Emperor Lin thought that the usually arrogant and bright woman looked quite pitiful when she cried. She explained while crying, “When this Noble Consort was pregnant with Ting Er, I even climbed a mountain with Your Majesty for fun and nothing happened. And now, I just told her to stand for four hours; how was I supposed to know that her body was that frail? Since Your Majesty thinks that this Noble Consort is making a big fuss, it is better to withdraw my rights as someone who takes care of the Six Palaces. Your Majesty should hang an empty position for me in the future and everything I do should be monitored by then.”
Emperor Lin originally came with the intention to hold her accountable, but in the end, he had somehow become the villain instead. He had to appease the aggrieved and sobbing Noble Consort as he was worried about offending the Ruan family. In the end, he just admonished her with a few words and rewarded Concubine Xie a lot, as if he was trying to make up for it. In the end, the matter was brushed aside rather easily.
Political affairs in the Imperial Court always took up everyone’s time. Now that the Summer Hunt was halted, this year’s stay in the Summer Palace was shorter than it was in the previous years.
Not more than half a month later, Emperor Lin returned to the main palace.
Two days after Lin Feilu returned to the palace, she was summoned by the Empress to the Changchun Palace.
Lin Feilu didn’t have much contact with the Empress as she (the Empress) devoted herself to worshipping Buddha, which diminished the need for the Imperial Harem to greet her in the morning. Usually, it was rather hard to even catch a glimpse of her as well. The only close contact Lin Feilu ever had with the Empress was the last birthday banquet. The Empress looked at her with a very peaceful gaze and there was a separate atmosphere around her that exuded a kind of dignity that was exactly the same as that of the Crown Prince.
This mother-and-son duo were the kind of people who remained very disciplined. Everyone knew that as long as they didn’t make mistakes, no changes would be made towards the position of the Crown Prince.
But if someone stretched out their claws, they would never sit still either.
Naturally, this summoning was due to the fact that Lin Feilu had managed to get help to rescue when the Crown Prince encountered a tiger. Lin Feilu’s contribution towards the safety of the Crown Prince was indispensable. The Empress used to treat the Princes and Princesses equally as she was neither harsh nor close to either, but at this time, she sincerely favoured Lin Feilu ever more slightly.
This girl is smart and clever. Although she is young, she is still calm and able to make the right decisions even in the face of danger, so she must not be underestimated in the future. Coupled with the indisputable fact that she saved the Crown Prince, the Empress had the intentions to form a camaraderie with her.
She did not reward the Fifth Princess with gifts as much as Emperor Lin did, but when she was having dinner with Emperor Lin, she brought up the issues of the vacant positions in the four Consort(2) ranks that were currently only occupied by two.
(T/N: In case anyone was wondering, the rules state that there can be no more than four Consorts at any given time)
“It’s not good for them to be empty for a long time. You always have to bring up a Concubine first in order to comply with the regulations of the ancestors.”
Emperor Lin was not the kind of Emperor who was insanely obsessed with beauties and he seldom worried about the harem. After all, the previous Emperor’s harem left him with a herd of gloomy shadows clouding his mind. Hearing what the Empress said at this time, he asked her, “Empress, your words make sense. If so, does the Empress have a choice in her heart?”