Chapter Eighty-Six: Turning the Tables Today

I did nothing at all. How can Your Majesty say such a thing about me?

Shen Fuyu was not the least bit afraid. She did not care about losing face; for two months already, people outside had been cursing her as a seductress, and she had not once seen them quiet down. What was Jing Lanxi to that?

Besides, all the pots and bowls, the leftovers and scraps, had long ago been tucked away into her inner realm. Go ahead and search. Even if you had the power of heaven itself, you would never find them.

With unhurried ease, Shen Fuyu stroked her belly and looked at the aggressive Empress and Empress Dowager. It was rare enough for these two to actually agree on anything, when in truth their relationship as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law could hardly have been worse.

“Your Majesty... we found nothing...” The palace attendants who had gone off full of confidence to search now returned crestfallen. If they could only find one thing taken from the imperial kitchen, the crime against the Noble Consort would be sealed.

“Did you search carefully?” Jing Lanxi could hardly believe it. How could this be? Xianyue Palace was only so large. Her people had searched it thoroughly inside and out, and those bowls and basins were so big that they could not possibly have vanished into thin air.

“Yes. We searched every corner, inside and out. We even looked in the flowerbeds and the pools, but indeed found nothing.”

“Your Majesty, what was it you said just now? That you wanted me to confess my guilt. I would like to ask now: what exactly am I guilty of?” Shen Fuyu gave her a triumphant smile. Search me all you want; she had her own hidden realm.

The hidden realm was truly useful.

“Empress Dowager, please uphold justice for me!” Ignoring Jing Lanxi’s darkened face and bewildered expression, Shen Fuyu burst into tears on the spot, kneeling before the Empress Dowager in a flood of pear blossom rain. “I have been grievously wronged!”

The Empress Dowager was stunned as well. She had come intending to bring charges, yet after a thorough search of the palace, matters had turned into this. “Get up first and speak. Do not harm the dragon child in your womb.”

The old woman, weathered by years and experience, spoke these contrary words without even changing expression. With lofty dignity, she said, “Empress, do you have any other evidence?”

In truth, no one on the Empress Dowager’s side had actually seen Shen Fuyu storming into the kitchen and causing a scene. They had merely received word that her delicacies had been seized.

She had always despised those who broke the rules. Yet Shen Fuyu happened to be the emperor’s savior, and now she was with child; moreover, she was cunning to the extreme. No matter how she looked at it, the Empress Dowager could not find an opening to get rid of this unruly, disobedient wretch. Otherwise, for so trivial a matter, she would never have bothered to question her.

Jing Lanxi remained composed and said, “I received reports from the guards assigned to the palace kitchen, which is why I came to investigate.”

“Its words from many mouths all matched, so I had no choice but to suspect the Noble Consort.”

That was the line she had been waiting for.

Shen Fuyu pressed her lips together. “Then let me ask plainly: the imperial guards you brought, as well as the people of the kitchen, all witnessed it, did they not?”

“What else do you have to say?” Jing Lanxi frowned, then turned to the Empress Dowager. “Empress Dowager, I have already brought the witnesses. Seven or eight imperial guards were injured, and the kitchen steward was beaten beyond recognition. This is irrefutable proof!”

“Speaking of which,” Shen Fuyu said, frowning slightly with innocent eyes, “I am only two months along. It is precisely the time when the fetus is not yet stable. Not to mention that I can barely move at present, even if I did possess some skill, the imperial guards sent by Your Majesty are all highly trained. How could I possibly beat them so thoroughly that they could not fight back at all?”

“If the Empress is trying to frame me, this method is far too crude. What pregnant woman of two months can move as swiftly as the wind, knock down nearly ten imperial guards and so many others in the kitchen in a single breath, and then seize so many dishes from the kitchen? Empress Dowager, do you believe such a thing?”

Shen Fuyu believed it herself, and inwardly she was delighted. She could clearly feel these two women’s blood pressure rising. Surprised, were they?

So what if you saw it with your own eyes? How could something so contrary to common sense possibly stand?

I am merely a weak and helpless little pregnant woman, currently under reflection.

Beating people does not fit the natural order for a pregnant woman, does it? Beating a whole group of them is even less plausible, isn’t it?

Jing Lanxi caught the flicker of smugness she failed to conceal. Her expression darkened, and she knelt as well. “Mother Dowager, please hear the testimony before making a judgment.”

After all the back and forth, the decision had once again been placed in the Empress Dowager’s hands.

Soon, several imperial guards who could still move stepped forward, along with the kitchen steward, whose face was tightly bandaged as he entered.

“We were originally stationed outside Xianyue Palace, when the Noble Consort, who was under confinement, suddenly burst out. Without saying a word, she beat us and forced her way out.”

“I am the same. After the Noble Consort was confined, her meals were supposed to come from the imperial kitchen. In the past, Your Ladyship used her own small kitchen, and we servants merely made a momentary lapse. The meal was delivered a little late, and we never expected the Noble Consort to rush in. Without so much as a word, she beat me up, then even seized the rations prepared for all the imperial consorts and ladies.”

“Noble Consort, what have you to say now?” The Empress Dowager was livid at these words. Though the matter was astonishing, if it were Shen Fuyu, it was not impossible. If it was not she who did it, then how else could the injuries on these people and the missing food from the imperial kitchen be explained?

“Why does the Empress Dowager love to believe the one-sided words of others so much? Could it be that you hate me enough to pin any random crime on my head?” Shen Fuyu let out a cold laugh. “Is it not a little too forced for Your Majesty to accuse me in this way?”

“Are you questioning my judgment?”

“And if I am?” Shen Fuyu was completely unafraid. “You may certainly punish me severely on this pretext, but you ought to consider whether the people outside will believe it. If this is how things are in the palace, then what of the realm beyond it?”

“Are you threatening me?” The Empress Dowager frowned. “Do you dare claim you did not do these things? You insist there is no physical evidence, yet there are witnesses! You have repeatedly defied your superiors; both I and the Empress saw it with our own eyes. Do you truly think that just because you are with child, you may run wild without restraint?”

Of course Shen Fuyu was not afraid. She had not even feared death, much less punishment. At present, they could not beat her, nor make her kneel. What punishment could they even impose? Confinement? Copying texts? Reducing her rank? What was there to fear in that? It would not hurt one bit.

“I simply did not do it. Could you really turn white into black? Surely not. A grand Empress Dowager, and that is all?”

“You!”

“Noble Consort, how dare you be so insolent!” Jing Lanxi pointed at her and said, “In the presence of the Empress Dowager and this palace, you still dare to behave outrageously!”

“In my view, it is plainly someone with a guilty conscience crying thief to catch a thief, using rank to suppress others!” Shen Fuyu sneered. “Beating imperial guards and causing a scene in the kitchen—by the testimony of the witnesses Your Majesty brought, it was all done by me alone. Tell me, how could a frail pregnant woman do such a thing? I daresay even a strong man would not find it so easy.”

“Empress, these imperial guards were drawn from your own palace, and the imperial kitchen is under your management. Although the Virtuous Consort has the authority to assist, she usually handles only trivial matters.”