Free Web NovelChapter 1260: Chapter 1260: Turmoil
The Emperor husband takes a little wife, and she’s supposed to feel hurt?
Just thinking about it felt ridiculous.
Xia Ruqing turned over impatiently.
"I don’t want to meddle in your business either!"
"So long as she doesn’t come provoking me in the future, I can turn a blind eye!"
With that, she turned over and went to sleep.
Zhao Junyao spread his hands helplessly, a bitter smile on his face.
Still, he turned around to face Xia Ruqing and hugged her from behind.
Xia Ruqing struggled for a while to no avail, and could only let him do as he pleased.
...
After the Dragon Boat Festival.
The Harem quieted down again.
The Concubines were still disgruntled with Attendant Luo, and had even added envy and hate to the mix.
But in view of the Emperor’s "favor," they didn’t dare act rashly.
The usual practice was to wait until that person lost favor, then clean her up ruthlessly.
So now all the women in the Harem were waiting for Attendant Luo to "fall out of favor."
Xia Ruqing really did manage to stay completely out of it.
Aside from occasionally going to the front to see the children, she stayed in Duanning Palace the rest of the time.
Reading, writing, tending to flowers and plants—her days were very leisurely.
Zhao Junyao came to her place less often.
From coming every day before, it had changed to once every three days.
First, because state affairs were getting busier.
Second... on this matter, he wanted to keep her completely out of it.
Though she had been in the palace for a long time, her nature was still fairly simple.
He was reluctant to let her go through even the petty squabbles of the Harem, let alone this kind of bloody storm.
These winds and rains that had nothing to do with her to begin with—he would shoulder them alone.
She only needed to stay safely under his wings and live out her little poetic, picturesque life.
Thinking of this, thinking that there was still a little woman in his arms waiting for him to protect her...
Zhao Junyao’s fighting spirit surged all the more.
The methods he had honed on the emperor’s throne, under his deliberate urging, became especially thunderous and overwhelming.
May flashed by in the blink of an eye.
The hottest month, June, arrived.
The blazing sun scorched the earth like a furnace, whether inside or outside the palace, within the city walls or beyond.
Every place was like it had been thrown into Taishang Laojun’s alchemy furnace—stuffy, hot, steaming, and roasting all at once.
For a while in the Harem,
whether master or Servants, if they could avoid going out, they absolutely would not go out.
The heat was one thing; the main issue was the sun, and getting tanned.
Go out once and come back eight shades darker—neither Palace Maids nor eunuchs were willing.
On the palace paths that usually bustled with people, it was hard to see a single person now.
The whole Harem had become much quieter.
That morning.
After breakfast, Xia Ruqing stood by the window watching the blazing sun outside.
"It’s really hot these days!"
"And this is only morning—the sun’s already this strong!"
"Just imagine how hot it’ll be at noon. My plants won’t get scorched to death, will they?"
Zi Yue fanned her while laughing.
"They won’t!"
"Plants aren’t like people, they don’t get heatstroke. As long as they’re watered, they’ll live!"
"Don’t worry, Xiao Zhu Zi leads a few Little Eunuchs to water several times a day. Those vegetables and seedlings are thriving!"
Xia Ruqing laughed.
"True!"
"He’s best at this sort of thing. I’m at ease leaving it to him!"
Zi Yue smiled and said nothing more.
Just then Zi Ning called out as she had two Little Eunuchs bring in ice basins.
"Be careful, all of you—mind you don’t bump into anything!"
"Yes!"
The two Little Eunuchs answered busily.
Four ice basins were carried in altogether, two for the inner room and two for the outer room.
The Little Eunuchs finished their work briskly, saluted, and withdrew.
Zi Ning stepped forward and said with a smile,
"My Lady, the Imperial Physician said last time that your body mustn’t be chilled, so this maid took it upon herself to remove one ice basin from both the inner and outer rooms!"
Xia Ruqing nodded.
"Then remove them. I think two are enough!"
As long as they dispelled the heat it was fine; there was no need to make it that cool.
She cherished her body very much—treasured this life Heaven had given her!
Zi Yue also smiled.
"That’s very true!"
"Better to be a bit hot; catching a chill would be real trouble!"
Xia Ruqing said nothing more, turned and went into the inner room, and lay down on the couch covered with cool rattan.
Zi Yue followed her in.
"My Lady, what shall we do today? You can’t lie there all day!"
Xia Ruqing picked up a book and flipped through it casually.
"We’ll wait until it cools down toward evening, then go out for a walk!"
As she spoke, something suddenly occurred to her, and she hurriedly asked,
"Oh right! Have all the ice basins in the Harem been distributed?"
"Make sure none are missing—don’t short this one or that one!"
"It’s just something not worth much, but I don’t want them turning around and complaining that I’m stingy!"
Zi Yue laughed.
"You can rest assured! They’ve all been delivered, not a single one left out!"
Only then did Xia Ruqing feel at ease.
She picked up a storybook and started reading.
...
Duanning Palace was quiet and peaceful, but the Harem outside had exploded.
The thing Xia Ruqing was most worried about had still happened.
But the matter was completely different from what she had imagined.
She had thought it would be the Ministry of Internal Affairs people skimming off stipends.
In fact, it was indeed the Ministry of Internal Affairs playing tricks.
But instead of withholding stipends, they were swapping stipends around.
The fuse had been that incident before, when a few Ladies went to make trouble for Attendant Luo.
The result that time was that the Ladies were confined, while Attendant Luo came out unscathed. free𝑤ebnovel.com
Then on the Dragon Boat Festival, Attendant Luo had even received the Emperor’s favor!
So the old bad habits of those people at the Ministry of Internal Affairs flared up again.
In the height of summer,
they actually took all the ice basins from those Ladies’ stipends and sent them over to Attendant Luo.
The Ladies naturally refused to accept it, so they sent the Palace Maids by their sides to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to raise a fuss.
Back and forth, the whole thing blew up.
When Xia Ruqing heard of it, she had no desire to get involved and simply let Consort Cheng and Consort Hui handle it.
Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Consort Cheng and Consort Hui sat in the seats of honor, looking down at a whole crowd of Palace Maids kneeling on the floor, as well as Xiao Ge, Attendant Luo’s Palace Maid.
The two of them had splitting headaches.
"What’s all this racket? What are you making a fuss about?"
"Last time it was your mistresses, this time it’s you. Seems being confined didn’t teach you much of a lesson!"
Consort Cheng scolded them sternly.
The few Palace Maids kneeling on the ground clearly felt wronged.
"Your Highness!"
"Your Highness Consort Cheng, we’ve been wronged!"
"We... it was all them, they did it on purpose!"
"In such heat they’re still skimming off our mistress’ stipends. We only came to get some justice, that’s all! Please see clearly, Your Highness!"
The Palace Maids spoke very earnestly.
Consort Cheng’s gaze swept over to the head of the Steward of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
"Is that so?"
"Are they telling the truth?!"
The eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs trembled with his head lowered.
Just as he was at a loss for how to answer, Xiao Ge suddenly spoke up.
"Your Highness Consort Cheng, the ice basins were requested by our mistress!"
"Because those Ladies injured our mistress before; the wounds on her body still haven’t fully healed. The Imperial Physician said if she doesn’t rest properly, they’ll fester and bleed, and she can’t be exposed to heat, so we came to ask for ice basins!"
"Our mistress still has to receive favor; naturally she can’t offend the sacred eyes. I beg all Your Highnesses to see this clearly!"
Xiao Ge spoke neatly and fluently, with a few traces of arrogance in her tone, even sounding somewhat justified.
Her arrogant manner made Consort Cheng and Consort Hui both knit their brows.
