The Valued Lady is Truly Dominant

After Princess Anping and her daughter left, Song Ci curled her fingers and lightly tapped the table, her brows faintly knitted.

”What do you think the Princess meant by those words? Could it be that someone is using the dealings between our two families to make an issue of it?”

Nanny Gong said, ”It wouldn’t be anything strange if that were the case. The Princely Heir of the Lu Family is heavily relied upon by the Emperor and is also the Princess’s son-in-law, while the Princess is on close terms with you. I fear someone may be secretly impeaching you for forming cliques and pursuing private interests and the like.”

Song Ci sighed. ”There are always people who cannot bear to see others in harmony.”

”This too is something we are helpless against.”

”Grand Madam, the Prime Minister is here.” Xiaoman lifted the curtain and reported.

Song Zhiyuan stepped through the door and said, ”I heard Mother sighing from far away. Has something happened?”

Song Ci pointed to the other end of the Arhat bed for him to sit and asked in return, ”You actually found a spare moment to come and chat with this old woman of a mother? Nothing’s happening in the palace?”

”No matter how busy, I can’t possibly stay in the palace for all twelve hours of the day, can I?” Song Zhiyuan sat down, one hand playing with the prayer beads in his fingers. He took the tea Nanny Gong handed him, set it on the side table, then reached out to fiddle with a pot of violets by the window, and said, ”What’s weighing on Mother’s mind?”

”Nothing much. Princess Anping came by just now, we chattered idly for a bit, and she did express her stance...” Song Ci recounted what Princess Anping had said, then asked, ”Eldest, is there someone who can’t stomach it? Taking this chance to attack you?”

Song Zhiyuan glanced at Nanny Gong and the others, and Nanny Gong and Nan Shan both withdrew to stand guard at the door.

”There hasn’t been any outright attack, only that the calls to establish a crown prince have surged again. Some people can’t sit still and just want to muddy the waters.”

”Oh?”

Song Zhiyuan lowered his voice. ”In this year’s selection of imperial consorts, the Lu Family of Marquis Jing’an Mansion also has a clan girl who entered the palace. She was granted the rank of Beauty, and this Lu Beauty has recently been diagnosed with a dragon seed in her womb.”

”This fast?” Song Ci was somewhat surprised. She said, ”No, but even so, what does that have to do with our family? If they want to say we’re forming cliques for private gain, it’s clear as day that the Emperor raised up the Princely Heir of the Lu Family precisely to set him against you. They can’t possibly insist that, because of the Princess, we are on good terms with the Lu Family, can they?”

Wouldn’t that be sheer fabrication out of nothing?

”So long as politics is involved, something can be made from nothing. Conjuring accusations out of thin air is commonplace.” Song Zhiyuan smiled faintly. ”Mother need not worry. This isn’t a critical matter.”

”The Emperor won’t grow suspicious of you on this account?”

”Just as you said yourself, the Emperor set the Princely Heir of the Lu Family up to compete with me. How could he believe that we would form a clique for private interests? Wouldn’t that be slapping his own face?”

Pressing her temples, Song Ci said, ”That’s exactly what I don’t understand about these people. Since that’s the case, why bother staging this impeachment farce? Even if that Beauty is carrying a dragon heir, since the two families are openly rivals, would our family really choose someone like that? Have all their brains short-circuited? With nothing better to do, they insist on stirring up trouble and blackening us to death.”

Song Zhiyuan chuckled. ”Perhaps they’re doing this precisely to cut off any possibility of us and the Lu Family ever growing close. In truth, that’s quite unnecessary. Just by virtue of our Song Family already having Song Daying in the palace, it’s not very likely we’d stand on the Lu Family’s side, even if Lu Beauty bears the dragon line.”

”Didn’t you say Song Daying is out of favor?”

”You yourself said that the Emperor values the path of balance. Now that everyone is talking about establishing a crown prince, and the Emperor wants to display that his virility has not faded with age, he will only let his favors fall evenly. As for Song Daying, even if she will not be greatly favored, she will likely have her role to play.” Song Zhiyuan said mildly.

The corner of Song Ci’s mouth twitched; she wanted to complain a few words, but in the end it turned into just this: ”From this matter, it seems the Emperor’s suspicion is beginning to deepen. In the future, you must be mindful of your limits.”

It had nothing to do with personal feelings; an Emperor’s suspicion is eternal and unchanging.