OBS Chapter 238: Evasion
Chapter 238: Evasion
Ruyi asked hesitantly, but was met with the emperor's cold gaze.
When she met his cold eyes without a trace of affection, even though she had prepared herself mentally, Ruyi still felt her heart ache.
"Queen, you can't even host a family dinner now?"
The emperor hugged Yanwan and glanced at Ruyi slightly.
His voice was full of condemnation, and the words sounded extremely cold to people's ears.
It was as if the person in front of him was not his wife, but a stranger who must have made a mistake, and he looked even colder than a stranger.
It is a fact known to everyone in the palace that the Seventh Princess cannot eat peanuts. If the Queen, the mother of the children, does not even care about this, it would be a dereliction of duty.
Ruyi has been in a daze for a long time. Previously, the emperor thought that she was too sad about the loss of her son, which led to her such crazy words and deeds in the Yangxin Palace.
She should have recovered after at least half a year and look like a queen.
She always says that others are framing her, so why doesn't she produce evidence to prove her innocence?
Just this short sentence made Ruyi feel like she was falling into an icy cave.
Ruyi sighed softly, and glanced at Yanwan with eyes like poisoned knives.
The emperor's complaints were of no concern to Ruyi, but the way he held Concubine Ling tightly in his arms, fearing that she would harm her in the slightest, made Ruyi feel extremely irritated.
The emperor had never shown her such an attitude when she faced difficulties from Empress Fucha and Concubine Gao.
"In reply to Your Majesty, it was my fault. Even if I didn't know, the people in the imperial kitchen serve the princess all day long. They naturally know everything the princess doesn't like..."
"Something went wrong just when I was taking care of it. It was obvious to me that someone deliberately added peanuts to the Seventh Princess's meal in order to slander me..."
Again and again.
Why did Wei Yanwan oppose her everywhere and frame her everywhere?
Is the position of the Queen Mother really worth her fighting for?
Yanwan always pays attention to Ruyi's movements.
Ruyi's words pointed directly at Yan Wan. Yan Wan's body trembled violently, and she hid behind the emperor like a mouse seeing a cat.
Sensing her fear, the emperor patted her shoulder soothingly, took her hand, and then looked directly at Ruyi.
"Of course this needs to be investigated, but Empress, I'm correcting you for dereliction of duty. This has nothing to do with whether someone is behind this. As Empress Mother, if you truly cared about the children, you would have warned them repeatedly long ago and not made any mistakes..."
"You are so eloquent, it's obvious you are just trying to evade responsibility. How can you admit your mistakes and admit them? If you make a mistake, you should correct it. Queen, you have been Queen for so many years? Have you ever let me have a comfortable day?"
Ruyi's defense made the already angry emperor even more furious.
It's always like this. Every time something happens, she is innocent. If she is really innocent, why would misfortune choose to find her?
He thought Ruyi was wrong, and when her first reaction was to make excuses, the emperor became annoyed and didn't want to listen anymore.
What he wants is an attitude and results, not righteous excuses.
The Queen always has so much to say.
But in reality, who would go to such great lengths to frame a queen who has no power, no influence, no favor, and no wisdom?
From what he saw, it was obvious that the Queen didn't care about the children at all, so this mistake happened. Anyway, she was usually confused and indifferent to everyone.
The emperor was accustomed to such things and had already put a hat on Ruyi in his heart.
Yan Wan listened attentively behind the emperor. As Ruyi's words continued to advance, a smile flashed in her eyes.
Yan Wan hurriedly tugged at the emperor's sleeve pitifully, and her face instantly changed to an expression of grievance and worry.
"Your Majesty, from what I've seen, the Empress has probably been recuperating in Yikun Palace for a long time, so she's unaware of this. It wasn't intentional negligence. Your Majesty, why don't you just let it go? After all, Jingxuan is still fine..."
Although such provocative words may seem clumsy, they are just right for the emperor who is currently angry.
Men, rather than accusations, prefer words like this.
Yanwan curled the corners of her lips, with a hint of smile in her eyes, and looked at the slightly cracked expression on Ruyi's face with interest.
As expected, the emperor snorted coldly when he heard this, and his cold eyes swept back and forth over Ruyi again.
"Oh! Don't talk to her. Didn't you do it on purpose? If you did it on purpose, wouldn't you be trying to murder the heir to the throne?"
"Your Majesty, the Empress is your legitimate mother, and I don't think she would do such a thing. Why don't we just forget about what happened today? It is my fault for disturbing Your Majesty and the Empress..."
Yan Wan tugged at the emperor's sleeve, adding fuel to the fire and glancing at Ruyi provocatively.
"You have so many excuses. I can see that it's you who is behind this. Jingxuan is your biological daughter. Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. You are using the child to frame me. It's really too cruel!"
Yan Wan's provocative look easily ignited Ruyi's anger. She simply ignored it and wanted to tell Ruyi what she was thinking in detail even if she had no evidence.
Yan Wan was so shocked by her response that she couldn't even speak.
She pretended to be afraid that the emperor would believe Ruyi's words, and quickly knelt down weakly, speaking with tears in her eyes.
"Your Majesty, please understand! Even though I have had many disagreements with the Empress, I would never use my child to harm her!"
"If I really wanted to deal with the Empress, I should have bitten her to death when Li Yu framed me. These days, I am in charge of the six palaces. If I really wanted to do something to the Empress, would she still be able to walk out of the Yikun Palace in good health? Your Majesty, I am truly wronged!"
Every word she spoke was full of pearls and every sentence was tearful. Seeing her like this, the emperor felt very distressed and reached out to help her up.
"You, Concubine Ling, you've discovered that I believe in you. I trained you single-handedly. I couldn't possibly train a vicious woman. Don't worry, I will definitely help you get justice."
The emperor reached out his hand to wipe away the tears from her face with a distressed look, his gentle expression completely different from the cold questioning just now.
Ruyi saw all of this and turned her head away helplessly. She was very unwilling to see her husband, with whom she had once loved her, being nice to another woman by stepping on her.
He seems to have always been like this.
She had seen him coax Gao Xiyue, Jin Yuyan, Bai Ruiji like this...
He had coaxed many people in this way, but no one had ever shared even a fraction of this gentle and considerate look with himself.
Ruyi felt a chill in her heart, as if she had just seen the true appearance of the man in front of her.
The emperor happened to see Ruyi's disdainful expression. He once again protected Yanwan behind him and turned to speak coldly to Ruyi.
"Empress! Imperial Concubine Ling is speaking up for you. It's fine if you don't appreciate it, but how can you be so overbearing? Everyone in the palace says you're as gentle as a chrysanthemum, but I see you're becoming more and more arrogant. You've been targeting Imperial Concubine Ling from the beginning. Are you dissatisfied with her? Are you dissatisfied with my favor towards her?"
It was he who promoted Concubine Ling. To put it bluntly, Ruyi was targeting her because she was dissatisfied with him.
The emperor frowned slightly. He hated her condescending look when facing him.
He was the emperor and could hold a woman in his hands when he was happy, but he could not tolerate a woman taking advantage of his indulgence and repeatedly disobeying him.
In the whole world, he is the only Lord.
All the rest are just slaves.
"Your Majesty, I have no evidence. If you say so, I have no way to defend myself. However, I cannot stand by and watch Concubine Ling deceive the public with her lies and seduce Your Majesty. She deliberately approaches Your Majesty for power and status. All she has in her heart is the royal power and wealth that you possess. In the entire palace, I am the only one who truly loves you..."
Ruyi looked at the emperor, her eyes red, full of helplessness and fatigue. Her voice trembled slightly.
"Your Majesty, I know very well that I cannot produce any evidence to prove the truth of what I said, but if you conclude that I am being unreasonably suspicious based on this alone, then I am truly speechless..."
Ruyi's hands unconsciously clenched into fists as she continued.
"But Your Majesty, I cannot stand by and watch Concubine Ling deceive the public with her lies. She deliberately approaches you every day, all she desires is your power and status. Her heart is filled with covetousness for your royal power and wealth, and she has no sincerity towards you, Your Majesty. And in this palace, only I have treated you sincerely from beginning to end. My love for you has never been false."
Listening to the emperor's words, Ruyi's heart felt as if it were torn apart by a sharp knife.
The pain instantly spread throughout her body, making it almost impossible for her to stand. She could feel her heart bleeding, and the blood that oozed out turned into tears, sliding uncontrollably down her cheeks.
Why are men like this? They always turn a blind eye to sincerity, but enjoy those who deliberately please them.
She didn't understand why the emperor ignored her sincerity so easily and turned a blind eye to Concubine Ling's actions.
Obviously, she is the one who truly loves him.
Obviously, others are greedy for his power.
Her words sounded very harsh to the emperor's ears.
The emperor frowned, a hint of displeasure flashed in his eyes, and he felt annoyed by Ruyi's words.
He looked at Ruyi and said coldly, "That's enough. I don't want to hear any more of your groundless accusations."
He said in a deep voice: "What do you mean it's all for power and status?"
This sentence echoed in the silent palace, as if asking Ruyi, but also as if asking himself.
As expected of a couple who had slept together for years, Ruyi's light words carried a tremendous force. Her seemingly careless words were like a sharp sword, tearing away the veil of splendor that covered the Forbidden City.
What's more, this sentence completely shattered the emperor's self-esteem.
The emperor has always enjoyed the awe and flattery of the people. He believes that his charm and ability are enough to win the hearts of the beauties in the harem.
However, Ruyi's words forced him to face a cruel reality, that is, the so-called "favor" he had might not really come from him, but from his supreme title of emperor.
Concubine Ling only tries to please the emperor.
In other words, if he was just Hongli, not the so-called emperor, then the women in the harem would not be fascinated by him.
Without the power and wealth that comes with being an emperor, he might just be an ordinary man, no longer possessing that eye-catching halo.
To put it bluntly, everything he has was given to him by the title of emperor.
His majesty, his luxurious lifestyle, and the respect he enjoyed were all due to his status as emperor. The concubines in the harem gathered around him for the glory of their family and their own status.
The emperor clenched his fists.
"Ruyi, in your heart, am I like this?"
Hongli and Qingying were childhood sweethearts, and he always felt that Qingying knew best what his past was like.
Now she said that everything he had was brought to him by the position of emperor.
This is ridiculous.
He was born to a palace maid and was not liked by the emperor since birth. He was looked down upon from birth until he was raised by the Empress Xi, and his situation gradually improved.
He studied hard and practiced diligently all the way, never getting tired, and on the road to becoming the emperor, he walked on thin ice every step of the way.
The emperor believed that all this was what he deserved.
It was he who sat on this position with great difficulty, it was he who became the emperor with great effort, and it was he who worked hard day and night for the Qing Dynasty.
He deserves everything!
Only then did he suddenly remember that Ruyi was a noble legitimate daughter, and had the queen as her aunt's backer, so she naturally would not understand his suffering.
No wonder, he couldn't understand the concubine's attempts to please because of her poor background.
After all, we are not on the same path.
Ruyi looked at the emperor in front of her, who was once extremely familiar to her but now seemed so strange to her that it made her heartbroken. His unwillingness to listen to anything deeply hurt her heart.
"Your Majesty, that's not what I meant."
"That's enough. I don't want to hear you anymore, Queen. You are totally wrong today."
She was so disheartened that she even gave up the chance to defend herself.
"It seems that the emperor doesn't even want to listen to what I have to say. If that's the case, I don't care what the emperor thinks of me..."
The emperor's cold and stubborn expression extinguished the last bit of hope in her heart like a candle in the wind.
Her voice trembled slightly, filled with endless loneliness and disappointment.
She resolutely said this, turned, and walked away. Every step felt like treading on the edge of a knife, painful yet resolute. Her posture remained upright, yet an endless sense of desolation permeated her.
She knew that the person in front of her was no longer the same person, and when they looked at each other, all that was left was disappointment.