Her guards

Chapter 109 Consort Li's Thoughts

When the old lady of the Marquis of Yichun arrived at the Empress's Palace, Consort Li, who had been kneeling outside the palace, had already been carried away, and the Emperor had also left.

"His Majesty originally didn't want to go, but I persuaded him to go," the Empress said.

"Your Majesty is right to do so," said the old lady of the Marquis of Yichun. "If Lady Li is acting pitiful, let His Majesty see it with his own eyes, and he will stop thinking about it once he sees it."

What difference does it make whether she thinks about it or not? They are all His Majesty's women. The Empress lowered her eyes, drank her tea, and remained silent.

"Is Heisei really alright?" asked the old lady of Yichun Marquis, looking around. "Don't keep this from me and your father. Call her here so I can see her."

As the Empress left the palace for the Imperial Academy, the news reached the Marquis of Yichun's residence. When the Empress returned to the palace with the princess, the old lady of the Marquis of Yichun came to request an audience.

The Empress looked up and smiled, saying, "I didn't hide it from you. Heisei is really fine. She's busy choosing gifts to comfort the young ladies who are studying with her. She'll come over when she's done, and Mother will see her."

The old lady of the Marquis of Yichun breathed a sigh of relief, then sighed heavily: "It's really impossible to guard against such a wicked person who actually dared to target us in the Heisei era." After saying that, she added, "The people around the Prince of Donghai must be thoroughly investigated. Your father personally selected the people to be sent in."

The Empress lowered her eyes and hummed twice, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, only saying, "I know, don't worry."

"Your father has already gone to investigate Wu's family," the old lady of the Marquis of Yichun continued, then frowned slightly. "Wu was someone you chose to serve by Heisei's side, but the other one is someone from Li's side..."

"Mother, the people around Lady Li were also bestowed by me," the Empress said. "I selected all the palace maids and concubines in the entire harem. You won't find anything by investigating this point."

The old lady of the Marquis of Yichun pondered for a moment: "If it really is Lady Li, then she is too foolish. She has harmed Heisei, and both she and her daughter, including that Prince of Linhai, will not have a good ending..."

Could it really be that Wu woman seeking revenge?
The fact that the Heisei era almost met with disaster was due to the Shiba family.

How can this be.

“Your father doesn’t even remember the Wu family. At that time, the world was in chaos. He did his best to prepare food and supplies and to unify the scattered land for cultivation. This was to help more people survive. How did it become the destruction of the Wu family? It was clearly the Wu family that had bad intentions and wanted to disrupt the people’s hearts.”

The Empress stopped her mother: "There's no need to talk about the past. His Majesty has also said that this is not a matter of personal grudge. If that Wu maid really had a personal grudge against our family, she wouldn't have waited until now. The personal grudge is just an excuse."

The old lady of the Marquis of Yichun nodded: "That's right. There's no need for outsiders to harm Heping. It must be someone from the palace, Nangong, Shengping's mother, and that concubine who is newly pregnant..."

"There are so many people in the harem," the Empress sighed inwardly, stopping her mother. "Mother, you don't need to worry. His Majesty will investigate." She smiled faintly as she said this, "He is the father of Heisei. If he can't even protect his own children, wouldn't that be a joke?"

……

.......
"Your Majesty—I am guilty—"

When Consort Li woke up, she found herself back in her own palace. Upon seeing the figures standing in the palace, she immediately knelt down and sobbed.

The emperor did not wake him. He flipped through a stack of papers and then threw them on the ground: "It's obvious that you don't care about your child. Wu Yang has been in school for so long, and his handwriting is really terrible."

Consort Li saw the papers scattered on the ground and wept again: "Your Majesty, I am so foolish, I have made such a terrible mistake."

The emperor looked at her and said, "You don't care about Wu Yang's studies, and you don't discipline her personality. You let her be disrespectful to her elder sister, which led to others taking advantage of her. Fortunately, this time it was just a palace maid who was persuaded. What if Wu Yang herself had been bewitched?"

He gave a cold laugh at this point.

"I know your heart is with the Prince of Linhai."

"Don't think that a daughter is unimportant. If she is of bad character, you and your son will not escape being implicated."

Consort Li immediately kowtowed repeatedly: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I have absolutely no intention of offending the Prince of Donghai. The Prince of Linhai is a boy, and in a few years he will leave the palace to establish his own residence. The Prince of Linhai also greatly admires the Prince of Donghai and wants to learn everything from him. I am truly afraid that he will offend me in his youthful ignorance, which is why I keep a close eye on him and offer guidance every day..."

He then knelt forward, prostrated himself at the emperor's feet, and wept bitterly.

"Princess Heisei was dignified, generous, and knew how to teach her younger sister..."

The emperor kicked her away and said coldly, "So you just let her be arrogant and domineering, let Princess Heisei discipline her, and let the sisters draw their swords and kill each other?"

Consort Li fell to the side, then knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I am guilty, Your Majesty is guilty."

The emperor let her kowtow, coldly watching as Consort Li's forehead quickly became covered in blood.

"Why did you protect Miss Yang when you were at the National Academy?" he suddenly asked.

Consort Li was stunned for a moment, seemingly not quite reacting, and then looked up at the Emperor.

The emperor looked at her and said, slowly and deliberately, "Are you... afraid that she won't be able to withstand the torture and will bite Princess Wuyang?"

Consort Li came to her senses and said with tears in her eyes, "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm afraid she'll implicate me. Whether she does or not, she is Wu Yang's tutor. If she is guilty, Wu Yang will not escape either. I was heartbroken at the time, thinking that I had failed to discipline Wu Yang properly, which was my dereliction of duty as a mother. I also thought that this Miss Yang also had no mother, so I... I will bear all the punishment myself."

She kowtowed again as she spoke. "Now I am even more grateful to Miss Yang, and I wish I could repay her with my own life. She turned the tables on me, averting a disaster and saving my mother and me..."

She then burst into tears.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you for giving Wu Yang this role as a tutor. If it weren't for this tutor, if it weren't for Your Majesty, what would I have done this time?"

The emperor's expression was complex.

Consort Li was right. If it weren't for the quick thinking of that Miss Yang, either Heisei's face would have been truly ruined, or the maid Wu would still not have been exposed...

Miss Yang.

Perhaps it's not that each generation is worse than the last.

"Regardless," the emperor's voice was somewhat hoarse, "Wu Yang's attitude towards Heisei was unfriendly, and you failed to discipline him properly, so you should be punished."

Consort Li kowtowed again: "Yes, it was my fault for not disciplining Wu Yang properly, and for not noticing the improper conduct of the palace women around her. Your Majesty, I beg you to punish me."

The Emperor nodded: "You are hereby confined for three months. Princess Wuyang and the Prince of Linhai will be temporarily placed under the supervision of the Grand Chamberlain."

Consort Li kowtowed and wept, saying, "Thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty. Thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty."

Footsteps sounded, and the emperor went outside.

As the emperor walked out of the Consort's palace, an eunuch stepped forward and whispered, "...Grand Master Li and his wife are requesting an audience...kneeling for quite some time."

These are Consort Li's brother and sister-in-law.

Although the Li family was not as noble as the Chai family, they had been distinguished and renowned for generations. When they attacked the capital, the Li family, as the head of the upright and honest families in the capital, promoted Deng Shan as a wise ruler, which won over the hearts of the people and made great contributions to the successful attack on the capital.

Consort Li's parents were assassinated before they could escape the capital after being discovered by Zhao Tan.

Fortunately, Consort Li and her brother had hidden in someone else's house beforehand and escaped the disaster.

The emperor sighed.

“I will not see them,” he said. “Let them go see Consort Li.”

……

.......
Not only did the Li family elder brother and sister-in-law come in, but Princess Wuyang, who was to be handed over to the Imperial Household Department for education, also arrived.

"I did privately pray that she would have bad luck! But I never intended to harm her!"

“Li Qing, is this the daughter you raised! I don’t think there’s any need for the Grand Chamberlain to discipline her; just lock her up in the Yeting prison.”

Princess Wuyang protested her indignation, but Doctor Li scolded her. Then the palace women came in and took Princess Wuyang away. Doctor Li's brother and sister-in-law reprimanded Consort Li with classical texts, and the palace maids and eunuchs all retreated outside the palace.

……

....
Consort Li looked at the bandage wrapped around her wound in the bronze mirror.

Lady Li herself wrapped the wound.

"Are you sure you shouldn't call the imperial physician to take a look?" she asked worriedly. "It's all bloody and mangled; we don't want it to leave scars."

Consort Li said, "It doesn't matter if I have a scar. I didn't win favor because of my beauty."

After saying that, he looked at his elder brother Li Xuan sitting opposite him.

Li Xuan was in his forties, tall and thin, with a gaunt face, and his expression was somber at this moment.

"His Majesty won't suspect you, will he?" he asked, frowning.

Consort Li laughed and said lazily, "No, what good would it do me to harm Princess Heping? I would be crazy to do something that doesn't benefit me. The Emperor isn't stupid; he'll know it as soon as he thinks it through."

She picked up the teacup and took a small sip.

"No one expected that I just wanted the Empress to beat that Miss Yang to death."

(End of this chapter)