Chapter 19: She Just Wants to Quietly Spend Her Old Age

Tang Miaoling returned to her newly relocated palace and poured herself several cups of hot tea to calm her nerves.

Today, she went to deliver medicine, and unexpectedly met Empress Li…

This didn’t happen in her previous life.

Oh, right, in her previous life, she lived in Yonghe Palace, and Empress Li didn’t live there.

It seems…

Many things are gradually becoming different from her previous life.

This is a good thing!

Everything is changing, and her fate will surely change as well.

Based on her recent performance, her cousin should not be as ruthless as she was in her previous life and kill her.

Thinking of this, Tang Miaoling hummed a tune happily.

“The beauty is exceptionally happy today,” Qiu Xia served tea beside her.

“Naturally…” She had shown her sisterly affection in front of her cousin, and she should have successfully extended her life!

“This servant is also happy for you. Today, His Majesty finally noticed you, and you are still the most skilled beauty! It’s better to take advantage of Ning’s beauty to see His Majesty more often than to compete with her and offend her. So many concubines want to see His Majesty for a moment, but our beauty is wise. This servant was too shallow in her thinking before!” Qiu Xia admired Tang Miaoling.

Tang Miaoling’s humming stopped abruptly, and her happy expression froze: “What are you saying? I don’t want to compete with my cousin for favor.”

“This isn’t competing for favor… You being favored can also help Ning’s beauty, and she won’t blame you.” Qiu Xia tried to explain it simply.

If sisters are united, they are natural allies, determined by the family interests bound by blood.

It’s better to share with your own people than to share with others.

In this ever-changing palace, once you lose power, if there are still favored people in your alliance, your outcome will definitely be better than being helpless, and you may even have the opportunity to rise again.

Jealousy and rivalry are insignificant in the face of life and death and power.

Therefore, alliances among concubines in the palace are very common.

Of course, there are also concubines who love the emperor more than their lives and cannot tolerate anyone else.

“I don’t want to sleep with him!” Tang Miaoling felt that the life she had barely saved was in jeopardy again!

No matter how nicely you put it, it’s still competing with your cousin for a man?

Offending your cousin is a dead end!

She doesn’t want to sleep with him.

She just wants to live a quiet life.

“I understand… Bring me some cold water! I want to get sick, and if I’m sick, my jade token can be withdrawn!” Tang Miaoling had a flash of inspiration.

“Master, this is a rare opportunity, why are you thinking this way…” Qiu Xia was baffled.

Tang Miaoling, thinking of the brilliant idea of pretending to be sick, felt that she could live again, and excitedly said: “I’ve changed my mind! Everyone in the palace is ruthless, if I’m favored, I won’t live for three days. It’s better to hide in the palace and live my leisurely life than to be framed and bullied.”

“Go get some cold water! I want to get sick!”

Those who haven’t died can’t understand this lady’s feelings.

Nothing is more important than saving your life!

…

The night was already very deep.

In Jingxi Palace, the lights were still bright. Concubine Shu carefully checked the accounts of this year’s draft, rubbing her tired eyes.

“Your Highness!” Pearl, the senior maid, walked in quickly and whispered: “His Majesty just went to Yonghe Palace…”

Concubine Shu, after hearing this news, shook her head and said, “The Emperor is exceptionally fond of Ning. This Noble Consort Li is also useless, she can’t take away even a bit of Ning’s favor.”

“She was favored, but she was also kicked out of Yonghe Palace.”

“Today, His Majesty almost promoted Ning’s rank again. This is probably the second Empress Zhuang…” Pearl reminded.

Concubine Shu sneered, “Empress Zhuang can’t give birth, what kind of threat can she be.”

Empress Zhuang was injured while saving the Emperor, which affected her abdomen and made her unable to conceive.

The Emperor raised the eldest princess by her side, so she had a daughter to keep her company.

However, it is well known that Empress Zhuang disliked everyone in the palace, especially their children.

She didn’t want to see the eldest princess, so she left her to be taken care of by the nanny and never mentioned her in front of the Emperor.

In Concubine Shu’s eyes, she was a fool. The eldest princess was an important bargaining chip for gaining favor.

“Compared to Empress Zhuang, Ning is much smarter. If she has children in the future, she might be able to make a name for herself.” Concubine Shu pondered.

But to get rid of Ning Wanyin, there must be a foolproof plan.

Small-scale actions are useless.

Concubine Shu lowered her eyes, thought carefully for a while, and came up with a plan. She looked at Pearl and said:

“Please invite Noble Consort Li here. She was kicked out of Yonghe Palace, I want to arrange a new palace for her, see if she has any place she wants to go.”

She always seemed kind and willing to think for the concubines, and she had a reputation for being virtuous in both the court and the palace.

“Yes!” Pearl took the order and left.

…

The next morning.

The incident at Yonghe Palace last night spread throughout the six palaces.

Although everyone didn’t quite understand the Emperor’s fickleness, he had always been fickle, so it wasn’t anything unusual.

The only certainty was that Ning Wanyin was still favored.

Noble Consort Li was demoted, but she fought for Concubine Xue, and because of this, she gained Concubine Xue’s favor and became her follower.

After three or five days like this.

Ning Wanyin’s leg injury healed, it was just a temporary superficial injury.

In the lower half of the month, the Emperor successively flipped the tokens of some newly entered concubines. Tang Miaoling was not on the list, because she was sick and her jade token had been withdrawn.

“Master, please have some porridge.” Lianrui brought over the honey bean sweet porridge that was just made in the small kitchen.

Today is the first day of the fourth month, and they have to go to greet the Empress Dowager, so Ning Wanyin had her breakfast early, so she would have the energy to outsmart the Empress Dowager.

The breakfast in the imperial kitchen hadn’t started yet, fortunately there was a small kitchen, Lianrui had cooked it in the middle of the night.

Ning Wanyin picked up the spoon, just about to drink the porridge, her nostrils twitched.

She was always very careful about her diet, because she knew a little about medicine, so it was usually difficult to be tricked.

There was a faint, strange fragrance in the porridge.

The fragrance was too faint, and she couldn’t identify it for a while.

Moreover, as time passed, the fragrance became fainter…

It means that the source of the strange fragrance is not in the porridge.

It must have been contaminated when it was brought over.

There were palace servants serving inside and outside Lingxue Pavilion, Ning Wanyin didn’t act rashly, she just looked like she was reminiscing and said:

“Since His Majesty gave me a small kitchen, I haven’t cooked soup for him because I’m not good at cooking. Seeing the honey bean porridge today, I suddenly remembered the honey bean red date soup I loved to drink when I was young, it’s one of the few sweet soups I can make myself.”

“Lianrui, come with me to the small kitchen, I want to make sweet soup for His Majesty. This soup needs to be soaked with a batch of round and plump honey beans for half a day, soak them before going to greet the Empress Dowager, and it will be just right to cook the soup in the evening.”

Ning Wanyin got up, Lianrui followed in a daze.

Xiao Guizi, who was serving beside her, reminded her, “Master, you have to go to greet the Empress Dowager today, you can make the sweet soup another day, so as not to miss the time and be punished by the Empress Dowager.”

“Don’t worry, it’s still early, we won’t be late. Besides, it’s for His Majesty, the Empress Dowager won’t mind.” Ning Wanyin’s words had a hidden meaning.

Xiao Guizi was also an old hand in the palace, and he understood instantly.

If the Empress Dowager wanted to find an excuse to keep the master like she did to Concubine Song, the master could use the excuse of making sweet soup for the Emperor to decline.

If the Empress Dowager tore her face and punished the master, then the master could also deliver soup to see the Emperor in the evening, and gain the Emperor’s pity again.

The master deliberately chose to cook soup on the day of greeting the Empress Dowager, it was really clever!

She is worthy of being the most favored concubine among the new showgirls.