"Mother? Mother, please don't..."
"Drag him out and beat him to death."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Ji Qingyao was so anxious that she coughed up a mouthful of blood!
"Princess? Princess!"
After a long period of composure, Yan Xiu finally stood up: "Quickly go and fetch the imperial physician."
The order cannot be changed. Even with the princess's protection, that maid from Jiaoyue Palace didn't survive until today.
The Empress was in the palace with her daughter, who had vomited blood and was unconscious. In the Zhehua Palace, she saw off Physician Song. Yuzhi held the Fourth Miss and cried.
"Why are you crying?"
"Your injury..."
Yu Zhi was heartbroken that someone with a lump on their head was still kowtowing to the Empress without any regard for the situation. She wished she could take their place.
"This little bit of pain is nothing."
The pain before death in a previous life is the most unforgettable and unbearable torment.
Wei Pingxi hugged her and sighed, "Do you think the princess's face is easy to slap? Why would she rather take the blame than let the Empress punish her people? That's a matter of face."
"A person's reputation matters. I can still go out even with a bag on my head, but she probably won't be able to step out of the Moon Palace for the next two weeks."
"Knowing it's not easy, why gamble with that pride?" Madam Wei entered the room with a sullen face.
"Mother."
"Sit still, don't move. Mother is here to see you."
Yan Qing was angry but couldn't bear to scold her: "You're so powerful. The whole harem is saying that you've overshadowed the princess's power since you arrived. The Empress killed her people for you. Be careful, the princess might cause you trouble later."
"That's a matter for the future." Wei Pingxi said casually, "My aunt is such a person, yet her daughter is so useless. I'm just helping her to train her a bit, so she won't go out and embarrass herself."
Madam Wei remained unfazed, calmly twirling her prayer beads: "Go ahead and be arrogant."
"That's right, I believe my aunt is the kind of person who sides with reason, not family. Reason is on my side; I won't offend others unless they offend me, but if they do, to hell with them!"
"It's a good thing she's a princess. If she weren't, who would bother playing tricks on her? I could crush her with one hand."
"You mustn't use such vulgar language." Madam Wei carefully examined the wound on her forehead.
“Isn’t that just saying it with more spirit?” Wei Pingxi lay back on the bed listlessly. “Mother, I want Zhizhi to sleep with me for a while.”
When a daughter is injured, it's easy for a mother to take her anger out on her.
Yan Qing glanced at the beauty sitting to the side, and nodded with suppressed displeasure: "Okay, you two rest."
"Zhizhi, come up here quickly." She patted the bed.
Yu Zhi took off her coat and lay down next to her.
Wei Pingxi sighed softly, not without a hint of smugness: "Don't you think that princess is too narrow-minded? She actually got so angry that she vomited blood?"
"Don't do that again."
"What?"
Yu Zhi looked at her face to face, her eyes brimming with tears: "Don't use your own safety as a bargaining chip anymore. If I get hit, I can just bear it and it will pass."
"Why should I tolerate this? Even if she is a princess, she is still my concubine!"
"My woman can endure in bed, at the table, kneeling, crawling, lying down, and so on. She's only fit for me to bully."
"Who do the others think they are? If they want to bully you, they'll have to ask me if I'll allow it."
"I agree. Unless I'm out of my mind, I won't agree. Even if the King of Heaven himself comes, we can't back down."
"The worst that can happen is death. I'm not going to put up with this anymore. If anyone wants me to put up with this, then screw them!"
Yu Zhi was touched for a short while, but then a rude remark ruined the atmosphere, and she burst into laughter through her tears: "Don't talk like that..."
"What's wrong with talking like that? It sounds quite interesting at first, doesn't it?"
Her tears in front of the Empress were not entirely feigned; those blows did indeed hurt, compounding her injuries.
She frowned slightly, and Yu Zhi quickly smoothed it out for her: "Does it still hurt a lot? Should we ask the imperial physician to take another look?"
"The imperial physician is staying with me, and this injury won't heal in a short time."
Yu Zhi's eyes welled up with tears: "You're really foolish, acting out of spite."
"It would be foolish not to fight when you're feeling proud."
"You offended Princess Jiaorong and used the Empress's hand to kill her people. Aren't you afraid of making things difficult for the Empress?"
Wei Pingxi raised an eyebrow: "Do you know what kind of person my aunt is?"
Yu Zhi pondered for a moment and quickly understood what she meant.
"The one who starts the fight is despicable. That maidservant came to offend you in order to please the princess; this is her way to her death."
She hugged Yuzhi and whispered to her, "Do you think Princess Jiaoyue was picked up by the Emperor and Empress? She's my only 'enemy' in the palace. We didn't get along when we were kids, and we'd fight whenever we met."
To fabricate stories about the imperial lineage behind one's back is a grave crime, but fortunately, the two of them are hiding in bed and no one else can hear them.
Yu Zhi thought for a moment, then whispered, "I also think that the Emperor and Empress are both intelligent and incredibly beautiful..."
Then, something the fourth young lady said made her laugh uncontrollably.
Late at night, Madam Wei pushed open the door to cover her daughter with a blanket. Seeing them sleeping in each other's arms in their undergarments, she couldn't help but glance towards the southwest of the palace.
Chapter 38 is quite interesting.
Southwest, the Palace of the Bright Moon.
The beautiful princess, pale-faced and unconscious after vomiting blood, sat wrapped in a blanket.
Do you know where you went wrong?
Ji Qingyao smiled bitterly: "Did you lose because you didn't get the Empress Dowager's favor? Or did you lose because you didn't have Wei Pingxi to act cute and spoiled?"
"You lost because you were narrow-minded and used underhanded methods."
"Mother?"
The Empress held a cup of fragrant tea and sipped it slowly, the tea moistening her lips.
In the candlelight, her eyes were clear and bright, as if she could see through everything: "It must be tiring to remember the unpleasant things from your early years. She came to the palace on my orders. I want to see her, and you must be feeling bad about it."
"If you're unhappy, you can argue; if you're not pleased, you can speak up. Do you know the biggest difference between the children of the imperial family and ordinary people?"
Ji Qingyao pondered for a long time: "Children of the imperial family are born into immense wealth and power, making them unattainable for ordinary people."
Not entirely correct.
"What's wrong?"
"The children of the imperial family are also mortals, capable of feeling pain, fatigue, complaints, and weakness. They are born with wealth and power, but this is never meant to make them superior to others; rather, it is meant to make them willingly elevated to a high position by the people."
Do you understand the difference?
The beautiful princess lowered her eyes and remained silent.
"You ordered your servants to smash people, but in the end you smashed your own feet. That's fine, at most you can just call it willful and childish."
"But then you insisted on arguing with people to save face that had already been lost, and when the argument failed, you vomited blood and fainted, losing all your dignity in the end."
“You are a princess of my Great Yan Dynasty. What can’t you get? Your status and your actions have truly disgraced the royal family, so I cannot protect you, nor do I want to.”
The Empress gave her a deep look: "You should rest well."
As she was about to leave, Ji Qingyao struggled to get up: "Why can't Mother treat me the same way she treats Wei Pingxi? I am Mother's own flesh and blood, she is just an outsider."
"Although she resorts to trickery, she is upright and courageous. She is not afraid to compete with others, whether it is through schemes or open tactics. I like the way she competes. It is simple, straightforward, and without any dragging on."
"Mother!" She knelt and crawled two steps: "Why does Mother always favor her?"
"Because you've disappointed me too many times. Go back to bed and rest; it's cold and windy."
As the imperial carriage departed from the Moon Palace, the beautiful princess, once revered and noble, knelt on the smooth, mirror-like jade bricks. The sorrow in her eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by utter mockery.
"So it turns out that Mother likes intelligent people."
She stood up, flicked her sleeve, and curled her lips into a smile: "Who isn't a smart person? It's ridiculous that you're biased and won't admit it."
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please slow down."
The head palace maid, Ning You, carried a lantern to light the way for her.
As she left the Bright Moon Palace, snow began to fall from the sky, drifting into her hair. Palace servants immediately found an oil-paper umbrella and held it over the Empress's head.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please don't be angry with the princess. She's just a child, and it's inevitable that she'll be willful."
"She's not being willful, she's just too stupid and thinks she's smart."
Yan Xiu didn't live long, but she saw many people and ghosts.
Her childhood sweetheart relationship with His Majesty, who was not the Empress Dowager's biological son, led to many upheavals during his ascension to the throne.
Over the years, she has stood by Ji Ying through thick and thin, which, to put it bluntly, is no different from discerning right from wrong amidst the wickedness of human nature.
Her daughter is ambitious but incredibly stupid. Is she trying to test Xi Xi's methods?
They tend to choose the least popular ones.
Yan Xiu smiled and said that she hadn't done such a thing since she was three years old. She ordered her maid to throw embroidered balls at people.
She hurried through the wind and snow: "How is Zhehua Palace?"
"The Fourth Miss has had dinner and taken her medicine, and is now asleep."
"lead the way."
Yan Xiu's expression was slightly cold, and her ethereal aura swirled in the wind and snow, making her presence far beyond what ordinary people could avoid.
She had doubted more than once that Yao'er was not her and His Majesty's daughter, and she had also speculated more than once that her daughter was right beside her.
With her and His Majesty's looks, their daughter, if not stunningly beautiful, would at least be intelligent.