If not abolished

Chapter 172: Debate (2)

"Your Majesty, let's just let that little bitch Qingluan go." Lanzhi quickly followed Concubine Guo and said, but unexpectedly, Concubine Guo suddenly stopped and she almost couldn't stop.

"I'm lucky today. I won't be so lucky next time. There's still a long time to go. The Crown Princess can't send someone to watch over her and protect her all the time." Concubine Guo was unwilling to accept this, but she couldn't do anything to her for the time being.

"But fortunately, Concubine Li is not with the Crown Princess today, otherwise Your Majesty would not be able to explain clearly?" Lanzhi thought of Concubine Li's uncharacteristic testimony.

"You think she means well, but you're overthinking. She has always been a good person and usually tries to curry favor with the Crown Princess. I'm afraid she was frightened by me today, so she spoke vaguely..." Concubine Guo now thinks that she blames herself for her slip of the tongue. She actually said such words like that.

"Then Your Majesty, will Concubine Li tell this to others?" Lanzhi asked worriedly.

"Probably not. First of all, she doesn't have the courage. Secondly, if she wants to say it, she can just say it in a few days. There is no point in saying it later." Concubine Guo analyzed.

"What is the Queen looking at?" Lanzhi followed Concubine Guo's line of sight and saw only rows of palace walls and nothing else.

"Nothing to see, let's go."

After returning, Concubine Guo saw Wu Yingyue appear in front of her again. In fact, Wu Yingyue had tried hard to reduce her presence. She also knew that she was in the limelight now, so she tried her best not to let Concubine Guo see her from a distance.

But unfortunately, when Concubine Guo came back, she saw her figure at the door and immediately called her over.

"Empress Concubine." Wu Yingyue bowed her head.

"Why are you so scared? I'm not going to eat anyone, so keep your head up."

Wu Yingyue slowly raised her head and saw Concubine Guo smiling at her, but she could also tell that there was a hidden purpose behind that smile.

"In my opinion, you are much more beautiful than your good sister Qingluan. Now she is a concubine, and she doesn't come to take care of you, her good sister. Do you also want to climb up the ladder from me and become a phoenix?"

"I dare not!" Wu Yingyue was so scared that she knelt down immediately.

"I dare not. I think you are very brave. How dare you say that you are completely unaware of this matter? Even though there were many unexpected events that day, your original plan was probably to catch the eye of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, right?" Concubine Guo was not a fool. Although this matter seemed like an accident, it was still not right when she thought about it carefully.

Unfortunately, she bumped into the window of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, giving these people the opportunity to take advantage of her. Now she didn't know when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would forgive her.

"Your Highness, are you going to that queen's palace today?" asked the eunuch beside the prince.

The prince put down the book in his hand, pressed his temple and said, "Well, it's so late, let's go to the Crown Princess."

Zhu Gaochi thought about what happened this morning... and in the end he had to let the Crown Princess take care of the aftermath, which made him feel a little guilty.

"Yes, I will pass it on right away."

The Crown Princess received news that the Crown Prince was coming.

"The Crown Princess doesn't look very happy. Isn't she happy that the Crown Prince is coming?" Yun Jin asked, looking at the Crown Princess' expressionless face.

"If Your Highness really wants to come, I will be happy. Please don't mention the Guo family's affairs later."

"Why?" Yun Jin really didn't understand. "Although there is no direct evidence today that Concubine Guo did it on purpose, she did go looking for trouble. If His Highness knew about this, wouldn't it be bad?"

The Crown Princess chuckled, "The Crown Prince accidentally slept with Guo's maid. Given Your Highness's personality, he should feel extremely guilty towards Guo now, but Your Highness still didn't go to her. It's just that he can't let go of his pride now. If Your Highness knew that Guo had caused trouble for Qingluan today, he wouldn't be angry, and he might even be very happy."

"Why?" Yun Jin was even more confused.

"Since Guo is so impatient to cause trouble, Your Highness will only think that Guo is jealous and cares about you, so he will naturally not be angry."

"But isn't it a taboo for women to be jealous?"

"So what? It's men who say women are jealous, but when the person they like is really jealous and throws a tantrum, even though they know it's not outrageous, they still enjoy it."

"What about the Crown Princess? Are you jealous?" Yun Jin thought, the Crown Princess often quarreled with Concubine Guo, maybe she was jealous? But the Crown Princess' words surprised her.

"Jealousy, maybe I was before? Now..." The Crown Princess shook her head, "When Concubine Guo first entered the palace, to be honest, I was jealous. Before that, I had never seen His Royal Highness the Crown Prince like a woman so much." The Crown Princess seemed to be lost in memories. At the beginning, she was jealous, angry, and annoyed. They said that she was the Crown Princess and should not be jealous. She should set an example for all women in the world. Later, she slowly stopped being angry, because it was useless to be angry. Later, she and the Crown Prince were like they are now. They are not particularly affectionate, but they respect each other. This is probably what the ancients called "holding an case together and treating each other with equal respect", right?

"The Crown Princess and Concubine Guo often..."

"That's just to make her less arrogant. I don't care about your favor, but I have to defend my position."

As soon as the two of them finished talking, they heard a message from outside.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived."

He quickly packed up and went out to greet them.

"See His Highness the Crown Prince."

"Get up, it's windy outside, let's go in."

"Yes."

"Your Highness, are you tired? Rest early." The Crown Princess asked, looking at Zhu Gaochi's somewhat tired expression.

"Fortunately, my father has been in the palace during this period, so there are not so many things to do. I heard that Agui came back today?" Zhu Gaochi did not mention the resettlement, but brought up the topic.

"Well, he has been out for a long time this time, and he brought Shanxiang with him. It would be good if he came back earlier, so that I don't have to worry."

"Agui is already married, so don't control everything about him. He can still be so ignorant."

"Okay, he has a wife to take care of him now, so I'm relieved. Anyway, there are still a few little ones who need me to take care of them."

"Nothing happened today, right?" Zhu Gaochi finally changed the subject after many twists and turns.

The Crown Princess smiled and said, "What do you think will happen, Your Highness?"

"What are you talking about? I'm just asking casually."

"Your Highness, it's not like you don't understand her. She is always angry, but nothing has happened. Your Highness, don't worry. I can handle it. The matter in the backyard is not enough to alarm Your Highness."

"Well, I'm confident in your work." The prince was confident in the princess in this regard, and then raised his arms, "Then settle her down."

The next morning, the prince left the Crown Princess's place.

All the concubines in the Eastern Palace came to pay their respects to the Crown Princess. Even Concubine Guo, who had been complaining of illness for several days, came. Just when everyone thought she would look haggard, she looked quite well.

"Sister Guo is here today too. I thought you weren't well yet."

"Who said it wasn't true? I heard that Sister Guo went to Sister Li's palace yesterday to chat with Concubine Qingluan?"

Seeing her coming, he bowed to her and whispered something to her.

"Are you sure they went there to reminisce about the past and didn't fight?"

"I'm not sure about that, but I heard that a royal doctor was called in. Maybe a fight really broke out."

"What? The imperial physician has been invited, how come I didn't know about all the excitement?"

"What are the sisters talking about?" Concubine Guo said to them.

"Nothing, nothing?" The two were so scared that they hurriedly denied it, almost sweating on their foreheads.

Just as they were about to say something, another protagonist of the incident walked in.

"Greetings to all the ladies." Qingluan walked in and bowed to them.

Without Concubine Guo's order, no one dared to ask her to stand up, so Qingluan could only remain in this position and dared not move.

It wasn't until the Crown Princess came out and saw this scene that she asked, "What's going on? Why is Concubine Qingluan kneeling all the time and not letting anyone get up?"

"Princess Consort, please don't wrongly accuse us. She was the one who saluted us, but we didn't have time to tell her to get up. Concubine Qingluan, please get up quickly, otherwise the Crown Princess will say that we bullied you."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Qingluan stood up.

"In that case, everyone please sit down." The Crown Princess did not insist.

From then on, Concubine Guo had been causing trouble for Qingluan every few days. It wasn't a big deal, but it was very annoying.

"Empress Concubine, are you just going to endure this?" The maids around her felt sorry for her.

"What else can we do? Concubine Guo is smart now. She is just looking for trouble over trivial matters. It's hard to say anything."

"Shall we go to the Crown Princess to seek justice?" the maid suggested.

Qingluan shook her head, "Do you think the Crown Princess doesn't know about these things? But she didn't come out to uphold justice or anything. If we go and talk to her, the Crown Princess will just ask us to keep quiet. Besides, everyone knows that I have my current status thanks to Concubine Guo. No matter how you look at it, it's me who is unjust. So it's natural for her to bully me, and no one will find it strange. Not to mention that the Crown Princess can't uphold justice, even if the Crown Prince comes, he can't do anything." Qingluan was very clear about her situation.

The Crown Princess wanted to use her own hand to punish Concubine Guo, or even better, to suppress Concubine Guo, because Concubine Guo was angry with her.

But now these are not the most important things to her. The most important thing is to make His Highness favor her, so that her plan can succeed. But now His Highness doesn't even look at her, let alone favor her.

So she was thinking, why not just go over to the Crown Princess, maybe there would be a chance for her to be favored. Didn't Concubine Li give birth to several children with the help of the Crown Princess?

She needed to think about it carefully. The Crown Princess certainly didn't need a minion like her, but she lacked an excuse, an excuse to bring down Concubine Guo, and she was the excuse itself at this moment.

How can I make this a big deal? Let His Highness know...