Chapter 118 - Life was a mere nothing (1/2)

Yu Zhen Palace was one of the several palaces where there was no hostess living except several concubines. Unlike Yi Jia Palace, there wasn’t an officially-designated “hostess candidate” like Wei Hengyan among the concubines currently living in this palace.

They were all low-grade concubines. If there were no accidents, they couldn’t be promoted to be consorts.

Therefore, this palace was habitually ignored by everyone in the Imperial Harem.

Now when Yun Fenghuang heard the report, she couldn’t help raising her eyebrows, “What happened?”

Ordinarily in this kind of place where there was no future for all the concubines, there was no need to do anything evil to them, wasn’t there?

Even if those concubines fought with each other, what kind of malicious means could they use since they were in similar situations?

The newly-promoted Cai Nv lived well before, but why did she die after she joined the Imperial Harem for such a short time?

“It’s said that the people in the Imperial Kitchen made something wrong.” The maid bowed her head and reported, “Cai Nv Lin couldn’t eat fish since her childhood, and she almost lost her life because of this… After she was selected to be a Cai Nv, she clearly told the people in the Imperial Kitchen about it. The people in the Imperial Kitchen kept this thing in mind a few days ago, but they mixed fish soup and some broken fish in Cai Nv Lin’s meal today. After eating the meal, Cai Nv Lin was covered in a rash, and her whole body was swollen. There was no hostess in Yu Zhen Palace, and the maid who served her was a young girl and had no experience. The maid was scared to death and could only turn around her for a long time before thinking of going out to find someone. She took a long time to find a leading maid, and the leading maid took a long time to report this thing to Your Highness…”

Although Empress Ji despised low-grade concubines, it was not necessary to be hard on them, so she immediately sent an imperial doctor after receiving the news. But when the doctor arrived, Cai Nv Lin was already unconscious. Before the doctor finished the process of looking, listening, questioning, and feeling her pulse, Cai Nv Lin had died.

Yun Fenghuang held her chin in contemplation, “I had no impression on this girl…”

Xi Jing behind her said, “My Lady, I remember her. She seems to be the one who was stumbled in the first batch of Cai Nv coming into the audition room.”

Yun Fenghuang said “oh”, but she still couldn’t remember her clearly, “Did she have a grievance with the people of the Imperial Kitchen? She had made it clear that she couldn’t eat fish, but how could they still mix fish soup and fish into her meal?”

“… My Lady, I heard that it was because there was some chaos in the Imperial Kitchen a few days ago. Although the hostesses didn’t know this thing, the Administrator on duty that day was very angry.” The maid reporting the news hesitated for a second before she said softly, “Many servants were beaten for this. Several of them happened to be responsible for Yu Zhen Palace. They had a grievance in their hearts but had no way to vent, so they wanted to vent their anger to Cai Nv Lin. They also knew that someone who needed to avoid certain food, but those people at most had a rash for a few days. As long as they stopped eating the food, they could recover without medication… But those servants didn’t expect…”

The servants didn’t expect Cai Nv Lin’s situation was much more serious than those the servants had seen. She just died after having that meal.

Cai Nv Lin was in a low grade, and as a newcomer to the Imperial Harem, she hadn’t slept with the Emperor so far. Also, there were more beautiful girls than her in her companions such as Yi Xing’en. If her death were not reported to Empress Ji, there might be really no way to deal with the initiators of evil just because she had a rash for a few days.

After all, Yu Zhen Palace had no hostess. After Cai Nv Lin suffered a loss, she couldn’t even find a hostess to complain, could she?

Yun Fenghuang frowned, and asked whether the Empress had said how to handle this matter or not.

The maid said, “Her Highness was very angry. She punished many people of the Imperial Kitchen, and dragged the servants of the Imperial Harem who deliberately harmed Cai Nv Lin to the place where Cai Nv Lin lived in Yu Zhen Palace before and beat them to death. Besides, she also enjoined to promote Cai Nv Lin to be a Bao Lin and award her families.”

“Well done!” Yun Fenghuang nodded slightly, and said, “No one was wronged in the Imperial Kitchen. No matter how low the grade of the Cai Nv was, or how much Yu Zhen Palace is ignored, after all, Cai Nv Lin was the people to serve His Majesty. How dare a group of servants treat her badly? Now, since they dared to deliberately do evil things to a powerless Cai Nv who had no backers, they even dare to do evil things on the hostesses’ commanders? If they are not punished now, what eviler things they will do in the future?”

By the way, she let the maid go out to do something, “Ask the concubines of my palace if they have something that they can’t eat? If they do, no matter whether they have told the people of the Imperial Kitchen or not, you go to the Imperial Kitchen later and let the servants there listen to you and remember clearly that if there is a similar thing happening on the concubines of Xuan Qing Palace in the future, I will punish them heavily!”

The maids around her immediately praised Yun Fenghuang for her pretty, smart, and kind nature. They also said that it was lucky for concubines of her palace to have a hostess like her… This thing passed after being talked about for a while. Cai Nv Lin’s death caused no fluctuations in the Imperial Harem. Anyway, she was only a girl from a good and non-aristocratic family and there was no chance to see if she had a good future or not.

As for the impact, the only impact was probably that Queen Mother Ji sighed after knowing this matter and said that many things had happened in the Imperial Harem recently, so it would be better to leave for the Temporary Imperial Palace earlier to relax people’s minds. She might as well go to Shan Yuan Temple to relieve the boredom.

The dynasty upheld the Taoism for various reasons. This Shan Yuan Temple was constructed in the previous dynasty two hundred years ago. It was not very famous at first. Later, since there were several immortals (those who had attained enlightenment) came from this Taoist temple, so it became well-known very fast and was listed as one of the famous Taoist temples.

However, those immortals were all figures hundreds years ago. This Taoist temple had declined for a long time, and it was not what it used to be. However, due to the continuous fights in the Imperial Harem during Emperor Shenzong’s period, many clan relatives “voluntarily” became Taoist priests and went to practice inside. With the support of the royal family, the Taoist temple gradually regained its vitality and became the first choice of noble families near Dijing City and even the royal family when they met some troubles.

… It also benefited from its location to gain such treatment.

Shan Yuan Temple was near the Temporary Imperial Palace on Qi Shan Mountain for avoiding the summer heat. The royal family could go back and forth within a day.

The Imperial Harem should had been about to leave after the audition of Cai Nv. Since Empress Ji said so, the Empress specially went to find the Emperor to discuss it, and finally decided to advance the original date by two days. A large group of people in the Imperial Court and the Imperial Harem left for Qi Shan Mountain.

Qi Shan Mountain was in the southwest of Dijing City. If a person rode a fast horse, the one could reach there in two or three days.

However, the summer resort team was so large that it was estimated that they would spend about eight to ten days arriving there.

It was the first time for Yun Fenghuang to go out after joining the Imperial Harem, so everything was fresh for her. Although she was asked to sit in Emperor Chunjia’s sedan to accompany him, she still frequently opened the sedan curtain and looked out. Of course, she could not see anything. After all, in the place where the Emperor passed by, some people had used loess to bed roads and water to sprinkle the ground, and set up cloth curtains on both sides of the road to block people’s sight. Besides, lots of imperial bodyguards in whole set of amours and armed with swords and spears walked beside their sedan.

When she looked out, in addition to the familiar bodyguards who looked steadily forward and blankly, she could only see the background of the cloth curtains on both sides.

Feeling bored, she threw down the sedan curtain and sat back to Chunjia Emperor’s side with twisting the corners of her mouth.

The Emperor drank tea and watched her movements peacefully, and then smiled and appeased, “There is nothing beautiful on the wayside. You can walk around when we arrive at the Temporary Imperial Palace. The scenery of Qi Shan Mountain is quite beautiful and lovely.”

At this time, not only Yun Fenghuang was asked to accompany the Emperor, but Wei Hengyan was also here. When Wei Hengyan heard this, she pursed her lips and smiled, taking advantage of this chance to act coquettishly, “Your Majesty, will you be with my sisters and me then?”