In the past, Cao Yue’s status in the Cao family was already unusual. Now that Cao Yue had become a royal concubine, her status was even more beyond comparison.
Li shi kept thinking inwardly about how lucky her younger sister-in-law was, while smiling ingratiatingly as she paid her respects. “It is this servant who came uninvited. As long as Your Ladyship does not blame this servant for disturbing your peace, that will be good enough.”
Cao Yue half-lifted her hand to signal for Li shi to rise, then called for Li shi to sit down. She herself also did not go sit in the main seat, but directly sat beside Li shi, giving her plenty of face. After all, Li shi was a daughter-in-law of the Cao family. In the future, when her mother was not convenient to enter the palace, if there was anything, it would still need Li shi to pass it along.
After ordering someone to bring red date honey tea again, Cao Yue said, “Sister-in-law came to me for something?”
Li shi had long since gotten used to Cao Yue’s directness, and smiled a little embarrassedly. “There is indeed something. I came thinking of asking Your Ladyship.”
As Li shi spoke, she quietly observed Cao Yue’s expression. Seeing that her expression was as usual, she slowly said, “This servant came to ask, some days ago when Your Ladyship was at the estate, did you happen to see that child Fur?”
That day, she had clearly instructed people to send Wang shi back home. She had thought that would be the end of it, but who knew Wang shi was actually not in the Wang family. The Li family there did not know anything about it at all. If not for her eldest sister-in-law coming to ask about it today, she would still have been like a deaf person, not hearing the least bit of news.
Cao Yue took a light sip of the red date tea, then upon hearing this, she laughed softly and said, “As far as I know, it was sister-in-law who ordered someone to send Cousin away. Then sister-in-law ought to know Cousin’s whereabouts. How is it that you have now come to ask me about it?”
She had people keep Wang shi under watch at the estate because she did not want her to come out and cause trouble.
Earlier, when the emperor was at the estate, she did not let Wang shi come out. At this point, it was even more impossible. If she came out, then all the effort she had spent before would be the same as a joke.
Li shi was caught off guard, and her face turned somewhat unsightly. What was said was the truth, but for Cao Yue to say it like that clearly meant she did not leave her any face at all.
She wanted to argue a few words, but just as she gathered the courage, she met Cao Yue’s icy, bone-piercing gaze, and instantly lost her nerve. “Speaking of it, this matter was this servant’s handling was not thorough enough. It’s just that if Your Ladyship knows, please tell this servant truthfully. Otherwise this servant will not be able to explain to my maternal family sister-in-law. Fur, after all, is also a young lady of an official household.”
She had come over precisely because she knew Wang shi was at the estate, and that hot-spring estate was a place the Cao family who did not know that it was the place of the Cao family’s most favored young lady?
Li shi could not directly order people to go to the estate to take someone away, so she could only come first to sound out Cao Yue’s intentions.
The teacup was placed by Cao Yue onto the tea table neither lightly nor heavily, and the crisp sound struck at Li shi’s mind. “Sister-in-law is threatening me?”
“Not… no, this servant does not.”
Li shi panicked a little. She had only told the truth, so how had it become a threat?
Just then, An Ning showed herself outside the door. Cao Yue no longer wanted to continue grappling with Li shi, and slowly stood up. “No matter what thoughts sister-in-law has in your heart, this consort only wants to remind sister-in-law of one thing. You are now a wife of the Cao family, and with the Cao family you share both glory and loss. Only if this consort is well can sister-in-law be well. I hope sister-in-law will remember this carefully.”
After speaking, Cao Yue turned and went into the warm side room. An Ning stepped forward two paces to support Li shi, helping her as she walked out. “Madam, Master is waiting for you outside. This servant will see you out.”
Hearing the words Master, Li shi gave a jolt, and only then did she realize how outrageous it had been for her to come to the western courtyard.
Looking at Cao Yin’s face before her, restrained with anger, Li shi could not help swallowing. A trace of fear flashed in her eyes. “Husband…”
Cao Yin took a deep breath, then swept his sleeve and left with Li shi. “Return to the southern courtyard.”
Because the imperial carriage was still at the Cao residence, the Cao husband and wife did not dare reveal their anger outside. It was not until they returned to the main room of the southern courtyard and dismissed the servants that Cao Yin slammed a hand onto the table and pointed at Li shi, cursing loudly, “Stupid woman, where is your brain?”
Li shi’s eyes reddened, and she bent her knees and knelt down. “Husband, please calm your anger. This concubine knows she was wrong.”
“You know you were wrong?” Cao Yin was even angrier. “Can one sentence of ‘I know I was wrong’ cover up your ignorance and incompetence?”
“The matter the husband entrusted to you, you did not take to heart, and now you still wanted the madam to clean up your mess. Where on earth did you get the face to go asking the madam for someone on behalf of your Li family, for some useless young lady cousin, at a time like this?”
Cao Yin was indeed profit-minded, but he also knew what was close and what was distant, and he knew even more that Cao Yue becoming a concubine was far better than Wang shi becoming a concubine, and the glory it brought to the Cao family was especially different.
So let alone Wang shi merely being properly confined at the estate and unable to get out right now, even if Cao Yue truly had laid a hand on Wang shi and she died, so what?
Could the Wang family and the Li family still make the Cao family’s young lady pay with her life?
Li shi knew she was in the wrong, and did not dare make a single sound. But after being in the wrong came grievance. For the sake of one Wang shi, she could be said to have become neither accepted inside nor outside.
Seeing Li shi like this, Cao Yin also lost the mood to keep scolding her. He only subconsciously lowered his voice and instructed, “No matter what method you use, during the time before the emperor leaves Jiangning, make the Li family and the Wang family obedient and well-behaved, and do not allow them to stir up any trouble. If you cannot do it, then when the imperial carriage leaves, you will voluntarily ask to be dismissed from the inner quarters, and the Cao family cannot tolerate a daughter-in-law like you who is set on her natal family.”
No wonder he and the madam were so angry with Li shi. If Li shi had simply sent the person back to the Wang family, there would not have been all these subsequent troubles.
Yet Wang shi was not sent back. Instead, she went to the estate. If the emperor were to see Wang shi, then all the Cao family’s calculations would be laid bare before the emperor.
Whether it was spying on the emperor’s whereabouts or deceiving the sovereign, any one of those charges would be enough to doom the Cao family forever.
Only then did Li shi realize the importance of the matter, and she answered repeatedly. She even hugged Cao Yin’s leg and begged bitterly for Cao Yin to give her one more chance, but Cao Yin kicked her away. “Take care of yourself.”
In the western courtyard, An Ning watched Cao Yin and his wife leave. Just as she arrived under the corridor outside the warm side room and was rubbing her cheeks, which had been blown somewhat red by the wind, the sleeping chamber matron sent by Liang Jiugong arrived.
This time, Liang Jiugong had specifically instructed the sleeping chamber matron again and again to treat Consort Zhao respectfully, and not to be the least bit disrespectful. Otherwise, if Consort Zhao became unhappy, the three matrons in front, who had been beaten with boards and still had no burn ointment to use and were lying on their beds groaning, would be her fate.
Thus, when the sleeping chamber matron came to the western courtyard, she was careful and even more careful. Even when she saw An Ning, her attitude did not show the slightest arrogance.
The sleeping chamber matron came up the steps and stood before An Ning with her back to the warm side room window, smiling as she said, “Is the girl Consort Zhao’s personal maid?”
An Ning lowered the hand that had been rubbing her face and properly paid her respects. “This servant is. What may the matron be here for?”
She looked like another person from the imperial presence. It was just unclear whether she had also been sent by the emperor to teach rules again.
After the sleeping chamber matron made her identity clear, An Ning nodded in understanding. “Then please trouble the matron to wait here for a moment. This servant will go in and report.”
As she spoke, she was about to turn around and go report, when the sleeping chamber matron hurriedly pulled An Ning back, speaking warmly, “No need, no need. I was only ordered to ask the girl something. There is no need to disturb the madam’s peace.”
Hearing the sleeping chamber matron say this, An Ning immediately became alert, but on her face she still smiled without showing anything. “May I ask what the matron wishes to ask?”
As An Ning’s voice fell, the window behind the sleeping chamber matron quietly opened a crack. Looking through that crack, one could just see An Ning’s face, and An Ning could also see the person standing behind the window.
The sleeping chamber matron noticed nothing, and quietly said, “Girl, don’t be nervous. I just want to ask whether Consort Zhao’s body is now convenient or not?”
An Ning was stunned, and subconsciously looked behind the sleeping chamber matron. She only saw Cao Yue slightly nod before closing the window. Only then did An Ning say to her, “It became convenient yesterday. Why is the matron asking about this?”
The sleeping chamber matron did not hear the hidden meaning in An Ning’s question, and only assumed that An Ning was also an innocent young maiden who knew nothing about matters between men and women, so she gave a reserved smile. “This is a good thing for Consort Zhao. Please have Consort Zhao prepare herself.”
After speaking, the sleeping chamber matron returned to give her report in very good spirits. An Ning watched her leave, stamped her foot, and held her hands to her mouth to breathe out two warm breaths before going inside.
She repeated the conversation from before once more. An Ning took the hot tea handed over to her by An Ping and thanked her, then asked in puzzlement, “Is the emperor unable to wait any longer?”
An Ping spat at An Ning. “What nonsense are you talking? You think you can talk about the emperor?”
The rebuke came so suddenly that An Ning was startled, and she knew she should not have said that. Awkwardly, she scratched the back of her head.
Perhaps it was because that day in the peach grove, after she clearly knew the emperor’s identity yet still acted as if she did not know and was disrespectful to him, she no longer felt as much reverence toward the emperor in private as she had at the beginning. On the contrary, she even felt a little proud.
Look, she was a servant who had been disrespectful to the emperor and still had not been punished.
Seeing that An Ping had given An Ning a warning, Cao Yue did not say anything. She merely fiddled with a box of ointments, her expression somewhat absent-minded. “Since the emperor has sent someone to ask, then let us prepare. Sooner or later there will be such a day.”
However, for this first night of bed service, she still had to leave the emperor with an unforgettable impression. Otherwise, a beauty with only a body and no interesting soul would ultimately lose a bit of flavor.
With Cao Yue’s words, An Ning gave the order, and the western courtyard busied itself for most of the day. Even dinner was only a bowl of congee made from rouge rice in a hasty manner.
In the bath chamber, after bathing, Cao Yue lay on the beauty couch with only a wool blanket covering her below the abdomen. The rest of her body was exposed, letting An Ning and An Ping busily work over her body, kneading and rubbing on Cao Yue’s specially made nourishing skin ointment, not even sparing the nail beds.
After the nourishing skin ointment had been applied all over her body, both maids were exhausted and sweating all over.
An Ping put away the empty bowl and looked at Cao Yue’s snow-white skin, shimmering with a glossy luster. Her whole body gave off a languid and charming bearing, completely unlike her usual coolness, and her eyes went straight. “Miss’s skin is even more tender and smooth than silk. This servant almost can’t bear to let go of it when touching it.”
As expected of a jar that costs a hundred gold pieces. The effect really was miraculous.
Cao Yue looked down and saw the satisfaction in her eyes, then lifted the wool blanket that was only draped over her body, and with her red lips she motioned at the smaller bowl in An Ning’s hand. “Stop being glib. Hurry up.”
A woman’s delicate places needed maintenance even more. That was also why she had been able to hold steady her position as a favored consort in her previous life.
People always say that serving a man with one’s beauty cannot last long, but if that beauty remains for a long time, then even if one does not want it to last long, it will not do.
Besides, what is there between men and women besides that bit of bedchamber business? As long as that business makes the man feel satisfied, would she still have to worry about not being able to blow the pillow wind properly?
An Ning tightened her grip on the bowl, then blushing, she crouched down to care for Cao Yue’s delicate place.
After the care was finished, another quarter of an hour had passed. Cao Yue looked at the hourglass in the bath chamber, and seeing that it was late, she hastily got up from the beauty couch and, naked, ordered the two maids to dress her.
But just as the light blue dudou and underpants had been put on, she suddenly heard an order wrapped in desire: “All of you, go down.”