Chapter 287: Adding Insult to Injury

The future troubles and possible obstacles have been temporarily resolved. The court and the people seem to have silently accepted that the princess will be appointed as the heir - in fact, they are not willing to accept it.

They just don't dare to resist for the time being.

Several princes were temporarily required to live in the palace. Naturally, the civil and military officials in the court dared not offend the emperor again, especially since the guests from Dongling had not left yet. The ministers were afraid of causing internal and external troubles, which would make the situation of Xiqi even worse.

So in the next few days, the ministers in the court were obedient and kept a low profile. When they met Chu Qinghuang by chance, they only bowed respectfully and greeted her, and never upset the princess.

However, when the news of Chu Qinghuang's appointment came out, except for the King of Zhenbei and Qin Guojiu, the concubines in the harem could not sit still at all. They all went to Changchun Palace in the name of paying respects to the queen.

"Alas, who could have thought that this would end up like this?"

"Yes, a princess as the heir is really unheard of."

"It's not unheard of. I heard that the previous emperor of Dongling was the empress, and the princess was the emperor, so the distinguished guests from Dongling supported the princess as the emperor."

"In that case, the eldest princess is blessed by heaven. It's such a coincidence that she caught up with the support of the Dongling envoy."

"I just wonder, who spread the rumors that are spreading outside? Could it be that the eldest princess manipulated it?"

Several concubines talked to each other, seemingly puzzled, but in fact, every word they said was poking at the queen's heart.

The queen, dressed in gorgeous clothes, sat upright on the main seat, with a luxurious and dignified manner, without any anger on her face, but in fact, her heart was in pain like hot oil, and the calmness she tried to maintain on her face was gradually shattered by the concubines' words.

She looked coldly at the concubines in front of her. They all had no princes and did not need to compete for favor, so they dared to laugh at her and add insult to injury under the pretext of concern.

"I didn't expect it either." She said calmly, thinking that she had tried her best to win over Chu Qinghuang a few days ago, but now it all became a joke. "The emperor's mind is really unfathomable. For so long, has he ever revealed his intention to enthrone Chu Qinghuang?"

However, just like this, he really followed the rumors that were all over the city and enthrone the eldest princess. It's really...

The queen clenched her handkerchief and thought coldly, it really caught people off guard.

She guarded against this and that. She was in the middle palace but never took the initiative to participate in the palace fight. She just quietly did her best as the queen, not letting anyone get the handle. She watched Concubine Duan and Concubine Feng fight with cold eyes. She finally waited for the Feng family to fall out of favor and be sent to the cold palace. She was secretly happy that Concubine Duan and the Ling family, who had been favored for twenty years, also lost power. She thought she had finally waited for hope.

Chu Tianyin and Chu Tianzheng both lost their chances. Tiankuo became the most powerful candidate for the crown prince, but he never expected that the emperor would make such a shocking move and directly appoint Chu Qinghuang as the crown prince.

When the queen first received the news, she almost bit her gums with hatred. She had served the emperor for so many years in the palace, and she had never felt such strong hatred for the emperor.

The feeling of being kicked down when you could have climbed to the top of the clouds was so annoying that it made your bones ache.

"No one expected that the final winner would be Concubine Duan." A concubine sitting at the bottom on the right murmured to herself, "Although her son failed, her daughter made her proud."

Concubine Xian smiled lightly: "Concubine Duan and the eldest princess don't seem to have a good relationship. I'm afraid it's hard to say whether the eldest princess is making Concubine Duan proud or herself proud."

The queen didn't want to see these faces watching the joke anymore, and said lightly: "It's late, it's time to rest, you all kneel down and pay your respects."

Everyone was silent.

After a moment, Concubine Xian slowly stood up, and the other concubines of lower rank also stood up. They were about to bow and leave, but saw a little maid running in from outside: "Empress! Something happened!"

The queen's face turned cold, and she angrily scolded: "Why are you so flustered?"

The maid panted: "Qing... Concubine Zhaoyi and the Sixth Princess of Qingyin Palace... are gone, gone!"

As soon as the voice fell, the palace fell into a dead silence.

The queen asked in shock: "When did they die?"

The maid looked terrified: "I heard... I heard that it has been a few days..."

The news that Concubine Feng and the Sixth Princess were gone was not heard for several days because not many people in the palace knew about it, and the few people who knew about it did not dare to talk about it.

Until Chen Hai took people to deal with the funeral affairs, the palace people gradually received this news.

So when the queen and the concubines heard this news at this time, they felt a chill coming out of their lungs, making people feel cold all over.

Two good people, just gone?

Moreover, the news was kept so secret that even the Queen did not get the news in time...

Empress Xian quietly left, and the others followed suit, leaving silently, and no one dared to say a word.

The Queen sat alone on the couch, feeling exhausted both physically and mentally.