Chapter 25: A Quarrel PART 1
By now, the sky was already bright. Sunlight filtered through the pear trees and into the hall, casting the shadows of branches and flowers onto the man’s handsome face.
He stood to the side, his imposing phoenix eyes looking down at her coldly.
Zhao Yiyi remained seated, staring up at him in a daze, unable to believe that the words that had just shattered her heart had come from those thin lips.
A moment ago, when her husband had said he wasn’t in the palace yesterday, the dull ache in her heart had eased slightly, and endless hope had been rekindled.
But how could he… how could he give her hope, only to snuff it out with his own hands? In front of so many palace servants, how could he not leave her with a shred of dignity?
In an instant, fear, heartache, shame, and terror intertwined, making her heart feel as if it were being pierced by fine silver needles.
Zhao Yiyi’s eyes reddened, and tears streamed down, drop by drop, onto her collar, quickly soaking a large patch.
Gu Zhen looked a little uncomfortable and turned his face away. He had no time to comfort her, and to make her behave, he deepened his voice again, “Empress, this matter has nothing to do with you. You only need to manage the affairs of the palace.”
After a pause, he added, “What the Empress should be concerned about now is next month’s Royal Sericulture Ceremony.”
Zhao Yiyi didn’t answer. Her hands just tightly clutched the corners of her clothes, crumpling the gray-and-white brocade with a lotus pattern, leaving creases.
The tears didn’t stop either, flowing from her almond-shaped eyes.
Gu Zhen looked a little impatient, and his voice grew deeper, “There are still matters in the front court. I won’t stay long. Empress, you may continue your breakfast.”
With that, he flicked his sleeves and left, leaving only a sentence for her to think things through before speaking again.
Zhao Yiyi didn’t get up to see him off, and he said nothing, simply striding out of Jiaofang Palace.
As soon as he left, Zhao Yiyi couldn’t even sit still. Her body went limp, and she nearly fell. Her fingertips and heart trembled together. She leaned back against the couch, bent her knees, and hugged them, burying her head.
To be treated like this by her beloved husband, in front of all the palace servants of Jiaofang Palace, just as Consort Dowager He and the others had said that day, without being given any face at all.
She flushed with shame and didn’t dare to raise her head, afraid to meet anyone’s gaze.
Since their first meeting in Chang’an, she had loved him for so many years. To suddenly endure his endless dislike, it was impossible to say it wasn’t painful.
Yunzhu vaguely guessed what had happened and quickly waved for everyone to retreat. She poured a cup of hot tea and placed it on the table, saying softly, “Your Majesty, you had so many pine flower cakes. How about a few sips of hot tea to soothe your throat?”
Zhao Yiyi still refused to speak. The side hall was filled with only her low sobs. Such a pitiful sound would inevitably make one’s heart ache to hear it.
She thought in despair, so he really doesn’t like me. It turns out that loving someone can be so bitter.
Mother said that if you love someone, you will probably be happy, but she wasn’t happy at all right now.
For the first time in her life, she began to doubt her mother’s words.
After crying for an unknown amount of time, she finally raised her face tremblingly and glanced around in a panic. But she didn’t see the pity and sympathy of the palace servants as she had expected.
The side hall was empty except for her and Yunzhu, with Mancao guarding the door.
Zhao Yiyi took the tea and drank a few sips. Yunzhu quickly poured another cup and said softly, “These breakfast dishes are all cold. I’ll have the kitchen make a new batch.”
The breakfast hadn’t even been finished before it was interrupted by their argument. Zhao Yiyi lifted her eyelids and looked, her lips moving a few times, “No need, I’m a little tired, I don’t want to eat.”
She said, “I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m a little sleepy and want to sleep for a while.”
Zhao Yiyi went back to the bedroom to lie down, just as the palace affairs were being sent to Jiaofang Palace. Yunzhu led the people to move the palace affairs to the study. After hesitating again and again, she didn’t call her up.
“Let Her Majesty rest for a while. These palace affairs can be dealt with later. Her Majesty’s health is the most important thing,” Yunzhu sighed softly.
“Her Majesty is too pitiful today,” a young palace maid muttered resentfully. “Her Majesty is so good, how could he treat Her Majesty like this?”
“That’s right, Her Majesty was just pleading for a few words…”
Yunzhu, who was walking in front, suddenly turned around and knocked each of the speakers on the head, saying with a stern face, “His Majesty and Her Majesty, are you allowed to speak of them so carelessly?”
The young palace maids were scolded by her and lowered their heads, shrinking like quails, not daring to move.
After scolding them, Yunzhu said, “You haven’t even finished today’s work, and you still have time to talk here. Why don’t you hurry up?”
With her words, the young palace maids, as if granted amnesty, all shut their mouths and scattered.
Yunzhu stood in place for a moment before quietly returning to the bedroom and burning some sandalwood incense in the Boshan stove.
Zhao Yiyi was lying on her side on the couch, staring at the primrose pattern on the curtain in a daze. The bedroom window wasn’t closed properly, and the words of the few people, being close by, had reached her ears without missing a single word.
Even the palace servants knew?
Then I’m afraid that within a day, the entire Ziwei Palace will know.
Everyone will know that the Emperor doesn’t like her, his Empress, and how she lost face today.
In the future, everyone who saw her would look at her with either sympathy, pity, or contempt.
Hearing those words of sympathy and injustice, she frowned slightly. There was no joy of being defended, and a sense of panic arose in her heart. Her body unconsciously trembled, and tears fell again.
Her brother was a man and rarely came home from the academy. He never cared about the affairs of the inner court. Her younger brother and sister were all protected by her alone. She had once been spoiled and willful, but for the sake of survival, to live well under her father’s indifference and Lady Xu’s persecution, she had learned to be gentle, to bow her head, to read people’s expressions, and to be well-behaved and sensible.
But her husband didn’t seem to like these things, nor did he like her like this.
As long as she recalled the cold words that came from his thin lips, as long as she recalled his cold and stern expression, endless fear and confusion echoed in her heart.
Liking him is so bitter, should I still like him?
Zhao Yiyi asked herself in her heart.
In her sleep, she remembered the spring days in Chang’an many years ago. In the Zhao family’s ancestral home in Chang’an, she held a zither and sat alone on a bluestone slab by the pond, playing with her head lowered.
Suddenly, a clear voice called out to her, asking, “Are you from this residence? Then do you know where the study of the Minister of Rites is?”
Suddenly hearing a man’s voice, she looked back in a panic, only to see a group of people standing under the pear tree by the pond. The young man in the lead was wearing a scarlet robe, with a dragon pattern coiling from his front to his shoulders, and the knee-length skirt was also decorated with a dragon pattern.
The young man had an unparalleled handsome face. Seeing her look over, he smiled and asked again, “Are you from this residence? We are here to find the Minister of Rites, but we don’t know where he is.”
So he was here to find her grandfather.
Zhao Yiyi suppressed the inexplicable throbbing in her heart, stood up and bowed to the group, and said warmly, “Today is a holiday, and grandfather has gone out to visit friends. The study is in the northwest corner of the outer courtyard, but grandfather is not in the residence, so he probably won’t be back until sunset.”
The young man thanked her and praised, “Your zither playing is very good.” With that, he went in the direction she had pointed.
But Zhao Yiyi was still in the same place, staring at his back for a long time.
She didn’t know if the young man had seen her grandfather in the end. The next day, when she tentatively asked, her grandfather told her not to inquire about these things, to listen more, see more, and ask less.
📖 Advance Access: Complete Novel
- Option 1: Note your email on PayPal/Ko-fi.
- Option 2: Email proof to beezzzreads@gmail.com.
- Option 3: Comment below.
Recommended Reads
![[Esports] I Started an Online Romance with a Big Shot After Retiring](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/esports.jpg)
