Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine

Chapter112，Part2: Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine Ch 112 Pt. 2

Translated by gingercat

Edited by gingercat

For some reason, Yaoniang thought of what had happened earlier. The consort and the side consorts were all ready yet she and His Highness had arrived late.

The consort was saying that even if you felt uncomfortable, you still have to endure. Who told you to be late? You brought this suffering onto yourself.

Although the consort’s expression and words did not seem to express this, Yaoniang understood it differently. She had heard a lot of insincere words from the consort in her previous life. In this life, whenever she recalled her past, she was bound to look at things from a different viewpoint.

Yaoniang was already out of breath. Flushed, she shook her head. “This concubine is okay. Proper business is more important.”

Behind her came an easily recognizable sneer. It was Side Consort Xu. Yaoniang turned a deaf ear and lowered her head. Although Consort Jin was wearing a smile, it was inevitable for there to be a hint of lines between her brows.

After their arrival was announced and they entered the palace, they saw that everyone who should be present was indeed already there.

The female family members of the crown prince, An Wang, and Dai Wang were all present. The gathering was even bigger than the last time Yaoniang had entered the palace.

“Ah and here I thought something had happened to cause the delay.” The crown princess said with a smile.

Consort Jin stepped forward and asked for forgiveness first, then explained what had happened. Although there was no mention of Yaoniang throughout the story, she still glanced at Yaoniang while she was speaking. Everyone present was smart and understood what she meant.

It turned out that this favoured side consort of Jin Wang had learned to put on airs using her stomach, causing the female family members of Jin Wang Manor to be late.

Empress Wei pretended as if she didn’t understand her meaning and looked at Yaoniang with a smile. “Side Consort Su, what’s the matter? Look at you panting like this.”

Consort Jin also looked back at Yaoniang. “Side Consort Su, are you alright? It was I who rushed us to Kunning Palace in a hurry, and had neglected that you were pregnant.”

Consort Jin appeared to be worried on her face, but there was a glint hiding in her eyes.

Just now, she had implied that Yaoniang had turned arrogant from being so heavily favoured. If Yaoniang wasn’t careful with her words, she would leave behind a domineering and haughty image. She had made up her mind to make Yaoniang feel stifled inside and only able to complain about her sufferings.

A hint of irritation flashed in Xiaobao’s eyes. Just as he was about to say something, he heard his mother say, “Thank you, Empress, and thank you consort for your concern. Yaoniang is fine. Yaoniang was born with a humble background and while pregnant with Xiaobao, it wasn’t even a problem to carry water, cook, or wash clothes. Taking a few steps in a hurry isn’t a big deal.”

On the surface, Yaoniang was belittling herself, but there were many hidden meanings in her words. Since she could cook and clean while she was pregnant with her first child, she was definitely not a fussy person. Naturally, there was no sign of being arrogant from excessive favouring that Consort Jin had implied. She also pointed out that Consort Jin had deliberately made it hard for her, who was carrying a big belly, by making her chase after her.

It wasn’t uncommon for the main wife to make it difficult for the other women in secret. Whose family didn’t have such a thing? But this was Kunning Palace, the home of the imperial family, where appearances were valued above all else. Today was also the emperor’s birthday celebration. No matter what, such trivial issues shouldn’t be brought up here. Especially with how the imperial family valued heirs, even if Empress Wei disdained the child in Yaoniang’s belly, there was no way she would reveal that with so many people present.

With a look of distress, Empress Wei beckoned Yaoniang towards her. When she came closer, she took her hand and said, “What a pitiful thing. Bengong had heard His Majesty mention your story. It was Jin Wang who had mistreated you, mother and son. Fortunately, the heavens are fair and allowed the father and son to reunite. “

Yaoniang lowered her head as if she was shy.

“What a shy one. You don’t seem to have a fussy temperament but are rather well-behaved.”

With Empress Wei saying so, the other consorts naturally had to echo her sentiments.

Empress Wei didn’t mention anything about Consort Jin in her words, but this performance was clearly slapping the face of Consort Jin. Calling her pitiful and not fussy was dismissing all of Consort Jin’s previous words.

Consort Jin’s face didn’t falter. She was still wearing a small smile, but a flash of embarrassment did flash in her eyes. Fortunately, Empress Wei kept it short and changed to another topic, talking about today’s affairs.

Today was the birthday of Emperor Hongjing, and a day for the entire country to celebrate. Emperor Hongjing was hosting a banquet in the imperial palace to entertain the many princes, nobles, civil and military officials, as well as envoys from other countries. Naturally, these people wouldn’t arrive by themselves, they would also bring along the female members of their families. These female family members would be entertained by the empress.

But the empress was only one person,? so it’d be inevitable for there to be slip-ups if she were to do everything on her own. This was where the various consorts would step up to help her deal with the many matters.

They didn’t need to do any work themselves. They only needed to supervise to make sure no ridiculous mistakes or accidents would happen. Whenever there was a banquet in the palace, this was the routine and the consorts weren’t unfamiliar with it.

As for Yaoniang, she was pregnant and couldn’t help much, so she was naturally ignored.

The banquet for the menfolk was held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Peace and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. The banquet for the womenfolk was held in the Hall of Union and Kunning Palace.

The banquet lasted from morning until dusk but it still wasn’t over yet.

There wasn’t much for Yaoniang to do. She only needed to follow the crowd. Empress Wei, who kept in mind that she was pregnant, had ordered a palace maid to prepare her a room for her to rest in when she gets tired.

But no matter what, there were many guests present, so it wasn’t good to go overboard. She took Xiaobao to rest for a while before going out again and did this a couple of times. Overall, nothing major happened.

During this period Yaoniang also met with someone new, the consort of Qing Wang.

For some reason, Consort Qing was very enthusiastic towards Yaoniang and took the initiative to talk to her. Generally speaking, consorts would interact with consorts and side consorts with other side consorts. They didn’t mix. But Consort Qing, who was a main consort, came to find Yaoniang, who was only a side consort.

Later, Yaoniang heard from Consort Qing that Qing Wang had a good relationship with Jin Wang while they were still in the capital. Then she realized that Jin Wang must have arranged this for her. He was likely afraid that she would have no one to interact with and would only stand to the side awkwardly.

Consort Qing’s surname was Xiao, and her appearance was both beautiful and exquisite. She had a three-year-old son and should no mishaps occur this child would likely be the heir of Qing Wang Manor. Yan Ge’er was an introverted and shy child. Unlike the other children at his age who were always playing around, he sat beside his mother and didn’t make any fuss.

Xiaobao was also very quiet.

Putting the two together, they could still play with each other. Yan Ge’er took good care of his younger cousin and took the initiative to give his own toy to Xiaobao.

“To be honest, it’s only because there’s a lot of people here and he’s a bit shy around strangers. If we were still back in the manor, he would’ve long overturned the skies with his naughtiness.” After hearing Yaoniang compliment her son as being obedient, Consort Qing said this with a tone of disdain. But looking at her happiness, it was obvious that her words were insincere. What mothers liked to hear most was people praising their children.

“Xiaobao is the same. If there are many people around, he will behave himself. When we’re back home, he’s also very unruly. Recently, he even brought home a kitten from who knows where. Every day, he would nag me to have the maids make clothes for the kitten…”

It was a pity that Huahua didn’t like to wear the clothes made for it, so they could only make toys for Huahua.

“Cat? Wouldn’t it scratch the child?”

“That doesn’t happen. This kitten is very well behaved or it’s still young, so its teeth and claws aren’t done growing yet. Xiaobao is also only allowed to play with the cat for a short time every day……”

When mothers gather together, there were always countless things to say. While the two mothers were talking to the side, Yan Ge’er and Xiaobao were on the couch, playing with a roly-poly toy.

Actually, Xiaobao was listening to Yaoniang and Consort Qing talking with his ears perked. But from time to time he would fiddle with the toy to coax Yan Ge’er.

The two brothers completely misunderstood each other’s thoughts. Yan Ge’er wanted to let his younger brother play, and would always push back the roly-poly toy that was pushed over by Xiaobao. Xiaobao thought that Yan Ge’er wanted to show him how to play with it, so he fiddled with it, bored.

Yan Ge’er was also well-behaved. He wasn’t a noisy child and simply watched Xiaobao play in silence.

What an obedient child. He was also very great-looking, completely different from the rough and boorish boy from Qing Wang Manor that liked playing with swords many years from now. Xiaobao was still an infant, yet he let out a sigh in his heart that didn’t match with this appearance of his whatsoever.

Seeing that it was about time, Yaoniang and Consort Qing tidied up and were about to leave.

This banquet was held from morning to evening. When the banquet was over, there were shows held in several theatres throughout the palace.

According to their statuses, Consort Qing and Yaoniang should go to Changyin Pavilion. Since Changyin Pavilion was quite some distance away from the Hall of Union, where they were at, by the time they arrived, most of the seats were already taken.

On the second floor of the east enclosure, there were still a few seats that were reserved for the family members of the princes. The two quietly went up to the second floor.

Consort Qing was the main consort, so it wasn’t a big deal whether she arrived early or late. But Yaoniang was different. Consort Jin had already been here for a while, and Side Consort Xu and Side Consort Liu had also arrived long ago.

Consort Jin glanced at Yaoniang, and said, “Take a seat. You were the last one we were waiting for.”

Yaoniang blushed. She was about to say something, when Consort Qing who was at the side smiled and said to Consort Jin, “Fifth sister-in-law, don’t misunderstand. It was my fault for delaying the little fifth sister-in-law’s arrival.”

This placed Consort Jin in a difficult position. She didn’t mean to deal with Yaoniang, but she had instinctively blurted out that sentence. Unexpectedly, Su Yaoniang was quite capable. It only took her this while to get familiar with Consort Qing.

She even called her little fifth sister-in-law!

Consort Jin smiled and exchanged greetings with Consort Qing and the matter was glossed over like that.

Yaoniang took her seat and gave Xiaobao a separate seat, beside her. Yu Chan and the little eunuch stood to the side.

“Peace in the World” was being performed on the stage. Yaoniang has never seen this kind of play before and only thought that it was a bit too dazzling to the eyes.

As they watched the show, something seemed to be happening on the second floor of the main building named ‘Yueshi Building’ to their north side.