Harem Daily Life

Chapter 492 Portrait of the Imperial Concubine

The maidservant beside Princess Yong seemed to have noticed something was wrong with her, and she reached out and pulled her sleeve, asking her to stay calm.

Concubine Hui's maid happened to come over to deliver a message. Princess Yong hesitated for a moment, then whispered a few words in the maid's ear. The maid's face turned visibly paler.

The nanny hurried back to Concubine Hui, but she didn't dare to say it directly for fear that the Empress Dowager would find out, so she just leaned over and whispered in Concubine Hui's ear.

When Concubine Hui heard this, she almost fainted.

The Queen Mother was a smart person. She guessed that something must have happened in Prince Yong's mansion. Moreover, the maids reported that most of the news was about the harem. Today was the wedding day of Prince Yong and Princess Qinghe. It was obvious that if the Princess of Yong was scared like this, the one who had the accident must be either Prince Yong or the new Princess Qinghe.

The Queen Mother was anxious and her mind was no longer on the banquet. She was eager to know what gossip and interesting things had happened in Prince Yong's Mansion.

She winked at Eunuch Qin, who twitched his mouth and extremely resisted the task assigned by the Queen Mother.

Eunuch Qin complained helplessly in his heart: "Empress Dowager, can't you finish this wedding banquet calmly and return to the Hot Spring Palace earlier? Do you have to let me go and find out the gossip about Prince Yong's Mansion?"

The Queen Mother gave Eunuch Qin a sharp look that told him to figure it out for himself. Eunuch Qin was shocked and could only silently take on this task that he didn't want to take.

Eunuch Qin was indeed the first-class eunuch who had been with the Queen Mother the longest and was the one the Queen Mother was most satisfied with. After he went out for a walk, he basically understood the outline. However, he did not have the look of someone who had completed the task and returned to report with satisfaction. Instead, he was a little flustered, just like Princess Yong.

The Queen Mother raised her eyebrows, and after Eunuch Qin whispered a few simple words into her ear, she herself became panicked.

The Queen Mother glanced at Concubine Hui unhappily. The two had known each other in the palace for nearly thirty years and could understand each other's meaning with just a glance.

Concubine Hui sighed, knowing that the Queen Mother already knew, so she took the Queen Mother's arm and begged, "Sister, no matter what, you have to help me today."

Concubine Hui looked at the Queen Mother eagerly, and the Queen Mother rolled her eyes at her: "You are so confused! Can you just keep a portrait of a woman in your home? What's the point of keeping it there? Can it be passed down through the ages? Or can it be exchanged for money?"

Concubine Hui apologized repeatedly and took all the blame on herself: "It's all my fault. I didn't teach you well. Sister saved my whole family in Prince Yong's Mansion today. I will repay you for your kindness!"

The two men spoke in low voices, and outsiders could only see them talking intimately with their arms around each other, but they had no idea that the topic they were talking about could lead to the destruction of the entire Prince Yong's Mansion.

The Queen Mother made the excuse that she had drunk too much and wanted to go to rest. Concubine Hui hurriedly accompanied her with a smile. The two of them went away together and went straight to the backyard.

He Linzhang's eyes darkened after the Queen Mother and Concubine Hui left. He saw that the time was almost up, so he said, "If the banquet is over, let's all go. I also want to accompany the Concubine back to the palace to rest."

His intuition told him that something must have happened in Prince Yong's Mansion, otherwise Princess Yong would not have that expression, and his mother and Concubine Hui would not have left the banquet with an excuse.

The only thing he couldn't understand was why Princess Yong looked at Yan Yan.

Could it be that what happened in Prince Yong’s Mansion was related to Yan Yan?

The emperor had spoken and the banquet was almost over. Except for a few people who were still drinking, everyone else left the palace and went home one after another.

"Come here, take the three children back to the palace first. I drank a few more cups today and have a headache. Please stay with me to sober up before you go back."

Princess Yong cheered herself up to see the guests off. After she had seen off all the female guests, she discovered that His Majesty had taken Concubine Tao to the backyard.

"There is also a warm room in the front yard for His Majesty to rest. Why don't you take them there? Are they all dead?" Princess Yong stamped her feet in anger.

There is a commotion going on in the backyard. If Your Majesty goes there, won't everything be exposed?

"Princess, His Majesty is determined to go to the backyard. How dare we, the servants, block His Majesty's way? Princess, you should go and take a look. His Majesty and his family have been there for quite some time."

Princess Yong hurried to the backyard in a hurry. She had been in a daze today because Prince Yong was marrying a concubine. Only now did she become alert and more sober than ever before.

When Princess Yong arrived at Princess Qinghe's courtyard in the backyard, she saw that the outer area was surrounded by people from the palace. When she entered the inner hall, she saw that the Queen Mother, Concubine Hui, and His Majesty all looked unhappy, and the atmosphere was extremely depressing. Prince Yong looked gloomy, while Princess Qinghe held the portrait of Concubine Tao stubbornly.

"What? Now that I've discovered that you're coveting my brother's woman, you want to kill me to silence me, right? Your Majesty, I'm getting married today, but what Prince Yong did really chills my heart. I beg Your Majesty to look into this and give me justice." Princess Qinghe said loudly.

Prince Yong glared at her and said, "Don't slander me. The person in the portrait is not the imperial concubine at all."

He Linzhang frowned. Although the portrait seemed to have been made a few years ago and the ink and paper were already old, people who were familiar with Tao Yanyan would know at a glance that the person in the portrait was actually her.

He believed that the Queen Mother had also noticed it, and Concubine Hui and the newly-married Princess Yong were obviously also aware of it.

He Linzhang was very annoyed at the moment. Tao Yanyan, who was beside him, could clearly feel that the emperor beside her was emitting cold air, which was almost freezing her into ice.

"Oh, you secretly kept someone else's portrait but you don't dare to acknowledge it. What? You dare to do it but not to take responsibility for it. What kind of man are you?" Princess Qinghe was so angry that she left no room for maneuver in her words without considering Prince Yong's face at all.

Although Tao Yanyan was afraid, she knew that she had to stand up at this time, otherwise, King Yong would not be able to escape and she would be implicated.

She sighed in her heart, thinking back to when the original owner went to Beijing for the beauty contest and accidentally saved Prince Yong who had fallen into the water. The original owner was so beautiful that she captured Prince Yong's heart. Prince Yong drew a portrait of her based on his memory to ease his lovesickness, which was actually not a shameful thing.

We all went through this together when we were young, so it shouldn't be hard to understand this unrequited love, right?

But the ancients always liked to dwell on trivial matters, mainly because they couldn't save face and would not let go of the offense.

She stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I think there is something fishy going on here."

Everyone's eyes were focused on her. Tao Yanyan continued, "The person in the portrait does look a bit like me, but people who look alike are not uncommon in the world. There is nothing wrong with me and the King of Yong, and we have no connection. If you insist on saying that the person in the portrait is me, it is really hard for me to believe."

Prince Yong quickly agreed: "Your Highness, what you said is absolutely right. I have absolutely no intention of offending you."

The Queen Mother coughed lightly and said, "I don't think this portrait is of Concubine Tao, but today's incident has caused such an embarrassing situation. Prince Yong must comfort Princess Qinghe. Today is your wedding night, so if you have anything to say, just talk it out. Don't let some fissures arise and hurt your relationship because of something that is completely untrue."

Concubine Hui quickly nodded in agreement.

Princess Qinghe refused to give up: "Even if it's not true, this Prince Yong has no respect for me at all."

He Linzhang rubbed his temples. "You are a concubine. Before you, the King of Yong had a wife and a princess, and there were also concubines in the palace. You are not unaware of this. I gave you a chance to regret it at the beginning, but it was your Yan State that insisted on the marriage. Today you brought a portrait to make trouble. You don't want to live with the King of Yong anymore, right? If so, you two haven't consummated your marriage yet, so it's not a bad idea to just get a divorce."

He Linzhang was really angry, so there was no room for maneuver in what he said.

Hearing the word "divorce", Princess Yong's eyes lit up. She looked at Princess Qinghe, who was wearing her wedding dress, and waited for her answer.