C212

Dong Shu never thought that she would be blocked by the Madame Liu again, she was puzzled, after all, this was the palace of the, there were too many people here, why would she do that? Wasn't she afraid of being discovered?

Just as Madame Liu was about to speak up, the Madame Liu who was blocking her path first looked at her and asked, "I invited you out to meet a few days ago, why didn't you come out?"

Hearing Madame Liu's words, Dong Shu was stunned for a moment before realizing what she meant.

"Your words are funny. You just got someone to send a note without a signature. How would I know who the person who asked me out is?" Dong Shu's tone was sincere; after all, she did indeed think this way after receiving the letter.

Madame Liu had thought of many reasons why Dong Shu hadn't come to see him, but she had never thought that she wouldn't come to see him because of this reason.

She had a complicated expression on her face as she looked at Dong Shu. Before Dong Shu left, she spoke again: "Qing Xiang Restaurant is a wedding business given to me by my mother, almost everyone in the capital knows about it."

It was for this reason that the Madame Liu thought that Dong Shu would guess that the owner of the note was her when she said that she would meet Qing Xiang Tower.

Dong Shu really didn't know about this.

However, when she thought of her mother-in-law's stunned expression after seeing the note, she understood that her mother-in-law probably knew about this, but she didn't choose to tell her.

Dong Shu was not angry, after all, she was not close with Madame Liu, and it was for her own good that her mother-in-law did not tell him.

After thinking about it, Dong Shu looked at the Madame Liu and said straightforwardly, "I don't really know anything about the other women in the capital that the secondary wife should know about."

Seeing that Dong Shu did not hide his origins, Madame Liu looked at her in surprise and asked, "You actually do not care so much about your origins? You, don't you feel that your origin is such that your identity is inferior to ours? "

Madame Liu did not understand that since her mother was a Shu daughter, her father was also a bastard.

Although she was their eldest daughter and father, her life when she was young wasn't too good because her parents were both born from a concubine.

After that, even if she entered the Third Prince Palace, because her parents were born from a concubine, she could only be a side concubine. Her son could only be a concubine.

Now that the Third Prince was going to be adopted, even if there was a throne in the future, it would still be his eldest son, and it had nothing to do with his son.

Although it wasn't that there weren't any concubines in the royal family who sat on the throne, but because she was born in a concubine, her son was not valued by Ye Jingche ever since he was born. Even later on, her son's husband was not a master teacher.

Now that her son and Madame Zheng's son stood together, it was obvious that the two children were different.

Madame Liu felt that the reason her son was in such a situation was entirely because of her birth.

Origin was a topic that she had always avoided. However, she had never thought that Dong Shu would actually be able to speak of this matter frankly.

Seeing Madame Liu acting in such a way, Dong Shu shook her head in confusion. "I have never felt that my birth was bad. Whatever background I have is given to me by my parents. Father and mother have already given me my life. As for how I will live in the future, it will all be up to me. " Saying that, Dong Shu paused for a moment before continuing with a smile: "Perhaps we women do not have as many chances, but doesn't the previous dynasty also have female generals? Was there a businesswoman in charge of the house when I first started the country? As for men, they had more opportunities to study, study, and join the army. They had the opportunity to change their fates. How you are born is only a matter of time. How far you can go in the future will depend on yourself and not your parents. "

After Dong Shu said all that to the Madame Liu, she no longer bothered with her and directly walked past her into the palace.

When Dong Shu was almost at the entrance of the hall, Madame Liu finally regained her senses. She originally wanted to thank Dong Shu, but she only saw that she had already left.

Turning around, seeing that she had walked to the entrance of the great hall alone, Madame Liu suddenly looked at her back and laughed.

This smile was different from any fake smile from before. It was a true smile that came from the bottom of his heart.

Dong Shu did not know about all this, upon returning to the main hall, she lightly stomped her feet, took off her cape and handed it over to the palace maids, then quickly walked over to Old Madame Xu.

Seeing that Dong Shu was back so quickly, the Old Madame Xu stopped her conversation with Zhang Old Madame and turned to look at her.

"You're back so soon?"

"En, there's nothing else for the Empress to do now." Dong Shu didn't want to talk about the situation in Empress Hu in front of everyone. After she finished speaking, she looked at Old Madame Xu and said softly, "The Empress sent someone to tell me that she wants me to accompany her later. Now, let me tell Mother first."

When Dong Shu saw that Old Madame Xu had just finished saying these words, Old Madame Xu immediately laughed, "This is the Empress's favor, I still have your sister-in-law by my side. You can rest assured that you will accompany the Empress later."

To Dong Shu, this was indeed a favor.

Today was the New Year feast after all, and the members of the Imperial Family and ministers were present as well as their families. The reason Empress Hu was able to have Dong Shu accompany them was to support Dong Shu.

Seeing that her mother-in-law was not angry, but actually happy, Dong Shu finally relaxed.

As for the matter of him being blocked by the Madame Liu, she did not plan to tell him that. After all, there were too many people here and there were also people from the Zhang Family.

Not long after Dong Shu returned to the great hall, the concubines in the harem, as well as those qualified to participate in the annual feast, also arrived one after another.

They slowly walked from the lowest level to the highest.

Emperor Ruikang was not young, he was not a lustful person, so he had not entered the imperial harem for many years. Even the youngest concubine was around thirty years old.

Most of the sons of the Emperor Ruikang had already grown up and left the palace. The only princes who still lived in the palace were the eighth prince whose mother was the county magistrate's daughter, and the ninth prince, whose birth mother died young but was in poor health.

There were many princesses who were still underage and married. The youngest one wasn't even ten years old.

It was Dong Shu's first time seeing so many people in the Imperial Family. Because the Empress Hu doted on Dong Shu, all of the princesses nodded in goodwill towards her after seeing her.

Just as Dong Shu was puzzled, the Madame Ye went closer to her and explained, "Imperial Uncle basically doesn't care about these princesses. If they want to get married into a good family, and choose a good Prince Consort, it all depends on Empress's intentions. Previously, the Empress did not interfere, but now that the Empress regained control of the palace, their destinies have naturally returned to the hands of the Empress. "

Right after Madame Ye finished speaking, Dong Shu understood her meaning, now everyone knew that she could speak in front of Empress, although the princesses were of noble birth, they were afraid of offending her.

The scene of the princesses bowing respectfully to Dong Shu was also seen by the Madame Liu who had just entered the room.

Seeing this scene, she felt that her choice was not wrong, Dong Shu's words were not wrong.

Thinking about her final plans, Madame Liu couldn't help but clench her fists inside her sleeves. She believed that she had made the right choice.

Dong Shu did not know that the Madame Liu had just entered the Main Palace. Since there were more and more people, and the women who wanted to form a relationship with the Xu Family were unable to find an opportunity to talk to the Old Madame Xu and the Madame Ye, they surrounded her.

Even if she was not good at all in these things, Dong Shu had no choice but to keep a proper smile on her face as she dealt with these women.

Until the palace maids and servants received the news that the Emperor Ruikang and the Empress Hu were coming here hand in hand.

Almost at the same moment the news arrived, everyone in the hall started to get busy.

The men quickly took their positions according to their rank, while the women arranged their clothes and accessories in an orderly fashion. As soon as their front legs were done, they heard the sounds of the emperor and empress arriving.

Emperor Ruikang was escorted by Empress Hu into the main hall. Seeing the crowd bow to him, although he knew that it would be very difficult to see them again in the future, looking at their respectful expressions, he couldn't help but wonder whether he, His Majesty, was qualified or not.

After twenty years since he ascended the throne, he admitted that he had been a modesty business for the past ten years. He did not dare to slack off in the slightest, but what about the next ten years or so?

At this time, Emperor Ruikang thought of his crown prince.

If his crown prince was still alive, would he have passed the throne down to him two years ago, not even needing to drag his sickly body onto the throne for a few more years, and almost collapse his own body?

Just as he was thinking about this, Emperor Ruikang immediately rejected this idea.

No, if the Crown Prince was still alive, he wouldn't have to worry about his other sons. After all, the Crown Prince was the legitimate king, and as long as he was around, the other concubines wouldn't have a chance to ascend to the throne.

When Empress Hu saw Emperor Ruikang's expression, she could tell that he was distracted. Although she did not want to bother with him, she knew that if Emperor Ruikang made a fool of himself right now, it would damage the dignity of the Imperial Family.

Even though she was unwilling, in the end, Empress Hu still used her sleeves to cover herself and quietly pulled on Emperor Ruikang's palm.

Noticing the movements of the Empress Hu beside her, the Emperor Ruikang regained his senses and asked her with a questioning gaze.

Looking at Emperor Ruikang like this, Empress Hu knew that he was truly old.

Otherwise, he would have realized why he was pulling him.

Fortunately, Emperor Ruikang had quickly realized where they were right now. He felt that Empress Hu was able to remind him that she still had him in her heart.

This discovery caused Emperor Ruikang to be in an extremely good mood. Although his body was not comfortable, he still insisted on helping Empress Hu to sit down. Only with the support of an attendant did he steadily sit down beside him.

Many people noticed the small movements between Emperor Ruikang and himself, especially when Emperor Ruikang helped Empress Hu to sit down first, almost everyone in the hall saw it.

Seeing this scene, those people who had ulterior motives could not help but raise the status of the Empress Hu again.

Even Dong Shu felt that the number of gazes on her body had increased compared to before.

After Emperor Ruikang and Empress Hu had all sat down, the people in the hall naturally bowed to them. After everyone had finished and sat down, Emperor Ruikang opened his mouth to speak to Fifth Prince Ye Jingxing first: "Yue'er, come to Royal Father's side."

The moment the Emperor Ruikang's voice fell, the previously relaxed atmosphere in the hall abruptly tensed up.

They never thought that when the Emperor Ruikang came, he would call Ye Jingxing over to his side without any preparation.

Was he about to announce his buddhist position?