It was still early, and on this summer day, darkness would come late. There was still some time before the evening banquet.
The Emperor had finished eating and wiped his mouth as a palace maid handed him a cloth to clean his hands. After rinsing his mouth with flower-petal-infused tea, he rose with Wang Dequan's assistance and said, "Yue'er, I'll send Tang Shiliang to fetch you later."
Jiang Xinyue nodded, watching as the Xuanwu Emperor departed.
Shortly after the Emperor left, Jiang Xinyue and her sister finished their meal and took a stroll in the garden of the Changchun Pavilion to aid digestion, thinking they could rest for a while before getting dressed up later.
However, Concubine Cheng's personal maid came crying and knelt at the door, begging to be seen: "Imperial Consort, please save Concubine Cheng! Noble Lady Liu... Noble Lady Liu is trying to destroy my lady's hands!"
What was happening?
Jiang Xinyue remembered giving Noble Lady Liu a lesson that morning - she should have been bedridden, so how could she be bullying others? Besides, she was no match for Concubine Cheng.
"Let's see what's going on," she said. As the nominal leader of the imperial harem, she couldn't ignore disputes between concubines when they were brought to her attention.
At Moon-Embracing Tower—
"Cheng Nianhe, why are you pretending? I merely gave you a light push, are you really that delicate?"
Concubine Cheng, who had fallen to the ground, let out a hiss of pain. As she sat up, her hands were covered in blood - a frightening sight.
Because news of Noble Lady Liu's injury had spread, Consort Zhang and Court Lady Zheng, who lived in more remote quarters, had come to visit.
"Ah! Concubine Cheng, you're... you're bleeding!"
On the ground lay fragments of a medicine bowl that Noble Lady Liu had smashed during their argument. When Noble Lady Liu pushed Concubine Cheng down, her hands had landed directly on the broken porcelain pieces.
"Noble Lady Liu, if you're jealous of my ability to attract butterflies with my qin playing, just say so. Why be so vicious and deliberately ruin my hands?"
Consort Zhang exclaimed while shouting, "Quick, summon the Imperial Physician! What a mess! There's an evening banquet tonight - how can you attend with one having broken bones and the other with hands torn to shreds?"
The other concubines in the palace dared not show themselves, waiting to see how far Noble Lady Liu and Concubine Cheng would go before deciding whether to remain invisible or take a gamble for their future. If these two destroyed themselves through internal fighting, where else would they find such brave fools willing to challenge the Imperial Consort?
What did they look like?
Like fishwives brawling in the street!
Jiang Xinyue couldn't be bothered to judge their case. She simply ordered fifty strikes for each, made Noble Lady Liu apologize to Concubine Cheng, reprimanded Concubine Cheng for deliberately provoking Noble Lady Liu, and finally ordered an investigation into who really applied oil to Noble Lady Liu's shoes.
But however they investigated, it would likely circle back to Concubine Cheng. As for how she would seek revenge - let them fight it out!
While they were fighting each other, they wouldn't have energy to scheme against her.
Better them than her!
"What did you say?"
Aliali: 673aa0aed72ede9349903ddf
"Young Master encountered the Imperial Consort today, and he..."
Made inappropriate advances towards her?
Minister Pei slammed his palm on the round rosewood table: "Has he lost his mind? Here I am, exhausting myself trying to get that old fox Jiang Yankun to agree to the marriage between our families, and he goes and... he... does he have a death wish?"
Standing outside the door, Pei Zhishuo's face burned red. He could hardly tell his grandfather that he lost control because the Imperial Consort was too beautiful and alluring!
His grandfather despised those who were both lecherous and foolish. He straightened his robes and took a deep breath: "Grandfather, I know I was wrong, but this was actually Jiang Xinyue's scheme. To prevent Third Miss Jiang from marrying me, she deliberately seduced me. I was caught off guard and thought she had feelings for me, which is why I... why I acted so improperly."
The reason his preference for married women hadn't become public knowledge was because he knew who he could and couldn't touch. He only played with beautiful widows in the capital.
After giving them generous compensation, which woman would broadcast that she had lost her virtue? Even the few who wouldn't let it go were simply taken into his household as maids - nominally servants but actually his bed warmers.
These widows, after enduring hard times for so long, suddenly found themselves pampered and became dizzy with dreams of becoming Pei Zhishuo's beloved concubines, making them even less likely to cause trouble.
How could the Pei family accept a few widows as concubines for their eldest grandson?
They were simply blinded by the Pei family's wealth and status. If they tried to claim they were forced initially, who would believe them?