The Flourishing Era of Female Merchants

Xinrou's lips twitched involuntarily. A trivial matter? Did Consort Rong really think everyone else was a fool?

Her blatant manipulation and coercion were obvious even to her, let alone to An Mi.

If Consort Rong ever needs An Mi's help in the future, it will be very difficult.

“Your Highness, Miss Anmi may have returned to Yanfu Palace. Perhaps I should send someone to invite her…” Xinrou did not reveal her thoughts and respectfully asked Consort Rong for permission.

Consort Rong paused for a moment, then said, "Go ahead and tell her that I want to apologize to her."

"Yes, this servant will go right away." Xinrou curtsied, thinking to herself, apologize? Even if she apologized, so what? That Anmi girl is not one to forgive easily.

But when Xinrou conveyed Consort Rong's apology to Anmi, Anmi just smiled faintly, "Anmi cannot accept your mistress's apology. Miss Xinrou, please go back and tell your mistress that Anmi has been tired from embroidery and clothing making these days and went to rest early this morning. She will visit again after she has rested."

This tough attitude is not how a commoner should treat a favored concubine in the imperial harem.

At that moment, Xinrou's lips curled up slightly. She didn't think Anmi was brainless at all; she just thought that Anmi was quite bold. If Consort Rong heard these words, she would probably be furious.

Just as she was about to leave, Xinrou was stopped by Anmi. Xinrou turned around and asked, "Is there anything else, Miss Anmi?"

Anmi smiled and sincerely thanked her, "Thank you for your help today. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I would have really been blamed for Sadness's misfortune."

Xinrou shook her head. "Miss Anmi, there's no need to thank me. I was just following my master's orders. I did whatever my master told me to do. You're a smart girl. If you really want to thank someone, you should know who to thank."

An Mi was taken aback. This Xin Rou was actually a clever and quick-witted girl. She tugged at the corner of her mouth and didn't say anything. The two looked at each other, and Xin Rou turned around and left.

Beside Taiye Pond, Xinrou relayed the message to Consort Rong as instructed by Anmi. Just as she had expected, Consort Rong immediately flew into a rage, slamming her hand hard on the table. Ignoring the pain in her palm, she roared, "That Anmi really doesn't know what's good for her."

She's already said she'd apologize, what more does she want?

She admitted that she had used her this time, but she had also promised that as long as An Mi followed her wishes and pushed all the blame onto Empress Feng, she would let her go unscathed. Now, however, she was putting on airs in front of her.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Miss Anmi is probably just tired," Xinrou advised, but there was little sincerity in her heart.

"Tired? Hmph, do you think I'd believe that?" Consort Rong snorted coldly. Since An Mi was putting on airs in front of her, she would remember it. When she had the chance, she would definitely teach An Mi a lesson and let her know that Consort Rong would not tolerate her disobeying her.

Just as she was thinking this, Consort Rong tried to suppress her displeasure. At that moment, she heard a commotion coming from ahead. Upon closer listening, it seemed to be screams. Consort Rong looked over and saw only chaos.

"What happened over there? What happened?" Consort Rong frowned and asked calmly.

Xinrou and the palace maids beside her all looked in that direction, but none of them understood what was going on.

"Xinrou, go and take a look quickly, then come back and report as soon as possible," Consort Rong commanded. Her unease grew stronger, and she couldn't help but look in the direction of Empress Feng. At that moment, Empress Feng seemed to be watching the situation there as well, her brows furrowed and her face showing worry.

Consort Rong withdrew her gaze, unaware that at that moment, Empress Feng looked in her direction, her sinister smile sending chills down one's spine.

After a moment, Consort Rong heard Xinrou's voice from the other end, "Your Majesty, something bad has happened... Over there... there are so many bees... no... it's..."

Consort Rong frowned. Bees? How could there be bees here?

However, the next moment, she heard the increasingly panicked commotion from the other side, and Consort Rong couldn't help but curl a gloating smile on her lips. Heh, those people are really unlucky. If they were stung by bees, even if they didn't die, they would definitely look extremely ugly.

This gentle heart, what's wrong with that? This is clearly a good thing!

Consort Rong looked over and happened to see several concubines from the harem among the crowd. They had all covered their faces with their clothes and looked extremely disheveled. Empress Feng found it more and more amusing. Over there, Empress Feng was already directing people to deal with this sudden change. Consort Rong felt extremely pleased as she watched this scene.

However, just a moment later, she seemed to hear a lot of buzzing sounds growing louder and louder, and then a dark mass flew towards her. The smile on Consort Rong's face changed drastically, and the palace maids next to her also panicked.

"Quickly, protect me!" Consort Rong commanded in a panic, but before her maids could carry out her order, the dark mass of people rushed towards them.

"Ah..." Consort Rong looked at those horrifying things, her face already pale, and she screamed in terror, clutching her head. Those bees... no, they weren't bees at all, they were huge, ferocious wasps.

The wasps stung Consort Rong's exposed skin, causing her to scream in pain. She tried to drive them away, but every movement only gave the wasps more openings and opportunities.

"Quick...Quickly save me! Are you all blind? Quick, quick, save me! It hurts so much!" Consort Rong cried out in panic, her voice filled with fear and even despair. She staggered and fell to the ground.

The surrounding palace maids were also flustered and wanted to step forward to help, but the terrifying wasps seemed to have targeted Consort Rong's body, swarming all over her. Even they couldn't help but tremble with fear at the sight. Even though they wanted to help, they dared not step forward, for fear that the wasps would be attracted to them.

In an instant, all the wasps swarmed around Consort Rong. The women who had been frightened by the wasps earlier also gathered around. When they saw Consort Rong on the ground, each of them had an extremely interesting expression.

"Quickly save me..." Consort Rong continued to scream, her face already showing many sting wounds, the congested red looking quite horrifying.

Everyone swallowed hard, secretly thinking that Consort Rong was likely to suffer a lot this time.

"What happened?" Emperor Mingde's voice rang out hurriedly. Having received the news, he immediately rushed over from the main hall, and everyone made way for him.