Quick Wear: I was a Favored Concubine in the Qing Dynasty

This was the only piece of information Zhang Changzai had managed to find out.

Yu Suisui had previously told Zhang Changzai to stop inquiring about these things, but Zhang Changzai continued to do so quietly.

"Thank you." Yu Suisui actually knew why Zhang Changzai did this; she just wanted to repay him.

Consort Zhang: "Your Highness, there's no need for such talk between us." If it weren't for Xiuzhi, she might never have had a good life.

When she was abandoned by the Empress and bullied by the people in the Imperial Household Department, only Xiuzhi was willing to help her.

This is all she can do now.

She couldn't speak to those imperial concubines, but there were so many imperial concubines in the palace. If the maids and eunuchs asked around, they could easily find out some information.

Sometimes, that's how a lot of news comes out.

-

Consort Gao was very busy, knowing that the Empress wanted to see her.

She cannot refuse the Queen's summons yet.

When she arrived at Changchun Xianguan and saw the Empress, she felt as if she had been in another world, even though she and the Empress had only not seen each other for a few days.

"The Noble Consort has forgotten all the rules now." The Empress spoke with a cold look in her eyes. She used to like the Noble Consort Gao very much, when the latter was always being targeted because of her beauty.

She wanted to help her.

When she was in the Prince's residence, Consort Gao always showed her great respect, but now she's showing her true colors.

Everything before was just Consort Gao's disguise.

Consort Gao immediately bowed and said, "Your Majesty the Empress taught me these rules, and I dare not forget them." At that time, she was still a concubine by the Emperor's side.

Having never learned the rules of the palace, the Empress was very kind at the time and came to teach her the rules. She truly believed that the Empress was a good person.

But I was oversimplifying things.

She thought that, like Madam Ma, anyone who spoke harshly was a bad person, but no, the Empress was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

She has one face in public and another behind the scenes.

She is not a kind person at all.

The Empress did not tell the Consort to get up, but told her to squat like this. "I still remember when you first became the Emperor's Consort. How innocent and naive you were back then. I never thought that all that innocence and naivety was just an act for me."

She herself is not thinking clearly; they are all the emperor's women, how could they be innocent and kind?

Consort Gao squatted down, her body swaying slightly. After all, she was wearing platform shoes and had never been treated so badly before. She could see that the Empress had no intention of asking her to get up.

Now that she's up, the Empress can use this as an excuse to make her point.

“Your Majesty, people change.” Consort Gao said, looking up into the Empress’s eyes, which were like snowflakes on the branches outside. “Your Majesty has changed too. Back then, Your Majesty always felt that we concubines were in the way of your and the Emperor’s blissful union.”

Many times, she didn't understand why the Empress would have such strange and unconventional ideas. The Empress actually fantasized that a prince or an emperor could be her lifelong partner.

This is utterly absurd.

Of all the people she knew, none of them had actually done it.

Take Prince He, for example. He and his wife are already a famously perfect couple in the capital, but Prince He still has secondary wives and concubines.

Not to mention the emperor.

She had always thought the Empress's gaze was strange, but later she realized that every time the Empress looked at her, there was a subtle sense of superiority and disdain.

She used to think this was because the Empress came from a powerful clan like the Fuca family, while she was merely a bondservant.

Upon closer observation, it becomes clear that this is not the case.

Sometimes, the Empress would look at the Empress Dowager with such absurd eyes. The Empress Dowager was already the Empress Dowager, yet the Empress would look at her like that in the shadows.

Later, after reading a few of those romance novels, I gradually realized that the Empress actually had such unrealistic fantasies.

The Emperor simply favored and valued the Empress; in reality, the other concubines were no match for her.

If it weren't for what Consort Ping said, she might never have thought about what bad things the Empress had done to her.

Because the Empress had such a good impression of her.

She only needs a little bit of concern to ignore all of this.

"How dare you!" The Empress, hearing Consort Gao's words, felt she was being mocked, ridiculed for her delusions. "Consort, have you lost your mind? How can you utter such nonsense?"

The Empress herself didn't want to know, but now Consort Gao has revealed it all.

Consort Gao's calves ached. "Your Majesty, I am not making this up. Do you think that only I know these things?"

Consort Gao didn't know if others knew, as she hadn't asked. But that didn't stop her from spouting nonsense here.

"What you've done, I dared not tell you when we were in the Prince's residence, but which member of the imperial clan doesn't know?" Consort Gao said, shifting her posture slightly.

"The Empress Dowager knew this all along, which is why she has always kept you by her side to teach you. I didn't expect that the Empress would not only not listen, but also think that the Empress Dowager doesn't understand your love." This was also her guess.

The Empress Dowager couldn't possibly tell her these things; the Empress Dowager's relationship with the Empress was definitely better than her relationship with the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager helped her up because she wanted a quiet inner palace so that her retirement wouldn't be disturbed.

As for any affection, the Empress Dowager probably didn't have any for her.

The Empress felt a warm rush of anger in her throat. She smelled a sweet, metallic scent, but swallowed it back, not wanting the Imperial Concubine to see her make a fool of herself.

The queen then pretended to drink tea, thus masking the taste.

"Your Highness, such nonsense has forced me to punish you." The Empress found these words grating, buzzing in her ears. It turned out everyone knew what she had done. Everyone was waiting to see her make a fool of herself.

Consort Gao had no intention of admitting it. "Your Majesty the Empress, you are arbitrarily accusing me of crimes without distinguishing right from wrong. I cannot accept this."

"Your Majesty, I will go and seek justice from Your Majesty." With that, Consort Gao stood up. However, she had been squatting for a while and her legs were a little numb, so she took a moment to recover.

The Empress shouted sternly, "Stop!"

"Consort Gao, matters of the inner palace are naturally my responsibility. What are your intentions in disturbing the Emperor like this?" The Empress did not want Consort Gao to go to Qianlong.

She knew that Consort Gao had approached the Emperor, and that the Emperor would definitely side with Consort Gao.

Consort Gao turned around with a deliberately sarcastic expression, "Your Majesty, are you panicking?"