As expected, the eldest lady left the palace with a faint scowl on her face, as if she had parted company with the imperial concubine on bad terms.
It was quiet in Huayang Palace.
After Concubine An Gui served the Queen Mother and went to the palace to recuperate, she was the only master in the entire Huayang Palace, and she was not a person who liked liveliness. The palace servants who served her all day long were careful and did not dare to make any noise.
As a result, Huayang Palace became even quieter.
Su Hua hurriedly entered the hall and saw her master sitting in front of the window reading a book. She walked over and said, "Master."
Zhao Ling'e didn't even raise her head, her eyes still fell on the book, and she said: "How?"
“The message has been sent out, but there has been no reply so far,” Su Hua said.
Zhao Ling'e frowned slightly, "Are you sure you sent it out?"
Su Hua nodded, "I asked a fellow villager to help me. He came back and told me that he was sent out, and he was a guard on duty. The guard is from the same hometown as him, so there can be no mistake."
Zhao Ling'e felt a little irritated this time, "If that's the case, why didn't you reply?"
She had already heard about the incident in Huizhou, and felt very uneasy. She vaguely felt that the matter might have something to do with the Zhao family, but she was not sure, so she wrote to inquire.
But there was no reply, which gradually made her uneasy.
Thinking of this, Zhao Ling'e stood up suddenly, which shocked Su Hua.
Zhao Ling'e looked at her and said, "If you don't have it, then you won't have it. Thank you for your hard work. You can use some money to reward your fellow villagers."
“Master, you forgot, the thank you gift has already been given.” Su Hua reminded.
With no money and only the friendship of fellow villagers, who can help me like this?
Zhao Ling'e really forgot about it, and then waved her hand, "I understand, you can go down and have a rest."
Su Hua responded, turned around and left.
After Su Hua left, Zhao Ling'e showed some real emotions and walked around the hall with a dark face.
She has limited information here. She only knows that Ding Xian defected from the pirates and Huizhou was in chaos.
But she knew that Ding Xian was a tough guy. The Zhao family had contacted him several times but failed to get any benefit. How could such a person easily collude with the pirates and defect?
Besides, if he really did this, he couldn't leave his wife and children behind.
She has already found out that Mrs. Qin Guogong asked to see the imperial concubine a few days ago. Mrs. Qin Guogong is Mrs. Ding's sister-in-law. She usually does not enter the palace very often. If she comes to see the imperial concubine at this time, there must be something big.
She believed it was related to the Huizhou incident, but the only thing she was not sure about now was whether the students who besieged the Governor's Mansion had anything to do with the Zhao family.
Whether there is a relationship or not, given the bad relationship between her and the imperial concubine, even the imperial concubine will doubt the Zhao family.
She just wanted to remind her family to be wary of some noble concubines.
What was even more unexpected was that the emperor actually sent Song Weiran south. Song Weiran had caused a lot of trouble to the Zhao family.
Thinking of this, how could Zhao Ling'e sit still? She just hoped that this matter had nothing to do with the Zhao family.
If there is a relationship, we must clear the tail and not be caught by others.
The only thing she couldn't think of was who could betray Ding Xian and steal the token.
She doesn’t think the Zhao family can do this. If they could, they would have captured Ding Xian long ago. Lingfeng and Huizhou are closely linked to each other. The Zhao family seems very prosperous to others, but there are more and more children in the family, and the corresponding expenses are also increasing.
Although the side branches have been gradually branched out in recent decades, the number of direct branches is also large and they need money for food, clothing, housing and transportation. In order to make money, the Zhao family started a maritime business.
This matter has always been kept secret. Maritime business has great returns but extremely high risks. Sometimes if there is a storm, it is easy to get into trouble, and people and money will be lost.
The Zhao family has had a hard time these past two years because something happened before, causing a shipwreck and huge loss of lives.
The reason why I want to join forces with Ding Xian is that I hope Ding Xian's people can help when patrolling the sea. The imperial fleet is always more powerful than the private ships.
Unfortunately, Ding Xian was unwilling.
Before Zhao Ling'e entered the palace, the Zhao family had friction with Ding Xian, but fortunately the matter passed without incident.
This time, such a big thing happened again. Zhao Ling'e had learned from the past and was naturally afraid that the Zhao family would take action. This would be a serious crime that would implicate the nine clans.
Now that she has no information and no news from her family, she is like an ant on a hot pot, and how can she feel at ease?
Now that she got the news that Mrs. Song and the imperial concubine broke up on bad terms, she vaguely felt that the Song family themselves might have different opinions.
The imperial concubine has a good relationship with the Duke of Qin, so she may want to help, but Ding Xian's crime is too big, and the Song family definitely doesn't want to be involved.
There is also Song Fanran who went south to investigate the case. The Song family will definitely be on his side.
Zhao Ling'e breathed a sigh of relief, as long as the Song family started to make trouble. Then you won't be overly concerned about whether this matter has anything to do with the Zhao family.
Zhao Ling'e hoped that it would be okay, but she had never been able to win the emperor's favor after entering the palace, nor was she able to be granted a high position as she wished, and she was demoted on impulse before.
She was afraid that the Zhao family would lose confidence in her, so she would take the wrong approach.
The more she thought about it, the more irritable Zhao Ling'e became. If she had known this, she would not have entered the palace.
I thought that entering the palace was a shortcut, a road to the sky, but who knew that there was a gatekeeper like the imperial concubine on this road, let alone people, not even a mosquito could fly across.
This time at the summer palace, she saw how powerful the imperial concubine was. She didn't see her verbally beating or killing her, but everything she did made her feel uncomfortable. She was neither up nor down, but she had no way to stop her.
This is the gap caused by status.
It would be fine if the emperor was lecherous, but the emperor's eyes could not be seen by anyone except the imperial concubine. Even though she was unparalleled in beauty, in the eyes of the emperor, she was just a yaksha. What could she do?
Zhao Ling'e tried hard to convince herself to calm down. As long as the Zhao family was not involved, she might not be completely defeated in the next few decades.
The only thing that worries her the most is whether the Zhao family is involved in this matter or not.
Outside the palace.
Mrs. Zhao received the letter from Zhao Ling'e to send out of the palace, but she burned it immediately after reading it without any intention of replying to the letter.
Having been in the palace for so long, not only did she fail to win the favor of His Majesty, but she was suppressed by the imperial concubine and was unable to fight back.
There is no hope for Zhao Ling'e now. Thinking of the news from the family, Mrs. Zhao wrote the news about the capital that she had learned in the past few days in a letter and sent it to Lingfeng.
Internal strife broke out in the Song family, and the Secretary of the Song Dynasty did not intercede for Ding Xian in the court. Although Qin Guogong appealed for mercy, his majesty held him in jail and refused to release him. Obviously he was very dissatisfied with Ding Xian.
Now, all we have to do is wait for the imperial envoy to find out the "truth".
I took a nap for a while. I didn’t expect to sleep for so long. The second update is a bit late. It’s the weekend again. Weekend updates should be in the evening. Let’s take a look at it in the evening. It’s almost finished and writing is slower. It should be about the same next week, right? Yeah.
(End of this chapter)