In the garden, all sorts of flowers were in bloom.

Of course, Madame Jingrou was not the only imperial concubine who came to admire the beauty of flowers.

In the pavilion above the green lake, there were several forces gathering and seeming to be discussing something.

Lin Mengya, certainly aware of Madame Jingrou’s intention, supported her and walked over slowly.

At present, the imperial concubines had sharply divided into different forces. Although Madame Jingrou had been considered as the head of the imperial harem in secret, unfortunately, she did not have a formal title.

Besides, she had submitted a written statement where she claimed she did not intend to succeed to the position of the Empress. In this way, she managed to withdraw from the competition for the position of the Empress.

The current situation was a little ridiculous. In order to compete for the position of the Empress, other Mesdames took the initiative to be nice to Madame Jingrou.

They had excellent plans, believing as long as they got Madame Jingrou’s support, they could certainly gain the position of the Empress.

Lin Mengya was aware of their plan, and so was Madame Jingrou.

Therefore, they decided to make use of this opportunity to turn the competition for the position of the Empress into a springboard for Madame Jingrou to dominate the imperial harem.

“My greetings of peace to you, sister. I think you must be tired after serving His Majesty these days,” before they arrived at the pavilion, a woman in a dark reddish purple palace costume came up to them and said.

The woman was gorgeous and tender with an enthusiastic look, inevitably leaving a favorable impression on others.

At the sight of Madame Jingrou, she bowed and greeted her warmly and even took her hand, acting as if they were full sisters.

Lin Mengya stepped back to follow Madame Jingrou quietly.

After a while, a few Mesdames cast glances at her and then looked away gently.

She certainly knew that others might be unaware of things about her, but these Mesdames were keenly aware of her.

Nevertheless, she was obviously not the protagonist today.

“Madame Xian, you must be joking. It’s the duty of all the members of the imperial harem to take care of His Majesty. You’ve also all put in a lot of effort. How can I take all the credit?” Madame Jingrou said tactfully with a modest smile.

It was a serious violation of rules for her to live in the Emperor’s resting palace.

In any case, she had made it clear that she would not participate in the competition for the position of the Empress. Otherwise, these Mesdames would definitely gang up on her.

Her words livened up the atmosphere, but sensing the undercurrent of tension, Lin Mengya showed an imperceptible frown.

Today’s gathering was presumably targeted at Madame Jingrou.

“Madame Jingrou is wrong about this,” there came another slightly cold voice from the pavilion.

Everyone paused for a moment, and even Madame Xian bowed her head and muttered, “Oh, no.”

Then, a woman who looked very arrogant came out of the pavilion.

She looked as noble and unsullied as winter plum blossoms, but in Lin Mengya’s view, a haughty woman was obviously a perfect description of her.

She was on bad terms with Yao Lu, but enjoyed a slightly different status because of her illustrious family and her twin sons.

But if she was really a cold and aloof person, why did she covet the position of the Empress?

Lin Mengya had a strong aversion to this kind of person who pretended to be aloof from the pursuit of power but was actually more obsessed with the desire for gain than anyone else.

Come to think of it, she must be Madame Min, the birth mother of the Third and the Fourth Princes.

“Sister Min, you are indeed brilliant. It reminds me of your two sons who have been sent to their fiefs because they are as upright and outspoken as you. Oh, no, I should describe them as obstinate and self-opinionated rather than upright and outspoken,” Madame Xian said.

She was the weakest among the forces. That was to say, she was the least likely to be the Empress.

However, she was rather strange. Although she did not come from a powerful family, she, who was outspoken, managed to win the support of a batch of imperial concubines who had either sons or daughters.

But more importantly, none of them had any backers or came from a powerful family.

Nevertheless, they, who had children, would be able to rely on their children in the future.

For this reason, although Madame Xian usually spoke without reserve, very few people made a fuss about it.

Even if the Emperor did not care about them, it was impossible for him to neglect his children.

After glancing at Madame Xian coldly, Madame Min could only sit there indignantly, looking sullen.

“Please take a seat, sister Jingrou. In fact, I got work to do today. Unexpectedly, sister Min invited us here for a gathering. Without my presence, there will be less fun, don’t you think so?” Madame Xian pushed Madame Jingrou to sit down and said, giving quite a lot of information.

Meanwhile, there were quite a few secrets in her lively dark eyes.

But today, she was indeed here to spoil the gathering.

“I’m really at my wits’ end with your sharp tongue. Don’t listen to her nonsense, sisters. Sister Min and I just sincerely invited you all to admire the beauty of the peonies at the sight that they have bloomed in the garden these days. I sent someone to invite you first yesterday, but you put on airs and claimed that you had no time to join us. Now that you come uninvited, we should punish you,” there came a gentle female voice that dispelled the embarrassment among them without being noticed.

Even Madame Jingrou couldn’t help but smile, while glancing at the woman sitting in the pavilion with some fear.

Looking in the direction where Madame Jingrou looked, Lin Mengya saw an extremely amiable face.

Although the woman was no longer young, she had a benevolent and kind countenance, dressed in steel gray clothes that was not sumptuous or complicated.

Her plain look made her different from the other Mesdames in front of her.

She was Madame Qinghua who was capable of dealing with several forces with ease when Yao Lu was the Empress.

Her title and rank were only inferior to those of Madame Jingrou and the Empress, while equal to those of Madame Jing’an.

However, she was a little old and had only a daughter.

She seemed to have been a concubine of the Emperor before he ascended the throne.

She was born into a decent family and had almost no bad reputation.

Compared with Madame Min, who was cold and arrogant, and Madame Xian, who was shrewish, Madame Qinghua, who was a senior imperial concubine with sufficient experience, was a hot candidate for the position of the Empress this time.

The imperial concubines other than the above three Mesdames did not show up in this gathering.

“Fine, it’s all my fault. I admit my mistake and will accept the punishment. But I believe someone as magnanimous as sister Min won’t make a fuss about it. This is a rare opportunity for us to get together. Why don’t we talk about something pleasant and interesting? It’s boring to watch the flowers that look exactly the same every year,” Madame Xian said.

The Mesdames took their seats. As Madame Jingrou’s attendant, Lin Mengya could only stand behind her.

Some people were still looking Lin Mengya up and down. Lin Mengya was aware that it would be mannerless for her to look up at them at this moment.

But when she cast a glance around her inadvertently, she found a palace maid standing next to Madame Xian was looking at her recklessly.

Normally speaking, most of the palace maids in the imperial palace knew her.

Besides, there was nothing strange about her today. What made the palace maid keep staring at her like that?

Apart from curiosity, there was a complicated look in the palace maid’s eyes.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Mengya believed she did not offend anyone in the imperial palace.

The palace maid was quite interesting.

“Speaking of the flowers, they were the most beautiful two years ago. It’s a pity that they were withered by the frost. I feel sorry for the gardeners who had made painstaking efforts in cultivating the flowers over the years. It can be seen that both cold people and frozen flowers are boring. Don’t you think so, Madam Qinghua?” Madame Xian said with an implied meaning in her words.

Lin Mengya saw a flash of resentment in Madame Min’s eyes.

However, Madame Xian did not care about it at all. It seemed that she would only have fun by pissing off Madame Min.

Lin Mengya recalled the information she got from Ningqiu and Baisu.

When Madame Xian first married into the imperial palace, she was close to Madame Min and not as shrewish as she was now.

However, no one knew what happened back then so that Madame Xian got very annoyed with Madame Min overnight.

After that, Madame Xian seized every chance to mock Madame Min.

Madame Min complained about it to the Emperor several times.

But the Emperor didn’t take it seriously, considering it a quarrel between them.

Later, as Madame Min complained about it time and again, the Emperor became impatient and just settled the dispute between them by rebuking Madame Min.

From then on, Madame Xian became increasingly reckless, and Madame Min certainly would not suppress her indignation.

Back then, they, suppressed by Yao Lu, could not make big trouble.

However, ever since Yao Lu left, the tension between the two of them had been escalating.

Lin Mengya quietly sized up the two Mesdames, thinking Madame Xian could be used while Madame Min was an opponent.

“Well, stop talking about this. You always like making this kind of witty remark. I’m wondering if His Majesty will slap you if he learns your words. Sister Jingrou, how has His Majesty been doing these days?” Madame Qinghua said.

She was the earliest concubine of the Emperor and on friendly terms with these imperial concubines.

Since she came forward to mediate, the two of them had to show her some respect.

She turned to ask Madame Jingrou a question.

Fortunately, Madame Qinghua asked a question not difficult to answer in a very gentle and amiable manner.

Madame Jingrou smiled and said in a gentle voice, “His Majesty is in the prime of his life, but he has been occupied with government affairs these days. Even I haven’t met him for a few days. It can be seen that he had a hard time.”

In fact, everyone knew that her words were true.

Although Madame Jingrou did live in the Emperor’s resting palace, the Emperor had slept in his study for more than half a month.

Madame Jingrou said that, certainly hoping the other Mesdames would not be jealous because of this.

In fact, she had made several attempts to convince the Emperor to let her go back to the Fengyu Court, but the Emperor disagreed no matter how hard she tried.

At the sight that Madame Jingrou was about to show a joyful smile, Lin Mengya immediately went forward to change the cup of cold tea in front of Madame Jingrou.

“Madame, let me change your tea,” she said, trying to draw the attention of Madame Jingrou who was lost in happiness.

Madame Jingrou was surrounded by a batch of bitter women.

If Madame Jingrou really showed a joyful smile, she would probably arouse their hatred for her at once.