Unparalleled Beauty

Chapter C124

The moment Chen Yunshang heard Meng shi calling "Second Younger Sister-in-law" twice, her face immediately fell.

Feigning grievance, she looked towards Chen shi, but Chen shi wore a pensive expression and didn't even glance at her.

"Take the children to another room; there's no need for you to avoid it," Chen shi said, and then instructed someone to invite Wushuang in.

Soon, a figure appeared at the doorway.

She wore a red-colored silk tapestry cross-collared shirt and a moon-white silk skirt. At first glance, the skirt appeared to be simply moon-white, but as she moved, a soft light flowed, and only upon closer inspection could one discover its secret: hidden within the pleats were faint, shimmering patterns, marking it as a priceless Moonflower Skirt.

The more fabric used and the denser the pleats at the waist, the better the Moonflower Skirt was considered. It had once been said that 'the artificial materials are ten times that of an ordinary skirt, a waste of heavenly resources,' criticizing it for being too extravagant, time-consuming, and wasteful, a luxurious item that families adhering to propriety should not imitate. 

Wushuang was already blessed with skin as fair as snow, and this simple and elegant attire only served to enhance her ethereal beauty. Despite the understated elegance of her clothing, her hair was styled into an elaborate and gorgeous ingot-shaped bun, adorned with a delicate kingfisher feather art gemstone flower crown, beneath which lay a circlet inlaid with rubies and sapphires.

The circlet gently rested upon her raven hair, and the gourd-shaped earrings inlaid with South Sea pearls that adorned her delicate, white earlobes further accentuated her picturesque features and unparalleled beauty.

Chen Yunshang had only ever seen Wushuang dressed like a widow; she had never witnessed her like this. Nor had anyone else in the hall. And this attire of hers was clearly custom-made, perhaps even surpassing that of some of the imperial concubines in the palace.

For a moment, the eyes of everyone in the hall flickered with various emotions, while Chen Yunshang gritted her teeth in secret, jealousy overflowing from her eyes.

Seeing this, Meng shi felt even more certain that she had done the right thing earlier. She even stood up and nodded at Wushuang, addressing her as "Second Younger Sister-in-law."

With the shizi madam standing, no one else dared to remain seated.

It wouldn't do to simply stand there. The shizi madam and the Second Madam were of the same generation, so she could forgo the courtesies, but they could not. They could only offer somewhat awkward and stilted familial greetings to Wushuang, addressing her as Second Sister-in-law or Second Madam.

When it was Chen Yunshang's turn, she was somewhat unwilling, until Meng shi lightly coughed, and only then did she reluctantly bend her knees in a curtsy, saying, "Greetings, Madam."

Wushuang glanced at her and said, "There's no need for so much ceremony."

Chen shi secretly gnashed her teeth in resentment, not only because her niece was forced to humble herself, but also because it was supposed to be her niece coming to pay respects to her, yet now others were paying respects to her niece first.

At this moment, it was Wushuang's turn to pay respects to Chen shi.

"Mother, are you well?"

"I am very well!"

Fearing her mother-in-law would say something unpleasant again, Meng shi quickly said to Wushuang, "Mother isn't feeling quite well since this morning."

Wushuang saw through the pretense but pretended not to notice, asking if she had taken medicine or consulted a physician. Madam Meng then spun a yarn to her.

After speaking, seeing that Chen shi truly did not require her daughter-in-law's service, Wushuang then took her leave.

After she left, everyone in the hall breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Yunshang was full of resentment, but unable to directly vent it, she nestled against Chen shi, saying with a hint of grievance, "Eldest Sister-in-law, if you want to curry favor with her, why drag me into it as a stepping stone?"

She was referring to the matter of Meng shi hinting that she should perform the bowing ceremony earlier.

Meng shi was very impatient now. She was also feeling somewhat uncomfortable, yet this aunt and niece duo liked to stir up trouble for no reason, and then expect her to clean up the mess.

She said with a stern face, "Although she is not favored by your Second Brother, she was properly married into the family through formal betrothal. A concubine should bow to the legal wife; this is the rule everywhere. You don't need to think that I am deliberately making things difficult for you."

"You—"

Chen Yunshang only thought of how much face she usually had in the Zhao family, and with Chen shi backing her, even though she was a concubine, she was practically treated like a Madam, and no one would be so tactless as to remind her that she was a concubine.

But the antipathy between a legal wife and a concubine was innate. Madam Meng was a proper shizi, Heir Apparent's wife. The face she usually gave Chen Yunshang was for the sake of Chen shi and Zhao Jianzhi, which was why she was willing to call her Second Brother's wife.

That was only in private, and everyone understood the situation. Now, Chen Yunshang could not see her own position and was trying to make trouble for her in front of so many people, so Madam Meng naturally would not tolerate her.

"Now that the family is already in a difficult situation, why must Aunt Chen ruin the family's important affairs for her own selfish reasons? She is currently in favor. If you anger her, and she learns from Aunt Chen's behavior and makes trouble for the Zhao family, when the nest is overturned, will there be any unbroken eggs? What will happen to this large family then?"

Upon hearing these words, the people who were originally watching the show from the sidelines all united with Madam Meng, casting disapproving glances at Chen Yunshang.

They were all ants eking out a living under this overturned nest. Once the Zhao family was finished, their fate would definitely be miserable.

"She wouldn't dare!" Chen Yunshang shrieked.

Meng shi looked at her with some pity: "What wouldn't she dare to do? Since she entered the family, wasn't it you and I, wasn't it the Zhao family who treated her poorly? No matter how you curse her as base in private, with that relationship, even if the Zhao family falls, she will be safe and sound. Who knows, the Mei family might even want to take her back and treat her well, after all, the Empress has no children, and she is now favored."

Meng shi simply took the opportunity to say what she had always wanted to say.

"Do you really think she has no backing? She didn't have it before because she was useless. Now that she is useful, there are plenty of people who will be her backing. The scolding of others cannot harm her in the slightest. Have you seen anyone dare to point at her nose and scold her for defiling the palace and bewitching the Emperor? Do you dare? Do I dare? Do any of you dare?"

None of them dared!

Under Meng shi's sweeping gaze, everyone lowered their heads.

Never mind the private scorn and disdain; in truth, who wasn't secretly envious? To serve His Majesty as the wife of a subject naturally invited criticism, but one had to possess the fortune for it.

In ordinary families, this would be against the natural order, but in the imperial family, it was a blessing.

Throughout history, emperors who engaged in cradle-snatching or seized the wives of their subjects were not few, and who would dare utter a word of dissent? Those who dared had long since lost their lives.

"What the family should be considering now isn't personal grievances or anger, but whether she will rely on someone's backing to seek a divorce. Back then, when the rebel prince was executed and his accomplices were purged, only the Zhao family was spared. At the time, I didn't understand why, but now I understand a little. They probably still rely on her. After all, she and His Majesty have that past connection. Even if His Majesty is annoyed in his heart, he probably doesn't want the Zhao family to fall apart, or for her, as a woman of the Zhao family, to be implicated, exiled, and humiliated."

Having said that, Meng shi left, leaving everyone unable to calm down for a long time.

***

The capital was abuzz with rumors, and naturally, the Marquis Changyang's Mansion had also heard the whispers.

Madam Cao shi, the Marquis Changyang's wife, was greatly alarmed and wanted to seek out her daughter, the Empress, to ask what was going on. Unfortunately, her relationship with the Empress was somewhat strained, and entering the palace wasn't so easy. She had to submit a plaque first and wait for a summons.

After waiting for many days, the summons finally arrived.

The next day, she entered the palace in formal attire befitting her rank.

Upon seeing her daughter, Cao shi still harbored some resentment. However, times were different, and the conflict between mother and daughter couldn't be expressed in words, resulting in a rather poignant, wordless exchange.

Who knew that today, the Empress treated Cao shi with considerable warmth, not only asking how things were at home recently, but also inquiring about Cao shi's health, as well as her brothers and nephews.

In the end, she was still her own daughter; despite all the complaints, she wasn't truly unconcerned.

"You summoned me here because of Third Girl?"

The Empress pursed her lips slightly, somewhat uncomfortably, glossing over the fact that she had summoned Mei Wushuang intending to show goodwill, but had lost her temper, resulting in a clumsy outcome. She only spoke of Consort Hui's recent prominence in the palace and the fact that she still had no news of pregnancy.

In reality, it wasn't a question of whether there was news or not, but that she simply couldn't conceive.

However, few people knew about this. Although rumors circulated in the palace that the Empress couldn't bear children, it wasn't certain. Only the Empress herself knew that it wasn't because she was out of favor; she simply couldn't conceive.

Back then, when she first married Prince Wei, the princes' struggle for the throne was in full swing. There were spies planted in the Prince's mansion by the rebel prince, and she was ambushed, nearly losing her life.

Although her life was saved later, her body was damaged, and the imperial physician said that she would never be able to conceive again.

From then on, she abandoned the idea of vying for favor and single-mindedly focused on consolidating her position.

"How could you not be pregnant? I've found every folk remedy I could, burned every incense, and prayed to every Buddha I could find. Why is it that you still can't conceive?"

The mere mention of this matter left Cao shi utterly exhausted.

One could say that fretting over when her daughter would finally bear an heir was her biggest and most persistent worry these past few years.

"What about Ying'er and the others? To help you, I chose the most beautiful ones, even sending people to those kinds of places to pick out two exceptional beauties to send to you. Don't be too jealous. If they can conceive, the one who benefits in the end is still you."

This was the biggest conflict between the mother and daughter. One believed her daughter was not favored, so she racked her brains to find her support. The other couldn't bring herself to say she was infertile, much less admit that His Majesty never visited her Fengqi Palace. Thus, you resented me, and I resented you. Though they were mother and daughter, they got along worse than strangers.

"Even if you don't think of yourself, you must think of the family. We may have a queen, but we don't have the treatment of an Emperor's father-in-law. Your father still holds a title from a diminishing line, your brother doesn't have a good position, and then there's your younger brother… In the end, it all comes down to your uselessness. If you could bear a prince, the family wouldn't be in this state, and you wouldn't have to constantly watch Noble Consort Hui's face."

The Empress barely managed to suppress the urge to scold and said, "Mother, saying all this now is useless."

"Then what is useful?" Cao shi suddenly had a flash of inspiration, recalling the Third Miss mentioned earlier, "You called me here because you want to…"

The mother and daughter exchanged a look.

The Empress endured the humiliation and said, "She is, after all, related to me by blood. Now that she has His Majesty's favor, if she can conceive and give birth to a son, I can take him and raise him as my own. In truth, it would be as if I gave birth to him myself."

"Aren't you afraid that she will harbor resentment and steal your position?" Cao shi said hesitantly.

Guilt-ridden, only Cao shi herself knew what her family had done to that person.

"Mother, don't forget that she is a married woman."

Cao shi disagreed, "A married woman can also divorce. If His Majesty truly values her, issuing an edict to divorce the two of them and bring her into the palace isn't impossible. You must not shoot yourself in the foot."

"She cannot divorce," the Empress said confidently.

"Why?"

"Because she feels she owes Zhao Jianzhi."

Only an enemy understands their enemy. The Empress believed she knew her good cousin's personality like the back of her hand. As long as the Zhao family didn't take the initiative to divorce, she would never actively seek a divorce.

Even if the Empress was unwilling to admit it, she had to acknowledge that her good cousin, though foolish and incompetent, was truly kind.

A person who still possessed a good heart. To the people in the palace, it was truly pathetic and laughable.

"But what if His Majesty forces her to divorce?"

The Empress was truly losing her patience.

"That's a matter for then. Mother, can you please stop talking about these things?"

"Then what should I talk about?" Cao shi reacted, "Then what do you want me to do?"

"Mother, you need to win her over a little. That way, when I ask her to do things based on our sisterly affection, it won't seem so abrupt. She is, after all, a daughter of the Mei family. Only when the Mei family is well, can she be well. She's foolish and needs someone to guide her..."

***

A small Chamberlain whispered something into Little Douzi's ear.

After listening, Little Douzi ran to his master and whispered something into Fusheng's ear.

Fusheng glanced at the hall. His Majesty was being helped to change. The delicate, soft beauty had her black hair loose, wearing a thin sleeping robe that barely concealed her figure, busying herself before His Majesty.

The grace of a beauty is the hardest to bear!

Anyway, Fusheng thought His Majesty was quite enjoying it. Clearly, he didn't need her to do things personally, yet he always had her serve him. But why hadn't he favored her yet?

Fusheng, preoccupied, felt restless and turned back into the bathing hall.

On a tray on the table, two silk sleeping robes were tossed, the very ones Emperor Qianwu had just changed out of.

Fusheng reached in and rummaged through them, pulling out a pair of dragon-embroidered underpants. There were some faint marks on them. Others might not know what they were, but how could a Chamberlain not know?

His dignified Majesty had actually spilled his seed. What an absurd and preposterous thing, yet it had happened, and on His Majesty's dragon bed, it wasn't as if there were no women.

What on earth is going on?!

The matter was buried in Fusheng's heart. He struggled with it for a day, not daring to suggest that His Majesty visit the harem. Instead, he gritted his teeth and steeled his heart, instructing the kitchen to prepare a tonic soup for the evening meal, and even proactively mentioned whether His Majesty wanted to bring Madam into the Palace.

In fact, Emperor Qianwu could see that Fusheng intended to 'promote' Wushuang, but the other party had never concealed his thoughts in front of him, and he wasn't ignorant of what Fusheng was thinking.

Originally, according to his character, he should restrain himself in all things and not be greedy. Even if 'he' always urged him, he should still summon her to the Palace every other day or two.

She had only come last night, so he should wait a day. But since Fusheng had brought it up, he simply didn't refuse.

It wasn't until he had finished his evening meal and she had arrived that Emperor Qianwu sensed something was wrong with his body and remembered the soup, finally understanding what that old fox Fusheng had done.