"Boiling water, don't be so particular at this time. If there is such a thing, then let's see if we can take it. We'll boil some water and bring it out."
"The empress dowager is already old, and the other madams aren't either. I'm afraid they might not be able to hold on for much longer and get a little hot water, so at least they'll be able to hold on for a while." When Madame Jiang said this, the Aunt Yan finally understood.
"Yes, yes. I'll get someone to get it right away." Aunt Yan hurriedly told the palace maid to go to the back and brought the small pot and stove used for brewing medicine over.
"It's still early winter and we haven't used the charcoal brazier yet. There's nothing like this in the palace, only this bunch of people who boil medicine." He could only use everything he had now.
"Wash the medicine pot first. Be careful, don't waste any water. Don't know if they'll be able to give us any water in the future." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, indicating that they were right. From the looks of the current formation, they might not be able to say anything.
"The medicinal pots are all washed and cleaned. It'll be fine after a simple rinsing." Aunt Yan didn't wait for the little palace maid to take action and personally rinsed the medicine pot clean before scooping up some clean water.
At this moment, the palace maid had already lit up the small stove. Hearing the water in the medicine pot start to boil, everyone was more or less relieved.
"I think it's better if we hide half of it. If they go all out and suddenly take the water away, then we're all done for." Lady Wang suddenly spoke, her words silencing everyone.
"I feel that they want us to be powerless, yet they don't want us to use violence. They don't want us to be able to threaten their family's men."
"And the best way to make us vulnerable is to make us weak, so I think that if they find out that we are not as weak as they think we are, they might even withdraw their water."
Seeing that no one spoke, Lady Wang stressed her words again. The other wives looked at each other, at a loss for words. No one dared to speculate on such an outcome.
In a while, we will start boiling this pot of water first, and then we will share the water. From the second pot onwards, Wailing Home will have someone prepare a clean bucket of water in the inner room, and deliver the boiled water there for safekeeping. "" Okay.
"If Lady Wang is right and they took the water away, then we also have water to drink next, so we can hold on for a few more days no matter what. Otherwise, if we just keep some cold water, then we won't dare to boil it and drink."
No one objected to the empress dowager's words as they boiled a pot of water. After everyone drank a bit, they started boiling the pot after pot and sent them to the inner rooms. Of course, no one went there, as they all knew that the empress dowager lived there, so they sent water there as Aunt Yan.
The sky had already turned completely dark. At this moment, someone came by the door to report that Miss Wang had arrived. Lady Wang's heart thumped wildly as she ran towards the main hall. When she really saw her daughter walk in, she almost fainted.
"Why did you come in? Who let you in?" Madam Wang was so anxious that she was on the verge of tears. Wasn't this just sending herself to her death? Everyone else was thinking about how to get out of here, but their daughter had actually delivered herself to them.
"I saw you're still not back yet and was afraid something might have happened to you, so I took the letter from the empress dowager and snuck in. Mother, what happened to you that made you stumble?"
"It's about to close. If I don't go out now, I'll have to stay in the Tzu Ning Palace tonight." Wang Zirou's appearance of not knowing the seriousness of the matter caused Mrs. Wang to lament in her heart.
"Sigh, you've already come in. What else can I say? I'll first go see the empress dowager." He led his daughter to the empress dowager. "Empress Dowager, this is my daughter, Wang Zirou. Because she was worried about me, she took your previous post and snuck into the palace."
Entering the palace with an old card would normally be considered a heinous crime, but at this moment, it was completely different.
"This is your daughter's filial piety, not the thought of you. How could she come to the palace so late? It's just that the little miss has suffered too much. She can't enter now, so she won't be able to leave."
Wang Zirou kowtowed to the empress dowager. Seeing the empress dowager, the empress dowager quickly got the Aunt Yan to help her up and pull her to her side, then affectionately patted the little girl's hands. "You don't look that old yet?"
"Reporting to Esteemed Empress Dowager, maidservant is sixteen this year." Wang Zirou, on the other hand, was not afraid of death, and was chatting quite warmly with the empress dowager.
"Yo, she's about the same as Qingluo. Qingluo will be sixteen years old after this year." The empress dowager unconsciously thought of Qingluo again, and an unpleasant feeling rose in her heart.
"I'm a few months older than Qingluo. Actually, we should be considered the same age." Hearing Wang Zirou talking about Qingluo with her so intimately, the empress dowager was very surprised. "Are you very familiar with Qingluo?"
"The two of us are very familiar with each other. I knew her when she was in Weir Prefecture. Qingluo said that I was her only friend when she was in Weir Prefecture." Wang Zirou said proudly.
The empress dowager was immediately overjoyed, not expecting to meet a little friend of Qingluo's. "Then tell me, what happened to Qingluo when she was in Weir Prefecture?"
"Alright, alright! Then maidservant will tell you about it. " Wang Zirou looked like she did not care about the matters of the world, the surrounding madams did not pay any more attention to him.
Wang Zirou looked at the people around him and realized that no one was paying attention to him, she put away her previous naive face and changed her serious expression. She whispered into the empress dowager's ear, "Empress Dowager, how is the emperor right now?"
The empress dowager was so shocked that her face immediately turned pale. She turned her head to the side and stared intently at Wang Zirou's face, but Wang Zirou immediately leaned on the empress dowager's body, took her arm, and continued to speak to her in a spoiled manner.
"Qingluo was not well at that time …" At first, however, her voice was neither high nor low, and the nearby madams could all hear what she and the empress dowager were saying.
"Wailing Home is a little tired, we need to go in and rest. Yan'er, find some blankets and let everyone stay in the main hall for the night. In times of emergency, it would be hard to avoid suffering grievances."
Of course, all the madams couldn't say that the empress dowager's words were wrong. They had to treat things very well in times of emergency, so they could only put away what they normally paid attention to.
"The little girl is very cute. Accompany Wailing Home to the inner room to chat for a while, and the Wailing Home will get people to send her out later. Is that feasible for Madam Wang?"
Although Madam Wang couldn't wait to hug her daughter in her arms, since the empress dowager had already spoken, how could she dare say no? She hastily returned the greeting.
"It's rare for the empress dowager to like this furry monkey. He's usually spoiled and taught less, as long as he doesn't make you unhappy."
"How could that be? I can see things very well — child, you're asking for too much. How obedient of you." Her Majesty took Zou Rou's hand and was about to bring her to the inner room.
"ZiRou, you have to listen to the empress dowager. Don't be naughty and don't spout nonsense, understand?" Mrs. Wang reminded him again and again, still worried.
"I know, mother, don't worry. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll accompany the empress dowager to the inner rooms to chat. I'll come out later to pay respects to everyone." Wang Zirou was still naive.
At this moment, none of the wives bothered about this. All of them humbled themselves and asked her to hurry up and accompany the empress dowager.
The empress dowager had the Aunt Yan take care of the matters outside first before coming in. The other palace maids followed after them to busy themselves with the Aunt Yan.
Wang Zirou followed the empress dowager into the inner room, where the empress dowager immediately closed the door and asked, "What do you mean by what you just said?" The empress dowager sternly asked as Wang Zirou immediately kneeled in front of her.
"Reporting to the empress dowager, most of the ladies who entered the palace were participants from the Charity Hall. We are used to informing each other about other matters."
"Today, my mother was invited into the palace by your post, and then news of someone else arrived. It was all Madam that was invited into the palace, so at first I didn't think anything was amiss."
"Perhaps you want to find someone to talk to, but it will be more lively if there are more people around. Who knows that when the sky turns dark, no one will come back and someone will be sent to ask someone else. It's all the same, my father already feels that something has happened …"
"Your father was quite alert. How could he have sensed that something was wrong?" The empress dowager interrupted Wang Zirou and pulled her up to sit in front of the round table.
Wang Zirou realized that the water bottle on the table was warm, she subconsciously looked at the bed tent hanging on the bed, then quickly lowered her head.
"Father said that with your kind nature, you would never leave an order for a wife to spend the night in the palace without a word from the government. Something must be amiss."
Zi Rou poured a cup of hot water from the kettle and passed it to the empress dowager. The empress dowager took the cup and took a sip. "Then why are you in the palace now? I heard you're holding an old post I sent?"
Zi Rou laughed. "How could someone with an old card like you enter the palace? That's a lie. I brought my father's identity token with me." Zi Rou laughed like a little fox. She looked like her plan had succeeded.
"Tell me, how did you decide to come to find your mother, and how did you come to the palace?" The empress dowager pinched the little girl's face. It looked like a harmless little girl, but she didn't expect her to be so clever.
She looked cute, but she was still too young. She could still smile even after such a big incident. She probably didn't understand the seriousness of the situation.
"My father felt that he couldn't rashly come to the palace to inquire, so he first contacted a few of the ladies who had also entered the palace. He calculated what would happen, and the more they discussed, the more serious the problem became."
"All the lords who had brought Madame into the palace gathered together. As soon as the people gathered, news was sent from home, saying that the imperial palace had received an imperial decree from the empress."
"Now, we don't need to go home and we will know what's going on. Father will discuss it with the adults and have the two lords try to enter the palace. They can come and take a look."