Chapter 228 Hot Potato

Under Chunjia's request, Empress Dowager Qu's birthday passed without any disturbance.

After all, Yun Fenghuang felt sorry and sent a private gift to Jiashan Palace, which was slightly cut down from the gift given on Empress Dowager Yuan's birthday last year.

"The Ai Family actually doesn't lack these things." After all, she is the Empress Dowager and Chunjia's biological mother, even though Chunjia personally asked her not to be given the same treatment as the Empress Dowager Yuan, the concubines still have to come to Jiashan Palace to greet and congratulate her.

It's just that the Empress Dowager Qu kept her usual silence and indifference, and sent everyone away, leaving only Yun Fenghuang to eat. The reason was: "I'm afraid that you are not used to the food here, so let the real concubine stay with Ai's family on your behalf." Well, I know your condolences, you are all good children."

When everyone left, he sighed and said to Yun Fenghuang: "If you send these things, if Chun Wangong finds out, he will be unhappy."

After a pause, he added, "And there are so many things that I can't hide."

"I didn't plan to hide it either." Yun Fenghuang said gently, "You are also the empress dowager, so you should be a concubine. Even if the empress dowager finds out about it, she probably wouldn't have anything to say about being a concubine."

Empress Dowager Qu smiled, her expression was a little weird, she couldn't tell if it was irony or disappointment, or it was more complicated than the two.

She said: "I didn't expect that the Ai family would enjoy the filial piety of their sons and wives."

"Your Majesty praises you, concubines and concubines should be filial to you." Yun Fenghuang said, "It's just that concubines are only concubines, but they dare not call you Empress' son-in-law."

That is the qualification of the queen.

And Queen Mother Qu was not unintentional, she stroked the cup in her palm, and smiled almost innocently: "When Aijia was a poor girl in Fuyang County, she was called and drank by the whole family. Those who were able to enter the palace to serve the late king; at that time, the late king had dozens of concubines in the mansion because the princess had nowhere to go, and the Ai family was not outstanding among them, and did not expect to be able to give birth to Lin'er; after that... hehe, who would have thought, Will the Ai family become the queen mother one day? Everything in this world is uncertain."

This is tantamount to nakedly encouraging Yun Fenghuang to compete for the successor.

"The empress's blessings are profound, and they are not comparable to people with difficult heirs like concubines." Yun Fenghuang just laughed, Queen Mother Qu's background is even lower than hers, but who can tell people's fate is good, and she gave birth to a son of heaven What about Chunjia?

Even so, when King Duan of Fuyang was alive, he was not able to surpass Queen Mother Yuan as a concubine.

Yun Fenghuang didn't know why the Empress Dowager Qu, who had been keeping a low profile in the palace, suddenly made such a statement.

But not to mention that it is still unclear whether the queen mother is an enemy or a friend, even if she still can't see the value of Queen Mother Qu, why should she tell the truth to this queen?

Just because Queen Mother Qu said some words of sympathy and encouragement in her position?

Yun Fenghuang would never have been so naive a few years ago.

"What kind of blessing is the Ai family?" Empress Dowager Qu said with a bleak smile, "Besides, what about being able to have children? The Son of Heaven is not from the Spring Palace!"

It was not easy to answer these words, Yun Fenghuang even thought about how to be decent without offending her resignation.

The Empress Dowager Qu simply didn't intend to ask her to answer, she sighed lightly, and changed the subject, "I'm afraid it's going to be hard for you after the ones you met at the banquet on the morning of the day came... The mourning family spoke lightly, I can't help you. It's just that when you are really wronged, you can come to Ai's house to sit and sit. Those few schemes are very big, so I guess they won't be presumptuous here."

"... I thank my mother for your kindness." Yun Fenghuang was dazed for a while before thanking her in a low voice.

The meaning of Queen Mother Qu's words is not to say that she is sad and come to sit down, but to imply that if she fails in the palace battle in the future, to the point where her reputation is ruined and her family dies, the Queen Mother will protect her by her side.

In this way, even if the life is not going to be very good, at least he can save his life.

No matter what the queen mother's intentions are, she is willing to say these words now, Yun Fenghuang finally accepts her love.

... Empress Dowager Qu's birthday passed quietly, and the first month is only a few days away.

The sixth house became more and more calm, the kind of calm before the storm.

Even if he hadn't guessed the New Year's Eve drama earlier, he knew what the Empress Dowager Yuan was doing at the daily banquet.

So no one in the entire harem is in the mood to find something, they are all waiting.

Waiting for those newcomers to come in, waiting for the real concubine's response, waiting... the palace battle of Guochao officially kicked off.

After all, since Chunjia ascended the throne, during the years he endured, the Ji family was the dominant family, and the concubines were judged by their family background, and any means of scheming to favor the city were secondary; after Chunjia ascended the throne, he tried every means to suppress the Ji family. They try their best to uplift poor concubines.

The concubine's own talent cannot be said to be useless, but the decisive thing is the backing behind it.

What comes next is the serious one, going to battle in person and using strength to win the future of himself and his family.

The newcomer has a family background, the real concubine has years of accumulation and the emperor's favor... No one can say who will win or lose.

But in such an atmosphere that was about to explode, news suddenly came out from Yanfu Palace that Empress Ji was critically ill!

Empress Dowager Yuan was only a little surprised, and asked about the general situation, and learned that the queen was so depressed that she couldn't afford to get sick, so she didn't take it seriously: "Poor dear, why is a good child like this? The imperial doctor How to put it... Let the imperial physician look at it carefully, if the current one is not good, replace it with a more capable one, after all, it is the emperor's first wife, why not use the best one? Zhan Liu, you go to Ai's house and advise As soon as I persuaded her... Mrs. Ye Guogong's wife passed away a few years ago, and I knew that she was a pure and filial child, but after all, she is already dead! It is always necessary to mourn... This huge palace has always been worrying about Zhenfei. The solution is to make the queen get better soon!"

What he said was appropriate and appropriate, but he didn't care about Empress Ji's life or death at all.

Chunjia has not abandoned the queen so far, nor has she secretly given the queen to death, because although the Ji family has declined, it has not been completely eradicated.

The most important thing is that no matter how much this family despises him, everyone in the world knows that they have contributed to his support. Not to mention the empress dowager and mother empress dowager, the two elders of the clan, before Chunjia's status is completely stabilized, he can't do things too extreme, so that people all over the world think that he is mean and ungrateful, and even repays favors with revenge.

But this is just that Chunjia will not unilaterally harm Empress Ji.

If Empress Ji herself died of illness...

Then it doesn't matter whether Queen Mother Yuan or Chunjia.

Compared with Ji Lingzi's life, they are more concerned about how to sell the vacant back seat at a good price?

Empress Dowager Yuan did something on the surface, and said something to Zhan Liu in private: "I saw her so thin that day, I thought it was just an ordinary depression in my heart. I didn't expect that it would be like this in just a few days .”

Zhan Liu said: "After all, Ji's Fu Zuo has declined, so maybe he can't bear the honor of the Phoenix position."

In short, the discussions about the empress's serious illness in the previous court and harem were mostly cold and pessimistic. Empress Ji began to spread the news of her illness in the middle of last year.

However, Yun Fenghuang was very suspicious of Empress Ji's real illness.

Because...the empress is ill, and it is a real illness, not the rumored "bed-ridden" one, so she definitely can't take care of Mrs. Zhao.

The hot potato that Yun Fenghuang had stuffed specially for Yanfu Palace back then had to be returned to Xuanqing Palace.

"Ji Lingzi is probably trying to find trouble for this palace!" He returned to the Huanhua Palace with a worried expression on his face for Empress Ji. As soon as the door was closed, Yun Fenghuang immediately snorted and said, "I know the newcomer is about to enter the palace!" Gong, I am busy, now I pretend to be sick and push Mrs. Zhao out, which can not only entangle me further, but also give the newcomers a chance to attack... After all, the master of the sixth palace, even if he loses power That's right, the ability to add insult to injury is not lost!"

Xie Hengyu comforted: "Even if the newcomer has the support of family background, didn't we check the number of them? There is no elder in the palace within three generations, and there is only one descendant of the eldest princess. There are dozens of eldest princesses who have left the court so far. It’s been a year, and it’s said that they weren’t very pampered when they were in the palace...they just came into the palace, even if they want to do something, how can they reach out to our palace?”

"By the time they have accumulated some connections and qualifications, the Zhao family has probably already been born!"

Yun Fenghuang said: "They don't have any serious contacts and qualifications in the palace, but there is no shortage of these people in the palace now. They are already pampered and relaxed, and they are not as capricious as Bengong, and they don't have a son and a half under their knees. Girl, why don't you take out the experience and experience of these years and sell it to the newcomers?"

In particular, she suspected that Empress Ji was pretending to be sick because she took the opportunity to get rid of Zhao's burden, and also wanted to join forces with the newcomers to deal with her-maybe she had made an agreement with one or several newcomers in private!

Anyway, sooner or later, the queen will be abandoned or killed suddenly. Instead of being cheap and not knowing whose successor it is, it's better to make a deal and deal with Yun Fenghuang's thorn in the flesh, isn't it?

Xie Hengyu sighed after hearing this: "Then what should we do?"

"The empress said that she was sick, and the palace is so big. In terms of her status and her relationship with Concubine Shu, she can only take care of Mrs. Zhao." Yun Fenghuang also sighed, "After all, Shun Jieyu's status is low, and she is still pregnant. I don't have the time to take care of a pregnant woman... In this case, I can only take it over and take care of it. When the time comes, I will trouble my mother to take care of it in person, so as not to mess with the middle palace, come in and live a few days Days later, something went wrong."

Speaking of this, she was a little glad that when Liang Yuwan was happy, she didn't send her mother to take care of her like she did with Yi Xingen.

It's not that one favors the other, after all, these two are for her to have children.

It was because the day's banquet was just around the corner, and there were only a few trusted servants in Yun Fenghuang's hands. If Xie Hengyu was given away at that time, there might be insufficient staff to help organize the day's banquet, and something would go wrong.

Originally, she wanted to send her to Liang Yuwan to take care of her after the palace banquet was over, but now that the empress has commanded an army, Liang Yuwan can't take care of her, so she has to be close to Mrs. Zhao.

"It's just that we can't take this hot potato for nothing." Yun Fenghuang thought for a while, and then said, "Tomorrow, send a message to Duke Yi's mansion."

She never thought of raising a child for Yun Shuangyu before.

But now that he has to be raised, then the child's nominal surrogate, the Duke of Yi, has to pay the child support on behalf of the late Concubine Shu, right?