Happy reading~

Chapter 72: n.o.ble Consort Du and the Empress

Once Li Wen left, everyone turned their gazes towards Ning Shu. Ning Shu could sense keenly that their gazes contained envy, jealousy, and a few even contained extreme hate.

Ning Shu looked over and saw a woman dressed in night haze violet silk cloud vestige palace garments. Her expression was haughty and stern, and her eyes contained irrepressible jealousy and loathing.

Ning Shu thought for a moment, then smirked at that woman. She was n.o.ble Consort Du. The resentment between n.o.ble Consort Du and the original host had actually started due to the Empress. In the original host's heart, she had only one sister-in-law and that was the Empress. She always felt contempt towards all the other women.

Meanwhile, the Empress and n.o.ble Consort Du were quite evenly match in power. However, due to the original host, the Empress managed to move into the advantage. That was why n.o.ble Consort Du had never had any good feelings towards Princess Jiahui. The only reason she came to Orchid Garden Palace was because all the other consorts were going and she wouldn't be able to explain herself if she didn't go.

She did this only for Li Wen to see. Li Wen currently loved this younger sister very much. Even if she wanted to make small moves, in front of the Emperor they all still had to act harmonious.

Ning Shu couldn't help but ma.s.sage her forehead, feeling a headache. Speaking of which, the original host was a daughter that had yet to get married. Was it really a good idea to meddle with her older brother's back courtyard affairs? Not only did the original host get involved in palace battles, she also got involved in residence battles. Staying out of everything was the best choice.

The incident in which the original host got married off was also partially due to n.o.ble Consort Du's encouragement.

To put it plainly, the original host was mostly an idiot in regards to human relations.h.i.+ps. A part of it was also due to the fact that she felt it beneath her dignity to try and cultivate relations.h.i.+ps.

The original host couldn't be said to be a bad person - her thoughts were quite pure - but her personality was too arrogant. She was simply too conceited.

"Is n.o.ble Consort Du glaring this way because Imperial Older Brother spoke to this princess but did not speak to you? Is that why you're so conspicuously angry?" Ning Shu spoke bluntly.

>Ning Shu uses 'ben gong' with the consorts, which translates to "I, of the palace." This term is typically used by an empress or high-ranking consort when speaking to a person of lower status. I'm using 'this princess' to avoid using pinyin or that mouthful of 'this one, of the palace.' () I'm also using the royal 'we' for the Emperor, btw if you haven't noticed.

n.o.ble Consort Du: …

n.o.ble Consort Du's expression seemed to freeze. This blockhead seriously said whatever came to mind. In the palace, a person had to pay careful attention to every single sentence since it contained countless curves, hence n.o.ble Consort Du wasn't the only one unused to such straightforward speech, this entire nestful of people weren't used to it.

All of their expressions turned embarra.s.sed and one by one they excused themselves. The words earlier were probably too frank, frank to the point they all felt awkward.

Ning Shu watched as n.o.ble Consort Du left angrily and smiled. There was no way to fix the relations.h.i.+p between them. Since that was the case, it'd be better to just tear off the mask of cordiality so that it would make these people hesitant to make a move.

Ning Shu thought for a while, then decided to go pay a visit to the Empress, this sister-in-law of hers. The original host would usually tell this sister-in-law everything so their relations.h.i.+p still counted as pretty good.

However, how could there be any true friends.h.i.+p in the Inner Palace?

Much less between a person's wife and the person's younger sister?

Ning Shu headed to the Phoenix Waters Palace. When she walked into the palace, she saw the Empress sitting on a serpentine gems-decorated fragrant rosewood couch with a four-section primrose-colored cedar screen that was interwoven with gla.s.s behind her.

>Primrose is a yellow, I didn't know that.

When the Empress saw Ning Shu, she hastily stood up and walked towards Ning Shu. Ning Shu curstied towards her. "My respects, Imperial Sister-in-law."

The Empress hastily stopped Ning Shu. Taking her hand, she revealed a warm smile. "You look wonderful! Jiahui, child, you seriously gave Sister-in-law such a fright. Your Imperial Older Brother even worriedly exhorted for me to look after you."

"Thank you, Imperial Sister-in-law, Jiahui is almost all better," said Ning Shu.

#comment: "night haze violet silk cloud vestige palace garments" If there was a voiceover, I'd have the person reading take a big breath, then p.r.o.nounce all of this in one breath. The reason for these long names is because, most authors of historical chinese novels have two main options: Come up with descriptions for the character's apparel, aka describe what they have in their hair, the layers and colors of clothing they have, bracelets, waist ornaments, and accessories, or just take one of the available style names and insert. In addition, near the end of this chapter I found out that furniture had set names too. *sigh* I've yet to find a translated list.

Happy reading~

Chapter 73: Leave the Imperial Palace?

The Empress spoke a lot of words of concern towards Ning Shu. There was no doubt that she simply wanted to show that she cared a lot about her sister-in-law. Ning Shu also accompanied the Empress in the small talk for a while.

Then, the Empress s.h.i.+fted the topic seamlessly to how much of a struggle it was for her to manage the Inner Palace and, without a trace of unnaturalness, onto the topic of what consort did what.

To put it frankly, the Empress was telling on those consorts to Ning Shu. There was not a single person that didn't fear Li Wen in this Inner Palace. The Empress was urging Ning Shu to complain to Li Wen.

The Empress's words were full of crafty turns but still effectively caused Ning Shu to feel loathing towards those consorts. The original host had ended up becoming the Empress's s.h.i.+eld and errand girl just like this.

Although, she did have to admit that the original host was very suitable for being cannon fodder. The Emperor had also used the original host. However, after he got what he wanted, he did give the original host a n.o.ble status. However, the Empress used the original host without giving anything back.

Ning Shu felt that this palace was also full of danger. Her task was Duan Xinghui and Er Ya so she didn't want to bother with anyone else at all.

Moreover, Ning Shu could see that there was no one in this palace that could help her. It'd already be great if these people simply didn't add more trouble when the matter of marriage was brought up.

Ning Shu was considering leaving the Imperial Palace.

"Jiahui, what are you thinking about?" The Empress saw that though she had spoken a lot, the person she was speaking to seemed absent-minded rather than indignant and itching to rush to the Emperor like she had always done so in the past.

As a woman, there was no way the Empress was willing to share her husband with someone else. However, her current position didn't allow her to be headstrong. She was the mother of the nation. She had to be virtuous, magnanimous, and even had to help the Emperor manage these women well so that the Emperor wouldn't have worries about Inner Palace affairs.

There was no need to mention how much pain the Empress felt looking at these orioles and swallows. For the sake of satisfying the Emperor, she had put out too much. However, the Emperor was still cold and indifferent towards her.

Not only did the Empress hate the women in the Inner Palace, she was also jealous of this princess because Li Wen's att.i.tude towards her was much better. Not even she, this Empress, enjoyed such treatment.

"The person has already pa.s.sed away. Jiahui, you must take care of your health. You're the Emperor's sister, the only princess of Great Yong. There are countless good men out there for you to freely choose from," said the Empress to console Ning Shu.

Ning Shu didn't know if it was her misperception but she actually heard a slight bit of acridness in the Empress's tone.

Ning Shu felt a little tired of this. She glanced at the Empress. In reality, the Empress had pretty good looks. It was just that she had to keep up her majestic presence as the Empress at all times so her manner seemed a little stiff.

The fact that she deliberately tried to put on the airs of an Empress showed that the Empress was very insecure at heart. That was the only reason why she would so strong in order to clearly display her status and power. However, the original host actually felt that only an Empress like this was good enough to be her sister-in-law.

And thus the original host felt enmity towards the consorts of the Inner Palace and felt like her sister-in-law suffered a lot. From Ning Shu's point of view, it was simply the Empress making use of the original host's feelings of sympathy.

Ning Shu acted like the original host and told her troubles to the Empress, "Imperial Sister-in-law, my heart hurts so much. Why did he simply leave just like this?" Ning Shu pressed her handkerchief to the corner of her eye as she glanced to check the Empress's expression.

A trace of delight flashed quickly through the Empress's eyes but on her face she had on an expression as if she was feeling the same hurt as she repeatedly tried to console Ning Shu.

Ning Shu silently made a firm vow, and that was to leave the palace. Aiy, Lord ah, this Inner Palace was full of Li Wen's consorts. If she stayed here, she'd have to keep dealing with these sister-in-laws. It was way too much mental and physical effort.

The consorts either hatred, feared, fawned upon, or tried to drag her, this princess, into things. Due to how much Li Wen doted on the original host, it was inevitable that she was going to be dragged into these Inner Palace women's quarrels.

She didn't have the energy to deal with these women. The matter of the marriage laid, in the end, in Li Wen's hand. Rather than coming here to curry favor with the Empress, it'd be better to just directly focus the efforts on Li Wen. Moreover, the Empress was nowhere as good of a person as she looked. She was simply someone who looked sweet on the outside but was very bitter inside.

Ning Shu dawdled a little longer with the Empress, then used her handkerchief to wipe off her nonexistent tears before heading back to her own palace with Miao Qing and Yuan Dong.