After receiving the news, the queen urgently summoned all the concubines to Chongchang Hall to discuss the matter.
The atmosphere in the palace was extremely depressing, and those who didn't know it thought some terrible bad news had come... Well, this was indeed bad news for high-ranking people such as the Queen and Concubine.
Even the concubine Cui Lianye, who had basically never been beaten by Empress Dowager Yuan, actually did not want Empress Dowager Yuan to return.
After all, Cui Lianye and others, at least before the fall of the queen and the concubine, did not even dare to think about Qingci Palace. As they are living now, although they are not favored, they have a child as a companion and their status is not high. Low, isn't it good to live a small life behind closed doors every day? When the children grow up, they will become feudal lords. I just want to go together and become a concubine in the fiefdom, and they will be truly free and at ease.
At this moment, the loving mother the Empress Dowager has returned. Regardless of the previous dynasty, there will definitely be no peace in the harem.
It might involve them.
The faces of the high-ranking officials were ashen as water, while the low-ranking concubines were trembling with fear and lowered their eyebrows.
After a while, the queen finally spoke and broke the silence.
The queen suppressed the irritation in her heart, forced a smile, and said: "How pitiful! Although I have known for a long time that the loving mother and empress dowager has her own destiny, everything will be fine for sure. Now that I have received the accurate letter, I can finally call me The people in the palace are relieved! It seems that His Majesty can also feel relieved... I have called you here today to discuss how to share your Majesty's worries."
Concubines, look at me and I look at you. I feel that the meaning of this sentence should be, how can the loving mother, the Queen Mother, recover this time and die as soon as possible, so that the emperor does not need to worry about the Queen Mother Yuan in the future.
"It's just that the palace is far away. Even if the empress wants to fulfill her filial piety, I'm afraid it's beyond our reach now." Everyone was thinking this, but it was hard to say it out, so they could only remain silent. Yun Fenghuang said, "Let's see what happens next, Your Majesty. Let's make arrangements. It would be great if the empress dowager, our loving mother, can return to the palace so that we can serve her."
Gu Zhen thought to himself, please don't!
It would be best if Empress Dowager Yuan knew better and insisted on staying in the palace... This way, even if Chunjia cared about her, it would not be so convenient if she was not around and wanted to cause trouble.
She said calmly: "What the imperial concubine said is absolutely true. Let's do this. Everyone has been working harder these two days, but when they have free time, they can also learn from the imperial concubine and pray for the Queen Mother's vegetarian diet."
The queen has thought about it these past two days. Although the imperial concubine responded quickly and did pretend to pray for Empress Dowager Yuan these past two days,...
If the Sixth Palace did this, it would seem that Yun Fenghuang was just that, and he was not said to be particularly filial or considerate to the emperor.
Everyone heard the Queen's hint, agreed one after another, and quietly looked at Yun Fenghuang's face.
Seeing that the imperial concubine looked calm and didn't look angry, she felt a little relieved.
The queen then ordered her servants to arrange for palace officials to tidy up the Chunwu Palace. Regardless of whether Empress Dowager Yuan came back or not, her daughter-in-law must always welcome her.
After the concubines dispersed that day, they went back to their respective palaces. On the way back, Yun Fenghuang asked Chen Jing to arrange for Concubine Mu: "Others don't want the mother-in-law to come back, so she can't do the same? She is the mother-in-law and the empress has promoted her." Get up! I wish my loving mother the Queen Mother could come back."
"I don't want to think about it, what is being reported to her in the Sixth Palace now? She is not the only one in this palace to do this about leaving the mother behind!"
"Who is the biological mother of the Second Princess and the Sixth Prince who didn't go there in a daze?"
"It's the children in front of the queen, the biological mother of the twelfth prince. Is it clear that she went there?"
"Why did it become a problem when we got to Concubine Mu? Now that the Eighth Prince and the Sixteenth Prince are still young, it's okay to pay them back. When they grow up, wouldn't the credit for Concubine Mu's hard work in raising them become hatred instead? ?”
"The reason why the Sixth Palace doesn't take her seriously is because everyone knows that the Queen doesn't want to see her as a sister?"
"Otherwise, given Zhaowu's family background, her status as a concubine, and her status as the queen's cousin, who in the Three Palaces and Sixth Academy would dare to offend her?"
"I don't want to think about when I was in the palace when I was young, I was usually my cousin in the middle palace. How majestic that was!"
"The Empress Dowager is a loving mother. No matter how much she dislikes the people in this palace, she is indeed kind to her!"
"If she is smart, she should find a way to show her loyalty to the empress dowager, her loving mother, and ask her to return to the palace and take charge!"
Chen Jing was a little worried: "Mother, if the empress dowager comes back and instigates empress Mu to make things difficult for us, what will happen...?"
"Are you stupid?" Yun Fenghuang looked at him in surprise and said, "Concubine Mu is confused, but the loving mother Queen Mother is not confused! Especially since she has suffered so much in the past two years, it is so easy to get such a turnaround. Why don't you seize the opportunity? I haven't fallen out of favor yet. When she came back, she encouraged Concubine Mu to cause trouble for me and put your majesty into trouble again. Isn't this eroding your majesty's affection for her? Besides, what is this? Well, the meeting between her and me is, in the final analysis, just a dispute of temper."
Mainly, many of her moves to deceive Empress Dowager Yuan were well hidden, and the Empress Dowager had no idea...
"Her old lady, the Queen, and the Gu family, that's the deep-rooted grudge!"
Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about Yuan’s demise. Gu will never be able to get away with it!
With such grievances ahead of her, how could the loving empress dowager care about her quarrel with Yun Fenghuang
Anyway, Yun Fenghuang couldn't do it on his own.
"If I were a loving empress dowager, the first thing she would do after returning to the palace would be to persuade Concubine Mu to replace the empress!"
Yun Fenghuang laughed and said, "After all, Concubine Mu is also the daughter of the Gu family! She is the queen and Gu Zhen is the queen. For the Gu family, the difference is not that big! And Concubine Mu doesn't think that the queens are He has been very kind to her over the years, but he is quite jealous of the Queen... It is easy to induce her to have this idea!"
And if the loving mother Queen Mother did this, Yun Fenghuang would definitely be happy to see it happen, and would even add fuel to the fire.
After all, no matter how stupid Gu Zhen is, after all she has been in the palace for so many years, her lack of intelligence and intelligence is mainly due to comparison with people like Empress Yuan and Yun Fenghuang.
Judging from the entire Sixth Palace, she must be much more understanding than Concubine Mu.
If Gu Su were to become the Lord of the Middle Palace, then...
Not to mention the Third Prince and King Chu, the Tenth Prince and the Twelfth Prince will only be more dangerous.
The key is that Gu Su may not be able to take good care of the tenth and twelfth princes.
After all, whether these two people can be brought up well by Gu Zhen until now, let alone the tenth prince’s biological mother, Ping, is Gu Zhen’s confidant and has no relationship with Gu Su! Although the biological mother of the twelfth prince and Gu Su are sisters, they have more grievances!
Gu Su now has the sixteenth prince from the Xu family who is still in his infancy. From her point of view, it must be more reliable to find a way to establish the sixteenth prince.
This is naturally an excellent opportunity for Xuanqing Palace.
Chunjia even gave up on the choice of the crown prince. What about the successor
If Gu Zhen is tricked by his cousin now, will Chunjia really continue to support Gu's daughter without considering her
Yun Fenghuang doesn't think so.
So after thinking about it this way, it seems that the return of Queen Mother Yuan is not a bad thing...
... After calming down and thinking about it, the concubine felt that it was better to forget it.
The main reason is that Queen Mother Yuan is not stupid, and this master is not so easy to use. After returning, she may use Concubine Mu's relationship with the Queen to trick the Queen, but she may not be able to take advantage of her as a noble concubine.
Anyway, he instigated Concubine Mu to tear the queen apart...
It's not like she can't do this herself.
Why bring a quasi-ancestor back
Thinking of this, Yun Fenghuang added: "In short, Concubine Mu still needs to be provoked. Let her keep a low profile and don't let the Queen know about it. No matter how indecisive the Queen is, she will never tolerate such a thing. She will not tolerate it. If the news accidentally leaks out, the palace will definitely not spare her this time!"
At the end of the first lunar month, someone from the side hall of Mianfu Palace came to report that Concubine Shen had contracted the cold and wanted to buy some rare and precious medicinal materials.
Naturally, Yun Fenghuang would not refuse after hearing the news, and even went to visit in person.
Of course, Concubine Shen did not let her enter the dormitory, saying that she was afraid that she would be sick.
The two parties chatted for a while through the door. Yun Fenghuang felt that he had almost fulfilled his wishes on behalf of his cousin and sister-in-law, and was about to leave. Who knew that at this time, Concubine Shen stopped her and said, "My dearest concubine, I have been here for two days." I think of some old things and ask the old man around me to tell them to you, okay?"
"Thank you, concubine." Yun Fenghuang was a little surprised, but quickly agreed.
After all, this is the former emperor's concubine who came to life in Ji's hands. If she didn't pay attention, she would not be here now, let alone give birth to the emperor's daughter.
Sure enough, Concubine Shen's servants accompanied Yun Fenghuang to the nearby Nuan Pavilion. After a brief greeting, they cleared their throats and said, "Madam, when the late Emperor was here, just like today, every midsummer, he would honor the Empress Dowager. He went to Qishan Palace to escape the summer heat. However, the late emperor did not like Qishan Palace very much. Therefore, he often found excuses to go out of the palace for a walk, and even preferred to stay in the villa of his ministers for many years. At first, he took Ji Sheng with him. . Later, for some unknown reason, the emperor and the empress gradually fell out of harmony, so... they often brought their concubines with them. At this time, Ji Sheng, a common man, would go to Shanyuan Temple, and often even stay there for several days."
Yun Fenghuang had heard about this in bits and pieces.
The reason why Xiaozong didn't like Qishan Palace was not because he had any objections to the palace, but simply because he didn't like the Ji family.
Because of the Empress Dowager, many of Ji's and Xiaozong's children who were the same age were raised in the palace.
They went in and out of the palace unscrupulously, and even treated the palace as most of their home. This made Xiaozong feel very disgusted, thinking that he, the emperor, was not like a pure master in the royal palace.
So I would rather live outside for a long time.
"There were several concubines at that time who were quite popular with them. They were also confused and actually slandered the common man Ji Sheng in front of the late Emperor Xiaozong, saying..."
The palace attendant hesitated for a moment, lowered his voice, and whispered, "Ji Sheng, a common man, always goes to Shanyuan Temple. I am afraid that he has other agendas, so I advise the late emperor to check it out!"
"The late emperor actually did not doubt the character of the common man Ji Sheng, but the concubine mentioned the Ji family. The late emperor probably wanted to deal with the Ji family... Anyway, after hearing this, he privately checked the traces of the common man Ji Sheng and his kindness. Yuan Guan.”
Yun Fenghuang pondered for a moment, and did not immediately ask Xiaozong what he had found. Instead, he asked: "The late emperor does not doubt the common man Ji Sheng... So, the relationship between the late emperor and the common man Ji Sheng is actually not bad?"
According to the palace man's description, the emperor and the empress were already at odds at that time. Under such circumstances, the emperor still believed in the empress's character. It was obvious that the former friendship was very deep.
Yun Fenghuang had also heard in the past that the reason why the Ji family did not trust Ji's daughters was that Ji Sheng had chosen Xiao Zong between his family and Xiao Zong.
It's not surprising that Xiaozong trusted her so much.
But, in this case, how did the emperor and empress fall out of harmony