Who Cares

Chapter 42 Kindness

Ye Zhen, who was chased away by Baifu, was still in a daze before arriving at Ganquan Palace. The sentence “No trespassing in the study area, anyone who violates the order will be killed without mercy” had made her heart shattered, as if she was in an abyss. Back then, the Weiyang Palace, the imperial study, and even the emperor’s bedroom, where she was not allowed to pass freely, and it was unknown when the emperor started to alienated or even on guard against her.

Why? It was clear that when Zhao Luli got married, he kept telling her to stop cherishing the past and work hard for the future; he was gentle and caring to her, but his attitude changed drastically in the blink of an eye. That’s right, his indifference, alienation, and precaution all started when she intervened in Zhao Luli’s back house, frequently made face for the Ye family, and made trouble with the Guan family everywhere.

Guan Family, everything was because of Guan Family, could it be she owed them something in the previous life? Ye Zhen hated the “Guan Family” to the bone, but now there was no way to turn it back. She sadly realized that her weight in the emperor’s heart was probably not as much as that of Guan Family. They were the giants of Confucianism, leaders of the literary world, the humerus of the country, and the close ministers of the emperor, and the Ye family had nothing but a life-saving grace – no outstanding descendants, no honest family style, no good reputation and no noble blood. There was no foundation or support at all.

So everything had to rely on her to fight, to rob, to go to great lengths, to do whatever it takes. All of a sudden, Ye Zhen felt very tired, and there was a sense of fear that she would keep falling and would eventually be shattered. That’s why, when she stepped into the main hall and saw Liu shi and the others, she didn’t want to say a word.

Zhao Chunxi wanted to call her mom, but she didn’t dare to make trouble, so she could only look at her eagerly. She had a lot of grievances she wanted to talk about, but she also knew that the top priority right now was the destruction of the coral tree. Liu shi really couldn’t hold back her words, hurriedly greeted her, and opened her mouth to asked, “Niangniang, what did the emperor say? Has there been decree to seal off the entire city and search for suspects?”

Ye Zhen glanced at her coldly, and sat down in the main seat with a sullen face. The emperor refused to see her, and now she could only wait for the news from her father.

Ye Fan was the best at observing words and expressions, holding Liu shi and persuading her, “Auntie, Niangniang has just return, why don’t you let her drink some hot tea and catch her breath. In such a big case, the emperor has his own decision, we just need to sit and wait.”

Zhao Chunxi was very obedient. She picked up the teapot before Yong He and poured tea for her mother. Her face was full of joy at seeing her close relative and eagerness for mother’s love. Ye Zhen gave her a fixed look, feeling very tired inside. If it wasn’t for this useless thing to send in the news and ask her to help restrain Guan shi, would she put Ye Fan in the Marquis Mansion? Would she intervene in the inner houses affairs of a minister? Would she go up against Guan shi thus lifting up the Ye family and slapped the Guan family in the face?

Without Zhao Chunxi’s encouragement, she would at most snuff out Guan shi‘s reason to enter the palace, and there would be no bad things that follows, nor would she directly confront the Guan family, so that she accidentally hurt the Holy’s face and lost all her favor. The more Ye Zhen thought about it, the more she hated this daughter, she seemed to forget that Zhao Chunxi’s temperament ten out of ten was like her. Even if Guan Suyi obediently got married and kept to herself, she would never leave the matter alone.

A woman’s jealousy was the sharpest weapon in the world, and also the most terrifying poison.

Zhao Chunxi was a little chilled by her mother’s strange gaze, and was about to say a few soft words to provoke her pity, when she saw her grandfather staggering in, his official hat was crooked, his hair was messed up, his clothes were half wet, and his face was like gold paper, seemed that he had turned a few laps on the Asura field, looked like a sorry figure.

“Master, what did the emperor say?” Liu shi immediately went up to ask, and finally said in a trembling voice, “How could you end up like this, did you fell?”

Master Ye waved away his wife and said solemnly to his daughter, “It’s inconvenient here, let’s talk in private, the lots of you don’t follow me, just sit outside and drink tea.”

Realizing that the situation was not good, Ye Zhen hurriedly led her father into the inner hall, and dismissed the palace people to have a private discussion. Master Ye had no intention of beating around the bush, and went straight to the point, “Tell me honestly, how is your relationship with the emperor?”

“Naturally husband and wife are deeply affectionate.” Ye Zhen’s tone was firm, but her eyes flickered slightly. This was a topic she was most afraid to face, and also the root cause of her tossing and turning restlessly that made her couldn’t sleep at night. If she was really favored as rumored, when there was problem like now, why would she feared Guan shi? Why would she feared Guan family? Why would she feared the other imperial concubines and empress dowager? However, in the end, she could only deceive herself, and endured all the pain and loss alone.

“You still refuse to tell the truth! The emperor’s words and actions in the imperial study do not seem to have a deep affection for you at all…” Master Ye repeated the conversations in the imperial study one by one, and finally lowered his voice to force the question, “I think the emperor has only responsibility for you, and has no personal feelings. Why don’t you tell me the truth? If you said it earlier, how dare I consider myself the imperial-in-law? Do you know the meaning of the emperor’s shallow blessing?”

“What?” Ye Zhen’s voice was trembling, it wasn’t that she couldn’t think of it, but she didn’t dare to think of it.

But Master Ye wanted to pierce her dream, and said ruthlessly, “It means that you sit in the position of Jieyu has already push the sky, you can’t bear the greater honor and wealth! Accompanying him for so long, you can’t grasp his sincerity at all. How did I teach you in the past? How did you swear to remarry? I spent so much manpower and material resources to help you achieve your wish, and you repaid me with such an embarrassing situation? Do you know that once the emperor’s verdict spreads, our Ye family will become the laughing stock of Wei Kingdom, and anyone can step on us; What’s worse, judging from the emperor’s indifferent reaction, the coral tree was probably broken by someone he sent. If you want to lift up the Ye family to suppress the Guan family, he will simply wipe all the face of the Ye family. You idiot, if you had told me earlier that your favor was false, I would have let the Ye clan tuck our tails and behave ourselves! But it’s too late to say anything now. In the emperor’s heart, the Ye family is probably no different from those wild foreign relatives of the previous dynasty, and it will be destroyed one day. You, you, you idiot, If I had known today, I shouldn’t have helped you with your crazy idea in the first place!”

Ye Zhen’s self-esteem was extremely strong and she also the one who came up with this idea. When she was poked in the heart by her father’s words, she slowly stabilized her mind and became firm again, “Enough, what’s the use of you blaming me? If I hadn’t come up with that idea, you have already died in prison. What do you mean you help me, you ask yourself what I was doing is to save who? Who was benefit in the end? Today, I am still the emperor’s person, and still the highest position Jieyu niangniang, who is still in charge of the palace, I’ll stand by my word. From today onwards, the Ye family will have a difficult time, but once I become pregnant and give birth to the emperor’s eldest son, all estrangements will disappear, and all the mocking will turn into high praises. The useful piece is still in my hand, what are you anxious about?”

When Master Ye heard this, he immediately turned his anger into joy, and urged, “Then you should quickly regain your favor and give birth immediately! There are many concubines in the harem, so it may not be you who come out on top.”

“This Palace has its own consideration, you don’t need to say more. Take those people outside, This Palace must cultivate one’s own spirit, wait for the opportunity to regain the favor, and have no time to manage the mess of the Ye family. Also, in the future, tell the clansmen to behave, don’t make me over here just gain the emperor’s smiling face, and you stabbed the basket outside, causing me to fall again. At that time, I will not recognize my six relatives!” Ye Zhen’s voice seemed to dipped in poison, very cruel.

“That’s natural, don’t worry.” Seeing that his daughter had regained the proud posture of Jieyu niangniang, Master Ye was finally satisfied, and then led the ignorant Liu shi out of the palace.

At the same time, the guards who besieged the Ye Mansion were taken away by Baifu, and they were all demoted. Because too many people were implicated, and the eldest princess and a few noble ladies contributed to the flames, the emperor asserted the sentence “Ye family’s blessing is too shallow to bear his grace” had spread quickly, and it would be known to everyone within a few days.

Not only was the Ye family unlucky, but Xu Guangzhi, who was cut off from his official path, was almost crazy, secretly hated the Guan family in his heart, and always wanted to find an opportunity to take revenge.

———

After asking for a long time, Zhao Chunxi still couldn’t pry the inside story from his grandfather’s mouth. She returned to the messy Ye Mansion, changed her whole clothes, and returned home with her father and younger brother. The three of them were nervous and uneasy, always feeling that something big was going to happen.

“How is the situation in the palace? I see that your grandfather and grandmother seem to have a very bad face. Besides, the emperor did not strictly investigate the destruction of a national treasure. Instead, withdrew the  imperial army, which is really puzzling.” Zhao Luli tried to get a little information from his daughter.

“I don’t know either. I asked my grandmother, but she refused to tell me, and told me not to talk too much.” Zhao Chunxi was also puzzled. It stands to reason that such a big thing happened to the Ye family, which directly damaged the prestige of her mom’s family and slapped the face of the imperial family. Why did the emperor have no reaction at all? Based on how much he loves her mom, this shouldn’t be the case!

“Is your aunt looking good? Did she say something?” Zhao Luli endured and endured, but finally couldn’t hold back.

“No, she only talked to grandfather in the inner hall. We waited outside, and we parted in a hurry. There was no conversation.” Zhao Chunxi was tired of her father’s weakness and incompetence, and even more tired of his useless infatuation. She leaned on her brother’s shoulder and pretended to be tired.

Zhao Luli didn’t ask anymore, he lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked out, his eyes full of disappointment.

Compared with everyone else who was devastated, distraught, or resentful, Guan Suyi lived a very comfortable life. She was picking up Buddha beans in the old madam’s courtyard. She moved step by step and looked carefully, every time she found a grain, there was endless fun.

The old madam was amused by her cheerful appearance, and urged, “Pick it up, pick up until the basket full, we will cook it into porridge, and give it to passers-by who pass by the Marquis Mansion, so that we can form a good karma and cultivate an afterlife.”

“Cultivating an afterlife? That is a great word!” Because of her rebirth, Guan Suyi became interested in Buddhism, and had recently studied it a lot.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law spent more than two hours picking up a full basket of Buddha beans, and ordered the maids to send them to the kitchen to cook them into porridge. While waiting, the old madam sighed leisurely, “Suyi, it’s really hard for you to marry into the Zhao family. The husband is useless, the children are ignorant, and there is a difficult foreign relatives. I never expected the Ye family to be so rampant, not only forced lord marquis to take a concubine, but also invited Ye Jieyu to take action. One side lifting up and the other side suppressing, their double-crossing skill has been brought to perfection. When Ye Fan enters the mansion, she will definitely set off some storms and waves with Ye Jieyu’s momentum. You must be steady…”

Before the old madam could finish speaking, Guan Suyi laughed disapprovingly, “Don’t worry, the Ye family is rampant for a while, but it won’t last forever. Do you think Ye Jieyu‘s actions can really lift her family to heaven? Wrong, I am afraid they will fall down halfway, not to mention smashing the body and breaking the bones, it is inevitable to suffer more serious injury.”

Zhao Luli, who had just returned to the house and was about to take the children to greet his mother, was stunned for a moment, then raised his hand to stop the maid who wanted to announce their arrival. He wanted to hear what Guan Suyi would say. Her mouth was always predicting things like a god, without any mistakes.