Chapter 20 First confrontation“Your Majesty!” Emperor Chunjia"s sudden movement surprised the maids who were waiting around him. Nian Xuan was even more scared. She knelt down on the ground and moved forward on her knees to plead, “Your Majesty, Cheng Gui is too young to know everything…”
Emperor Chunjia looked ruthlessly and coldly at Yun Fenghuang grasped by him. This young lady was indeed young, as if there was still a trace of childishness between her beautiful eyebrows and eyes, and her delicate skin in his hands also felt like an underage girl"s. But she was not naive definitely.
Otherwise, she could not have such a calm look—compared to Nian Xuan who was nervous very much, Yun Fenghuang was still so calm.
Even as Emperor Chunjia tightened his fingers, which made her breath become increasingly difficult and her face pale like that of a dead body, she remained calm.
Without a trace of anger, grievance, resentment or hatred, what was happening was like a normal thing but not that her life was endangered.
For her age, her calmness, even if she pretended to be calm, if it were not because her behavior was too ruthless, Emperor Chunjia would like to applaud her!
“Get out of here!” After a moment, he scolded coldly, and maids didn"t dare to say a word, leaving immediately. Nian Xuan, who was still kowtowing to plead, was stopped and dragged out of the gazebo by them.
There were only two people left in the gazebo. Then the Emperor threw Yun Fenghuang who was about to die to the ground, took a handkerchief out of his sleeve, and wiped his fingers carefully. He said lightly, “Cheng Gui, didn"t you say that you want to dance for me by the pool? Why do you sit on the ground?”
Yun Fenghuang caressed her throat and she still felt a little dizzy, but she smiled immediately, “I wanted to jump originally. But I thought a lot, and still didn"t dare to provoke Consort Yue. So, I won"t dance.”
Her voice was hoa.r.s.e. Obviously, her throat was hurt, but it was not the time to care about it.
“Fine. If Consort Yue complains about it, I will protect you.” Emperor Chunjia curled his lips with a trace of coldness in his eyes, stood up and paced back and forth a few times. He felt that the anger in his chest was slightly suppressed, and then he stood still with his hands behind his back, “Just dance.”
If it was just a dance, Yun Fenghuang would not refuse.
However, judging from the att.i.tude of Emperor Chunjia today, it was not so simple.
“Your Majesty,” as she thought, she rubbed her neck, stood up with the support of one of her hands on the ground, and said sweetly, “Yes, Your Majesty!”
Then she adjusted her clothes and danced Lingbo Dance which she only knew.
Emperor Chunjia narrowed his eyes, and looked at her silently. His eyes were cold and sharp. He did not care about Yun Fenghuang"s intentional mistakes during dancing, but after she finished and was about to say something with a smile, he said coldly, “Carry on!”
Yun Fenghuang was speechless.
She felt something bad would happen.
Sure enough, after she finished Lingbo Dance again and was very tired, Emperor Chunjia still scolded at the moment she stopped, “Once again!”
… It seemed that as long as she could still move today, the Emperor would not stop it!
Yun Fenghuang thought quickly. Originally, according to her plan, even if Emperor Chunjia saw through her intentions, he would not punish her for Consort Yue and n.o.ble Consort Shu"s sake. However, she did not expect that her actions made Emperor Chunjia really angry. Even if at the risk of offending Queen Mother Ji, he would punish her in person.
Well, she dared to come because she thought that the Emperor didn"t want the two concubines to be accused of murdering her. But what if the cause of her accident had nothing to do with the two concubines, just an order of the Emperor?
A Puppet Emperor was still an Emperor. It was easy to deal with a low-grade concubine without a force in the Imperial Court to rely on.
At most, Queen Mother Ji would think he was restless… But as long as Emperor Chunjia did not give up the idea of taking over the power, sooner or later, he would confront Queen Mother Ji. No, it should be said that if Emperor Chunjia didn"t want to be a puppet all his life, he would confront Queen Mother Ji very soon.
He couldn"t delay anymore, partly because he was old enough to take the power, and there were no more reasons why he couldn"t be in power, mostly, he got n.o.ble Consort Gui pregnant.
n.o.ble Consort Gui"s uncle, General-in-chief of the Cavalry, Zheng Ju, was the representative of powerful eunuchs. In other words, he became a general in the name of the Emperor"s family slave. They didn"t want Emperor Chunjia to be in charge absolutely. Once the Emperor who didn"t have much affection for them took the power, they had to return to be family slaves.
Impossible!
From the time Emperor Shenzong came to the power with the help of eunuchs, they spent decades from being eunuchs who listened to the orders to the famous “Confidant Councilors” with great power. They did this through three generations of Emperor Shenzong, Emperor Xiaozong and Emperor Chunjia. Maybe one or two of them, still had the intention to dedicate themselves to the royal family. However, most of them were absolutely unwilling to give up their power, high position, and wealth… then return to their original position to serve and send messages carefully.
And they would be bound to force those who were loyal to the royal family to protect their common interests together.
So, now their representative n.o.ble Consort Gui in the Imperial Harem was pregnant. Besides, the Emperor was 23 years old. No matter what excuses the Imperial Court could find, it was difficult to stop a young Emperor who had a reputation for filial piety to take over the power. What should they do?
One method that was easy to think of was to “change the Emperor”!
As long as n.o.ble Consort Gui gave birth to a prince, they would let Emperor Chunjia die… Anyway, Emperor Chunjia"s biological father, Lord Duan of Fuyang County, had died at 30 years old. As his only son, it was not strange that Emperor Chunjia did not live long.
By that time, the young prince would ascend the throne, and the officials would continue to reign, which was logical.
Of course, Queen Mother Ji might not want to see the prince with the blood of the powerful eunuch ascending the throne… But just as there were three Queen Mothers in the Imperial Harem, it could be negotiable. The Emperor"s Empress was still Empress Ji, so, no matter who gave birth to a prince, she was the Queen Mother of Honor, wasn"t she?
There was a consensus that they hoped that the chair at the court would remain empty. There was no need for them to fight until one party won.
So, the situation of Emperor Chunjia was already very delicate, and it could even be said to be dangerous, and then the situation was also intervened by Yun Fenghuang… The Emperor did not throttle her directly just now, which could be considered that he was very self-controlled.
As Yun Fenghuang thought so, she glanced at Emperor Chunjia not far away from her and she winked at him.
Predictably, the Emperor was not gentle as before. He showed a hint of disgust between his eyebrows, and even stood up and walked away—then she stepped on the gazebo"s stool at once by a movement of turning her body and throwing her sleeves, then she stepped on the long bench. Emperor Chunjia who had just walked away shrank his pupils suddenly. He took actions immediately, but still couldn"t stop her. Through the bead curtains, she jumped into the Tai Ye Pool outside the gazebo quickly!
“Cheng Gui!!!” Nian Xuan was originally dragged out by the Emperor"s maids and her mouth was also covered by them. Seeing that it was so quiet in the gazebo, she calmed down. Then maids felt relaxed and released her with warning her some words. However, she saw the scene that Yun Fenghuang jumped into the water. In a moment, Nian Xuan was stunned. Then she rushed to the pool nervously without thinking, and was about to jump into the water to save her!
However, after only two steps, she was caught by someone, and the head of the eunuchs quickly walked outside to ask, “Your Majesty, Cheng Gui Yun fell into the water.”
“…” As the bead curtains was blown by the wind, Emperor Chunjia stood for a long time, and then he said coldly, “Cheng Gui Yun dropped my jade pendant into the water, so, she pleaded with me that she would take it by herself… I agreed!”
The group of maids could see clearly from the outside. Before Yun Fenghuang fell into the water, there was no jade pendant falling into the water. Since the Emperor said that, obviously, he did not allow someone to save her, and even if Yun Fenghuang came out of the water by herself, he would force her to go back to take the so-called jade pendant.
In other words, Cheng Gui Yun might be tormented to death by the Emperor in this Tai Ye Pool today.
The eunuch lowered his head and responded. He turned his head and saw that Nian Xuan who was caught was still screaming. He frowned, “Take her away. Don"t bother His Majesty.”
In fact, even if maids and eunuchs gave the Emperor Chunjia a quiet environment, the Emperor couldn"t calm himself down at this moment. He stood against the lake and pretended to be calm with his hands placed behind his back, but his hands couldn"t help but tremble because he was very angry.
He didn"t intend to kill Yun Fenghuang directly, and he just wanted to let this naughty Cheng Gui dance as much as possible so as to break her legs. Then, she could stay in Xi Xing Building to be a concubine obediently.
After all, although the peace between him and Queen Mother Ji could not maintain for a long time, and as a weak side, he did not want to offend Queen Mother Ji just for Cheng Gui.
Although he didn"t intend to make her die, this Cheng Gui herself asked to die!
Originally, it could be solved just by breaking her legs, but she chose to jump into the water to escape. It reminded Emperor Chunjia immediately that she had pulled Consort Yue"s skirt down in panic when he had met Yun Fenghuang for the first time. Then, in the same way, she had forced Consort Yue to compromise, not only to forgive her for her offence but hide it for her. At that time, he had thought that she had been just a reckless low-grade concubine and had pity on her. Therefore, he had told Consort Yue to forget it.
Unexpectedly, in three days, Yun Fenghuang not only got promotion, but also wanted to frame him?!
When she realized his intention, without begging for mercy, she applied the same trick again directly… Emperor Chunjia sneered. There were two reasons for him to forgive Yun Fenghuang before. One reason was that although Consort Yue had a hot temper, and she was recognized as an innocent person. Another reason was that the Emperor was not a cruel man, so, he did not want to investigate it thoroughly.
But now, he decided not to be kind, but to see what tricks Cheng Gui could play!
Emperor Chunjia looked indifferent. He took advantage of the high position in the gazebo, looked around the entire lake, and ordered maids to watch carefully. Once they found the trace of Yun Fenghuang, they should let her continue to fish for the jade pendant. In short, since she had been ordered by the Emperor, she couldn"t come out of the water unless she found the jade pendant!
So, about three minutes pa.s.sed away, five minutes pa.s.sed away, and eight minutes pa.s.sed away…
Although he was annoyed originally, Emperor Chunjia became more and more nervous with a dark face. After two hours, he took a deep breath and ordered his personal eunuch, “Take some people along the bank…”
Before he finished his words, he stopped, thinking that at this time, it would be meaningless to search along the bank. Yun Fenghuang was so cunning. If she came ash.o.r.e from other places, could she stay there? She had already run away!
As for a situation that Yun Fenghuang did not came ash.o.r.e on purpose but really had an accident and drowned somewhere… Emperor Chunjia did not consider it at all.
His face was dark, and he was silent for a while. Then he waved his sleeves, “Go to Hu Zhu Palace”.
That Cheng Gui had just joined the Imperial Harem and was just a low-grade concubine. It was her ability to escape from his search. But he did not believe that she would not even return to Xi Xing Building!