Chapter 178: Chapter 178 - Side Issues Arise

“Somebody put this maid under arrest and interrogate her well!” By far, Noble Consort Cui had known that she couldn’t make Song Yixiao take the blame. Even though Song Yixiao admitted that she had come to verbal conflict with Cui Jianlian, as a first-rank titled lady, it was rather understandable for her to get angry for being demanded by a side concubine of the Crown Prince to divorce her husband to make room for another woman.

If this leaked out, no one would blame Song Yixiao for not being virtuous and generous enough. Instead, it would be believed that Cui Jianlian deserved to suffer!

Therefore, Noble Consort Cui couldn’t make trouble for Song Yixiao now. All she wanted to do was to pour oil on troubled waters.

However, this time she still couldn’t have Xiaoman taken away. Jinguo Grand Princess said indifferently, “Why bother? After all, we’ve got so many people here. Why don’t we interrogate her on the spot so that we can report to Mother and the Empress later?”

Jinguo Grand Princess never engaged in political affairs, who was also not as aggressive as Daiguo Grand Princess, but she was definitely not a push-over.

Princess Changxing made trouble for Song Yixiao in private before the latter was married to Jian Xubai. That time, Jinguo Grand Princess managed to force Empress Su to compensate with the Rosy Sun and Hazy Moon Rings that were meant to be a betrothal present for the princess. Now how could she let go of Cui Jianlian and her aunt easily?

Noble Consort Cui had already held grudge against Daiguo Grand Princess. Currently, Prince of Wei and Prince of Zhao were menacing the Crown Prince. As the birth mother of the Crown Prince, how could she dare to offend Jinguo Grand Princess?

She was extremely anxious to hear that but she couldn’t help saying with a forced smile, “Your Highness, we don’t need to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Today is the Lantern Festival. It’s not worthwhile casting a chill over yourself for such a maid!”

“Someone has bled. I cannot have a good time anyway.” Jinguo Grand Princess sneered. “Moreover, I’m wondering what grudge this maid holds against my daughter-in-law since her mistress is not close to my daughter-in-law. Why does she incite her mistress to slander my daughter-in-law?”

She kept addressing her daughter-in-law, which explicitly indicated her intention of denouncement. Noble Consort Cui saw that Song Yixiao was safe and sound, and then thought of her niece whose life was at the mercy of fate. Instantly, she flew into a rage and just couldn’t vent her anger. After a while, she finally said, “How can I not obey Your Highness’s order?”

Xiaoman had slumped on the ground by far. How could she say anything when she was dragged over for interrogation?

Noble Consort Cui saw her reaction and would like to have her tortured. However, when the Noble Consort’s servants were going forward, Jinguo Grand Princess interrupted and said, “I remember these maids of my mother’s are good at teaching this kind of disobedient servant. Since they are here, why don’t you leave it to them!”

The Noble Consort glimpsed Xiaoman’s resigned look and pretended to be calm, saying, “This is an insignificant person. How can I bother the maids of the Empress Dowager with her?”

However, the Grand Princess still insisted. The maids of the Empress Dowager must show support for their mistress’s daughter, so they dragged Xiaoman away at once!

Anyway, they worked for the Empress Dowager. After a while, Xiaoman was brought back, who still couldn’t stand up. However, she would like to speak frankly. Upon entering the room, she cried and said, “I’m so sorry! It was me who hurt the Side Concubine. I was afraid that I might die if the truth was disclosed, so I misled the Side Concubine to believe that Lady of Yan was the ringleader by virtue of her trust in me!”

Jinguo Grand Princess frowned. “Did Side Concubine Cui treat you badly? Or why would a maid who served her since childhood hurt her?”

“Your Highness, the Side Concubine has never maltreated me!” Xiaoman, lying prostrate on the ground and shivering, whimpered, “It’s…it’s my wishful thinking…to hope the Side Concubine to recommend me…to His Highness the Crown Prince! But the Side Concubine… She said that it was the Crown Princess to decide. I thought that the Side Concubine turned aside from my request deliberately, so I…”

“You are only a maid! It is for your past contribution that you get to work in the Eastern Palace!” Noble Consort Cui got so angry and stood up, shouting in a sharp voice, “How dare you target at the Crown Prince? As you failed your plan, you didn’t introspect yourself and even conspired against the babies of the Crown Prince. Worse still, you even slander a titled lady! You are dead meat!”

Song Yixiao stood beside her mother-in-law quietly, staring at Noble Consort Cui break into a furious rage. Actually, all the people present knew that Xiaoman’s current statement must be taught by those several maids.

The reason was simple. On the one hand, it would be detrimental to the Crown Prince that Noble Consort Cui fell out with Jinguo Grand Princess; on the other hand, Jinguo Grand Princess must consider her children’s prospect after Emperor Xianjia passed away!

Yuguo and the maids who represented the Empress Dowager on this occasion, who was aligned with the Empress Dowager’s stand of supporting the Crown Prince, also didn’t want to see the two parties become enemies.

That was to say, apart from Fangyu sent by the Empress, the people present all agreed tacitly on making someone insignificant the scapegoat so that Cui Jianlian and Song Yixiao could stay out of the issue!

The reason why Noble Consort Cui didn’t want the several maids to teach Xiaoman a lesson was that she guessed that her niece was the wrong party, for which the Empress Dowager would dislike Cui Jianlian more after learning about the truth! After all, the Empress Dowager was not satisfied with this side concubine!

However, she didn’t insist much, because the Empress Dowager could deal with Cui Jianlian without any excuse. At the moment, to dispel misunderstanding with Jinguo Grand Princess was the most important thing. Compared with that, it wouldn’t matter that much to help her niece. If she couldn’t, then Cui Jianlian had to fend for herself.

“Your Highness, please don’t be angry!” Noble Consort Cui snapped for a while when Dowager Consort of Hengshan suddenly said, “By reason I should have left, but since you mentioned Kou’er, I must make sure about one thing. After all, my legitimate daughter-in-law had only one daughter. If Kou’er suffers any wrong, I won’t be able to face my daughter-in-law in the netherworld!”

Then she asked Xiaoman, “What on earth did the Side Concubine say before she asked Lady of Yan to come here?”

Xiaoman sobbed for a while and said nothing. Song Yixiao guessed that she must have no idea what to say. One of the maids who dragged her away before hastened to say, “It seems that we haven’t taught you well!”

Having obtained the approval of the Grand Princess and Noble Consort Cui, the maids dragged Xiaoman away again. When she was brought back, she spoke as expected, “The Side Concubine was made the scapegoat back then, but she always felt sorry for Lady of Yan! At today’s feast, it was because she wanted to apologize to Lady of Yan again that she asked Lady of Yan to meet up here under the guise of Princess Consort Wei!”

As to why Song Yixiao accused Side Concubine Cui of forcing her to get a divorce, “It was totally a misunderstanding. The Side Concubine is not familiar with Lady of Yan. When they met again, the Side Concubine didn’t know how to start the conversation. Thus, she brought about the classmates in the girl’s school in Prince of Hengshan’s mansion so as to make them closer. Unexpectedly, as Lady of Yan was expecting to meet with Princess Consort Wei and she turned out to see the Side Concubine, Lady of Yan felt suspicious and then misunderstood the Side Concubine’s words when they talked about the Fourth Commandery Princess!”

Jinguo Grand Princess looked at Song Yixiao, “My good girl, is that so? Just tell us if not!”

The Grand Princess seemed to encourage her daughter-in-law but actually, she was unhappy with the statement. What did Xiaoman mean by saying that Song Yixiao mistakenly believed. If this leaked out, others would surely censure Song Yixiao’s recklessness.

Moreover, Song Yixiao grew up in Prince of Hengshan’s mansion, which made Lu Kou’er one of her benefactors. If there were no solid proofs involving serious circumstances, considering the public opinion, she was supposed to be nice to Lu Kou’er. How could she suspect Lu Kou’er randomly?

She couldn’t bite the hand that fed her!

Song Yixiao realized that her mother-in-law was helping her. Instantly, she sobbed with swimming eyes, “I’m fine with what she said about how the thing happened, but when the Side Concubine mentioned the Fourth Commandery Princess, to quote what she said, ‘You’ve been raised in Prince of Hengshan’s mansion and even started off from the mansion on your wedding day. Without Prince of Hengshan’s mansion, you wouldn’t be who you are today. You can never pay off the kindness that Prince of Hengshan’s mansion has offered you. Now that Kou’er falls for Duke of Yan, how can you be ungrateful and insist on being with him?’”

Speaking of this, she shed tears naturally, “Otherwise, how dare I conjecture the Side Concubine’s thinking?”

Now all the people in the room became quiet.

Cui Jianlian was still struggling for her babies while Xiaoman had admitted that she had conspired against her mistress. At the moment, Song Yixiao’s words naturally became the most trustable testimonies!

However, Noble Consort Cui couldn’t stand seeing Cui Jianlian convicted of forcing a titled lady to get a divorce!

Now it was not that she couldn’t abandon her niece out of affection. Instead, once Cui Jianlian was convicted of this charge, the whole Cui Family, including the Noble Consort herself, wouldn’t come to a good end! Under this circumstance, she could never make a compromise!

“Of course Bengong (a way of address oneself as a high-ranking consort) does believe what Lady of Yan said!” When Jinguo Grand Princess and her daughter arrived, Noble Consort Cui started to address herself as “I” instead of “Bengong”, which was to show her humility. Now she referred to herself as Bengong again as a gesture of euphemistically expressing her resolution. “However, Bengong has watched Jianlian grow up. Bengong believes that she can never do such a ridiculous thing without any reason!”

Therefore, “Is it because Xiaoman spoke ill of you in front of Jianlian? Like, you’ve done something that makes you no longer suitable to continue being Lady of Yan…”

“Even the maid didn’t mention such groundless things just now. What do you mean by raising this question?” Jinguo Grand Princess interrupted with disgruntlement.

“Your Highness, don’t get me wrong!” Noble Consort Cui said softly. “But Your Highness, please think about this. Jianlian is not insane. How can she not know that a first-rank titled lady is a noble lady whom even the Empress Dowager and Empress will show some respect for? She is only a side concubine. It will be her honor due to the Crown Prince if Lady of Yan greets her! How dare she force Lady of Yan to get a divorce? I would never believe that there was no inside story behind!”

Jinguo Grand Princess raised her eyebrows and asked, “That’s why Bengong asked you the question just now. Why didn’t you tell me before if you wanted to let your niece marry Bengong’s youngest son?”

These two women usually didn’t put on airs but now they both referred to themselves as Bengong. The former one just conjectured that Song Yixiao had done something wrong while the latter immediately reiterated that Noble Consort Cui was the ringleader. They were sparring with each other!

In this case, Yuguo slightly frowned while Fangyu rolled her eyes and said, “Your Highnesses, please hang tight! May I suggest making the final judgment after Her Highness the Side Concubine’s condition gets stable and we all hear out the story of Her Highness’s side?”

Her suggestion sounded reasonable but Noble Consort Cui and Jinguo Grand Princess both vetoed it with one voice after looking each other in the eye. “A side concubine is having an induction due to a maid. If this leaks out, what will the people think of the royal family? As a saying goes, domestic shame should not be made public. Today’s case must be resolved promptly!”

How absurd! The reason why they were having this battle of words was to put an end to this on the spot!

As to Cui Jianlian, who was giving the first birth through induction due to an accident, it was hard to say whether she could deliver the babies safe and sound. If she did, she would need time to recover before having the strength to answer questions, which would be the next day or the day after the next day! In this case, who knew how many versions of rumors would arise?

Empress Su, the mistress of Fangyu, might order her people to cook up different stories and spread them around so as to drive a wedge between Jinguo Grand Princess and the Crown Prince!

“In my opinion…” Yuguo understood it too. She ruminated for a while and talked. However, she just started talking when a eunuch rushed inside and reported, “Your Highnesses, just now Lady Nuan bumped against His Majesty, saying that she had heard how Side Concubine Cui argued with Lady of Yan, for which she committed a solecism out of astonishment!”

All the people were stunned!