CH 45.1

[1] The title of the chapter is Louyi which is literaly the ant and figuratively a person with no power

Night, the Embroidery Workshop. 

The candle flames flicker, lighting up the room for two. 

Zhang-Momo sat in a chair, Wei Yingluo, like a grandson serving his elders, kneels beside her, puts the holster in her hand on her knee. 

“When I enter the Forbidden City, I feel that my legs are not my own, whether on the rocky path or on the rocky hill, whenever I meet my master, I kneel down whenever I want, I am young, I can bear it, not for you Momo, there will be problems in the future.” Wei Yingluo rambled on, “Try it, this holster on your knee, it's much more comfortable!”

To be thought of in this way to be served, even with a few bunches of weeds wrapped around one's knees, makes Zhang-Momo feel good to the core. She laughed and said: “Very good, your hands are becoming more and more skilful.” 

Wei Yingluo had sewn the knee sleeve herself, she was clever, the leather was well chosen but she was not satisfied, she looked at the knee sleeve fussy and said: “I saw the eunuchs wearing them too but unfortunately I could not find a good leather, when I get a good one, I will replace it for you.”

Zhang-Momo sighed and said: “Yingluo.” 

“What's wrong?” Wei Yingluo looked at her. 

Zhang-Momo hesitated for a moment and finally said: “The snowball's fur is all white, why did you have to find a defective one to hand over?” 

Wei Yingluo never hid anything from her, when she was changing Zhang-Momo's knee sleeve, she had already told her lightly what she had done today. 

“Because Guard Soulun and Fucha Fuheng are good friends!” Wei Yingluo laughed and said, “Guard Soulun is a big man but Fucha Fuheng is very clever, he will soon find out what I have done and in a few days, he will come to me.” 

“Did you deliberately play it out in front of him?” Why? Zhang-Momo, after a moment's deliberation, came up with the answer, “You had a slip of the tongue, you gave him the bladder of a pig that you had tampered with, it may have fooled him but when he thought about it afterwards, he will be suspicious! How can you make him suspicious but by acting, by making him think that you are a kind hearted person and a man who cannot bear to lay hands on a small animal.” 

“Momo, am I bad?” Wei Yingluo rested her cheek on her knee and murmured, “But to avenge my sister's death, I have to be a bad person.” 

“If you were a bad person, you wouldn't have saved Noble Lady Yu twice, even to the point of going against Noble Consort Hui.” Zhang-Momo sighed, stroking her hair gently, “If you were a bad person, you wouldn't have made a nest for Snowball and saved your own food for him.” 

Wei Yingluo said: “I used a dog to get away and put a muzzle on an even bigger dog.” 

This silly girl! Zhang-Momo couldn't help but laugh out loud: “If you're really a bad person, you won't hold on to it, if you really want to be a bad person, you have to be completely bad, you have to eliminate the root of the problem, you don't show mercy, learn from Noble Consort  Hui!!” 

The Chuxiu Palace. 

Concubine Jia on her knees. 

How long had she been kneeling? She couldn't remember, only that both knees no longer belonged to her, sweat was falling down her forehead, dripping on the floor. 

“That brat, who has done this Palace Mistress wrong so many times and yet the Empress protects her.” Noble Consort Hui's voice rang out from above her head and said indifferently, “This Palace Mistress is not at liberty to do anything about her, tell me, what can be done about her, so that this Palace Mistress can take her anger off? Mistress?” 

Concubine Jia's mind wandered and with a final clench of her teeth, she spat out a name: “Prince Yi of First Rank!” 

“Him?” Noble Consort Hui said with disdain in her voice, “That fancy man, what can he do?” 

“He is, after all and a Prince.” Concubine Jia was in a unique position to calculate people and laughed confidently saying, “Prince Yi of First Rank may not as powerful as he once was but he is an Iron-Cap Prince.” [1] an Iron cap is a title peerageness that is inherited and does not get reduced with each succesion

Noble Consort Hui did not say anything, as if waiting for her to continue. 

“This one is a proper royal family, now he is only a retainer of the Qianqing Gate, not even a retainer of the imperial court, he is useless!” Concubine Jia said for her, “Now that he and Lord Gao are close friends and he's counting on you to give him a hand, he's trying to curry favour! If you have any orders to give, I'm sure he'll be happy to do them...” 

[Lord Gao is Noble Consort Hui's father]