The Demon Queen of Divine Doctor is not to be trifled with

Chapter 365 Women Must Be Independent

"Well done, Fourth Miss Ye. I never knew that General Ye's granddaughter was such a person. Well, if you want my Ying family's craftsmen, I will lend them to you. No! I'll give them to you! The Ying family's craftsmen have been passed down from generation to generation, and they are the best in the world. In my generation, I will be the head of the Ying family, and all the craftsmen will obey my orders."

Ying Peng stood up and looked at Ye Wenyan seriously. "I will give you two of the best craftsmen and their indentures. From now on, they will be yours and will obey your orders. And I, Ying Peng, promise here that if one day the old grudge is avenged and it is avenged by the fourth young lady, I will hand over the entire Ying family to you, and all the skilled craftsmen will be yours alone."

The pearl hairpin was given to Ying Peng, and Ye Wenyan also walked out of the jewelry store with the token given to her by Ying Peng.

When she was leaving, Lin Dongjia personally saw her off, wanting to say something but stopping herself. Ye Wenyan smiled and said, "Don't think too much, Lin Dongjia. My jewelry store will not be opened in the inner city, and your jewelry store will not have many people from the outer city come to buy. The nobles in the inner city usually don't like to go to the outer city to buy things, because they think it's a loss of face to wear things sold in the outer city shops, so there will be basically no competition between the two of us."

Lin Dongjia was a little embarrassed when Ye Wenyan hit the nail on the head. He waved his hands repeatedly: "What are you talking about, Fourth Miss? Why would I care about this? I just want to say that if Fourth Miss needs any help, please don't be polite to me."

After leaving the jewelry store, He Zhuier asked Ye Wenyan, "Miss, are we going back home?"

Ye Wenyan shook his head, "Let's go directly into the palace."

"Enter the palace?" Zhuier was startled, then she remembered the two craftsmen of the Ying family that Ying Peng had promised, "Miss, are you going to Qiqiao Pavilion to ask for people now? Are we going to find them ourselves? That Mr. Ying is really something. Since he wants to give people to the young lady, he should first call them out of the palace and let them quit their jobs at Qiqiao Pavilion, so that they can work elsewhere. What's the point of us asking for people? Will Qiqiao Pavilion agree?" The little maid said as she calculated, "How about going to Yanhua Palace for help after entering the palace?"

Ye Wenyan pinched her face and said seriously: "Zhui'er, listen to me. When we do anything, we have no reason to ask for help before we make an effort. Even if it is Yanhua Palace, we should not ask for help just because we ask for it. I don't care what others think, but I, Ye Wenyan, have always relied on myself, not men. He can be strong enough to defend the world, and what I pursue is to shoulder all responsibilities with him, rather than being a burden to ask him for help when I encounter a little thing. Do you understand?"

Zhuier didn't understand, "Aren't men supposed to protect and help women?"

Ye Wenyan shook his head, "There are not so many shoulds. In this world, no one is obliged to unconditionally protect and help others. When a man and a woman are together, the original purpose should be to make each other happy physically and mentally. As for who protects whom, that is an accessory beyond the original intention. I am not the kind of delicate woman, nor do I have the character to ask for help when I encounter something. I would rather bear the wind and rain with him than be protected by a man. So I hope you can also remember what I said today. When you get married in the future, you must always remember that you are an independent woman who can do what you want to do by yourself without anyone's help. Only in this way can your man and your in-laws look at you more highly, and they will not think that you can't do it without their family, and thus suppress you in a mansion and rush through your life."

Zhuier seemed to understand, but not quite. Ye Wenyan's words were different from what she had heard and seen since she was a child, and even overturned the deep-rooted concept of marriage and the way men and women get along. But if she thought about it carefully, she suddenly realized that if she could really live a life like what the young lady said, that would be the most enjoyable way to live. If a woman can really rely on herself instead of her husband's family, she can always stand up straight.

Ye Wenyan entered the palace, and still no one stopped her. The imperial guards remembered Ye Wenyan better than the Empress Dowager, and they always reminded themselves that Fourth Miss Ye was a popular person in the palace, and some people knew clearly that the popular person was holding the Emperor's Soul-breaking Bell. So let alone Fourth Miss Ye wanted to enter the palace, even if she wanted to burn the palace, they would not dare to intervene. The imperial guards did not care, but the palace servants still spread the matter quickly.

The first to know the news was in Yong'an Palace. When Baochan told the news to Empress Dowager Li, she was trembling in front of one of her cabinets. Baochan was puzzled and asked, "What's wrong with the queen?"

Empress Dowager Li pointed to a corner of the cabinet and asked her, "Where is that atlas?"

Baochan was startled, then she remembered that the book that the Queen Mother was talking about must be the treasure book from Qiqiao Pavilion. The thing was obtained from the skilled craftsman Ying Peng, and the Queen Mother had always kept it as a treasure, but now the thing was no longer where it was originally placed.

Baochan searched in the cabinet, but still couldn't find the thing after he turned the entire cabinet over.

She was also a little scared. "This cabinet has always been locked. The palace maids who came in to clean would not go near it, and I didn't touch it. How could the things disappear?" Empress Dowager Li sat back in her chair. The more she thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that her Yong'an Palace was not safe.

She started looking somewhere else, but not for the booklet, but for something else.

But she was the Queen Mother, and there were too many things in her palace. Unless they were important things, she would not be able to find out if one or two things were missing. So no matter how hard she looked, she had no clue, and the more she looked, the more upset she became.

Baochan was calmer than her. After searching for a while, she said to her, "Your Majesty, why don't you look for other items from Qiqiao Pavilion, especially those from the skilled craftsman Ying Peng, to see if they are still there."

Qiqiao Pavilion is not a place in the palace that makes jewelry for concubines. The jewelry making department is the Sizhen Bureau, and Qiqiao Pavilion is the place where rare and precious things are made. Since the last few dynasties, it has been managed by the Ying family, who specially develop rare and interesting things for the royal family, and also accept tribute materials to make jewelry and ornaments that the Sizhen Bureau cannot make.

Therefore, Qiqiao Pavilion is several levels higher than Sizhen Bureau, and not everyone can get the things from Qiqiao Pavilion.

When the late emperor was alive, there was even an incident where the concubines fought over a piece of jewelry from Qiqiao Pavilion.

Empress Dowager Li was a queen in the past, so naturally she had received many things from Qiqiao Pavilion. However, Qiqiao Pavilion was also divided into high and low levels, and not all things from Qiqiao Pavilion were the most precious, because there were also many people in Qiqiao Pavilion, and the craftsmen of the Ying family were also divided into different levels.

But no matter how it is divided, the skilled craftsman Ying Peng is always the first one. This ranking has never changed since Ying Peng was thirteen years old.

So even though Empress Dowager Li had many things from Qiqiao Pavilion, she didn't have many things from Ying Peng.

Baochan's reminder gave Empress Dowager Li a clue, so she ordered Baochan to quickly find a pearl hairpin, which was made for her by Ying Peng on her birthday several years ago by the late emperor himself.

Before she became the queen, she was not the most favored concubine, so she never got anything from Ying Peng. Even after she became the queen, she wanted Ying Peng to make jewelry for her several times, but Ying Peng refused several times and was unwilling to accept the order.

That pearl hairpin was the only piece of jewelry made entirely by Ying Peng. It had intricate craftsmanship and many of the carvings were simply impossible for the Treasure Bureau to make. She treasured it very much.

But after Baochan looked for it, she told her, "The item is gone." She knelt down and said, "It was my fault that the precious item was lost in the palace. Please punish me, Your Majesty."

Empress Dowager Li no longer had the heart to punish her confidant. She just sat in her chair and kept thinking about the matter.

Both items were gone, but Yong Gong An had never lost anything else except these two items. It was obvious that this matter was related to Ying Peng. But even if it was related to Ying Peng, how could Ying Peng steal things from her room?

Except Baochan, no one else can walk around in her room freely. Could it be that Baochan has betrayed her?

She cast her gaze towards Baochan. Baochan was a very smart person and immediately understood what her master was thinking.

So he knocked his head to the ground and swore on his life that he would never betray me.

Empress Dowager Li was even more confused!

If it wasn't Baochan, who else could it be? The carefully hidden things suddenly disappeared, which was equivalent to stealing right under her nose. I'm afraid even Baochan couldn't do it, right? Isn't it something that only gods can do?

When she thought of the gods, she suddenly shuddered and immediately remembered what Baochan had just said - "What did you say just now? Miss Ye Si entered the palace? Do you know where she went? Was it Yanhua Palace?"

Baochan shook her head, "To answer your Majesty's question, Fourth Miss Ye did enter the palace, but she was heading not to Yanhua Palace, but to Qiqiao Pavilion."

Empress Dowager Li's heart skipped a beat, and she had a vague bad feeling.

The Qiqiao Pavilion in the palace is a secluded place surrounded by gardens, and is usually not disturbed. Especially now that the new emperor has just ascended the throne and there are no concubines in the harem, there is no work for the Qiqiao Pavilion to do. At most, they are thinking about buying decent headwear and jewelry for Empress Dowager Yu to support the occasion. As for Empress Dowager Li, she has never been within their consideration.

Now that the Seventh Prince has ascended the throne, although Empress Dowager Li is also an empress dowager, she is at most a mother empress dowager. Compared with the emperor's biological mother who sits in the six eastern palaces, Empress Dowager Li seems less important.

That’s why the craftsmen of the Ying family will continue to stay in Qiqiao Pavilion!

Otherwise, if the Sixth Prince ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager Li's family would dominate, and the Ying family would have to abandon Qiqiao Pavilion and collectively resign from their duties and no longer serve. In short, the Ying family had a very bad impression of Empress Dowager Li, and this was not only influenced by Ying Peng, but also because when Empress Dowager Li was the queen, she had killed a female craftsman from Qiqiao Pavilion named Jinru.

Ye Wenyan didn't know about these things. When she arrived at Qiqiao Pavilion, she saw people in the pavilion making a sundial...