Selling wife for fame? Kick out the scumbag and marry the new emperor to enjoy the harem of favors

Chapter 103 A little thought

"How dare you deliberately instigate Zhou Baolin, causing her to be embarrassed today and even causing the Emperor's displeasure. You know, she is my family, and if she loses face, I lose face. By doing this, you are provoking me!"

As soon as Concubine Chen knelt down, the Queen raised her hand and slammed the table, scolding her harshly.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. I absolutely did not instigate Zhou Baolin to do anything. I am innocent. Normally, when Zhou Baolin and I were together, we just chatted casually and never said anything that shouldn't have been said!" Chen Cairen hurriedly protested her innocence.

But the queen naturally didn't believe her at this moment and glanced at her coldly.

"No? If you hadn't told Zhou Baolin how Concubine Xie came to be favored, she wouldn't have thought of what happened today!"

"Your Majesty, I have never witnessed how Concubine Xie wins the Emperor's favor. I was just imitating the servants in the palace and gossiping a few words, saying that Concubine Xie is favored because she is shameless, dissolute and seductive, and has learned the tricks of prostitutes to please the Emperor. The Emperor has seen the reserved and polite ladies of decent families, so he finds women like her new and fresh. That's all!"

Chen Cairen looked aggrieved, and as she explained, the panic in her eyes did not seem fake.

The queen sat on a high place, looking down at her, her anger seemed to subside a little.

But the doubts on his face still exist.

After a moment, he asked in a deep voice, "The people who serve Zhou Baolin said that you had a private conversation with Zhou Baolin. What did you say to her that you had to avoid others like this and even asked your personal servants to leave."

"This"

When mentioning this matter, Chen Cairen looked embarrassed and hesitated for a while.

Seeing this, Tingyun, who was standing beside the Queen, immediately shouted, "Her Majesty is asking questions, why don't you answer them quickly!"

"That day, behind closed doors, I discussed some secret techniques of the boudoir with Zhou Baolin."

Chen Cairen spoke with difficulty, his face flushed with shame and embarrassment.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. These are the things I learned before I entered the palace. My family specially hired a skilled nanny to teach me so that I could better serve the Emperor. I also saw that Zhou Baolin was eager to gain favor, so I told him a few things."

This makes sense.

It's really embarrassing to tell too many people about such a shameful thing.

"Empress, I have lived with Concubine Yi since entering the palace. Concubine Yi has a moody temperament and often irritates me. I finally managed to move out of Ninghua Palace, and I have been living in constant fear ever since. I am overjoyed to have the Empress's protection. I only think about how to be loyal to you. How dare I harm you!"

Chen Cairen looked at the queen sincerely, feeling aggrieved and anxious.

"If I had known that Zhou Baolin would have such absurd thoughts after a few words with her, I would have kept silent. After all, if she made a mistake, Your Majesty would be implicated, and I rely on Your Majesty for everything. What good would that do me?"

Having said that, Chen Cairen pursed his lips, looked serious, and seemed particularly serious.

"If Your Majesty does not believe me, you can call Zhou Baolin here and let us confront each other to see if I really instigated her to go to the Imperial Garden and seduce the Emperor with such despicable means."

In the main seat, the gloomy look on the queen's face gradually faded after hearing her words.

After Chen Cairen had spoken her words of confrontation, the Queen waved her hand and said, "Alright, get up."

Upon hearing this, Chen Cairen's eyes suddenly brightened up. She kowtowed to express her gratitude and then stood up.

"Today, I was furious and called you here for questioning. Don't blame me. Zhou Baolin's actions were truly absurd. The Emperor sent him directly to me and didn't deal with him at all. It's clear that he despises and hates him. This is really giving me a headache."

As she spoke, the queen raised her hand and rubbed her forehead, her face showing fatigue and irritability.

Chen Cairen acted respectfully. "How could I blame Your Majesty? If Your Majesty were unreasonable, you could have just punished me based on one side of my story. But Your Majesty still summoned me for questioning, which shows that Your Majesty is fair and would not wrongly accuse me. Today's events are indeed disturbing, but I do have a solution that may help Your Majesty relieve some of her worries."

The queen's eyes moved, and she looked at Chen Cairen with an inquiring look.

"Tell me about it." "What Your Majesty is worried about now is that the Emperor is angry with You because of Zhou Baolin's actions, so Your Majesty just needs to let the Emperor know that you are not aware of this matter." Chen Cairen said.

The Queen frowned, not satisfied with the idea. "I'm afraid it's not enough. I was the one who facilitated Zhou Baolin's entry into the palace. Now that she's in such a terrible state, I'm afraid the Emperor might have a grudge against me, and it won't be easily resolved."

"So your Majesty has to give it a try."

Chen Cairen spoke softly, with a gleam in her eyes.

Half an hour later, Chengming Palace.

Zhao Xingjin was reviewing memorials when Yang Zhian walked in briskly with his waist bent and reported in a low voice.

"Your Majesty, the Queen wishes to see you."

"What are you here for?" The red pen in Zhao Xingjin's hand paused and he frowned.

Yang Zhian half-raised his eyes and carefully observed his expression, "The Empress said she came to apologize to the Emperor."

Hearing this, Zhao Xingjin put down the pen in his hand and said, "Let her in."

"Yes!" Yang Zhian responded and quickly retreated.

Soon, the queen entered the palace.

Seeing Zhao Xingjin, she immediately knelt down and said, "I am guilty of failing to discipline the concubines in the harem, which led to Zhou Baolin doing such an outrageous thing today. I beg Your Majesty to punish me!"

"Zhou Baolin behaved inappropriately. If she is not punished for her behavior today, it will damage the morale of the harem." Zhao Xingjin said lightly.

He did not ask the Queen to excuse herself from the formalities, but instead wanted to deal with Zhou Baolin first.

You probably don’t know yet that Zhou Baolin has been punished and put under house arrest.

The queen's heart sank a little. Fortunately, she did not plead for Zhou Baolin, otherwise she would have been in trouble.

After calming herself down, the Empress immediately agreed with Zhao Xingjin, saying, "Your Majesty is right. Zhou Baolin's behavior today was indeed inappropriate. It was also because I, your concubine, failed to judge her well enough to allow such a person of bad character into the palace. Now it seems that Zhou Baolin is truly unfit to be the Emperor's concubine."

Hearing this, Zhao Xingjin's eyes moved, and he raised his head slightly and looked at the queen.

"Then, according to the Queen, how should we deal with this?"

"Although Zhou Baolin has been in the palace for some time, she has not yet served in the emperor's bed. It is my Zhou family's poor parenting that has allowed Zhou Baolin to behave so unruly. I believe that since Zhou Baolin is unfit to be the emperor's concubine, it is better to treat her like a failed concubine and return her to her family for the Zhou family to deal with. I also hope that the emperor, considering our long-term marriage, will not implicate her family."

The queen seemed to have made up her mind. After bowing deeply, she said these words.

Zhao Xingjin's face showed no emotion, he just looked at the queen kneeling on the ground with her head bowed in silence, his eyes deep.

After a moment, he said in a deep voice, "Queen, please stand up. This was Zhou Baolin's fault alone, and you have nothing to do with it. You don't need to blame yourself too much. Returning a concubine to her family is unprecedented, and the punishment is too severe. Instead, Zhou Baolin will be demoted to a concubine and confined to Xiefang Palace."

Upon hearing this, the queen breathed a sigh of relief, and then immediately expressed her gratitude.

Of course she knew that returning the property to the family was a severe punishment. Once done, it would damage the reputation of the entire Zhou family and even her as the queen.

The queen did this to take a gamble, betting that Zhao Xingjin still valued her and the Zhou family.

Apparently she won the bet.

Although he lost Zhou Cainv, he felt reassured.

However, Zhao Xingjin was also aware of the queen's little thoughts.