Who Would Understand, Her Ladyship Wrote A Hundred Palace Regulations - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: She Just Wants to Live a Peaceful Life

Tang Miaoling returned to her newly relocated palace and poured herself several cups of hot tea to calm her nerves.

When she went to deliver medicine today, she didn’t expect to encounter Li Jieyu…

This didn’t happen in her past life.

Oh, right, in her past life, she lived in Yonghe Palace, and Li Jieyu didn’t live there.

It seemed that…

Many things were gradually becoming different from her past life. This was a good thing!

Everything was changing, and her outcome would definitely be different too.

Based on her recent performance, her cousin shouldn’t kill her like she did in her past life.

Thinking of this, Tang Miaoling hummed a happy tune.

“You seem particularly happy today, Mistress,” Qiu Xia said as she served tea.

“Of course…” Tang Miaoling had made a big show of sisterly love in front of her cousin, and if everything went as planned, she should have succeeded in prolonging her life.

“The servant is also happy for you. Today, Your Majesty finally noticed you. You’re more skilled than the others, Mistress. Instead of competing with Ning Meiren for favor and offending her, it’s better to use Ning Meiren’s influence to see the emperor more often. Many concubines can’t even get an audience with the emperor, but you’re clever, Mistress. This servant didn’t think things through properly earlier,” Qiu Xia said, looking at Tang Miaoling with admiration.

Tang Miaoling’s tune stopped abruptly, and her happy expression froze. “What did you say? I don’t want to compete for favor with my cousin.”

“It’s not about competing for favor… If you’re favored, you can also help Ning Meiren, and she won’t blame you,” Qiu Xia tried to explain in simple terms.
If sisters were united, they would be natural allies, bound by family ties.

It was better to share the emperor’s favor with someone you trusted than with someone who might turn against you.

In the unpredictable palace, if you lost favor and had an ally who was still in favor, your situation would be better than being alone, and you might even have a chance to regain favor.

Petty squabbles were nothing compared to life and power.

Therefore, alliances between concubines were common in the palace.

Of course, some concubines loved the emperor more than their lives and couldn’t tolerate anyone else.

“I don’t want to serve the emperor in his chambers!” Tang Miaoling felt that her life, which she had barely managed to save, was now in danger again.

No matter how you looked at it, it was still about competing with her cousin for a man.

Offending her cousin meant certain death.

She didn’t want to serve the emperor in his chambers.

She just wanted to live a peaceful life.

“I know… Bring me some cold water! I want to pretend to be sick, so my jade token can be taken down,” Tang Miaoling thought quickly.

“Mistress, this is a rare opportunity. Why don’t you want to seize it…” Qiu Xia was perplexed.

Tang Miaoling thought of the brilliant idea of pretending to be sick and felt like she could live again.
She exclaimed excitedly, “I’ve finally seen the light! The palace is full of ruthless people, and if I were to gain favor, I wouldn’t live more than three days. Rather than being framed and bullied, I’d rather hide in the palace and live a leisurely life.”

“Quickly go get some cold water! I want to be sick!” she ordered.

People who hadn’t died wouldn’t understand her feelings.

Nothing was more important than preserving her life.

The night was already very late, but the lights were still on in Jingxi Palace.

Consort Shu carefully checked the accounts for the selection of maidens this year and rubbed her sore eyes.

“Your Ladyship!” The head palace maid, Zhen Zhu, walked in quickly and lowered her voice.
“The emperor just went to Yonghe Palace…”

Shu Fei shook her head after hearing about the commotion. “The emperor is particularly fond of Ning Meiren. That Li Guiren is useless and can’t even compete with Ning Meiren for favor. She’s been kicked out of Yonghe Palace.”

“Today, the emperor almost promoted Ning Meiren’s rank again. I’m afraid she’s going to be the second Consort Zhuang…” Zhenzhu reminded.

Shu Fei snorted. “Consort Zhuang couldn’t have children, so she wasn’t a threat.”

Consort Zhuang had been injured while saving the emperor and couldn’t have children due to the injury.

The emperor had given her a daughter to raise, but Consort Zhuang didn’t care about the child.

In Consort Shu’s opinion, Consort Zhuang was a fool.

The princess was an important bargaining chip for gaining favor.

“Ning Meiren is much smarter than Consort Zhuang. If she has children in the future, she might become a force to be reckoned with,” Consort Shu thought.

But to get rid of Ning Wanyin, she needed a foolproof plan.

Petty tricks wouldn’t work.

Consort Shu lowered her eyes and thought carefully, then looked at Zhen Zhu. “Invite Li Guiren to come here. She’s been kicked out of Yonghe Palace, and I want to give her a new palace. Let’s see if she has a preference.”

Consort Shu was known for being kind and considerate to the concubines, which earned her a good reputation in the palace.

“Yes!” Zhen Zhu left to carry out the order.

The next morning, the news of what happened in Yonghe Palace last night spread throughout the palace.

Although people didn’t quite understand the emperor’s unpredictability, it wasn’t surprising, given his reputation.

The only thing that was certain was that Ning Wanyin was still in favor.

Li Guiren had been demoted, but she had defended Xue Zhaoyi and gained her appreciation. She became Xue Zhaoyi’s follower.

After three to five days, Ning Wanyin’s leg injury had healed.
It was just a superficial wound.

In the latter half of the month, the emperor started to favor some new concubines who had recently entered the palace. Tang Miaoling was not among them, as she had pretended to be sick and her jade pendant had been taken down.

“Mistress, please have some porridge,” Lian Rui brought in a bowl of sweet bean porridge that she had made in the small kitchen.

It was April 1st, and Ning Wanyin had to pay her respects to the Empress Dowager, so she had breakfast early to have the energy to deal with her.

The Imperial Kitchen hadn’t started serving breakfast yet, but fortunately, they had a small kitchen, and Lian Rui had cooked the porridge in the middle of the night.

Ning Wanyin picked up her spoon and was about to drink the porridge when she noticed a faint unusual scent.

She was very cautious about food and had some knowledge of medicine, so it was unlikely that she would be poisoned easily.

The scent was very subtle, and she couldn’t quite identify it.

Moreover, the scent seemed to be fading away as time passed…

This suggested that the source of the scent was not in the porridge itself but might have been transferred when it was served.

There were many palace servants attending to her in Lingxue Pavilion, so Ning Wanyin didn’t react impulsively. Instead, she seemed lost in thought and said, “Since the emperor awarded me the small kitchen, I haven’t had a chance to cook for him personally because I’m not good at cooking. But looking at this sweet bean porridge, I suddenly remembered the sweet bean and red date soup I loved when I was young. It’s one of the few sweet soups I can make myself.”

“Lian Rui, let’s go to the small kitchen. I want to make a sweet soup for the emperor. This soup requires soaking a batch of plump and full honey beans for half a day. Let’s soak them now, and we can cook the soup tonight,” Ning Wanyin said as she stood up.

Lian Rui followed her, looking a bit confused.

One of the palace servants, Xiao Guizi, reminded her, “Mistress, you have to pay your respects to the Empress Dowager today. Can’t you make the sweet soup another day? You don’t want to be late and get punished by the Empress Dowager.”

“Don’t worry, we have plenty of time. Besides, it’s for the emperor, so I’m sure the Empress Dowager won’t mind,” Ning Wanyin said, hinting at something.

Xiao Guizi, an experienced palace servant, understood immediately. If the Empress Dowager tried to keep Ning Wanyin from going to pay her respects, like she did with Song Meiren, Ning Wanyin could use the excuse of making soup for the emperor to get out of it. If the Empress Dowager punished Ning Wanyin, she could still deliver the soup to the emperor in the evening and gain his sympathy.

It was clever of Ning Wanyin to choose to make soup on the day she had to pay her respects to the Empress Dowager.

She was indeed the most favored concubine among the new ones.