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Chapter 38: Botched Schemes (拙劣计谋)

In one night’s time, unable to be considered long or short, the present imperial concubines perhaps were starting to grow tired or perhaps not. But since the emperor sat upright, no one dared to say they were leaving.

Zhuang Laoyan was somewhat regretful. If she had known she would be stuck here sitting, she wouldn’t have come to experience all the excitement. Currently, half the night had passed. Even if she were sleepy, she still had to endure and fight for consciousness. This juncture was when their acting skills would be put to the test the most.

A noise suddenly sounded from within the room. A few imperial physicians and Yuyis filed out of the inner chamber, kneeling before the emperor. “Your Majesty, this official is incompetent. Third Prince… has already left the world.”

Zhuang Laoyan realized that the room, which had originally been quiet to the point where their breathing could be heard, became deadly silent. She raised her head. Looked at the emperor. She noticed that while the emperor’s countenance seemed neutral, his gaze had chilled. Zhuang Laoyan averted her eyes. Such a strong gaze caused her to tremble in fear.

“Announce Our order: Third Prince will be bestowed the name of Lao and conferred the title of Prince Ning. He will be buried in the Jin Tomb¹.” Feng Jin slowly rose to his feet, no longer looking in the direction of Third Prince’s inner chamber. Voice steady and serious, he said, “Return to Qianzheng Palace.”

“Sending off Your Majesty,” said the imperial concubines all at once. After that, the room grew silent to the extreme once more.

Once the emperor left their line of sights, the empress looked at the women in the room. Her tone was somewhat apathetic. “You’re dismissed.”

“Yes,” said the imperial concubines, performing the full ceremony in a well-behaved manner before retreating. Right now, Third Prince had encountered a bad outcome in Consort Xian’s care. The ones sporting a headache were naturally the empress and Consort Xian. What did it have to do with the rest of them?

 After Zhuang Laoyan and the others retreated, she openly eyed Cairen Kong, who was kneeling at the side. She saw that that woman’s face was pale to the point of frightening, the latter’s eyes wide. Even though the interior of the room was bright, her appearance was horrifying.

If Zhuang Laoyan was correct, this Cairen Kong was staring at Consort Xian with an extremely sinister and frightening gaze. As if… Consort Xian were the murderer.

The moment Zhuang Laoyan thought Cairen Kong would go mad, she stood all of a sudden. And she performed a full ceremony of paying respects in a courteous manner to the empress. Then she staggered away.

The empress furrowed her brows. But in an instant, it were as if she had come to a realization. In the end, however, she did not say anything, letting Cairen Kong leave as she pleased.

Cairen Kong’s proved slow in her departure. After she stepped foot outside the palace doors, a palace maid approached her to support her. Once Zhuang Laoyan passed her, she did not know whether it were a psychological reaction, but a slight chill brushed through her body.

As she sat on her sedan, Zhuang Laoyan thought the night was a bit cold. After traveling a distance, she shivered. Her thoughts traveled to Third Prince who had passed away out of the blue. She rubbed her forehead. In this imperial harem, no one could easily live. Being a eunuch wasn’t easy; being a palace maid wasn’t easy. It was even hard as an imperial concubine. If one received a bit of favor, and had a strong family to support them, then one still had a bit of hope. But if a person did not have a decent birth identity and position, and wasn’t favored, they would immediately disappear without a sound. One would fear no one would actually be sad about their departure.

Feng Jin had slept for less than two hours, when it was already time to attend morning court. After he was fully dressed in his imperial robes and crown, he climbed on top of his personal sedan. No matter where he went, people would kneel at the sight of his procession. Through it all, he could only see the bowed heads of the eunuchs and palace maids.

As he sat on the honorable imperial throne engraved with dragons, and listened as the ministers gave their reports one after the other, some important and some not, his expression proved neutral, displaying not a hint of exhaustion.

Perhaps these officials all knew that Third Prince had already passed away, for they did not make a fuss and argue. What should be said was said. Not a hint of frivolous, unnecessary words left their mouths.

Once court ended, the officials left in groups. Each of them strained their ears and tried to read others’ lips for any news, while their own faces revealed nothing and showcased their ignorance of the matters.

Currently in the court, the Zhao family, Su family, Ye family, Zhuang family, Jiang family, and Xu family had daughters in the imperial harem. In fact, they were women who received the emperor’s favor. It could be assumed that these people knew a bit of what was going on.

However, as the others looked at these ministers, each of them seemed more ignorant of the matters than the last. Faint regret filled the others’ hearts, but they could do nothing about it. Those people was a group of old foxes.

Feng Jin listened as a eunuch read aloud the items on the menu for his noon meal. After he had declined a few dishes, Feng Jin waved the eunuch off impassively. And he returned to the memorial in front of him.

Not long after the eunuch had left, an interior supervision eunuch arrived. In his hands lay a tray of the name tags belonging to the imperial concubines. Impatient, Feng Jin sighed. He swept his gaze through the tray. He wanted the eunuch to leave, but in the end, he flipped a name tag without thinking.

Once the interior supervision eunuch saw the identity of the imperial concubine, he thought, oh! It was actually Chongyi Zhao again.

At the lotus pond of Xihe Palace, the pink and white lotuses bloomed brilliantly. After Zhuang Laoyan had paid respects to the empress, she must go through this path to return to Xihe Palace. But today, she caught sight of a familiar figure.

That person was the empress’ cousin, Ronghua Sun. Today, she wore a light brown blouse with a wrap-around skirt. She stood by an artificial mountain, From her appearance, it didn’t seem like she was here to admire the lotus pond.

“This concubine greets Chongyi Zhao.” Ronghua Sun seemed more wan than before. Even her skin appeared duller. Sitting on her sedan, Zhuang Laoyan excused Ronghua Sun from performing her ceremony. With a faint nod, she said, “Is Ronghua Sun here to admire the lotuses?”

A few days ago, because she had spoken without thinking and offended Consort Rou, Consort Rou had punished Ronghua Sun to kneeling for an hour. Furthermore, because she had offended Xiuyi Su, she had been slapped. And because the emperor and empress did not react to these things, her days in the harem grew even worse.

Zhuang Laoyan remembered not too long ago, this young girl had provoked her at this same lotus pond. Apparently, not even half a month later, she had lost her naivety.

“Since the lotuses are in such a magnificent bloom, this concubine came to take a look.” Ronghua Sun stared at the pond. Her expression did not seem strange. “But this concubine does not want to disturb Chongyi Zhao.”

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“No need to say the word ‘disturb.’ This lotus pond belongs to the palace in the first place. Any masters can enjoy it.” Zhuang Laoyan glanced at Tingzhu. Tingzhu gestured for the strong eunuchs carrying the sedan to place it on the ground. Using Tingzhu’s hand as support, Zhuang Laoyan approached Ronghua Sun. “That Ronghua Sun is fond of them is these lotuses’ fortune.”

After Ronghua Sun had heard these words, she shifted her gaze from the lotus pond to Zhuang Laoyan. But she still seemed to be in a daze. “You’ve changed a lot.”

Zhuang Laoyan smiled. She was not at all afraid of Ronghua Sun’s gaze, which seemed as if the latter saw her as a monster.

Ronghua Sun approached her one step. She was now half a step away from Zhuang Laoyan. Her voice was near whisper, yet carried an inexplicable mysterious nature as she said, “From the start, I could not understand how someone could change so drastically in such a short period. Could it be that the heavens truly made you smarter?”

All of a sudden, Ronghua Sun staggered, falling backwards into the pond.

“Ronghua Sun, what are you trying to do?!”

As servants, the surrounding palace maids and eunuchs could not directly look at their masters’ faces. But once they had heard Chongyi Zhao’s piercing scream, they lifted their heads and looked in her direction. And they saw both Chongyi Zhao and Ronghua Sun tumbling into the pond, sending some lotuses into the air.

Tingzhu and Yunxi were so scared that their complexions changed. They rushed have people to save their master.

Meanwhile, Zhuang Laoyan was filled with joy about the clean water of the lotus pond. She deliberately made herself sink deeper. It was very hard to see in the water, but she could still make out the figures of people fetching Ronghua Sun out of the water. She couldn’t help but sneer. Ronghua Sun felt no shame in using such overused tactics, tactics that she had seen in palace dramas in her previous life. Looked like the empress really didn’t teach this younger sister well about what the imperial harem was.

Seeing someone swim toward her, Zhuang Laoyan ruthlessly opened her mouth that had been previously screwed shut, letting water enter her throat and nose. Such a sensation of drowning was painful. She put up the appearance of struggling to stay afloat. And Zhuang Laoyan made sure to remember this account for the future.

“Master!” Tingzhu and Yunxi saw that Zhuang Laoyan was already unconscious when the servants had pulled her out of the water. In an instant, they sent people to summon an imperial physician. The two of them looked at Ronghua Sun, who was at the side and coughing up water, but otherwise fine. Enduring their anger, they performed simple first aid on Zhuang Laoyan.

Ronghua Sun coughed until tears came spilled from her eyes. After she was able to catch her breath, she glared hatefully at the unconscious Zhuang Laoyan. Originally, she did not have to be in such a state. But who would have known that after that woman had jumped into the pond, she would cover Ronghua Sun’s mouth and nose, making her swallow so much of the pond water. And now, that woman was unconscious.

Once she suddenly came to this thought, Ronghua Sun’s face paled. “I didn’t do it. She fell in herself. It wasn’t me!” She had wanted to frame Zhuang Laoyan. Even if she had failed, Zhuang Laoyan would still be branded as an imperial concubine that bullied her lower-ranked colleagues. Yet who would have known Zhuang Laoyan would have reacted like that in such a short amount of time.

She knew that this tactic could not be considered superior.  But she also knew that when people did not take precautions, they would not be able to react quickly like this. And she only needed to catch Zhuang Laoyan off guard for a split second.

But Zhuang Laoyan did not give her even one second of time. Rather, she beat her at her own game, harming Ronghua Sun to the point she couldn’t even explain what happened herself. This time, whether or not it was unreasonable, the emperor would not spare her.

“Your Majesty the empress, something bad has happened.” He Yu’s face was full of urgency. Noticing that the empress had Consort Xian for company, she performed a ceremony of greeting. Then she schooled her expression to normalcy. “Ronghua Sun shoved Chongyi Zhao into the lotus pond. Right now, the imperial physicians are making their way to Xihe Palace. Chongyi Zhao has yet to wake.”

In that particular moment, the empress’ expression had yet to change. Ronghua Sun was her cousin. If something truly happened to Chongyi Zhao, one would fear the empress would lose face in front of the emperor.

As soon as she heard those words, Consort Xian frowned. “Ronghua Sun and Chongyi Zhao don’t have a bad relationship. Why would Ronghua Sun do such a thing?”

He Yu reported everything she knew about the situation to the two. Consort Xian and the empress’ faces turned unsightly. One would fear in this show, it was Ronghua Sun who tried to frame Chongyi Zhao. But in the end, she was either beaten at her own game or a problem arose in the middle of it.

The empress’ countenance grew even more unsightly. This cousin of hers truly was useful, thinking up such a brainless plan. They both entered the palace at the same day, but Chongyi Zhao was more favored. One could not, because of envy, do such a thing.

She was simply… unreasonable!

“Make for Xihe Palace!” said the empress through gritted teeth. She knew that today’s matter could not be fixed, because the emperor had just flipped the name tag of Xihe Palace’s master. And her own cousin had pushed Xihe Palace’s master into the lotus pond. If  the empress didn’t handle this well, perhaps she would not be able to suppress this case of her cousin’s jealousy.

LOL that Ronghua Sun’s finally gonna get what’s coming.

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