Selling wife for fame? Kick out the scumbag and marry the new emperor to enjoy the harem of favors

Chapter 243

When Yinzhu returned, she was followed by the imperial physician.

He was Li Shang, the imperial physician frequently used by the Empress.

"Why would you need to summon the imperial physician for no reason?"

In the main hall, Peizhu listened to the reply from the palace maid below and felt uneasy.

The young palace maid frowned. "I don't know. They say Lady Lu is feeling unwell."

"I understand, you can go now." Peizhu waved her hand.

He then went into the palace to report to Consort Zhuang.

"Summon the imperial physician? And you even sneaked around me?" Consort Zhuang's bright face immediately showed anger. "Is this because you don't respect me, or are you on guard against me!"

Peizhu frowned. "Your Majesty, I think it's probably not that simple. The imperial physician is Physician Li, whom the Empress often uses. What merit does Consort Lu have to be able to get Physician Li to examine her pulse? I think it may have already alarmed the Empress."

These words immediately alerted Consort Zhuang to the matter of Consort Lu.

She immediately stood up, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. "Let's go, I'll go see Lady Lu."

However, Consort Zhuang arrived a step too late.

Just as they stepped out of the main hall, they saw the Empress's entourage already entering the gates of Yanqing Palace.

"Your Majesty the Empress," Consort Zhuang's expression changed slightly, "What brings you here?"

Looking at Consort Zhuang, the Empress's face showed a hint of anger. She began to scold, "If I hadn't come, perfectly healthy people would have been tortured to death in your palace. Consort Zhuang, how vicious you are!"

This sudden accusation stunned Consort Zhuang, but before she could defend herself, she was interrupted by the Empress.

“Lu Cai Nu is a newcomer to the palace. If you don’t like her living in Yanqing Palace, you can tell me and ask her to move out. Why torture her like this? Now Lu Cai Nu lives in fear every day and has to work hard copying palace rules every day. She’s so tired that she’s almost fainted!”

"What?" Consort Zhuang was surprised. "She fainted? When did this happen?"

The Empress seized on the loophole in her words and immediately added, "Look at you! As the head of a palace, you don't care at all about the illness of someone in the palace, and you're completely unaware of it! Really!"

After speaking, he glared at Consort Zhuang as if he were disappointed in her, then turned and left, heading towards the courtyard where Consort Lu lived.

Consort Zhuang naturally followed.

When she came in, Physician Li had already used silver needles on Lu Cai Nu to wake her up.

When Lu Cai Nu saw the Empress and Consort Zhuang, she immediately stood up to express her gratitude, but the Empress stopped her.

"You're feeling weak, so just lie down. There's no need to stand on ceremony."

"Yes, Your Majesty the Empress." Consort Lu replied weakly, then looked timidly at Consort Zhuang. "Consort Zhuang, I haven't been lazy. I did copy the palace rules today. Although I'm sick, I won't forget and will continue to copy according to Your Majesty's requirements every day."

She spoke these words with obvious fear of Consort Zhuang. Upon seeing this, Consort Zhuang immediately waved her hand, adopting a gentle demeanor, "It's alright, it's alright. You too, I only mentioned it casually that day, and you've been silently copying the palace rules ever since, without even bringing them to the main hall for me to see. I have a bad memory and didn't take this little matter to heart, yet it made you fall ill. How can I be at ease with this!"

This means they want to distance themselves from the relationship.

He said he was just saying it casually, but he didn't expect Lu Cainu to take it seriously.

But when Lu Cainu heard what she said, she was stunned for a moment, and then she cried.

"Thank you for your forgiveness, Consort Zhuang. It's all my fault. When I first entered the palace, I didn't know the rules and angered you. Otherwise, you wouldn't have made me copy the palace rules. I was foolish and didn't understand your intentions. Now I've made myself sick and caused you to worry about me. I even made the Empress come all this way. I am truly sorry."

At this point, Consort Lu knelt on the bed, facing Consort Zhuang, "Your Highness, please punish me, I will have no complaints!"

"Huh? What, what punishment would I give you? Get up quickly, I won't punish you anymore. Look at you, get up now." Consort Zhuang stepped forward and helped Consort Lu lie down properly. "I've already said, the matter is over, don't bring it up again."

When Consort Zhuang spoke, she could barely maintain her fake smile. She wished she could smother Consort Lu with a pillow. She thought to herself that the Empress had come to cause trouble, and now that Consort Lu was crying and saying things that were easy to misunderstand, she was just making things difficult for her.

When the Empress takes these words to Chengming Hall, she will embellish them in front of the Emperor, causing him to completely misunderstand her. Then, the opportunity to accompany the Emperor out of the palace will be completely out of her reach.

After finally managing to subdue Consort Lu, Consort Zhuang turned her attention back to dealing with the Empress.

"Your Majesty, I can take care of things here. It's all because Consort Lu is too sensible. She didn't want to trouble me, so she didn't even mention that she was feeling unwell, which led to this misunderstanding. I certainly won't hold a grudge against a newcomer who just entered the palace."

The Empress looked at her coldly, clearly disbelieving. "I don't want this to happen again. You'd better watch yourself."

"Yes." Consort Zhuang nodded.

After seeing the Empress off, Consort Zhuang glared at Consort Lu before returning to the main hall.

He went back and threw a huge tantrum.

"Who does Zhou Mingshu think she is, coming to my Yanqing Palace and lecturing me? When there was only the Fourth Prince in the palace, she never dared to treat me like this. Now that there are other princes in the palace and I have gradually fallen out of favor with the Emperor, she dares to humiliate me like this!"

Faced with Consort Zhuang's act of addressing the Empress by her given name, Peizhu quickly closed the door and stepped forward to persuade her to stop.

"Your Majesty, you have already held back for a while in front of the Empress. You can't let all your efforts go to waste now. If the Empress wants to scheme against you, she will definitely say something to the Emperor. Your Majesty should seize the initiative and not let the Emperor be deceived!" Peizhu reminded her.

Consort Zhuang calmed down a bit. "Yes, she doesn't want me to leave the palace to accompany the Emperor, but I have no choice but to go. Come, I'll go see the Emperor. I don't believe that the Emperor won't take me with him, for the sake of the Fourth Prince!"

After speaking, he quickly tidied his appearance and hurried off to Chengming Hall.

However, Consort Zhuang underestimated the Empress's methods and speed. In fact, before the Empress went to Yanqing Palace, she had already spread the news that Consort Lu had been maliciously tormented by Consort Zhuang, to the point that she had collapsed from exhaustion.

Now, anyone in the palace who is willing to ask has already learned of this gossip.

As Zhao Xingjin's top henchman, Yang Zhian naturally had to report such news, so Zhao Xingjin already knew about Lu Cai Nu's fainting before Consort Zhuang arrived.

Therefore, when Zhao Xingjin heard that Consort Zhuang was requesting an audience, he already knew what she wanted to do.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects." Consort Zhuang bowed. "Your Majesty, the Empress said that you do not intend to take me with you to the autumn hunt. However, I have not left the palace for a long time and am feeling quite stifled. I would like to go out for some fresh air. Today, Consort Lu fainted, and the Empress believes that I deliberately made things difficult for her. I think that since the Empress has misunderstood me to this extent, she probably will not mention to Your Majesty that I should go with her. Therefore, I have come to explain to Your Majesty. Even if Your Majesty does not take me out of the palace, at least you will not misunderstand me like the Empress did!"