Miss Gu was about to leave the scene, but Qian Mo'er made her embarrassed, so she turned around and glared at Qian Mo'er as she said, "You are ridiculous!"

Miss Gu then left after saying those, but Qian Mo'er was unwilling to let her go like this. She chased and then stopped Miss Gu by opening her arms in front of her and shouted, "I dare to swear, dare you? If you dare not, how can you say that I am ridiculous? You caused this, but now you are also scolding me. You are so unreasonable!"

"It is useless to reason with people like you," said Miss Gu. She didn't want to talk to Qian Mo'er anymore, but she couldn't get rid of her. Now she also became angry and said, "Wei Changying has already left, why are you still pestering me? Isn't it shameful enough for you for what you've done?"

Hearing this, Qian Mo'er was shocked. She looked around and found that Wei Changying and Su Yuli had already been more than ten Zhangs away from her, where she could hardly see them through the flowers and trees. There were several people gathered around them, which seemed like those who had criticized her just now in order to get themselves out of this trouble.

She then remembered that these things happened only because she had echoed with others. As a result, she was hit and became embarrassed, and she had even fallen out with her companion. But Wei Changying returned to the palace as if nothing had happened... Thinking of these, Qian Mo'er felt sad and cried, "Gu Meimei, I shouldn't have trusted you! You gossiped about Wei Changying first, but now you refused to help me. Since everything is messed up, how will I have face to sit in the palace? I'm going home!"

She then said furiously, "Don't mention that case anymore. Although I'm not familiar with Liu Ruoyu, I've heard that she is loyal to friends. However, you are not reliable at all!"

Miss Gu, whose pet-name was Meimei, frowned as she heard what Qian Mo'er had said. She dragged Qian Mo'er to the side of the road and complained quietly, "Look at you, I was just gossiping about her in a low voice, it's nothing when you echoed me, but you shouldn't say such mean words. You have put me in a dilemma since you quarreled with her like this."

"My words were mean? What about yours!" Qian Mo'er cried as she said, "Don't you look down upon Wei Changying? Now you are blaming me for talking too mean? Why are you so afraid of her? After all, she is just a minister's wife, but you are the Empress' niece! What's so scary about her!? I really shouldn't have trusted you. I singled you out because I thought you are different from others. I thought that only you are not afraid of her and have the courage to reason with her. I didn't expect that you are a coward!"

Gu Meimei looked embarrassed. She pulled her handkerchief and said, "Look what you've said... How... how will I be afraid of her? We don't need to bother ourselves arguing with the likes of her. Look at her, as a daughter of an eminent family, she did not explain herself but hit you! What's worse, she hit your mouth... She is so... so rude!"

Qian Mo'er wiped her tears sadly and said, "Now you have remembered to comfort me? Haven’t you just called me the sixth Miss of the Qian family? Didn't you want to get rid of me?"

"There were so many people at the scene, but you singled me out. I thought you were trying to embarrass me intentionally," Gu Meimei bit her lips as she spoke. She thought that Princess Linchuan would really be angry with her if she didn't go to the palace on time and that she should stop quarreling with Qian Mo'er on the road. Whatever, the first thing was to make Qian Mo'er happy, so Gu Meimei said softly, "Since we are good friends, people will laugh at us if we quarrel because of Wei Changying. Please don't be angry with me anymore. We should talk peacefully."

Qian Mo'er said with tears, "I’m not your good friend anymore! Now I know what kind of person you are! What's more, Wei Changying and I are enemies from now on. Since you are so timid, I will be pissed off by you! I will look for a braver friend in the future, but not a person like you, who only dare to gossip secretly!" Qian Mo'er then left hurriedly with her maidservant, leaving Gu Meimei alone.

"You!" Gu Meimei's expression was complex. She wanted to call Qian Mo'er, but she was afraid that other people would notice her. Therefore, she could only stamp her feet with anger and scolded, "Rubbish! How dare you blame me!? Since you can neither keep your mouth shut nor win over her, you shouldn't argue with her! Now that you have lost face, you wanted to involve me into this... You rubbish!"

At the same time, Wei Changying and Su Yuli were near the palace. They heard the sound of Sizhu coming out from the palace.

Both Su Yuli and Wei Changying told their maidservants that they were about to enter, and then tidied their dress before entering the palace.

After entering the palace, they found that Princess Linchuan had already returned to her seat, and was talking with a servant. When Princess Linchuan saw Su Yuli and Wei Changying, she waved to the servant to let him stay back.

Seeing this, everyone knew that the princess doubted why they were late. They felt lucky that they had arrived on time and said some blessings to the princess before they returned to their seats.

Wei Changying's seat was behind the Honored Consort, and she had to walk pass the princess if she wanted to go to her seat. Therefore, Princess Linchuan stopped her and asked, "Why are you so late?"

"It is my first time entering the palace, so I was fascinated by the pomegranate flowers on my way here," Wei Changying said politely, "My cousin was walking with me when some ladies talked to me because they were unfamiliar to me."

Hearing this, Princess Linchuan looked softer. She said, "The pomegranate flowers look bright in May. I like the pomegranate flowers best, so my mother let the servants decorate Weiyang Palace with these flowers. People always say that red flowers and green trees are ordinary, but the pomegranate flowers are as red as the flames, which common people can't appreciate. You have good taste." She then asked Wei Changying to take her seat delightedly.

Wei Changying thought, "The princess liked the flowers so much that I could even win her heart by saying I was fascinated by the flowers."

When she returned to her seat, she found that her food and drinks were taken away. Liu Di, who was still standing by her seat, smiled and explained, "They have just served some new dishes, I asked them not to serve them because you were not here, in case that the dishes become cold. I'll let them serve the dishes now."

"Thank you," said Wei Changying. She then saw Honored Consort Deng sitting and putting her chin on her hand. Beside her was a person wearing a pink upper shirt embroidered with mandala leaf patterns and a pine-pollen-yellow dress embroidered with bamboo leaf patterns.

Because Wei Changying was behind them, she could only see the lady's chin. But she knew that the lady was young because she was dressed in a bright color. Her hair was made into a conch-shaped bun, with a pair of hair clasp decorated with diamond-made cotton rose, which was shiny under the light... Wei Changying was familiar with this pair of hair clasp. She thought for a while and then remembered: it was the hair clasp that cousin Song used to wear in Fengzhou.

She remembered clearly the time when she pissed her mother Madam Song off, and her punishment was to kneel in the courtyard. She had deliberately knelt under the sun to make Madam Song relent, but Madam Song was so angry that she insisted on punishing Wei Changying. Therefore, Wei Changying had asked Song Zaishui to help her.

However, after Song Zaishui helped her, Wei Changying forgot about her cousin Song. Song Zaishui then went to Xianshuang Court and argued with Wei Changying, wearing this pair of hair clasp, which was now in the young lady's hair.

“Since she has cousin Song's hair clasp, and she is talking with the Honored Consort, maybe she is Deng Zongqi's sister Deng Wanwan," Wei Changying thought, "There are many girls in the palace today, so the Honored Consort will not only ask me to chat with her. However, since the girl has cousin Song's hair clasp, I dare say she is Deng Wanwan."

Wei Changying was curious why Song Zaishui would think so highly of Deng Wanwan. She knew that although Song Zaishui looked gentle and virtuous, she had a high standard for people. Therefore, it was rare to see Song Zaishui think highly of someone, let alone writing letters to mention and praise her.

Since Deng Wanwan and the Honored Consort were chatting, and they didn't ask Wei Changying to join in, she could only look at Deng Wanwan's back with regret, and talk with Liu Di vaguely.

After finishing two dishes, the mother of Duke Ying, who was the eldest at the scene, called a royal servant to come, and asked, "The Empress has been away for changing clothes for a long time. Why hasn’t she come back?"

The servant replied, "I'll go and see."

Hearing this, the other imperial madams, who were sitting with Duke Ying's mother, stopped chatting and waited for the Empress to come.

Wei Changying was reminded: A few hours ago, when Princess Linchuan suggested they should return to the palace after she finished writing in the Qianqiu Pavilion, Empress Gu should have returned. But she hasn't show up till now... Since Empress Gu had decorated the whole Weiyang Palace for Princess Linchuan's birthday, she should have attached great importance to this party, why would she leave for such a long time?

Wei Changying ate the lychee slowly and thought about the possible incidents. After a while, the royal servant came back and talked to Duke Ying's mother, who then looked dawned and explained to other imperial madams and infantas. Because Wei Changying was far from them, and it was noisy in the palace, she couldn't hear what they had said. Therefore, she could only infer from the ladies' expressions that nothing serious had happened to the Empress. However, she still felt regret that she couldn't know about the details.

Luckily, Honored Consort Deng was also paying attention to their conversation when she was talking with her niece, so she asked, "Liu Zhi, come here. Why isn't the Empress here yet? Although Duke Ying's mother was considerate and let you ask about the Empress, everyone here is worried about her. Why did you only tell Duke Ying's mother instead of telling everyone?"

She then scolded, "It's off-key for you to do this. The Empress is so kind that she can tolerate such a stupid maid like you!"

After being scolded, Liu Zhi looked frightened. Apparently, Honored Consort Deng was also a headache for Liu Zhi, who then explained with fear, "Because Duke Ying's mother was the first person who asked me about the Empress, I was planning to tell her first, then..."

Duke Ying's mother felt that something wasn't right. Being regret for asking so much and afraid of getting involved, she immediately said, "I shouldn't have asked..."

"It's not your fault," said Honored Consort Deng. She was quite polite to Duke Ying's mother. "Why are you still standing there, Liu Zhi? Tell us what happened to the Empress!"

Because the Honored Consort was angry, everyone in the palace stopped talking and looked to the vermilion steps where Liu Zhi was standing, waiting for Liu Zhi's explanation.