Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

With a clearer direction, Wanpin sent a message directly to her family, and Zhen Yuandao also formally stood up to oppose Nian Gengyao, which won the emperor's favor, and he promoted Zhen Yuandao from the Junior Minister of the Dali Temple to the Chief Minister of the Dali Temple.

And Hua Fei, who was almost the only favored concubine in the Old Summer Palace, finally accepted the fact that she could only be promoted to noble concubine. Her heart and eyes were full of the emperor. The troublemaker Li Fei was left in the palace, and Cao Guiren's attitude had also wavered, so she was immersed in a rare joy alone, and had even begun to prepare to give Wan Fei a fatal blow.

Concubine Cao had previously seen Concubine Wan being unreservedly involved with Prince Guo. Although she did not tell Concubine Hua about this at the time, she did mention it later when Concubine Hua forced her to come up with ideas on how to deal with Concubine Wan.

However, at that time, Concubine Hua felt that although this move could indeed hit Concubine Wan, it would also offend Prince Guo and even make the Emperor lose face, so Concubine Hua gave up after careful consideration.

But the situation is different at this time. Prince Guo is on the front line with Hua Fei's brother Nian Gengyao. In fact, Prince Guo can gain the emperor's trust more because he is the emperor's brother. Hua Fei feels that Prince Guo's existence will dilute the credit of the Nian family, so she finally makes up her mind to uncover the close contacts between Wan Fei and Prince Guo.

But in fact, since entering the palace, Concubine Wan has only had contact with Prince Guo twice. One of them was when Concubine Hua fed Princess Wen Yi cassava flour to frame Concubine Wan. Concubine Wan did meet Prince Guo at Qingliang Terrace, and the two chatted for a while, but later Concubine Wan honestly told the emperor the whole story. Although the emperor ignored Concubine Wan for a few days, the two soon reconciled.

The two met for the first time when they just arrived at the Old Summer Palace that year. Prince Guo competed with the emperor in archery. The bird shot by Prince Guo almost disturbed the pregnant Yi Xin. Yi Xin avoided it in time, but Concubine Wan ran into Zhang Deshun returning the prey and arrows, and took the opportunity to chat with Prince Guo.

This time, Wanpin had not experienced the emperor pretending to contact Prince Guo in advance. Wanpin had a mediocre impression of Prince Guo. The first time she came into contact with him, she was purely admiring his archery skills. The second time was because she couldn't avoid it. Prince Guo intentionally or unintentionally stopped her from leaving, so she couldn't help but say a few more words. Even because of this, her impression of Prince Guo was relatively low. After all, except for the fact that the emperor was slightly inferior to Prince Guo in archery, he was better than him in other aspects.

However, Wanpin didn't know that Prince Guo thought she was beautiful, kind-hearted and had inner qualities, so he couldn't resist her at all and had already developed a good impression of her. It was just that Wanpin was very favored by the Emperor, so he had no chance to seduce her successfully.

But now, Concubine Wan and the emperor staged a good drama of neglecting his new love for Concubine Hua. Although Prince Guo felt that the emperor would not treat Concubine Hua or Concubine Wan like this, the situation was in his favor, so he wandered around the Old Summer Palace every day, and naturally he met Concubine Wan from time to time.

It's just that Wanpin was mostly with Hui Guiren or An Changzai, and Prince Guo had no chance to be alone with them. But he thought it was nice to run into Wanpin once in a while and gain her favor, so he even enjoyed it, making Concubine Hua laugh at her. She was even ready to lure Wanpin out alone to let her run into Prince Guo, and then take the emperor to "catch them adulterously", so as to confirm Wanpin's restless behavior and take her life!

Although Yi Xin noticed that Concubine Hua had been paying close attention to Prince Guo's whereabouts recently, she did not expect that Concubine Hua would plot to have Concubine Wan cheat on Prince Guo. After all, Concubine Hua has always been paying attention to Concubine Wan, so when it was getting dark one day and Concubine Hua came to ask Yi Xin to go over, Yi Xin really had no idea what was going on.

Of course, Yi Xin would not go just to give face to Concubine Hua. Instead, she refused directly, saying, "The Emperor asked me to share the power of the palace with Concubine Hua. Concubine Hua and the Nian family are powerful. I can't think of any reason Concubine Hua needs my consultation. It's getting late today, and I'm afraid I'll fall into the water if I go out, so I'm too lazy to go out. Concubine Hua can understand, if she can't, forget it. Anyway, I and Concubine Hua are both concubines."

Zhou Ninghai was furious and deeply resented Yi Xin for not giving him face. He threatened directly, "Empress Jin, please don't be so absolute. Everyone in the palace knows that the emperor has ordered the imperial concubine to wear auspicious clothes. Empress Jin, you are still young. Don't let the current situation blind you and make you ignorant of the immensity of the world!"

Yi Xin was so angry that she laughed, "What a lackey of Concubine Hua!"

"Come here, Zhou Ninghai has spoken disrespectfully to me. I am the consort in charge of the palace. Take Zhou Ninghai down and punish him with twenty strokes of the cane."

"There's no need to be ruthless. Make sure Zhou Ninghai goes back and reports to Concubine Hua!"

There are rules for beating with sticks in the palace. Zheng Deshun understood that Yi Xin did not want to do anything to Zhou Ninghai this time. These twenty sticks were just for show, to make Zhou Ninghai more careful. At the same time, it was also meant to strike a blow against Concubine Hua's arrogance.

Sure enough, Zhang Deshun personally supervised the man until the beating was finished. Although Zhou Ninghai felt pain between his thighs, his movements were not affected much and he could walk slowly without any problem.

The emperor was originally waiting for Yi Xin to come over to check and balance Concubine Hua, but he didn't expect to see Zhou Ninghai, who was grinning. As soon as Zhou Ninghai entered the room, he complained for Concubine Hua: "Your Majesty, when I entered the room, I only had time to say that Concubine Hua invited me, and Concubine Jin immediately changed her face, saying that she and our queen share the same title and power, and there is no reason for her to come as soon as our queen invited her. I said I had something important to say, and I didn't even have time to say that Your Majesty was here, and Concubine Jin directly dragged me away and beat me with twenty boards!"

No one present understood the art of language better than Su Peisheng. He knew that the fact must be that Zhou Ninghai had a bad attitude, and Concubine Jin did not give face to Concubine Hua. After Zhou Ninghai made a few more threats, Concubine Jin completely broke off relations with Hua.

The emperor and Wanpin could think of everything that Su Peisheng could think of. Prince Guo couldn't help but laugh and said, "I see that Lord Ma Qi's attitude has softened a lot now. I didn't expect that Lord Ma Qi's niece is also a person who can't tolerate any grain of sand in her eyes."

The emperor's expression softened after hearing this joke. He chuckled and said, "Jin Fei is young and must have been spoiled at home. But she is not usually the type to look for trouble. I guess she was the first to speak rudely to me, and that's why she got angry."

Hua Fei couldn't help but roll her eyes when she heard this, "Your Majesty likes everyone, who can stop you from seeing Zhou Ninghai as just a servant?"

"But today's incident is ultimately the fault of Concubine Jin. I have always known that Concubine Jin relied on her good family background to not give face to anyone in the harem, and she has embarrassed me many times. Your Majesty, please make the decision for me!"

Hearing this, everyone present snorted in their hearts, the one who relied on her family background to bring shame to the entire harem, wasn't it you, Concubine Hua? !

At this moment, the emperor's anger when he saw Concubine Wan and Prince Guo riding in the same boat had subsided a lot. After calming down, he of course knew that the so-called private meeting between Concubine Wan and Prince Guo today was just a misunderstanding. He had calmed down towards Concubine Wan, but he was also genuinely dissatisfied with Prince Guo.

But he had never thought of causing any scandals between his concubines in the harem and members of the royal family, so he acquiesced to Concubine Wan's suggestion to ask Concubine Jin to come and listen to the handling of the matter.