Yun Fenghuang thought for a moment, looked up and asked, "Although My Lady can't get me out of Hu Zhu Palace now, what about later in the future?"

"If there is a chance in the future, I will get you out. I surely don't want my aunt and Qingman to be sad." n.o.ble Consort Shu looked at her with appreciation and her tone softened, "Although you are not the daughter of Yun's Family, you are my aunt's niece, which makes you my cousin. We are relatives. I don't want to make things difficult for you if I could."

"My Lady," Hearing this, Yun Fenghuang felt like being in relief inwardly and was more daring. She asked tentatively with bright eyes, "Although Hu Zhu Palace seems to be a dangerous place, Consort Yue is not a forgiving and kind person, and I offended her greatly now... Now that you are willing to tell me the truth in detail, My Lady, does that mean I still have a chance to live?"

Otherwise, she had no need to tell these things to a person doomed to die.

The appreciation in n.o.ble Consort Shu's eyes grew stronger, "This is one of the reasons why I want you to join the Imperial Harem...You are really smart."

She pointed out, "In the final a.n.a.lysis, this thing is caused by Empress Ji. She wants to make trouble for Consort Yue and Queen Mother Yuan, which has nothing to do with us. Consort Yue is impulsive and jealous, but Queen Mother Yuan is not a woodenhead. Queen Mother Yuan arranged a n.o.ble lady to live in Hu Zhu Palace. She wanted to prove that her niece was not jealous and narrow-hearted. Although Consort Yue is stupid and does not understand her aunt's good intention, Queen Mother Yuan definitely would prohibit her from going beyond her bounds after this drama. Therefore, you have no need to be too scared now. Consort Yue has to obey Queen Mother Yuan finally."

... Yun Fenghuang came out of Tong Xia Palace with Yun Qingman's constant apologies. On the way back to Hu Zhu Palace, Yun Fenghuang told Nian Xuan briefly about the former conversation in the front hall, but Nian Xuan was doubtful, "Is this thing really that simple? If so, why did Duke Yi choose you to be the scapegoat of Mei Ren Yun? I think n.o.ble Consort Shu might cajole us, My Lady."

"Even if she lied, we can do nothing." Yun Fenghuang said lightly, "We joined the Imperial Harem without any preparation. How could we know so many details? There is no way to find out the truth right now, so we can't prove whether n.o.ble Consort Shu lied or not. However, I just fell into the water yesterday. If I have any trouble immediately, Consort Yue could not prove her innocence even if she jumps into the Tai Ye Pool. At this point, n.o.ble Consort Shu's words make some sense."

However, it could only keep Yun Fenghuang's safety for a while, not for long.

Nian Xuan was in relief inwardly after hearing that, but frowned again after thinking about it, "n.o.ble Consort Shu has mentioned our family. What did she mean?"

She didn't believe n.o.ble Consort Shu would really take care of Xie's Family.

"Chut!" Yun Fenghuang didn't take n.o.ble Consort Shu's implying threat to her heart at all, and t.i.ttered, "Our family locates in Dingbei Army's domain. It is not so easy for Duke Yi's Mansion to reach their forces there! Besides, I am now the daughter of Yun's Family, which was personally announced by Duke Yi. If Yun's Family dares to do anything to Xie's Family, I will a.s.sa.s.sinate the Emperor and the Empress tomorrow, implicating all the nine generations of Yun's Family to be capital crimes."

Nian Xuan said anxiously, "How does this work? You are more important than Yun's Family, My Lady."

Such a stupid maid... Forgot it. Anyway, she's loyal.

Yun Fenghuang sighed inwardly, and then said expressionlessly, "Do you really think n.o.ble Consort Shu would send people to the north to threat Xie's Family because of me? You think too highly of me. I'm just a Bao Lin!"

She bet that n.o.ble Consort Shu just mentioned it casually. It would be great to scare her, but it didn't matter if not.

It didn't matter at least for the time being.

After all, Yun Fenghuang joined the Imperial Harem for a short time. It was hard to say whether she would be useful in the future. The manpower of Duke Yi's Mansion was limited. As her current status, they would at most learn more about Xie's Family to prepare for the future... If Yun Fenghuang couldn't reach a relatively high status, n.o.ble Consort Shu herself would deal with her. She didn't have to bother threatening Xie's Family at the north.

… Yun Fenghuang and Nian Xuan walked back to Hu Zhu Palace leisurely. When they walked to a deserted place, Yun Fenghuang turned her eyes and suddenly stopped. She asked Nian Xuan to look for a clean place nearby if she could, planning to sit for a while before going back.

Nian Xuan looked at the lush gra.s.s and trees on both sides of the palace road, hesitating, "Bao Lin, there might be snakes and bugs. If you are tired, let's walk forward. I remember there is a gazebo ahead."

"Just be obedient. Don't act on your own." Yun Fenghuang frowned. She took off her Pibo (a long chiffon that was used to put on women's sleeves as decoration) to slash the gra.s.s, trying to startle the snakes and bugs. Then she walked on and found a hibiscus hedge to sit. This hedge seemed like a path that was about 10 zhang (about 33 meters) before, and it must be beautiful when the flowers blossomed. But after years of disrepair, now it was about three or four zhang (about 9.9 to 13.2 meters). In this season, the tender leaves were swept in the wind, looking lovely.

Although it was not dense enough, Yun Fenghuang and Nian Xuan didn't wear luxurious or complicated clothes. When they hid behind it, people on the palace road wouldn't see them if they didn't detour here.

After Yun Fenghuang sat down without hesitation, Nian Xuan also sat down. Nian Xuan was about to speak, but was glanced by Yun Fenghuang severely and was signaled to be silent!

Nian Xuan was puzzled, keeping quiet for a while. See nothing happened, she was about to say something. But after a glance of the expressionless face of Yun Fenghuang, she had to shrink her head, hold back the impulse to ask, and pull the gra.s.s in front of her boringly.

After a while, a group of people came from the direction of Hu Zhu Palace with maids' cries of injustice and others' hilarious conversation, seeming very boisterous... Nian Xuan couldn't help but stop pulling the gra.s.s, subconsciously peeking from the gap between the leaves of the hibiscus. The more she saw, the bigger her eyes were. She even held her breath. A while later, those people went away. She carefully asked her lady with no sound if she could speak.

"Say it." Yun Fenghuang stood up contentedly, "Whom did you see just now?"

"The head seems to be a maid of the Empress." Although Yun Fenghuang said that she could speak, Nian Xuan still murmured in fear of being heard by anyone, "The ones they arrested... are the maids of Hu Zhu Palace. The head of them is Consort Yue's leading maid."

Yun Fenghuang was not surprised to hear this. She chuckled and said, "As I expected, the Empress had dismissed with us, but Queen Mother Ji still didn't let Consort Yue go. Either she was waiting for Queen Mother Yuan to beg for leniency, or she kept Hu Zhu Place having no charger at the moment, which would be convenient for the Empress to replace Consort Yue to punish some maids in Hu Zhu Palace."

Consort Yue did a bad job in taking charge of Hu Zhu Palace and got the new Bao Lin Yun almost murdered, which gave a reason to the Empress to take charge.

Bao Lin Yun was the person who was supposed to serve the Emperor and deliver the offspring for the royal family. However, she was pushed into the water as soon as joining the Imperial Harem... This case had to be thoroughly investigated.

Although Hu Zhu Palace had a charger, the charger failed to stop the case from happening when the incident occurred. Obviously, Consort Yue's ability showed in this matter was not enough to convince the public. In this way, as the head of the Imperial Harem, the Empress should help investigate the case thoroughly without question.

"Maybe Consort Yue is going to lose most of her confidants." Nian Xuan's eyes were bright and she rejoiced, "Even if she supplements the manpower latter, who knows whom they are working for? Although she wants to make trouble for Bao Lin at that time, she would be powerless!"

When she was thinking that her lady was really thoughtful and intelligent, Yun Fenghuang said faintly, "No need to feel happy about this. In the future, Consort Yue will dare not do something too rashly to us, but others are not out of options, such as the Empress."

Nian Xuan asked confusedly, "The Empress...?"

"Since the Empress is able to get a Cai Nv who slept with the Emperor secretly to make Consort Yue uncomfortable, she is also able to make a new Bao Lin dead in Hu Zhu Palace so that she could condemn the charger of the palace." Yun Fenghuang sneered and said, "Fortunately, I responded quickly. When I knew that I had been arranged to Hu Zhu Palace, which had the worst reputation, I knew that probably there was something behind this. So, I took advantage of the opportunity of seeing the Empress to make up the story that I was pushed into the water. Do you believe it? If I hadn't done it in this way, we two would have been killed by the Empress."

That's right. The story that Yun Fenghuang was pushed into the water was made up by her, not the hint of the Empress's trusted attendant at all.

Yun Fenghuang was not sure if she could fool n.o.ble Consort Shu. After all, she joined the Imperial Harem as the daughter of Yun's Family. Besides, Yun's Family and Ji's Family had different standpoints in the Imperial Court, so it was easy to speculate that the relations.h.i.+p between their two daughters in the palace must not be very harmonious. In this situation, the Empress didn't know anything about Yun Fenghuang, the one who just joined the Imperial Harem, so she wouldn't trust her to frame Consort Yue on this.

In fact, the Empress's maid just told Yun Fenghuang to tell the truth and she needn't to fear Consort Yue when she got there.

n.o.ble Consort Shu originally took the initiative to make it difficult to Consort Yue. The Empress was happy to mediate between them, and took advantage of the situation to suppress Consort Yue. There was no need for her to let Yun Fenghuang lie.

According to Yun Fenghuang, if Consort Yue and n.o.ble Consort Shu both believed in her lie, this showed the defense and suspicion among these three women were deeper than she estimated.

It also meant that there was an irreparable rift among the forces of the Imperial Court they respectively represented.

This thought flashed through her mind. She had no ability to reach her hands to the Imperial Court currently. Now her focus was still the issues in the Imperial Harem.

"Previously, n.o.ble Consort Shu didn't explain the situation in the Imperial Harem, so I had to sound out the situation by making up the story that someone pushed me into the water." Yun Fenghuang sorted out her plan and whispered to Nian Xuan. Although this maid was not clever, she was loyal anyway. At present, Nian Xuan was the only one she could count on in the Imperial Harem. If she didn't explain this to Nian Xuan clearly, maybe she would do a disservice. "I didn't expect that my trick worked, and it unintentionally caused the battle between the two groups of Queen Mother Ji and Queen Mother Yuan... Now Consort Yue is falling behind. Even if she wants to deal with us, Queen Mother Yuan will certainly not let her do so. Even Your Majesty would do the same."

"However, Queen Mother Ji and the Empress have something on Consort Yue that she treated concubines harshly. As long as any concubines, especially me who had been murdered by Hu Zhu Palace once, die and are injured in Hu Zhu Palace at present, they can plant it on Consort Yue."

Therefore, compared to Queen Mother Yuan and her niece, Queen Mother Ji and her niece were more dangerous for Yun Fenghuang now.

The most terrible thing was that these two women were more prominent and honorable than Queen Mother Yuan and her niece, and the former ones were also more powerful than the latter in the Imperial Harem!

Targeted by the former, Yun Fenghuang's situation could be imagined!

Seeing Nian Xuan's face get pale slightly, Yun Fenghuang explained faster, "Fortunately, Queen Mother Yuan and her niece have backup in the palace. There is one who will not allow them to fall anyway!"

Nian Xuan asked subconsciously, "Who?"

Yun Fenghuang looked at Nian Xuan as if she was looking at a fool, "Of course... the one is Your Majesty!"

Emperor Chunjia would probably not care about the death of a new Bao Lin. Moreover, Yun Fenghuang had made Consort Yue so shameless in his presence. But given his caring to Queen Mother Yuan and her niece, especially his respect to Queen Mother Yuan, he would definitely stand with them.

After all, everyone knew that Yun Fenghuang had been pushed into the water by a maid of Hu Zhu Palace!

If something bad happened to this Bao Lin, the first ones to be suspected were Queen Mother Yuan and her niece!

Unless Emperor Chunjia didn't care about them, or he had to protect Yun Fenghuang's life even if he was unwilling to do so!

However, to be honest, Yun Fenghuang didn't trust the asylum of the Emperor who had never been in charge of the imperial court. Her main purpose at present was, "Even if Your Majesty has to compromise for Ms. Yuan and her niece, it's impossible for an emperor to spend too much time on me, an insignificant Bao Lin."

Therefore, anyone could imagine what Emperor Chunjia would do with this matter: found an excuse as soon as possible to get Yun Fenghuang out of Hu Zhu Palace.

As long as she was no longer in Hu Zhu Palace, it was not so easy to plant her death on Consort Yue if she died in the future.

However, the concubines' daily life had always been charged by the Empress. Although Emperor Chunjia was n.o.ble, he had no power now. He couldn't go beyond the Empress to make the decision... Yun Fenghuang thought for a while and figured out the only way for the Emperor to achieve his purpose indirectly.

After a long while, Yun Fenghuang and Nian Xuan returned to Hu Zhu Palace leisurely. Knowing that Ning Bi Hall probably was messy at the moment, they went back to Xi Xing Building by taking a detour, avoiding making trouble.

As soon as Yun Fenghuang just sat down and drank the tea, an inferior maid in the outside room took a little eunuch in. The eunuch said that he had been ordered by Jiang Lan, the leading eunuch of Emperor Chunjia, to inform Bao Lin Yun to prepare for serving the Emperor at night.

According to the tacit tradition, the Empress would arrange the order for the new concubines to sleep with the Emperor. Generally speaking, the order would be according to their t.i.tles, the official positions of their fathers or brothers, or the preference of the Emperor... Whatever order it might be according to, it couldn't be Yun Fenghuang to sleep with the Emperor first.

Emperor Chunjia had a reason to make Yun Fenghuang the first one though, "Your Majesty said that Bao Lin must be frightened to fall into the water yesterday. Therefore, Your Majesty decides to come here to see you tonight."