In the evening, Chunjia sent Yan Yin to Yanfu Palace to send a message to Empress Ji to deal with Concubine Zheng. The request was that this bad behavior of framing and slandering the concubine's innocence must be severely punished. At the same time, not a single word could be spread out and damage the royal family. Reputation: "Your Majesty is also thinking about the Empress Dowager."
Yan Yin followed Chunjia's wishes, stood in the Chongchang Palace, and said sternly, "After all, everyone knows that the True Concubine was one of the noble ladies personally ordered by the Empress Dowager, even though she was the Concubine Zhenxi. The recommendation was made by the Empress Dowager after many rounds of inspections, and was finally selected after the Empress Dowager personally checked. If the real concubine has time to spare, Your Majesty knows that the Empress Dowager, Concubine Zhenxi Shu, and the Empress are determined to You would not deliberately allow a lascivious woman to enter the palace as your concubine, but people in the world are ignorant, so what might they say?"
"At that time, if it reaches the ears of the Queen Mother, wouldn't it disturb the Queen Mother's rest even more?"
"If this is the case, the Queen will have a hard time with it, right?"
Empress Ji pursed her lips and said nothing. After a moment, she said calmly: "I know this. Go back and report to Your Majesty, and say that I will handle the matter for him."
Yan Yin knew that the queen looked calm now and was unsure of how to deal with the storm, so he did not hesitate and bowed his hands: "My slave, please leave."
He simply walked away.
Empress Ji quickly and neatly led people to Yanlan Palace.
Concubine Zheng was anxiously waiting for news from the Xuanqing Palace - no news had come out about Chun Jia from the time she entered the Xuanqing Palace - when she saw the little chamberlain running up in a hurry, she felt overjoyed, thinking that Huan The results of Flower Palace have come out.
The kind of good news that Yun Fenghuang is unlucky.
Unexpectedly, the little chamberlain fell on the ground and said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, the Queen is here!"
"Queen?" The imperial concubine was startled, her heart pounding a little, and she subconsciously pressed her chest and murmured, "Why did the queen come here?"
She didn't know the process, but she felt something was wrong.
Queen Ji had always been a reserved person and had never been to the palace of concubines.
Especially in the past few months, because Empress Dowager Yuan and Chun Jiaming were showing favoritism to Yun Fenghuang and wanted to take away the queen's power and give it to the true concubine, the queen acted even more low-key.
Even if you intend to unite with yourself, you didn't just come to your door like this
The imperial concubine's thoughts changed and she said: "Follow me to welcome the queen."
The two concubines met in the court, and their eyes just met. Concubine Zheng quickly bent her knees and saluted: "I..."
"Okay!" As soon as he opened his mouth, Empress Ji stopped her, "Come here, take down the Zheng family!"
"Empress?!" Concubine Zheng was startled. An incredible guess came to her mind, but she couldn't believe it. She subconsciously asked, "Empress, the real concubine..."
Queen Ji looked at her and yelled: "Shut up!"
Seeing that Concubine Zheng seemed dissatisfied and was about to say something, she sneered slightly, "Mr. Zheng is jealous of the concubine in front of her and disobeys Yizhi in the rear. Is this the family education of Mister Zheng?!"
At the mention of Mrs. Zheng, Concubine Zheng hesitated for a moment, let go of her resistance, and allowed the palace servants brought by the Queen to take her down. She took off a hairpin ring and jewelry on the spot, took off her gorgeous robe, and knelt down on the floor tiles. -After that, the servants of the middle palace searched Yanlan Palace almost inside and out, and finally found a few rough-made dolls with the names of Yun Fenghuang and other palace concubines written on them. , and naturally, the queen ordered: "Take all the Yanlan Palace, except Zhao Cairen!"
Zhao Cairen was of course an exception due to her pregnancy, so when the people in the middle palace acted, instead of making things difficult for her, they took good care of her.
After all, this mistress had been tricked by someone secretly when he was in the palace, and the road back was bumpy because he had to stay in bed for many days to ensure his pregnancy.
Just the day before, the imperial concubine invited the emperor to stay overnight on the grounds that she was pregnant and was not well.
With this in mind, Zhao Cairen's pregnancy must not be very stable.
If they are too heavy-handed and harsh in their tone, causing this person to have some disadvantages, even the Queen will definitely not be able to bear the consequences.
If he were an ordinary palace man, he would definitely die.
So he didn't dare to do anything to Zhao Cairen.
However, Zhao Cairen was still very frightened and asked to see the queen to intercede for the imperial concubine: "Your Majesty, the imperial concubine has always been dignified, virtuous, gentle and kind. How could she be so jealous of the real concubine that she even cursed the concubine? Is there any misunderstanding here? I believe that the imperial concubine is definitely not such a person... Please be aware of everything and make the imperial concubine innocent!"
Empress Ji was sitting in the main hall at this time, watching the people below searching for more "evidence", and glanced at her after hearing this.
Zhao Cairen entered the palace at the time of the emperor's wedding, so he was considered to be one year older than the queen. But now her body was bloated and her face was fatter. There were faint marks on her originally fair skin, and she looked as if she was a generation older than the queen.
"I heard that the imperial concubine doesn't like you very much, but I didn't expect you to speak up for her." The queen stared at her for a while, then looked back and said slowly, "You are quite honest."
"Your Majesty, I just feel that..." Zhao Cairen muttered. She was from a humble background. If she hadn't been lucky enough, she would have been completely wiped out in this huge palace.
When I was happy before, I lived a frivolous life.
However, the cold reception from the imperial concubine, and the fact that the empress dowager, the three empress dowagers, and the emperor all only cared about the emperor's heir and not her as a person, soon made her wake up and understand what a concubine of her level should do. attitude.
At this moment, his whole body was shivering and meek, and he stammered, "I feel... I feel that the imperial concubine is really not that kind of person."
"These are not things that a concubine like you can talk about." Empress Ji said in a cold voice, "Anyway, I'm afraid that your concubine won't be able to raise the child in your belly. While I'm free now, you can tell me what you want." Whose palace will I be assigned to?"
Zhao Cairen was a little at a loss. In fact, even if she had feelings for the imperial concubine, she was not worried about the imperial concubine. The main thing was that although the imperial concubine did not pay as much attention to her as Yun Fenghuang did to Yi Xingen, she was not deliberately harsh on her. she.
Moreover, the Yuzhen Palace where she was previously had no principal, and Concubine Zheng was the only principal she had ever gotten along with.
It's not like we're like sisters, but after a few months, we've gotten used to it.
The most important thing is that although Concubine Zheng is very distressed that her child has been secretly murdered, she cannot find the murderer. A concubine whose birth status is far inferior to hers, but she has been pregnant until now without any problems, but she also understands that she The favor is far away, and there must be an imperial heir under my knees.
Therefore, he was very generous with Zhao Cairen's food, clothing, housing and transportation. He also contacted Mrs. Zheng and took certain care of Zhao Cairen's natal family.
In this way, after this talented man received the news from his family, he regarded himself as a member of the imperial concubine.
As a result, the imperial concubine fell down as soon as she said she would. How could Zhao Cairen not be confused
At this moment, after listening to the queen's words, he opened his mouth. After all, he didn't have the courage to make a fuss. He just lowered his eyes and said: "The queen, the noble concubine, she..."
Empress Ji was too lazy to talk to her, and interrupted: "If you don't choose, I will choose for you - the imperial concubine has a very high status, second only to me in the palace. Now that she has done something wrong, your cherished The royal heir’s mother-in-law’s status cannot be too low…then she should be a true concubine.”
True concubine
Zhao Cairen was startled for a moment. He remembered that when the imperial concubine heard rumors about the true concubine's kindness to the people in the palace, he had also been envious of it. He also secretly thought, why was he not assigned to the Xuanqing Palace in the first place
As a result, there is really such an opportunity now
She was in a trance when a palace maid next to the queen spoke up and said, "My queen, is it inappropriate to be so afraid? The original mother-in-law of Zhao Cairen's child was one of the four concubines. There was a tacit understanding in the palace that the adoptive mother's status , you can only go from low to high, but the status of a true concubine is not as good as that of a noble concubine."
What the palace maid said is true. Although there is no express provision in the palace ban, the reality is that if an imperial heir determines the concubine to be raised, once something goes wrong with the concubine and cannot continue, the person who takes over must be in the position of Above the previous adoptive mother.
At least, it should be flush.
If they were direct heirs of the emperor, the only person qualified to raise them after the death of the Yuan Dynasty would be their successors.
If the emperor has not established a successor, but the heir is young and needs care, then it will be recorded as the emperor's personal education. It may be that the concubines are actually responsible for the education, but these concubines can only be regarded as helping at best.
Although the child in Zhao Cairen's belly has not yet been born, Empress Ji's insistence on breaking this rule is not completely untenable: "You are right. It's just that the imperial concubine's status in the palace is second only to mine." Palace, what should we do if we act like this?"
"How about... the empress works harder and raises the emperor's heir herself?"
"This is inappropriate. I am the Lord of the Sixth Palace, and it is unusual for me to raise an heir myself. This is a big matter, and I have not discussed it with my elders before. It is inappropriate."
"Your Majesty, the crime committed by the Imperial Concubine has happened now. I don't know what will happen in the future. Listening to His Majesty's tone, he might not even stay in Yanlan Palace. At this moment, everyone else in Yanlan Palace It's okay, Zhao Cairen is pregnant after all. If she doesn't arrange it properly, what if something happens to the emperor's heir? If she is placed with someone else, the status of the real concubine will not be as good as that of the noble concubine, let alone her current status. She is very busy, and the Yi Guiren under her is also pregnant, so how can she be so busy? The Ying Concubine has always wielded swords and guns, and she doesn't know how to take care of others; Wei Zhaorong and others below are not too young and don't know anything. , but the status is too low and inappropriate... In this case, besides the empress, Zhao Cairen and his wife, who else can we count on?"
As the palace maid spoke, she glared at Zhao Cairen fiercely and raised her voice slightly, "Zhao Cairen, what do you think? Besides the Queen, who else is suitable to take care of you two at this moment?"
Zhao Cairen opened his mouth, not knowing what to say
She just wanted to say that she thought it would be good to be a true concubine...
But it was so obvious that the Queen and her servants were singing in harmony, she... what else could she say
I could only suppress my fear and kowtow, and said in a low voice: "The Queen does not despise me, it is my honor."
... Because Chunjia stayed in Huaqing Palace until the next day, Yun Fenghuang waited until it was almost noon on the second day, and then he had time to inquire about what happened. Chen Zhu came up with an angry face to report, saying that Queen Ji was too shameless , actually cut off the emperor’s heir who should belong to the Xuanqing Palace!
This is not the point, because although the emperor's heir is precious, Yi Guiren in the Xuanqing Palace still has one in his belly.
What made Chen Zhu feel uneasy was: "Your Majesty, this Zhao Cairen was born in Yuzhen Palace. When she found out that she was pregnant, she was the first to report it to the Empress. If the Empress wanted to raise the emperor's heir herself at that time, she could have done that. It was brought up soon. But it was delayed until now to take the concubine to live in Yanfu Palace while the imperial concubine was in decline. It was really suspicious! There were rumors in the palace that this was because the child Zhao Cairen was carrying was a male heir! "
There is a high probability that our Yi Guiren is pregnant with a princess. If Zhao Cairen comes, he might get the living eldest prince!
How can you endure this situation? !
Seeing Xie Hengyu and others looking at each other expectantly, "Mother, let's go get Zhao Cairen back", Yun Fenghuang twitched the corner of his mouth and did not continue talking about Zhao Cairen, but asked: "Where is the noble concubine?" ?How is the imperial concubine doing now?"