“...” Yun Fenghuang thought that Emperor Chunjia would suddenly get up. It would not surprise her even if he ran out without putting on his shoes.

However, the Emperor lay still for seconds and then asked slowly, “How could she be uncomfortable?”

After saying it, he turned and sat up. His movements were neat, and he was absolutely not in a panic.

Yan Yin who was outside said in a low voice, “I don’t know. Judging from the maid’s expression, it seems very urgent.”

“Have they summoned an imperial doctor?” The Emperor removed the thick veil cover designed to cover them when they got up in the night to urinate. The originally dark room suddenly lit up. He got out of bed and took the clothes hanging on the hanger. He asked while wearing clothes, “Aunt Zhu has experienced it. What is her opinion?”

Yan Yin said, “The maid said that they did not summon an imperial doctor, perhaps because it was late.”

“That’s not okay.” Yun Fenghuang leaned back on the couch, with one hand supporting her head. She smiled and said, “Jie Yu Yue is more than one month pregnant. When I was at home, I heard that my mother told my sister-in-law that the first three months of pregnancy are the most important. When pregnant women feel uncomfortable, they should better directly tell others. The heirs are the most important... Jie Yu Yue has been pregnant once before. How can she be so negligent? If there is something wrong with the imperial heir, can she take the responsibilities? My Majesty, in my opinion, it will be better to order Yan Yin to summon an imperial doctor.”

As she said these words, she observed his expression stealthily.

But the Emperor just bowed his head to wear the jade belt. His face was hidden in the shadow and she could not see his expression clearly. However, judging from his emotion, she felt that he was definitely not gratified by her “care” about Yuan Lianniang.

“I will go to see her. You can just have a rest.” Soon after, the Emperor dressed himself, put his clothes in order, turned to Yun Fenghuang and said, “I will company Lianniang. You don’t need to worry, Pin Yun.”

Yun Fenghuang drowsily said, “Yes, My Majesty.”

She watched him leave, yawned and called Xi Jing who was accompanying her at night to extinguish the candle.

Xi Jing came in and found that Yun Fenghuang was wide awake. She curled her lips and said discontentedly, “Our hostess is really ridiculous. On a daily basis, she is anxious to dominate His Majesty all the time. Even if she is pregnant now and it is late at night, she pretends to be uncomfortable so that His Majesty can accompany her... As a concubine, how shameless she is! There is no one else like her in the harem.”

Noble Consort Gui was pregnant earlier than Yuan Lianniang. After such a long time, the Emperor just saw her a few times. Noble Consort Gui did not ask the Emperor to accompany her with the excuse of pregnancy like Jie Yu Yue.

“After all, His Majesty is willing to indulge her.” Yun Fenghuang said indifferently, “In the morning, concubines in the harem were basked in the favor of Her Highness. Her Highness gave a promotion to concubines who joined the harem with me last time, which is a happy event to everyone. However, Jie Yu Wei in Yi Jia Palace is the one who is the happiest. According to the rules, His Majesty should go to her place tonight. But he came to me. Do you think it is because he missed me? He came here because my room is not far from the hall where Jie Yu Yue lives. It is convenient for Jie Yu Yue to call him.”

She waved her hands to ask Xi Jing to stop complaining, “Go to bed. Jie Yu Yue doesn’t need to pay respect because she is pregnant. But we have to get up early tomorrow.”

The next day, Yun Fenghuang went out with Xi Jing. In the side hall of Yan Fu Palace, the concubines lowered their voice as usual after she entered. Because Wei Hengyan was promoted to Jie Yu, she no longer stayed with these concubines, and no one dared to talk to her at this time. Yun Fenghuang closed her eyes and rested her mind before a maid came to inform them to go to the main palace.

Today’s greeting was almost the same as usual. There was nothing new. The Empress mentioned that Wei Hengyan’s Conferring Ceremony would be postponed for a few days, because Bureau of Astronomy said there was not an auspicious day recently.

Wei Hengyan was a little disappointed. There were wide gaps between concubines in the harem. The promotion of a concubine was decided by the Empress. At most, everyone said congratulations, and it was nothing special. The promotion of a consort, however, entailed a Conferring Ceremony. She was the one with the best family background among the newcomers and the one who got the highest grade after joining the harem. She determined to seek the limelight as soon as she joined the harem.

However, she met Yun Fenghuang...

She allied herself with Yun Fenghuang yesterday and she didn’t want to fall out with her at the moment. But she still wanted to show off her honor in front of people in the harem.

The Empress did not cancel the Conferring Ceremony, nor did she say when to hold it. Wei Hengyan did not know when her Conferring Ceremony would be held...

She managed to restrain her depression. She stood up and expressed gratitude for the Empress’ favor, saying that everything was up to the Empress.

Then, the Empress looked at Yun Fenghuang. Yun Fenghuang thought she would mention the thing that Yuan Lianniang called the Emperor away last night, but the Empress immediately looked at other people. She looked around and said “OK. Let’s go to pay respect to Queen Mother Ji.”

They arrived at Mian Fu Palace as usual, and Queen Mother Ji drowsily watched them pay respect to her. After asking them to stand up, she said to the Empress, “Now Noble Consort Gui and Ji-e Yu Yue are pregnant. It can be seen that it is fate that brings us the royal heirs. Tell His Majesty to treat every concubine equally to have more children.”

The Empress nodded in agreement.

Queen Mother Ji also said that the Empress should give more opportunities to the newcomers. After all, the concubines who had been in the palace for several years did not give birth to a child. It was better to leave the opportunity to the newcomers.

Hearing these words, the Empress and the other concubines felt a bit embarrassed. However, Queen Mother Ji was telling the truth, and they did not dare to retort. They just lowered their heads and said what Queen Mother Ji said was right.

Fortunately, Queen Mother Ji just said these few words and sent them away.

After going out, Wei Hengyan invited Yun Fenghuang to come to Yi Jia Palace to have a talk.

“Thank you for your care.” Yun Fenghuang said, “I prepared something and I plan to thank you one by one today.”

Wei Hengyan asked curiously, “Who are you going to visit?”

She didn’t think that Yun Fenghuang would visit all the concubines in the harem.

Yun Fenghuang said, “You, Qingman, and Rong Hua Xue. I dare not disturb the palace hostesses because of my low grade and I have expressed my gratitude and sent gifts in return to the maids who represented their palace hostesses to send gifts to me. As for the other concubines of low grades, I am not very familiar with them.”

“Are you familiar with Rong Hua Xue?” Wei Hengyan wondered. It was reasonable for Yun Fenghuang to visit her because they just formed an alliance yesterday. Now her grade was higher than Yun Fenghuang’s. She thought that Yun Fenghuang would either send a maid or visit her personally. Yun Fenghuang would not ignore her.

It was reasonable for Yun Fenghuang to visit Yun Qingman. Although she thought that Yun Fenghuang’s relationship with the daughters of Duke Yi was quite subtle and was not as good as what others said, they were nominal sisters after all. Since she planned to go to Yi Jia Palace, she would not miss Tong Xia Palace.

As for Rong Hua Xue who lived in Su Rong Palace... It seemed that they did not have any contact.

After some thought, she thought they were related somehow.

Yun Fenghuang made a hit as soon as she joined the harem. Zhao Yuan Ji, the hostess of Su Rong Palace and Rong Hua Xue’s cousin, did not like her and made an issue of her name.

Did Yun Fenghuang intend to pay a visit to Rong Hua Xue to resolve their conflicts?

Wei Hengyan did not think that Yun Fenghuang would do that...

Wei Hengyan was suspicious and thought to herself, “Why does she suddenly want to visit Rong Hua Xue?”

“You didn’t know me well before, Jie Yu Wei.” Yun Fenghuang smiled at her, “Then we became friends after we had a few talks.”

Wei Hengyan suddenly realized that Yun Fenghuang thought Xue Xiaoge would also be one of the hostesses sooner or later, so she took advantage of this opportunity to cotton up to Xue Xiaoge. Wei Hengyan thought that she could not be left behind... But she had gotten the title of Jie Yu!

How could a Jie Yu go to visit a Rong Hua in person?

Sighing secretly, Wei Hengyan dispelled her suspicion and nodded, “I agree with you. We are about the same age. We should visit each other more frequently when it is convenient.”

In fact, her implication was that Yun Fenghuang should take her when she visited Xue Xiaoge.

Yun Fenghuang agreed in a positive manner. Seeing this, Wei Hengyan felt it was very much to her credit. She was so happy that she said to Yun Fenghuang, “You don’t have to go to my place if you are busy. Anyway, there is no lack of opportunities for a talk.”

In these two days, they walked together after paying respect. Of course, they had plenty of time to sit and talk in Yi Jia Palace.

This was a most welcome opportunity to Yun Fenghuang. She pretended to refuse and insisted that she would come to Yi Jia Palace to thank Wei Hengyan. Seeing that Wei Hengyan was considering her, Yun Fenghuang agreed.

She went back to Zi Quan Hall and asked Xi Le to send the gifts that were packed yesterday to Yi Jia Palace. She told Xi Le to say a few more nice words. Then Yun Fenghuang took some gifts to Tong Xia Palace.

After all, it was not the main purpose. Besides, the relationship between Yun Fenghuang and Noble Consort Shu as well as Yun Qingman was really complex, so she left after a perfunctory visit.

Soon after, a maid reported to Zhao Yuan Ji in Su Rong Palace that Pin Yun who was newly promoted begged at the palace gate to visit Rong Hua Xue. Zhao Yuan Ji smiled indifferently, “I thought she would at best go to Tong Xia Palace or Yi Jia Palace where her close friend Wei Hengyan lives, since Her Highness is in support of her. I never expected that she would come here.”

The maid smiled, “Since Pin Yun depends on Her Highness to survive, she will not ignore you.”

“Forget it, for the sake of Her Highness. Let her come in.” Zhao Yuan Ji was a typical high-ranking noble girl, and she looked down on these concubines of low grades. She intended to ask her to come to Xiaoge’s place directly. But she hesitated and finally changed her mind. She said, “It will not cost much time after all.”

Soon Yun Fenghuang was guided in. She saluted and paid respect to Zhao Yuan Ji.

Zhao Yuan Ji asked her to stand up and said, “I heard that you moved yesterday. You must be busy today. Why do you come to my palace?”

“My Lady, thanks for your concern.” Yun Fenghuang respectfully replied, “The new place where I moved in is also in Hu Zhu Palace. It does not take too much time. Yesterday I was rewarded by you and Rong Hua Xue and felt very grateful. It was getting late and I dared not to disturb you, so I come to thank you today.”

Then she left her seat and fell on her knees.

Zhao Yuan Ji was pleased with Yun Fenghuang’s behavior. She leaned back and smiled, “I have asked you not to stand on ceremony. Just stand up. When we enter the palace, we are all serving His Majesty. We don’t need these formalities.”

Yun Fenghuang said a few words, following Zhao Yuan Ji’s tone. When she found that Zhao Yuan Ji was in a good mood, she took out a handkerchief and said that she was of low status and she felt worried after receiving the gifts given by Zhao Yuan Ji because she had nothing to repay her. She could only embroider this handkerchief to show her respects.

It was of course a lie. It was impossible for Yun Fenghuang to embroider a handkerchief overnight. This was one of the handkerchiefs that Nian Xuan embroidered when she was free. Last night, Yun Fenghuang asked a maid to make some adjustments to the handkerchief so as to make it look like a newly finished one and the stitches were not so neat. Then she could deceive Zhao Yuan Ji.

To convince Zhao Yuan Ji, she even pierced her fingertips in the morning.

When a maid of Zhao Yuan Ji came up to pick up the handkerchief, she noticed the holes on her fingertips as expected. She gave it to Zhao Yuan Ji and whispered. Zhao Yuan Ji smiled again and said, “I have all I want. You don’t have to worry about me. I accept your good intentions.”

Usually, Zhao Yuan Ji would not be so kind to concubines of low grades, even if she knew that the concubines were assisting the Empress.

In the final analysis, people in the harem thought that Yun Fenghuang was unruly and good at making troubles. Compared with how Yun Fenghuang treated Jie Yu Yue, she was much more obedient in front of her. Zhao Yuan Ji had a sense of superiority that she was treated differently.

Originally, Zhao Yuan Ji only planned to say a few words to Yun Fenghuang and then asked her to go to Xue Xiaoge. However, she talked with Yun Fenghuang for a while before letting her go.

Yun Fenghuang felt it was kind of ridiculous. She was not familiar with Zhao Yuan Ji and only knew that Zhao Yuan Ji was very haughty and was hard to get along with. It seemed that Zhao Yuan Ji was quite lonely.

Otherwise, how could Zhao Yuan Ji talk with her for such a long time?

As the legitimate cousin of the Empress, Zhao Yuan Ji had no heir, and she was really not busy. There was the Empress who always intrigued against others. As for fighting to win the Emperor’s favor... The Emperor still had to act according to her family’s every mood. She did not need to rush to please him.

Yun Fenghuang thought about this and asked to leave the main palace. She was led by a maid to Chou Hua Pavilion where Xue Xiaoge lived.