Chapter 317: Volume 1, Chapter 317: The Empress Can Handle It—When Trouble Comes, She Truly Steps Up

So Rong Luoge chose to take the part everyone could do and turn it into an assembly line; as for the parts that involved other artisan families' livelihood skills, she would bring the artisan family in, and the family would split that portion of the process among themselves—this essentially resolved the conflict.

After making a round and finding everything running smoothly, Rong Luoge went to the hall with Noble Consort Liu to talk, looking at her and asking, "Yang Yi does indeed have some ability, and he's done a fine job. Kang Shufei has been praising him all along. Was his journey from Yunjiang smooth?"

Speaking of this, Noble Consort Liu truly had much to say, smiling as she said, "It was quite a spectacle, not to mention Yunjiang turning things around completely—even my own family never expected that I'd still have this kind of ability now. They were truly green with envy, but there was nothing they could do about it; I simply refused to promote them."

Rong Luoge smiled upon hearing Noble Consort Liu say this. "This too is the cycle of cause and effect."

Noble Consort Liu snorted. "Back then, the Luo woman suppressed me at every turn, treated me harshly—putting on one face in front of my father and another behind his back. When you're under someone's roof, you have no choice but to bow your head. If I'd had any way back then, I wouldn't have let her keep bullying me. It's not that I never thought of telling my father, but he was away at his post year-round and rarely home—what good would telling him do? When I was little, I did report her once. The Luo woman promised my father to her face that she'd treat me well, but the moment he left, she only got worse. Even now when I think of it, I still burn with resentment."

Rong Luoge thought to herself that Liu Yingying's life had been even worse than the original owner's—the original owner had lived on the estate, and Chu Ke had simply turned a blind eye, never chasing her all the way to the estate to drive her out.

"If I hadn't risked my life to beg the Empress Dowager back then, I'd have been married off to an old widower. Fortunately, the first half of my life was bitter, but now the bitterness has ended and the sweetness has come. Being able to meet you, Your Ladyship, is truly my good fortune." Liu Yingying said this with absolute sincerity.

Pausing here, Liu Yingying smiled again. "When the Luo woman learned that I was being put to important use by Your Ladyship in the capital, she even tried to use my father's name to get Yang Yi to bring the Luo family people up to the capital with him. Bah—the nerve of her."

"Your Ladyship, you don't know this, but I deliberately had Yang Yi go to my family home to deliver the message—I wanted the Luo woman to see that nowadays even Yang Yi, someone who has no connection to my family, can receive my patronage. I wanted the Luo woman to be able to see it but never taste it."

Rong Luoge looked at Liu Yingying. "Perhaps she'll still have Governor Yun step forward to make you agree."

Hearing the Empress mention her father, the smile on Liu Yingying's face vanished. After a long moment, she said, "Your Ladyship, if my father truly had me in his heart, he should have done something when I took my mother's keepsake to beg an audience with the Empress Dowager back then. But he didn't. Now I simply consider myself fatherless."

Her father perhaps had truly loved her once, but as the sons the Luo woman bore grew older and older, this father was no longer her father. She had hoped, she had been disappointed, and now she had long since stopped caring.

Rong Luoge patted Liu Yingying's hand and smiled. "Indeed, our good days are still ahead. As long as you gradually expand the dyeing workshop, one day the whole world will know Noble Consort Liu's name."

Liu Yingying laughed. "I don't have such grand ambitions—I just want to be able to do something useful. And to save up a sum of silver, to add to Yile's dowry in the future."

As the two were talking, Yuan Bao came hurrying over and bowed upon seeing the Empress. "Your Ladyship, Chief Eunuch Shi requests an audience. He is waiting at Fengyi Palace."

Rong Luoge, composed as she was, abruptly stood up. She took a deep breath to steady her emotions and said to Liu Yingying, "I'll go back and take a look first."

Liu Yingying immediately rose to see her off. Watching the Empress's hurried footsteps, she couldn't help but worry—could something have happened?

Rong Luoge brought along Kangkang, and the group returned in grand procession from the Weaving Workshop to Fengyi Palace. The moment Shi An saw the Empress, he stepped forward to pay his respects. "This servant greets Her Majesty the Empress."

"Chief Eunuch Shi, rise." Rong Luoge spoke as she walked inside, looking at Shi An and asking, "Did His Majesty send you back?"

"Yes," Shi An nodded and replied.

Rong Luoge entered the main hall, had the wet nurse take her son away, kept only the trusted palace attendants, and then looked at Shi An and asked, "How is the situation? Is His Majesty well in all respects?"

Shi An's tense expression from the journey immediately eased as he replied, "To answer Your Ladyship, His Majesty's plans left nothing to chance. The mole has already been caught and is now being sent for joint trial by the Three Judicial Offices. His Majesty had this servant tell Your Ladyship that Lord Xiao is already on standby. He asks Your Ladyship to hold the Hou Gong steady and not to panic, and to prevent the inner palace from colluding with the outer court."

Rong Luoge said immediately, "Go back and tell His Majesty to attend to matters outside with peace of mind. The inner palace absolutely will not have any trouble."

Shi An let out a breath of relief at the Empress's reassurance. "His Majesty also had this servant tell Your Ladyship that if any titled ladies of the outer court request an audience, Your Ladyship should decline them all."

Rong Luoge nodded. "Naturally."

If the mole caught was Marquis Ningyuan's man, that would be manageable enough—but what if he was Chancellor Su's man?

The Su family's people were connected to the Empress Dowager, making it inevitably trickier for Rong Luoge to handle. It would be better to see no one at all on the grounds of acting on imperial command—which would also be easier to account for with the Empress Dowager.

Shi An had come quickly and left in equal haste. Rong Luoge immediately summoned Yuan Bao and instructed him, "Guard the inner palace gates yourself. The moment there is any movement from the front court, close the inner palace gates immediately. Without a token from Fengyi Palace, no one may go out—not even the Empress Dowager. Understood?"

"Yes, this servant obeys." Though Yuan Bao's heart tightened, his reply was crisp and decisive, and he immediately turned to make preparations.

Rong Luoge thought it over—she couldn't summon Noble Consort Xu and Kang Shufei and the others just yet. After all, nothing had happened yet; what if there were a sudden turn of events?

They would wait until the interrogation produced results.

Rong Luoge then summoned Rong Xin and the others to issue instructions one by one. Though the Hou Gong was vast, the number of concubines in Han Xinglan's inner palace was pitifully small, so she had long had a clear plan in mind for how to allocate and arrange them. Calling them in now was merely to assign in advance how to deploy personnel to guard each intersection.

Firstly, to avoid being caught off guard when the moment came and giving anyone an opening to exploit; secondly, to let everyone know that she, the Empress, was no mere figurehead—when trouble came, she truly stepped up!

The changes in the Hou Gong were arranged with great subtlety; without careful observation, they would go unnoticed. Coupled with the fact that Han Xinglan and Rong Luoge had already intentionally severed the concubines' private dealings with their maiden families, the redeployment of personnel now would not easily draw attention.

The golden crow sank in the west, and the veil of night gradually gathered. Still no news had come. Rong Luoge stayed in the hall, keeping her child company while unable to stop herself from wondering—could it be that the interrogation wasn't going smoothly?

It made sense—people in ancient times loved to keep dead soldiers in their service. What if the people caught refused to confess to the death?

Although a joint trial by the Three Judicial Offices greatly prevented noble houses from seizing an opening to silence them, the corresponding difficulty of the interrogation would not be low either. They might not be able to silence the captives, but they still had ways to obstruct the interrogation's progress.

Rong Luoge was growing restless.