Little Palace Maid Desires a Higher Seat of Honor - Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Background

Even after returning to Song Ya Pavilion, Yun Si still hadn’t recovered her composure. The hall had been quiet for a long time. Seeing that her mistress hadn’t spoken a word since coming back, Qiu Yuan felt a little puzzled.

“Mistress, what are you thinking about?”

Yun Si knitted her delicate brows slightly, a trace of irritability in her expression.
She said in a low voice, “Feels a bit troublesome.”

Qiu Yuan froze for a moment, not expecting that answer.

Yun Si pressed her lips together, recalling the conversation she had had with Consort Jing in Ganquan Hall half an hour ago.

In the silent hall, Consort Jing lifted her eyes and looked at her with a very complicated expression. Her health was truly poor; just from sitting for a short while, she had already coughed many times. She said softly:

“By relation, you should call me cousin.”

A flash of surprise couldn’t help but appear in Yun Si’s apricot eyes.

Cousin?

Yun Si suddenly came back to herself. She mentally calculated Consort Jing’s age. Because of her frail health, Consort Jing had long been recuperating at her family’s estate.

Later, when His Majesty ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager, feeling pity for this niece, requested a favor from him and had Consort Jing brought into the palace.

Girls came of age at fifteen, and in times when marrying at eighteen was already considered late, Consort Jing, who was the same age as the Empress, had entered the palace after the age of twenty.

Yun Si remembered very clearly that she had been brought into the palace by Eunuch Liu one year after Tan Yuan first ascended the throne. That year, she was fourteen, about to come of age.

In other words, Consort Jing was exactly seven years older than her.

Yun Si was about to say something, but then suddenly remembered something else, when Qiu Baolin had told her that Consort Jing and the Empress had once been close friends, he had also hinted that Consort Jing’s birth mother had died early, and that afterward she had lived under the authority of her stepmother.

Yun Si’s apricot eyes trembled ever so slightly.

She belatedly realized that Consort Jing probably hadn’t lived happily in her family home either. Otherwise, the Empress Dowager wouldn’t have felt so much pity for her as to insist on bringing her into the palace.

Yun Si’s lips slowly pressed more tightly together.

Consort Jing lowered her eyes.
Thinking of the events of her youth, she still felt a little dazed.

She still could not understand, even to this day, how in just one night, everything, every matter and every person, had completely changed beyond recognition.

Back then, the late emperor was still alive. Her maternal grandfather had committed an offense and been arrested. All the men of the three branches of the Wei clan were beheaded, and the women were exiled to the borderlands.

The Wei family had once been at the height of power, and no one had expected they would fall to such a state. Everyone was eager to sever all ties with them as quickly as possible.

The Wei and Gu families were related by marriage, and the Gu family could not escape implication. However, the Gu family happened to have a daughter married into the imperial family, she was even a favored consort of the late emperor at the time, and had borne him a grown prince.

Thus, the Gu family emerged from the crisis completely unscathed.

In Consort Jing’s memory, when she was young, she had actually felt some resistance toward that aunt. In truth, her aunt treated her well, always remembering to set aside the best things for her. It was just that her mother disliked the aunt.

When Consort Jing was young, she did not understand why. Later, once she was old enough to make sense of things, she vaguely guessed the reason.

No woman would like the woman her husband secretly thought of, even if that woman was her own blood relative. Or perhaps, precisely because of that blood tie, the aversion and rejection became all the stronger.

While the Wei family was still standing, her father hid such thoughts well. After all, no matter how muddleheaded he might be, he knew that the Wei family would never marry both of its legitimate daughters to the same man.

But after the Wei family fell, and her mother fell gravely ill, no one had expected that her father would take the opportunity to raise a proposal that people still found unbelievable to this day:

“The women of the Wei clan have no one to protect them and will only be exiled to the borderlands. If I take Ah Ying as a concubine, you sisters could be reunited, and Ah Ying could avoid suffering.”

Consort Jing could still remember her father’s shameless expression at the time, he was even smug, as if his proposal were a perfect, mutually beneficial plan.

That day, the quarrel in the Gu residence lasted the whole night.

Later, her mother’s illness worsened, and within just two short months, she passed away. On her deathbed, her mother clutched her hand, crying and saying over and over.

“I… I don’t know if I did the right thing… if she… if she…”

Her mother never finished the last sentence, and she died without closing her eyes.

But Consort Jing knew that her mother regretted not agreeing to her father’s demand, because, no matter what, that had been her dearly loved younger sister since childhood.

To become a concubine, no matter how much of an insult it might be, was still better than facing an uncertain path of life and death.

It was only much later that Consort Jing understood, after the fall of the Wei family, the Gu residence must have long wished to sever ties with them.

That was why, after her mother fell ill, she went so long without effective treatment, and why her life ended so early. Only after her mother’s death did the people of the capital gradually forget that the Gu family had once been in-laws with the Wei clan.

After her mother passed away, the Gu residence still held immense power, yet Consort Jing could find no place for herself within that vast household.

With the exile of the Wei women imminent, Consort Jing eventually found an opportunity to meet with members of the Wei clan. She met her aunt at the city gate of the capital.

The constables had accepted some silver, giving her a brief moment to speak.

It was the first time Consort Jing had ever seen her aunt in such a wretched state. Her aunt had always been cherished and held in the palms of everyone’s hands, born as beautiful as a lotus emerging from water, the Wei family in power, accustomed to brocade garments and jade ornaments, such luxuries were but commonplace for her.

But that day, her aunt wore a prison robe, her hair disheveled. It had rained that day, and the drops fell upon her, washing clean the dirt that had stained her face. No matter how much this added to her dishevelment, it only made her seem more pitiable.

Upon seeing her, her aunt’s expression immediately changed, and she urged,

“Who told you to come? Go back, quickly!”

Consort Jing remembered that her aunt’s tone that day was a little fierce, it was the first time her aunt had spoken sharply to her. Yet Consort Jing could not help but cry, clutching her aunt’s sleeve and sobbing in a choked voice.

“Aunt… Aunt… Mother is dead… Mother is dead!”

Her aunt froze in place and did not speak for a long time. The rain beat down upon her, and Consort Jing could not clearly see her expression, she only remembered that her aunt seemed to shiver before finally coming back to herself.

“Little one, listen to your aunt, precisely because of this, you must all the more sever ties with the Wei family. What your grandfather did should not implicate you.”

Her voice caught slightly, and after a pause, she continued, “Be good. After you return, never bring up the Wei family again. In the end, you are your father’s blood, even a tiger will not eat its cubs.”

The constables glanced over, as if intending to hurry them along. Her aunt suddenly lowered her voice and said,

“Before you return to the Gu residence, go to the back gate of the Wei residence. I’ve hidden a jade pendant there. In the future, if you find yourself in difficulty, take that jade pendant to the Song residence and seek out their second young master.”

Her aunt paused for a moment before speaking in a low voice.

“He and I grew up together. With something as great as the downfall of the Wei family, he cannot help, but for the sake of our old bond, he will not begrudge offering you some care.”

“If he is unwilling, then go to the Feng residence. Madam Feng was once my closest friend in the boudoir. She is a woman who values affection and loyalty, she will surely help you.”

Her aunt spoke earnestly, arranging every possible retreat for her, afraid she might forget, and kept looking back before leaving.

Clearly, her aunt was the one about to be exiled and suffer hardship, yet she could not stop worrying about her, who remained in the capital.

Perhaps her aunt truly had better judgment of people than her mother did. The two she chose never betrayed her expectations, always showing her much care. It was likely because of this that she had been able to remain safe in the residence all this time.

Madam Feng’s eldest daughter later married into the imperial family and is now the empress.

Perhaps there are still people who remember that she and the empress were once close friends in the boudoir, but who would know that the cause behind all of this was that aunt of hers who had long ago been exiled to the frontier.

Later, she sent people to find her aunt’s whereabouts, but all the news she received was that her aunt had died of illness on the journey. Consort Jing did not believe it, yet she had no choice but to accept it.

Perhaps the sight of her aunt’s departing figure that day had left too deep an impression. The first time she saw Yun Si in the palace, Consort Jing felt dazed. When she saw Yun Si, she almost instantly confirmed that Yun Si was connected to her aunt.

Only then did she send people to investigate Yun Si, and thus uncovered her aunt’s true fate.

She had once been graced by her aunt’s kindness, and she also felt guilty toward her aunt.

Over the years, she had occasionally wondered, if back then she and her mother had not so strongly opposed her father’s suggestion, would her aunt have stayed in the capital?

But then she thought again, how could someone as proud as her aunt have agreed to become a concubine?

After so many years in the Gu residence, her body had long since broken down, worsening day by day. If her aunt had not taken her into the palace, perhaps before long she would have followed in her mother’s footsteps.

Her aunt had still guessed wrong about one thing.

Even a tiger will not eat its cubs, yet Gu Ze was worse than a beast!

She even found it a little laughable, back when the Wei family still stood, at her first meeting with her cousin, she had thought well of him. Her aunt had guessed right, she did harbor some feelings for her cousin.

Later, when she was able to enter the palace, it was of her own willing accord. It was just that, with her frail body, merely staying alive was difficult, let alone serving in bed.

It seemed that the experiences her mother and her aunt once had were about to be reenacted in her and Yun Si.

Only, she was not like her mother, while Yun Si was very much like her aunt.

She would not repeat her mother’s mistakes, whatever Yun Si wanted to obtain, she hoped Yun Si would be able to get her wish.

…

Qiu Yuan looked at her mistress in surprise, a bit puzzled.

“Your servant thinks Consort Jing’s attitude toward you doesn’t seem fake. Does Mistress think Consort Jing is lying to you?”

Yun Si pressed her lips together in irritation.

Call her heartless if you will, call her cold-blooded if you must, she would rather Consort Jing never came to seek her out.

She did not want such a complicated background.

The Wei clan, after their crime, three generations were implicated and exiled?

This identity, could it possibly bring her any benefit in her current situation?

It was true that Consort Jing held the rank of a second-grade consort, but even she had to rely on the empress dowager’s pity to survive in the palace. To put it bluntly, she was merely an empty title, like a guest temporarily lodging in the palace.

In a low voice, she said, “Something like this can be found out easily, she has no need to lie to me.”

After a moment, Yun Shi muttered, “I just think that being entangled with her is not a good thing for me.”

Qiu Yuan’s brows and eyes showed some confusion. “With the empress dowager as her backing, and without the emperor’s favor, wouldn’t an alliance between you and Consort Jing be a good thing for you, Mistress?”

Yun Shi was silent for a long time. She lowered her gaze and said quietly, “But I think what she can bring me is not as important as a bit of pity from the emperor.”

Once Tan Yuanchu knew her connection to Consort Jing, would he still instinctively think she was in a weak position?

When Tan Yuanchu believed she could only rely on him, that was when he felt the most pity for her. That was her own advantage, and Yun Shi did not want that perception of his to be broken.

To put it bluntly, she never needed an alliance.

Qiu Yuan swallowed, with a somewhat hidden worry in her heart. Sometimes, she felt that the mistress was a bit too stubborn in certain aspects.
After a long while, Qiu Yuan asked in a low voice:l,
“What about the proposal of Ladyship Consort Jing? What does the mistress decide to do?”

Yun Si lowered her eyes imperceptibly, her voice very light.
“I’m used to being alone.”