The News Spreads
In the following period, Xiao Yuyue found that everything was going wrong.
Firstly, although Noble Consort Cen was in charge of the palace affairs, Consort Jin was favored, and the small banquets held at the end of the year and the beginning of the year to entertain the ladies of the inner and outer courts were jointly organized by Noble Consort Cen and Consort Jin.
Because Xiao Yuyue was favored by Consort Jin and was also the Emperor's cousin, she had a special status and would help Consort Jin in seizing power and organizing banquets and other matters.
Although Grand Princess Shangde was a princess and the emperor's younger sister, she was too lazy to get involved in the power struggles among the concubines in the harem and never got involved in such matters.
This year, however, the Emperor angered Consort Jin and ordered Noble Consort Cen to preside over the banquet alone. Consort Jin herself lost this power, and Xiao Yuyue couldn't even get a chance to participate.
It's important to understand that organizing and hosting a banquet is not just about doing one thing; it's also about sending a message to both insiders and outsiders: who is favored and who is out of favor.
Although Consort Jin knew that the Emperor was wary of the Cen Family's power and wouldn't truly favor Noble Consort Cen, perhaps only putting on a show, she still hated him to the core. She didn't even send Xiao Yuyue an invitation to the banquet, and at the banquet, she announced to everyone that Xiao Yuyue would no longer be the manager of the Capital Women's Academy.
Now, the endless stream of New Year's greetings from Pingyang Prefecture was gone, replaced by a scene of "a deserted gate and few carriages and horses"; even the banquets held by various prefectures in the capital after the New Year rarely sent invitations to Xiao Yuyue, and Xiao Yuyue truly experienced what it meant to be cold and indifferent to human relationships.
That wasn't all; several of the shops her family owned also ran into problems. First, the suppliers for the silk shops said that goods were in short supply, and not only was the quantity of goods supplied greatly reduced, but many brightly colored silks were also out of stock and could not be supplied. Even the other less brightly colored silks had their prices raised. Other shops also encountered these problems one after another.
Before Xiao Yuyue could resolve these issues, another problem arose in her backyard.
Every year at the beginning of the year, the county government holds a banquet. This year, she gritted her teeth and held one as well, personally going to invite some people to attend the banquet.
Finally, some guests, unable to bear the snobbish reputation, came to the princess's mansion for the banquet. Two strange children ran to the gate crying, saying that their mother was sick and they wanted to find their father, clinging to the prince consort's clothes.
Upon inquiry, everyone learned that the prince consort had kept a mistress outside the marriage and had two children with her, the eldest of whom was already ten years old.
Xiao Yuyue had always been proud of her husband's refusal to take concubines, but the arrival of these two children made her a laughingstock in the capital.
"It's all that brat's fault." Xiao Yuyue fell into the lowest point of her life. She dared not resent Consort Jin, nor dared to complain about the Emperor. She only hated Zhao Ruxi to the bone.
If Zhao Ruxi hadn't refused her offer, she wouldn't have sent people to deal with Zhao Ruxi, thus angering the Emperor and Consort Jin, and ending up in this situation.
She had originally planned to have someone deal with Zhao Ruxi at the banquet and ruin her reputation. Now, she was even more eager for Zhao Ruxi to be completely disgraced.
However, the old lady of the Earl of Suiping's Residence caught a cold at this time and fell ill. The four members of the Earl of Suiping's Residence's family used the excuse of taking care of her to avoid attending any banquets, thus ruining Xiao Yuyue's plan.
In truth, this was Xiao Yuyue. Otherwise, if Zhao Ruxi had come to the banquet and she had actually carried out these plans, Zhao Ruxi, having taken the Agility Pill and Great Strength Pill, would not have suffered any loss. However, Xiao Lingyan's revenge against Xiao Yuyue was something Xiao Yuyue could not bear.
Of course, that's a story for another time.
Let's rewind to three days after the talent competition.
On this day, the Imperial Academy posted the list of the top fifteen winners of the painting competition outside the Imperial Academy gate, and Zhao Zhiwei's name was prominently displayed at the top.
The top fifteen paintings have all been framed and are on display in the exhibition hall in front of the Imperial Academy, Zhao Ruxi's painting is naturally among them.
Because of a mishap in the painting competition, Mei Zhongjun publicly questioned the fairness of Zhao Ruxi's first-place finish and that of Mister Kumu, Peng Guoan, and others, and the matter spread like wildfire. Soon after the competition ended, even those who hadn't attended knew about it. By the next day at court, the entire court was aware of it.
Along with these rumors, news also spread that Zhao Ruxi was the artist of the anonymous painting sold for 25,000 taels at the auction.
Everyone was quite surprised and started discussing it.
So when the painting exhibition at the Imperial Academy opened that day, many people flocked to see what the painting that could sell for 25,000 taels of silver and was rated 10 by Peng Guoan and others looked like.
Although the painting worth 25,000 taels is not the same as this one, since they were painted by the same person and are of similar style and skill, people naturally compare them.
Upon seeing this, the vast majority of people were impressed.
Some were jealous of her talent or looked down on her because of Zhao Ruxi status, unwilling to admit how good her paintings were, yet they dared not refute the praise.
The main reason is that Zhao Ruxi's paintings are so powerful and his technique is so mature that it's hard to find any fault with them.
Most importantly, the Emperor also greatly admired Zhao Zhiwei's painting. Not only did he not regret spending 25,000 taels of silver to buy the painting, he also frequently took it out to appreciate with his ministers, praising it highly.
A few days later, Qi Xuan, the young lady of the Duke of Wei's Residence, hosted a small banquet for her girlfriends. Upon meeting them, she asked Zhao Ruyu, "Ruyu, do you know that the painting that sold for 25,000 taels of silver at the first auction was painted by your sister Zhao Ruxi?"
"Yes, such a big thing, why didn't you tell us? You didn't know either, did you?" said Xiao Ziyi, a girl from another noble family.
As a reborn person, Zhao Ruyu naturally wanted to find a few powerful figures to cling to after entering the Capital Women's Academy.
But she was very picky. She didn't want to associate with or befriend those who later failed in their political maneuvers and met tragic ends. She only wanted to befriend those who would later rise to prominence.
However, when she tried to make friends with them, the princesses and noblewomen looked down on her.
The Earl of Suiping's Residence was already at the bottom among the noble families, and Zhao Ruyu was from the second wife's family. Everyone knew that she was switched at birth and that she was originally a country girl with low bloodline. She only became the young lady of the Earl of Suiping's Residence by a twist of fate.
In addition, the princesses and noblewomen already had their own group of supporters, and those supporters were exclusive. Zhao Ruyu's status was too low to squeeze into their circle, and she couldn't curry favor with them even if she wanted to.
Ultimately, those willing to associate with her were mostly people from lower social classes.
Although the Duke of Wei's Residence held a relatively low status, it wasn't insignificant either; moreover, they were neutral and wouldn't be among those purged during the coup. Furthermore, the two families were related, so when Zhao Ruyu approached Qi Xuan, Qi Xuan didn't push her away. Zhao Ruyu thus became part of Qi Xuan's small circle.
With the old lady unwell and Madam Lady Zhu attending to her, Zhao Ruyu Zhao Ruyu was unable to attend the various banquets held at the end of the year. However, she could still attend the private banquets hosted by her friends.