Noble Consort Ruan was still sitting in the palace and drinking some tea as she was waiting for the news of the Crown Prince’s encounter with a tiger to be delivered. Soon, the news did reach the palace, but before she had time to bask in joy, she heard that the Crown Prince had also returned safely.
Noble Consort Ruan was so angry that she clenched her teeth and smashed the hot tea cup against the door frame, “Those two ruined this Noble Consort’s plans!”
Naturally, she was talking about Lin Feilu and Noble Consort Xi.
Although Ruan Shi and Xi Tan were both Noble Consorts, they had been at peace with each other for many years, neither being friendly nor ever posing the intentions to harm the other. Ruan Shi knew that Xi Tan had no intention of competing for the Imperial favour as she entered the palace only because she was injured and could no longer be on the battlefield.
After all, although the Xi family remained evidently loyal, the Emperor couldn’t help but be suspicious of those around him. So if Xi Tan was part of the harem, the Xi family’s position would also be safer.
Moreover, Xi Tan had no children. It’s hard to say whether she couldn’t give birth or she didn’t want to give birth at all. However, every other Concubine would automatically exclude her from the equation when it came to harem battles and sinister tricks.
Unexpectedly, a person who was completely out of the picture was the one who ironically ruined their plans.
With that imbecile Lin Feilu riding her horse back to the palace to get help and Noble Consort Xi being a busybody who charged ahead to kill the tiger, the plan was entirely ruined! Noble Consort Ruan wanted nothing more than to eliminate both of them for once and for all. However, she knew that she was unable to make a move. If she were to take any sort of action despite the incident being ruled as an accident, she would practically be admitting to committing the crime herself.
Therefore, the only actions she could take would have to correspond to ‘the worried bystander’ profile that she appeared to be on the surface. With that in mind, she sent some gifts to the Crown Prince to express her ‘concern’.
It’s just that Noble Consort Ruan had been suppressing all of her pent-up anger inside, so she became a lot more prone to lashing out easily whenever she was agitated. Concubine Xie, who was five-months pregnant, came to the palace to escape the summer heat and accidentally offended Noble Consort Ruan with an unintentional remark. Due to her irritation, she ordered the Concubine to stand in her courtyard for four hours as punishment.
As a result, Concubine Xie went back the same day and saw red(1). Under the care of the imperial doctor, the child in her was able to be saved, but Concubine Xie became weaker due to the strenuous activity. There was a possibility that she would face great risks when the time came for her to give birth.
(T/N: Means a pregnant woman starts bleeding— it can mean that the baby is ready to be born or something has happened to it. Either way, it’s unsettling and usually doctors would be summoned)
Emperor Lin was very annoyed when he heard about this. Although he always knew that Noble Consort Ruan was rather straightforward, he was vexed and agitated when he found out about the state of his child.
He just meant to reprimand her, but before she was punished, she started to cry.