Fainted from Anger

As the elder princess spoke, the atmosphere throughout the hall froze.

Just as the empress dowager turned pale and panicked, unsure how to respond, Hua Meng suddenly burst out laughing.

Hua Meng's laughter at a moment like this was highly improper, but it instantly pulled the empress dowager's thoughts back from her memories.

Since the empress dowager was not angry, naturally no one blamed Hua Meng.

Her laughter, however, enraged the elder princess.

The elder princess thoroughly disliked Hua Meng and had never wanted to have anything to do with her. Before entering the palace, even her daughter Wei Ningyan had been warned not to associate with Hua Meng too much.

But now she could not hold back and demanded, "Consort Hua, what are you laughing at?"

By the rules, the elder princess outranked Hua Meng. When questioned by her, Hua Meng should have risen, begged forgiveness, and then found a suitable excuse for her impropriety.

But Hua Meng seemed to have forgotten all about that. Instead, she looked directly at Wei Ningyan, who sat behind and to the side of the elder princess, and said with a half-smile, "I'm laughing because the elder princess gave birth prematurely to a healthy baby boy at eight months back then, and now Lady Ningyin will probably give birth prematurely to a healthy baby boy at seven months." With that, Hua Meng continued meaningfully, "The elder princess and Lady Ningyin really are more capable than ordinary women."

What pregnancy right after the wedding? Wei Ningyan was clearly tricked by Zhang Jinghong into becoming pregnant before they were married, leaving them no choice but to rush into marriage.

In her previous life, hadn't Wei Ningyan spread word a few months later that she had become pregnant right after the wedding? Then, at "seven months," she was upset by an ignorant maidservant, disturbing her pregnancy, and gave birth prematurely to a son.

Hua Meng had simply not expected the elder princess to choose this moment to enter the palace and announce it in this life.

The atmosphere in the hall had grown somewhat tense because of the elder princess's boasting, but Hua Meng's almost blunt exposure immediately made the whole affair look ridiculous.

The empress dowager did not know what was going on with Wei Ningyan, but she did know that the elder princess and her husband had gotten drunk and conceived before their wedding.

On that occasion, however, it truly had been Yue Shu's last meeting with her husband before their wedding, and it had happened to fall on the Lantern Festival, so the two of them had drunk a few extra cups of wine. But now...

"Ningyan's pregnancy is a happy occasion, but what happened to you before must not happen again." After saying this, the empress dowager thought for a moment, then turned to the senior maid beside her and instructed, "Personally select four senior maids who know how to care for people and have them accompany Ningyan home later. Now that she's pregnant, it's better to have a few more people attending her."

As soon as the empress dowager intervened, Hua Meng obediently lowered her head.

The empress dowager's move was truly clever. With this, it would be nearly impossible for Wei Ningyan to have another "premature birth" as she had in her previous life.

Among the four senior maids, there would always be one who could keep an eye on her.

The elder princess had been too flustered to respond in time when Hua Meng spoke. Only now, after the empress dowager had assigned people to her daughter, did she find her voice. "I have already arranged for senior maids to attend Ningyan. There is no need for Your Majesty to assign any more."

"The ones you arranged are a token of your concern. The ones I arrange are a token of mine."

Though the empress dowager had been suppressed by the elder princess and her mother for many years, she had survived in the end and become the most exalted woman in the world.

So when she stood firm, the elder princess could hardly refuse outright.

The empress dowager seemed to have guessed what the elder princess was thinking. She glanced at Wei Ningyan and said, "You're still young, and your mother has your elder brother to look after. If you don't like the people I arrange for you, then let your uncle assign you a few senior maids."

Hearing the empress dowager bring up Emperor Jing'an, the elder princess and Wei Ningyan could only pay their respects and give thanks, however unwilling they were.

After the empress dowager had accepted their thanks and the elder princess had sat upright again, she glanced at the consorts seated below her, perhaps because she was displeased, and said, "Now that Ningyan is about to become a mother, I wonder when the empress dowager will finally get to hold a grandson."

When the elder princess finished speaking, a smug, mocking smile appeared on her face.

Even if her daughter had behaved improperly, she could still bear children!

No one had expected the elder princess to speak so directly about it. Everyone knew about the matter, and the elder princess had always used it to needle the empress dowager from time to time, but this was the first time she had spoken so bluntly in front of so many people.

Caught off guard, the empress dowager was clearly enraged.

She raised a hand to clutch her chest and tried to reprimand the elder princess, but could not get a word out.

Others might not have noticed anything wrong with the empress dowager, but Hua Meng knew what she had died of in her previous life. Seeing her clutching her chest, pale and silent, Hua Meng hurriedly rose in alarm. "Empress Dowager! Someone, summon an imperial physician, quickly!"

As Hua Meng's voice rang out, the other consorts in the hall also noticed that something was wrong with the empress dowager.

Elder Princess Yue Shu and Wei Ningyan had not expected the empress dowager to be driven to such a state by anger either.

Mother and daughter exchanged a glance and were just about to leave when Consort Qi, who had failed to notice the empress dowager's condition in time and had thus been beaten to it by Hua Meng, immediately shouted, "Someone, fetch His Majesty! Tell him the elder princess has made the empress dowager ill with anger!"

Consort Qi was currently the highest-ranking consort in the palace, and the Jiang Family's power was no less than the Wei Family's. Now that she had laid the blame on the elder princess, no one would rush to help the latter evade responsibility.

As for the elder princess and Wei Ningyan, mother and daughter certainly wanted to leave, and Yue Shu had people of her own in the palace. But this was the empress dowager's Chaohuang Palace. Never mind the palace maids the consorts had brought with them—even the people serving in the empress dowager's palace could not simply let them leave.

It was time for morning court. Emperor Jing'an and Lin Ming had agreed on a way to deal with the Wei Family a few days earlier, and had only begun to put it into action over the past two days. It was still too soon to see results.

But at morning court that day, a relative by marriage of a friend of Lin Ming's nevertheless impeached a profligate young member of the Wei Family for deliberately riding his horse through the inner city and injuring people.

According to Emperor Jing'an and Lin Ming's original plan, though the incident was a small matter, the profligate in question was the Wei Family's old madam's favorite grandson.

This profligate had always been at odds with the elder princess's son. The two had fought since childhood, and the elder princess had expressed her dissatisfaction with the Wei Family's old madam's favoritism more than once.

As it happened, the elder princess's husband was an official in the Ministry of Justice.

You are an official of the Ministry of Justice, yet your nephew treats the law as nothing and has even deliberately ridden his horse through the streets and injured people.

If handled well, this matter could deal the Wei Family a heavy blow.

But just as the censor finished speaking and waited for Emperor Jing'an to respond, Consort Qi's young eunuch had already given Xiao Jiangzi a clear account of what had happened at Chaohuang Palace.

When Xiao Jiangzi heard this, how could he still concern himself with the occasion? He hurried forward at a jog and signaled to his master.

Wei Fugui soon spotted Xiao Jiangzi, but before he could go over and ask what was wrong, Emperor Jing'an looked at Xiao Jiangzi and spoke first. "What has happened?"

Emperor Jing'an knew that although Xiao Jiangzi was still young, Wei Fugui had trained him well, so unless something serious had happened, he would never act so rashly.

As the disciple of Emperor Jing'an's trusted aide, Xiao Jiangzi knew that the emperor intended to deal with the Wei Family. Thus, as soon as Emperor Jing'an asked, he said loudly, "Her Highness Consort Qi sent word that the elder princess has just made the empress dowager faint from anger at Chaohuang Palace."

The moment Xiao Jiangzi finished, Emperor Jing'an rose hurriedly. "Someone, have all the imperial physicians at the Imperial Medical Academy go to Chaohuang Palace!" Having said that, Emperor Jing'an took a step toward Chaohuang Palace, then suddenly stopped. Looking down at the elder princess's husband, he said, "So this is the Wei Family that prides itself on its scholarly heritage!"

With those words, Emperor Jing'an ignored all the civil and military officials in court and strode away.

Although Emperor Jing'an had not said what was to be done about the Wei Family's profligate, his attitude toward the Wei Family just now had shown that he would not let the matter go easily.

Affairs at court came to a temporary halt with Emperor Jing'an's departure, while his furious arrival stirred up a storm in the inner palace.

Emperor Jing'an had deep feelings for the empress dowager. Even before he ascended the throne, after he was named crown prince and the late emperor made his birth mother empress in accordance with the rules laid down by the founding emperor, things had been difficult.

At that time, mother and son had both been forced to live in humiliation at the hands of the elder princess and her mother.

During those dozen or so years, the late emperor had known perfectly well that his favored consort and eldest daughter had done many things to harm Emperor Jing'an and his mother. But the noble consort's family was powerful, and she was beautiful and knew how to coax him, so he had always pretended not to know.

Emperor Jing'an had resolved back then that once he ascended the throne, he would never spare the noble consort and her daughter.

But he had not expected the late emperor ultimately to find the elder princess a husband from a great family like the Wei Family.

At the thought of those humiliating days, Emperor Jing'an wanted nothing more than to kill the still-living elder princess at once.