Chapter 6: Tattling

“Yes! To answer Her Majesty the Empress, while at the Bibo Pool, I felt a hairpin was placed incorrectly and wanted to adjust its position. My personal maids, Hua Kai and Hua Luo, would not allow it. In the midst of our dispute, we fell into the water.”

As Qiu Liyue spoke, she secretly observed the Emperor's expression. Sure enough, upon hearing the names Hua Kai and Hua Luo, his eyebrows twitched slightly. Did these two truly have something to do with him?

“Hmph, your family's servants actually dare to talk back to their master!” An Xiaoman said with cold sarcasm.

The Empress's face also darkened. She glanced at Yun Ruo; this matriarch of the household was doing a truly wonderful job, selecting such fine servants for her own biological niece!

“Someone! Bring Hua Kai and Hua Luo here! This Palace wants to see what kind of servants possess such great audacity!” the Empress commanded sternly.

“No need!” “No need!” Qiu Liyue and Yun Ruo spoke in unison.

Before Yun Ruo could speak again, Qiu Liyue preempted her, saying, “To answer Her Majesty the Empress, they did not do it intentionally. They have only been serving me for five days; they perhaps do not yet understand the rules!”

“What did you say? Only five days?” The Emperor looked at Liyue. Years ago, he had personally selected Hua Kai and Hua Luo from a group of children to specifically serve Liyue. How could they have only been there for five days?

Just as Yun Ruo was about to speak, the Emperor slammed the white jade cup in his hand violently at her feet, startling her into silence. She could only curse Qiu Liyue a thousand deaths in her heart.

“Yes!” Qiu Liyue blinked, feigning confusion at the Emperor's anger. “Five days ago, I fell into the lotus pond at home. My mother had already had the previous two maids, named Hua Kai and Hua Luo, beaten to death with canes. These two are the newcomers.”

“The previous two? Hua Kai and Hua Luo?” As Qiu Liyue had expected, the Emperor immediately grasped the key point in her words.

“To answer Your Majesty! The personal maids by my side have changed over a dozen times, but my mother said the names Hua Kai and Hua Luo were very pleasant, so the names themselves have never been changed.”

“Hahaha! Good! Good!” The Emperor laughed out of extreme rage. This was his "good" official, and then there was her—truly her "good" sister!

“Qiu Jinshan, Yun Ruo, you two tell me—what else is there that I have not known all these years?” The Emperor gritted his teeth as he looked at the two kneeling on the ground, speaking one word at a time.

“Your Majesty, please calm your anger!” Qiu Liyue bowed again and said, “Please do not blame my father and mother. It is all Liyue's fault; it is Liyue who has done poorly!”

“Are you pleading for them?” The Emperor looked at the woman before him, whose eyes were curved like crescents, elegant and distant. She was so much like *her*—equally beautiful, equally gentle, equally kind. “Are they good to you?”

“To answer Your Majesty, my father and mother are naturally extremely good to me. Mother said that I am very suited to the color red, so she went to great lengths to change all the furnishings in my boudoir to red. Although I rarely leave the house, whenever there is something delicious or fun in the capital, Mother will find a way to buy it for me. Just now, Xiaoman said her mother forced her to learn needlework, female conduct, and household management to the point of misery, yet Mother has never let me worry about such things.”

These words of Qiu Liyue's were undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire, making the Emperor's fury toward Qiu Jinshan and Yun Ruo even more intense.

Seeing that the Emperor was about to erupt in rage, An Xiaoman tactfully pulled Qiu Liyue away to make an escape. The two of them dodged the various socialites in the Imperial Garden, and just as they had settled into the Bibo Pavilion by the Bibo Pool, a palace maid found them.

“This servant, Yingchun, greets Miss An and Miss Qiu. Her Grace Consort De requests Miss Qiu to come and speak with her.” A palace maid dressed in emerald green palace attire bowed to Qiu Liyue and An Xiaoman, who were sitting in the pavilion.

“Didn't she invite me?” An Xiaoman said, pouting.

“If Miss An goes, Her Grace Consort De will surely be even happier.” This maid certainly knew how to speak.

“May I ask what Consort De wishes to discuss?” Qiu Liyue looked at the tactful maid. She had no acquaintance with Consort De; why would she suddenly want to speak with her?

“Her Grace did not mention it!”

“Then where is my Aunt the Empress now?”

“This servant just happened to run into Jinque, who serves Her Majesty the Empress, and she said Her Majesty has gone to Suiyu Courtyard.”

Suiyu Courtyard, the place in the palace where palace maids were trained and rules were taught. Why would Aunt the Empress go there? An Xiaoman felt a bit suspicious, but she still said to Qiu Liyue, “Then you go see Consort De, and I will go find Aunt the Empress!”

Seeing that Qiu Liyue looked somewhat anxious, An Xiaoman leaned into her ear and whispered, “Don't worry, Consort De is a very kind person! She is the sister of the Right General, Lan Sihua. She is likely worried about the war on the front lines and wants to chat with you.”

Qiu Liyue nodded gratefully to An Xiaoman and followed the maid named Yingchun.

“Greetings, Her Grace Consort De!” Qiu Liyue bowed to Consort De, who was dressed in ice-blue palace attire and sitting on a brocade stool in the pavilion.

“No need for such formalities, please sit, Miss Qiu! Forgive my intrusion!” Consort De looked at the gentle Qiu Liyue and sighed inwardly.

“Her Grace is too kind. To be able to speak with Her Grace is my good fortune!” Qiu Liyue, unable to grasp the situation, replied very cautiously.

“Seeing Miss Qiu just now made me think of an old acquaintance, so I came to have a brief chat.” Consort De smiled faintly and motioned for Qiu Liyue to sit.

“May I ask who that acquaintance of Her Grace is?” Qiu Liyue asked cautiously. She had an intuition that this person might be related to her own origins, because in her previous life, Qiu Lixing had insisted that Yun Ruo was her mother, not Qiu Liyue's. Then, who was her mother?

“Sigh! Old matters of the past, better left unmentioned!” Consort De lowered her eyes and sighed, but she did not answer Qiu Liyue's question, instantly changing the subject.

After some idle chatting, Yingchun, who had gone to find Qiu Liyue earlier, returned to the pavilion carrying a red box. After bowing to Consort De, she placed the box on the stone table.

“These are some books. Take them back, Miss Qiu, and read them when you have nothing to do; consider it a way to pass the time,” Consort De said, pointing to the box.

“Thank you, Her Grace Consort De!” Qiu Liyue expressed her gratitude.

“It is nothing. In the future, if you come to the palace and feel bored, you may seek me out for conversation.”

After bidding farewell to Consort De, Qiu Liyue walked along a small path paved with white stone toward the Imperial Garden. The Hundred Flowers Banquet should be nearly over by now. She wondered how Yun Ruo and Qiu Jinshan were doing? They wouldn't come back to cause her trouble again, would they?

The current Hua Kai and Hua Luo certainly couldn't be used. After returning to the manor, they should allow her to choose her own personal maids, right? Right now, everyone around her was Yun Ruo's person; if she even sneezed, Yun Ruo would know immediately. Therefore, only by having her own people could she plan her moves step by step to protect herself.

As Qiu Liyue was calculating these things, her vision suddenly darkened. When she looked up, she saw two men standing before her. One wore a blue brocade robe, with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, a coiled-dragon jade pendant hanging from his waist. The other wore a white brocade robe, with features as beautiful as a painting and a temperament as gentle as jade.

Who were these two? She did not know them, but she seemed to have seen that coiled-dragon jade pendant once before in the life of the Fifth Prince, Nalan Ye. Could this man be a prince?

In her previous life, she had only attended the Hundred Flowers Banquet once, and she had been subjected to endless ridicule there. From then until her marriage, Yun Ruo had never taken her to any banquets again. It seemed that by intentionally dressing her that way, besides stealing her name and identity, she was also indirectly telling others how unrefined and shameful Qiu Liyue was.

Ye Liuyun and Nalan Xuan looked at the woman before them, who was dressed in a dress the color of the sky after rain. Her crescent-moon eyes suddenly widened when she saw them, and then, those dark pupils went still, while the expression on her face shifted from sadness to anger to sudden realization...

“Pfft—” Ye Liuyun truly could not help but let out a sneer.

Nalan Xuan also couldn't help but curl his lips. To be able to drift off into her own world right in front of a prince—this Qiu Liyue was truly the first!