Chapter 100: Catch Her for Me!

Inside Shoucheng Palace, the light was dim, incense curled in the air, quiet and oppressive.

Tuan Tuan, led by Qin Ma Ma, stepped over the high threshold, stood in the center of the main hall, lifted her little head, and looked up at the Empress Dowager seated on the main seat high above.

She recalled how her mother entered the palace, and imitated it, properly and wobbling, kneeling and bowing, her voice baby-like, saying, "Empress Dowager, may you be safe."

After speaking, she kept the bowing posture, waiting for the command: "Rise."

However, the hall was silent, only the faint crackle of incense burning in the censer could be heard.

The Empress Dowager seemed not to hear at all, leisurely brushing the tea froth with a cup lid, not even lifting her eyelids.

Tuan Tuan waited a moment, then raised her little head in puzzlement.

She saw the Empress Dowager lowering her head to drink tea, as if she didn't even know she was there.

Tuan Tuan got up on her own, standing straight.

"How daring!" Qin Ma Ma shouted sharply from the side, "The Empress Dowager has not told you to rise; how dare you get up on your own? Such disregard for protocol!"

Tuan Tuan looked puzzled and said, "The Empress Dowager is old, her ears are deaf, she can't hear me, and I didn't blame her."

"Audacious!" the Empress Dowager placed the tea cup heavily on the table, "How do you know I didn't hear?"

Tuan Tuan frowned and asked Qin Ma Ma, "She heard, right? Then why wouldn't she let me rise? That posture was uncomfortable, my legs are sore!"

"You...!" Qin Ma Ma was momentarily speechless, choked by her bold words.

The Empress Dowager lifted her eyes, coldly staring at Xiao Tuanzi below.

Her brand of intimidation, used countless times in the harem, had never failed; every consort trembled and broke into cold sweat.

She hadn't expected that today, before this little girl, she would be exposed outright and have the tables turned!

She had intended to first punish the girl, then, once she was frightened, gently inquire about the red‑clad woman mentioned at the palace banquet, but the plan backfired.

"In my view, you, Princess, have learned not the slightest decorum in Ning Prince's Mansion!"

The Empress Dowager's voice was icy: "Qin Ma Ma, go, teach her properly what etiquette belongs before me!"

"Yes! Your Majesty!" Qin Ma Ma's face flashed with harsh resolve as she rolled up her sleeves and strode toward Tuan Tuan.

Tuan Tuan saw the old granny's fierce gaze and knew trouble was coming.

She reacted instantly, not waiting for Qin Ma Ma to approach, and like a nimble little rabbit, turned and fled toward the open space of the hall.

The Empress Dowager, angry, slapped the armrest and shouted, "Turned against me! Capture her for me!"

The palace maids and eunuchs swarmed together, trying to block Tuan Tuan.

But Tuan Tuan's small body slipped through the gaps, and the adults could not catch her.

As the encirclement tightened, Tuan Tuan spotted a tall Hundred Treasures Pavilion against the wall, its shelves laden with various antiques and jade.

Without hesitation, she rushed to the pavilion, using hands and feet, like an agile kitten, scurrying up.

Climbing, various treasures on the Hundred Treasures Pavilion clattered and shattered to the ground.

The piles of fragments on the floor also blocked the charging eunuchs and maids.

"Ouch! That's a vase gifted by the late Emperor!"

"Careful! That's a jade ruyi from the previous dynasty!"

"Stop her quickly!"

Amid the maids' and eunuchs' cries and the crashing of falling objects, Tuan Tuan in a few swift moves scrambled to the pavilion's top, almost touching the ceiling beams, and sat steadily on the highest shelf.

"Hmph!" she looked down from her height at the chaotic crowd, lifting her chin, "If you have the skill, come up here!"

The Empress Dowager rose, looking at the wreckage on the floor, her heart bleeding; these were all her years of treasured collections!

Seeing Tuan Tuan still taunting from above made a surge of bloodlust rush to her head.

She raised her hand pointing at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, her hand trembling with anger, shouting sharply, "Push this Hundred Treasures Pavilion down! Today I must capture this lawless little brat!"

Several burly eunuchs rushed forward, pushing the heavy pavilion, which began to sway violently.

Startled, Tuan Tuan reached for the Embroidered pouch at her waist; her mother had said that wherever she was, she must never let others bully her! Her little hand just slipped inside...

A stern command rang out: "All of you, stop!"

Immediately, Emperor Xiao Jieyun's figure appeared at the hall entrance; at a glance he saw the wobbling Hundred Treasures Pavilion and Xiao Tuanzi perched on the top shelf.

The eunuchs who were pushing the pavilion were so frightened they fell to their knees with a thud.

Then all the palace maids and eunuchs knelt on the ground.

"Cheng Jinyan!" the Emperor's voice rang with anger, "Hurry and fetch a ladder, and bring the Princess down to me safely!"

"Yes! Yes! Old servant, I'm going right away!" Eunuch Cheng shouted while scrambling out.

Xiao Jieyun looked at the Empress Dowager on the main seat, nodded slightly, "Mother, I wonder how Princess Jiayou collided with you to provoke such fury?"

The Empress Dowager's complexion turned ashen.

From the side, Qin Ma Ma rushed to reply, "Your Majesty! The Little Princess disrespected the Empress Dowager; the Empress Dowager kindly ordered this old servant to teach her propriety, yet she dared run amok in Shoucheng Palace, destroying countless imperial gifts—truly lawless!"

At this moment, Tuan Tuan had already been carefully carried down by a eunuch.

She leapt into Xiao Jieyun's arms, clutching his leg tightly, her voice trembling with tears, shouting indignantly:

"Imperial Uncle! I didn't! I bowed and paid my respects! She heard but ignored me, my legs are sore and she wouldn't let me rise! That wicked granny tried to catch me! I was just running!"

Xiao Jieyun bent down, lifted her up, and gently patted her back to soothe her.

He had grown up in the palace since childhood; he knew this grinding game better than anyone.

He thought of the Talisman in the palace that devoured dragon energy, of the Empress Dowager's secret dealings with enemy states, and of how, had it not been for this little child in his arms, neither he nor the nation would know what fate might have befallen them.

His heart burned with fury: "Mother! If you were not my mother, I would have seized you for punishment long ago!"

But she was, after all, his own mother.

He inhaled, lowered his gaze to the Qin Ma Ma on the ground, and said slowly, "So, today's incident was caused by you, old sycophant, misreading the Empress Dowager's will, guessing on your own, and frightening the Princess?"

The Empress Dowager's face showed surprise; Qin Ma Ma trembled all over, muttering that it was bad, and immediately kowtowed repeatedly, "Your Majesty, cease your anger! Your Majesty, cease your anger! This old servant acts on the Empress Dowager's gracious decree..."

"Acting on orders?" Xiao Jieyun sneered, cutting her off, "I just issued an edict to send the Princess back to her residence. How dare you intercept the imperial carriage, forcibly take the Princess to Shoucheng Palace to frighten her, and still dare to argue?"

He shouted harshly, "Men! Drag this scurrilous, seditious slave who confuses and incites against the Lord out to me, flog him forty times! Beat him severely!"

The Guard outside the hall answered and entered, without a word, lifted the pallid Qin Ma Ma and dragged her out.

"Emperor!" the Empress Dowager trembled with anger, "You! Are you going to beat to death my servant in front of my family?!"

Xiao Jieyun said without retreating, "Since Mother Empress Dowager disregards my face, daring to openly block my orders, I am merely punishing a servant—what does that amount to?!"

"You…!" the Empress Dowager choked, her vision blackening as she watched Qin Ma Ma being dragged out, "Emperor! You are my dear son! How can you for an outsider…?"

"Clang"—with a clang, Tuan Tuan's Embroidered pouch at her waist, which she had just untied and not yet fastened, tilted under Xiao Jieyun's embrace, and a bronze token fell out.

The Empress Dowager's gaze subconsciously drifted there.

"What is this…!" the color drained from her face instantly, and she collapsed onto the chair.

Her eyes fixed on Tuan Tuan in the Emperor's arms, her voice trembling with shock: "This, this bronze token! Where did you get it?"