Counterattack of the Cannon Fodder Chambermaid

Untitled Part 165

As the Jing Emperor expected, Tian-Shi had truly gotten scared.

The things that happened in the palace was known to everyone in the capital with some connections. Because the eldest princess had fallen into the water, so many people were beaten to death. The prime senior concubine had even showed up personally to supervise. Only now did Tian-Shi realize this prime senior concubine was no longer the maid she had sold off back then.

The moment she realized this, Tian-Shi was suddenly covered in cold sweat.

The events that happened next in court made Tian-Shi understand just how much the Jing Emperor favored that prime senior concubine. The majestic son of heaven went against convention for the sake of a woman and faced off against so many officials. In the end, he even managed to suppress them. Tian-Shi touched her own neck, and fell ill that night out of fear.

She imagined many things. She thought about how the prime senior concubine would punish her, or whether she would send someone to silence her....all this made her extremely terrified but she wasn't able to tell anyone about it.

It was her own foolish notion. She had temporarily been blinded by wealth and status, and had actually gone to probe out the majestic senior concubine. Wasn't this being tired of living? Luckily she had merely probed her that day, and didn't make her meaning clear. This gave her a trace of hope. She hoped that the senior concubine could be magnanimous and forget about her.

After being worried for several days, she saw that the senior concubine didn't make any moves and finally felt a little relieved.

Unfortunately, she forgot that things may proceed even without her intent.

The day of the mid-autumn festival, Tian-Shi was startled after running into Virtuous Concubine Qiao. But since the eldest princess fell into the water, she assumed the virtuous concubine was just headed over there and merely stopped to say a few polite words. Therefore, she didn't think too much about it.

Afterwards, the Chengyang Count's madam had frequently visited her. On the surface she came for idle chatter, but in reality she kept steering the conversation into asking whether Tian-Shi had some interactions with the senior concubine.

Only then did Tian-Shi realize that the virtuous concubine must have seen some clues that day. However, since she didn't hear the conversation, she had some doubts and sent her own mother over to investigate or try to form an alliance.

Tian-Shi was too familiar with the thoughts of a woman within a harem. They would appear respectful on the surface but wouldn't hesitate to cause problems for one another. They would seize any opportunity to pull each other down. But since she had put these dangerous thoughts out of her mind, she naturally wouldn't go with her schemes. She engaged in tai-chi, played dumb and managed to get by.

This day, Tian-Shi was called back home by her mother, the Yingguo Duke's madam.

Tian-Shi was born in the Yingguo Duke Estate's Tian clan. She was the principal wife's second daughter.

Once she got to the Rongchang Pavilion's main residence, Tian-Shi realized that apart from her mother, her oldest and second brother were there with their wives as well.

After Tian-Shi gave her greetings, she sat down next to her white-haired mother.

"Why is everyone gathered here? Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened." The Yingguo Duke's madam patted her daughter's hand. "There's just a major matter that needs to be discussed with everyone."

"Where's dad?" Since it was a major matter, how can the Yingguo Duke be absent?