wangsejabin

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 130

As Pan'er expected, Zong Qin really liked it.

He had wanted a bow for a long time, but his father said that he was still young and his muscles and bones were not strong enough to draw a bow, so naturally no one dared to let him play with a bow. Now that he saw a small bow of different sizes and lengths that fit his hand, he simply couldn't let it go.

Zong Cong was also there at the time. He picked up another bow and tried to pull it.

Contrary to his expectation, although the bow looked roughly made, it was made of real materials, which means that it was not a fancy bow to appease children, but a bow that could actually shoot arrows.

It is not light in weight, about one dou in weight. For young children, a bow of this weight is already lethal. It is probably made specifically according to the ages of Zong Yue and Zong Qin. It will make them feel strenuous, but it will not be difficult to pull it open. It is just right for them to practice archery now.

"He's thoughtful."

Zong Cong also heard that Su Hai gave Pan'er a lot of things, which were said to be spoils of war captured at the border.

Zong Qin was very curious about the word spoils of war. Zong Yue and Wan Wu also looked curious, so Zong Cong gave them a brief account of some things happening at the border.

The Great Zhou Dynasty inherited the previous dynasty and established nine important border towns to resist nomadic peoples outside the border. These nine important border towns were originally in defence mode, which means that they rarely led a large number of troops to go abroad for expeditions. However, it would be too passive to just defend without attacking. However, the climate and environment were also factors for sending a large number of troops outside the border. The emperor once tried to send a large number of troops deep into the grasslands but found that it was too costly and difficult to replenish supplies, so he had to give up.

As a result, the nine important border towns returned to the defensive mode, but every year they would send out light cavalry and sharp soldiers to carry out surprise attacks on them, which was called "raiding the nest.

The results were remarkable.

The climate outside the Great Wall was harsh, and the resources were extremely scarce. These nomadic tribes were scattered on the grasslands unless they were preparing for war. If they made good use of scouts, they could easily inflict heavy damage on the enemy every time they attacked their nests, forcing them to rest and recuperate and not have the energy to go south to forage for grass and valleys.

The teams responsible for destroying the nests usually have a small number of people, mostly about a hundred cavalrymen, and the most are three to five hundred. Since they are fighting against the many with Taffew adopting a lightning guerrilla mode, these cavalrymen are bound to be very dangerous, especially deep in the enemy's belly. Once they are injured and cannot be treated in time, dying on horseback is the best fate.

In order to motivate his brave generals, there is a customary agreement at the border that when soldiers go out of the border to attack the enemy, they do not have to hand in the spoils of war and keep them all for themselves.

Zong Cong also talked more about Su Hai's deeds, saying that he had created a miracle at Yulin Pass, going out of the pass to raid the enemy's nest more than ten times and returning intact every time.

You have to know that this is an extremely rare thing. There are many unexpected events when going out of the border and deep into the enemy's heart. No one knows what accidents will happen, and losing life is commonplace. It is rare to go in and out several times. Su Hai has only been at the border for six or seven years, and there are only one or two operations to raid the enemy's nest every year, which means that he has almost never missed a single one.

He is totally risking his life.

The three children were unaware of these things, but that didn't mean Pan'er wasn't aware of them either. That was why he was able to become a guerrilla general, why he was able to take out these trophies, and even why he was able to support his parents?

As for Zong Qin and Wanyin, their eyes were shining brightly, and they were almost saying how great their uncle was.

This was just a small conversation before dinner. Later during the meal, Zong Qin did not forget to ask his father to tell him more about those great generals. Zong Cong was really annoyed by it and could only use the "don't talk while eating and don't talk while sleeping" strategy to make him shut up and eat.

But after the meal, Zong Qin came over on his own initiative and wanted his father to tell him some things about the border.

On the side, Pan'er had a mocking look on his face, and he almost said that he had to clean up the mess he had made himself.

However, Zong Cong was not without a way to deal with it. He said, "The emperor has given Su Hai a house. When he settles down, the emperor will send you there and let him tell you. The emperor is the emperor and has been staying in the capital. These are all hearsay. He doesn't know as much as he does."

This really made Zongqin perfunctory. After the children left, Paner asked, "You also gave him a house?"

Zong Cong glanced at her and said, "He captured Tunuha alive and was awarded a house for his merits, but it's nothing."

Pan'er didn't say anything, and Zong Cong knew her awkward mood, so he didn't say much. After that, the two of them washed up and went to bed without saying anything more.

The Beiyun River is the section of the river that connects Tianjin to the capital.

From here you are getting closer and closer to the capital, and because it is close to the capital, there are more and more official ships and grain ships from all directions. Especially when the autumn grain is delivered to the capital, the river is densely packed with ships; it is no exaggeration to say that it is a race between thousands of ships.

The Su family also took the official ship, which was cheaper than civilian and merchant ships. At least they didn't have to give way to official ships and canal ships. The journey of thousands of miles north by boat opened the Su family's eyes, and they knew that even an ordinary boat ride had countless rules.

Ordinary civilian ships, merchant ships, and cargo ships must give way to grain boats and official ships. If they are on a section of river, it would only delay them for a while. But if they give way to every ship they see after travelling thousands of miles, it would probably delay them for more than a few days.

This is also the reason why civilian ships travel the slowest over the same distance. It’s not because the ships are not good, but because there are too many rules.

Especially when the ship is anchored waiting for the sluice gates to be opened, it may stay there for days without being able to pass. The Su family has seen this before, and they were once again thankful that Su Hai sent an official ship to pick them up.

Official ship? Official?

The Su family never expected that Su Hai would be gone for several years without any news, and when they heard news again, he had become an official and was going to take them to the capital to enjoy a good life.

The Su family was both happy and surprised. Before leaving, Miao Cuixiang said she wanted to sell the old house because she would not come back anyway, but Yao Jinzhi disagreed. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had a quarrel over this, but Miao Cuixiang did not dare to talk back to her mother-in-law. Now that her brother-in-law has become rich, he said he wants to take his parents-in-law to Beijing to enjoy a good life. They are just a by-product.

When the people who came to pick them up arrived, Miao Cuixiang was afraid that her parents-in-law would not take them with them, so she let her two sons sleep in their room for two nights and even said some words that she was reluctant to leave her grandparents. Yao Jinzhi knew the little thoughts of her daughter-in-law, but she did not expose them.

These were just trivial matters. In short, as they got closer to the capital, the Su family became more and more excited and nervous.

Finally, the ship arrived in Tongzhou. Probably the news had been announced in advance, so Su Hai had been waiting at the Tongzhou dock.

After getting off the boat, there was no time to reminisce about the past. The Su family members got on two horse-drawn carriages, respectively. Su Hai took a few of his personal soldiers on horseback, and the group headed towards the capital.

This was Yao Jinzhi's first time riding in a horse-drawn carriage, which was very different from the donkey-drawn carriage she usually rode in. At least she had a roof over her head, so she wasn't afraid of the sun and the wind. She and Su Datian were in the same carriage, so she wasn't afraid of losing face. She touched and looked around when she got in the carriage. Su Datian laughed at her for being ignorant, and she rolled her eyes and said that she was the only one who had knowledge.

When she finally figured out that the car windows could be opened, she opened them from the inside. Su Hai happened to be riding a horse not far away.

Looking at her son's dark skin and changed face, Yao Jinzhi burst into tears.

"Why are you crying? It will be embarrassing if others see you." Su Datian quickly closed the car window and said, "This is supposed to be a happy occasion. If you cry and Haizi's friends see you, you will be laughed at."

He thought that the personal soldiers following Su Hai were Su Hai's friends.

"What does my crying have to do with you? Can't I cry?! I'm crying because my son is out there, and I don't know what he's going through. Do you think being a general is just a nice name? He has to fight on the battlefield. I don't know what he's been through to end up like this."

Su Datian also sighed: "You too, your son has no future, and you said he is lazy and gluttonous every day, but now your son has become successful, and you are like this again."

Yao Jinzhi stopped talking. Which parent wouldn't be like this? But shouldn't they feel distressed? But at this moment, she was too lazy to talk to Su Datian.

In the car behind, Miao Cuixiang also secretly opened the window, just a crack, and looked at the scenery outside carefully. Her face could not hide her excitement but also a little nervousness.

During this time, Goudan and Maodan wanted to look outside, but she slapped them back.

"What are you looking at?! Just stay still and don't embarrass me by throwing people out there."

When she had seen enough, she turned around and saw Su Jiang nodding his head and dozing off. She immediately got angry: "How can you sleep...? You acted as if you didn't notice when those two brats were messing with me."

She poked Su Jiang's waist twice, causing him to open his eyes. He complained, "What are you doing?"

"I won't do anything. Remember what I said. When we get there, talk to Su Hai more and try to build brotherhood. If possible, ask Su Hai to help you out. If you become successful, it will bring honour to the three of us."

"Did you hear that?"

Su Jiang pushed her hand away and said impatiently, "Alright, alright, I don't need to talk about this with the second brother. Don't think I don't know that you have offended the second brother so much that you are afraid that people will dislike you now, right? If they really don't like you, then you can go back to the old house in Yangzhou by yourself. Anyway, the old house has not been sold. I will take my two sons to Beijing by then."

This was obviously a threat, but Miao Cuixiang didn't have the confidence to refute it.

She had originally wanted her mother-in-law to sell the old house with this in mind, fearing that Su Hairuo would really bear a grudge against her and drive her away. If she didn't have the old house, she would have nowhere to go, and she could naturally bring her husband and two sons to stick with her parents-in-law. But now, the father of the children actually asked her to go back alone.

Even though it was a joke, Miao Cuixiang was still very upset.

Putting all this aside, the group finally arrived in the capital before noon.

Walking all the way from the outer city to the inner city, the house that Zong Cong gave to Su Hai was at the edge of the inner city near the outer city. The location was a bit worse, not as good as those of the nobles, but for Su Hai, a guerrilla general of the fifth rank, being able to own a house here was already many steps ahead of his colleagues.

You have to know that even a general at the border can hardly have a house here. Not only is the inner city where dignitaries gather, but also the place is so small, and the number of dignitaries increases year by year, so almost no one will sell their house here, and even if they do, it will be at a sky-high price.

Moreover, many houses in the inner city belong to the imperial court and are used by His Majesty to show favour to his subjects. Therefore, whenever there is a new family here, not only the entire inner city will know about it, but at least the residents nearby will know about it, and they may even enquire about the origins of the owner in advance so as to prepare for future friendly relations with neighbours.

The three-courtyard house looks inconspicuous from the outside and is no different from other houses nearby. The plaque above the door only has the two words "Su Mansion" written on it.

But for the Su family, it was also an eye-opener. Just the screen wall at the entrance made them look at it many times. It's not that they had never seen it before, but this is their home and their place from now on.

The house was deserted, with only two little maids serving.

Su Hai said, "The mansion was just awarded by His Majesty, and I haven't had time to hire servants. I will go to the market to buy a few more servants tomorrow."

"No, no, no, having two girls is already very good; should we buy someone else?" Yao Jinzhi said.

Miao Cuixiang said, "Mom, you don't understand this. How can such a big place be without servants to take care of it? My uncle must have his reasons for saying this. You just need to listen, don't you, uncle?" The flattering intention was obvious on her face.

Su Hai glanced at her without saying anything. He said to Su Datian and Yao Jinzhi, "I asked someone to send two tables of food. You can enjoy them first. My brothers accompanied me today. I have to take care of them first and will be back soon."

"Just go and do your work; don't worry about us. We still have the girl; we can do it on our own."

Having said that, Su Hai came back very quickly. His face was slightly red, and it seemed that he had drunk some wine.

When he arrived, the Su family was still having a meal.

The Su family had never had such a sumptuous feast before. The adults were okay, as they were still a little cautious, fearing that the two maids beside them would laugh at them. But Maodan and Goudan were not so cautious. They ate fast and voraciously, and Miao Cuixiang couldn't stop them. The table was a mess.

"Second brother, have you eaten? Why don't you sit down and eat something else?" Su Jiang said after swallowing the meat in his mouth, with oil still on the corners of his mouth.

"Yes, you should sit down and eat something too."

Su Hai looked at the table. Yao Jinzhi also realised what was going on. She said, "It's all because of your two nephews. They're like hungry ghosts reincarnated. They made the table look like this..."

Su Hai said, "Mom, I have already eaten; you guys just eat. I will go sit over there for a while; I have something to say to you later."

As he said this, he went to sit on a chair in the main room.

In this situation, naturally, he couldn't eat the meal.

Maodan and Tiedan had their mouths and hands full of grease, and they refused to leave the table, which made Miao Cuixiang so angry that she hit them a few times. Yao Jinzhi tried to stop her from hitting the children, but the situation was chaotic anyway.

After much difficulty, the two younger ones were cleaned by the maid, and the main room was sat down in one by one.

Su Hai said, "Pan'er is also in the capital now."

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 129

Su Hai was tall and strong; after all, he was a labourer.

In the past few years at the border, he has been training horse racing every day and has become darker and stronger. Wearing a black light armour, he looks like a small mountain, but if you look closely, he is quite handsome, with a resolute and heroic temperament, like a completely different person from before.

Even if he squatted down, he was still taller than the two children.

But Wanyin was not afraid of him.

"I'm Wanyin, and he's Zongqin." Wanyu introduced herself in a serious tone and then added, "My brother and I are here to see you. You should be going to see the emperor, so we won't disturb you."

Su Hai was stunned by what the little girl in front of him said. She was obviously not very old, only about six or seven years old, but she spoke in a serious tone, as if the little girl who was looking up at him just now was his illusion.

He was born in the market, and after going to the border, he dealt with men. He had never seen the noble ladies in the capital, let alone the children in the palace. Naturally, he didn't know about Wanwu's status. Even though she was only six or seven years old, she was very sensible and had good manners.

He scratched his head and stood up: "Then you guys go back? Do you want me to take you back?"

"No need, we have palace maids and eunuchs." As she said that, Wanyin looked not far away. Su Hai looked over there and found that there were several palace maids and eunuchs standing there, obviously serving the two children.

He was relieved, hesitated for a moment, and said, "After I meet His Majesty... I brought you something, but I don't have it with me at the moment. I'll have someone deliver it to you another day or when I have time."

Apparently, Su Hai was not good at dealing with children, especially this kind of child with a young face but a very steady look, and his words were also incoherent. Another reason was that he was not familiar with the situation in the palace and did not know how to send gifts, whether it would be against the rules, etc.

Wanyin nodded and bowed gracefully: "Thank you, uncle."

After saying that, she took Zong Qin away. If you didn't look at the way she was holding her brother's wrist, she actually looked like a noble lady.

Su Hai looked at the backs of the two people, laughed, shook his head, and left.

"Sister, why don't you let me talk to my uncle more? He is so tall and strong, taller and stronger than Master Hong. He can fight, so he must be very powerful." Zong Qin said.

Wanyin held him tightly, "Alright, there's no rush. Don't you see where we are? We sneaked up to the palace road, which is already too much. This is your first time meeting your uncle, and you don't want to give him a good impression. Do you have to make him think you're a stupid dark man to be happy?"

This "silly, dark" was Wanyin's special comment to tease Zongqin, meaning that he was stupid, sunburnt, and tan. It was just a summer, and Zongqin always liked to run outside, so he was indeed quite tanned.

Once his sister reminded him, Zong Qin also realised it.

"You are right, but I still want to ask him if he is good at kung fu and if he can teach me."

"Don't worry, there's still a long way to go. Let's go back quickly. If Mom knew we sneaked out just to do this, she would definitely be angry."

Pan'er naturally didn't know that his daughter and younger son would not give up and secretly ran to the palace road to block Su Hai, just to see what he looked like.

She also received news that Su Hai had entered the palace.

But she thought she probably wouldn't be able to see Su Hai. After all, she was a member of the harem, and it was inappropriate for her to meet a man outside of her, even if he was her 'real brother.'.

Who knew that someone would come from the Qianqing Palace a while later and say that General Su would come to the Jingren Palace to visit the imperial concubine, and that this was specially authorised by His Majesty?

Soon, Su Hai was led to Jingren Palace.

He was brought here by Zhang Laishun and was accompanied by two imperial guards.

Pan'er met Su Hai in the main hall.

There was a man sitting on it, wearing gorgeous clothes, with pearls and jade on his head, looking extremely noble.

One was standing below, wearing light black armour; his demeanour had changed; he had become darker and more muscular.

It's all a bit dazed, perhaps because many past events are too hard to recall.

"Are you okay?" After saying this, Su Hai laughed and said, "Look at what I'm saying. You are, of course, very good. I just met Wanyin and Zong Qin. The two children are also very good and sensible. I didn't expect that in just a few years, you would already have children, and more than one."

"Wanyin and Zongqin secretly went to see you? I knew they couldn't hold back."

With this opening, the situation didn't seem so awkward. Su Hai sat down, and Pan'er had someone serve him tea.

However, the two did not say anything else. After all, they both knew the truth, and they both had their own concerns.

One feels that he was too absurd and did a lot of stupid things in the past; the other has complicated emotions because the person he thought he would never see again suddenly appeared in front of him and would become his "family" in the future. He always feels that there is something indescribably awkward about it.

So this conversation was not successful. Su Hai was the one who talked the most, and Pan Er mostly just listened silently. However, Su Hai only talked about his experience at the border in a light-hearted way, but he skipped the hardships and difficulties involved.

In fact, Pan'er knew without saying it that Zong Cong seemed to be thorough and proper in doing things, but to outsiders, he always seemed a bit cold.

He said he was only given one chance, and that was it; there wouldn't be any extras, and he didn't have the time to pay attention to such trivial matters.

It is conceivable that Su Hai, an ordinary person with no background at all, could be promoted to a guerrilla general in just six or seven years. This guerrilla general seems to be just a fifth-rank official. The title is not a general in the true sense at all, but just a vanity title.

But for Su Hai, it is extremely difficult to reach this level.

He may have put in countless hours of hard work and even survived several near-death experiences; after all, the battlefield is ruthless. However, he never reported good news but only bad news, and Pan Er knew this.

"I have sent people to the south to pick up my parents and my eldest brother and bring them to the capital. I have saved some money over the years, so it should be no problem to support them in the capital, especially since His Majesty has given them a lot of gifts this time."

Hearing this, Pan'er was stunned and then seemed to understand something.

It's time to put it on the agenda. After all, the Su family is not just Su Hai. Since Zong Cong has built up momentum for her, if she wants to completely block the Chen family, the Su family must appear in Beijing.

Pan'er guessed that Zong Cong might have reminded him of this before, which was why Su Hai said this.

"Don't worry, they won't come to disturb you. I'll go back to the border in a while and see what my parents think. If possible, I'll take them to the border. Although the climate over there is not as good as that in the south of the Yangtze River, it actually has its own advantages. After staying there for a long time, I feel that it is much more comfortable than the sticky rain in the south of the Yangtze River."

The whole paragraph has been reserved, and only the last sentence reveals Su Hai's true character.

Pan'er lowered his eyes and said, "Just because you feel comfortable doesn't mean your parents will feel comfortable too. If they don't want to go, it's fine for them to stay in Beijing."

Su Hai did not agree or disagree. He sat quietly for a while. He smiled and stood up: "It's getting late. I can't stay any longer. I'll leave first."

Pan'er nodded and asked Xiangpu to take him out.

After a while, Xiangpu came back and said that her uncle had something to give to the two princes and princess, but the things were outside the palace and she was afraid that it would be inconvenient, so she specially sent Xiao Tianzi and another eunuch to get them.

Soon, the things were moved back.

It's a medium size.

The box looked very ordinary, painted black and with a slightly embroidered lock.

When I opened it, what was inside was surprising.

There was a curved sword with a cowhide scabbard and some gemstones inlaid on the front, which was very foreign and should be something from outside the Great Wall. There were three red gold necklaces, which were of a very ordinary style and not inlaid with any gemstones, just made of gold, and looked heavy.

There were also two small ox-horn bows, which were the most inconspicuous and even extremely rough, as well as some gold and silver ingots and a small box of very bright and smooth white beads.

It was all so mixed up that if Pan'er didn't know Su Hai's current identity, he would have thought that he had robbed the warehouse of a wealthy businessman.

In the end, it was Xiao Tianzi who solved Pan'er's puzzle.

"These are all picked out by my uncle from his spoils of war in recent years. The collar, scimitar, and bow are for the young masters, and the others are for her highness. By the way, this bow was made by the uncle himself when he had nothing else to do."

Xiao Tianzi lowered his head when he spoke. He served in the palace and had seen too many good things. Naturally, he could tell that the things his uncle sent were just ordinary things, and they were so messy.

He was afraid that the queen would be angry, but when he glanced up, he saw the queen's expression was very complicated.

Xiangpu was standing nearby, and when she saw Pan'er's eyes fall on something, she quickly took one of the items and showed it to her.

"My uncle is really attentive. This collar is very heavy. It must have been made of a lot of gold."

Others may not know, but Xiangpu knows exactly what Su Hai was like back then and what the Su family's background was. It's already very good that they could come up with these things.

Pan'er looked more deeply and saw that the necklace was quite old and the golden colour had faded.

Of course, this is for the "nobles.". In fact, for ordinary people, gold is a good thing, very bright and shiny. The three identical collars are obviously not spoils of war. They must have been obtained by exchanging spoils for gold and then hunting for others.

Unfortunately, men have no taste and don’t care about style. They just think that heavy and bulky things are good.

"Put all these away and leave these behind. Zong Qin will definitely be very happy if he sees them. He likes these."

Xiang Pu quickly agreed, "That's right, the Third Prince has wanted a small bow for a long time."

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 128

Chen Pingwu had long noticed that his wife's eyes were lingering on him, as if she had something to say.

But what could Liu want to say to him?

After returning home, he was planning to go back to Lingxuan, but he never expected Feicui to invite him, saying that the Second Madam wanted to discuss something with him.

Arriving at Yunxia Courtyard, Chen Pingwu waited for the Second Madam to speak, but instead of saying anything, she asked the maid to help her bathe and change clothes.

He thought to himself, could this be some new trick? However, he hasn't had any new concubines around him recently, and the backyard of the second house has been quite quiet. No one can compete with her, let alone replace her as the second wife. Why did she do this?

After all, she is old now. If it were in the past, Chen Pingwu would not have this patience, but now he has the patience to see what tricks she is up to.

The Second Lady was really nervous. She had been thinking over and over in her mind for a long time but couldn't find a perfect excuse.

If she tried to avoid the main issue and something went wrong, the Second Lady knew her husband's temper. He was the kind of person who responded best to soft words but not hard ones. It would be fine if you talked to him in a nice way, but if he found out that you were lying to him, he would never let her get her way.

She could only tell the truth, but how should she tell the truth, and to what extent?

When the second wife came out of the room, Chen Pingwu was already about to leave, so she hurried forward and held him back.

"Master, please don't leave yet. I really have something to tell you. How about you go take a bath first, and we can go into the inner room and talk?"

Chen Pingwu frowned and looked at her, then took his arm from her hand, with a look of alienation in his eyes.

"Let's talk about it right here."

The second wife felt a pang in her heart. He was always like this, but she was used to it. So she put aside all distractions and told him the general story.

She naturally wouldn't mention the old story but just said that the Empress accidentally found the picture that Bai Zhu asked Fu Xia to take out of the palace and recognised it as the Tenth Sister's. Later, Bai Zhu couldn't stand her questioning, so she told the truth and revealed the true identity of Concubine Su.

Chen Pingwu was a little stunned and also a little confused.

His actions really did not stand up to scrutiny. He could defend himself against outsiders, but not necessarily against his own people, especially the Empress. However, he did not think there was anything shameful about it.

He didn't say anything because he had his own considerations, but it doesn't mean that this matter cannot be made public.

The Second Madam pretended to sigh: "I thought that something like that happened back then, and the Tenth Girl was probably... I never thought that she would have such good fortune."

Chen Pingwu glanced at her and, for some reason, felt both amused and sad.

Maybe it was because he blamed himself too much. Maybe others could forget what happened more than ten years ago, but he could remember it vividly. He felt heartbroken when he thought about it, but he couldn't let it go.

He had not forgotten how much she disliked Liu back then and how she fought with her in all kinds of ways. Although she became obedient later on, it was probably because of a preconceived notion, so Chen Pingwu always felt that her obedience was deliberate.

He was still young at that time and could not see through the schemes. He just thought that his wife had finally learnt to be magnanimous. But later, because of certain things, because he could not control his self-destructive memories, his memories became more and more vivid, and some things that he did not understand before, he gradually understood later.

But he was already old by then; his children had grown up, married, had children, and were grandparents now. He couldn't divorce her just because he didn't like her, so he had to continue living like this.

Now, someone who hated Liu so much that she could not even spare his children was actually complaining to him.

The second wife did not notice the coldness in Chen Pingwu's eyes and was still immersed in her own emotions. She sighed a few times, so she brought out the queen's complicated mood after knowing it, as well as the current situation, and even the situation of having to confront each other.

She even helped the queen to promise that if the eldest prince could be made the crown prince, she would definitely treat this illegitimate sister well in the future. After all, the queen loved the tenth sister very much back then.

To this end, the second wife did not hesitate to give examples one by one, all of which were things that happened in previous years, and she spoke with great emotion.

How could she know that her true face had already been seen through? The reason for this was not because too many years had passed, but because the matter involved the old lady and even the third lady, and because of the consideration for each other's and even their children's faces... It did not mean that Chen Pingwu was a fool.

So what she thought was emotional became artificial and hypocritical in his eyes.

Chen Pingwu was the only exception among the men in the inner chamber of the Chen family. He was probably born with a disdain for worldly things and had no great ambition to become an official. Instead, he had a bit of a bookish air in his bones, which was what was called the kind of person who could not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes.

He was able to endure something that had been bothering him for years, all for the Chen family's reputation and the overall situation. He even used up all his life's strength to endure and ignore it.

The weight of this tolerance and indifference aggravated his heart knot, causing him to never let go of the incident. He spent more than 20 years recalling and missing that woman, trying to use the good memories of the past to alleviate the self-blame in his heart. However, he never thought that it was completely useless. Instead, it made him even more unable to forget Liu Er and everything.

All this was like a gushing flood. His patience and bottom line were like a river embankment that was constantly being built up but was precarious. Now, because of the hypocrisy and affectation of the Second Lady, the river embankment collapsed and the flood poured in.

"You've said so much; what exactly do you want to say?"

The Second Lady's words were interrupted so that the emotions and feelings that she had been brewing could not be continued for a while, and there was a moment of stagnation.

"The empress was very worried. She was afraid that the identity of Concubine Su would be exposed at the critical moment of appointing the Crown Prince. It would be inappropriate for the first prince to be appointed the Crown Prince at that time, so..."

"So you said so much today just to tell me not to expose Yuan'er's identity?"

The Second Madam did not give a direct answer but changed the subject: "The Empress is in a difficult situation now. His Majesty does not like her in the first place and only favours Concubine Su. If this matter were known by others, His Majesty would not make Duo'er the Crown Prince. The Empress only has Duo'er to rely on, but Concubine Su is different. Not only is she favoured, but she also has two sons..."

"Why does His Majesty dislike the Empress? Doesn't the Empress know the answer?"

The second wife was stunned and looked into her husband's eyes, which were filled with coldness.

Some things can be hidden from others, but how can they be hidden from one's own people, especially from one's biological parents? Most of the people in the palace were handed over to Empress Chen by the Chen family through Chen Pingwu. After all, it is not appropriate for others to tell these private matters. Although they are elders, there is a difference between men and women, so the biological father is more appropriate.

Therefore, even if Chen Pingwu did not know all the details, he knew part of it, about what Empress Chen did when she first entered the Eastern Palace and why some people were killed.

What did he say to Liu at that time?

With the status of the Crown Princess, no one can surpass her. The most urgent task is that the Eastern Palace must have an heir so that the position of the Crown Prince can be secured. Don't let the Crown Princess destroy the love between husband and wife.

But what did Liu do?

Even if Chen Pingwu didn't see the whole process, he knew what she would say to the Crown Princess and how she would advise her, because she had said indignantly in front of him that a woman's position would be unstable if she didn't have a legitimate eldest son.

He had no choice but to discuss it with his elder brother and let his elder sister-in-law enter the palace in the future. His elder sister-in-law had a steady personality and could teach the Crown Princess some more principles. But because of this incident, she made a lot of noise in the mansion against her elder sister-in-law, and her elder sister-in-law felt resentful about it, so she simply gave up.

She is just a foolish woman, and she doesn't even know she is stupid!

The second wife felt a chill in her bones when she saw her husband's cold eyes. She murmured unconsciously, "Even if you don't do this for your daughter, don't you think about your son?"

Yes, son.

If this matter affects the empress and the appointment of the crown prince, how will the eldest son and the second son deal with it? What about the empress? As a father, he has already let down one person, so should he let down the others?

It doesn't help and affects the overall situation.

So he endured it again.

Just when he was enduring it, some people were smart enough to test him.

"Stay here and be quiet; otherwise, I can't guarantee that I can keep this matter secret." After saying that, Chen Pingwu turned away.

The second wife looked at his back, feeling mixed emotions of sadness and joy.

What makes me sad is his cold attitude, but what makes me happy is that he agrees.

Pan’er naturally didn't know what happened in the Chen family...

When Wanyin and Zongqin found out that she had a brother, they pestered her and asked her a lot of questions about Su Hai.

But what should she say?

This uncle is actually your cheap uncle. She is not too close to this uncle. To be more precise, they are quite hostile to each other. It was fine when she was a child, but when she grew up, she couldn't stand some of Su Hai's bad habits, especially since she rarely saw him. So whenever she finally saw him, she would always find fault with him, which always made things very unpleasant.

Pan'er could only talk about some things from their childhood.

For example, your mother was very beautiful when she was a child and was a famous little beauty far and wide. There were always some bad boys who liked to bully her, and your uncle would always lead your mother to fight back.

A picture would appear in Wanyin and Zongqin's minds—a little girl in a skirt was standing next to them, and two boys were fighting in the field, raising dust. The little girl was trembling with fear, and although the boy had a bruise on his face after winning the fight, he was smiling triumphantly.

For example, the Su family was poor before and couldn't afford cakes or maltose. Every time your grandpa secretly hid a few coins in his pocket, he would buy candy for your mother. Your uncle couldn't have any, and Grandpa said, "How can a boy compete with a girl?"

Then the two little ones would fight, then turn around and make peace. Occasionally your uncle would get some candy from somewhere and show it off to Mom, but he would also break off a big piece and give it to her, feeling pity.

There are many similar stories, and as a result, the image of their uncle in Wanyu and Zongqin's minds becomes more and more complete.

Zong Qin even told Wanyu from his own experience that when he grew up a little, if any bad boy bullied his sister, he would help her fight.

Wan Wu sneered at him, saying that he was not as good as her and that she could fight back on her own. The brother and sister had a quarrel for a bit, but then they made up.

Pan'er racked her brains to talk to the children about "uncle's affairs," and occasionally she would reflect. In fact, Su Hai was quite nice to her, so why did he always target her after she grew up?

Maybe because she was the only girl in the family and was sent to foster care by her mother, she suppressed a lot of resentment in her heart, thinking that all bad things had to be borne by girls. Su Jiang was much older than her, and the two were not very close since childhood. Instead, they were closer to Su Hai, who was close in age.

Su Hai would often visit her and bring her something from time to time, but she felt that it was compensation from her family and became more and more resentful, so Su Hai took the brunt of it.

Recalling the past always makes people sigh, and Pan'er didn't think too much about it.

Soon the day for surrendering the prisoners arrived.

As common people living under the emperor's feet, we are always the most well-informed, so the news that the war at the border is not going well has been circulating in the market recently.

At such times, it is, of course, necessary to stabilise the people's hearts, and therefore the ceremony of surrendering prisoners was made on a grand scale.

Pan'er was in the deep palace, so she naturally couldn't see it. However, Wanyin'er and Zong Qin wanted to go and see it, but Pan'er refused, saying that there would surely be a lot of people there and something could go wrong.

The brother and sister had no choice but to block Su Hai at the palace entrance when he entered the palace after offering the captives.

"Are you my uncle?"

Wanwu looked at the dark and strong man in front of her and thought he had nothing to do with her uncle.

Su Hai was suddenly blocked by two children. He scratched the back of his head and saw that the two children were dressed in gorgeous clothes and were obviously not ordinary people. How many children could run around in the Forbidden City and call him uncle?

There is only one result: this is Pan'er's child.

He couldn't help but sigh, but a smile appeared on his face, with his big white teeth shining brightly in the sunlight.

He squatted down and said, "You are the third prince, and you are the fifth princess, right?"

[wangsejabin]

YOU’RE BACK!!!

So glad to see you : )

<3<3<3<3

[wangsejabin]

do you take donations in return for completing chapters quicker?

uh, not right now...but i could? would anyone be willing to donate in return for quicker chapters?

[wangsejabin]

I was wondering why it was so “difficult” to depose an empress during the Qing Dynasty? I know Shunzi did this. I remember Empress Nara, who supposedly cut her hair and Qianlong couldn't stand it, but despite everything he didn't depose her. I even remember a scene from Ruyi where Qianlong says that despite knowing Empress Xiaoxianchun's involvement in the whole A'ruo and Hui situation, nothing good would come of punishing her unless he messed with her position, which doesn't happen.

The emperor doesn’t marry for love, but to secure political support. He also doesn’t marry a woman, he marries for her family. The title of empress is also not about Langhua (or Ruyi for that matter), but is a symbol of female power in the inner court which complements the emperor’s own power in the outer court. An emperor’s top priority would be to balance the two and project an image of stability, not indulge his own feelings. 

It’s always been established that in universe, the Fucha clan holds significant (military) power, and in particular her brother Fuheng also has established himself as a competent and important military figure. She also has like 9 brothers who probably all hold various positions in court. Having control of military power is extremely important for an emperor and deposing Langhua will lose Qianlong the loyalty of the Fucha clan and especially Fuheng, which is a political disaster. At this point, Qianlong is still a relatively young emperor only in his 30s, he can’t afford to offend such a powerful military family. 

(By the time Langhua is exposed to Qianlong, Hejing is also engaged i.e. practically married to the Mongolian Borjigit clan, an extremely important military ally to Qing emperors, so he can’t risk offending them either. The only reason Langhua ever agreed to the engagement was also because she was pressured by her family to not let the power of alliance with the Borjigit clan go to the empress dowager’s family.)

Historically, multiple generations of Empress Xiaoxian’s family have served through the reigns of 3 emperors. 三代忠臣 (loyal subjects for three generations) is a huge claim, a current emperor cannot dismiss that level of loyalty, that’s practically asking for trouble from all his other subjects. Because if he could be so ungrateful to those who served loyally for 3 generations, what’s his loyalty to them? Why should any of his other subjects remain loyal? 

Langhua was chosen by the late emperor and (for all intents and purposes) Qianlong’s mother as his official wife. At this point, she has also given birth to multiple children both sons and daughters, risking her life in the process. To the world, she has been a model empress. All this holds enormous weight. Unless Langhua did something very publicly horrible that absolutely could not be hidden away, to expose any of her bad deeds would be an enormous loss of face, which in itself would have been unthinkable to an emperor as conscious of his own image as Qianlong. To cast doubts on Langhua would be saying that the late emperor and empress dowager made a horrible choice. To taint the reputations of the late emperor or the empress dowager like that could be considered as an unfilial act on Qianlong’s part. 

An emperor divorcing and deposing his empress in general is also politically and socially bad. The emperor is considered the nation’s father and the empress the nation’s mother, so the state of the emperor’s family is representative of the state of the country itself. If there is peace and harmony in the emperor’s family then that’s indicative of peace and harmony in the country. If the emperor can’t even keep order within his family, he’s inviting challenge to his ability to rule the nation. It would also create a lot of unsavoury gossip among the people which would get distorted and ruin the reputation of the imperial family. To allow that kind of gossip about the imperial family to spread among the people brings them down to the common’s people’s level and once the emperor and empress are no longer these godly figures, it’s a lot easier for rebellions to form. 

Shunzi deposing his first empress was an unpopular decision that probably led to a whole load of political instability. Shunzi was a teenager? (he died in his very early 20s) at the time he deposed his first empress, which showed his lack of maturity and foresight. He has also been emperor since the age of (insert stupidly young number here I can’t remember) and probably took his position for granted, whereas Qianlong has lived through his father’s battle against his uncles for the throne, and witnessed his own brother being disowned. He would have been very aware that he has to fight to secure his power, so it’s not surprising that he would not even contemplate deposing any of his empresses.

Shunzi also didn’t have to consider his children. No matter how Qianlong felt about Langhua or Ruyi, to depose them would be casting his own children (dead and alive) into disgrace. Both in history and drama, Qianlong was very fond of Hejing, and he had already given Yonglian the position of Crown Prince posthumously, based on the fact that he was the son of the empress (let’s be real the kid was 8 when he died, there’s no other reason to make him posthumous crown prince other than because he was the empress’ son). To strip Langhua of her position as empress would be to strip Yonglian of any claim to the Crown Prince title. No matter what Langhua did, to ruin Yonglian’s legacy posthumously like that is extremely cruel and not something Qianlong would want attached to his own reputation either as a father or emperor. 

With Ruyi, Yongji was still alive, while Yongji did suffer (historically) from his mother’s fall from grace (considering he never was granted any title higher than beile), to depose Ruyi is to strip Yongji of his (official) position as son of the empress. At that point, Qianlong had very few eligible sons left, and that kind of political upheaval among the princes would have been an extremely bad idea. 

Whatever reason was for Ruyi or Empress Ulanara to cut her hair in history, to depose her, Qianlong would have to announce the reason and that would be airing his dirty laundry to the world. The records sort of say she "went crazy" but people were rational enough to understand that an empress who had until that moment had an unblemished reputation and just a few days before was fine didn't randomly just "go crazy". Even if she actually did, for Qianlong to depose her would have made him seem cruel. To have her retain her title means that he at least salvages the situation by appearing to be generous and benevolent, and doesn’t have to deal with the fall out of deposing an empress at a time in his life where it would have caused more trouble than good. 

Honestly if Qianlong wanted to depose Ruyi, he would have to have a new empress to re-establish stability. Historically or in drama, Ling Fei would be completely out of the question as she was a Han and originated as a palace maid. And yet she was the highest ranking among the consorts at the time. There was probably no other obvious contender for the position of empress, and even if there were, to promote them above Ling Fei who at the time had the most children, would have more destabilised the inner palace rather than stabilise it. 

All these things are not just considerations for the emperor personally, but would have been issues that all his high ranking advisers and officials would have thought about and been their reason for them to oppose a decision to depose the empress. Honestly, who wants their own legacy to be someone serving under an emperor who deposed his empress? 

Tl;dr: the political and personal legacy ramifications of deposing an empress is REALLY not worth the effort.

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 127

In fact, in the palace, there is a big difference between whether the servants around you are capable or not.

Some people know how to deal appropriately with things, and some people don't.

For example, in this case, Zong Cong may have only told Fulu to report to Concubine Su about Su Hai's return. But Fulu would have wondered why his master had to report at this time. Even if he had just received good news, it would not be impossible to report it later.

In such a situation, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.

A useless servant will just mindlessly follow orders, but a useful servant who understands the implied intention gets twice the result with half the effort.

So Fulu went to Jingren Palace and asked the servants there to announce the good news, and he specifically chose Xiao Tianzi. Could it be that Fulu who often frequented Jingren Palace didn't know that Xiao Tianzi was honest and straightforward, too much so, so why didn't he wait a while and let Xiao Dezi announce the news?

These considerations are naturally just conjecture.

So the day’s events turned out like that. There would be no need for a decree. Everyone who came to the palace for the banquet that day knew that Concubine Su actually had a maternal family. Her brother has just made a contribution and would be coming to the capital soon.

He has a sister who is a favoured noble concubine and has made achievements himself. It is no surprise that he would also join the scenes of the court soon.  It seemed that there would be another big name family in the capital soon, a family with the surname Su.

Moreover, this matter was handled in a very honorable way. At least for Pan'er, it was both honorable and dignified.

However, there are still few servants like Fulu. In addition to having a delicate heart, it takes many years of practice to cultivate to the point of mastery. Only such people can be by the side of Emperor Jianping, since his time as a crown prince. After all, the environment in the palace is complicated. If a servant fails to live up to expectations, they will be replaced by someone who is better.

So even though Zong Cong sneered and cursed, he didn't seem to have any intention of blaming Fulu at all.

"When did you send Su Hai to the border?" At this point, Pan'er felt a little embarrassed, and her fingers were rubbing against Zong Cong's collar.

Zong Cong looked down at her and grabbed her distracting hand: "When I was in Yangzhou, before I met Pei Yongchang, Pei Yongchang came to him with other motives. I thought he still had some redeeming points, so I gave him a chance."

"Is there redeeming features then?"

Pan Er guessed that Pei Yongchang had no way to get in during that period, so he must have schemed, and it was predictable that he would go to the Su family. In other words, Pei Yongchang went to Su Hai, and Su Hai found out her and the prince's identities, but did not come to her, so in Zong Cong's eyes, he still had some merits.

"It's hard for anyone to resist this kind of temptation, especially someone of their status," he said lightly.

That much was true. Pan'er had always felt that although the Su family had many flaws, they were not actually bad people.

"Just an opportunity?" Obviously Pan'er didn't believe that the process was as casual as he said, because he was too good at hiding things, and maybe he even covertly supported Su Hai. 

Moreover, Pan'er found it a little hard to believe that Su Hai could mature and be promoted to the point where he could take command on the battlefield that quickly on his own.

"It was just the opportunity. Do you think I have the leisure to deal with such trivial matters?"

..trivial matters?

Pan Er was a little unhappy after hearing this. It wasn't that the Su family was not a small matter, but how could it be a small matter when it was related to her? Why did this sound so unpleasant?

She didn't say anything, just turned away.

Obviously this was a sign of anger, which made Zong Cong embarrassed. He was a little confused as to why she was angry.

"What's wrong?"

She glanced at him sideways and said, "Have troubled you to make you to take care of such trivial matters. You might as well just ignore me and go to sleep in your Qianqing Palace."

How is taking care of Su Hai related to taking care of her?

Although Zong Cong didn't truly understand, it didn't mean he didn't have a sense that he had misstepped. Did she feel belittled? But how could she feel disrespected? He had just paved the way for her, and he was concerned about everything. Otherwise, would he have remembered to ask Fulu to pass on the message today?

Zong Cong was also a little annoyed, but he saw her fair face from the corner of his eye, and he didn't want to make trouble in bed late at night, so he cleared his throat and said, "Of course it's not a small matter, I was just making an analogy."

"Really...?" The person turned around and looked at him with shining eyes.

"Of course it's true. If it's really a small matter, why would I care so much about it?" Once he said this to show his weakness, the rest would be easier to say. Zong Cong blushed slightly, but the light was dim, so it was not obvious.

She didn't say anything, but just put her arms around his neck, with her eyes half-closed with shyness, and shook her head as if embarrassed, obviously like a puppy showing her belly.

Well, that's over.

But she was extremely beautiful like this. Zong Cong sighed in his heart, rubbed her back with his big hand helplessly, and said, "It's getting late, go to bed."

No words were spoken that night.

Even though Empress Chen was the empress, it was extremely difficult for her to find a chance to say a few words to her mother that could not be heard by outsiders in such an occasion in public.

It was only at the moon-viewing banquet that she found the opportunity.

The two of them found a secluded sideroom. Empress Chen ordered Fuxia to guard outside and Fuchun to guard inside the door before she sat down and talked to the Second Lady.

After hearing what her daughter said, the second wife sat as if frozen.

It was unbelievable, but she had no choice but to believe it, and felt as if she had choked on something.

"Are you saying that she is the daughter of that bitch? Have you investigated thoroughly? Is it certain?"

Empress Chen looked at the Second Madam with a complicated look in her eyes, especially examining her expression. She thought she must have felt the same way at the beginning.

"She has a jade pendant. I've seen it. It's the one with her name carved on it."

The second wife had also seen that piece of jade, and at that time she laughed at Aunt Wang for being so poor that she actually bought such a piece of jade for her daughter to wear. She didn't take the jade to heart at all, and the fact proved that even after many years, she still remembered it.

"Then what does she want to do? When did you find out? Why didn't you say it earlier, earlier..." The second wife was a little hysterical. She never spoke like this normally.

What would it matter if someone told her earlier? As if she could be sent away again? Besides, she herself had only just found out.

Empress Chen also knew that this was not a suitable place to talk, after all, it was not far from the moon-viewing banquet. She took a deep breath, put aside all distractions, and tried her best to comfort the Second Madam, reminding her that this was the palace and there was no room for misbehavior. At the same time, she recounted the whole story of how she had discovered the clues.

"Mom, please calm down. She has no intention of returning to the Chen family. Look at the commotion at today's banquet. It was either His Majesty or herself who was trying to build momentum for herself to elevate the Su family to sever ties with the Chen family. I'm not telling you this today to make you anxious, but to ask you to help me keep an eye on the family, especially father..."

Empress Chen paused and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. "Father hasn't told the family yet. If he hasn't told the family yet, then don't tell them. If he tells them, your daughter won't be able to survive."

Her actions actually calmed the Second Madam down.

Yes, how could the person who could set up such a heart-breaking trap be a fool? It’s just that Empress Chen’s words were too sudden, and what she said was too shocking.

How was this possible? Was this karma? Was retribution coming for her?

The Second Madam doesn't believe in retribution. If there is retribution, why haven't those people who have done so many evil things died and are still alive and well?

The most important thing at the moment was exactly as her daughter said. No matter what the reason is for Chen Pingwu not to say anything yet, he could not be allowed to say it at all.

Concubine Su was already so powerful and favoured. If the Chen family knew that she was actually a descendant of theirs, what would her father-in-law and uncles do?

Because she had been married into the Chen family for a long time, no one knew the Chen family better than the Second Madam.

On the surface, they act righteous, but in reality, they are driven by profit. They can easily be swayed by profit, especially such a major event that can affect the Chen family's century-old foundation. They might make other plans, and would stop making any effort to help her daughter establish her son as the crown prince.

If the position of crown prince did not end up in their hands, what would happen to her daughter? The second wife knew it without much thought.

Seeing her daughter crying anxiously and sadly, she hugged her, her face twitching with a ferocious look, and comforted her: "Don't panic, don't cry, mother was able to crush that mother and daughter to death back then, even if she survived till now, mother can still crush her to death again..."...

Empress Chen interrupted her and said angrily, "Mother, it's already at this point, and you're still talking about whether she should die or not? She is now a proper consort, and the most favored. Would you kill her, or would she kill you?"

"Don't mention these things now. I'm not competing with her for favor. This is all for the future. What you need to do now is make sure Dad does not tell the family about this, this is for me, for my son, and for you to become the proper authority of the Chen family in the future.

"Mother, haven't you always envied grandma? When Duo'er becomes the crown prince, no one in the Chen family will dare to look down on you. You are the crown prince's grandmother, the grandmother of the future emperor. He has your blood in his veins, and you are his closest person. Who in the Chen family would dare to treat you lightly?"

"Your father is not that stupid. After all, you are his biological child. Besides, you are the Empress." The Second Lady's eyes flickered. She seemed to remember something and felt a little lacking in confidence.

Empress Chen held her shoulders and looked at her straight in the eyes: "I might be the empress, but an empress can still be deposed. Mother, don't you see that His Majesty has only been on the throne for a year, and your daughter has almost no place to stand in this palace? That woman surnamed Su is a seductress, just like her mother, she was born to seduce men. Now only if Duo'er's position as the crown prince is confirmed, His Majesty will not easily touch me for the sake of the overall situation."

Maybe it was because Empress Chen's eyes were too deep, or maybe it was because her expression was too heavy, or maybe it was because she gritted her teeth and said "just like her mother", which made the Second Lady finally calm down completely.

"Okay, I understand. I'll go back and persuade your father with emotion and reason. Even if I have to beg him, I won't let him tell anyone."

Empress Chen nodded, her tense face relaxed and she revealed a gentle smile.

"If Duo'er can become the crown prince, it will all be thanks to mother."

"Why are you saying all this now? You are my daughter and Duo'er is my grandson. If mother doesn't help you, will she help outsiders? Don't worry. Even if your father doesn't care about us mother and daughter, he still has your elder brother and your younger brother. He has to take them into consideration." The Second Lady pursed her lips and said.

The mother and daughter chatted for a while longer, and then Empress Chen asked the Second Madam to leave first, and she would leave later to avoid being noticed.

After the second madam left, Fuchun looked at Empress Chen hesitantly.

"What's wrong? Just say it if you have something to say."

Fuchun thought about it and said it.

"Your Majesty, the master didn't know about this matter at first. Now that the Second Madam has taken the initiative to expose it, isn't it obvious that she is telling the master that there is something else going on?"

It would seem obvious there's some hidden scheme at the very least. It would be like her confessing to doing the deed herself. It all depends on whether her mother can make this matter sound clear without telling her of her own involvement.

However, Empress Chen couldn't care less about those things now. Only if her father gave up telling the matter, would the Chen family help her wholeheartedly.

As for her mother——

In the face of the overall situation, individuals always have to make concessions, just like she and her mother said, as long as Duo’er becomes the crown prince, who would dare not take them seriously?

Let’s not talk about it. After experiencing this, the Second Lady naturally had no time to about the subsequent moon-viewing banquet.

The eldest lady of the Chen family saw through the absent-mindedness of the second lady and wondered what had happened. However, she did not think much of it. Obviously, this occasion was not the time to be distracted.

After the moon-viewing banquet was over, the men and women of the Chen family went their separate ways and did not meet again until they met outside the palace gate.

This was not a good place to talk, so the Second Lady could only suppress her anxiety and think about how to talk to the Master when she got back so that he would agree to this matter and not be suspicious of her.

Obviously, her own daughter had given her a difficult problem today, but the Second Lady had no choice but to go ahead with it, as she understood the importance of the matter.

Even if it's not for her daughter but for their grandson, it was for his two sons and the future as well.

[wangsejabin]

Hey I was browsing the blog for any new updates and I just read about your mom…I hope you and your family are doing okay :)

hello, thank you for kind thoughts. my mom passed away in april and i've been offline taking care of my family, moving to a new place and looking for a new job. i have an update cooking, it should be done sometime tonight

[wangsejabin]

Hii, just another “pls update” message. I hope you’re doing okay :)

i would love to have the energy, i swear. my mom is, however, battling terminal cancer and only have a few weeks left. i'm barely feeding myself, let alone functioning as a human being

[wangsejabin]

Time Travel to Ming Dynasty New Year

from: Xue Shuo (雪朔)

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 126

Pan'er concluded that every time the palace held a palace banquet it always consisted of the same three things. Sitting around for hours, observing the titled women's greetings, and attending the feasts.

As for how it was for the men, Pan'er had no idea, but she hoped that the morning would be over soon, and that she would be able to relax after finishing her duties. In the afternoon she took the opportunity to go back to the palace to rest, and when she asked about it, she learnt that Emperor Jianping's side was not yet finished, so Pan'er went to sleep by herself.

After sleeping for less than an hour, woke up, hurriedly combed her hair and dressed to go to the Ning Shou Palace, and heard people say that the frontier sent a report of victory, His Majesty was naturally in high spirits. Ning Shou Palace was adjacent to the Chang Yin Pavilion, Chang Yin Pavilion is one of the largest theatres in the Forbidden City.

At the palace banquet, it was permitted to listen to the theatre, but naturally only the women who were members of prominent official family in the capital.

When Pan'er arrived, Empress Dowager Fu was already there, and around her, in addition to Empress Chen, there was also a circle of women. On the stage opera was being performed, most people were focused on watching, Pan'er quietly found a corner, and took a seat. Because the evening has no formal event, Pan'er did not wear auspicious clothes, but dressed in regular dress, coupled with the drums and gongs on the stage, her arrival did not cause sideways glances.

A palace maid came up to serve tea and asked if she wanted to move her seat, and Pan'er shook her head. After only managing a couple of sips from her cup of tea, on the side there were a few women gossiping. Now that the matter had spread in the palace, all because the report was reported at the palace banquet, probably everyone knew that His Majesty had been in a bad mood these days because of the situation at the border, someone went out of their way to time the report to inspire happiness and elicit rewards.

Before Pan'er left to take her nap, all the people above her had left their tables and that allowed her to leave as well. Whether one went back to rest, or to change clothes, this is the palace convention, only the empress dowager, the empress and highly ranked imperial ladies had this privilege, other women would still have to wait until the palace banquet had finished.

For example, Empress Dowager Fu had left earlier than Pan'er, actually not long after the start of the banquet she had left the table, then Empress Chen had left her table not long after the Empress Dowager Fu, and Pan'er had left a bit after them. So what these women had all heard, Pan'er had learned a little late.

It was previously reported from the border that the Jin people not only raided the town of Datong, but also raided Xuanfu, only because the casualties in Xuanfu is negligible, the capital had not been made aware of it. The two towns thought that the Jin people just raid their own towns, so they both set up heavy defence, fearing the Jin people returning.

Who knew that after they had failed in conquering the town, presumably they arranged scouts in the pass, and learnt that Datong's general in command Hu Bingcheng was seriously injured and unconscious, and then focused their troops secretly to raid Datong again.

Datong was missing their main general, but also because of the spies secretly sent to spread rumours to cause panic, even if they had tried to set up at strong defence, the Jin people would have beaten them. After all, they were injured and outnumbered against an overwhelming force. They thought that the other side of the army was divided into two ways, who knew that they were rushing to Datong, and were immediately taken by surprise.

At this moment of crisis, Yulin Pass received reinforcements. In fact, it was not proper reinforcements, but a low ranking officer patrolling the border with his cavalry, found that the movements of the Jin people was odd. This person turned out to be a bold man, with just a few people under his command, and no real rank.

After arriving, they found that the situation was not right, at the time it was just the practically defeated Datong garrison. To not call the person bold would be an understatement, he did not count how many people were under his command, had no fear of the opponent, and even dared to decieve them! They fanned out to seem like a greater force and attacked the Jin army from behind.

The raid came as a complete surprise to the Jin people, and it successfully managed to fool them into thinking it really were reinforcements arriving.They would have had insufficient troops, which is why they would schemed to pretend to attack Xuanfu and Datong at the same time. Feinting. Probably their own use of guile, but also afraid of the people of the Great Zhou using intrigue, deliberately trying to lure the enemy deeper, in fact, wanting to wrap them like dumplings.

After Datong, there is also Taiyuan, if Taiyuan had reinforcements, the leader of the Jin generals had the intention to retreat. The retreat of a lifetime, the morale is lacking, the team was immediately broken up, although the Jin people ran away more, but also beheaded a few hundred ranks, the Jin general was also captured alive. Afterwards, coincidentally they found out, the Jin general actually turned out to be a vassal king.

That is, the son of the emperor, similar to the meaning of a prince of the first rank. This credit is not small, enough to make up for the loss of Datong previously. That is not all, it was also clear that the court was very dissatisfied with the situation in Datong, so they specifically sent people into the capital to present the prisoners.

This occurred a few days after the General Hu Bingcheng was seriously wounded, presumably the imperial envoys sent to Datong at that point had not yet arrived.

That procession of prisoners would take about half a month to arrive in the capital, the report would naturally be the first to traverse the eight hundred miles to the capital. And the procession of war prisoners weren't just anybody, it was said that among them was the prince of the Jin people as well.

These were just the news shared over tea, and although Pan'er listened with interest, she didn't think much about it. Soon someone found her sitting in the corner and called out Your Highness, then Dowager Empress Fu's side heard it and called her over. After going over there was no small talk, that is, Empress Dowager Fu scolded her for sitting in the corner by herself, while Pan'er smiled sheepishly and said that she did not want to disturb the Empress Dowager and all the ladies watching the opera.

During this talk, the ladies sitting on the side were intentionally or unintentionally observing Empress Dowager Fu and Pan'er, and of course there was also Empress Chen, but most of the gazes were on Pan'er.

This was not the first public appearance of Su Guifei, said to be a divine beauty, which was perhaps an overstatement, but only beauty would not allow someone to remain favoured by His Majesty for so many years. From the time of the Eastern Palace, she was extremely favoured, and now she had been made a noble consort, and even the Empress was suppressed by her.

Of course, none of these words could be said loudly in public, and even the gazes were extremely subtle, so that it could not be detected. Regardless of the gossip, everyone knew they had to treat both the Empress and the noble consort with the same respect.

There was Dowager Empress Fu in the middle, surrounded by the matrons of the older generation, naturally, there was nothing for Empress Chen or Pan'er - both of a younger generation - to add to the conversation. Until suddenly a eunuch belonging to Jingren Palace suddenly came to give Pan'er the good news.

"Congratulations to Her Highness the noble consort, congratulations to Her Highness, your honourable brother has made great meritous service in Datong, it is said that he will soon be going to the capital to present the prisoners. The news has just been delivered to Jingren Palace, Sister Xiangpu and the others were not around, so the slave had the guts to come and report to your ladyship."

The person who came was none other than Xiao Tian Zi. It was that very same Xiao Tian Zi who had been suppressed by Xiao De Zi to the point where he had not been able to raise his head.

Pan'er also knew about this, so she subconsciously thought that someone had dug another hole for her, wanting her to make a fool of herself in front of the crowd, or else how was there some kind of maternal elder brother who had appeared out of nowhere.She had a smile on her face, but her eyes were glaring at Xiaotianzi, and in her heart she was deliberating on what kind of words to say in order to manage the scene in front of her. If it was someone deliberately trying to trap her, the other party would definitely have a backhanded plan, so how should she deal with it? "Your Highness is overjoyed, right? The imperial court's report of a victory has been reported to His Majesty, there can be no mistake." Hearing His Majesty, Pan'er sobered up. Since Xiao Tianzi mentioned His Majesty, he must have a meaning, and he wouldn't dare to knowingly help someone to harm her. That would be a death sentence. At this time, some people beside him whispered about the words Datong, offering prisoners, and wandering officers, and someone else took the initiative to explain to Dowager Empress Fu. So the whispering grew more and more, and Pan'er heard someone say, "That meritorious warrior seems to be surnamed Su, the same surname as Noble Consort." "This I did not pay attention to ......." Pan'er quickly said, " Such things are brought to such a place for what reason? There is no need to disturb the Empress Dowager and the ladies watching the play, still not quickly leaving?" Xiao Tianzi also realised that he had caused trouble, quickly kowtowed and left .

However, after that, there are not just a few people asking Pan'er a barrage of questions. There were people inquiring about the 'brother's age, whether he was married or not, but Pan'er remained vague, as if she didn't want to mention it for fear of stealing the limelight, but in fact, even she herself was confused.

It was not easy to deal with all of that, so Pan'er excused herself and temporarily left the main floor of the pavilion by going to the purification room.

Just as she walked out, she saw Xiao Tian Zi standing outside posing as an attendant eunuch. She led Xiang Pu all the way to the purification room, Xiao Tian Zi followed behind, into the purification room, Xiao Tian Zi explained the ins and outs. The truth of the matter was, after Pan'er had left, Fulu arrived to report the news, and Fulu had ordered him to go inform his mistress.

It was a coincidence that Xiao Dezi was not there at that time, and the errand was taken by Xiao Tianzi. If not, how could Xiao Tianzi who had been suppressed by Xiao Dezi ever have the chance to speak before her, after all. About the specifics he could not say clearly, and did not dare to ask more, only said it is Eunuch Fu come, announced Su family's Su Hai from Datong had rendered meritorious service and would be arriving in the capital.

But Pan'er pretty much understood what was going on, it seemed without her knowledge, Zong Cong sent Su Hai to the border.

For what?

Naturally, it was for her.

Maybe he had made the arrangements back in Yangzhou, but had never told her about it. Naturally happy, at the same time there was a kind of watery haze filling her eyes, Pan'er closed her eyes and took a deep breath before saying, "Alright, I know, you go back first."

Xiao Tianzi obeyed and left. Pan'er took Xiang Pu with her, a while later as she had to freshen up before she went out. Obviously Xiang Pu was also curious about what was going on with all of this, but she naturally didn't think through it as thoroughly as Pan'er, but she didn't dare to ask too many questions, after all, it wasn't the place.

After that it was about time for the theatre watching to end and for them to attend the feast. Pan'er could feel that many people intentionally or unintentionally were looking at her, it seemed that the scene that happened in the Changyin Pavilion before was known by many people.

What in the world were they thinking?

It turned out that Noble Consort Su actually had a maternal clan, wasn't it said that she was brought in from the thin horse trade?

In fact, regarding the rumours of Su Guifei origin as a thin horse, many people were doubtful, after all, the thin horse women had wrapped feet.

Whenever Su Guifei usually appeared in front of people, she was dressed in formal attire and long skirts, but one was still able to observe that she did not have wrapped feet.

But there was no doubt about who had sent Su Guifei into the palace. That had been the Chen family and clearly they had lifted a stone and smashed their own feet, this thing had been the subject of many jokes in the capital.

Jokes were jokes, but people also dared not take this Su Guifei lightly.

After all, this was the Chen family, but who let her quickly become an equal match with the Empress Chen, and even suppress her, there are few people who could have such ability and clearly she was not simple.

These thoughts of others, Pan'er does not know, she only knew that after the Changyin Pavilion gathering was held, dinner would held and after that came the moon feast.

At each of those events the ladies seemed to be more respectful to her, while Empress Chen and Hu Shufei looked at her with a complex gaze, and there was a hidden sense of trepidation in it.

Halfway through the Moon Viewing Banquet, Pan'er went back to Jingren Palace.

After almost two quarters of an hour, Zong Cong also came back. He drank wine, his body tinged with a faint smell of alcohol, but the Canaan incense was stronger than usual.

Pan'er felt that he seemed to be drunk, because whenever he was drunk or close to being drunk, his eyes and behaviour were extraordinarily different. For example, usually in front of the servants, he would rarely make too intimate gestures towards her, but once he drank too much, his small gestures were extraordinarily numerous, either wrapping his arms around her waist or holding her hand, touching her face or something like that, like a small child.

"You first drink the sobering soup, after you finish it go wash up, there's something we need to talk about later."

At this time, Pan'er had already washed up, wearing a begonia red bedclothes, the person was wrapped in Zong Cong's arms, she couldn't even push him away.

"You serve me to wash."

"I'm all washed up, how can I serve you to wash."

Seeing that the mistress and His Majesty were entangled, Fulu and Xiang Pu they both naturally hurriedly retreated, fearing that if they stayed for one more moment, their eyes wouldn't want to be there by then.

"Just have you serve."

He wrapped his arms around her waist, his gaze particularly passionate, and Pan'er naturally understand his meaning.

After kissing for awhile, the two went to the bathing room, and after a series of random tossing and turning, Pan'er was exhausted.

She went to lie down on the bed, she no longer having the desire to talk, and even with a belly full of unanswered questions, she was too lazy to ask at this moment, not wanting to move a finger, but he was full of interest, not at all sleepy.

"The matter of Su Hai coming back, did Fulu say anything to you?"

"Fulu did not personally tell me, he came to Jingren Palace ......" Pan'er repeated the course of events roughly.

Upon hearing this, Zong Cong snorted, "This old bastard, he can sell himself to curry favour."

[wangsejabin]

Ming Dynasty Hanfu Group Portrait

In Confucius Temple and The Imperial College Museum Via Guo Feng Jin Xiao Yu (国风金小鱼)

[wangsejabin]

𝑀𝒶𝓂𝒾𝒶𝓃𝓆𝓊𝓃 𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔'𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒾𝒻𝓈

[wangsejabin]

chinese fashion in the style of ming dynasty by 毛若懿

[wangsejabin]

Gorgeous Ming Dynasty Hanfu

via Hanfu Photographer San Qian Qu (三千渠)

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 125

Datong, Hu Bingcheng?

That was Consort Hu's maiden clan then.

But Pan'er didn't mention that, she just said, "Even if you're worried about the border affairs, you should still have the evening meal. Whether you take the evening meal or not has nothing to do with whether Datong is in chaos or not, and even if you don't take the evening meal, it won't solve anything."

"A bunch of crooked reasoning!" Zong Cong tapped her on the forehead. She also ignored him and turned around to go out and order Xiang Pu and the girls to pass some dinner over.

Fulu busily came over and said, "Your Highness, the evening meal has long been prepared by the slave, that is, His Majesty does not have the heart to use it, no need for Xiang Pu to pass it on, the slave will let someone serve it up here."

Not long after, the evening meal was served. Probably thought it was late, in order to avoid eating too well at night, so the meal was vegetarian and noodle-based.

The noodle colour was slightly yellow, the dish seems to use eggs too, this Fulu in ordering Zong Cong's food, could be said to have made great effort. Probably also knew that the border was in turmoil, His Majesty probably would not have much heart to eat, and would randomly eat a few bites, so more thought was put in and additional nutrients were hidden in the noodles.

As expected, Zong Cong finally stared at the noodles and ate, although Pan'er also took the initiative to give him a few chopsticks of vegetables, he was patient, and also did not just eat a few mouthfuls. A bowl of noodles was consumed, the person is much more comfortable, Zong Cong drank a cup of tea, and only then had the mood to talk to Pan'er.

"Went to the Empress's Palace today?"

Was this not asking a question clearly knowing the answer.

"The Empress called the Bai Jie away, I'm a small minded person, for fear that she would make things difficult for Bai Jie, naturally, I had to go over to get the person back."

"Whitewashing again." Zong Cong chuckled and said.

"How did I whitewash things, the truth is really so," she batted her eyelashes and said mischievously, "the Empress said that the Ministry of the Interior honoured me with two top quality sable skins, which were not within my regulations, but were knowingly received by Bai Jie, so she looked for Bai Jie to interrogate her. Bai Jie was also a stupid person, didn't know how to evade, received a number of slaps, I couldn't stand it so I looked for a reason to teach Fu Chun a lesson."

She covered her face and said, "In fact, I also know that I was wrong, I shouldn't have offended the empress, but in the end, I am also a favoured consort, everyone in the palace knows that the empress doesn't give me any face at all, I also want face ah, if this matter is over today, in the future, they are all going to bully me and step on my head, so since she beat up my maid, I beat up her maid."

Zong Cong was amused by this crooning look of hers and patted her hand, "Still saying you're not whitewashing."

"It really isn't a whitewash. By the way, I also said a few words to the Empress, I said that Su has been surnamed for more than twenty years, and I have no intention to change my surname, so that she should not worry, don't look for trouble with me, I'm timid ......"

"You ah, really an abrasive spirit, it was not necessary for me to worry that you had suffered a loss in the Empress' Palace."

Pan'er glared at him "You worry that I suffered losses in the Empress's Palace, and yet I didn't see you come to my rescue, causing me to think of methods to get out of it for half a day."

"You even beat up the Empress's senior palace maid, and you're still worried about not being able to walk out?" He reached out to wring her cheek.

She covered her face and just wouldn't give him a wring. The two of them made a mess, their bad mood was better, and things were made clear, so they went up to the couch to rest, after all, Zong Cong was also tired today, and didn't have much of a break all day.

--

Things seemed to end just like that without a trace.

Naturally, that is impossible, even if the surface seems calm, in fact, the palace with so many pairs of eyes, even if one did not know the inside story, it was obvious that this time the noble consort and the empress was really at a stalemate.

Dowager Empress Fu also did not know, or pretended not to know, in any case, the next day she did not mention it at the morning greetings.

On the contrary, at the Empress's side, the day after the incident, she also insisted on going to the Ning Shou Palace to ask for peace, and then fell ill. The doctor was summoned, the doctor prescribed medication, and then the whole palace knew that the Empress was sick.

The next few days the empress waived the concubines' greetings, and to reported herself sick to Ning Shou Palace, closed the doors in Kunning Palace to recuperate.

In the Kunning Palace, Empress Chen lay on the phoenix bed with a pale face.

Duo and Wan Shu had just left.

Things had become such a mess that even the aloof Zong Yue could know about it, and they naturally knew about it as well.

But unlike Zong Yue's mood, the Empress had just plainly suffered a loss at the hands of Noble Consort Su.

On the surface saying that Jingren Palace received the superior sable skin not conforming to the noble consort's regulations, the empress attacked the noble consort's uninformed lackeys, and for this reason, the Internal Affairs Bureau also specially brought a eunuch out to receive punishment.

Who knew that on the next day His Majesty rewarded the Jingren Palace, not only sable, but black fox fur and silver fox fur as well. Even two pieces of the rare sea dragon skin from that year's tributes were sent.

One of them was presented to Empress Dowager Fu, and the other was Zong Cong's own.

This time the face was beaten a little too hard, this was also the reason why Empress Chen went right back and fell ill.

Fu Chun's eyes were sunken in, all from staying up and crying for the past two days. She advised Empress Chen, "Your Majesty, even if you don't think about yourself, you should think about the Grand Prince and Second Princess."

Empress Chen in turn was calm, apart from her face being paler, she was no different from usual, reaching out to pat her, "I'm fine, I just want to be quiet for a few days." "But-" Fu Chun hesitated, tucking the slipping quilt upwards, "In a few days it will be the fifteenth day of the eighth month, if you stay sick, his majesty might... ..."

Fu Chun didn't finish the rest of his words, but Empress Chen could guess her meaning. Perhaps the authority to manage palace affairs would be handed over to Noble Consort Su, after all, the 15th of August was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and at this time of the year the palace had to hold palace banquets, so there had to be someone in charge of the affairs.

Once the palace authority was handed over, with Su Guifei's current momentum, it would be difficult to get it back. The matter of management rights may seem to be petty, especially because of the existence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they greatly reduced the weight of the palace authority. But for the concubines, management authority was their lifeblood. It was the ultimate signifier of status.

That person had favour, she couldn't do anything about her, but there were others. Empress Chen had not forgotten that there was a Hu Shufei in the background, that person had been with her since she entered the Eastern Palace and had opposed her from day one, taking advantage of people's illnesses to make headway was not uncommon in the palace, she did not want to fall into the weeds and allow the chicken to pretend at being a phoenix.

So Empress Chen was instantly spirited. "You are right. In fact, this palace has also figured out in the past two days, since that Su didn't bother to recognise the Chen family, how the Chen family wants and intends to act is secondary, the Chen family and this palace are stuck in the same boat, and it's still not clear who the loser will be."

Empress Chen sat up quickly, but collapsed back again because of dizziness, Fu Chun quickly held her up and said, "Your Highness, even if you want to be tough, you have to be mindful of the phoenix body, it is better to eat something first. As long as you have the heart, you won't lose, in the end, you are the Empress of the Central Palace."

After that, Fu Chun went down to prepare food for Empress Chen without any further discussion.

--

Pan'er had been a little afraid that Empress Dowager Fu would scold her, who would have thought that she actually did not. Turning her head to see Kunning palace closing its doors to recuparate, she was a little embarrassed.

Why did it feel like they had been bullied?

Of course, this was a fleeting thought, in fact, the days had to pass and life went on. And because His Majesty rewarded the Jingren Palace, the Jingren Palace had plenty of face, the servants below all full of energy, and that day they were called by Xiang Pu to get together a few palace maids and eunuchs, speaking of that day's events in a vivid manner.

Although they did not go into the hall itself, and did not witness the whole scene, before the lady barged into the Kunning Palace they saw the situation.

They were not afraid of the Kunning Palace, and who had not witnessed Her Highness the noble consorts' benevolence, when Kunning Palace was making things difficult for miss Bai Jie, Her Highness personally brought people to take her back! Following such a master, one could rest assured.

Pan'er had not expected that because of this, Jingren Palace going through ups and downs united the people in it, inspiring a sense of belonging in the palace maids and eunuchs. They all suddenly changed their attitude and became proud to serve in Jingren Palace. But perhaps that could have been expected.

"Okay, okay, a little talk in the palace amongst our own people is fine, when you go out remember to keep your mouth shut for us, lest gossip attracts trouble for our ladyship." Feng Hai said with a smile, a few small palace maid and small eunuchs smilingly dispersed, he lifted his robe to walk into the hall.

Pan'er was sitting on the kang drinking tea, when she heard these words, she put down her tea, and let Xiang Pu move a seat for Feng Hai before saying, " That matter was expected, the Empress's resilience can't be compared to ordinary people." She had long had experience in her previous life.

Previously, Zong Cong had also proposed for Pan'er to take over the mess that was the Mid-Autumn Festival, but she had rejected it. She only shrugged it off, saying that the Empress might be fine, and Zong Cong knew that in her heart that she didn't want to risk her head again, so he didn't say much. However, they were both aware, even if Empress Chen's Feng phoenix body was unwell, she would force herself to manage it no matter the consequences.

Feng Hai also mentioned this to Pan'er before,to let her make preparations, Pan'er only told him to wait and see, and as expected, she was proven right.

"Since the Empress has recovered, how things should be done in the future is the same as before, don't grow arrogant because of that day, if someone causes trouble I will definitely not forgive him." Pan'er said.

"Your Highness need not worry, slave will definitely take note of your words."

--

Empress Chen's speed of convalescence was out of everyone's expectation. However, thinking about the Mid-Autumn Festival that was about to come, one could understand why she was able to get well so quickly.

When Empress Chen brought the concubines to greet Dowager Empress Fu after she recovered from her illness, Dowager Empress Fu looked at her, her attitude had not changed much, and said, "As long as the Empress is well, don't work too hard, and if you need to let the following people do something, let them do it, with so much going on in the palace, if you have to do everything yourself, it's no wonder that you will exhaust your body."

"Thanking empress mother for her concern."

This mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were saying polite words one one side, on the other side, concubine Li almost spit out the sip of tea she'd just taken.

She hurriedly took a handkerchief and pressed the corners of her mouth, and glanced at the Empress Dowager and the Empress, why did she feel that the Empress Dowager's words had an underlying meaning?

Thinking wildly, she looked again at Noble Consort Su who was sitting in front. Pan'er naturally didn't see Concubine Li's eyes, below her sat Hu Shufei, seeing Hu Shufei's haggard look, Concubine Li took the opportunity to put her tea cup down on the table in the gap between them and whispered, "Shufei shouldn't be worried, your father will definitely be fine." Hu Shufei glanced at her and pulled the corner of her mouth, sort of acknowledging it with a smile.

In fact, if one thinks about it, with Hu Shufei's character of being concerned about the chaos in the world, this time when Empress Chen lost so much face, she was not jumping up and down to watch the fun, which was really unusual.

Empress Dowager Fu naturally also noticed this point, and so when she finished talking to the Empress, she then turned to Hu Shufei and said: "Shufei must be very worried about General Hu, you can rest assured that the Emperor has sent the imperial envoys to the border, this time, accompanied by two imperial physicians, General Hu will certainly turn out to be in a safe condition."

"Thanking Empress Dowager, thanking His Majesty for your great kindness."

There was a grateful smile on her face and her mouth was saying the same thing, but Hu Shufei's heart was very bitter.Her father was injured while fighting against the Jin people, when the Jin people attacked Datong, her father chased them out of the city in a hurry, and unfortunately he was ambushed by the enemy, so he fell off his horse and was injured. Although fortunately his life was saved, but the person had not yet woken up.

Whether he gained glory or not was secondary, the important thing was the person, and even if he woke up, for a while certainly would not be able to lead the troops. Datong is one of the nine important towns by the border, the Jin people this year chose Datong as a breakthrough, certainly not without an underlying plan.

The court could not wait for her father to recover, and would certainly send another general to take command. This time his majesty sent an envoy in the name of praising her father, but in reality the intention was changing the generals, but he acted concerned about her father's face before sending the degree to the outside world.

Obviously these words are not appropriate to say.

On such occasions, the palace had always been a place where the powerful stepped on the weak, seeing others lose power, people would rush to kick them while they were down, fortunately, the Empress was only concerned about fighting with Su Guifei, and did not have any mind to concern herself with her, or else who knew how much humiliation she would have suffered.

They did not press Hu Shufei too much, aside from asking about the well-being of her family out of politeness, for the rest of the palace, in the end, her tragedy was just a small matter.

Soon the Mid-Autumn Festival was coming, the palace once again returned became lively.

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 124

Xiang Pu was a clever one. Knowing that the master was going to Kun Ning Palace, ran back in advance, called several eunuchs and palace maids to come.

Originally were stopped outside, but Su Guifei was determined to break in, the palace maid and eunuchs below did not dare to block her, and if something happened, the Empress would certainly fine, however their own fates would be difficult to predict. So on the one hand it was really barging in, on the other hand it was pretending to barricade, and so they eventually allowed Pan'er to lead the people to barge straight into the hall.

The moment Empress Chen saw Pan'er, she sat up straight, and at the same time, she also put away the furious expression on her face. Hearing Pan'er's words, her face was just a little grim as she said, "Fu Chun, you answer Noble Consort Su."

Fu Chun busily stood straight, hands folded by her lower abdomen, her head half lowered, as if the one who hit the person just now wasn't her, this respectful posture and this mannerism could not be faulted by anyone, worthy of being a senior palace maid beside the Empress.

"Replying to Your Highness words, Bai Jie was summoned to come because not long ago she was in the house of internal affairs to receive something, in which there were some mistakes, who knows Bai Jie came over and spoke out of turn, offending the Empress, the Empress ordered the servant girl to teach her a lesson."

"Bai Jie is a person from Jingren Palace, if she received something wrongly a while ago, it was not someone from the House of Internal Affairs who stepped in to handle, but instead, Her Majesty the Empress herself had to personally deal with this matter? Besides, Jingren Palace received the wrong things, how come this palace was not aware of it, when did this happen, how come nothing was said at that time, but afterwards, you raised an accusation instead?"

Fu Chun's words were clearly a cover story, and since it was a cover story, it could not stand to be scrutinised.

But it was obvious that Fu Chun wasn't without some measures, so she didn't panic.

"Bai Jie received two purple sable skins in the House of Internal Affairs, according to the rules of the Harem, there is no superior purple sable skins in the Noble Consort's sub-regulation, only the Empress and the Empress Dowager and the Grand Empress Dowager have them, which is a usurpation, Bai Jie as a Noble Consort's Grand Palace Maiden shouldn't be unaware of this rule, that is why Her Majesty the Empress summoned her over for questioning."

This matter Pan'er actually was aware of, although the days weren't cold yet, but the palace maids below are already preparing her winter supplies. Such as household clothes, hats and shoes, unless it is auspicious clothes, usually are sent back to let the palace maids below who are good at needle and thread to make.

Bai Jie was usually prudent and proper, so Jingren Palace and the Department of Internal Affairs dealings was her responsibility, a while ago she had told Pan'er, she was going to receive the sable fur to do her hats and gloves, unexpectedly the Department of Internal Affairs received a batch of superior sable fur,and sent two of these as tribute to Jingren Palace.

Such things on the surface was a violation of the rules, but were actually a common occurrence in the palace. The Department of Internal Affairs will look at the favour of the ladies of the Palace, and will inevitably pay tribute with some of the things that are not included in the regulations.

Pan'er also did not take it to heart, after all, she received many things that were not within regulations, as Zong Cong let people send it to her to make a cloak, even items better than the first-class sable skin is not unheard of, who could have expected Fu Chun would take advantage of that.

It seemed that Kunning Palace had been waiting to catch her shortcomings, not just a day or two days, or else whether she obtained two sable skins from the Ministry of Internal Affairs was Fu Chun, a palace maid to know? But Pan'er was not without a response approach, before she came she knew that this matter couldn't end well, but she didn't care, anyway, she wasn't the one who should be afraid of making a big scene.

Pan'er didn't even look at Fu Chun and put on the noble consort's attitude: "Bai Jie, how should a servant girl speak to her master?"

Originally knocked to the ground, after Pan'er came in, Bai Jie, had gotten up and stood with her head lowered at the side, replied, "Replying to Your Highness, in order to show respect, servant girls should speak to their masters with respect, and their words should be referred to as replying to the words of their masters."

"Good then, she has offended this palace, teach her a lesson for this palace!" Bai Jie didn't hold back, and took two steps forward and yanked on Fu Chun's lapel.

Fu Chun was still in a state of shock: "You can't hit me ......"

"A servant girl, can't even address herself as servant girl, reward her with a few more slaps from this palace and teach her the rules."

"Yes."

Empress Chen sharply and angrily said, "What are you trying to do, Noble Consort Su?"

At this time, Pan'er had already gone to sit on the chair next to her, Empress Chen was in the main position on the phoenix throne, and she randomly chose a position to sit down near the end, seemingly one on top and one underneath, but she did not lose any imposing force.

"Replying to the Empress' words, this concubine originally came to find the Empress to talk about family matters, who would have thought that this Fu Chun was so ignorant of the rules, in order to avoid such things from happening again in the future, and going out to disgrace the Empress' face, this concubine will overstep her authority to teach her a lesson on behalf of the Empress, teach her the rules, lest she go out and cause trouble for the Empress in the future."

Between words, Bai Jie's slaps had already swung over.Yes, swung. This was how Fu Chun had hit her before, and now that Her Highness had risked a complete falling out with the Empress to save her, she naturally had to hit her back in the same way.

Fu Chun didn't cry out in a ghostly manner, just in the end, the slaps were very hard, and it was inevitable that she suffered pain for a while. It was Empress Chen who couldn't stand it. She was so old, no one ever dared to be so reckless in front of her, and never did anyone disgrace her face so much.

Empress Chen was suffering these two days, of course she knew that it was not wise for her to call Bai Jie over, but instead of ordering someone to go home and ask, this move gave her more room to manoeuvre.

If the Chen family did not know, but instead she asked a bad thing, is when things spread to the surface, she is no longer the only daughter of the Chen family in the palace, is not cheap surnamed Su this bitch! Chen family tenth girl died a long time ago, since her surname is Su, it is best to be surnamed Su for the rest of her life!

"You know?"

Empress Chen's eyes kind of scared Pan'er, such eyes she had only seen on Empress Chen in her previous life when she was at the end of her rope and was about to be locked up in the Cold Palace, she didn't think that she would be at the end of her rope so early in this life.

"Know what?"

With the sound of slapping in the background, such a dialogue was extremely bizarre.

"You know exactly what this palace is talking about!"

"You're afraid?"

"What is this palace afraid of, this palace is his majesty's primary wife, this palace is the empress of the middle palace, as long as this palace doesn't make a mistake for one day, his majesty won't be able to abolish me for one day, and you're just a noble consort, this palace is afraid of you?" Empress Chen laughed coldly, but something in her eyes couldn't fool Pan'er, her old rival of two lives.

"My surname is Su, not Chen. The things you fought tooth and nail for are actually not worth mentioning to others."

Saying that, Pan'er stood up with some disinterest and walked towards the door. Bai Jiu also halted in her punishment of Fu Chun and followed behind.

"I don't believe that you don't covet a prosperous family lineage!" Empress Chen stood up from the phoenix seat and hissed as she squeezed the armrest.

When Emperor Jianping first ascended the throne, he only appointed Pan'er to the position of Noble Concubine, not with the meaning that her status was too low to be promoted too high at once. His intention had only been to preserve the stability of the Empress.

Pan'er stopped her in tracks and looked back at the Empress, "Do you think that the Chen family is truly a good thing for either of us?"

If they were that great, why did Emperor Jianping refrain from setting up a crown prince all this time?

This reasoning also applied to Pan'er as well, she already had three children and the position of Noble Consort, she really didn't need the Chen family at all.

Empress Chen collapsed onto her arse on the phoenix throne. She naturally understood the meaning of Su-shi's words, it wasn't that she hadn't thought about the possibility that it was because of the Chen family that His Majesty hadn't been appointing Duo'er as the crown prince.

The Chen family already had a Prime Minister, a Minister of Rites, and an Empress, if there was also a Crown Prince, in a few years, would this kingdom be surnamed Zong or Chen?

But what could she do?

The Chen surname for her was a boon and a constraint, if not because of the surname Chen, she would not have been chosen as the Crown Princess, in the same way had she not been surnamed Chen she may have long been suppressed by Su-shi.

Her surname can only be Chen, and that's all she's known as.

--

The road back was very quiet, although as they walked the long distance, the palace maids and eunuchs quietly glanced at eachother, but did not dare to speak.

When they returned to Jingren Palace, Bai Jie said, "If it were not for this servant girl ......"

Pan'er shook her head, smiled and said: "Sooner or later this day would come, I have no intention of recognising the Chen family as my maternal clan, this will avoid making the emperor suspicious, and it is probably better to simply speak the truth."

In fact, Pan'er was deliberately saying the words publicly, she had been waiting for this opportunity for a while, and hadn't thought that the opportunity would come so soon.

"Quickly go and let Xiang Pu rub some medicine on you, in the end you are a girl, don't ruin your face." Xiang Pu pulled Bai Jie away, and deliberately made jokes with her.

Bai Jie didn't say anything but her eyes softened a lot when she looked at Xiang Pu. Today if it were not for Xiang Pu alerting their mistress to come barge in to save her, then her fate could only be one of death, fortunately, Xiang Pu was once again 'meddlesome'.

Pan'er also did not go to the Qianqing Palace, waited until the evening meal to see Zong Cong had not come, she was relieved, thinking that he must be very busy with political affairs, temporarily unable to care about this small matter, but also to give her some buffer room, giving her time to think about how to explain the matter.

So she let someone pass the meal, and the three children ate together with her. As the homework in the study is getting heavier, Zong Yue does not come to Jingren Palace for meals every day, and the girls' school in the East Palace was moved to the palace by Zong Cong, into the Princess' Courtyard near the Ning Shou Palace in a long row of courtyards.

Now that Wan Yin were getting older, the lady teacher instructed her, in addition to teaching her to read and write, even embroidery and qin, chess and painting had also been put on the schedule.

Wan Yin did not dare to say that she would not learn, but with the experience of having her fingers pierced before, she is now reluctant to learn those things. She was very interested in painting, which was surprising to Pan'er.

As for Zong Lin, he was about to turn five, and once he turned five, he had to enter the upper study room, so he was moved to the southern third house in advance. However, since he was old enough to know things, he loved to pester his elder brothers and sisters, and lived in Pan'er's palace less often, so as soon as he heard that he had to move to a new courtyard, he was happier than anyone else, which made Pan'er, as his mother, sigh with the feeling that her children were no longer small.

Usually, they never had a quiet meal together, but today, somehow Zong Yue and Wan Yin didn't talk much, and even Zong Lin, who was always rowdy, had very few things to say.

"What's wrong, why are you children acting like this?"

Zong Yue looked a little worried and said, " Son heard that Mother and the Empress had a conflict because a palace maid violated the rules in Kunning Palace?"

The news has travelled really fast, even Zong Yue has heard about it.

Pan'er looked at both Wan Yin and Zong Lin, and it was clear that these two knew about it as well.

"It's nothing much, it's just that your Empress Mother had detained Bai Jie, and Mother Consort went over to ask for her back."

"Then why did she detain Bai Jie, the people of our Jingren Palace are not people that her Kunning Palace can just arbitrarily detain!" Wan Yin said indignantly.

Pan'er tapped her forehead: "Look, Mother spoiled you, what words can be said, what words can not be said, you are also not young, you should be well aware? Although I understand your heart, you can't talk nonsense, the empress as the head of the six palaces, the supreme power of the harem, it's only natural for her to call a maid for questioning, but it's only because Bai Jie is mother's personal maid that mother went through the trouble her to ask for her return."

"Then she knows that Bai Jie is mother's personal palace maid, and she still arbitrarily detains her, it is clearly bullying mother!"

It wasn't unreasonable for Wan (婉婤) to say that, but it was hard to say who was bullying who this time.

"Mother is as helpless as you say, casually being bullied? Besides, there's still your father, the Empress wouldn't dare to bully me as she pleases. Well, this is all grown-ups' business, you guys are only how old and you worry about grown-ups' business, you're not afraid of aging before your time. I'm fine, you should not be bothered with these matters, it would be better to pay more attention to schoolwork, don't be mischievous please, the rest will be dealt with by Mother."

This naughty and mischievous person was naturally Zong Lin, who was quite unconvinced, and his little mouth deflated. As for Zong Yue and Wan Yin, they exchanged glances and didn't say anything else.

After dinner, they stayed behind to accompany Pan'er, and deliberately joked and entertained her.

In the end they were still small children, who could not hide their thoughts, often looking out of the window, probably wondering why Father didn't come today, but they didn't say it openly.

When Pan'er told them to go back to rest, Wan Yin even gave Zong Lin a wink, so that he could stay to sleep with his mother because he was small, but Zong Lin was a person who didn't know how to wink or what it meant, and asked his big sister what she was doing by squeezing her own eyes, and whether she was uncomfortable with her eyes.

Wan Yin got angry with her ignorant younger brother, and Pan'er was in tears trying to contain her laughter as she drove them away, just at that moment Zong Cong arrived.

"Father."

Zong Cong sat down, looked around at the children, and looked at Pan'er, only to say: "It is this late, why have you not gone back to rest, Zong Yue still have to go to the study tomorrow, in the morning, but will you even be able to get up in the morning?"

Zong Yue grinned and scratched his head and said, "Accompanying mother consort to talk for a moment and forgot, son will immediately return."

The three children left together, Pan'er specially instructed someone to light more lanterns on the road back so they didn't fall.

After the children had left, she asked Zong Cong if he had had dinner yet. Sure enough, it was he had not.

"The border was inadvertently attacked by the Jin people at the Guanwai Pass, although fortunately they did not break through the line of defence, but the General Hu Bingcheng was seriously injured, and now the border is in a state of chaos, how would I have the heart to have dinner."