Consort Zhuang doesn't want palace intrigue; she just wants to raise her child and live a caref

Chapter 283 Always Keep It in Mind

Since Su Nuannuan returned to the palace, her life has become rather busy. The Empress often summons her to help, but in reality, she doesn't have any actual work to do. Most of the time, she just keeps the Empress company, watching her handle various trivial matters, while she herself feels quite bored.

Whenever the Empress saw that Jingcheng was absent-minded, she would say earnestly, "Jingcheng is almost of marriageable age. You must remember these procedures, otherwise you will be in a panic when the time comes."

However, Su Nuannuan's answer was always unexpected. She would say calmly, "Your Majesty, Jingcheng is just a prince, so the procedures for the Crown Prince's wedding are naturally not suitable for him."

After listening, the Empress thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, it is indeed not very suitable."

Seeing this, Su Nuannuan was secretly delighted and quickly added, "Therefore, I really can't be of any help here."

But the Empress did not let her off easily, and continued, "Although the process is not exactly the same, you can still learn from it."

Su Nuannuan sighed helplessly and retorted, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites will be responsible for handling these matters. I really don't need to worry about it."

"It's the Ministry of Rites' business to handle this. As a mother, she should always be concerned about her son's marriage," the Empress advised.

“That’s true. When Jingcheng gets married, I only need to keep an eye on the big picture. After all, it’s just a prince getting married, there’s no need for such a grand affair.” Su Nuannuan said calmly, as if she didn’t care about the matter at all.

Such conversations had become an integral part of daily life for Su Nuannuan and the Empress. However, as time went on, Su Nuannuan eventually grew somewhat exasperated by the Empress's nagging, so she suggested to the Empress, "Why don't we just invite Consort Li as well? After all, after the Crown Prince's wedding, Jing Han and Jing Yu should also get married. Oh, and Jing Xu too, they're all of marriageable age!"

The Empress smiled slightly and replied, "You don't need to worry about their affairs, much less me. Their mother is much more proactive than you."

Not long after Jingyun's Crown Princess was chosen, Consort Li and Consort Qin had already begun selecting consorts for their princes.

Upon hearing this, Su Nuannuan couldn't help but laugh and teased, "That's really fast."

Seeing this, the Empress rolled her eyes at Su Nuannuan and said reproachfully, "Only you would be so indifferent to these things."

Su Nuannuan, however, didn't take it to heart and retorted, "The children's mourning period isn't over yet! There's still a year left! How can they get married so soon?"

"Your concubines and princes and princesses have truly observed the longest period of mourning since the founding of the Azure Kingdom," the Empress remarked.

“A long mourning period isn’t entirely without its advantages. At least during these ten years, we’ll have relatively more freedom. Although we can’t travel far at will, we can still go for walks in the mountains within the estate,” Su Nuannuan replied with a smile.

"Your Majesty, the chestnuts and hazelnuts that we send to the palace every year were discovered in the mountains. We found them to be quite delicious, so we transplanted them to our estate."

"You're really daring, trying everything. Aren't you afraid of getting poisoned?"

"I can't help it, I just can't resist anything edible. But look, nothing happened after I tried it!"

"That being said, what you're doing is still too dangerous. What if you really get poisoned?"

"I'm not the first person to test the poison," Su Nuannuan muttered.

Back then, Su Nuannuan had chestnuts picked from the mountain and used them to make a delicious chestnut stewed chicken. However, the others didn't know much about chestnuts, so they resolutely refused to let Su Nuannuan taste them first.

Faced with everyone's worries and objections, Su Nuannuan felt somewhat helpless, but she knew that chestnuts were actually non-toxic. Therefore, after some thought, she decided to have Li Quan act as the "test subject." After all, only by trying it herself could she prove the chestnuts' safety.

Of course, if chestnuts were truly poisonous, Su Nuannuan would absolutely not allow anyone to risk testing them, because that would be far too cruel. She was unwilling to harm anyone's life or health for the sake of a dish.

As for using animals to test for poison, Su Nuannuan also had her own concerns. She really couldn't bear to use the chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, and other poultry and livestock in the manor for such experiments; and she also couldn't bear to use small animals like cats and rabbits.

However, there's one thing that's plentiful in the village—rats. Catching a few rats to test for poison seems like a feasible method. But when catching rats, one must take precautions to avoid being bitten and contracting various unpleasant infectious diseases.

The idea of ​​using mice to test for poison was actually Mu Ge's. She herself had used mice to test the effects of poisons and antidotes.

While Su Nuannuan was muttering to herself, the Empress happened to be busy with other matters. If she had heard her, she would definitely have given Su Nuannuan a lecture.

Sometimes, Su Nuannuan felt that the Empress was like a nagging old woman, always worrying about everything. Whether it was trivial matters in the palace or interpersonal relationships in the harem, the Empress seemed to want to know everything, for fear that something might go wrong.

However, sometimes, Su Nuannuan would feel as if she had become a young and ignorant junior in front of the Empress, and could only obediently listen to the Empress's teachings and admonitions.

In short, the Empress never realized that Su Nuannuan was actually the Emperor's concubine and her rival in love.

If the Empress knew that Su Nuannuan considered herself her rival in love, she would probably laugh her head off.

In the Queen's mind, they could be competitors, but they would never become rivals in love.

Because the Empress didn't have much affection for the Emperor, and she didn't particularly like him, she treated Consort Su Nuannuan with more tolerance and understanding.