Madam, the imperial physician has ordered that you cannot eat spicy food, otherwise it will be bad for your health. These dishes are also carefully prepared by the kitchen. For your health, you should at least eat some. After this month, you can add a little spicy flavor to your diet."
Concubine Wende also knelt down, and Ye Jun followed suit, but neither of them spoke.
Just looking at Concubine Wende's numb and indifferent expression, you can tell that this is not the first time the Queen Mother has made such a fuss.
Sure enough, the stalemate lasted for a stick of incense, and the Queen Mother still managed to hold back her anger and eat half a bowl of rice.
At this time, Fuzhi tactfully reminded them that the two concubines had not yet had their meal.
The Queen Mother glanced at the two of them and pointed at the table, saying, "I haven't even touched these dishes, it would be a shame to throw them away, so I'll give them to you. It will also save the kitchen from having to send them back. Go eat outside."
When things got to this point, Ye Jun felt terrible.
There was indeed a practice of rewarding dishes in the palace, but they were either re-prepared by the kitchen or not eaten yet.
Not to mention that the dish of stuffed tofu with minced chicken had been poked into a pulp, and the other dishes had also been mixed up, so there was indeed a lot left, but... I couldn't give it to the concubines.
What's more, Concubine Wende and Ye Jun have always been favored, so how could they eat such things
But the Queen Mother’s reward is a grace and cannot be refused.
It seems that they were deliberately unable to eat.
Fuzhi looked embarrassed and wanted to persuade the empress dowager. After all, these two were not ordinary concubines. What would be the benefit of offending them to death
But the Queen Mother didn't even look at her. She just closed her eyes and rested.
Concubine Wende looked as ugly as if she had eaten a fly, and Ye Jun's eyes were murderous, but they had no choice but to order people to take all the things on the table to the outer room and place them there.
Of course, I didn't eat anything.
However, Fuzhi asked someone to serve a few plates of snacks and two pots of good tea, which helped them fill their stomachs.
Ye Jun really couldn't understand. A month had passed like this, and no one had thought of a way to avoid tending to the sick
Of course there were some who came, but on the one hand, women nowadays are still bound by the filial piety between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and dare not not come no matter how unwilling they are, for fear of gossip. On the other hand, they also wanted the emperor to see how hard they were working to take care of him, so as to win some favor from the emperor.
However, these two things were not something Ye Yun was concerned about.
So, she doesn't suffer this injustice!
Finally it was night, and when the Queen Mother was having dinner, Fang Xiuyi was there to watch over her.
No wonder the empress dowager has such a bad temper. During the day, she is like a pair of vixens, and at night, she is the niece of her old enemy. Tsk tsk tsk tsk, how can she recover well
If it were someone else, they would probably get angry just by looking at it, and the illness would get worse.
At this time, even Ye Jun couldn't help but sigh that the Queen Mother was really powerful. She would rather suffer from anger and annoyance in order to punish someone she disliked.
After returning to Yuxiu Pavilion, Ye Jun said nothing and had dinner served first.
Only after eating about 50% full did I have the strength to speak.
"Call Luzhi in. I have something to ask her."
"Yes." Huiyue responded and went outside to look for someone.
Soon the two of them came into the house together.
Lu Zhi smiled and bowed, "Greetings to the Concubine, what does the Concubine want to see me about?"
"No need to be polite. Just tell me who has slept with the emperor the most in this month and who did the emperor go to sleep with." Ye Jun said.
"I knew the imperial concubine would ask, so I paid special attention." Lu Zhi chuckled and counted the number, "The emperor went to the harem ten times this month and summoned people to the Jiuchen Palace five times."
"I went to Fengqi Palace twice. One time was on the 15th and I stayed overnight. The second time was to have lunch and check on Yang Cairen's pregnancy. I went to Wendefei's place twice, once for lunch and once for dinner, but I didn't stay overnight. I went to Shufei's place once, and Zhang Cairen did sleep with me at night. I went to Wang Xiuyuan's place once, but I didn't stay overnight. I went to Yi Jieyu's place twice, Fang Xiuyi's place once, and I stayed overnight. And then I came here once."
"She was summoned to the Jiuchen Palace. She was Zhang Cairen once, Xia Meiren twice, Su Meiren once, and Zhou Cairen once."
After hearing the news, it is easy to tell that the concubines who served the emperor this month were all low-ranking concubines, and none of them were favored.
Ye Jun's eyes flashed, and he immediately sneered.
She asked why the empress asked so many people to serve the emperor when he was sick. It turned out that the favored ones were all busy, and the emperor had no way to call anyone to sleep with him, so wouldn't that be the responsibility of the lower classes
She really gained a reputation for being virtuous and also tortured those favored concubines.