An Lingrong's Rebirth: Red

The matter of the Seventh Prince seemed to be over but it also seemed not to be over. Concubine Chun was often worried that the Seventh Prince's brain was damaged by the high fever, so she often called the imperial physician to see him.

But the Seventh Prince is still young, so it is difficult to tell whether his brain is really damaged. We can only slowly discover it when he is a little older.

It's just that Concubine Chun was anxious, and the imperial doctors could only say a few words that had no effect. But this uncertainty seemed certain to Concubine Chun. She had only one conclusion in her mind, that was that the Seventh Prince was useless, so she had to either find a way to have another child, or make herself more favored and climb to the position of concubine.

Now there is only one concubine, Concubine Sheng, but as long as you find a way to gain favor, getting one will not be a problem.

With this idea in mind, Concubine Chun changed her previous decadence and regained her innocent and naive nature. She was the only concubine with such a personality in the palace, so it was not difficult for her to win the emperor's favor.

The most favored ones in the palace nowadays are Lingrong, Concubine Qi and Concubine Chun. However, because there are too many trivial matters in the six palaces, Lingrong has to withdraw from the team vying for favor and stays with Concubine Jing all day long.

Sometimes it was for the purchasing expenses of the concubines, and sometimes it was for the distribution of consumables such as charcoal.

Not only do you have to cut down on expenses as much as possible, but you also have to make sure those people below you get some benefits. This is no less difficult than using clever tricks to gain favor from the emperor.

No wonder Concubine Jing was unwilling to compete for favor after the Queen's "house arrest". It turned out that she was dragged down by these things. She just wanted to fall asleep as soon as she returned to the palace all day long, and had no other thoughts.

Ling Rong grumbled in her heart that the power to assist in managing the six palaces did give her many opportunities to bribe people at various connections, but it also made her so tired that she almost collapsed.

“If you don’t manage a household, you don’t know how expensive firewood and rice are; if you don’t raise a child, you don’t know the kindness of your parents. This saying is indeed true.”

Ling Rong sighed again, and without waiting for Zhao Shui to comfort her, she dived into the account book again to look through it.

The pot of hot tea was left to cool down, but Lingrong had no intention of finishing it until Concubine Tian came over and asked her to rest her brain for a while.

It’s a pity that Concubine Tian didn’t bring good news. The servant took a lot of money but refused to tell the truth.

"She is the only one in her family, and it's very difficult to threaten her." Concubine Tian's cheeks turned red with anger. If she didn't feel sorry for her hands, she would have slammed them on the table.

"Then just threaten her personally, and say that you have found other people and asked for the information.

Now she is useless, so let someone beat her up and make her spit out the money."

Lingrong rubbed her aching forehead. Now she finally understood that the Queen's headache was caused by more than one disease.

"What if she still doesn't say anything?"

"You also said that she was in financial difficulty and wanted to make more money from you, so she wouldn't be willing to return the money so easily.

You can even find a woman of similar age and ask her to make up a story based on the answer we want. By comparison, I believe this person will not dare to hide anything more."

Concubine Tian nodded. This method was often used in the inner court and it did have some effect. But if the old woman still refused to cooperate, she would have to look for someone else.

However, after searching for such a long time, she only found one person who knew something about the situation. Concubine Tian was really not sure whether she could find another such person.

So she hasn't used any of those methods yet, she just wants to use money to settle the matter.

"People who are greedy for money are the easiest to deal with," Ling Rong instructed Concubine Tian again, "Although this matter is important, you should not forget the emperor. If you want to sit in that position, the emperor's support is the most important.

Now that Concubine Qi and Concubine Chun are competing against each other, you have to find a way to become the third person."

Concubine Tian seemed a little uninterested. After all, she was more enthusiastic about overthrowing the queen. As for the emperor, she had long forgotten about him.

"You and Concubine Xia should stop staying in Yanxi Palace. Show your faces to the emperor more often. After all, if you see the same beauty too many times, you will get bored."

Concubine Tian said "oh" and comforted herself in her heart that everything was something she had to face in order to become the queen.

What's more, her current position is indeed a little lower. If the Queen is overthrown, it will be a great loss for Concubine Jing to take advantage of her.

"Well, since there are people to take care of these matters, I will focus on the emperor.

As for you, you just got the power to assist the six palaces, so don't use my people as a target, understand?"

"You and I are now in the same boat, so I will naturally not put you in an awkward situation." Ling Rong is still busy sorting out the account books, so she has no energy to check the expenditure of the six palaces in the east and west.

But since Concubine Tian said this, it meant that there must be something wrong in her palace.

"But I advise you to be careful with the people in the palace. It's a bit strange that the emperor suddenly asked me to assist in managing the six palaces.

If one day I order you to sort out the expenses of the six palaces, don't blame me for not informing you in advance."

Lingrong actually already had some guesses in her mind. The emperor's original intention was to target the queen, but there was nothing wrong in using it to scare Concubine Tian now.

"All right," Tianpin replied reluctantly, "My palace has a lot of expenses, but that's because my parents gave me a lot, and I didn't spend a penny more from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The emperor won't even take care of this, will he?

You know, in the past, Nian Shilan used it much more excessively than I did."

“What matters is not where your money comes from, but where your money goes.

You are usually in the palace, with only a few palace maids around you, and you haven't even made many new clothes, so how come the money is being spent like water?"

Concubine Tian opened her mouth and thought to herself, don’t you know? All the money is used to bribe the palace ladies.

If I use this money to raise a group of soldiers in the suburbs of Beijing, maybe they can rush into the Forbidden City and purge the emperor.

But she still needed to speak up, Lingrong could guess most of it. Anyway, Shilan was already crazy now, so she would be responsible for the whereabouts of the money.

"Okay, I know everything about this," Concubine Tian finally spoke up, "Fortunately, the money used to investigate Queen Chunyuan was from my father, otherwise I don't know how much more it would have cost."

"Fortunately, we found the person, but it will be a bit troublesome to interrogate him. But in the next three to five days, we should have a result."

"Almost there." Concubine Tian took another sip of tea. Her eyes were shining, completely different from how she looked when she was pregnant.

Indeed, this person should have some goals, otherwise he would be so lifeless, as if he has one foot in the grave.

After another three or five days, news really came from Concubine Tian. The servant named Qin Si finally gave in and was willing to tell Concubine Tian everything she knew.

It's just that she was a maid in Qi Yuebin's room at that time, and she didn't know much about what happened to Queen Chunyuan.

All she knew was that the empress, who was still a concubine at the time, was asked by the emperor to take care of Empress Chunyuan after she lost her children.

The reason is that the concubine knows medicine and can take better care of the concubine's body and give birth to a healthy child.

However, at that time, the concubine was very upset because Honghui died of illness. Although she tried her best to take care of the concubine, she fell ill after a few days.

However, the emperor at that time, under the repeated suggestions of Concubine Fujin, still mentioned many times the matter of asking Concubine Fujin to take care of Concubine Fujin.

So even though she was not feeling well, the concubine still forced herself to stay together and carefully checked the concubine's diet and clothing.

"Qin Si said that Qi Yuebin seemed to have some doubts about Concubine Jin, the Empress, and thought that she must not be sincerely caring for Empress Chunyuan.

So Qi Yuebin was on guard and would remind Queen Chunyuan to ask the palace physician to check her pulse from time to time.

It was a pity that Empress Chunyuan trusted her sister very much and felt that calling the court doctor would be a loss of face for her sister, so she did not look for the court doctor until she had a difficult delivery.

Lingrong frowned. She didn't quite believe that Queen Chunyuan would be such a stupid woman. After all, she had charmed the emperor with one dance, and the emperor married her without any hesitation.

To say that you are pure and kind is probably just disguised goodness.

"Maybe her family forced her to do that? No one I've ever met has said anything bad about Queen Chunyuan."

“Maybe, but if she was really that kind, why would she marry her sister’s husband?

Even though she knew that her sister would become his wife if she gave birth to a child, she still married him.

It's not like the whole world is forcing her to become the wife of her sister's husband."

Ling Rong doesn't think that a person who is described as pure and kind by those around him is necessarily a truly kind person. Kindness is judged by deeds rather than by the heart, and her behavior does not reveal "kindness" in any way.

"Maybe."

After Lingrong said this, Concubine Tian became even more unsure. She shook her head and said, "Forget it. I haven't finished talking to you about Qin Si yet."

After Fu Jin suffered a difficult childbirth, Qi Yuebin, a good friend of Fu Jin, conducted an investigation and found that there seemed to be something wrong with the almond tea that Fu Jin often drank.

The amount of almonds used in the mansion was not a big problem, but Qi Yuebin found that there were still quite a few peach kernels in the kitchen.

Peach kernels are harmful to the fetus and pregnant women are forbidden to drink them. Qi Yuebin suspected that the concubine had replaced almonds with peach kernels, which caused her difficult delivery.

It's a pity that after she told the concubine and the emperor about this, they both spoke up for the concubine and did not really suspect the concubine.

"But even though we bought almonds during that period, we didn't actually use many of them. Later, Qi Yuebin found out that the kitchen staff sold the extra almonds and made a lot of money privately."

"So, if there is solid evidence, why didn't the emperor find out at the time?" Lingrong asked curiously. Qi Yuebin was able to find out so much, it was impossible for the emperor not to know about it, so why didn't he deal with the queen?

"Qin Si said that the people in the kitchen often steal some precious ingredients and sell them. They sell almonds at a low price. We can only say that it is the servants who are derelict in their duties, and there is no way to say that it was the Queen's order.

What's more, everything is just Qi Yuebin's guess. The evidence she found can't prove that it was the Queen who did it."

Lingrong nodded, wondering if the emperor already knew everything she had found out.

If she already knew everything, there would be no need to tell the Emperor. Instead, she would be accused of intentionally framing the Queen.

"Does Qin Si know anything else?"

"She said that Qi Yuebin did find a crucial piece of evidence, but for some reason, she did not give it to the emperor."

When Concubine Tian thought that Qi Yuebin was dead, she felt that all the clues were gone. She sighed helplessly, "This information is not very useful. I'm afraid it won't be able to overthrow the queen."

"What we need to do now is to find the evidence left by Qi Yuebin. I remember that Jixiang should not have been sentenced to death."

Concubine Tian thought for a long time before nodding uncertainly, "Although she was tortured, she still had a breath. I remember she was sent to the laundry department, and I don't know if she is still alive."

"Let's check her out. If she's still alive, we still have a chance to get some information out of her."

Lingrong was not sure at this time how much Jixiang knew about what happened that year, but she had served Concubine Duan the longest. If even she didn't know, there would be no more clues to find.

No matter whether she was a concubine many years ago or the empress now, Yixiu was able to handle everything cleanly. No wonder the emperor did not suspect that she had a direct relationship with Empress Chunyuan's difficult labor.

After all, although peach kernels can harm the fetus, the dosage should be considered. Empress Chunyuan would not drink almond tea for three meals a day.

I think this tea is just one of the reasons for the difficult delivery, and there may be a bigger conspiracy that has not been discovered yet.

"This depends on our Concubine Xia, but she has been favored by the Emperor recently, so I guess she is not in the mood to help us."

Concubine Tian's tone was full of sourness. She snorted, as if thinking of her efforts to win favor but to no avail. "She is favored by the emperor. She is so vulgar, and I don't know why the emperor likes her."

"She has her abilities, and you have yours. I'm afraid Concubine Tian has forgotten that the emperor likes you playing the piano under the crabapple tree the most. Although it is winter now, the flying snow turns into flowers, which is also a special feeling."

Lingrong didn't want the two of them to start an internal conflict, so she deliberately gave Concubine Tian some advice.

"The emperor has been staying in the Yanxi Palace for the past two days, but I heard that he plans to go to the Suiyu Pavilion today.

Concubine Tian might as well prepare to meet the emperor in the imperial garden and take this favor back to the Yanxi Palace."

With Lingrong's advice, Concubine Tian naturally had a direction to work towards. She imitated herself when she had just entered the palace, wearing a light pink dress and sitting under a tree that no longer had any flowers.

But she deliberately brought her zither with her, and her fingers became stiff from playing in the snow and ice, and then she waited until the emperor passed by the imperial garden.

Fortunately, the emperor valued the concubines' intention to please him the most, so he was happy to fall into the trap and reminisced with Concubine Tian about the time when she entered the palace.

Concubine Tian also deliberately mentioned that Xia Dongchun had won the emperor's favor when she first entered the palace, but she had to wait for a long time before she caught the emperor's eye with her piano playing.

"As the saying goes, if the song is wrong, Zhou Lang will look back," Concubine Tian placed her cold hand into the emperor's palm. Her tone was gentler than ever before, "Did I play the wrong song today?"