Concubine Zhen’s expression softened by a lot and followed Li Baolin out.
Concubine Zhen spoke, “It is not that I like to get angry but when the Empress was around, Concubine Yan was restrained. Now that the position of Empress is empty and the Emperor is bewitched by her, she is becoming more arrogant. If I don’t try to bring her down a notch now, I am afraid that I won’t have any place in the future.”
Li Baolin replied, “Sister, you are different from us. You have served the Emperor for many years. Even if you have no achievements, your efforts are noted. Now that you are carrying royal blood, after you give birth to your child, wouldn’t the Emperor dote on you even more?”
“You are still young and have such an innocent mind. So what if I have served the Emperor for many years? So what if I gave birth to his child? As soon as something happens, everything becomes insignificant.” Concubine Zhen pointed to a far corner of the roof. “That is living proof. Want to take a look?”
Li Baolin could not curb her curiosity and followed Concubine Zhen to the Cold Palace. She looked through the carved stone window and saw a woman with grey hair spread across her shoulders. She looked haggard and was knocking a wooden fish outside her broken house.
“Isn’t that Concubine Xi? Even if she had been demoted, she is still a Lady. There is no need for her to end up in a place like this.”
Concubine Zhen shook her head and sighed, “When the Empress was around, she still took care of her. Now that Concubine Yan is making the decisions, she kept on saying that the place Lady Xi was staying in was dirty and changed her accommodation every three to five days. Each time she is shifted, her room becomes worse. Now, she is in the Cold Palace. She is very pitiful. Initially, the Emperor could not bear it and promised not to kill Prince Zhao. He even let both of them meet. Who would have thought that Prince Zhao would write that letter to rebel? The letter was picked up by guards and delivered to His Majesty. His Majesty was furious and executed Prince Zhao. Lady Xi was also implicated.”
Li Baolin suddenly recalled on the night of the incident, she happened to be near a man made mountain and witnessed an internal attendant throwing a letter to the ground. The internal attendant then intentionally alerted some guards. At that time, she did not know what was going on and was not concerned about Prince Zhao’s rebellion case. Now that she was listening to Concubine Zhen, she felt that there was a connection.
Concubine Zhen saw that Li Baolin was in a daze. “Why? Did talking about this scare you?”
Li Baolin replied, “It is not that I am scared, I am just deep in thought. The Emperor was thinking of forgiving Prince Zhao yet Prince Zhao coincidentally chooses to write a secret letter to rebel. This letter was also coincidentally dropped and was coincidentally picked up by guards. Isn’t everything too coincidental?” She had clearly seen the internal attendant intentionally alerting the guards.
Concubine Zhen was not surprised. “Prince Zhao is already dead, what more is there to think about? However--” She looked like she had an idea. “I want His Majesty to see how his kind and gentle Concubine Yan treats her fellow sister after so many years.”
Li Baolin opened her mouth but ended up deciding to protect herself first.
After a few days, Imperial Concubine Wang told the Emperor that Lady Xi was in the Cold Palace. She was being served soured food and was not treated fairly. After the Emperor investigated, he reprimanded the two internal attendants that Concubine Yan had assigned to take care of Lady Xi.
After the punishment, the attendant that the Emperor sent spoke loudly, “His Majesty has been kind and the punishment was only a hundred strokes. In the future, if anyone dares to use Concubine Yan’s name to make things difficult for the other noble ladies, they will be beaten to death. Understood?”
All the palace personnel acknowledged.
It was only then that the attendant walked into the hall and smiled at Concubine Yan, “Your Highness, these two servants were outrageous and ruined Your Highness’ reputation. Hence, His Majesty punished them on your behalf. This is His Majesty’s love towards you. Your Highness, please don’t take this incident to heart.”
Concubine Yan spoke gently, “What are you talking about? His Majesty is protecting me and helped me dealt with these two despicable servants. I am delighted. I have already reprimanded them a few times. However, they took advantage of my good temper to become even harsher. Lady Xi has been my sister for many years. How can they mistreat her like this? His Majesty is kind. I do not dare to let them serve me anymore. From now on, these two shall be treated as criminals. They can no longer appear in front of me.”
By the side, a palace maid bribed the internal attendant.
The internal attendant took his leave. “Your Highness, please rest assured. I know what to tell His Majesty.”
Concubine Yan asked everyone else to leave except for Yu He.
“Who told the Emperor?” Her face fell.
“Concubine Zhen told Imperial Concubine Wang and Imperial Concubine Wang then told the Emperor.” Yu He had investigated.
“Yu He, I have always been tolerant. Because the Empress was the official wife, all fault would lie on me if I were to be arrogant. Tell me, now that the Empress is gone and the Crown Prince has been defeated, who else do I have to tolerate?”
She was not going to tolerate an old lady with one foot in the grave and a concubine with an unborn child!
Chapter 85.1: Pirate’s Moral
On this day, Ma Haihu and Ma Hainiu had an internal strife in a pawn shop that Prince Han owned.
Now that Prince Han was facing difficulties, the release of his house arrest was nowhere in the near future. People with other intentions started to take the chance and come to the pawn shop. They started to claim that the worthless jade pieces that they had pawned previously were some house treasure. They made up stories and demanded for the shopkeeper to return the items. Because the jade pieces had passed its redemption period, they had been sold. The shopkeeper could not deal with this difficult customer and promised to repay him three times the amount. Unknowingly, the customer demanded that the item was worth three thousand taels and demanded it to be paid in cash immediately.
The shopkeeper was stunned as he did not have so much cash. Ma Haihu suddenly came out and said that he was willing to pay the taels but requested for the shop to swap locations with them. He wanted this shop, which was situated in a flourishing area, to move to a corner with little traffic.
Seeing how things were not going well, Ma Hainiu cut in and generously offered the three thousand taels, putting an end to this premeditated plot.
Ma Haihu pulled Ma Hainiu to the side and angrily asked her what she was doing.
Ma Hainiu retorted, “More like what are you doing! Are you trying to profit from someone’s misfortune and attack them while they are down?”
Ma Haihu was angry. “Taking advantage of people and attacking them when they are down are what we pirates do.”
Ma Hainiu spat, “Peh! Are you still a pirate? You are a court official.”
Ma Haihu straightened his back. “It is because I am a court official that I have to attack them when they are down. Now that we have such glory from following Prince Zhou, we have to pledge our loyalty to Prince Zhou. The best way to pledge our loyalty is to brutally attack Prince Han, this fallen dog.”
Ma Hainiu wanted to laugh. “With your brain, I am sure you were not the one who thought of this.”
Ma Haihu admitted, “It was our General’s idea, but I thought about it properly.”