Chapter 166: The downcast phoenix is not as good as a chicken
Liang Jiang carefully considered every word in his mind. If he denies it, it will appear that he is wary and suspicious of the emperor, and he is just being smart.
If he said yes, it might cause trouble for Gu Xizhi.
"Your Majesty just taught your daughter a lesson, so she can't learn from it. King Pingxi has made military exploits before, and his skills are also extraordinary. He should be able to do the job."
The emperor said lightly "Oh", and said with mixed emotions: "My younger brother has become accustomed to idleness in recent years. If I entrust him with this important task, do you think he will agree?"
"If the country is in trouble, I believe that the prince will step forward without hesitation. As for other matters, I dare not lie. The emperor needs to ask the prince."
"My younger brother has been busy preparing for his wedding these past two days, and I rarely even come here."
Liang Jiang said nothing.
The emperor secretly looked at her face, and when he saw that she was silent, he was quite wary of him.
He chuckled and asked, "Look, I scared you so much. Why are you sweating on your head? Can I still eat you?"
Liang Jiang hurriedly raised his hands to wipe the sweat, but then suddenly remembered that his hands were unclean, so he hurriedly wiped them with his sleeves.
Fortunately, Eunuch Lin came over with a food box and the Shaomai was ready.
The emperor showed mercy and waved to her: "Go down, I still have official duties to attend to."
Liang Jiang was relieved, took the food box from Eunuch Lin, and exited the hall.
When I left the palace, I passed by a rockery. There was gurgling water at the foot of the mountain. The water was cool and koi fish were swimming in it.
Liang Jiang suddenly felt happy and took two steps forward, intending to wash her hands clean.
As soon as I got closer, I heard a "pop" sound from behind the rockery, as if someone had been slapped.
Someone yelled angrily: "Are you wearing this pomegranate flower too? You even put on lipstick today. Oh, I understand. You are here specifically to wait for the emperor to come out, so you can seduce the emperor. Are you still doing it? Where is your spring and autumn dream?"
He has a sharp voice and is obviously a eunuch.
The person being reprimanded should be a little palace maid, dressed in green clothes, with bare hair on her temples, with only a pomegranate flower stuck in it.
One less thing is worse than one more thing in the palace. Liang Jiang gave up the plan of washing his hands and was about to leave with the food box.
The palace maid was probably filled with sadness. She covered her face and sobbed twice: "When I was in glory, I was very kind to you, my father-in-law. Why do you have to make things difficult for me now? Even though I am down and out, I will not be like a pomegranate flower. Can’t wear it.”
"You also said that was the beginning, now and then, and you are no longer the master.
Now that the emperor has demoted you and punished you to sweep the floor here, you should position yourself correctly and keep to yourself, and don't think about returning to favor one day. I didn’t even think about the mistakes I had made, so I quickly washed the makeup off my face! "
The eunuch roughly tore off the pomegranate flowers from the palace maid's temples, threw them to the ground, and crushed them into mud with his toes.
Only then did Liang Jiang realize that this woman was not a palace maid, but a concubine who had made mistakes and was punished before the emperor.
It is true that a tiger is bullied by a dog, and a down-and-out phoenix is not as good as a chicken.
Liang Jiang felt wronged for the woman, but she was in the palace and there was nothing she could do. Even if she stopped the eunuch from making things difficult for her today, wouldn't it get worse when she left the palace?
The woman dared to be angry but did not dare to say anything. She squatted by the water and washed her face with water.
The eunuch waited impatiently, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed the woman's head, and pushed her into the water.
"I've been so slow and lazy. If I don't teach you a lesson, you won't have a long memory. If Eunuch Lin in front of the emperor sees it later, he will definitely give me a scolding."
Half of the woman's body was pushed into the water, and the eunuch roughly grabbed her bun, making it impossible for her to break free at all.
The woman struggled hard at first, but then she simply gave up her resistance. No matter how hard the eunuch tried, she was still like a puddle of mud.
Eunuch Xu felt that it was boring, so he let go and pushed her fiercely: "In the future, let the Za family settle down and don't make me feel uncomfortable."
Turn around and leave proudly. The woman lowered her head, wiped the water on her face fiercely, and said to herself with red eyes: "If you don't give me a way to survive, what am I still doing?"
As if he had made up his mind, he stood up, took a few steps back, and without saying a word, with all his strength, he rushed towards the rockery.
She is going to commit suicide!
Liang Jiang, who suddenly woke up, could not ignore the situation. She immediately made a decision, picked up a gravel from the water's edge with her toes, and kicked it towards the crook of the woman's knee.
The gravel hit the woman's knee, and she felt a sharp pain and fell to her knees in the shallow water with a "pop" sound.
Liang Jiang stood up from behind the rockery and spoke out to persuade: "It's better to die than to live. Why bother thinking about it because of the temporary humiliation?"
The woman fell into the water, broke down, covered her face and cried: "My father is also a fourth-rank official in the imperial court, and I am also the legitimate daughter of the family.
Now he has fallen to the point where even a slave dares to bully him! And it has been like this for more than two years, and I have no hope at all, no end! I don’t even deserve to wear a delicate pomegranate flower, so what am I still doing here? Why do you need to save me? "
Liang Jiang can understand the despair this huge gap brings to people. For example, if a person is living in poverty, she can be content with poverty and be full of hope for the future.
But if a rich man suddenly loses everything, he will probably be unable to recover from this, or even lose the courage to live.
A pomegranate flower crushed into mud was probably the last straw that broke her to death.
The good advice said: "Everything in the world is unpredictable. Thirty years in the east of the river and thirty years in the west of the river. Only if you are alive can you have hope."
"There is no hope. I am responsible for everything. I will be nailed to the pillar of shame for the rest of my life. I, my concubine, will never be able to stand up. But I am also being persecuted by others and I can't help myself."
Liang Jiang's heart moved: "Xinbin? Are you the empress Xinpin?"
"Do you recognize me?" The woman raised her face and looked at her: "I never remember seeing you."
There is a very light pink mark at the end of her eye, which is not visible at all if you don't pay attention.
The world is so small.
Liang Jiang had already remembered the identity of this woman. She was the concubine who had an affair with Gu Xi when he broke into the palace at night two years ago!
That mark was left by me by picking leaves and flying flowers.
It's just that I was hiding in the cabinet and the light in the hall was dark, so I didn't see her appearance clearly at that time.
Has she actually fallen to this point? Is she the person Gu Xizhi has been looking for all this time?
Liang Jiang shook his head: "I just heard about it, I didn't expect to see you here."
"Have you heard of it?"
Liang Jiang didn't expect that she would mention this matter so frankly.
She said with temptation: "Between you and King Pingxi..."
"It was because of my own confusion that I made a big mistake and ended up where I am today. I can't blame others for looking down on me so much."
These words undoubtedly confirmed Liang Jiang’s conjecture.
It seems that she was punished as a sweeper because what happened that night was exposed.
She and Gu Xizhi were in the same room, one naked and the other disheveled. How could the emperor endure it?
Perhaps, this is why poor people must be hateful, right?
(End of chapter)