Ms. Doctor Divine

However, the Empress Dowager glanced at De Fu fiercely, so De Fu stayed silent directly.

That was not what he had heard. The Queen was seriously ill but the Empress Dowager had made it sound as if nothing serious had happened.

De Fu was the King’s man, and he was loyal to him, not to the Empress Dowager, but he was, after all, a servant.

When he was warned by the Empress Dowager in this way, he did not dare to spill the truth.

Seeing that De Fu had chosen not to spill the truth, the Empress Dowager felt assured and said, “King, just return to your own business, I will be off now. There are many errands to deal with in the court around this time of the year, and Honored Princess Jing is too busy to do everything alone. I have to give her a hand.”

The King nodded and took over a petition, instead of dwelling upon the Empress Dowager’s words. He asked the Empress Dowager to take good care of herself and then continued to get on with his business.

The Empress Dowager sank her eyes, then she started to walk outside the Qianqing Palace.

She had been the one that set up the Jiang Family, and the plan went very well, but what she had not expected was that the King would truly have fallen for Jiang Shuang, which made the whole thing a bit complicated. When she mentioned Honored Princess Jing, the King gave no attention to her. That did not seem like a proper situation.

Well… She was going to finish Jiang Shuang this winter. Otherwise she was going to cause a lot of trouble.

The Empress Dowager sighed and headed towards her Cining Palace.

***

At the Qianqing Palace, the King did not dwell on the Queen’s health any more when he heard that nothing serious was going on. De Fu was serving him beside, and the whole matter was gradually forgotten.

***

At the mansion.

Gu Chaoyan also heard about what happened in the town.

Seeing Zhou Huaijin back, she asked instantly, “Nothing is wrong with the Queen, is there?”

Zhou Huaijin shook his head, sipped the tea and said calmly, “Nothing serious. Mr. Zhao says that everything is going accordingly. The less healthy mother looks, the better it is. When she reaches the end of this old life, she will be reborn as new. Mr. Zhao is looking after her now in the town, so mother asked me to come home.”

Gu Chaoyan let out a sigh of relief.

Good.

Although she knew that it was a complication caused by the medicine, she just could not help feeling worried. So what Zhou Huaijin said made her feel assured.

***

Many small things happened here and there around this time of the year, and New Year’s Eve arrived. Guarding the Year End was the most important event at night.

Women were normally not invited to be present in the court for the New Year’s Eve banquet.

The King normally granted food to different mansions, and the more a mansion got, the more important the mansion’s position would be.

Gu Chaoyan had already moved out of her family’s mansion, so she did not get any granted food, but she did not care.

She, together with Qing, Xiu Jie and many others, ate one big dinner together.

Although there were servant-and-lady rules prevailing in the mansion, Gu Chaoyan did not want any of them to be lonely at this time of the year, so she asked them to drop the rules and eat dinner together.

Qing was always on good terms with Gu Chaoyan, so she felt no stress, but Xiu Jie was feeling very uncomfortable.

As for the Four Swords, Sword Three and Four barely spoke, but Sword Two talked a lot. As for Sword One… She was gossiping about which mansion received the largest amount of granted food.

That was what Sword One found most fun about every year.

Gu Chaoyan did not want to hammer down her passion, so she let her talk.. She even asked her, “Sword One, have you heard who receives the largest amount of granted food this year?”