Ninth Imperial Glorious Phoenix Chapter 296

Chapter 296: Tricky

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Madam Cui was indeed delighted and chided, “What do you mean by fat! I don’t see a few ounces of meat on your entire body. If you want to have children, you have to gain a little more weight.”

Mingzhu took the opportunity to roll into her mother’s arms and act spoiled, saying, “No, no, getting any fatter wouldn’t look good.”

After the mother and daughter cuddled for a while, Madame Cui whispered, “Don’t go to the palace recently, and don’t cause trouble for the Great Empress Dowager.”

Although Yuwen Chu had mentioned it, due to his status limitations, he only hinted at certain things very subtly. Now, Madame Cui’s vague words made Mingzhu anxious. She couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly is going on?”

Madame Cui still didn’t want to say too much, only saying, “Eunuch Rong is considered a meritorious subject to the Great Empress Dowager. Therefore, our family is willing to show him respect. However, those petty people are envious and malicious when they see it, and they want to spread rumors and cause trouble to harm the Great Empress Dowager.”

If it were before, Mingzhu would have probably believed it without hesitation. However, after last night’s events, she couldn’t view this matter so naively anymore. Why weren’t there rumors spreading about other eunuchs and concubines in the palace? But she couldn’t say this, so she just followed Madame Cui’s lead and said, “Many people are envious of our family. I’m afraid the Great Empress Dowager wouldn’t feel good hearing about it.”

Madame Cui sighed heavily and said gravely, “Huiru didn’t commit suicide; she was murdered.”

Huiru had been serving well, and the Great Empress Dowager liked her very much. However, she suddenly died, supposedly by suicide. The Great Empress Dowager, being old, couldn’t accept it at first. Upon investigation, it was discovered that she was murdered, which angered the Great Empress Dowager even more. Who killed her? Why? There must be a reason. Because Empress Dowager Min and her son had been making too many moves, the Great Empress Dowager was furious and demanded a thorough investigation, intending to use this as an opportunity to warn and punish Empress Dowager Min and her son. However, during this investigation, it was discovered that Huiru knew a huge secret.

“Peace is shattered when rumors abound.” Madame Cui gently stroked her temple’s white hair, sighing, “The palace maids who were close to Huiru said that she had been acting strangely since the day before yesterday afternoon. She locked herself in her room and refused to talk to anyone. That afternoon, when the Great Empress Dowager was hearing a report from Eunuch Rong, Mu Gugu took people to deliver food to the Second Prince. Besides Huiru, there was no one else around.”

Mingzhu understood. The other party had been watching and waiting for a long time, then seized this opportunity. Using Huiru’s death as a pretext, they spread a series of rumors and stories to tarnish the Great Empress Dowager’s reputation. The Great Empress Dowager was too careless. If they had treated Huiru’s incident as a normal suicide from the beginning and discreetly handled it instead of intending to teach Empress Dowager Min and her son a lesson, it wouldn’t have escalated to this point.

The most dreadful rumor was about an affair between a man and a woman because everyone was interested but couldn’t prove anything. Even saying a few extra words would be shocking. Especially when one was the lofty Great Empress Dowager, and the other was a lowly, physically disabled eunuch. Even saying more than a few words would be outrageous.

Mingzhu paced back and forth in the room several times and then turned to Madame Cui, asking, “How is Father planning to handle this?”

Madame Cui was a bit hesitant. She usually didn’t pay much attention to these matters, focusing more on family affairs and her children and husband. It was only because this matter involved the Great Empress Dowager that she paid more attention. As for other matters, she genuinely didn’t know.

Mingzhu sighed, “Let’s wait for Father to come back.”

“But it will be late,” Madame Cui instructed someone to prepare food. “Your father said there’s something in the yamen today, so he’ll be back a little later.” Just as she said that, she heard Sun Momo say outside, “Master is back!”

Madame Cui looked at the sky and whispered, “It’s still early, not even time for the yamen yet.”

Mingzhu felt something must have happened again, so she immediately went out, “I’ll go see Father.”

Madame Cui couldn’t stop her and had to let her go.

Mingzhu rushed outside like a whirlwind to Guanhai Residence. The guards there looked pale and hurried over to stop her. Before they could speak, they slapped themself twice and then pleaded, “It’s not that I won’t let Wangfei go over, but Master has given strict orders. Without his permission, no one is allowed to enter. Otherwise, the punishment will be beheading.”

If it were before, Mingzhu would probably ignore them and walk over by herself. However, after living in the Ying Wang’s mansion for a while, she knew the rules. She didn’t want to cause trouble for others because of her own stubbornness, so she stopped and told the servant, “I’ll wait here. You go ask the Master.”

The servant was afraid that she would follow if he left, so he hesitated and blushed deeply, but he didn’t move.

It was rare for her to follow the rules, but people didn’t trust her, forcing her to ruin her image. Mingzhu sighed, took a deep breath, and shouted, “Father! Father! It’s me, Mingzhu! I’m back!”

The people in the Fu residence were already used to her behavior, so they quickly relayed the message to Fu Cong. Fu Cong smiled bitterly and told his aides who were discussing how to deal with the Great Empress Dowager’s matter, “It’s unfortunate that our family has given birth to such a mischievous child, making you all laugh.”

The aides, who had followed him for many years, knew that he was scolding harshly but was actually very concerned, so they all laughed with him, “Wangfei is sincere and adorable, and her filial piety is commendable. She must miss Xiangye.”

Fu Cong also took the opportunity to stand up and instructed someone to take Mingzhu to the side room.

It had been a while since Mingzhu had seen him, and when she saw him again, she felt that her father had aged a lot. She couldn’t help but feel very distressed, “Father, have you been staying up late again? Have you not been taking care of yourself? Last time, I sent you those health pills. Did you take them properly?”

“I’ve been taking them all along, and I haven’t stayed up late.” Fu Cong denied while discreetly assessing his daughter. Seeing that Mingzhu looked extremely well, even a bit fatter than last time, he felt a little relieved and smiled, “Come, let Father take a look at you. Father is busy and can’t accompany you for too long. Mr. Jiang and the others are still waiting.”

Mingzhu got straight to the point, “I came back for the Great Empress Dowager’s matter. Father came back so early. Did something happen?”

Fu Cong frowned, “Did Ying Wang tell you?”

Mingzhu didn’t deny it, “Family matters, I have the right to know because I’m surnamed Fu, not just the Ying Wang’s consort.”

Seeing her determined expression and her firm words, Fu Cong felt very gratified. “Since you already know, I won’t hide it from you. The situation is indeed very tricky, even more so than we expected. We originally planned to suppress Huiru’s matter and deal with it quietly. But then a palace maid came out to defend Huiru, saying that Huiru saw something she shouldn’t have seen and offended someone she shouldn’t have offended, so she was killed to silence her. Then this palace maid, without waiting for the guards to arrest her, committed suicide by hitting the pillar.” Fu Cong sighed irritably and tugged at his beard, “Then His Majesty personally punished Rong Ming.”

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