Hustle Queen in the Harem: My Consort Won't Stop Grinding

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: The Empress is Very Busy

Jiang Xian sat in her palanquin, listening to Chen Daying place her order.

The quality of life for a Daying or a Changzai was low. If they wanted to eat something decent, they had to pay the Imperial Kitchen extra. Often, there were scraps left over from making pastries for other noble mistresses. If one wasn’t picky, a skilled chef could whip up an extra portion from these, a system ripe with opportunities for kickbacks.

Even if you didn’t crave extra pastries, if you didn’t tip them with heating stove silver, the Imperial Kitchen would dare to send you rotten cabbage leaves slick with congealed oil. When Jiang Xian first entered the palace, she had eaten such food for several days. She didn’t mind, though. She would just rinse it with water and eat it anyway. A girl who had fought her way out of a hard rural life could endure any hardship.

But ever since she had served the Emperor in his bedchambers, the Imperial Kitchen had started sending better dishes and meats that didn’t exceed a Changzai’s official allowance. The pastries, too, had become increasingly exquisite.

"I want chestnut pastries, sweet and sour cherry pork, and sour bamboo shoot chicken soup."

"That’s simple enough,"

For the Chief of the Service Room, it was a simple matter of a word or a glance. Liang Yuyin asked curiously, "Does Your Ladyship have nothing else you desire? Jewelry and silks are also possible." The treasury was not short on funds. The Emperor had tasked him with compiling a list of rewards, and it would be a failure on his part if the list came out looking meager.

"I don’t need new clothes or accessories. Even if I wore them, no one would see," Chen Daying said. "I’d rather wait for Shu Changzai to be promoted and then be granted her old things."

In the modern world, gifting used jewelry is an insult.

But the harem was different.

For someone of low status, even with silver in hand, the Imperial Household wouldn’t obediently craft fine jewelry. Instead, they would exploit the opportunity, substituting inferior materials for good ones and pocketing the difference. Silver and gold sent to the Imperial Household were like a computer sent to a tech market—it looked shiny on the outside, but inside, the water cooling, RAM, and graphics card had all been swapped for old parts.

Wearing an accessory gifted down from a noble mistress let everyone know that you were held in high regard by the giver. It showed you had a patron and served as a kind of talisman. Such "pre-owned" jewelry was a mark of honor one couldn’t simply ask for.

Liang Yuyin understood. He smiled and said, "Daying Chen and Changzai Shu seem to have a truly wonderful friendship."

Chen Daying laughed along with him.

On the way back, she made no effort to be discreet, boasting to He Xiang and Jiang Xian, "Now that the weather’s cold, the already wilted food they send over is just a congealed block of grease. After today, I think I’ll finally be able to get a hot meal."

The desires of a low-ranking concubine were just that modest.

Jiang Xian squeezed her hand, a wave of warmth passing between them. "If you’re ever short on food or drink, just come to my place. I always have more than I can eat." It wasn’t the most elegant way to put it, but she knew that with Chen Daying, plain talk was best.

"I get it. I’ll be waiting for you to get your own private kitchen."

Hearing this, Liang Yuyin nearly stumbled.

’This Chen Daying dreams big,’ he thought. ’She’s already thinking about a private kitchen!’

Jiang Xian nodded. "That day will come, sooner or later."

’Sooner or later,’ she mused, ’our Yizhu Pavilion will have its own employee cafeteria.’

Liang Yuyin couldn’t help but see the two of them in a new light.

’One dares to suggest it, and the other dares to agree,’ he thought.

※

「Zhaoyang Palace.」

Noble Princess Consort Rong ran back to her inner chambers and burst into tears, oblivious to how her weeping was ruining her exquisite makeup. The palace maids serving her didn’t dare approach and bear the brunt of her anger. Only Qiu Tang ordered someone to bring a hot cloth and tried to console her, "Your Highness, please don’t cry anymore. You’ll hurt your eyes."

"No one would care if I cried myself blind! Is there even a place for me in the Emperor’s eyes anymore? To think he would come all the way to my Zhaoyang Palace just to defend that slut! How is she worthy! What did I even do? I am a Noble Consort! Making a mere Changzai wait outside for a while is somehow my fault now? I didn’t even make her kneel! Just because I didn’t want to see her, the Emperor humiliates me like this..." In her agitation, she even forgot to use the royal ’we’.

Noble Princess Consort Rong wailed, completely forgetting that it was she who had summoned Jiang Xian, which was why she had been waiting outside for so long.

She felt so wronged, so sad, so hurt.

It was just that, unlike Jiang Xian, she hadn’t just made an exaggerated display of weakness with carefully designed movements.

And so the clueless Emperor didn’t understand.

The Emperor only saw a Noble Consort throwing her weight around.

While the Noble Consort cried inside, Ma Wanyi stood in the corridor. She desperately wanted to run, but she couldn’t. The Noble Consort held grudges, and she especially hated disloyalty. If Ma Wanyi left without a word, all her past sycophancy would be for nothing.

Thinking of this, Ma Wanyi couldn’t help but feel relieved that the Emperor had punished her as well.

If the Emperor had only punished the Noble Consort, who knew how much the Noble Consort would have resented seeing her get away unscathed.

"The daughter of a mere County Magistrate! Before entering the palace, she wouldn’t have even been worthy of the honor of being seen at the same banquet as me! I summoned her—I was giving her face! But she’s so ungrateful, repaying kindness with malice, whispering poison about me in the Emperor’s ear. The sheer audacity of that bitch!"

As the Noble Consort was losing her composure, Chief Palace Maid Qiu Tang dismissed the junior palace maids and eunuchs, leaving only her trusted confidantes within earshot.

Ma Wanyi stole a glance at Qiu Tang, desperately wishing she could just scram along with the menial eunuchs and palace maids.

But to her dismay, Qiu Tang gave her a deep curtsy and pleaded, "Her Highness is distraught. Wanyi, you have always been on good terms with Her Highness. I beg you to go in and offer some kind words of comfort. If Her Highness cries herself sick, this servant cannot bear the responsibility."

Ma Wanyi felt an immediate urge to roll her eyes and faint on the spot.

But she couldn’t. Steeling herself, she went inside and stammered, "The Emperor has gone too far! To treat Your Highness so coldly... When has Your Highness ever suffered such an injustice..."

Before she could finish, the Noble Consort raised a hand and bestowed a slap across her face.

Ma Wanyi was, after all, a main position lady herself. She was only ever meek and subservient in the Noble Consort’s presence; outside, she was quite imperious. Now, having been slapped, she was struck speechless. She could only listen as the Noble Consort said hatefully, "You fool! The Emperor hasn’t treated me coldly. This is all that seductive little fox Shu Changzai’s fault! If she hadn’t been making trouble in front of the Emperor, how could he have possibly misunderstood me?"

...

’Right,’ she thought. ’So she doesn’t like hearing criticism of the Emperor.’

Ma Wanyi pursed her lips and deftly changed her tune. "Shu Changzai is so scheming, and she’s always putting on an affected air for the Emperor. Now that she has his Holy Favor, your servant is helpless against her!"

The Noble Consort’s expression softened. She had just raised her hand when Qiu Yun brought over a handkerchief and a basin of perfectly warm water to help her wash her face.

Noble Princess Consort Rong’s heart was heavy with gloom. She grew unhappy just thinking about how many people would laugh at her when news of her confinement to Zhaoyang Palace spread. Then, she thought about having to hand over her punishment scribing to her arch-rival, Chu Siyun, for review. The thought was genuinely unbearable, and she even felt a pang of regret.

’If I had known Shu Changzai could actually move the Emperor to act, I wouldn’t have troubled her,’ she thought.

Once she lost favor, it would be a simple matter for a Noble Consort to make a mere Changzai disappear from the harem without a sound.

Noble Princess Consort Rong closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, her bright, bloodshot eyes had regained their clarity. "This time, it was I who underestimated her."

Ma Wanyi tried to soothe her. "Your Highness needn’t dwell on it."

"And I overestimated you."

Noble Princess Consort Rong shot her a sideways glare, and Ma Wanyi immediately fell silent.

At that very moment, Queen Chu, buried in tedious palace affairs, received some bad news from her Chief Palace Maid—

’I’m not even done with my palace duties, and now I have to review the Noble Consort’s punishment scribing?’

’Even the tutors in the Upper Study Room aren’t this busy!’