The rural doctor bought a husband who was very treacherous

Chapter 247 Summer Banquet

Inside Ningshou Palace.

Empress Dowager Liu was lying on a chaise longue. Her face was pale and she did not have the spirit she once had.

The last time Prince Li and his family came to visit the Queen Mother, she was in much better spirits than this time.

After seeing her today, Princess Li thought that the Queen Mother would not be able to attend the summer banquet in a few days.

Princess Li is now more worried about whether the Queen Mother has some illness and whether she will pass it on to her.

"What's wrong with the Queen Mother?" Princess Li frowned and looked at the maids in the Queen Mother's room.

"Look at what they are doing. As a person gets older, he will feel uncomfortable here and there from time to time.

Didn't we just meet a few days ago? Why are you here again today?" Empress Dowager Liu breathed a sigh of relief after she finished speaking, as if the many words she had just spoken had already consumed a lot of her energy.

"I entered the palace today because Mingyue had some conflicts with someone in Kyoto yesterday."

"Oh? What's going on?" The empress dowager seemed to have come to life. The nanny behind her helped her add a pillow so that she could sit up a little.

"Yesterday, Mingyue was shopping in Kyoto. Unexpectedly, someone insulted her. The maid beside Mingyue had already revealed her identity as a princess, but the man was still aggressive and didn't take Mingyue seriously at all. He even said that he had never heard of a princess Mingyue in Kyoto. He was ignoring Prince Li's presence."

"He even had a conflict with Mingyue. He pushed the maid next to Mingyue and damaged the items in the store. In the end, he was taken to Jingzhao Prefecture. Prince Li personally paid 100,000 taels of silver in compensation to the store before Mingyue was brought back.

Our Mingyue has never encountered such a thing since she was born. She never thought that she would be bullied as soon as she arrived in Kyoto.

Queen Mother, you must make the decision for Mingyue." After saying this, Princess Li wiped the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief.

The Queen Mother raised her eyes to glance at Princess Li who was sitting opposite her. She was an old fox for thousands of years, so it was no wonder that she could not understand that Princess Li was just pretending.

I guess Princess Li was just angry and didn't shed a single tear.

"Whose family made Mingyue angry?" Empress Dowager Liu took the tea brought by the nanny and took a sip.

"I heard that she is the eldest daughter of the Minister of Revenue."

"Cough, cough, cough..." Empress Dowager Liu almost dropped the teacup in her hand. Fortunately, the nanny beside her took it in time and prevented the cup from falling to the ground.

However, a lot of tea still spilled onto the carpet. "Empress Dowager."

Another old maid came over and knelt in front of Empress Dowager Liu, carefully examining her fingers. Although she was not young anymore, she had always taken good care of her hands, so they were still a little red from the hot tea.

Another maid came over with medicine and wiped the burns on Empress Dowager Liu's hands.

For a moment, the maids and servants in the Queen Mother's Palace were all busy, and no one paid attention to the expression of Princess Li who was standing aside.

Princess Li saw that the room was busy, so she just glanced at the Queen Mother and turned to leave the room.

As soon as she came out of the house, Princess Li fanned herself in front of her with a handkerchief, fearing that she might have been sick from the Queen Mother's presence.

"Since the Queen Mother is not feeling well, I will go back first. You can talk to her later." Princess Li did not even look at who was next to her. She just pulled the person over and gave him some instructions before turning around and quickly leaving Ningshou Palace.

When the empress dowager recovered, she realized that Princess Li was no longer in Ningshou Palace, which made her very angry again.

"This Princess Li is becoming more and more unruly." The Queen Mother slapped the corner of the table, then remembered that she had split her nail before. She withdrew her hand with lingering fear and looked at it. Finding that the nail was fine, she let go of her hand again.

"Queen Dowager, please calm down. Princess Li may not have returned to Kyoto for a long time and may not understand the situation here..."

The Queen Mother glanced at the maid who was talking, and she immediately stopped talking and knelt down. "It was me who said too much."

"She couldn't possibly not know that the Liu family is my maternal family. How could she have forgotten about the things in the capital after living outside for more than ten years?"

Queen Mother Liu didn't believe it. It was obvious that Princess Li came here just to cause trouble for her.

"If she comes to the palace to ask for an audience again in the future, I will refuse her request." Empress Dowager Liu said, frowning and tapping her temple.

"Yes." The maids nearby responded one after another.

Then Empress Dowager Liu glanced at the maid who had just knelt in front of her and said, "You are getting old and confused this year. It's time for you to leave the palace and spend your remaining years in peace."

The gate of Ningshou Palace was closed. A maid followed two eunuchs with a bundle hanging on her arm. At the moment the gate was closed, the maid suddenly turned around and slowly knelt down towards the vermilion gate behind her.

The two eunuchs just stopped and looked at the maid, but did not say anything to stop her.

Then the nanny wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, stood up and followed the nanny away again.

The three of them walked through a small door before the maid suddenly looked up at the long passage. She tightened the package hanging on her arm, looked at the eunuch who was leading the way and asked, "We have to take a detour to leave the palace here. Did we go the wrong way?"

"That's right. An important person passed by that road today. We specifically asked about it, so we won't go wrong. Just go through the small door over there and go around the garden and you'll be there." The eunuch who was leading the way turned around and said to the nanny.

The nanny nodded and followed the two eunuchs.

The nanny had been in the palace for decades, so she was naturally very familiar with the roads in the palace. After hearing what the two eunuchs said, she followed them without saying a word.

Just as she passed through the small door and walked around to the garden, Mammy suddenly realized that it was unusually quiet around her.

Although few people come to this yard, it is not unheard of.

But at this moment, there were only three of them in the whole garden.

The nanny stopped again and subconsciously took a step back.

The two eunuchs who were leading the way looked at each other and quickly rushed towards the stunned nanny.

One of them covered the nanny's mouth and nose with a cotton handkerchief, while the other slapped the back of her neck.

In the blink of an eye, the nanny who had been in a daze just now suddenly tilted her body and fell limply to the ground.

The two eunuchs said nothing, quickly lifted the nanny's arms, and dragged her away into the hidden rockery in the garden.

Half a quarter of an hour later, the two eunuchs slowly left the rockery, and the nanny who had just been there was no longer with them.

The two of them lowered their heads and returned with the package that the nanny had just been carrying.

Next to the rockery in the yard, in a flower bed, there was a stiff corpse floating.

This nanny probably never imagined that the master she had served all her life would not let her leave the palace and would keep her in this deep palace forever.

The body of the nanny was discovered a few days later. At that time, everyone thought that the nanny was old and accidentally fell into the water and drowned, and was wrapped in a straw mat and sent out of the palace.

On the Empress Dowager's side, for several days in a row, all those who came to submit invitations and want to pay a visit to her were turned away by her people, saying that she had a headache due to catching a cold a few days ago.

Even when the wife of the Minister of Revenue came, Empress Dowager Liu did not meet her.

"I heard that the Queen Mother was sick because of Princess Li. After our daughter had a conflict with Princess Mingyue, Princess Li went to the palace the next day. After that, the Queen Mother stopped seeing anyone."

Speaking of this, Mrs. Liu smashed a tea bowl.

She brought Liu Wanning back home a few days ago. Liu Wanning had been running a high fever until yesterday when the fever subsided.

After the fever subsided, Liu Wanning seemed like an idiot and didn't even recognize her mother.

She huddled in the corner of the bed and showed a look of fear to everyone she saw.

He didn't even recognize anyone. Minister Liu went to see him once and heard the doctor say that he was frightened too much and might have become stupid, so he just left.

After that, he did not set foot in the main courtyard for several days and stayed in the third aunt's room every day.

Mrs. Liu only gave birth to a son and a daughter. Her son made no progress in his studies in Beijing, so he was transferred by Lord Liu to Jiangnan for training.

Mrs. Liu usually had only this one daughter by her side, and she doted on her very much, which was why Liu Wanning developed such a willful and unruly personality.

Lord Liu usually turned a blind eye to Madam Liu's indulgence of her daughter. Fortunately, Liu Wanning was quite pretty, so she could be matched with a good husband based on her looks in the future to help Lord Liu rise rapidly in the officialdom.

But unexpectedly, the daughter was so disappointing that she was frightened silly. She was a useless abandoned child and it would be a laughing stock to keep her at home.

So on the second day after the doctor's confirmation, Liu Wanning was forcibly sent back to her hometown by Lord Liu. Before leaving, he only assigned a maid to accompany Liu Wanning.

Mrs. Liu dared to be angry but not to speak out. Now her only daughter who could speak to her was gone. Because of her daughter's affairs, Lord Liu became even more dissatisfied with her ability to manage the household.

She didn't dare argue with Lord Liu now and wanted to wait until her son was transferred back to Beijing before making a decision.

"Did Zihao reply?" Mrs. Liu asked the nanny beside her.

"Not yet." Mammy said, and quickly glanced at the lady's face.

Sure enough, the lady’s face looked extremely ugly, so gloomy that water seemed to drip out of it.

"Write another letter to Zihao, asking him to return to Kyoto no matter what."

"Yes." Nanny replied.

Prince Qi's Mansion.

Su Tang received two small boxes personally delivered by Manager Zhao, which contained compensation for store losses from Prince Li's Mansion and the Minister of Revenue's Mansion respectively.

Su Tang pulled out a piece of paper from a box and placed it on the table. "This is a reward for you. From now on, I will take out a portion of the Linglong Pavilion's dividends every year as a reward for you."

"Slave, thank you, master." Shopkeeper Zhao immediately knelt down and kowtowed to Su Tang.

Su Tang was very satisfied with Manager Zhao's performance. He accepted Su Tang's reward without being overly polite or hypocritical. People like him are more reliable.

"Manager Zhao, please go back first. If you have any problems in the future, you can come to Prince Qi's Mansion to find me directly." Su Tang gave Chunmei a wink, and Chunmei immediately took out a bronze plate from the cabinet beside her and handed it to Manager Zhao.

"Take this and just inform the concierge."

"Slave, thank you for your appreciation, Master."

Su Tang waved her hand, and Chunmei took Manager Zhao away.

Su Tang counted the silver bills in the two boxes, a total of 200,000 taels.

Su Tang happily put the banknotes and the box into the space.

Chunmei saw Manager Zhao off and returned, carrying a tray from outside into the house.

There were several beautiful summer dresses on the tray.

"The palace's summer banquet will be held in three days. Please try these clothes. If there is anything wrong with them, I will send them to the embroiderers for modification."

"Yeah, okay." Su Tang nodded in agreement.

She was looking forward to the summer banquet in a few days and what kind of excitement would happen in the palace.

Three days later.

The summer banquet was held as scheduled in the palace.

The Queen Mother and Concubine Li suddenly recovered at the same time.

On the day of the palace banquet, except for the queen who was still under house arrest in Fengyi Palace, everyone came to attend the banquet.

Of course, in order to make it more lively, in addition to the royal children, the legitimate sons and daughters of the ministers in the capital were also summoned into the palace.

After Su Tang entered the palace, she separated from Qi Lingheng and went to a garden where the men were.

Su Tang was still accompanied by Chunmei and Xiamei, and under the guidance of the palace maids, they came to Yingchun Garden next to the Imperial Garden.

When Su Tang arrived, many noble ladies had already gathered in the garden.

When they saw Su Tang, they all bowed and greeted her.

"Greetings, Grand Princess."

Su Tang smiled and nodded to everyone who greeted her, as a return gesture.

It was the first time for some of these noble ladies to see Su Tang. Some of them were not qualified to attend the previous palace banquets, and they had only heard rumors about Su Tang from others.

Seeing Su Tang responding to them with a gentle smile today, some people began to doubt some of the information in the rumors.

But no one dared to talk to Su Tang actively. Some of the timid ones just bowed and greeted her and then retreated to an inconspicuous place.

Su Tang glanced at everyone in the garden and saw Princess Mingyue, but not Liu Wanning.

It seems that the rumor that Liu Wanning had a high fever and became stupid is probably true.

When Su Tang just glanced at Princess Mingyue, her eyes met Princess Mingyue's.

However, when Princess Mingyue saw her, the expression on her face changed in a very wonderful way.

Su Tang ignored Princess Mingyue. After glancing at her, she turned around and walked towards the pavilion in the garden.

Several little princesses were already sitting in the pavilion.

After Su Tang came over, the little princesses who were still chatting immediately stopped talking and just looked at the somewhat unfamiliar elder sister in front of them.

"Hello, sister..."

"Why are you all looking at me? I'm afraid you've forgotten me. Here, this is a welcome gift for you, one for each of you."

After Su Tang finished speaking, Chunmei beside her immediately took out a few strings of glass beads from her arms and gave one to each princess.

"Thank you, Royal Sister." The little princesses were all easy to coax. After receiving the gifts from Su Tang, they became lively and came to Su Tang's side to talk to her.

"Royal sister, can I come to your house and play with you in the future?" A young princess, not yet an adult, blinked her big watery eyes and looked at Su Tang expectantly.

"Sure." Su Tang remembered that this princess was the youngest princess of Emperor Jing, and seemed to be ranked thirteenth. She was born to a palace maid and was not very favored in the palace.

Because of her status, her biological mother only gave her the title of beauty after giving birth to the princess.

"Thirteen, come here." At this time, a somewhat familiar voice came from outside the pavilion.

Su Tang looked back and saw Xuanyuan Mengyao whom she hadn't seen for a long time.