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Frowning, Qin Hai turned back. “You should be content. At least you still have Qin’s family blood. If you were truly some bastard from outside… even dying a hundred times wouldn’t be enough!”
Thinking about how he himself had been played for a fool for so many years, Qin Hai stormed with frustration.
“What the hell is all this mess!”
Cursing furiously, Qin Hai stomped off.
Outside, though the rain had already ceased, thunder and lightning suddenly split the night sky.
A fierce wind gusted through, snuffing out the candle on the desk.
The room flickered between light and shadow, making Qin Che appear dark and foreboding.
He stood frozen for a long time. Then suddenly, with a violent motion, he swept the porcelain and scrolls from the table.
His eyes bloodshot, he roared, “I don’t believe it… I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it—!”
⸻
Qixiang Palace.
Consort Xian reclined on a reclining couch, with one hand holding a book, the other supporting her head.
She wished to be well-read in poetry and literature, but unfortunately, every time she opened a book she soon grew drowsy.
With a thunderous boom, Consort Xian jolted in fright, the book in her hands falling to the floor with a sharp thud.
A nearby palace maid hurried to pick it up, holding it respectfully before her with both hands.
Consort Xian couldn’t be bothered to reach out and take it.
Just then, Granny Gui, who had served her faithfully for many years, entered carrying a bowl of freshly prepared bird’s nest with rock sugar.
Granny Gui placed the bird’s nest on the small table, then took the poetry collection from the maid’s hands. “You may leave.”
“Yes.”
The maid replied respectfully before withdrawing.
Granny Gui set the book upon the table, then lifted the bowl of bird’s nest and offered it to Consort Xian.
“Your Ladyship, you ate little at supper. Please have some of this.”
Consort Xian pressed a hand against the flesh at her waist. “No. It will make me fat.”
Among palace women, maintaining one’s figure was an endless battle, fasting and hunger were commonplace.
Consort Xian, with both prince and princess at her side, by rights no longer needed to rely solely on beauty to serve.
Yet she was unwilling to concede to age.
With one wave of fresh young beauties after another entering the harem, she stubbornly refused to lose to them.
“Why hasn’t His Majesty arrived yet?”
Consort Xian muttered.
Granny Gui chuckled softly. “His Majesty will come. Perhaps the rain has made the roads muddy, so he’s delayed.”
“And what act was the empress putting on tonight?”
Consort Xian had already investigated.
It was the empress who first sent pastries to the emperor, only then did he go to Kunning Palace.
But that was unlike the empress’s usual behavior.
And it was also unlike Emperor Jingxuan as well.
Emperor Jingxuan and the Empress had long since lost their affection as husband and wife.
Let alone sending him pastries, even if the empress personally washed his hands and cooked for him, he would not be moved.
Granny Gui said, “Your Ladyship, after all, the empress is the mistress of the inner palace.”
Consort Xian gave a cold snort. “So what if she is? She has no favor, and she cannot bear sons. She wears nothing but the hollow title of empress! If not for her daughter’s auspicious birth date, do you really think His Majesty would still care for her?”
Granny Gui smiled helplessly, scooping up a spoonful of bird’s nest and holding it to her mistress’s lips.
“Your Ladyship, please eat some.”
Consort Xian, in the end, could not resist. She took two small spoonfuls, then pushed the bowl aside, refusing to eat any more.
At this moment, a eunuch arrived with a message that His Majesty had been intercepted before reaching her.
Consort Xian’s eyes flashed sharply.
“Which lowly woman is it this time?”
Granny Gui replied, “It was the old Duke Protector.”
Hearing that it was not another woman of the harem, Consort Xian’s expression eased somewhat.
“Is there trouble at the border again?”
Since Qin Canglan no longer attended court, for him to rush into the palace in the middle of the night could only mean, in Consort Xian’s mind, that border war was imminent.