Chapter 71 - How kind Yun Fenghuang was

Yun Fenghuang glanced at the maid. She smiled and said to Xi Jing, Xi Le and the other servants, “When I newly joined the harem before, I was pushed into a pool in front of the Ning Bi Hall. Thanks to those dignitaries including Empress Dowager, three queen mothers, His Majesty and Her Highness, it was more scared than hurt. But the one who did it has never been found out…”

Xi Jing preemptively said, “It turned out to be so! I didn’t expect that this despicable maid would dare to offend you with the excuse of Jie Yu Yue. How bold she is! Even death cannot atone for her offence!”

At the moment, she called Chen Sheng and several other eunuchs, and planned to take the maid to Yan Fu Palace to complain.

Chen Sheng was a little hesitant and didn’t move for a while, but Chen Jing and Chen Zhu, the two young eunuchs, responded quickly. Before the maid ran away, they rushed to catch her. Then they went to Yan Fu Palace. Empress Ji was too lazy to deal with this kind of trivial matter personally, so she sent a leading maid to handle it.

“Jie Yu Yue is pregnant now. How can she stay with such a mindful and malicious maid?” The leading maid didn’t even mean to symbolically check with Yuan Lianniang. After listening to Yun Fenghuang’s one-sided words, she made the conclusion, “Just leave this maid here and wait for someone from the cold palace Yong Xiang to drag her away… Pin Yun, please pay attention to it in the future. If there are servants with similar behaviors in Hu Zhu Palace, just report to Her Highness so as to avoid making troubles and influencing the imperial heir.”

At the end, the leading maid sent a little eunuch to go to Ning Bi Hall, “I know that Jie Yu Yue is now pregnant, and she failed to manage things well, but Pin Yun helps her a lot after all and finds a maid in her palace who hides a malicious intent. She, as the palace hostess of Hu Zhu Palace, shall reward Pin Yun. People with status under her will be more attentive in serving her later. You go and tell Jie Yu Yue that Her Highness thinks that Pin Yun is actually a member of Hu Zhu Palace, so she won’t put words into her mouth. Let Jie Yu Yue reward Pin Yun.”

After a while, Jie Yu Yue in Ning Bi Hall smashed porcelains again. Aunt Zhu shivered with anger, just facing Yuan Lianniang who was pregnant. She was not as rough as before because Yuan Lianniang was pregnant. She asked patiently, “I have told you that since you are pregnant, you just take care of yourself, and everything will be managed after the emperor’s heir is born. Yesterday, it was very inappropriate for you to go to the Imperial Court in person. Why do you want to mess with Yun Fenghuang?”

Yuan Lianniang shed tears and said sharply, “If I did not to go to Imperial Court, how can I know that bitch seduces Ji?!”

“There are many beauties in this Imperial Harem. They are all to serve His Majesty!” Aunt Zhu took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, “Concubine Messengers from all over the country are on the way to Dijing City with selected beauties, and they will arrive in Dijing City sooner or later. In this harem, there will only be more concubines! It is no use for you to be so jealous. His majesty has repeatedly stated that you are the only one in his heart, and you know that he is involuntary now. If you keep acting in this way… people who are around you could not stand you anymore. Have you never thought that His Majesty may be tired of you?!”

“If His majesty also ceases to be faithful, I will kill myself!” Yuan Lianniang stroked her abdomen, and said with anger, “You are all eloquent, and I can’t outspeak you anyway. But think about it carefully. Who of you is sincere? Last time Yun Fenghuang came over, what she said seemed to be reasonable, but when I saw her pulling with Ji that day, I knew she was actually full of lies and came to steal Ji from me!”

Aunt Zhu closed her eyes and felt that there was no need to communicate with her. She directly asked a few leading maids and eunuchs of Ning Bi Hall to the hall and said to them, “Restrict the people under you. Preventing such thing from happening again! If Her Lady orders to send people out to do things for her, except affairs related to food, clothing, housing, travel, etc., be sure to tell me first!”

Seeing Yuan Lianniang was still waiting to object, she sneered and said, “You are not as scheming as Yun Fenghuang. What’s more, she is supporting Her Highness and is supported by Yan Fu Palace and even Mian Fu Palace when taking actions! In the beginning you have already failed! Now you are pregnant. It seems that people in Yan Fu Palace and Mian Fu Palace have stopped to harm you superficially, but you don’t know that they actually hope that you will fail to give birth to you child!”

“How dare you to make troubles now!”

“They just hope that you can continue to make troubles. Do you know?”

“When you have a miscarriage, they will find at most two scapegoats for Yun Fenghuang… Do you think it’s worthwhile for you to overthrow Yun Fenghuang at the cost of you and your unborn child?”

Yuan Lianniang said nothing.

Aunt Zhu was so upset that she didn’t want to see her. She ordered some servants to tidy up the mess on the ground, and then left the main palace. She calmed down a bit, and asked a maid, “Is there anything happened in Xi Xing Building?”

“After returning from Yan Fu Palace, Pin Yun removed Chen Sheng’s title of leading eunuch and promoted Chen Zhu as the new leading eunuch.” The maid said, “Now they are moving towards Zi Quan Hall.”

“Ask some servants to keep an eye on them and find a chance to talk to Chen Sheng.” Aunt Zhu pondered for a while, and said, “Choose a smart one to do it.”

The maid bowed and accepted her order.

Aunt Zhu asked her again, “You go and tell Queen Mother Yuan. Although Jie Yu Yue is recklessly, Yun Fenghuang goes too far in bullying others! Moreover, only Noble Consort Gui and Jie Yu Yue are pregnant in the harem. Noble Consort Gui has taken effective methods to protect herself. Everything goes well to her. Jie Yu Yue has lost face this time but the one who framed her does not be punished. Then, who will respect Ning Bi Hall in the Imperial Harem in the future? We have to avenge, or people in the Imperial Harem will think that Jie Yu Yue is easy to bully!”

Yun Fenghuang didn’t know these arrangements made by Aunt Zhu. She just newly joined the harem and did not have many possessions. But thanks to Yuan Lianniang who had the ability to offend others, she earned a lot of extra money in the past. Although Zi Quan Hall was also in Hu Zhu palace, they had been busy for a long time in moving from Xi Xing Building to Zi Quan Hall.

Finally, she sat in Zi Quan Hall where was cleaned hastily, took a cup of tea from Xi Jing and had a rest. Chen Zhu who was newly promoted ran in and said that Noble consort Shu sent someone to send a gift to congratulate her on the promotion and on entering a new house.

“Noble Consort Shu originally wanted to come by herself. However, she is busy for everything in Tong Xia Palace. Moreover, Jie Yu Yue has a bad temper… Although she is not afraid of Jie Yu Yue, it’s better not to get in trouble because Jie Yu Yue is pregnant now.” Yun Fenghuang had met the maid twice when she was in Cheng Cai Hall. She was a close maid of Noble Consort Shu. She was white and looked delicate with regular features. She smiled before saying and looked very endearing. The maid kept saying, “Therefore, she sends me to send her congratulations to you. Congratulations, Pin Yun! Two happy events come at the same time.”

Yun Fenghuang smiled lightly, “I dare not to expect that Noble Consort Shu comes to my place. My humble house will be honored if she comes.”

She didn’t talk to the maid for too long, because then there were other concubines sending people to send gifts one after another. Seeing that people in Zi Quan Hall were gradually busy, the maid quickly asked for leave.

“Except Her Highness, concubines in the harem have sent gifts including Noble Consort Gui.” It came to an end when it was dark. People in Zi Quan Hall were tired enough. Xi Jing was responsible for recording and counting with Xi Le. Xi Jing came in and told her, “Actually, according to the rules of the palace, you are now a Pin. Then a palace hostess is allowed to send a servant to congratulate you, and these concubines whose grades are lower than Pin should come to congratulate you in person. But…”

She made a signal with her lips in the direction of Ning Bi Hall, “Perhaps they dare not to come. At this time, they are probably trembling and afraid that you will blame them.”

“I don’t care about these trivial things.” Yun Fenghuang stretched out. “They seem to underestimate me too much… By the way, did these ladies send gifts only to me or several other concubines or to all concubines in the harem?”

Xi Jing intelligently stepped forward to massage her shoulders, “I have asked a maid in the palace of Noble Consort Shu. She said that you and Jie Yu Wei in the Yi Jia Palace are congratulated by the whole Imperial Harem. As for Rong Hua Yun in Tong Xia Palace and Rong Hua Xue in Su Rong Palace, Zhao Yuan Ji did not send gifts to the former and Noble Consort Shu, Fu Ren Yaoning and Jie Yu Lu did not send gifts to congratulate the latter.”

As for others, they were basically received congratulations among concubines.

Yun Fenghuang listened, nodded slightly, and asked her to tidy up the gifts she received recently, “I will thank the three ladies personally when tomorrow’s greeting is over. As for the others, you can manage the arrangement.”

Xi Le quickly took out a list, “I have already drafted it. Do you want to see it now?”

As they handled some other issues, it was getting late. Yun Fenghuang ordered people to serve the dinner. Perhaps it was because that the news of her promotion had spread to the Imperial Kitchen. The dinner was much more substantial than before, and there were some fruits in strange shapes. Chen Peng, who went to take the dinner, laughed and said, “These fruits are not in your monthly welfare and people in the Imperial Kitchen offers these fruits to honor you.”

“You take two silver ingots to them when you take the meals tomorrow.” Yun Fenghuang nodded slightly. Although she didn’t pay much attention to food, she would never refuse to eat or drink better. “You also take some. It was too busy today. I almost forgot to reward you.”

Chen Peng and others quickly thanked her and said something auspicious.

Yun Fenghuang listened with a smile, slowly finished her meal, gargled with tea, and then said to educate them with a kind and pleasant tone, “I am not born in a powerful family, and I only take Nian Xuan when I entered the palace. She is naive and is like my sister. She is not familiar with the things in the imperial family. So as I said before, there is no one that I can rely on except you. If you treat me with sincerity, I will not maltreat you; if you think that I can be bullied because I am young, you must be wrong.”

Ignoring Chen Sheng who was trembling, wished to speak but stopped on a second thought, wanted to admit his error and ask for punishment but did not dare to step forward, Yun Fenghuang smiled and said, “If a person is clever, there is no need to repeatedly order him or her. I’m not that kind of people who like to force people…”

Speaking of this, she subconsciously thought of Gongxiang Xiao. She coughed and continued to say, “This is my attitude. If you are willing to serve me, you can stay. If you are not, you’d better tell me directly and then leave as soon as possible. If you want to cheat and betray me, I am sure that you will not have a good end. The maids in Ning Bi Hall serving the palace hostess of Hu Zhu Palace met unexplained deaths. You think that I do not have the ability to punish you, right?”

“I am guilty…” Chen Sheng could not bear to hear this. He directly knelt on the ground and crawled on his knees, “I did not deliberately disobey your order. All I did is because Jie Yu Yue is pregnant. I am worried…”

“It’s fine.” However, Yun Fenghuang really had no interest in his words. She waved her hand to order someone to drag him out, “It’s alright this time. If you do it again, you don’t need to stay in my palace and serve me, understand?”

Seeing that Chen Sheng was forced out, she picked up the cup, took a sip, thought about what happened today, and felt that there was no big problem. She went to see Nian Xuan for a while. Then she wanted to have a bath, so she asked someone to prepare water.

After she took a shower, Xi Jing took a towel and followed her into the inner room to wipe her long wet hair. Taking the opportunity, she asked, “If you don’t like Chen Sheng, I will find an excuse to send him away. He is so timid and does not have the luck to serve you.”

“He is old, and looked pathetic…” Yun Fenghuang looked at the bronze mirror and smiled. “Just give him another chance.”

Xi Jing quickly said, “You are really kind…”

Before she finished speaking, there was a low laughter after the screen at the door. The emperor said, “What kind of compassionate things has Pin Yun done? Tell me.”