Quick Transmigration: Underdog Turns out to be Untouchable

Chapter 925: Chapter 836: Unwilling to Be a Slave

The Empress Dowager now lives in grandeur, but if it weren’t for the powerful backing of her natal family outside the palace, serving as her support, allowing her and her biological son to keep their proper place and lead an honest and peaceful life, one would hardly expect any prospects, even for her descendants.

This is also why the Empress Dowager desperately wants the Emperor to adopt her biological grandson as the Crown Prince; if it’s not her own son or grandson on the throne, the Empress Dowager feels aggrieved.

The Emperor detests daughters of high officials entering the palace as concubines, precisely because of the Empress Dowager; the Emperor feels that if it weren’t for the powerful influence of the Empress Dowager’s family, making it difficult for even him to act against them, he would have already had the Empress Dowager living a life worse than death, in revenge for her several attempts to almost have him deposed as Crown Prince.

This time, when the Empress Dowager recklessly scolded the Emperor and Empress for being unfilial, the Emperor was truly angry, but he was even more infuriated when the Empress Dowager cursed Jing Jieyu. However, more than anger, the Emperor felt a thrill at finally catching the Empress Dowager in a blunder.

In front of his servants, the Emperor deliberately displayed an anger at the injustice toward his beloved concubine, and immediately issued a Holy Decree to promote Jing Jieyu to Lady Jing, seemingly as a gesture of compensation and sympathy for her.

Yet, the considerate Song Lin immediately instructed his subordinate little eunuch to secretly spread the word that the Empress Dowager had cursed Lady Jing, who had risked her life to save hers, and had even demanded punishment for the poor Lady Jing, who lost her child in the process of saving her, just because her arm was broken during the rescue.

With the Emperor’s insinuation, the news spread extremely quickly; in less than a day, everyone in the Capital City knew that the noble and compassionate Empress Dowager was, in fact, an ungrateful person who cursed the concubine who saved her life and demanded punishment for her.

The common people are simple-minded and easily swayed by others. With a little guidance, they soon forgot the Empress Dowager’s good reputation, but as ordinary people, they are ultimately timid and dare not openly say anything disrespectful about the Empress Dowager, so they only dared to discuss it secretly. The officials are bolder; they dared to gather in secluded places to whisper about it.

At the Donglin Prince Mansion, Prince Donglin, the Empress Dowager’s son, paced back and forth with a face ashen with anger, completing seven or eight circuits, when a voice full of authority spoke: ”All your pacing is making me dizzy; can’t you just sit still?”

Upon hearing this voice, Prince Donglin ceased his pacing and turned his head to look at the middle-aged man seated leisurely at the table, sipping tea with an air of elegance. Unable to contain himself, Prince Donglin hurried over, sat opposite the man, leaned forward, and spoke in an anxious and urgent tone.

”Uncle, there are rampant rumors outside, all speaking ill of Mother. The situation is extremely detrimental to her, and her long-standing good reputation has been ruined. The Emperor has gone too far; aren’t you worried, Uncle?”

The tea-drinking man was the Empress Dowager’s younger brother, Ding Yiqi, the Junior First Rank Young Tutor and Commander of the Infantry. Ding Yiqi’s expression was calm; he glanced at his agitated nephew, Prince Donglin, and said in a very tranquil manner, ”What’s there to worry about?

Let me tell you, as long as I remain the Commander of the Infantry, and the Ding Family is around, unless the Emperor wishes to cause chaos at the court, he can only resort to such vile tactics to disgust people, but he can’t do much more.

The Emperor is indecisive and has a good reputation, and he wouldn’t dare truly break ties and do anything against his legitimate mother, the Empress Dowager. He can’t unsettle your position as Prince Donglin or the foundation of our Ding Family. What are you afraid of?”

Prince Donglin thought it over and felt it made sense, so he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, saying, ”Uncle, you indeed have a clearer perspective, whereas I was overly cautious. The Emperor is truly hypocritical and wouldn’t dare act against my mother for the sake of his so-called reputation, especially with Uncle around.”

In the blink of an eye, three days passed. The welts on the Empress Dowager from the bee stings finally subsided under the special medication prepared by the Imperial Physician, and the pain in her arm significantly lessened.

With the excruciating pain that drove her mad now gone, the clarity of mind that had faded due to the suffering returned, and as she recalled what she had said before, the Empress Dowager knew trouble was imminent.

The Empress Dowager had always been cautious and intelligent. Jing Jieyu had lost her child in the attic while saving her, and it was Nanny Yun who pulled her down from the attic; subsequently, Nanny Yun died in a coincidental manner. Connecting these issues, the Empress Dowager immediately realized that Jing Jieyu had discovered her manipulation.

The Empress Dowager hadn’t anticipated Jing Jieyu to be so formidable and daring. Upon uncovering her scheme, instead of being frightened into submission, Jing Jieyu dared to retaliate with such a strategy, utilizing her unfortunate miscarriage to gain the greatest advantage. This maneuver was truly astonishing to the Empress Dowager!

Being in a high position for so long, even now, inflamed by the resentment due to the Emperor not being her biological son, the Empress Dowager still occupied the pinnacle of public opinion, living a life untouchable by others. Even the Emperor, who harbors hatred for her, had to dutifully pay respects with a sufficient display of filial piety.

Because of this, the Empress Dowager never thought a mere concubine from the harem would dare to boldly plot against her upon discovering her scheme!

It was because the Empress Dowager didn’t expect this that she was so careless when initially reaching out to Nanny Yun; otherwise, even if Nanny Yun was discovered, Jing Jieyu would have had no way of knowing from Nanny Yun’s mouth that the mastermind was the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager did not see things as optimistically as her brother Ding Yiqi and son Prince Donglin. Being a woman, and also someone who had once been closest to the Emperor, she understood that no matter how powerful a minister was, once the Emperor decided to act, the minister would only face compliance or destruction.

During the time of the late Emperor, who didn’t care about appearances, the Ding Family was even more powerful, and they united with numerous allies to force the late Emperor to appoint her son as the Crown Prince. Back then, she was the Empress, and her son, Prince Donglin, was the legitimate firstborn and rightful candidate for Crown Prince.

But what was the outcome? The late Emperor eliminated most of the Ding Family’s alliances, severely weakening them, and her own biological son, who was the most legitimate candidate for Crown Prince, had to be adopted out, becoming the current Prince Donglin, and the favored Crown Prince of the current Emperor became the reigning Emperor.

The Empress Dowager’s current grandeur is due to her holding onto the Emperor’s weaknesses and acting with impunity within the limits of his tolerance. If she or the Ding Family provokes the Emperor to the point where he doesn’t care about his reputation, then it would be the end for the Ding Family.

Therefore, once she regained her rationality, the Empress Dowager felt very anxious because the perfect image she had maintained had shattered; her loss of reason had become the leverage the Emperor used to attack her, and now she was eager to find a way to restore her once impeccable image.