tallest building

Chapter 344 The big changes the small

"Your Highness, Princess Duanmin requests your presence. She says the Eldest Princess has come to the palace and hasn't seen you in a long time," a palace maid said cautiously as she entered.

The eldest princess looked dejected and glanced at the little palace maid.

These days she went to the Empress's palace to kneel and beg, but the Empress refused to see her.

She went to plead with the emperor, but he refused to see her.

The younger sister wanted to enter the palace but was not allowed. She had nowhere to turn and was constantly met with setbacks. How could she possibly be considered a princess?

What she finds hardest to let go of is her mother. To this day, she still can't understand why her mother confessed so readily. She is convinced that her mother was wronged.

"Your Highness, you should go and see them! The Eldest Princess and Princess Duanmin are both elders. If you don't go..." Others around him also advised.

The eldest princess gave a cold laugh, stood up, and said, "Then let's go!"

"Your Highness, won't you freshen up before you go?" the maid asked somewhat hurriedly.

"Why bother with grooming? Don't they just want to see me looking so haggard?" the eldest princess sneered.

In her view, none of the people in the palace were kind to her; otherwise, why didn't anyone lend a helping hand during her most difficult time? Not even a few words of comfort.

Seeing her like this, none of the palace maids dared to say anything more.

The eldest princess arrived at Mingcui Palace with an air of nonchalance, and only gave a perfunctory greeting to the eldest princess and Duanmin princess.

The princess saw that she had become even thinner and looked haggard, but her eyes were full of disdain and a mocking smile was on her lips.

"It was Her Majesty the Empress who invited me to the palace," the Princess said. "Duanmin's pregnancy is progressing, and the Empress is too busy to attend to her, so she sent me to the palace to take care of her."

"Why is the eldest princess telling me all this? Firstly, I am a junior, and secondly, the affairs of this palace are none of my business," the eldest princess said sullenly. "To put it bluntly, I am not even as respected as a servant in this palace."

“You shouldn’t say that. You are a princess, how can you belittle yourself?” Princess Duanmin spoke up at this moment. “You don’t need to hold a grudge. The cycle of cause and effect is beyond human control.”

"Whether it's karma or a deliberate setup, everyone knows the answer in their hearts." The eldest princess was always straightforward, and now she was even more reckless.

"You resent me, don't you?" Princess Duanmin asked, looking at her face.

"If that's what Your Highness thinks, then so be it! In any case, right and wrong in this world won't listen to anyone's explanation, and there are plenty of people who have been wronged." The eldest princess said with a disdainful air.

Her attitude stemmed from her belief that Princess Duanmin was highly likely to harbor ill intentions.

After all, Alan was her person, and Consort Yun was usually very close to her.

“I know you feel wronged, but things have come to this point, and you shouldn’t drag yourself into it.” Princess Duanmin was not angry.

The eldest princess snorted coldly and said, "Then I really should thank you for your concern, Aunt!" "Yingpei, you don't need to be so sarcastic. Even if I said I didn't know about some things, you might not believe me," Princess Duanmin said. "The eldest princess is here today, and I just had someone invite you here to remind you not to act rashly again."

Then she pointed to a bowl on the table and said, "This was sent to me by Consort Yun. Someone poisoned her medicine."

The eldest princess was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this, then her face hardened again: "What do you mean by telling me this? Why don't you take it to the Empress and the Emperor instead!"

"Yingpei, you are too stubborn. Too much rigidity leads to breakage, don't you understand this principle? I know you are sad and upset because of what happened before, and it's inevitable that you have resentment in your heart. But you should also think that doing this will not only not help, but will also hurt yourself." The princess said earnestly.

The eldest princess lowered her head and remained silent, showing some respect to the eldest princess.

"Consort Yun sent the medicine along with a maid," Princess Duanmin said. "The maid said that you bribed her to poison Consort Yun's medicine."

The eldest princess remained silent. She was the one who did it, so she neither admitted nor denied it.

“Consort Yun didn’t go directly to the Empress; instead, she handed over all the witnesses and evidence to me for a decision,” Princess Duanmin continued. “I have no remorse for what happened to Chen, nor do I need to explain myself to you. But regarding this matter, I want to downplay it.”

Even without any other reason, just because you are also a daughter of the Ying family, I still hope you have a good ending.

The eldest princess looked up at her, then lowered her head again.

She didn't know whether Princess Duanmin was telling the truth or not; everything she saw now was like looking at flowers through a fog, making it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.

"If the Empress finds out about this, she will definitely punish you severely, you know that without me saying it. In fact, even without this incident, the Empress wouldn't want you to escape unscathed. I heard that the Empress is planning to send you and the Second Princess to Qingliang Temple to practice Buddhism. That place is isolated from the world, how easy would it be to come back after going there?" Princess Duanmin sighed as she said this, "As daughters of the imperial family, we all have things beyond our control, just like my marriage alliance, was it really out of my own free will?"
You're young, and you often only see the surface of things. You don't realize how complex things are; a single move can have far-reaching consequences, and there are many things that cannot be openly stated.

"Why do you do this?" The eldest princess couldn't understand at all. "Why are you treating me like this? I won't be grateful to you."

“I don’t want your gratitude. I’m only doing this because you are a daughter of the Ying family and I don’t want you to be implicated by the Chen family,” Princess Duanmin said. “Now that the Eldest Princess is here, if you don’t trust me, don’t you trust her?”

"Even if you don't trust either of us, then compared to the Empress, who do you trust less?" the eldest princess asked.

"Then how are you going to help me? After you help me, will you still take advantage of me?" The eldest princess dared to say anything now.

“Since the Empress wants you to become a nun, why don’t you go ahead and become my disciple from today onwards? Everyone knows that I have been practicing asceticism all these years. If you follow me in your practice, the Empress will naturally not let you leave the palace to go to Qingliang Temple,” the Princess said.

"Yes! Think about it, the Empress says she wants you to cultivate yourself, but that doesn't necessarily mean she wants you to find peace. Given her temperament, she could very well take your life." Princess Duanmin sneered. "Even if you're stupid, you can understand that, can't you?"

That's true. The eldest princess knew in her heart that the empress would not let her and her sister have an easy time.

As long as she believes in her heart that her mother killed the crown prince, she will definitely seek revenge.

"As for the Second Princess, if you don't go to Qingliang Temple, how can she go? She has a husband and children now. It would be fine if she were to keep you company, but now that you are with me, she will be safe."

The eldest princess had no choice but to agree. Although she thought she was going all out, she still had reservations.