Little Palace Maid Desires a Higher Seat of Honor - Chapter 109

Chapter 109: Different

On the way to the Yangxin Hall, they passed through the Imperial Garden. Not far from the garden was the lotus pond. In the chill of autumn, all the lotus flowers had withered, and the pond no longer held any beauty.

Yun Si saw it.

In that instant, the faint ripples in her heart disappeared completely.

What Tan Yuanchu gave her, whether rank, title, or even the camellias planted especially for her today, he had once given to Qi Guipin, and in the future, he would give them to others as well. She was not the first, nor would she be the last, and certainly not a special one among them.

Yun Si lowered her gaze slightly.

She didn’t have the entourage turn back. Whether or not she was special to him, what did it matter?

In any case, what she wanted was his attentiveness, not his true heart.

The entourage stopped in front of the Yangxin Hall. Supported by Qiu Yuan, Yun Si alighted. She made no show of protectively cradling her belly. The Imperial Physician had said she was just over a month pregnant; her abdomen was still perfectly flat, and being overly concerned would only invite resentment.

When Xu Shunfu saw her, he looked both surprised and unsurprised, and quickly came forward to greet her.

“Your Ladyship, why have you come in person? If there’s anything, you could have sent a palace servant to deliver the message.”

Yun Si lifted her eyes and asked directly, “Is His Majesty busy? Does he have time to see me?”

Xu Shunfu didn’t answer outright, but went inside the Yangxin Hall to report. Before long, he returned with a smile, turned, pushed open the hall doors, and respectfully invited Yun Si inside.

Tan Yuanchu was within. Yun Si was a little surprised, he was not seated at the imperial desk but instead standing partway down the steps. He didn’t have her salute and asked at an unhurried pace.

“What brings you here?”

A faint fragrance drifted through the hall. The lattice windows were open, letting the warm sunlight in, so the room wasn’t cold at all.

Yun Si removed her cloak, her apricot eyes lifting to fall upon Tan Yuanchu. She felt he was deliberately asking a question to which he already knew the answer.

After all, didn’t he know exactly what he had done?

Yun Si blinked once and asked bluntly,

“The camellias along the road from Chu’an Palace to Kunning Palace, were they planted for me, Your Majesty?”

There was no one else in the hall. The stillness was such that it felt as if they could hear each other’s heartbeats, steady and calm. But in her apricot eyes there was both joy and nervousness.

Tan Yuanchu lowered his gaze, studying her for a while, unable to pierce through her disguise.

Yet he had an inexplicable intuition—

She was lying again.

Perhaps she was pleased, but nowhere near as much as she pretended to be.

She was always like this, taking the faintest trace of feeling and amplifying it into something much greater, mixing truth with falsehood so that one could never be sure of her real emotions.

Something felt slightly off to Tan Yuanchu, so he asked, “Other than you, is there anyone else in the palace who likes camellias?”

The woman widened her apricot eyes in anxious displeasure, dissatisfied with his reply.

“How would I know? What if they were planted for someone else? If I let myself think it was for me and it turns out to be nothing, wouldn’t that just leave me with an empty joy?”

The faint furrow between his brows vanished in an instant. Tan Yuanchu lifted his eyes, not letting her slip through a gap in words, and answered her directly,

“They were planted for you.”

His tone was mild. “Other than you, there is no one else.”

Yun Si was momentarily at a loss, thinking he really had the nerve to say that, was that entire pond of lotus flowers just for decoration then?

She muttered under her breath,

“Liar.”

Tan Yuanchu raised an eyebrow slightly, and the next thing he heard was her muffled voice. “If there’s no one else, then what about Qi Guipin?”

The moment the words fell, Tan Yuanchu finally understood where the problem lay.

He thought: when others had something she didn’t, he wanted to give it to her.

But to her, if it was something others had already received, even the greatest joy would be reduced to only a fraction.

Before he could speak, the woman was still muttering softly, “Later on, will there also be orchids, chrysanthemums, apricot blossoms, and osmanthus? A few blooms for each, each with their own display? Years from now, maybe not just the Imperial Garden, but the entire palace will be a grand sight of blossoms in full bloom.”

Tan Yuanchu felt a black line run down his forehead; whatever shadowed emotion he’d had was completely scattered by her remark.

Was “a few blooms for each, each with their own display” really meant to be used in a situation like this?

He reached out and pinched her earlobe, his voice cool and even,

“So in Xiurong’s heart, I’m nothing more than a gardener?”

Yun Si gave a small cough, finding his description surprisingly accurate, and for a moment her gaze shifted evasively in guilt.

His tone carried a hint of danger, though it didn’t sound like true anger. Yun Si glanced at him sidelong and mumbled, “…You can’t blame me.”

These ridiculous things were all his doing, how could he fault her for letting her imagination run?

Tan Yuanchu said irritably, “Enough. Be quiet.”

She wasn’t overly happy, nor was she very upset, and she even had the mood to banter with him.

He couldn’t quite explain what he was angry about. Even though he’d always been well aware that, in her heart, she was rather indifferent toward him, nowhere near as invested as her words sometimes claimed, there were still moments when he felt a suffocating tightness in his chest.

A stifling, unspeakable frustration. Tan Yuanchu’s gaze darkened, and following his impulse, he pulled the woman closer, his hand finding the back of her neck with unerring precision.

His palm pressed firmly, the meaning clear without words. Yun Si involuntarily tilted her head back, her lips almost brushing his, their mingled breaths growing hotter and hotter.

Yun Si was a little dazed, unsure how things had even progressed to this point.

But in the warmth of their interlaced breaths, her own grew tight. Her apricot eyes trembled slightly before she obediently closed them.

Tan Yuanchu lowered his gaze to look at her.

When she kissed, she was very obedient. In bed, she was obedient as well, her emotions flowed from within to without. When it hurt, she would bite him; when she was pleased, she would hum softly; when he ground her to the edge, she would cling to him and cry.

Not like her usual self, when whether she smiled or grew angry, one could never quite tell if it was real or not.

It had been some time since they had been this intimate.

After returning to the palace, he had been busy with matters of the imperial court, rarely entering the inner palace. On the day they were closest, only she had found release.

Yun Si’s legs were a little weak, her whole body half-collapsing into his arms. She didn’t quite understand, he seemed to be carrying some kind of emotion, grinding against her lips until they ached and her tongue felt sore, making her let out a soft hum without meaning to.

Sensing it, he released her.

His voice, after the kiss, was low and hoarse.

“Uncomfortable?” He held her close, his burning palm pressed against her lower abdomen. His eyes grew darker and deeper, and for a brief moment, he couldn’t even say whether her pregnancy was truly a good thing.

Yun Si sensed something, her apricot eyes widening.
She swallowed hard, biting out, “…No.”

Tan Yuanchu was silent for a moment.

In her eyes, just what kind of man did she take him for?

His tone deepened, as if to emphasize something. “I wasn’t going to do anything.”

Yun Si nodded, her expression full of hesitation.

Tan Yuanchu was momentarily speechless, he knew she didn’t believe him at all, and he couldn’t help feeling a bit stifled inside.

Even after Yun Si left, that tightness in his chest still hadn’t eased.

Xu Shunfu entered with tea. Seeing the coldness on his face, he was a little surprised.

“What has happened to Your Majesty?”

Xu Shunfu knew about His Majesty planting the camellias for Xi Xiurong. In his mind, she had come to express gratitude. By all reason, the atmosphere in the hall should have been tender and affectionate, which was why Xu Shunfu had kept the palace staff outside, not daring to intrude.

The Yangxin Hall was quiet for a moment before Tan Yuanchu’s understated voice sounded,

“She mentioned Qi Guipin.”

The words were cool and distant, seemingly without emotion.

Yet they made Xu Shunfu fall silent at once.

He had served by the Emperor’s side for long enough to see clearly, His Majesty was becoming less and less restrained, and it was plain to him where His Majesty’s heart lay when it came to Xi Xiurong.

It just had to be Qi Guipin.

With her standing in the way, what the Emperor had done today could easily backfire.

Xu Shunfu felt a headache coming on and offered a suggestion. “If not… this servant could have someone pull out all the lotus flowers in the lotus pond?”

But even before the words had fully fallen, Xu Shunfu dismissed the idea himself.

Inwardly, he grumbled, lotus flowers would be planted in the lotus pond whether or not Qi Guipin existed. What else would they plant there? Duckweed?

Tan Yuanchu cast him a glance, thinking that he and Yun Si might get along very well.

Would Yun Si think that pulling out the lotus flowers in the pond was a pointless gesture?

She would only find it pleasing to the eye.

After all, anything that could vex Qi Guipin was something she took great delight in.

It was true that he had once granted Qi Guipin her title, and true that he had planted a pond of lotus flowers for her. The past could not be changed. The only thing he could do now was make sure these things were no longer unique.

If she was not special, then the word “special” would have no place in this palace at all.

—

On the way back to her palace, Yun Si once again saw that pond of lotus flowers, but now her mood was already settled. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she seemed lost in thought.

Qiu Yuan noticed her lift the bead curtain, and following her gaze, couldn’t help but be taken aback.

She truly couldn’t say whether Her Ladyship being this clear-headed was a good thing or not.

Perhaps being a bit muddled made it easier to be happy.

While Qiu Yuan was feeling a pang of melancholy, she suddenly heard Her Ladyship ask,

“Tell me, if I said to His Majesty that I actually like daffodils flowers, do you think he’d have that pond of lotus flowers destroyed?”

Qiu Yuan snapped back to herself, staring at Her Ladyship’s bright apricot eyes, and fell into silence. She suddenly felt that her earlier melancholy had been a bit of a waste of emotion. She couldn’t help asking,

“If His Majesty really did as you say, wouldn’t you worry that this scene would just happen again in the future?”

Yun Si arched a brow and looked up slightly.

“And if I do nothing, does that mean it won’t happen again?”

She couldn’t control what Tan Yuanchu might do in the future, so she might as well make herself comfortable now while he still favored her.

Who knew what the future would bring?

She wasn’t about to trouble herself needlessly.

Seeing the clarity in her eyes, Qiu Yuan said nothing more, only stated honestly, “This servant thinks His Majesty wouldn’t believe it.”

Whether he believed it or not was one thing, whether he would go along with Her Ladyship was another.

Yun Si’s spirits fell slightly.

“Forget it.”

Being ruthless was one thing, but being foolish was unacceptable.

Still, she felt it was a bit of a pity. Qi Guipin was hiding away in Changchun Palace, even requesting leave from morning greetings, so she couldn’t deal with her for now.

If she could have destroyed that pond of lotus flowers, she could well imagine the look on Qi Guipin’s face.

Yun Si had never intended to let Qi Guipin off so easily. Even if the latter no longer enjoyed her former glory, in Yun Si’s eyes, that was far from enough.

Besides, Qi Guipin’s demotion was the result of losing to Consort De.

What did that have to do with her?

What Qi Guipin owed her, she had yet to repay in full.

Tan Yuanchu’s actions could not be hidden from the palace’s concubines, and naturally Qi Guipin had received the news. She stood frozen in place, unable to come back to herself for a long time.

Tong Yun glanced at her, unable to conceal her worry.

After a long while, Qi Guipin couldn’t help a self-deprecating laugh, her body trembling slightly.

“Must he treat me this way?”

Tong Yun supported her. “Mistress, why trouble yourself over such things? She is only basking in her moment of pride.”

Had her mistress not once enjoyed such honors? In the end, she had only had to watch helplessly as it all replayed in someone else’s life.

Who could say that her mistress’s present fate wouldn’t one day be Yun Si’s future?

Qi Guipin closed her eyes in defeat.

“You don’t understand.”

No one understood why she singled out Yun Si, Tong Yun didn’t understand either.

Only she herself knew, it was different.

She loved the Emperor, which made her all the more aware that the way he looked at Yun Si was not the same as the way he looked at her.