After I got into the drama, I led the plot astray

I have no way of knowing whether it was Zheng Yan who disagreed or Zhao Zhenyuan who was unwilling, but in any case, I would never get back my rare steed.

I stayed in the palace for a few more days, and every day felt like a year.

I wanted to find poisoned wine, but I had no chance. Yang knew that I was in an abnormal mood, so she even hid all the scissors in the house and sent people to watch over me day and night, so it was difficult for me to drink the poisoned wine or even hang myself.

I wanted to leave the palace, but there was not even a carriage because Zheng Yan sent someone to take my carriage away.

Every day I would hold Ali and stand in a daze under the high palace wall. Occasionally, I could hear the sound of bells and drums coming from afar, which meant that the sacrifice had begun.

Yang looked at me with great worry, but she was helpless. Now there were many guards guarding outside my palace. People outside could not come in, and I could not go out.

Even when Jinping and Zhao Zhenyuan asked for a meeting several times, the guards would not let them in.

I don’t know what Zheng Yan is planning, but I’m under house arrest and have completely lost contact with the outside world.

Zheng Yan also had no time to see me. Apart from offering sacrifices, he was constantly meeting with ministers. I always felt that he was planning something big, but the door of my palace was closed and no news could get in.

I was imprisoned like this until New Year's Eve, when the ministers were finally going to have their New Year holiday. After the morning court session, Zheng Yan and Zhao Zhenyuan came to see me together.

When Zheng Yan and Zhao Zhenyuan saw me, I was standing in a daze under the palace wall holding Ali.

When Zheng Yan saw that I was covered in snow, he immediately became angry and scolded Yang and the others for not taking good care of me. He said that each of them should be beaten with thirty sticks. I was shocked as soon as he finished speaking.

I quickly said, "I came out for a walk because I felt bored staying in the house. They are servants, how can they rule over me? If they are punished, I will not be able to leave the yard anymore. By then, I will become sick even if I am not sick."

Zheng Yan was still furious after hearing this, and said in a cold voice: "Since Ah Man pleads for you, you will be spared the beating, but each of you will be fined three months' salary. I hope you can learn from this."

Yang and a group of palace maids all knelt down on the snow, trembling and shouting loudly: "Thank you, Lord, for your grace."

I felt really sorry for them, but there was nothing I could do. In this age where the emperor's power was supreme, whoever dared to disobey would die first.

I can only make up for their deducted monthly salary. Alas, I never thought that daydreaming could be a crime.

I am really speechless.

They were still very angry after Zheng Yan punished Yang, so they walked into the house with cold faces and wiping sleeves.

Zhao Zhenyuan and I looked at each other and had to hurry to catch up. When I left, I did not forget to hand Ali over to Yang, in case Zheng Yan was in a bad mood and took action against it.

Back in the house, Xichun took the cloak I took off, and then stuffed a hot water bottle into my hand. In fact, I was not cold at all. My current state was like the state when the eight extraordinary meridians were just opened. I was extremely excited. Although I had no internal strength, my body was strong enough to kill a cow.

But in order to prevent Xichun and the others from being punished, I had no choice but to take the hot water bottle, sit opposite Zhao Zhenyuan, and quietly look at Zheng Yan and wait for him to speak.

But what I didn't expect was that Zheng Yan's first sentence was: "Ah Man, I was busy recently and didn't have time to look after you, so I asked the guards to close the door of your palace and not allow anyone to go out. You won't blame me, right?"

Can I blame him?

Absolutely not.

I could only fake a smile and said, "How dare I blame Your Majesty? Your Majesty cares about me, haha."

Zheng Yan also saw my perfunctory attitude, but he didn't blame me. He also knew that I was almost sick from staying in this palace, so he said, "I see that you are much better now. Now that the court is on holiday, how about I take you to the imperial farm to play for a few days?"

Huangzhuang, also known as the royal manor, is said to be built next to the hot springs, and its luxury is comparable to that of the imperial palace.

I had never been to Huangzhuang before, but when Zheng Yan said he would take me there to play, my eyes lit up with joy and I nodded my head vigorously.

Seeing my smile, Zheng Yan knew that I liked his suggestion very much, so he said to Zhao Zhenyuan happily: "On the day of the trip, I'll trouble you, Duke, to escort me."

Zhao Zhenyuan quickly clasped his fists and said, "Don't bother, this is what a subject should do."

After the trip was decided, Zheng Yan talked about some ministers in the court. This time he asked about officials below the fifth rank. These officials had few opportunities to attend palace banquets. I knew only a few of them, and I racked my brains for a long time but couldn't think of many.

Seeing that he could not get any information out of him, Zheng Yan said, "There will be a palace banquet tonight. I will summon all the ministers and officials of various important positions to attend the palace banquet. I would like to trouble Ah Man to pay more attention to those officials and record their words and deeds and submit them to Your Majesty."

"Ah?" I suddenly had a bad feeling in my heart, but I pretended to understand nothing and asked, "Should I write it all down? Will the ministers give me trouble if they find out later?"

Zheng Yan chuckled and said, "With me protecting you, who dares to cause trouble for you?"

Haha, you are my biggest trouble!

But I could only roll my eyes secretly and didn't dare show it.

Zheng Yan did not stay in my palace for long. After explaining some things about the palace banquet, he left in a hurry with Zhao Zhenyuan.

Since I have to wear formal attire to attend palace banquets, I get a headache when I think of that extremely heavy concubine's dress and headdress.

After lunch, I took a short nap and then Yang woke me up and helped me dress up.

This set of imperial concubine's dress was very complicated to wear. It took Yang and Xichun more than an hour to help her put on the dress.

They were both very tired, and I was also very tired.

After I put on my clothes, Yang started to help me comb my hair.

Yang was very skilled in combing my hair. My hair, which was like an unruly wild horse in my hands, was as obedient as a toy in her hands. In no time, she helped me tie my hair into a bun and then put on the extremely heavy phoenix crown for me.

As soon as I put on the Phoenix Coronet, I felt like my neck was being pressed down by several inches, so I quickly said, "Just give me some ordinary jewelry to wear. I can't wear this Phoenix Coronet. I feel like my neck will be broken if I put it on like this."

Yang frowned and said, "My lady, this is against the rules."

I motioned Xichun to help me take off the Phoenix Coronet. I twisted my neck and said, "Rules are dead, but people are alive. I can't let the rules crush me to death, can I?"

Yang was speechless after what I said.

I continued, "Besides, His Majesty has already decided that I won't attend the sacrifice. Would he still care about these little jewels?"

Yang thought about it and it made sense. His Majesty didn't need the Queen to attend such an important event as the sacrifice, so it was probably not a big deal not to wear the phoenix crown.

So Yang had to pick out a few more hairpins for me.

I only chose a jade hairpin and a golden hairpin. Compared with this gorgeous dress, the jewelry I was wearing looked really shabby.

Yang also wanted to add jewelry to my head and body, but I decisively refused.

Are you kidding? Who can stand going out dressed like a mobile jewelry store?