Although it was a sunny day, Tang Xia was in a gloomy mood.
She held the fiction that she had read many times in both hands idly and sighed, sitting on the couch. “Damned Chu Tiankuo! He fooled with me completely! He swaggered off after enjoying a night with me.”
“And he planned all these!” Tang Xia slapped the fiction in hands and turned over, lying on the couch angrily.
Lyuyou looked at Tang Xia’s back worriedly and sighed quietly.
What she had looked forward to was that the emperor and the empress could live a happy life and treat each other courtesy. Her worry was of no use as their relationship could not progress.
Finally, the emperor who was drunk came to the empress’s palace and had a pleasant night with Tang Xia…
Lyuyou still remembered that she left happily with other palace maids. However, the emperor was ‘threw’ out by the empress the next morning. Lyuyou worried so much for Tang Xia as she thought Tang Xia was too serious. What if she irritated the emperor?
But it seemed that Lyuyou worried too much. Unexpectedly, the empress shouted at the emperor before she could gather a breath…
Lyuyou was so anxious that the cold sweat ran from her forehead. “My Grace, how could you be so bold?”
But as Tang Xia’s trusted subordinate, she had to cast all her worries away and to solve problems for Tang Xia.
“Your Grace. Your Grace?” Lyuyou pushed Tang Xia gently and fanned her, “Are you restless?”
Tang Xia could not forget the night she spent with Chu Tiankuo, which made her blushed and ashamed. What’s more, her heart fluttered for it. Tang Xia covered her face and said in a low, muffled voice, “Lyuyou, I’m truly restless.”
“Yep! Although I’m restless, I cannot forget that night. It seems that it is imprinted on my mind and I cannot get rid of it. So I always blush when I think of that night.”
“However, Chu Tiankuo seems to be so calm. Worse than that, there is no notification from the system, which means Chu Tiankuo hasn’t fallen in love with me.”
“It is just like I get no fish with all my baits eaten. Worse than that, I am the bait! What a loss! I lost everything!”
“Is it because His Majesty?” Lyuyou asked cautiously with her eyebrows knitted.
“Yep! Who else can make me so restless!” Tang Xia rested her head sideways and ground her teeth as she was quite angry, “I know the task will not be so easy! How can the emperor fall in love with a woman?”
Tang Xia felt rather irrigated and somewhat wronged.
“I think His Majesty really cares for you.” Lyuyou wore a disapproving look as Tang Xia cannot understand Chu Tiankuo’s love for her.
“How can you tell that?” Tang Xia brought herself into a sitting posture on hearing Lyuyou’s words, “He! He…”
“He lied to me! He fooled with my feelings!”
Tang Xia shouted in her mind as she cannot say such things to Lyuyou who was under the influence of ancient male-dominated culture.
Besides, Lyuyou could not understand her, let alone approve her. Maybe Lyuyou would regard that she was showing ill temper.
“Alas! Forget it! You won’t understand.” Tang Xia waved her hand in anger and shook her body as if she was a fish out of water. “The room is so stuffy that I cannot breathe freely.”
“Get my things together, let’s take a walk in the Royal Garden.” Tang Xia made Lyuyou wear the shoes and tidy the clothes up for her. Then Tang Xia went to the Royal Garden supported by her maids.
The lively atmosphere in the Royal Garden could be felt from afar and clear and melodious laughter came from the Royal Garden as if someone had told a joke.
“Ah, how shameless she is!” A beauty who owned a pair of charming eyes and wore a bright yellow dress said with her slender fingers raised while she was splitting the seed shells mischievously.
“It is obvious that His Majesty favors her and she is quite satisfied. However, she assumes airs as if she has a sharp sense of honor.”
“Absolutely! As we are all His Majesty’s woman, we have devoted our virginity to him.”
An imperial concubine who owned a delicate face and wore a golden hairpin added. Then she smiled shyly with her hand covering her mouth, “Her reaction will make people believe that His Majesty forced her. I don’t understand what she is thinking.”
“Right! It would add spice to life if you play hard-to-get in the room with His Majesty. But she makes it be known to all. Is she showing off how much His Majesty favors her?”
Concubine Hong with her glabella attached to a curlicue tilted her head mockingly and splashed the tea in her cup contemptuously. “How shameless!”
As the old saying went, “Three women are enough for a drama.” After hearing what they had said under the shade of a tree, Tang Xia gradually realized that the woman called as being cheeky, shameless and having a sharp sense of honor by them was her!
It never occurred to Tang Xia that she would hear her gossip as she seldom took a walk leisurely like this. “What a coincidence!”
“Your Grace, do you need me to go out…” Lyuyou’s eyes turned red as she was so angry. “How dare those three women to slander the empress in broad daylight! How could they! Do they want to die!”
Lyuyou who was a loyal maid trembled her body out of anger.
Tang Xia looked at Lyuyou wonderingly. “Why do I need you to go out? Slap them? Spank them? Make them enjoy their slow torture to death?”
Tang Xia wore a fake and cold smile. Then she tucked her hair around her ears, straightened her phoenix coronet on her head and held Lyuyou’s hand. “I need to do such thing on my own…”
Lyuyou looked at Tang Xia puzzledly and asked in her mind, “Your Grace, what does ‘enjoy your slow torture to death’ mean?”
“Alas! Never mind! As long as Her Grace can show up to teach them a lesson!”
“Oh, you are all here? I just passed by and heard your satisfied laughter. So I come here to join you. You don’t mind, don’t you?” Tang Xia wore a rather sweet smile and shook their hands one by one.
“Your… Your Grace.” Those three imperial concubines stood up out of fear and trembled their slender bodies slightly.
“Alas! What’s wrong? Didn’t you talk happily? How do you become like this at the sight of me? Did you do something bad?”
Tang Xia sat on the stone bench and wiped her hands with handkerchief aboveboard. Then she threw the handkerchief on the floor contemptuously.
“Your Grace! What do you mean! Are you embarrassing us as you think we soiled your hands?” Concubine Hong wearing a bright yellow dress stood up and glared at Tang Xia.
“I didn’t say that. But it is good for you to have self-knowledge.” Tang Xia looked at Concubine Hong sarcastically. “Read more and eat more to gain wisdom in case the tongue cut the throat and involve your families into trouble.”
“I don’t understand what you are talking about, Your Grace. Why do you insult me like this! ” Concubine Hong said with bitterness and unwillingness in her eyes. “If you cannot explain it well, I’ll go for His Majesty!”
“OK! Go for him now! Should I tell His Majesty how you insulted me?”
Tang Xia thought, “Bah! Who do you think you are!” Then she looked directly at her and said in a cold voice,
“If you dare, just say what you want to say in front of me. Don’t say something bad behind my back. There is no wonder that His Majesty does not favor you. How contemptible you are.”
Tang Xia’s words were so sharp that those three imperial concubines were badly hurt. Tang Xia stretched out her hand and left supported by Lyuyou without looking at those three women.
“Your Grace!” Lyuyou held Tang Xia’s hand and said excitedly. “I thought Her Grace was so kind-hearted that people would easily bully her. It turned out that she could be so sharp-tongued.”
Tang Xia noticed that Lyuyou was impressed by her words and burst into laughter. Then she walked away elegantly. When Tang Xia got back to her palace, Lyuyou ran back in excitement shortly afterward.
“Your Grace, Your Grace.” Lyuyou opened the door with a smile and looked at Tang Xia with her twinkling eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Tang Xia lay on the couch lazily, playing chess with both hands.
“His Majesty punished the imperial concubine for you!”
“Punish?” Tang Xia stared at Lyuyou a little angrily. “Lyuyou is becoming bolder and bolder. She dares to tantalize me now! I will pay her less!”
“The imperial concubine who spoke ill of you and talked back to you in the Royal Garden is punished by His Majesty.” Lyuyou gloated over her punishment and wore a smile with her hand covering her mouth, “His Majesty taught a lesson to her and locked her down.”
“Is it true? That is great!” Tang Xia rolled about on her bed and massaged her belly as she laughed too hard. Then she propped herself up on one elbow. “He that does evil shall find evil! She deserves it!”
Lyuyou felt awkward with cold sweat on her forehead, “Your Grace, it is true that you dare to say anything!”
So Tang Xia had a few perfect days in a good mood. However, someone paid a visit to her with a pot of soup.
“Your Grace, I am sorry. Please forgive my mistake.”
Tang Xia looked at the woman who knelt on the ground and realized that she came to apologize!