The little princess' mind was read, and the court and harem were eating melons

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Concubine Liu slowly stood up, turned around and bowed to the Queen.

She lowered her head. The Queen was taller than her, and at this moment, Concubine Liu was not as arrogant as before. Although they were not far apart, the Queen could not see her expression clearly.

After Concubine Liu bowed and squatted, the Queen did not use this as an excuse to make things difficult for her, and said calmly: "Stand up."

Concubine Liu seemed to be much weaker than before. She was able to stand up with the help of the palace servants. She did not raise her head, but kept it lowered. After she stood up, she stood there motionless.

Seeing this, the queen's eyebrows moved and she smiled: "How come Concubine Liu has time to come out today?"

After that incident, Concubine Liu was demoted and was confined to her room for a period of time.

But both the emperor and the empress knew that house arrest was not a serious punishment for the concubines in the harem.

Especially for Concubine Liu, the damage caused by house arrest is not as great as demotion.

The damage caused by demotion is far less than losing one's son forever.

Because of Li Qingyi, the Queen also knew where Li Cong was... Now it should be said that it was Liu Cong's whereabouts, but Concubine Liu did not know. In her opinion, the Fifth Prince was really dead when he died.

Oh, not necessarily. For Concubine Liu who had ambitions in that regard, Liu Cong’s loss of his status as a prince was almost the same as his death.

After hearing the queen's words, Concubine Liu was quiet for a while, then she slowly said, "I saw that the weather was just right today, and I haven't left the palace for a long time, so I came out for a walk."

The queen said indifferently: "Really?"

His tone was calm and did not sound doubtful, so Concubine Liu did not say anything.

After a while, the queen held the hand of her trusted palace maid and walked towards the pavilion not far away.

She did not ask Concubine Liu to follow, but there are some things in the harem that do not need to be said explicitly. Concubine Liu raised her head slightly and looked at the queen's slowly leaving back. Her eyes lingered on the lake beside her for a moment, and finally she followed silently.

After the queen sat down, she raised her eyes and finally saw Concubine Liu's current appearance, and her eyes paused.

Concubine Liu was considered beautiful in the past, but after not seeing her for a while, she seemed to have aged by dozens of years. She had lost a lot of weight, and her face had lost much flesh. She looked haggard and a little bit mean.

She had makeup on her face, but it wasn't heavy and you could tell it was just to cover her complexion a little bit without much effort.

The Queen: "Princess Liu, please sit down too."

"Thank you, Queen."

Concubine Liu sat down slowly.

Including the time she stayed in the palace, Concubine Liu had lived under the Queen's care for several decades, and only at this time was she the most honest.

This thought flashed through the queen's mind, but she did not feel very happy. This was not a very pleasant thing.

"You seem to have lost a lot of weight, but are the palace servants not serving you well?" asked the queen.

Concubine Liu said slowly, "Your Majesty, you are worrying too much. There is nothing wrong with the palace maids. It is just that I am old and it was a harsh summer, so I lost some weight."

The queen asked again, "Have you invited the imperial physician?"

Concubine Liu: "In reply to the Queen, I have already asked for it, and the imperial physician has prescribed medicine."

The two of them asked and answered each other, and the atmosphere did not ease at all. If Li Qingyi still stayed here, he would probably have a toothache.

Each one answers whatever the other asks, and doesn't say anything more.

No one mentioned the matter of the Fifth Prince. The Queen fulfilled her duties and showed concern for the concubines. Then she waited for a while and saw that Concubine Liu had no intention of speaking.

Queen:?

Queen: "Princess Liu, do you have anything to ask me?"

Concubine Liu lowered her eyes, like a pool of stagnant water: "In reply to the Queen, I have nothing to ask."

The queen was silent for a moment, then laughed out of anger.

She looked at Concubine Liu for a while, then stood up and said, "In that case, I still have a lot of things to deal with in the palace, so I'll leave first. Concubine Liu, please do as you please."

Concubine Liu and other palace maids stood up together and respectfully saw the queen off, with no obvious changes in emotion throughout the process.

It was not until the Queen and her party left that the maidservant following Concubine Liu asked hesitantly, "Madam, don't you want to ask about the Eighth Princess?"

Concubine Liu said calmly: "What are you asking? Can I still control her now?"

The maid said: "But you are the biological mother of the Eighth Princess, so... it's okay to ask. I don't think the Queen will hide anything from you."

Concubine Liu glanced at her with an indifferent look, but for some reason it made the palace maid shudder and she quickly lowered her head.

After a while, when the maid was trembling and wanted to kneel down to apologize, she heard Concubine Liu say: "She chose her own path, so she can walk on it. What does it have to do with me? There is no need to mention it again in the future."

Maid: “…Yes.”

——————————————————————————————

After Li Qingyi returned to Kunning Palace, he hesitated for a moment, but did not use the system to eavesdrop on the conversation between the Queen and Concubine Liu as the Queen had guessed.

Firstly, the system said that if anyone wanted to harm her, he would remind them.

Secondly, although Li Qingyi was curious, her mother had sent her away, which meant that she didn't want her to listen. In the absence of danger, Li Qingyi felt that there was no harm in accepting the Queen's arrangement.

So, after returning to the palace, Li Qingyi walked around the yard and then went to read.

When the queen came back and learned about this, she smiled and did not disturb her. She just asked someone to prepare Li Qingyi's favorite snacks and send them directly to Li Qingyi.

As for the queen herself, she returned to her work.

Another reason why the queen did not find it tiring to deal with these matters was that if she did not do anything in the harem, she would be very bored all day long. It would be better to kill time by dealing with palace affairs.

At the very least, power is safer in your own hands than in the hands of others.

The trusted palace maid did not come back with the queen, but came back from outside after a while. After paying her respects to the queen, she took out a few pieces of paper from her sleeve and presented them to the queen.

The queen put down her pen, took the paper and took a look. It turned out to be a few pulse records that her trusted palace maid had just copied down at the Imperial Hospital.

After a moment, the queen put down the pulse chart in her hand and handed it to her confidant: "Burn it."

"Have you discovered anything, Madam?" the confidant asked.

The queen said calmly, "It's nothing serious, just confirming it."

Confirm whether Concubine Liu wants to commit suicide.

But judging from the pulse diagnosis, it doesn't seem to be the case. I heard that there was no problem with Concubine Liu's diet. She just ate half less than before, but her body was not damaged to the point of death. Maybe she was really in a bad mood and didn't eat much.

"Let people pay more attention." said the queen.

"I understand, Madam, don't worry."