Chapter 84

"Ten thousand taels of gold is unnecessary. You broke into Qingju Pavilion at night and woke my Zhu Geer; we haven't even settled that matter yet, so why should I prescribe medicine for you?" Lin Jiaojiao had gained confidence, but she was unwilling to let go of the opportunity to punish Qin Liuye.

Imperial Concubine Ning nodded in agreement, "This matter involves the royal clan; we cannot decide easily and must have the Emperor preside over it."

She said, turning to look at Imperial Yu Fei, "Younger sister, what do you think?"

Imperial Yu Fei never expected Imperial Concubine Ning not to stand on her side, but instead to go and fetch reinforcements!

She hesitated and said, "Disturbing the Emperor in the middle of the night, I'm afraid that's not appropriate..."

Imperial Concubine Ning, however, wanted to take this opportunity to punish Qin Liuye.

"Lin Guniang does not belong to the inner palace mistresses; it is not convenient for you or me to detain Lin Guniang, who injured Qin Liuye, nor is it convenient to keep Qin Liuye in the inner palace to cooperate with the interrogation."

She said calmly, "Otherwise, if this matter is not handled properly and it spreads, outsiders will think that Qin Liuye has an affair with the inner palace—"

Upon hearing the words "Qin Liuye has an affair with the inner palace," Imperial Yu Fei had no choice but to quickly distance herself, "Big sister's consideration is indeed thorough; I will follow big sister's arrangements."

Hearing this, Lin Jiaojiao finally breathed a sigh of relief: fortunately, Imperial Concubine Ning wasn't bad.

As long as this matter was brought before the Emperor and blown out of proportion, it would actually be easier to handle.

Otherwise, her innocence would be tarnished by others without rhyme or reason!

And by then, even if she had ten million mouths, she wouldn't be able to explain who was right and who was wrong!

Imperial Concubine Ning called over the head eunuch of her palace and arranged, "Xiaofangzi, go and inform the Emperor. We will wait here for the Emperor to come before dealing with it."

"Yes." After receiving the order, the little eunuch Xiaofangzi left Qingju Pavilion, running straight toward Yangxin Hall.

Seeing a large group of people waiting in the courtyard, and with Guo Shi holding the sleeping Zhu Geer in the cold wind, Lin Jiaojiao suggested, "Two Niangniangs, it is late now; why not go inside and warm yourselves by the fire before waiting for the Emperor to come and judge?"

"Very well." Imperial Concubine Ning agreed and, led by Lin Jiaojiao, walked into the room with a personal palace maid.

Imperial Yu Fei followed, but tripped over someone at the threshold. Looking down, she realized there was still a short man knocked unconscious lying on the ground!

She was furious and gave the servant tied with hemp rope a hard kick. The unconscious servant groaned in pain but did not wake up.

Imperial Yu Fei ordered people to move the servant outside to accompany his greasy master, Qin Liuye.

As soon as Qin Liuye saw the unconscious servant, he was furious and kicked the servant, but lost his balance and fell directly onto the servant!

"Ouch!" This time, the servant was crushed by the heavy object and finally woke up in pain!

As soon as he woke up, he was met with a barrage of curses from Qin Liuye, but the two of them twisted and turned like maggots, unable to stand up again!

This caused Qingdai and the other palace maids to cover their mouths and snicker. Qin Liuye was so angry his face turned red, and he looked up and cursed, "Who is mocking your Master!"

Qingdai hurriedly shut her mouth, stifling her laughter, and followed them into the room, lighting the candles with the other palace maids.

Afterward, she went to fetch charcoal and added some new charcoal to the stove to warm up the room.

After entering the room, Guo Shi gently placed the sleeping Zhu Geer on the bed.

After asking Imperial Concubine Ning, Lin Jiaojiao signaled to Guo Shi that she could stay by the bed to soothe Zhu Geer.

Lin Jiaojiao herself didn't know how to deal with the two inner palace Niangniangs, so she squatted by the stove with Qingdai, helping to burn the charcoal.

"Thank goodness for you!" Lin Jiaojiao mouthed to Qingdai, and Qingdai returned a smile that others would find hard to notice.

It turned out that after the palace maid from the Imperial Kitchen delivered the food, Qingdai remained uneasy, so she told Lin Jiaojiao and Guo Shi to pretend to eat.

After confirming that the palace maid had walked far away, she took out some pastries that Xiao Dengzi had given her from her bosom and let Lin Jiaojiao and Guo Shi eat them.

"What's going on—?" Lin Jiaojiao couldn't help but find it strange, but Qingdai told her that the palace maid looked familiar, as if she had seen her in Imperial Yu Fei's Ruyi Palace.

The inner palace had plenty of ways to torture people, and Qingdai knew very well that Imperial Yu Fei was not easy to get along with, so she stayed alert.

Although there had been a mess at Imperial Concubine Hui's place, there were many ruthless people in the inner palace; one must be on guard against others!

Qingdai understood that no one would be stupid enough to poison the food to kill Lin Jiaojiao, but it wasn't hard to get their hands on aphrodisiacs or the like.

Sure enough, after Qingdai made some arrangements, after the lights were out, someone snuck into Qingju Pavilion!

What followed was the incident where Qin Liuye and his servant were beaten up as thieves.

Imperial Yu Fei sat on the couch, waiting for the people of Qingju Pavilion to serve her, but what she saw was Lin Jiaojiao and the maid whispering to each other: how bold, to actually dare not give her face!

She parted her red lips and said, pretending to be casual, "I never knew Qingju Pavilion had such high status; even when we inner palace mistresses come, we can't even get a cup of tea."

Qingdai hurriedly stood up, "This servant will go and boil water and serve tea to the two Niangniangs."

Imperial Concubine Ning spoke up for Lin Jiaojiao, looking around the room and saying unhurriedly, "Younger sister Yu, look at the simple environment of Qingju Pavilion and the fact that there is only one palace maid serving; you can tell that this is not about status, but rather a fear that the tea served is not of the finest quality, so they dare not show their ugliness before you and me."

Before Imperial Yu Fei could speak, Imperial Concubine Ning continued, "Younger sister likes tea; later I will have Xue'er send the fine Maojian from my place to your Ruyi Palace."

Imperial Yu Fei's expression changed slightly; wasn't that batch of Maojian contributed to the Emperor by her brother?

How did it end up in Imperial Concubine Ning's Yonghe Palace instead of her Ruyi Palace?

Imperial Yu Fei's expression was unpleasant, but she still had to say some flattering words, "Was this batch of Maojian contributed by Governor Xu of Qingzhou last time? How could I dare to want the good things from big sister's palace."

Lin Jiaojiao poked at the charcoal fire, listening to the two inner palace Niangniangs' veiled insults, and laughed inwardly.

After the charcoal fire was lit and the room warmed up, Imperial Concubine Ning reached out to her and said, "Lin Guniang, you've been lighting the charcoal for us for a long time; you must be tired, right? Come over and rest for a while."

"Yes." Lin Jiaojiao stood up in response; she was actually happy to sit with Imperial Concubine Ning, "Thank you, Imperial Concubine Ning, for your understanding."

Imperial Yu Fei, sitting on the other side, rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached the sky.

Over at Yangxin Hall, Qin Yuan felt a sense of great satisfaction after hearing Lu Zhenting report the capture of five hundred Japanese pirates!

He just wanted to keep General Lu for dinner, but was refused.

General Lu bowed and said goodbye, "Emperor, now that the Dali Temple Junior Minister is not in the capital, I still need to temporarily detain these Japanese pirate criminals at my mansion, but my home is not a prison, so I still need to return to the mansion to take these criminals to the Ministry of Justice—"

"Very well, then go back and make arrangements." Qin Yuan waved his hand, letting General Lu return to the mansion to handle the affairs.

After Lu Zhenting left, Qin Yuan immediately wrote an edict to the Ministry of Justice regarding the Japanese pirate case and had Xiao Zhuozi take the edict to the Ministry of Justice overnight, so that they could speed up the trial of the Japanese pirates!

Until all this was done, Eunuch Gao ordered people to reheat the food, and only then did Qin Yuan sit down to prepare to eat.

But he hadn't taken two bites when someone came to report!

Qin Yuan was eating, and he waved his hand impatiently, signaling Eunuch Gao to go out and see what was going on.

In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Eunuch Gao walked into Yangxin Hall to report: "Your Majesty, Imperial Concubine Ning's Xiaofangzi has come to report that something has happened at Lin Guniang's Qingju Pavilion."