Ji's father and son's concerns were soon spread to the palace.
"Send it to Qing Ci Palace." The queen read the secret message in her hand and stuffed it into the gilt Suan Ni incense burner next to her. She watched it being burned away bit by bit, then used a gold pick to scatter the remaining ashes and turned around to give the order.
"Why are you panicking?" After a while, in the side hall of Qingci Palace, the Queen Mother slowly put down the tea bowl and said calmly, "The Ai family is in this palace, you are also in this palace, and Chunjia and his wife, aren't they here? In this palace? This palace and city is said to belong to the Gongxiang family, but since Emperor Shenzong’s later years, I, the Ji family, have been in charge of the family inside and out."
"The management of the past three dynasties, can Chunjia be able to erase all traces after just a few years of being in charge?"
"Now Chunjia is still staying in the palace calmly, why should we be afraid first?"
Empress Ji whispered: "My granddaughter-in-law is not afraid, but what happened last time with the Chao family shows that Chunjia has evil intentions for a long time! When he sent people to persuade the Chao family to bite back, he was still mediocre and inactive in front of us. Count the days. It has been almost ten years since he entered the palace. In the past ten years, our family has been quite relaxed. Who knows if he has left any behind-the-scenes tricks in Qingci Palace?"
The Empress Dowager thought for a while and said: "The people who serve the Ai family closely are all old people. Even the palace servants who have been replaced in the past two years have been thoroughly checked. Unexpectedly What's going to happen? Empress, you should be more careful. Yuan's wretched maid, I see that you are a thorn in my flesh every day... I might take the opportunity to take it out on you!"
"Please don't worry, Grandmother, my grandson will take care of it." The Queen said calmly, "And there seems to be a dispute between the Mother Queen Mother and the Holy Mother Queen Mother. The Mother Mother Queen Mother was ill before, and it was the Mother Queen Mother who did it. It's just that they wanted to hide it together. She was looking at Chunjia, but Chunjia thought it was us. At this moment, the Empress Dowager’s thoughts were probably all on Jiashan Palace, and maybe she was also looking at Xuanqing Palace, which had always had a good relationship with Jiashan Palace, but I don’t have much time to pay attention to my grandson-in-law.”
There was some regret in the eyes of the Queen Mother: "My negligence caused my family to fall into such a passive situation!"
The queen comforted her: "It's still unclear who will win from now on. No matter what happens, you are the Empress of Shenzong and the direct elder of the royal family!"
"When our family chose Chunjia, although we had some intentions of seizing power, we actually sincerely made peace with him." The Empress Dowager said with emotion, "Otherwise, how could we send the most outstanding legitimate daughter in the family to the palace as the queen? What a pity. Ah, you have not given birth to any children in these years. Otherwise, the position of crown prince has been decided long ago, would Chun Jia'an have the chance today?"
"It's all useless grandson-in-law." Empress Ji quickly left her seat and bowed down to apologize.
The Empress Dowager sighed and asked her to get up: "The Ai family doesn't mean to blame you. In fact, you are not to blame for this matter."
The queen whispered: "Although Chunjia went to the middle palace not too many times in the early days, it was not too few. Later, Yuan Niang's bitchy maid made troubles frequently, so in order to calm things down, he went to his grandson's daughter-in-law less. At that time, the granddaughter-in-law was self-reliant. She was also proud of her family status, and although she often looked good to Yuan Niang, she never tried every means to retain Chunjia... Therefore, she had nothing to do in the next nine years, all because of the grandson's daughter-in-law being too slack."
"It's not your fault." The Empress Dowager hesitated, and finally sighed and waved her hands, "That's all, you can go back. Regarding the matter of the auspicious beasts, Chunjia personally visited the Royal Beast Garden, I'm afraid it won't happen. You will give up easily, and there will be troubles next. Every time there is some trouble in the previous dynasty, the Xianfei and the concubines will not be at peace, and you must also keep your spirits up, so as not to be unable to cope with it. "
After sending the empress away, the empress dowager looked at the empty palace in silence for a long time. Then she sighed quietly and called her confidants, "I'll send you a message to my family. Everyone in the Royal Beast Garden... will try to take care of it!"
At about the same time, Yun Fenghuang was listening to Chen Zhu's report: "The queen went to Qingci Palace after lighting the lamp. When she returned to Yanfu Palace, the palace doors were locked? What was she doing at Qingci Palace so late?"
People from the Qing Dynasty speculated: "Is there something wrong with the Empress Dowager? After all, there is so much talk about the auspicious beasts. If it really falls on Ji, how can we not complain in advance?"
"If you claim to be ill, the Queen Mother and the Queen Mother are not in the palace now. Both the Queen Mother and the Holy Mother Queen Mother are ill. Since the Queen Mother has gone to Qingci Palace, where can she leave?" Yun Fenghuang said lightly, "You must not stay with the Queen Mother. As a filial piety...I'm afraid I didn't go there specifically to deliver the message, so of course I'll leave as soon as the message arrives."
Chen Zhu said sarcastically: "I am incompetent, but I never asked what the Queen Mother said after she went to Qingci Palace. I only knew that the Queen Mother spoke to the Queen Mother alone in the side hall for a while, and then the Queen Mother came out." "
Chen Zhu can't be blamed for this. After all, the Empress Dowager, as the first wife of Emperor Shenzong, lived in Qingci Palace even older than Yun Fenghuang. If news about Qingci Palace could be found out by a chamberlain with such seniority and status as Chen Zhu, Ji's family wouldn't still be a headache for the emperor.
"If you can't find out, then you can't find out." Yun Fenghuang squinted his eyes, thought for a while, and said nonchalantly, "Anyway, His Majesty has his own opinions, and we are just watching the excitement."
She sneered a few times when she said this, very unwillingly.
Because after the news of the accident to the auspicious beast came, when Chunjia came back to the palace from the Royal Beast Garden, Yun Fenghuang and Concubine Xuan and Concubine Rui immediately rushed over to greet the emperor, and accompanied the emperor to scold Ji for being crazy - and then Yun Fenghuang sent the two of them away. Concubine, I wanted to ask for some news in private, but Chunjia was very tight-lipped and kept saying, "I am so touched that my beloved concubine is so considerate to me." After being touched, she just left him alone when it came to business matters.
If this was Qi Jiulu, Yun Fenghuang would have gotten mad and asked him if he didn't trust him.
But Chunjia, it's not that Concubine Xian is particularly tolerant of him, but Yun Fenghuang knew early on that the most important thing in this man's heart was his throne. She knew that the person who cared about the throne could only trust the most. He will keep his hands open to everyone. After all, she was the same. She didn't trust anyone on her way to the throne. A year ago she would confide in her mother, but now she only uses Jiang's sincere words as a reference.
Not bothering to touch the soft nails, he said a few words of comfort and left without smiling.
... Well, even so, she still felt that Chunjia was sorry for her.
No reason, I just think so.
Chunjia was probably so busy that night that he didn't spend the night with any of his concubines, but stayed alone in the dormitory of Taichu Palace.
Early the next morning, the concubines got up and went to Yanfu Palace to pay their respects to the Queen. In fact, Chunjia had just told the Queen two days ago that she was probably sick again, so this greeting should be cancelled.
But Chunjia could make the queen sick, but it was difficult for the empress dowager to complain of illness - so no matter how the queen was doing, the concubines always had to walk outside Yanfu Palace.
The queen didn't show up that day. Just like before, a palace official came out and said that the queen's phoenix body was against the rules, so she asked Concubine Xian to take the lead in going to Qingci Palace to pay her respects.
The Empress Dowager of Qingci Palace did not look like she was willing to accept greetings from the beginning, which was actually the case.
The Empress Dowager retired to Qingci Palace and stopped caring about palace affairs when her niece became queen. After so many years of purity, she lived a leisurely and lazy life, truly enjoying her old age. Suddenly, she had to get up early and dress up, waiting for a bunch of juniors she didn't like to come to greet her. The Queen Mother was actually very upset.
But no matter how troublesome she was, when Ji's previous harem was repeatedly suppressed, she still had to deal with it like this.
She had to tell the Sixth Palace why she was favored and why she was a nouveau riche, but she still needed to bow down in front of their Ji daughter.
It's just that as far as the current situation in the palace is concerned, the concubines in power and the Ji family are disgusted with each other. After bowing, that's it. Earlier, in order to boost Ji family's momentum, the Empress Dowager also thought of verbally beating the concubines, but who What if she met Yun Fenghuang
The Empress Dowager can contradict her ten times with one sentence, and she is still the kind of person who speaks plausibly and never misses the point.
Although she still has to be respectful in front of the Empress Dowager due to her current status, it is not something that the Empress Dowager can deal with in a single word.
Let's make trouble in front of Chunjia. Chunjia apologized and admitted her mistake with a guilty look on her face. The end was: "Grandma, don't be as familiar with Concubine Xian. She is young and ignorant..."
The empress dowager wanted to be like Yun Fenghuang, but the problem was that the emperor was perfunctory with her in a good manner, and generally protected the concubine resolutely. After several times, she became too old and mentally weak, so she could only compromise: let them finish the invitation. Just leave.
It was about the same day. The Empress Dowager asked the Mother Empress Dowager, the Holy Mother Empress Dowager, the Empress, and several of her heirs about their situation, and then let them go.
The palace concubines, surrounded by the concubines, meandered out of the Qingci Palace and were boarding the chariot. At this time, they saw a small servant running towards the direction. His face was red and his ears were red, and he seemed to be very anxious. He ran not far away and was buried in the flower bed by the roadside. He stumbled on a clump of grass that stuck out, and had to crawl twice before getting up. It was obvious how hard he fell, but he didn't care at all. He almost rolled and rolled into Qingci Palace - I was afraid that this situation would never happen again. It was such an important event that the Empress Dowager was so embarrassed and desperate with the errands in front of her. The concubines hurriedly ended their greetings and rushed the chariot back to the palace.
When Yun Fenghuang returned to Huanhua Hall, he didn't even have time to take off his cloak, so he asked Chen Zhu, who was also sweating and had been waiting in the corridor for a while with his hands hanging down: "How was it?"
"The main thing we are discussing today is the matter of auspicious beasts." Chen Zhu hadn't had a good rest yet, with a slight breath in his voice, and his speaking speed was a little faster than usual, and he said hastily, "First of all, Duke Yi Guo returned. Doctor Ouyang was arguing with Ye Guogong Minyang Hou and others... Later, the Imperial City Secretary asked for a meeting outside, saying that he had tortured everyone in the Royal Beast Garden all night long. The matter about the auspicious beast had not yet been found out, but he found out another big thing!"
"Oh?" Yun Fenghuang listened with an expressionless face, because in today's court meeting, it is a natural thing to blame each other, and there is nothing surprising. He raised his eyebrows after hearing the last sentence and asked, "But What's the big deal?"