Chapter 553 - Consort Zhao Defended Herself in the Qianqing Palace (2/2)

Consort Zhao knew that her cries had taken effect, so she continued weeping.

She still had not figured out what was going on. The maid named Ming Xia was naturally brought in by her man. She originally planned to ask the palace maid called Fei Huan to pour watermelon juice onto Mo Xuetong’s clothes. Then Ling Rui’er would definitely push the blame onto her and get her to kneel down and beg for forgiveness.

No matter if Mo Xuetong had punished her or not, the maid had to die. After the eunuch who was dead now and Ming Xia killed her, Ming Xia would take the fall for the crime. The whole thing would be bent—the maid made the watermelon juice spill on Mo Xuetong’s clothes, and thus Mo Xuetong tried to get back at her and killed her.

Ming Xia’s appearance attracted everyone’s attention to King Xuan’s Manor. The two maids from Lian’s Manor had long wanted to go to King Xuan’s Manor. Then, the series of events that happened in Lian’s Manor might have been caused by King Xuan or Consort Xuan. They were also here to exact revenge on He Yufen for harming Mo Xuetong. And Lian An had only been implicated.

If everyone’s attention was drawn here, the Emperor would definitely regain Lian An’s position. And if Mo Xuetong killed people one after another and caused trouble, she would definitely be punished by the Emperor.

But who would have thought that things would change one after another? Right now, Consort Zhao didn’t care about Lian An anymore. She only wanted to extricate herself from this matter. Moreover, if she said more about Lian An, it would inevitably arouse the suspicion of the Emperor. She had just s.h.i.+fted the blame on Consort Xian that Lian An’s maidservants looked like her.

What she meant was that Lian An had a relations.h.i.+p with the He family and so he must have seen Consort Xian before. Maybe he had been in love with Consort Xian for a long time. Therefore, he chose the maidservants looking like Consort Xian in his manor.

“I remember that the eunuch whose face had been cut was from your palace, right?” Even though her words made sense, Emperor Zongwen could not stop being angry and rebuked her harshly.

“That eunuch seems to be from my palace. I was brought here by Your Majesty’s people before I could see him clearly. I thought about it just now. If anyone wanted to harm me, they would definitely use the servant of my palace. Just like Her Majesty, the maid of her palace was also used by others. Even Her Majesty who has a high status was schemed against by someone, not to mention me, who had been living alone in the Mingyue Palace for more than 10 years.”

Consort Zhao had heard someone reported that something had happened to the Empress. It was said that it was the lead palace maid of the Empress, which made her words more convincing. Therefore, she didn’t argue that the eunuch was not from her palace. It was easy to find out whether he was actually from her palace or not with just a check.

At this time, the way she defended for the Empress was, in fact, just proving for herself. The maid of Lian’s Manor had come to the palace in a dubious way. There was also a man who had appeared unclearly in the Empress’ matter. Then her words sounded much more credible.

Emperor Zongwen had already started to believe what she claimed, but the Empress might be the real culprit behind the incident. It was not a secret that the Empress had been wanting King Yan to ascend the throne. So it was possible that she would frame her niece. As for Consort Zhao, she was King Xuan’s aunt, and she would suffer if King Xuan was in trouble. As such, she might not have something to do with the incident.

However, what did Lian An mean? Could it be that he had really chosen the maids who looked like Consort Xian because he had seen her? Emperor Zongwen felt as uncomfortable as if he had swallowed a fly when he thought of that. Consort Xian was his favorite woman. How could he allow his subject to have maids who looked like the one he loved?

It seemed that the Emperor could not keep Lian An beside him anymore.

“From now on, watch out the people around you. If something like this happens again, I can’t protect you either. Besides, Old Eight would deal with the affairs in his manor by himself, so don’t send people to his house for no reason. Are your nieces of the He family closer to him than you are? I’m not allowed to hear the news that a girl of the He family is going to marry into the royal family.”

Emperor Zongwen began to calm down.

“Yes, got it. I only care about King Xuan. After all, he is the only child of elder sister. Since the He family had tried to plot against Consort Xuan, I had never treated them as relatives. Elder sister and I had done good for the He family, but the He family had done something so shameless. In the future, even if I don’t have relatives of the parents’ home, I don’t want these vicious people.”

Consort Zhao was good at playing the trick of sobbing. First, she mentioned that she and Consort Xian were one; then, she said that she would rather abandon her family to protect Feng Yuran. All of this was for Feng Yuran. No matter how cold and hard one’s heart was, it would become soft. Furthermore, Emperor Zongwen had been missing Consort Xian for so many years.

However, as the Emperor, Emperor Zongwen was more suspicious than others. Moreover, the person in front of him was not the genuine Consort Xian. Even though Consort Zhao’s words were reasonable, there was still a trace of clarity in his eyes. His expression was dark. “Alright, off you go. You should stay in the Mingyue Palace and not come out.”

Was she going to be grounded in the Mingyue Palace again? Consort Zhao felt a chill in her heart, but she dared not to say anything more. She kowtowed respectfully and supported by a palace maid to leave with sorrow.

When they had just arrived at the door, a eunuch ran over and pa.s.sed by her. He knelt down in the palace and reported, “Your Majesty, Imperial n.o.ble Consort Wen asks to see you!”

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