Song Zhao hurriedly sent the pastries to Yonghe Palace overnight.
When she was outside the palace gate, she could already faintly hear the sound of opera singing coming from inside the palace.
The palace maid led her all the way to the outside of Consort Chen's bedroom. The opera singing sounded clearer and clearer:
"The official entered the concubine's room and asked the vicious mother to go against her conscience. Alas, alas, the wife's affection is cold. Ask her to worship in the bridal hall and kowtow eighteen times, to know inferiority and superiority..."
The Welcome Fragrance who was guarding the door glanced at Song Zhao and did not bow to her either. Her tone was cold:
"Her Majesty the Consort is listening to opera inside, please wait outside the door."
Song Zhao smiled slightly and bowed her head, "Thank you, Auntie."
The singer inside was singing the Yue opera "The Embroidered Lady",
this opera could not be performed on stage, telling the story of an official pampering his concubine and causing misfortune to his family.
The singer was inside, but the lyrics were meant for Song Zhao to hear.
Song Zhao waited patiently outside the door for a full hour.
Only after the singer came out did Consort Chen's lazy voice come from inside,
"Bring her in."
When Song Zhao entered, Consort Chen was sitting cross-legged on the warm seat, with a booklet in her hand that she was casually flipping through, without even looking at Song Zhao.
Song Zhao knelt down on one knee, "This concubine pays respect to Her Majesty the Consort."
Consort Chen did not look up or respond, letting Song Zhao maintain her courteous posture.
After thinking for a moment, Song Zhao silently placed the food box on the small table next to the warm seat, then knelt upright in front of Consort Chen and kowtowed:
"This concubine greets Consort Chen and wishes her myriad blessings and peace."
Consort Chen snorted lightly and finally closed the booklet.
She used her slender and fair fingers to open the food box, took out a freshly-made red date and jujube cake, examined it for a while, then said coldly with a laugh:
"Your craftsmanship is really good. This pastry is complicated to make, yet you can make it so well. It shows that you must have often made some exquisite and delicious food for His Majesty when serving him intimately!"
Song Zhao quickly said, "This concubine was reckless, please forgive me, Your Majesty."
"You are His Majesty’s concubine. What’s wrong with you making food for His Majesty? Why mention offending me?"
Consort Chen put the cake in her mouth. Her white teeth moved lightly, chewing carefully,
"It's just that although the pastry tastes good, His Majesty has always disliked sweets. Do you know that sometimes, though well-intentioned, doing something can be worse than doing nothing?"
Having listened to the opera outside for an hour, how could Song Zhao not understand what Consort Chen wanted to tell her?
In other words, she was telling Song Zhao that
she could let Song Zhao serve the emperor at night, but would never allow Song Zhao to take away the slightest bit of Xiao Jingheng’s favor.
If Song Zhao did anything offensive that displeased her, then she would make Song Zhao completely shattered like the official's legal wife in the lyrics.
Song Zhao said, "Today’s matter was this concubine's confusion and offensive to His Majesty. Consort reprimanded rightly that this concubine must keep to her place in the future, do less and make less mistakes, it's best to do nothing."
Consort Chen looked at her with lowered eyebrows and a faint smile, nodded slightly and said, "This palace is also for your own good. It’s best that you’re sensible. This palace will keep these pastries. It’s late, go back early to rest.”
Consort Chen didn't like any woman competing with her for favor, but Song Zhao was still under her control. She also really needed a counterweight against the empress’s chess piece, so she didn’t dwell on this matter with Song Zhao for the time being.
Besides, the red date and jujube cakes made by Song Zhao were indeed delicious. She often ate this dessert when she was at home. It was made by her own mother.
Later when her father was promoted and the whole family moved to the Sichuan-Shaanxi area, her mother could no longer often send things to the palace.
Consort Chen's rampant arrogance was mostly pampered by her family when she was at home.
Missing her family’s kindness, she unconsciously ate two more pieces of cake.
*
In the past few days, Concubine Liu, who entered the palace together with Song Zhao, had been running to Yonghe Palace frequently.
She tried to get close and curry favor from Consort Chen, wanting to find a backer in the harem.
But Consort Chen looked down on her for having no prestigious family background and not particularly beautiful looks, so she was always unwilling to bother with her.
However, Concubine Liu was like a sticky plaster, diligently waiting upon her side every day. Consort Chen could only treat her like a servant and order her around.
On this day, while Concubine Liu was attending Consort Chen, she saw that Consort Chen wanted to eat some raw seafood for lunch and advised:
"This concubine remembers that it is Your Majesty’s period these days. You should avoid eating cold food."
Consort Chen's chopsticks were about to pick up a slice of shellfish when she heard this and was stunned for a moment. She turned her head and asked Welcome Fragrance, "How many days has it been late?"
Welcome Fragrance said: "Your Majesty’s menstruation was supposed to come three days ago, but now..."
She hesitated for a moment. Her black pupils rolled as happiness appeared on her brows instantly,
"It’s rare for Your Majesty to be late. Plus these days, I saw that you often seem distracted and always feel sleepy... Isn't this the same symptoms as when you were pregnant for the first time? "
Hearing this, Concubine Liu immediately began to flatter, "Congratulations, Your Majesty. If you really have conceived again, it would be wonderful great news!"
Consort Chen had been dreaming day and night of getting pregnant. Usually, even just a simple nausea would make her hurry to call the imperial physician to examine her.
She basically had all the early pregnancy symptoms this time. How could she sit still?
She immediately asked Welcome Fragrance to invite the best imperial physician in the palace to diagnose her.
The result of the full heart’s delight fell short.
The imperial physician said: "Based on the pulse condition, this is not an auspicious pulse... On the contrary, there are signs of menstrual blood loss. This official boldly speculates that it seems Your Majesty has been poisoned..."
"What did you say?" Consort Chen’s happy expression disappeared instantly. She slapped the table hard enough to make her palms slightly numb, "Poisoned? Who in this palace is tired of living and dares to poison me?"
Consort Chen called the inner supervisor responsible for her food tasting and thoroughly examined everything she had eaten and drunk recently.
The problem was finally discovered in the red date and jujube cakes.
Consort Chen said angrily, "Does Song Zhao want to die? Welcome Fragrance, go report this to His Majesty immediately!"
Welcome Fragrance rushed to go, but Concubine Liu stopped her,
"Don’t worry, Your Majesty. This concubine always feels something strange about this."
"What do you want to say?"
"How can anyone poison so blatantly? Besides, Miss Song wants to get close to you, so doing this would be exposed instantly. What good would it do her?"
After a little thought, Consort Chen said to the food-tasting inner supervisor: "Tell me clearly what’s wrong with these cakes."
"Replying to Your Majesty, two extra ingredients were added to these red date and jujube cakes, namely ‘South Sea Honey’ and ‘Frog Licorice’. The problem lies in the ‘Frog Licorice’. It conflicts with brown sugar and cannot be taken together."
Consort Chen didn't know what ‘Frog Licorice’ was, but in the entire harem, only Consort Yun had ‘South Sea Honey’. She heard that Consort Yun had also given some to Song Zhao recently.
She silently sorted out her clues and soon figured it out:
It must be Consort Yun who wanted to frame Song Zhao, giving her a false pregnancy charge to compete favor.
Song Zhao thought South Sea Honey was a good thing, so she added it when making the red date and jujube cakes, which accidentally made her eat it.
Consort Chen frowned and was silent for a while. Then she said to Concubine Liu,
"Pretend you don't know anything about today’s matter. If you leak half a word that shouldn’t be said, watch your tongue."
Concubine Liu promised again and again. After seeing her withdraw, Consort Chen sank her face towards Welcome Fragrance,
"Go to Changchun Palace and call that stupid Consort Yun over for me."
