If not abolished

Chapter 187: Trying to cover up the obvious

Rouyi Hall

The Crown Princess was looking at the banquet menu when she heard Yun Jin coming to report.

"Crown Princess, Concubine Li has come hurriedly and is now asking for an audience outside the palace."

The Crown Princess then raised her head from the pile of affairs, "She has always been sensible. Things that can make her anxious must be big things. Please ask the Concubine to come in." She has been with Concubine Li for many years and naturally understands her temper.

"Greetings to the Crown Princess."

"Sister, please get up. I wonder what brings you here in such a hurry?" The Crown Princess was busy with a lot of things, so she didn't exchange pleasantries and asked directly to the point.

"I did come here to..." Concubine Li was about to say something, but she stopped immediately and looked around.

The Crown Princess immediately understood what she meant, "Yun Jin, let everyone leave."

"Yes." All the palace servants went out in an instant.

"Sister, you can talk without worries now."

"The Crown Princess has always been keeping an eye on Qingluan. She didn't make any move before, but today she finally made some move." Concubine Li walked up to the Crown Princess and said.

After hearing this, the Crown Princess rolled her eyes and asked, "Did my sister find out something?"

"The people around her have been very busy these past two days, so I sent someone to inquire about it today. I heard that she was planning to perform at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet."

"Sister, are you sure you didn't hear it wrong?" The Crown Princess looked surprised. How come she hadn't heard anything about this?

"Even if you aren't mentioned, I'm confused too. I've never heard of this before. Logically, if she wants to do anything at the banquet, she should report it to you in advance. But when I see that you don't seem to know anything about it, I'm even more confused. What is she up to?" The more Concubine Li thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong, but she couldn't tell what was wrong.

"This is indeed strange. She didn't come to me to talk about this." The Crown Princess was also confused.

"Could it be that she deliberately lied to the people who were asking about it?" Concubine Li suddenly said.

"You saw she was busy over there so you went to find out, right?" asked the Crown Princess.

"Yes, if she remains silent like before, I will not..."

“What if you are not the only one who noticed her behavior and then went to inquire about it, and got the same answer? However, others naturally would not come to me to verify it like you did. They would just think it was true, and finally…” The Crown Princess suddenly had an idea and thought of the reason why Qingluan did this on purpose.

"The Crown Princess said that she deliberately sent out such signals to make people mistakenly think that she was going to perform, but why did she do this? If she said that she was doing it to win favor, then performing would still have a chance, but if she was just pretending, wouldn't it be a waste of effort?" Concubine Li didn't understand what the motive was for doing this?

"I'm afraid only she knows this, but since she set such a big trap, there must be someone she wants to deal with. Anyway, this matter will not affect us, so we'd better just wait and see." said the Crown Princess.

"What the Crown Princess said is true." Concubine Li also understood that there was really no clue at the moment. "I will continue to watch her."

"Well, thank you for your hard work."

"What are you talking about, Crown Princess? With her here, the Crown Prince has been going less often, and I am happy and at ease."

"You, others are eager for His Highness to come over, but what about you? You wish to push His Highness out completely." The Crown Princess also shook her head.

"The Crown Princess knows this, but this is not what I am thinking about."

On the way back, Concubine Li passed by the garden. Qian'er was sharp-eyed and saw from a distance that the person in front was Concubine Guo. She immediately reminded her, "Your Majesty, Concubine Guo is in front."

Concubine Li looked up and saw that it was indeed the case. She immediately prepared to walk to the side road to avoid running into him. Unexpectedly, what she feared came true. She was about to hide, but Concubine Guo came over as if she had come to find her on purpose. She actually walked over to her and said, "Sister Li, I saw a figure from a distance just now. It was you." Concubine Guo spoke first to greet her. Naturally, she couldn't be rude, so she had to bite the bullet and said, "Hello, Sister Guo. I was a little anxious to leave just now, so I was impolite for a moment. I hope you won't blame me."

"Sister, you are still so polite. What's the big deal? I am not such a stingy person." Concubine Guo said with a smile.

Concubine Li really didn't know how she had offended this young lady. If it were any other time, she would never have stopped her to talk to her like this.

"Sister, I have something else to do, so I'll go first." Concubine Li didn't know what she was going to do, so she decided to leave first.

"Hey, sister, why are you in such a hurry? I do have something to tell you today." When Concubine Guo saw that she was about to leave, she immediately stopped her.

"Sister, please tell me."

"Sister, do you have some misunderstandings about what happened in your palace last time? That was all done on purpose by Qingluan... Forget it, let's not talk about the past, let's talk about the present."

"What's happening right now?" Concubine Li didn't understand.

"I heard that Qingluan is in my sister's palace, but because of this, my sister hasn't seen the Crown Prince many times. You must not like that girl Qingluan, right?" Concubine Guo thought as a matter of course.

"..." Concubine Li didn't know what to say for a moment, so she didn't say anything.

"Look, I'm under house arrest because of her, and you're under house arrest because of her. Look at this person, she's a jinx. Besides, the Eastern Palace is not that big or small, and she's just a mere concubine. How could the Crown Princess put her in your palace? It must be that the Crown Princess is jealous of you and me. Think about it, the Eastern Palace has more children than us and the Crown Princess. She just arranged Qingluan to come in to mess with us. It was the Crown Princess who arranged for Qingluan to go to my palace, and so many things happened afterwards. How could there be such a coincidence in the world? It must have been arranged by someone, sister, am I right?" Concubine Guo asked back.

"This is unlikely. Are so many things arranged by someone?" Concubine Li pretended to be shocked and thought to herself: This person thinks a lot. If I didn't know the whole story, it would sound like it makes sense.

"My sister is just too naive. What's impossible about this? You say that you usually follow the orders of the Crown Princess, but now the Crown Princess is using a little concubine to snatch our favor. Do you think we can tolerate this?" Concubine Guo said indignantly, and every word she said seemed to be speaking up for her.

"When my sister said that, I suddenly realized that the Crown Princess had made such a big plan. Did my sister come to me today to find me? Since Qingluan is used by the Crown Princess to contain us, we should find a way to get rid of this person as soon as possible!" Concubine Li understood now. Wasn't this person saying so much just to make her and the Crown Prince fall out, and then join forces with her? It turned out that he was here to sow discord. She wanted to see what this idiot was going to do? So she pretended to be scared and asked.

"My sister has finally figured it out." Concubine Guo said with relief, "It is not an easy task to get rid of her. We need to plan for the long term. My sister lives in the same palace with her, which makes it convenient for her to gather intelligence. As the saying goes, knowing yourself and the enemy will ensure victory in every battle. We must first know what she is doing so that we can deal with it. As for harming my Crown Princess, my sister must remember not to reveal her tracks and let her find out that we have seen through her plan." Concubine Guo warned.

"Sister, I understand. If anything happens, please inform me immediately." Concubine Li nodded.

Concubine Guo was very satisfied to see that she was so sensible.

"Sister, I really have something else to do in the palace, so I will leave first." Concubine Li was about to leave again, and this time Concubine Guo did not stop her.

"Sister, you must remember what I just said to you."

"Sister, I understand."

Concubine Guo watched her leave.

Lanzhi watched Concubine Li walk away and said, "My Lady, will Concubine Li betray the Crown Princess?"

"Whether she will or not, the seed of doubt has been planted in her heart. Once people start to doubt each other, there will be rifts. Even if they don't become enemies in the end, they will never be able to reconcile as before."

Concubine Li waited until Concubine Guo could no longer see her before she quickened her pace.

"Your Majesty, please slow down. What did Concubine Guo say to you just now?" Qian'er and the others were standing a little far away and did not hear the conversation between the two.

Now seeing that my queen is running away, could it be that she was threatened by Concubine Guo? It is not impossible...

"Let's talk about it when we get back." Concubine Li wanted to go back as soon as possible.

After returning, Concubine Li sat down and drank a few sips of tea. After calming down, she began to sort out her thoughts.

Today she truly felt what it meant to be unable to stay out of a situation.

"Qian'er." Concubine Li called out after a while.

"The servant is here."

"Keep a close eye on the side hall these days."

"Yes."

Naturally, Concubine Li would not be won over by Guo's few words. If it were someone else, they might really betray her for the sake of favor, but she was an exception. Since she wanted to win her over, she would pretend to surrender and see what she really wanted to do.

On the second day, Concubine Li told the Crown Princess about Guo's attempt to win her over. The Crown Princess was still a little surprised. After all, everyone in the Eastern Palace knew that Concubine Li and she were in cahoots. It seemed that Qingluan had really pushed Guo into a corner, and she could come up with such an idea.

"In that case, you can play with her and see what she wants to do." The Crown Princess also meant this, then she remembered something and continued, "By the way, doesn't she want to know about Qingluan? Just tell her and see how she responds."

"That's what I was thinking. Since we don't know what Qingluan wants to do, let them fight."

"Let them fight..." The Crown Princess seemed to have discovered something. "You said Qingluan did these things on purpose and didn't hide it. Could it be that it was just to let Guo know and then take action?"

"Qingluan's little trick is not very sophisticated, and it is easy to see through it. Guo can't be so stupid, right?" Concubine Li still had some doubts. Even if Guo knew what Qingluan was doing, she might not be able to tell the truth from the false.

"That may not be the case. Guo has just come out, and now is the time when she needs favor. Although Qingluan's performance is a deceptive trick, it is also an opportunity. Guo can really perform at the palace banquet. If she performs well, it is not impossible for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to take notice of her first."

"I still don't understand. If this is the case, Qingluan's behavior would only make things easier for others. I think she must have other purposes." Concubine Li still firmly believed that things were not that simple.

"What you said makes sense, but we have no way of knowing what Qingluan's ultimate goal is for now."

Concubine Guo

"Your Majesty, there's news from Concubine Li, saying that Concubine Qingluan has been busy preparing a dance these days. It seems that she wants to dance at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet to win the emperor's favor." Lanzhi reported the news from Concubine Li.

"Dancing, this little bitch knows how to pick a good day. Is she planning to show off her skills at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet to impress His Highness? Absolutely not. I can't let her succeed." Sure enough, after hearing about this, Concubine Guo didn't even think about whether it was true or not. She immediately thought about how to sabotage it. "The Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet is indeed a good opportunity. She wants to be in the limelight. It's impossible. I should be the one to be in the limelight."

"Is your Majesty ready to dance too?" Lanzhi asked.

"What are you dancing for? That's what dancers do. Besides, I can't dance."

"So what is the lady going to do?"

"I'll think about this carefully. By the way, when the time comes, you can send someone to..." Concubine Guo whispered a few words in Lanzhi's ear.

"I'll do it right away." Lanzhi nodded after hearing this.

After figuring out how to deal with Qingluan, Concubine Guo thought carefully about how she could stand out at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet.

Of course she can't sing or dance, but she comes from a scholarly family, so she is capable of writing.