Chapter 524: Late Night Confession 5
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At dawn, Jiang Yeqian finally raised his head to look at the Qinglong River. The water surface was calm and placid.
He whispered quietly as if talking to himself, “I’m not ugly. Is my confession really so suspicious?”
Zhao Xin, who had been standing behind Jiang Yeqian till his legs were slightly numb, suddenly came back to his senses. “Your Excellency, did you confess to Lady Qi?”
Jiang Yeqian replied in a faint tone, “Yes, but I was cussed out and called worthless. She even suspected that I only confessed because it was advantageous to me.”
Zhao Xin tried to sort through the information quickly. Then, he said in a low voice, “This sounds normal.”
“Normal?” Jiang Yeqian suddenly looked back at Zhao Xin.
Zhao Xin said with great earnestness, “Your Excellency, if you looked at this from Lady Qi’s perspective, would you fancy a woman if she were just a little girl from the countryside?”
Jiang Yeqian, “…”
Something seemed to have gotten stuck in his throat; he was unable to utter a single word.
Zhao Xin continued, “Although the young grand master is not here now, it is very likely that he has only gone away for a short while.”
Jiang Yeqian did not understand. “Why did you bring him up?”
Zhao Xin was surprised that his master did not seem to have thought about this.
“If this servant was in Lady Qi’s shoes, I would also feel that your confession was just for the sake of ascending to grand masters.h.i.+p with Si Jin’s aid by asking for pointers from him…”
Jiang Yeqian, “…”
He really had not thought this far.
He only naively wanted to clear out the misunderstanding at the imperial palace, which was why he confessed…
…
Meanwhile,
Imperial Palace.
The little empress had not been able to sleep the entire night. She repeatedly sat up, waiting for the sky to brighten even before dawn. Unable to wait any longer, she got up and dressed herself without summoning her maids, then walked out of the bedroom barefoot. Apart from Little Lizi, the little empress was usually served by the maid Zhenqin at night.
Zhenqin did not expect her Majesty to come out by herself. She hurriedly called for the other palace maids to come forward and wait on the little empress as she washed up. She said,
“Your Majesty, you are up too early today. It’s not even dawn yet.”
“We couldn’t sleep.” After was.h.i.+ng up, the little empress dressed herself again and took a seat in the outer hall. She asked Zhenqin to prepare her a cup of tea. After the teacup was in her hand, she muttered to herself, “We think there is something wrong.”
Zhenqin stood beside her, waiting without saying a word.
The little empress suddenly said, “The State Preceptor said yesterday that he liked Qi Qingyao”
“…” Zhenqin knew about this matter, but she did not know how to respond to the empress. In her eyes, the State Preceptor was very cruel and shrewd; he could not possibly fancy a rural girl for no reason. There was definitely something to it.
The little empress continued, “That little lady is a widow with three children.”
“…”
Zhenqin nodded slightly.
She had heard this from the empress before.
The little empress turned her head and asked Zhenqin, “Say, what do you think the State Preceptor is thinking?”
Zhenqin did not dare answer the question, so she only said, “This servant would not presume to speculate what the State Preceptor is thinking.”
The little empress sighed and said in a disappointed tone, “Li Ruoxuan is not just the State Preceptor of Northern Liang, but he is also now one of the three grand masters of the nation.”
“Your Majesty, this is a good thing.” Zhenqin did not understand why the empress looked so downcast.
The little empress narrowed her eyes, her expression somber. “It’s not a good thing at all if he likes Qi Qingyao.”
Zhenqin swallowed slightly. She nervously tried asking again, “Y-Your Majesty…I don’t understand. If you like the Head Grand Secretariat, isn’t it a good thing that the State Preceptor has helped you solve this problem? Why would it be bad?”
She observed the empress’s expression after that, for fear of saying something she should not have.
The little empress did not respond. Instead, her tone became even more serious.
“Li Ruoxuan likes her and that Si Jin may only listen to her orders. If it reaches a time that she can command two grand masters, would we—the empress—even matter anymore?
“Not to mention that Si Jin can kill Shang Li on his own. Even if he somehow can’t, will Shang Li even agree to go up against the two grand masters who have joined forces when the time comes?
“If she were to rebel, it would only be too easy for her.”
With these short sentences,
Zhenqin was left stupefied.
She wanted to blurt out that even though the little lady from the countryside indeed had some skill, there was…no way she would decide to rebel! Little Lizi was about to say something as well, but refrained from saying a word after some contemplation. For a child of heaven, how could the empress possibly allow others to interfere with her business?
“If the two grand masters end up favoring this little lady, it would be a very dangerous thing. Even so, we can’t kill them.”
The little empress was even more wistful. She asked, “Zhenqin, what do you think we should do?”
In reality, the little empress did not really expect to get any valuable advice from the palace maids.
Zhenqin thought for a moment and said, “This servant thinks the problem is fairly simple.”
The little empress said offhandedly, “Let us hear it.”
Zhenqin carefully said, “If Your Majesty is worried about Qi Qingyao uniting the State Preceptor and the young grand master, just marry Qi Qingyao off to someone else.”
The little empress was slightly taken aback. She patted her thigh. She thought the idea was pretty good. “When the time comes, Li Ruoxuan would have to give up on her, and who’s to say the young grand master would not relinquish her too. It would be killing two birds with one stone.”
“Exactly, Your Majesty.” Zhenqin stared wide-eyed and nodded seriously.
However, to whom would she be married to?
This was a problem.
The little empress pondered for a moment and asked Zhenqin to bring her the intelligence report on Qi Qingyao.
After looking through it for a moment,
The little empress asked Zhenqin to prepare a brush, an inkstone, and paper. She prepared to draw up an edict.
Dawn arrived.
Two edicts were sent to the Lu family and the State Preceptor’s residence respectively.
One of them was for Qi Qingyao.
The other was for Lu Yan.