"The Wu family is a famous family after all. How could Yi Wanrong be so ignorant of the rules? Being disrespectful in front of the emperor is a serious crime. Even if the emperor loves Yi Wanrong, he shouldn't be so partial to her. If everyone in the palace follows suit in the future, won't there be chaos?"
Of course the Empress Dowager did not like Yi Wanrong. It could even be said that apart from her niece, no other woman should be favored in the harem.
Wu has been favored by the Empress Dowager since she entered the palace. Her cousin also snatched the opportunity of the Empress Dowager's nephew to go to Gunzhou to make meritorious deeds. How could the Empress Dowager not dislike her
It is a great taboo for a king to lose his integrity due to his favor. Today, the Queen Mother said in front of all the officials that Ning Chen should not protect Wu because of his favor. If Ning Chen does not punish Wu, firstly, he will be criticized and people will think he is incompetent. Secondly, he will be disobeying the Queen Mother and be unfilial.
Ning Chen's face immediately turned dark when the Queen Mother pressed him like that, and even Ye Jun couldn't stand it anymore.
As an iron army ally with one foot on the emperor's side, it is natural to take action when the time is right.
"Queen Dowager, calm down. The Emperor hasn't said that he won't punish Yi Wanrong, but we have to first clarify the right and wrong of this matter. Otherwise, if the Emperor punishes Yi Wanrong like this, wouldn't that be unreasonable?"
The girl stood up, bowed politely, and spoke in a calm tone, easily helping Ning Chen out of the predicament.
Chu and Yang looked at her below and immediately broke into a sweat.
Although the two of them were more or less aware that she needed to stay close to the emperor and should step forward, if she did so now, she would offend the empress dowager.
"Oh? Lady Ye means that I am unreasonable?!" The Queen Mother raised her voice and looked over with anger in her eyes.
Everyone in the palace was shocked. The empress dowager had been scheming in the palace for many years, and her aura was enough to make people tremble with fear.
As for Ye Jun, he was naturally a little nervous, but he wasn't that scared either.
Just as he was about to speak, Ning Chen beat him to the punch.
"Your Majesty, you misunderstood. Lady Ye is always considerate and worried that I would have a bad reputation, so she has been very thoughtful. Don't worry, Your Majesty, there is indeed a punishment for being disrespectful in front of the emperor. However, Yi Wanrong is ill after all, so let's punish her later."
When Ning Chen said this, his tone was a little cold and hard, which even choked the empress dowager.
Even Ye Jun, a concubine in the harem, considered him in everything, but the empress dowager, his mother, ignored his reputation and situation and forced him to deal with Yi Wanrong.
The comparison between the two makes the Queen Mother look extremely miserable.
Who can come to this palace for a banquet and be stupid? After a few visits, even a fool can see that the empress dowager and the emperor are not on good terms.
Moreover, this time the Queen Mother stood up against the Emperor and ended up being defeated, which was truly shameful.
Seeing that the Queen Mother was at a loss, the Duke of England who was sitting below frowned.
"Your Majesty, I think that the Empress Dowager is only concerned about the rules and regulations of the harem, and that's why she hasn't considered it thoroughly. After all, if the harem is not stable, how can Your Majesty focus on government affairs? The Empress Dowager is also a loving mother!"
"Yes, yes, I am just sentimental at the moment." The Queen Mother also hurriedly followed.
Ning Chen narrowed his eyes, a faint smile appeared on his face, and he rolled up his sleeves to personally pour a glass of fruit wine for the Queen Mother, "The Queen Mother cares about her son, and the son naturally understands."
Finally, he raised his glass and said to Ying Jung, "When I was young, my uncle always taught me. Now that I am older, I still need my uncle."
"I don't deserve it. I just hope to serve the emperor at his side and do my best to serve him!"
The Duke of England immediately stood up, raised his glass, drank it all in one gulp, and hid the gleam in his eyes.
After this little episode, everyone had seen enough of the emperor and the empress dowager and their son arm wrestling, so they didn't dare to do it again.
Yi Wanrong did not return to the banquet. She only sent Yunxiu, a personal maid, to apologize, saying that her menstrual period had come suddenly and soiled her clothes, and asked the emperor and the empress dowager to punish her.
Ning Chen took advantage of the situation and confined her to her room for a month.
Not being able to sleep with the emperor for a month is naturally a severe punishment, but if the queen mother had allowed it just now, she would probably have to be demoted.
In comparison, house arrest is better.
After the banquet, Ning Chen naturally went to the Queen's Palace.
But this time he made the excuse that he was drunk, and did not personally escort the empress dowager back to the Cining Palace, but asked Huai'an to go instead.
The difference between a servant delivering the gift and the emperor delivering the gift himself is self-evident.
On the other side, Ye Jun returned to Yuxiu Pavilion and quickly took off her hairpins and rings and changed into casual clothes.
"Hurry up and take some money to the kitchen and order some chicken noodle soup. The banquet was so formal that I didn't even have enough to eat."
Nan Zhi took the silver and was about to leave, but was stopped by Bai Zhu.
"It's dark outside, how can you go there yourself, sister? I'll go."
"That's fine. Just walk faster, but watch the road carefully to avoid falling or bumping into anything at night."
Now that Baizhu was doing his job properly, Nanzhi felt relieved to leave it to him.
But I never thought that I would actually encounter some strange things when I went there.
Bai Zhu said this when he came back. He saw Zizhu, who was beside Fang Cairen, also went to get food. This was not surprising, after all, it was normal not to eat enough at a dinner.
But what was strange was that he vaguely saw that what Zizhu stuffed into the kitchen manager's pocket was a gold ingot.
"Are you sure you didn't see it wrong?" Huiyue asked in disbelief.
After all, gold ingots are not used for rewards casually. A reward of ten taels of silver from one's own beauty can make the kitchen full of laughter.
Bai Zhu frowned and nodded, "I think they are not wrong. When I went there, my footsteps were light, so they didn't notice it, so I saw some of it. The color should be correct."
"This is interesting. Even if they wanted to give a reward, they wouldn't be so generous. It's more like..." Ye Jun paused.
Nan Zhi's eyes widened and she blurted out "Bribe!"
After he finished speaking, he quickly covered his mouth, looking very flustered.
Bai Zhu did not attend the dinner today, so he naturally did not know what happened at the banquet, but he knew that Yi Wanrong was confined to her house for misbehaving in front of the emperor.
If these two things are linked together, it can really cause quite a stir.
"Okay, don't let anyone else know about this for now. It's enough for me to know about it." Ye Jun said lightly.
Just a gold ingot like this is indeed not enough to prove anything.
What if someone just wants to win over a person from the kitchen to serve him well? That's not unreasonable.
On this side, Ye Jun ate some chicken noodle soup and fell asleep soundly.
But inside Yingyan Pavilion, Yi Wanrong was so angry that she smashed several sets of tea sets.
She concluded that someone had harmed her because of what happened today.
She had started to pay attention to her diet several days before the Double Ninth Festival banquet. She was fine during the day and nothing happened. But at the banquet...
Although she said it was menstrual fluid, only those who served her closely knew whether it was menstrual fluid or not.
By this time she had already gone to the toilet five or six times and felt exhausted, but she was too embarrassed to call the imperial physician, so she could only hold the teacup and drink more water.
I was really angry.
Huatangxiugeshuo
I have no saved drafts, and I have to work overtime. It's really hard to keep updating.