Madam Hou

Chapter 25

In Fengyi Palace, the empress sits at the top, hugging the second prince who has just given birth to the full moon. On the left and right of her are the concubine Bai Gui who just gave birth and Yan Niang who is nearly six-year-old, and the next one is Jinghui Qin Kangpin, who gave birth to the eldest princess of the emperor, and Sun Jieyu, an old man who served Emperor Jinghui when he was diving, were followed by a dozen or so lower-ranking concubines.

Everyone looked at the prince in the queen's hand, and said in a hurry, "The second prince looks so beautiful", "The second prince looks so healthy", "The second prince looks really smart", "The second prince looks really like the emperor"" The second prince is really filial" and other words of praise.Even though the one-month-old prince still has red skin at all, and has never done anything other than spitting bubbles with his eyes closed in the hands of the queen, it is impossible to tell whether he is smart, filial and like the emperor, but this does not hinder The concubines opened their eyes and praised the little prince whom the emperor had been looking forward to for a long time.

Listening to the compliments around her, Bai Guifei didn't think about how true those words were, she just listened to them as truth, with a proud look on her face.Seeing his son quietly closing his eyes in the queen's hands, neither crying nor fussing, he couldn't help saying to the queen: "Look at this child, the concubine always cries and fusses when he is holding him. I didn't expect the empress to hold him so cutely."

Another beauty who has always been on good terms with Bai Guifei covered her mouth and smiled and said: "The second prince has a predestined relationship with the empress, and I am afraid that he regards the empress as the closest person!"

The queen frowned lightly after hearing this, and suddenly lost interest in teasing the child.Concubine Bai Gui naturally sensed the empress' displeasure, and wanted to interrupt her with a word, but unexpectedly Concubine Chen, who was sitting on the other side, took a step ahead of her, turned her beautiful eyes, lowered her head and said something in the empress's ear What, it caused the queen to be happy again.Concubine Bai Gui always felt that her breath was stuck in her heart, and her previous pride after giving birth to a prince also faded a bit.

The queen handed the second prince back to the nanny behind her, and said: "Take good care of the second prince, don't let the little prince be cold and hungry."

The nanny hurriedly hugged the child and saluted and said yes.

At this moment, the palace maid came in to announce that Mrs. Yongning Hou, Mrs. Chen and the two young ladies of the Chen family had arrived outside Fengyi Palace, and the empress invited them in.

Mrs. Chen imitated Mrs. Lin Hou and kowtowed to the queen, and then she dared to secretly raise her head and glance at her own daughter.This glance was not important, but it almost made Mrs. Chen cry in front of the empress in disrespect.The mother and daughter hadn't seen each other for more than a year. Mrs. Chen used to miss her daughter so much that her heart ached. Now that she finally saw her daughter, she couldn't help but keep her face unchanged.Originally, because Yanniang was pregnant and was looked after by the queen, she had gained a lot of weight, but Mrs. Chen felt that her daughter, who had been pampered, had lost a lot of weight, and felt distressed again.

Yanniang's eyes were red when she saw her mother and younger sister who were thinking day and night. Fortunately, she had been fighting with people in the palace for a year, and she had already practiced the ability to not show off before the collapse of mountains. Can maintain dignified etiquette and decent manners.

When Yinniang and Pingniang saw their long-separated sister, they couldn't help being excited, especially Yinniang, because they were closer in age to Yanniang and had a better relationship than Pingniang. She was full of words and wanted to say something, but Yin Niang's behavior was more stable than Mrs. Chen's.

The queen asked Mrs. Lin Hou and Mrs. Chen to help them up, and asked with a smile: "This is Mrs. Chen, I didn't expect to be so young. This concubine Chen looks like you."

Mrs. Chen hadn't recovered from the excitement of seeing her eldest daughter. Suddenly, the eldest sister among the women spoke to her again. Mrs. Chen was even more flustered when she was excited, and she even spoke incoherently: "Mr. I dare not, I dare not be a minister's wife."

The queen smiled, not caring about Mrs. Chen's little impoliteness, turned her head and looked at Yanniang again, and said in a gentle tone: "This is Yinniang, come forward and let me have a look."

Yinniang secretly looked at Yanniang, Yanniang nodded slightly to her, so Yanniang took a few steps forward, stopped at a place one step away from the queen, and slightly bent the corners of her mouth to look at Queen Fu Li Fuli: "I've seen your mother."

The queen looked at the cautious little girl in front of her, and suddenly felt like she was bullying her, and she couldn't help but said again: "Come closer, I won't eat you again, don't be afraid, come closer and let me see .”

So Yinniang walked half a step closer according to her words, the queen smiled and took Yinniang's hand and looked her over carefully a few times, and praised: "You really are beautiful."

Yin Niang lowered her head and smiled shyly, revealing two shallow dimples.It's wrong to say too much, I heard that the superiors are usually moody, she'd better keep silent, anyway, it's always right to smile at this time.

The queen asked again: "How old are you, have you learned calligraphy, and what do you usually do?"

Yin Niang answered each one truthfully, but apart from answering the questions, she didn't say a single word.Even so, the empress still showed kindness, and Yinniang's nervous heart gradually relaxed later on.At the end, the queen half-asked Yiniang and half-asked Mrs. Lin Hou: "I heard that I am engaged to the prince of Yongning. The prince of Yongning is a charming person. Yiniang is exquisite. Although the two are not of the same age, It's a bit bigger, but if you look at them together, they are a good match. I really don't know where Madam Yongning Hou got her exquisite mind, and you can find a wonderful person hidden in a place so far away from the capital. Come out and be a daughter-in-law."

Yin Niang continued to lower her head and smile shyly. Unmarried girls are usually only able to show this expression when they are talking about their future husband.Although she didn't feel that there was anything to be shy about, she felt that this was really not a place to show her specialness, and it was better for her to follow the trend.

Mrs. Lin Hou smiled and said: "My lady, Miao Zan, it's just a coincidence."

Yanniang looked at Yinniang, then leaned on the queen, half joking and half serious, said: "Your Majesty, you have a thin skin, please stop teasing Yinniang like this."

The queen looked at Yinniang, her face was indeed a little red, she still had a fat face like a baby's, the redness made her look even more attractive.The queen smiled happily, "I know you love my sister, that's all, maybe you haven't seen your mother and sister for a long time, so take them to your side hall, and you can talk privately."

Hearing this, Yanniang was also a little excited, she stood up happily, and said to the queen's grateful gift, "Thank you, Niangniang, for your understanding." After speaking, she left her seat, and pulled Mrs. Chen and the two younger sisters back to the side. temple.

Bai Guifei, who was sitting on the other side, squeezed her sleeves with her fingers, unable to swallow her breath, but still showed a decent smile on her face.The concubine is in the inner palace, and she is not allowed to communicate with the outside of the palace, let alone meet her family.It is a great favor to be able to get the order to get together with her family. Today is a good day for her and her emperor, but this favor belongs to Concubine Chen. This kind of differential treatment made her feel a little relieved.

It turns out that the queen also asked her if she wanted her mother to visit her in the palace, but when she was pregnant, she relied on the emperor's favor and blew on the pillow to ask the emperor to add an official to her brother who had just won a Jinshi. What happened, her brother also granted a seventh-rank real position, but since then the queen has divided her and the child in her womb.No matter how stupid she was, she knew that the queen was annoyed by her, so she refused this opportunity to meet her family, but she did not expect that the queen would also give it to Concubine Chen. Such a favor.

The side hall of Fengyi Palace.

Mrs. Chen just followed her daughter into the door, she couldn't help but hugged her daughter, choked up and said: "My son, you have suffered."

Caici just wanted to remind Mrs. Chen of her impoliteness, but she didn't think so, but Caitao gave her a wink, and Caici didn't dare to speak out.Both she and Caitao were brought into the palace by Yanniang from the Marquis of Yongning. Although both she and Caitao are the big maids around Concubine Chen in name, in the palace, Yanniang obviously valued the painted pottery more, she vaguely regarded the painted pottery as The trend of a confidant palace lady is willing to tell Caitao about everything, but she is just more decent than the palace maids allocated from the palace.

Cai Tao waved his hand, and let all the maids serving in the side hall go down, then took Cai Ci's hand out of the hall door, and closed the door.

As soon as he got out of the palace gate, Caici shook off Caitao's hand and asked scoldingly: "What are you doing, why don't you let me remind Mrs. Chen of her impoliteness? Concubine Chen is now a high-grade concubine. Although Mrs. Chen is the empress's Mother, but you have to keep the distinction of honor and inferiority, how can you call me my son."

Caitao said: "Your Majesty has finally met her family, why should we spoil her interest, besides, if you don't tell me about this matter, no one will know."

"There are a bunch of maids in this side palace. They have no eyes and ears. What is the place in this palace? They don't even know how to die if they are not cautious in their words and deeds. Cai Tao, we are the maids next to the empress. We are all prosperous and we are all damaged. Hurt, although the empress values ​​you more, you can't just do things according to the empress's wishes, usually you have to remind the empress if there is something wrong with the empress."

Cai Tao was also a little angry. When she was in the Yongning Hou Mansion, she looked down on her being promoted from Zhuangzi. Now everyone is the same court lady. Just because the empress values ​​her more, she accuses Sang Huai of wronging her and only flatters her.

"Stop pointing at Sang and scolding Huai. Why don't I be cautious in my words and deeds? The maids in this palace are all gifted by the empress. Since the empress asked our empress, Mrs. Chen and the two young ladies to go back to the hall to talk alone, why don't you talk about it?" It shows that the empress doesn't care about these little rules... Huh, don't think I don't know that you are jealous that the empress likes me more."

"you……."

(End of this chapter)