The Job Of An Imperial Concubine

80

After Zhuang Laoyan had accompanied the emperor for a meal and sent him off, she reclined on a chaise lounge and had a palace maid massage her legs.　　

Zhuang Laoyan yawned. Then she took her time saying, “Yunxi, let the Luyi who’s kneeling outside come in.”　　

Luyi had kneeled for approximately four hours. So she somewhat shook as she walked. But the moment she caught sight of the reclining Zhuang Laoyan, her legs shook even more. She knelt with a bang in front of her. “Begging Your Highness for forgiveness.”　　

“When this palace was still at Taoyu Pavilion, this palace had another personal first-ranked palace maid named Luyi. Do you know where she is right now?” Zhuang Laoyan slowly opened her eyes. Looked at the pretty Luyi. “You were sent to us when this palace moved to Xihe Palace. Therefore, this palace personally conferred you this name. Who would have imagined that after you took this name, you would have unclean thoughts just like your predecessor.”　　　　

“Your Highness, this slave doesn’t dare!” Luyi paled. She naturally knew there used to be another palace maid named Luyi by her master’s side. Later on, that palace maid was sent toShangyi Bureau for some reason. Through the grapevine, that previous Luyi went through much suffering these days. Now that her master had said these words, was it pointing to the fact that she was even worse than the last Luyi?　　

“What don’t you dare?” Tingzhu snorted coldly. “When His Majesty and Her Highness were having a conversation, who were you showing off your good looks to?! And you even specially carried that pine bonsai tree?!”　　　　

Tingzhu went forward. Grabbed some of the soil in the pot. She had only dug lightly, and already found the old tea leaves that had been buried underneath the soil. “I actually didn’t know. Just pouring a little bit of water and one could smell the tea leaves. You truly have good methods.”　　

“What do you mean, Miss Tingzhu? I don’t understand.” Luyi looked at her with a face full of grievances, as if she had no idea what Tingzhu meant.　　 

 “You helped Zhaorong Xu’s people craft those ropes of grass in the pond. Do you understand? You helped place the female corpse in the lotus pond. Do you understand? And you secretly harmed Master, intentionally leaving behind a hairpin from a palace maid of Jingyang Palace. So do you understand now?” Yunxi pulled out a hairpin from her sleeve. A few days ago, the empress had rewarded her servants with this same hairpin. 　　　　

Seeing Luyi’s expression become so unsightly, Yunxi smiled as she played with it. “Perhaps you’ve been wondering these past few days where the hairpin you left at the pond went. You should know now, right?”　　

Luyi bit her lips, staring at Yunxi hatefully. “If Yunxi Gugu wants to place all the blame regarding these things onto this slave, then there’s nothing this slave can say. After all, Yunxi Gugu is someone capable that has followed many different masters.”　　　　　

 “I’ve only followed two masters, and I am very loyal to my current one. It’s better than someone like you, who follows a master on the surface, but has a different master in your heart.” Yunxi placed the hairpin onto a tray. An insincere smile spread across her lips. “Don’t talk back. If it wasn’t for the fact that we purposely buried the old tea leaves under the soil of the pine bonsai tree, one would fear you wouldn’t have jumped out so urgently.”

Luyi’s face went completely white. She truly never imagined that the secret she discovered had actually been planted by Xianrong Zhao. Recently, Xianrong Zhao suffered an injury. Even if the emperor came to visit often, he wouldn’t be able to do much of anything together. Even if someone wanted to borrow this aspect to climb up the dragon bed, no one would blame Xianrong Zhao.