Chapter 29 - Cutting him to the quick professionally

“My Majesty!” Yun Fenghuang personally served a cup of tea to Emperor Chunjia. Glancing at the eunuch she had never seen before, she asked delicately, “I’ve never seen the eunuch you bring today, My Majesty.”

Emperor Chunjia opened the lid of the tea bowl, blew on the tea, and said slowly, “Yan Yin serves me newly. It is impossible if you have seen him before.”

He said in a bland tone, as if he didn’t mind what had happened to Jiang Lan at all.

“You are right, My Majesty.” Yun Fenghuang smirked and sat down in a seat. There was an end table between them. “This eunuch is fair and handsome, much more beautiful than the previous one Jiang Lan. He looks delightful… Is it you who gave him the name Yan Yin?”

Emperor Chunjia put down the tea bowl and said, “Jiang Lan had also come with me to see you here several times before. But you didn’t notice him at all at that time. Why do you pay attention to Yan Yin when he firstly comes here? In this case, how about I give Yan Yin to you?”

When Yun Fenghuang heard this, she paused. Yan Yin also changed his expression slightly.

“You must be kidding, My Majesty. I know my statue.” Yun Fenghuang immediately said, “With my humble statue, I don’t deserve to be served by him. What I have said before is a throwaway remark.”

Emperor Chunjia said with a spurious smile, “He is just a servant. I am willing to give him to you. Why can’t you have him? If you are worried about that Her Highness will disagree with this decision, I will explain to her. You’ve just been promoted as Mei Ren, and you’ll need more servants.”

“Thanks for your kindness, My Majesty. I am afraid that I can’t agree with you.” Yun Fenghuang giggled and then said in a sweet voice, “I thought you give Yan Yin to me because you cherish me. It turns out that you are afraid that I will ask some favors from you, so you use Yan Yin to stall me off. However, although Yan Yin is excellent, I dare not accept him because he is serving you, My Majesty. As for choosing servants for me, I think Consort Yue will help me with that.”

Then she winked and said, “I have a question for you, My Majesty. Does Nian Xuan do well in serving you? If not, please send her back to Xi Xing Building. Although she is not very smart, she is good at making home-cooked food. I really miss the food she made.”

When Emperor Chunjia heard this, he did not immediately tell her Nian Xuan’s whereabouts. Instead, he said meaningfully, “According to the rules of the palace, unless a special license is granted, kitchenettes can only be set up by a hostess of a palace… Although Mei Ren is still young, your ambition is not small.”

Yun Fenghuang’s smile remained unchanged, “My Majesty, what you said is right. After I joined the Imperial Harem, I’m all yours. If I am so petty, I will make you dishonored. Although I am young, I always take your side and I am wholeheartedly devoted to winning glory and honor for you. Even if I have some other purposes, I will hide them. I must always mind my behaviors and look like a decent concubine.”

She leaned forward slightly, cupping her cheeks and staring at Emperor Chunjia. She said in a leisurely tone, “Am I naughty or nice, My Majesty? Do you like me?”

“…” Emperor Chunjia was silent for a moment. Then he said with a chuckle, “If I don’t like you, why did I bother to come here tonight?”

Then he shook his hand, and people around them left judiciously.

There were only the two of them left in the room. Emperor Chunjia asked lightly, “Is the water in Tai Ye Pool cold?”

“Not so cold?” Yun Fenghuang thought for a while and said, “It’s mainly because I am in good health. You see, I didn’t have any fever or cough today. Otherwise, even if you want to come, I will not dare to serve you, lest I should get you sick.”

Emperor Chunjia sneered, “Mei Ren is a woman after all, weak and delicate. It is threatening but not dangerous last night. But if you experience it several more times later, you may not be so lucky.”

Yun Fenghuang humbly accepted what he had said and answered, “You are right, My Majesty.”

Then she changed the subject, “You should care about your health, My Majesty. After I narrowly escaped death in the morning, I was very worried to heard Jiang Lan’s lie from Her Highness. It doesn’t matter if Jiang Lan plotted to hurt me, but he was too bold and reckless to mislead people in the palace in your name, My Majesty. How dare he? Who knows whether he would do something bad to you in secret or not? I almost fainted for worrying about you if Her Highness didn’t tell me you were fine repeatedly.”

She also touched her forehead. It seemed that she would faint now in front of Emperor Chunjia.

The Emperor was gloomy. He said, “Thanks for your concern, Mei Ren.”

“It is a matter within my duties.” Yun Fenghuang showed him a sweet smile, and said, “I love you the best, My Majesty. Therefore, I always care for you.”

The Emperor closed his eyes and did not want to see her face, “The weather is getting colder in the night. Mei Ren, you should take care.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Yun Fenghuang said with her head tilted to one side. It seemed that she was innocent and trusted Emperor Chunjia very much, “I won’t be afraid of anything if I’m with you, My Majesty.”

Her last words reminded Emperor Chunjia of his old memory. Yuan Lianniang (Consort Yue) had said that before she entered the palace. At that time, Yuan Lianniang was full of youthful spirit in her face and eyes. She was filled with fighting wills by his side… Later… Now…

He was in a trance for a second. Then when he saw Yun Fenghuang again, he felt disgusted.

However, Yun Fenghuang seemed to be unaware of his disgust and she still asked with a smile, “My Majesty, do you have anything to reward me? Could you give one or two gifts to me? Then I will be content.”

The Emperor said lightly, “Her Highness has just rewarded you. Why do you want the gifts in my private stockroom?”

“I didn’t ask for it for myself.” Yun Fenghuang answered with a smile, “I want to send Consort Yue a return present. Now I have been given the promotion of Mei Ren. Therefore, I went to Ning Bi Hall to tell Consort Yue about my promotion just now. Consort Yue was so happy that she gave me many rewards… It is impolite not to reciprocate. So, I plan to present a gift in return. However, as a new concubine in the palace, I am poor and blank. Concerning that you are here, I have to ask for your help.”

She said sweetly, “Consort Yue is the best. She will not be too particular about the value of the gifts. Therefore, you can give me something to show my respect and gratitude to Consort Yue.”

Emperor Chunjia was speechless. He looked up at Yun Fenghuang directly.

Yun Fenghuang also looked at him with a smile.

After a while, Emperor Chunjia eventually broke the silence, “Mei Ren, you are young and vigorous, but you’d better know that one should be lenient wherever it is possible.”

“Is that so?” Yun Fenghuang said contemplatively. “Maybe my former teacher didn’t teach me right. He taught me that one should argue a point to death.”

Emperor Chunjia stared at her, sneering suddenly, “Mei Ren, you’d better not regret what you have done in the future.”

Yun Fenghuang covered her mouth and smiled, “My Majesty, how is this possible? Everyone has something to regret. Even for Consort Yue, the hostess of Hu Zhu Palace, maybe she has something that she regrets, not to mention me. I venture to ask do you have anything to regret before, My Majesty? Everybody will regret for what they have done. Therefore, it is OK for me to regret.”

Emperor Chunjia was intended to subtly threaten her, but Yun Fenghuang didn’t buy it and touched a raw nerve of Emperor Chunjia instead. Emperor Chunjia was speechless.

This concubine was too hateful. Could he just issue an imperial edict to get her to death?

Emperor Chunjia hesitated for a moment and said, “Mei Ren Yun.”

Yun Fenghuang answered, “Yes?”

“Behave yourself.” Emperor Chunjia said, getting up, “I just came here to have a sit. It has been late, and I should go.”

At first, he intended to sleep in Xi Xing Building so that other concubines would hate Yun Fenghuang more than ever. However, Yun Fenghuang kept cutting him to the quick. Emperor Chunjia didn’t want to stay at all.

Anyway, even if he didn’t stay with her, among these newcomers, there was no one who would steal Yun Fenghuang’s limelight.

Bearing this thought in mind, he called Yan Yin after he went out, “Head for Su Rong Palace.”

After the Emperor left, Xin Qing and another servant were anxious and fearful. Mei Ren Xue, the cousin of Zhao Yuan Ji, was living in Su Rong Palace. She was supposed to be the first one to sleep with the Emperor among all the new concubines.

Although they knew that Yun Fenghuang would not continue to occupy the Emperor, they still felt worried instinctively. The Emperor chose Mei Ren Xue to serve him to sleep, rather than Mei Ren Yun (Yun Qingman) whose family statue and grade was as good as Mei Ren Xue’s and who was close to Yun Fenghuang.

But when they saw that Yun Fenghuang stayed calm, they gradually settled down.

After all, Yun Fenghuang was safe and kept getting promotion. It was obvious that she had planned before. If she kept calm for the Emperor’s leaving, maybe everything in Xi Xing Building would be…safe?

In fact, Yun Fenghuang did not care about that Emperor Chunjia went to Su Rong Palace. There were two reasons. The first one was that she did not like the Emperor at all. She even wanted the Emperor to be a puppet all his life, not to mention being jealous for him. The other one was that there were no more substantial advantages if she continued to serve Emperor Chunjia to sleep except for making Consort Yue unhappy. Keeping sleeping with Emperor Chunjia would only make trouble for her. What’s worse, the Empress Dowager would be unsatisfied with her.

In terms of making Consort Yue unhappy, Yun Fenghuang thought she had plenty of ways. So, she did not need to achieve that goal at the cost of sacrificing herself to face Emperor Chunjia regardless of the fact that they hated each other.

It was better to get rid of Emperor Chunjia and think about how to deal with tomorrow’s greeting.

Yun Fenghuang was not clear about how Emperor Chunjia was going in Su Rong Palace tonight. Anyway, she slept well in Xi Xing Building alone.

The next morning, she got up, washed and dressed, and went directly with Xin Qing to Yan Fu Palace.

The tacit understanding in the palace was that when greeting, the concubines with lower grades should arrive earlier, while the concubines with high grades would take long to come.

Since Yun Fenghuang did not come with Noble Consort Shu this time, she had to behave well in front of the Empress, so she arrived in advance.

There was a side hall specially set in Yan Fu Palace for the low-grade concubines to wait. When Yun Fenghuang entered, many people had already gathered inside. All of them were dressed up and each was attractive in their own ways. Perhaps because concubines with high grades had not arrived at this moment, everyone was chatting excitedly. It was very noisy when those concubines kept chattering. When they noticed that the door of the hall opened again, they looked at the door at random, and intended to continue their chat. But when they saw it was Yun Fenghuang, they suddenly kept quiet.

“Mei Ren Yun, this way, please.” The seats in this side hall were not casual, either. They were still arranged in descending order. It was the first time that Yun Fenghuang had come to this side hall, so a maid in Yan Fu Palace guided her, walked through the crowd to the simple seat for the Empress at the top. Step by step, they stopped until there were few people nearby. “Please have a rest here, Mei Ren Yun. We will tell you later when Her Highness dresses up.” The maid said.

Yun Fenghuang thanked the maid and sat down composedly. Noticing that those concubines were still looking at her with different expressions, she raised her eyebrows and asked as she looked around, “Is there anything wrong?”

“…” Those concubines avoided her sight subconsciously and then felt depressed. They looked at each other, delivering the same thought, “We should give this coquettish girl a lesson when she is still at her peak.”