Ch.198 Scheming and Ambitious (4)
Thinking back about everything that had happened tonight, Qin Jiu nodded her head in an eventful way: "Fun! It was extremely interesting!"
"I even had a delicious radish cake tonight. It was charred on the outside and soft on the inside. It smelled amazing and was extremely delicious. You would have loved it. What a pity…..."
She paused for a while, and then slowly continued: "It's a pity, you couldn’t have some!"
As soon as her words fell, she didn't wait for Gu Zezhi to react and ran away.
Looking at her figure from the back, as he listened to her smug laugh, Gu Zezhi's lips turned upwards, his smile was gentle, and his eyes radiated in the dim light.
With the lantern in hand, he followed along.
The silver moonlight poured down, as it softly covered the buildings, flowers and trees, the flowers and trees swayed and danced along with the night breeze, as they made rustling sounds.
Under the moonlight, in Yong An Palace, Empress Wei was talking to the emperor about Changning and Yingluo.
The emperor and his wife had been married for 20 years, and they had a deep and connected relationship with each other. Empress Wei never kept secrets from the emperor, and even told him about her own thoughts:
"The cause of this whole incident was because Yingluo wanted to frame Jiu, but in the end, she was dragged under by Changning."
"Yingluo and Changning are both guilty."
"I felt that they deserved to be punished, so I just let them fight it out, and let them stir things up, but what I didn't expect was.….."
What Empress Wei didn’t expect was that Changning would injure her face.
Empress Wei gave off a complex expression. She took a sip of hot tea, and then said: "Emperor, I reckon that the injury on Changning's forehead…... she probably did it to herself."
Empress Wei still remembered that when Changning was about four or five years old, she often fell ill. No matter where the emperor was, he would be summoned by Changning's biological mother, Xu Anbi.
At first, Empress Wei also thought that Changning’s body was weak, so she instructed the imperial physics to take good care of her, but even after more than a year of treatment, there was no sign of improvement, so she planned to bring Changning over to her place for some time, to recuperate. After all, the expenses spent in the Fengluan Palace was much more than Xu Anbi’s place.
However, as soon as Empress Wei mentioned this, Xu Anbi bawled so much that she was on the verge of fainting, as if her intentions were to snatch her daughter away from her. Changning fell ill again that night.
From then on, Empress Wei came to a realisation.
As time passed, Changning grew up, and Xu Anbi stopped mentioning that Changning was sick, but Changning herself was always ill. Her fragile look made Empress Dowager Liu feel extremely distressed for her granddaughter.
There was some truth in this, the empress’s heart was like a mirror, she was too lazy to expose her, and it was nothing more than a means for the women to fight for the emperor’s favor.
To put it bluntly, to build up a well known image of being weak as a girl, was not necessarily a good thing.
Empress Wei flashed a mocking smile, and then said: "Yingluo, I watched this child grow up to be the person she is now. Although she has quite an unruly temperament, she's careful. No matter how much she hates Changning, she won't do it with her own hands." Just as how she provoked Changning to hurt Jiu.
The emperor believed Empress Wei’s words.
The emperor made a fist with his right hand, and knocked on the side table twice, and said: "The children are all grown up now, and they have more thoughts going on in their minds…..." The emperor's words were not just referring to Changning and Yingluo.
Empress Wei sighed: "To be frank, I didn’t handle the situation well."
Empress Wei's words were not just for show.
When Yingluo and Changning were both accusing each other for colluding with Yeluluan in the Bibo Pavillion, Empress Wei was also annoyed. Changning and Yingluo were the daughters of the royal family after all, they represented the royal family, but they stooped to such a lowdown trick, which really tarnished Daqi’s reputation.
They really brought shame upon them in front of Beiyan!
Therefore, even if Empress Wei clearly saw through the truth, she didn’t punish them immediately.
If she punished them, it would confirm that Yingluo and Changning did use such schemes, and this would embarrass Daqi even further.
But she couldn't just let the matter go that easily, so Empress Wei let them quarrel and bite at each other. She knew that the two would not let each other go, so this would be an even better way to seek justice for Jiu.
Even if the Empress didn't say it in a straightforward manner, the emperor understood her, he smiled and patted her jade-like hands that she took much care of, "Rongrong, you did right."
