C94 Go to the Palace to Pay Her Respects to the New Year
C94 Go to the Palace to Pay Her Respects to the New Year
"Who else? Who else could it be? " Xu Yanlin roared, "You want to stuff a woman by my side? After the new year, I will marry Zhao Wenrui into my clan, and then we will split up and go out.
Xu Yanlin was very depressed in his heart. He picked up his wine cup and drank another cup of wine, "Only my mother is so silly, treating them as her kin and wholeheartedly considering them, but what about them? "I'm just a group of ingrate who wants to live a life of a noble family but isn't willing to work hard. They'll only use my father's name to show off their might outside. My father's reputation has been completely ruined by them, and now they still want to scheme against me …"
The more Xu Yanlin spoke, the angrier he became. He angrily threw his wine cup on the ground and started to pour wine from his wine pot. Mu Chen was worried that Yue Yang would drink himself to death, so he quickly snatched his wine pot away and got Shen Jingli to bring over a bowl of sobering soup.
With the alcohol stolen, Xu Yanlin shouted unhappily, "Return the alcohol to me, I'm not drunk yet, I can still drink more."
Those who were drunk would never admit that they were drunk, so Mu Chen ignored him and forcefully fed him a bowl of sobering wine. Seeing that he was a little more sober, he said: "Didn't you and Zhao Wenrui end your engagement?"
"We've made up …" Xu Yanlin burped and fell asleep.
"He fell asleep just like that?" Shen Jingli returned with hot water, and was stunned to see Xu Yanlin lying on the bed.
Mu Chen called the servant to help Xu Yanlin to the guest room. He ordered the attendant to wipe Xu Yanlin's body, change his clothes, and cover him with the blanket. Then, he returned to Shen Jingli's room.
— —
On the first day of the new year, a hundred officials entered the palace to pay respects to the emperor. Mu Chen had already grabbed Xu Yanlin before the sky brightened. Although they had not officially regained their position, the emperor had ordered them to enter the palace to pay respects to the new year.
Seeing him like this, Mu Chen almost splashed cold water on his face, but he was afraid that he would catch a cold from the cold. Instead, he ordered the servant to wipe his face with a towel soaked in cold water, then heated up some hot water so that he could take a bath. Only after that did he get the maidservant to feed him a cup of beeswax water.
"Zi An, I feel like I'm going to die soon."
"Right, if you don't change your clothes and enter the palace, your head won't be preserved." The emperor might have forgotten about him in the blink of an eye, but the third prince's men would definitely take the opportunity to join him.
Xu Yanlin held onto his forehead and shook his head, trying to be clear-headed. He smiled at Mu Chen, "Zi An, luckily I have you, otherwise, I would have to stay on the streets. When you move out next time, you could use a guest room for me."
He was thinking of their guest room before he moved.
Xu Yanlin thought about it, and felt that it was not enough, then continued: "It's better if I buy the house next to yours, our two families will be neighbors, since I'm going to split my family this year anyways."
He thought about it and decided it was a good idea.
Mu Chen was too lazy to bother with him, he just ordered the servant to prepare a horse carriage and sent people to ask Old Man Yang about their situation, then he followed Shen Jingli out.
The third stage and above ministers would bring their wives to congratulate the Emperor on this important day, while Shen Jingli, who had just been bestowed the title of prince, would naturally have to follow them to the palace to pay respects.
The subjects entered the palace to pay their respects to the Emperor, and their wives paid their respects to the late imperial concubine. Before Shen Jingli entered the palace, Old Lady Yang had her teach him some of the palace's etiquette. He thought to himself that it was just a New Year greetings, to eat, drink, drink with everyone, listen to music and dance with everyone. He would be able to return after the banquet ended.
Of the few ladies in the Yang Family, only the Old Lady Yang was fortunate enough to enter the palace to pay respects to her husband on the first day of the new year.
Who would have thought that when they were passing by the Imperial Garden, they would actually meet the Noble Consort Zheng, who, accompanied by a crowd of palace maids, arrogantly walked towards the empress's kunning palace. The other party was a imperial concubine, and they were only imperial concubines, so naturally they had to obediently bow and retreat to one side, waiting for the imperial concubine to leave before they could follow.
However, Noble Consort Zheng had long heard of Shen Jingli's great name, knew that he had advised King Jing during the Jiang City Flood and even donated a large number of rice grains to help the refugees, allowing Mu Chen and Xu Yanlin to return to the capital with no regrets. She was extremely furious in her heart, how could he be willing to let go so easily?
She arrogantly looked down at Shen Jingli with contempt. Seeing him standing respectfully at the side, she coldly snorted and berated sternly, "Where did this lowly duo come from? Red Jade, give me a slap on the face. "
Since Shen Jingli was a second stage County Prince, facing a second stage imperial concubine, logically speaking, he would not need to kneel down in front of his, as long as he slightly bent down to show his respect, and furthermore, this was not an official audience, he did not do anything out of the ordinary. Under normal circumstances, Noble Consort Zheng would only need to walk over arrogantly, suddenly berating him was to find fault.
The female official named Hong Yu who was beside Noble Consort Zheng rolled up her sleeves and walked forward, raising her hand to hit Shen Jingli. Seeing that, the Old Lady Yang took a step forward and replied: "Imperial Concubine is lucky, this official's wife is the wife of the Crown Prince's supervisor, Yang Songqing. This official beside her is the Emperor's personal Nanping County Prince, she came to the palace to pay her respects."
The Noble Consort Zheng snorted and spoke to Hong Yu: "Hong Yu, the Emperor bestowed the Twin Pupils as County Prince, why have I not heard of it? A lowly double, and you actually have the nerve to enter the palace to pay your respects? "
The status of the two in Great Yan Dynasty was not good, and officials of the third rank and above rarely married either of the two, so there were very few women in the family that were able to enter the palace to pay respects on the first day of the new year, and Shen Jingli was the most eye-catching one.
When the eunuch who led the group heard these words, his heart thumped loudly. He secretly wiped off his cold sweat, walked up to the Noble Consort Zheng and whispered, "Empress, this is indeed the Emperor's personal Shen Jingli, and he has come to the palace to pay his respects."
"Eunuch Li, please don't lie to me. How could such an unremarkable and useless duo get conferred the title of County Prince?" Noble Consort Zheng widened her eyes. When she stared at Shen Jingli, she seemed to want to cut him into a thousand pieces.
When Eunuch Li heard these words, cold sweat broke out from his forehead once again. He was just a eunuch, how could he guess what the emperor was thinking?
Eunuch Li was so anxious that his face was flushed red. He sneaked a glance at Shen Jingli and realised that he was standing there calmly, as if he was not unhappy in the slightest.
In fact, Shen Jingli was just too lazy to bother with her, this Noble Consort Zheng obviously had no reason to cause a ruckus, and wanted to torment him. The moment he opened his mouth, he would definitely be caught, and in a society where power reigned supreme, he could probably be tortured to death by a crime of looking down on the imperial family.
"Imperial Concubine, these are all orders from the emperor. How could we dare to make wild guesses?" Eunuch Li smiled, he hated Noble Consort Zheng to death in his heart, it was the new year, what are you doing here? If word were to spread to the empress, they would definitely accuse him of doing things badly, and leading the way could even cause trouble.
How could the Noble Consort Zheng be satisfied with this explanation? Just as she was about to give Eunuch Li a false accusation, she heard a scream from the Imperial Garden's Yuqing Lake, followed by the messy voice of the palace maids and eunuchs.
A young eunuch shouted loudly, "Not good, hurry up and send someone over, Beauty Yu has fallen into the lake …"
Guards who were patrolling nearby hurried over to save the man as they heard the sound.
In these recent months, the emperor had doted on her so much that he had gradually forgotten about the Noble Consort Zheng and her nephew. The Noble Consort Zheng had a stomach full of resentment towards the Beauty Yu, but even if she was angry, she didn't dare to rashly take action against the Beauty Yu. If the empress were to catch hold of her, it would be very ugly.
Unfortunately, she was pleased with herself for how long, because immediately after, she heard the palace maids shout, "Someone come, help me! The Beauty Zheng has pushed the Beauty Yu into the lake …"
Noble Consort Zheng was instantly enraged, she flung her sleeves and turned around, then said coldly: "Red Jade, follow me to take a look, to see what exactly happened?"
The news quickly reached the empress, and in a short while, Beauty Yu was saved and brought back. However, she looked to be in a very sorry state, her entire body was shivering and her lips were white.
The empress ordered someone to burn warm water to wipe her body, and then gave her a new set of clothes. That old set of clothes was a pool of blood on her lower body, and the mama in charge had an abnormal expression on her face as she hurriedly reported to the empress.
The experienced mama and the servant woman knew what was going on the moment they saw the palace. Their faces darkened as they thought to themselves, "The weather in the palace is going to change soon."
Very quickly, the imperial physician was invited, and just as he was about to bow in greeting, he was stopped by the empress, who signalled for him to quickly go see the Beauty Yu.
An experienced senior nanny quickly took a handkerchief and placed it on Beauty Yu's wrist, letting the imperial physician take a look at his pulse.
After a long while, the imperial physician wiped the sweat from his forehead and knelt down before the empress. "To reply esteemed empress, Beauty Yu slipped."
When the Empress heard, she glanced at Beauty Zheng and asked, "Is there any harm to her body?"
The imperial physician muttered to himself for a moment, then said, "Beauty Yu's health has always been poor, and this time she's slipped and became pregnant again. I'm afraid it won't be easy to get pregnant again in the future."
The imperial physician quietly wiped away his sweat. It's the new year, so how could something like this happen? With the Beauty Yu being so pampered, this matter would probably make Long Yan furious. He cursed in his heart, why did it have to be his turn today?
The news of the Beauty Yu being mischievous quickly reached the emperor and the empress dowager. It concerned the crown prince, and the emperor was not in the mood to have his subjects listen to music and dance for the new year. After receiving their toasts, he let them return, while he himself went to the Kunning Palace.