"The emperor favors Zhaoyi, we don't dare disturb her." Xu Ronghua smiled and said: "This is a happy event, the concubines are also happy for Zhaoyi."

  Xu Ronghua, who used to live in the Yongshou Palace, was the only one not implicated by the Shen family. Not only did she not fall out of favor with the Emperor, but Empress Dowager still summoned her to serve, and the Empress did not treat her like Consort Li due to old grievances. Moreover, after the Shen family's downfall, Xu Ronghua seemed to have shed her shackles, living alone in a small, exquisitely decorated pavilion near both the Changxin Palace and the Jianzhang Palace, enjoying herself freely.

  "It's said that we absolutely cannot offend Consort Shao. The corner's Feng Zhuang Ji continued, her eyes glancing at Lin Yuan in front, a smile on her lips: "Last night, for the sake of Consort Shao, the Emperor even abandoned Hui E'ru, it can be seen how important Consort Shao is to the Emperor."

  Lin Yan didn't even bother to turn her head. As expected, before she could respond, a nearby concubine who couldn't bear to watch chimed in, "Zhuang Ji should focus on her own favors instead. Whether it's Consort Shao or Consort Wei, they are both people the Emperor loves and respects. Zhuang Ji shouldn't look at her own identity and qualifications, what right does she have to wag her tongue in front of the two consorts?" She even let out a cold snort as she spoke.

  The imperial concubine spoke in a very loud voice, without any restraint. The people around her all showed sarcastic expressions, and Feng Zhuang's face turned bright red, almost as if she wanted to burrow into the ground. Fang Ronghua, who had been bullied by Changhe Empress in the past, couldn't help but laugh "heh heh" and said with a mocking tone: "Empress, now that you're out of the palace, no one will fawn over you anymore..."

  Fang Ronghua's humble origins, this remark is extremely rude. "You..." Feng Zhuangji was so angry that her face turned purple, and she couldn't say a word, but her eyes were filled with tears. She bowed her head and burst into tears.

  After the Imperial Consort left, Feng Zhuangji, who was not favored anyway, never received favor again. Anyone in the palace could come and step on her. The Empress saw her crying loudly in public, a look of disdain flashed across her face, she rubbed her forehead and said: "Really noisy. Disperse now."

  Feng Zhuangji didn't even dare to cry anymore, covering her face as she left Changxin Palace.

  The imperial concubines left one after another. Empress Xiao's body leaned back in exhaustion, and beside her, Imperial Nurse Qi hastily supported her.

  "Your Ladyship needn't be too worried, Wei Zhaoyi has just woken up..."

  "Yes, just waking up and the emperor's heart has already flown away." Empress Xiao sighed slightly: "The palace still remembers that year, it was her appearance that made the emperor neglect us. It's been seven or eight years now? Besides Shangguan's later entry into the palace, who else can steal her thunder?"

  "Could it be that she was suppressed by the Imperial Consort in the first place? Now that you've even driven the Imperial Consort out of the palace, what's there to fear from her? She hasn't served the Emperor for five years now. Five years have passed, and due to illness, her body isn't as good as before. The current her must be different from before." Yu Qiu's tone was relaxed. Although she was young, she had entered the palace at the age of nine to follow the Empress, so they had gone through many things together.

  The queen only curled her lips, revealing a hint of a smile: "Don't underestimate her, Autumn. Wei Miao Zhuang is the daughter of Emperor Xing Rong's eldest princess, and if it weren't for her father's early death and the decline of their family, the emperor would have supported the Wei family instead of the Shangguan family! She has been favored in the palace for many years, and I've wanted to take action but couldn't find an opportunity... even when she got pregnant and gave birth, I still couldn't find a chance. This girl is meticulous and cautious, making it impossible to find any flaws."

  "Even so, didn't the second prince still die?" Qi's face was cold and smiling: "She was also harmed into a coma, suffering such a great loss, it can be seen that she is not an omnipotent person."

  The queen looked at her and said: "What's the big deal? As for that matter, I still don't know who did it to this day. All I know is that it wasn't us! It can only be said that our skills are not as good as others."

  The empress said, her body began to feel weak and tired again, unable to muster up the energy. This bout of illness had come on so suddenly, after a month of nursing her palace cold symptoms had slightly subsided, but her body had become even weaker. Qi Yue and Ruan Qiu didn't dare speak again, hastily one person brought over the medicine bowl while the other helped her press her temples. The empress leaned against the back of the chair, panting: "It's alright, it's an old illness. Let's go to the side hall and take a look at Ye Shi's fetus instead."

  ***

  Let's put the queen aside for now. Lin Yueru is still living in Jingyue Pavilion, and the relocation has been a rollercoaster ride, with no decision yet on where to move to.

  The congratulatory gift for Wei Zhaoyi had been delivered by Chusui herself. Wei Zhaoyi's sudden awakening was like a stone falling into the water, stirring up ripples throughout the palace. Many of the consorts went to visit her in groups, also to test the waters. Lin Huan didn't want to join in on this commotion, at this time the Emperor must be accompanying Zhaoyi in Huayang Palace, she wouldn't go to watch them show affection, that would be asking for trouble. As for competing for favor, she didn't have that need.

  She sat down leisurely to sip her tea, when a small eunuch came in and reported that An Gonggong from the Emperor's side had arrived. Lin Yu gave a lazy smile, probably coming to offer rewards as compensation for last night's affair.

  An Gui was already familiar with the Mirror Moon Pavilion and didn't need anyone to guide him, he could find his way in on his own. Behind him followed seven or eight small eunuchs carrying boxes. They put down their loads, opened the lids, and indeed inside were all sorts of pearls, jade, antiques, and fine silks. Lin Yuan only smiled and said: "The Emperor is really generous, didn't he say just a few days ago that there was no silver because of the Jing Ren Palace affair?"

  An Guixiang smiled and said, "How could that be? Recently, the Western Regions' Loulan Kingdom and Daxue Kingdom have just presented tributes of 100,000 taels of gold. Our Great Qin Empire is rich and powerful, how can we humiliate our young master?"

  This is often said, An Gui almost every three to five days comes to the Mirror Moon Pavilion to send rewards, Lin Wan is a small imperial concubine, her luxurious life is not inferior to that of the noble consorts and the nine consorts. She thanked the emperor for his kindness and, as usual, gave two gold ingots to An Gui as a reward.

  An Gui, however, mysteriously drew closer to Lin Yuan and smiled: "The Emperor sent me over today, and there's another important matter I need to discuss with the young master. The Emperor has taken a liking to a good location and wants Her Majesty to move in, so he specially sent me to ask for Her Majesty's opinion."

  As soon as she heard about moving houses, Lin Wan came to her senses: "This Mirror Moon Pavilion is said to be uninhabitable, but I've lived here for more than a month. Time and time again, it's been said that we're going to move, but nothing has come of it, and the people from the Imperial Palace have been running around in circles, all because of you. Which place do you think the Emperor favors? As long as the Emperor thinks it's good, I'll like it too."

  "The emperor wants me to ask you. " An Gui pointed east: "It's the side hall of Huayang Palace, called Jiyan Building. The emperor said that the empress can't live in Jingren Palace's Yaoguang Hall, it's already a humble abode, and we must choose the best one from the side halls. Jiyan Building is exquisite and luxurious, it was built during the previous emperor's time. At that time, Li Guifei lived in Huayang Palace, and Jiyan Building was specially built by the previous emperor for feasting and entertainment with Li Guifei. After Li Guifei died, Jiyan Building was converted into a palace."

  "Your Ladyship, what do you think?"

  The matter of moving the palace went smoothly without any further twists. Lin Wan had no objections to Tuoba Hong's words and immediately thanked him for his kindness. On the day An Gui arrived, the people from Shang Gongju came on the second day to help Lin Wan move things.

  The things in the Mirror Moon Pavilion were neither too many nor too few, and the first snow had brought out all the small storage rooms. Ten or so boxes were packed up, and the Shang Palace Bureau was ordered to move them over first. The decorations in the outer halls and bedrooms, including small items, were all packed into boxes and transported away, with no lack of large items either, such as a pair of ebony carved longevity character mirror screens, a pair of purple sandalwood folding plum blossom Guifei tables, two rosewood filled-in-lacquer small tables in the shape of plum blossoms, six yellow flower pear wood carved phoenix-patterned rose chairs, and so on. All of these had to be carried over one by one. Especially a South Sea red coral tree that was half as tall as a person looked not too big but actually weighed over 100 catties and was extremely precious, so it was wrapped in silk cloth by four eunuchs who carefully lifted it up and sent it on its way.

  Huayang Palace's Crimson Smoke Pavilion is located on the east side of the main hall, occupying a considerable area, and is a two-entrance courtyard. Upon entering, there is a mountain-and-bird embroidered screen, followed by an empty and spacious small courtyard that leads to the guest hall. Further inside, one can see a three-story pavilion with glazed tiles and radiant splendor. The main building's plaque bears three large crimson-gold characters: "Crimson Smoke Pavilion".

  In the small courtyard in front, there was no flower bed, but a small pond about one zhang square was opened. A stone bridge spanned across the pond, and the water inside came from the Taiye Pool not far away. In the main hall of Huayang Palace, Hehuan Hall, there was an even larger lotus pond. The three-story pavilion had a small garden behind it, where hawthorn and pear trees were planted. Now in winter, the branches were all bare.

  Lin Wan looked around and thought it was quite satisfactory. She pointed to a side hall in the west as a warehouse, and two small pavilions in the north were cleaned up as a place to cool off in the summer. The remaining wing rooms were not few, with more than a dozen, all of which were places where palace people lived. Lin Wan let Chusnow arrange it, and two people living in one room was quite spacious.

  Lin Wan is not a new palace concubine, there are many things to collect and many places to put them away. The people in the Shang Gong Bureau were busy for a whole day, and at night they helped Xue and others clean the new palace until midnight. Lin Wan sympathized with them and finally gave each person a silver ingot as a reward. The head of the household, Gu Gu, was delighted and kowtowed three times before taking her leave.

  Lin Wan was busy until midnight and finally fell asleep in a daze. The next day, when the sun came out, she gathered all the people from the palace and smiled as she said a few words of congratulations on the move, which officially marked her residence in Hongyan Building. Chuxue stepped forward and said to her: "Now that everything has been moved, Your Ladyship should go to Hehuan Hall to pay respects to Concubine Shao."

  Lin Yan smiled faintly: "Yes, this thing is good in the twelve palaces, but it's also a lot of trouble." The Mirror Moon Pavilion was secluded and frugal, but the Hongyan Building, which belonged to the same domain as the Twelve Palaces, was built with grandeur and brightness. The two were worlds apart. However, the drawback that came with this was having the main consort on top, and also living in the same palace with five or six other consorts. Everyone was crowded together, definitely not more comfortable than living alone.