Xi Tan said, “Send over some tonics that can help replenish nutrients in the body. I don’t really need the ones that my elder brother gave me, so please send them altogether.”
The palace maid adhered to the order and took the items. Before she could even walk out of the palace gates, she ran into Songyu who was sent by Lin Feilu to relay a message. After hearing what she had to say, Xi Tan nodded lightly and let Songyu hold on to the items. Quietly, she spoke, “Go back and tell Little Fifth Princess, if she encounters any problems at all, I will support her.”
Songyu accepted the order and excused herself.
If Xi Tan caught wind of it already, then the other palaces would naturally know about it as well. Apart from Consort Xian, the other people who were eager to please the Fifth Princess also sent a fair amount of items to Mingyue Palace.
Even Consort Mei had sent someone over, the palace maid claiming that her Consort was also frightened this morning and she was now bedridden. However, she felt very guilty that she couldn’t personally visit the Honourable Lady Xiao Lan and could only send some supplements in hopes that she could recover soon.
Lin Feilu smiled and had the maid accept it. When she left, Yunyou was so angry that she wanted to throw the items away.
Lin Feilu stopped her, “Why throw it away? Leave it so we can eat it. Good things shouldn’t be wasted, after all.”
Yun You said fiercely, “The cat is crying and the mouse is falsely compassionate(1); who’s to say that these things may very well be poisoned!”
(T/L note: A mouse wouldn’t be compassionate if a cat was feeling sad. Same philosophy, an enemy wouldn’t do good things for you if they wanted you gone, unless there were ulterior motives)
Lin Feilu asked her to put everything away, “Her people personally delivered it, so she can’t just brush it off if something happens. A person who cherishes her reputation as much as Consort Mei would dare not do such a thing in public.”
Consort Mei cherished her reputation a lot as she groomed an image of being a gentle and kind figure in public. Naturally, she wouldn’t let something like the incident of the bee attack stain her good reputation as well.
It didn’t take long for people to catch wind of the matter and began gossiping. Apparently, the ‘reason’ as to why the bees only chased Honourable Lady Xiao Lan and stung her alone was because she heard that there were many concubines going to watch the flowers and apparently, there may be a chance to meet His Majesty. Therefore in order to be in the limelight, she applied a lot of scented powder on her body.
In the end, she did not meet His Majesty but got stung by the bees instead. Not only did she lose her reputation, but she almost lost her life as well.
This incident became a great joke to laugh about after dinner amongst the people of the palace. After Qingyan heard it, she became very angered once again, but Lin Feilu didn’t care about it much.
Those mouths belonged to other people. Paired with the fact that Consort Mei was deliberately spreading the rumors, those who believed it will continue to believe it. Hence, it was useless to refute. It was just empty gossip, after all, as only the ones who could be hurt by those remarks were the ones who actually cared.
By the time Emperor Lin knew about the incident, Lin Feilu hadn’t gone to the Imperial School for two days. Peng Man didn’t talk about the rumors in the palace, but informed His Majesty that the Fifth Princess’s Honourable Mother fell into the water and was seriously ill, also mentioning that the Fifth Princess has been personally taking care of her recently as well.
After that, he asked carefully, “Your Majesty, do you want to take a visit to the Mingyue Palace?”