By a twist of fate, the illegitimate son of the Marquis's family marries the county princess.

Chapter 48 Princess Hejing

"Elder sister, Mother asked you to keep an eye on me."

As the group was talking, a little girl dressed in a pink palace dress ran over, put her hands on her hips, and accused Princess Changning.

This person was none other than Princess Hejing, born to Consort An.

Princess Changning rolled her eyes: "With so many palace maids watching over you, why would you need me? I'm only eight years old, just one year older than you."

Princess Hejing persisted, "I don't care, you just have to keep an eye on me."

This is Fengyi Palace. Although the Empress allowed the palace servants who served Princess Hejing to come along, Princess Hejing was unfamiliar with the place and was inevitably afraid.

Ever since she arrived at Fengyi Palace, she has been sticking to Princess Changning.

Princess Changning said impatiently, "Go away, go away, I don't have time to play with you."

Princess Hejing held Princess Changning's hand, looking at her stubbornly.

None of the palace servants around him dared to step forward.

Zuo Mingxuan's lips twitched, and she leaned close to Pei Rujing's ear and whispered, "Why does this scene seem so familiar?"

Pei Rujing rolled her eyes at her.

Princess Changning used to pester Pei Rujing like this.

Princess Changning couldn't possibly drive Princess Hejing away, so after a brief stalemate, she could only allow Princess Hejing to stay.

Princess Hejing smiled then, but then noticed Pei Rujing, and her face fell again: "Anhe, it's you who caused me to be separated from my mother. You're a bad person, I hate you."

Pei Rujing didn't care about Princess Hejing's dislike and retorted, "Coincidentally, I don't like you either."

Princess Hejing was stunned; no one had ever been so blunt as to say they disliked her.

"You! How dare you! I'm going to find my father to teach you a lesson."

Pei Rujing showed no fear whatsoever: "Your father is my uncle. My uncle won't punish me. Instead, he'll blame you for being ignorant."

Princess Hejing also remembered Emperor Shun'an's favoritism towards Pei Rujing, and panicked. She turned to her wet nurse and called out, "Nanny~"

The wet nurse forced a smile: "Princess, don't panic, the county princess is just joking with you."

Tell her what's the big deal? She's just a servant and can't do anything to Pei Rujing, especially since this isn't Consort An's Yunquan Palace.

Princess Hejing raised her small face and said disdainfully, "Anhe, you are just a county princess. You are not qualified to play with me. Quickly apologize to me."

Princess Changning looked at Princess Hejing as if she were a fool.

The palace servants of Yunquan Palace were dumbfounded.

Pei Rujing laughed in anger, revealing a wicked smile: "Princess Hejing probably doesn't know, but you can no longer return to Yunquan Palace. From now on, you will stay in Fengyi Palace and will never see Consort An again."

Princess Hejing was stunned.

The next moment, he burst into tears, crying, "I want my mother! I want my mother!"

She had been unable to sleep for the past few days because she was thinking about Consort An, and now that Pei Rujing said this, she completely broke down.

The wet nurse quickly comforted Princess Hejing: "Princess, don't cry, Princess, don't cry. Her Majesty will be here soon, and you will see Her Majesty soon."

Princess Hejing was not easy to coax; once she started crying, it was difficult to stop her.

No matter what the wet nurse said, Princess Hejing just kept crying.

In an instant, everyone else in the hall turned to look.

Upon seeing that it was Princess Hejing crying, everyone's expressions turned somewhat strange.

They all knew that Princess Hejing was now being raised by the Empress.

Zuo Mingxuan looked at Pei Rujing speechlessly: "You're really something, bullying a seven-year-old child."

Pei Rujing snorted coldly: "Who told her to start trouble first?"

The county magistrate doesn't care about bullying the weak; she always seeks revenge.

Just as everyone in Yunquan Palace was in a state of panic, Consort An arrived.

Consort An was not confined to her quarters. She dressed up specially for today's palace banquet in order to dispel everyone's speculation that she had fallen out of favor.

As soon as he entered the hall, he heard his daughter crying.

Consort An's expression instantly darkened. She quickly walked over and hugged Princess Hejing: "Hejing, who bullied you?"

Upon seeing Consort An, Hejing cried even louder: "Mother... Mother Consort, Anhe said... Hejing will never see... Mother Consort again, sob sob sob... Hejing is scared."

Princess Hejing was crying so hard she couldn't speak, but she still didn't forget to complain.

Consort An's sharp gaze immediately fell on Pei Rujing: "Anhe, Hejing is only seven years old, why are you bullying her?"

Pei Rujing showed no shame for bullying a child, and sneered, "Who told her to say I wasn't worthy to play with her, and then make me apologize to her? Humph, I'm going to ask my uncle if I really am not worthy."

Consort An immediately fell silent.

Princess Hejing, seeing that Consort An had stopped moving, became dissatisfied: "Mother, quickly teach her a lesson for me."

Consort An wiped away Princess Hejing's tears and said gently, "Today is a palace banquet, and Her Majesty the Empress will be arriving soon. Shall we go and pay our respects to Her Majesty the Empress first?"

Princess Hejing's crying stopped abruptly.

Her greatest fear was the Empress.

It wasn't that the Empress treated her badly, but rather that the Empress always made her write large characters.

Princess Hejing hated writing large characters the most.

If Consort An asked her to write large characters, she could whine and beg to write less, but these tricks wouldn't work on the Empress.

She was told to write a certain number of pages each day, and she had to write them all. If she slacked off that day, the Empress would send someone to supervise her the next day.

During her time in Fengyi Palace, Princess Hejing lived in utter darkness, constantly longing to return to Yunquan Palace.

Upon hearing Consort An mention the Empress, Princess Hejing instantly forgot about Pei Rujing and said coquettishly, "Mother, Hejing wants to go back to Yunquan Palace."

She really didn't want to be watched while writing large characters anymore.

Consort An dared not make a promise, but simply hugged Princess Hejing and led her away.

The palace servants of Yunquan Palace quickly followed behind.

Zuo Mingxuan gave Pei Rujing a thumbs up.

Only Princess Anhe would dare to stand up to Consort An.

Princess Changning breathed a sigh of relief: "That annoying person is finally gone."

Because she was afraid, Princess Hejing had been clinging to Princess Changning for the past few days, which annoyed Princess Changning to no end.

Pei Rujing silently added to her mind, "You're such a nuisance."

The Empress arrived shortly afterward.

Zuo Mingxuan reminded Pei Rujing of her promise to Madam Zuo, and then returned to Madam Zuo's side.

Pei Rujing abandoned the idea of ​​speaking with the Princess and returned to Jiang's side.

She had finally married into the Marquis of Zhongyong's household and was able to sit with Madam Jiang and others at the palace banquet.

The eldest princess sat below the empress, in the position closest to the main seat.

Judging from her position alone, Pei Rujing was already marrying down, not to mention that she married a son of a concubine from a marquis's family.

The many women who noticed this looked at Pei Rujing with mixed feelings, some with sympathy, some with schadenfreude, and some with indifference.

Ignoring everyone's thoughts, the Empress took her seat and announced the start of the palace banquet.

The palace servants immediately brought out the prepared dishes one by one, each dish served in an exquisite container and beautifully presented.

The opera troupes trained in the palace also began to perform on stage for everyone.

In an instant, the atmosphere at the palace banquet began to heat up.