"Oh my, Emperor, let’s discuss this Jade Pendant another time. First, let’s see what all this is about. Feng Zhao, just look at you; aren’t you a sight? Go and change those torn clothes already. And Youyou, where are your clothes? Someone, fetch Doctor Gu a set of clothes—how can we maintain any dignity ?"
The Empress Dowager busied herself with cleaning up the mess, while the Emperor and Empress still had their minds entirely on the Qingluan Jade Pendant in hand.
The Emperor’s unfathomable gaze was fixed on Gu Youyou, which made her feel uneasy inside.
Despite being a scoundrel, this old Emperor was incredibly shrewd.
Gu Youyou had been thoroughly seen through by him the last time, leaving no chance to deceive him. So what about this time?
She spoke the unequivocal truth, wouldn’t it be too much if he still didn’t believe?
Jin Fengzhao felt deeply wronged today; she had never feared the Empress, and yet today, the Empress had humiliated her in front of her own entourage.
Immediately, she clung on to the Emperor’s sleeve, crying out incessantly.
"Father Emperor, the stepmother is bullying me; look, she’s had someone tear my clothes to shreds..."
She always referred to the Empress as "stepmother," though she ought to call her "mother"; indeed, a strange title, and for the Empress, a great insult.
But without a word from the Emperor, no one could do anything to her.
Jin Fengzhao’s arrogance was deliberately indulged by the Emperor. Some say that the Crown Princess Consort’s death had always haunted the Emperor, hence his partiality to the Princess.
The Emperor harbored enduring love. During his days of hardship, the Xiao Family had risked the lives of the old general and the eldest son to help him. The Princess was just a girl after all; favoring her a little was harmless, so outsiders did not find it improper.
However, the Emperor’s behavior was unusual today; usually, he would have coaxed his eldest daughter more diligently.
But today, he only held the Jade Pendant, his gaze fixed solely upon it.
To find that the Emperor ignored his disheveled, crying Princess, could that be possible?
"Father Emperor?" the Princess tugged at the Emperor’s clothes, "Father Emperor, what’s wrong with you? Look at your daughter, see how she has bullied me. Father Emperor, it’s all because Feng Zhao lost her birth mother when she was young. If my mother were still alive, she would never have allowed the stepmother to bully me!"
The Empress’s face turned an ashen hue, barely restraining herself from tearing the insolent girl’s mouth apart.
When Xiao Qinqin was alive, she had suppressed her, and now even in death, she had left this curse to trouble her. The Empress truly regretted not having had the heart to kill her back then.
"You bully the weak, disrespect your elders, and behave despotically. As an elder and as the reigning Empress of this palace, it is only right that I teach you a lesson," she said.
"I’m merely disciplining a lowborn, how does that concern you? It’s just that you resent me because, unlike you who was once a concubine, my birth mother was the principal wife!"
The Empress was on the verge of striking her with a slap.
"Hmph, I hit the nail on the head."
The Empress Dowager, feeling her head ache from the noise, stamped her cane and bellowed, "Enough, all of you be quiet!"
The Empress Dowager’s authority was still respectable; at the sound of her cane, both the Empress and the Princess fell silent.
With a frown, she pointed at the Empress and the Princess and said, "Look at yourselves, what are you doing? You, as an elder, do not behave as one should. Regardless, you should not have allowed the Palace Attendants to tear her clothes. She is, after all, a Princess and the most esteemed in Zhuzhao Country. And you—at your age, not a child of three. You’ve been married into the Xiao Family for over a decade, yet have not given them a single child. Do you intend to end their lineage? Had you the capability to bear children, they would be of marriageable age by now. Just look at yourself, even Jiujiu is more sensible than you are."