After the fifth watch, Zhiwei finally dragged her tired body back to the palace.

At this time, the sky was just dawning, and most of the palace people had already gotten up and were washing.

She also hurriedly wiped her face, applied a layer of medicine to the slightly red and swollen wound on her forehead, and followed Lianzhu and them to breakfast.

It is said that it is breakfast, but the palace people have few portions, and there are only three dishes for more than a dozen people for lunch and dinner, and it is impossible to make them in the morning, so each person only has a dry cake and a bowl of porridge.

Naturally, it was impossible for the cake to be freshly steamed, as if it had been frozen overnight, cold and hard.

Zhiwei stayed up all night, and at this time the sleepiness came up again, only to feel dizzy and swollen, and her appetite was much worse than usual, and the cake couldn't be swallowed at all.

She sighed, and soaked the porridge that was clear and visible, but she still couldn't finish it, and put away the remaining half, ready to heat it up with her body temperature, and eat it again when she was tired from doing work for a while.

"Today is the Flower God Festival, and the ladies will worship the flower god in the northwest corner of the Imperial Garden. Flowers must be sent over in Chenzheng, not early or late. Wilt early and let alone late. The selected flower branches must be fresh and full, without a little black spots, dead leaves, wrinkles......"

Steward Li said a few words in his throat, and drank with a straight face: "Did you hear it clearly?" If something goes wrong, watch your heads! ”

The people who were selected to cut the flowers were all palace maids who were usually good at tending to flowers and plants, and Zhiwei was also among them.

According to Steward Li's arrangement, the women divided a few pots of flowers and began to cut them slowly, their hands moving lightly and meticulously, as if they were treating some rare treasure.

Zhi Wei's movements were gentler than everyone else's, and there was a hint of unbearability on her face.

With great difficulty, she chose a delicate and plump flower, and she slowly stretched out her scissors and aimed them at the branches.

The moment the scissors fell, she couldn't help but close her eyes.

The pot of flowers under his hand screamed, and his voice was still a little confused.

"Woo woo, people just woke up like this, it hurts so much~ Ah, it turned out to be Weiwei, you are so ruthless~"

The corners of Zhiwei's eyes twitched, these flowers are not stupid, they should have known how they would be treated today when they were singled out yesterday, but at this time, they were coquettish with her, just wanting her to promise to apply more fertilizer to it in the future, and to chat with it more to relieve boredom.

In front of everyone, she didn't dare to talk to it, so she could only pretend that she didn't hear it, and began to look for the next flower that met the standard.

Because of yesterday's small turmoil, coupled with the injury on her forehead, Zhi Wei inevitably became the most eye-catching existence among the ten people of the Flower Cutting Palace of the Siyuan Bureau, and even Steward Li looked at her back and forth several times.

But she didn't know it, and worked silently with a stiff back.

Everyone was immersed in their work, and no one noticed that there was an unkind gaze in the corner directed straight at her, like a poisoned arrow.

Imperial Garden.

The northwest corner is spacious, the scenery is good, and it is next to the West Sixth Palace, and the harem banquet is generally located here.

Early in the morning, there were some low-ranking concubines here, all dressed up as more delicate than flowers, admiring flowers and laughing in groups.

Soon after, several high-ranking nine concubines also came one after another.

Concubine Xian came not early or late, stood there and talked to a few people on the nine concubines, and asked Li Jieyu how the second princess was recently, which made the concubines very jealous of Li Jieyu, who had no family background and was rarely favored, but was fortunate enough to give birth to a princess for His Majesty.

Li Jieyu herself was sincerely frightened, and she was about to stutter when she spoke.

The queen and concubine came the latest, and they all arrived in pinch.

The two walked over one after the other, one with a straight face, and the other with a crooked mouth, no matter how they looked, it looked like the queen was deflated again when they met and spoke.

Of course, the concubines didn't dare to make fun of these two, and they bowed their heads according to their positions.

The queen said a few opening words, and then entered the highlight of the day, hairpins and worship the god of flowers.

The concubines all have different smiles on their faces, not to mention how they usually have a relationship with each other, but today's Flower God Festival is a rare day for them to relax, and the importance to the women of this dynasty is no less than the Qixi Qiqiao Festival, so there are fewer people who quarrel, and they are just waiting for the hairpin to be beautiful for a day, and then make a wish with the flower god Niangniang.

As for what each person wishes in his heart, only they know it.

The palace people rushed in, holding trays full of flowers and branches, and came to the palace ladies to choose at will.

The queen should naturally be the first to choose flowers.

She didn't move, and said with a smile: "Sister Shufei doesn't love peonies the most on weekdays?" The palace looks, the Wei Zi raised in the imperial garden is good, and it can actually breed flowers at such a time, but the buds are smaller. If my sister doesn't dislike it, why don't you just hairpin it? ”

The originally relaxed mood of the concubines was dissipated by the queen's sentence.

Who doesn't know that peony has been the king of flowers since ancient times, most of them are exclusive to the queen of the middle palace, this Wei purple color is precious, and it has the reputation of the queen of flowers, naturally it is not their group of concubines who dare to reach out to take it.

But this Concubine Xiao Shu was favored by herself, so she let out her words, saying that she loved peonies the most, and provoked Her Majesty to search for that precious variety and send it to her Shangyang Palace, didn't she deliberately be pampered and arrogant?

Today's flower god sacrifice, the queen mother deliberately asked her to hairpin Wei Zi, probably with the intention of killing, and it was up to Concubine Xiao Shu to accept it.

In front of everyone's eyes, Concubine Shu smiled sweetly: "Thank you for your love." But my sister thinks that this peony is still beautiful in season, and what kind of scenery should be appreciated when it is. Besides, there is not much in Shangyang Palace, but this peony has almost become a disaster. My sister just likes peonies, and I don't dare to compete with the queen for this flower today! ”

She stretched out her hand as she spoke, hesitated for a few moments, and finally picked up a small light red flower on the plate.

"My sister Pu Liu's quality, how dare she compete with the queen mother for this peony? Why don't you just wear this hairpin, it just fits my dress today. ”

Concubine Shu wore a slightly simple plain dark coat today, only embroidered with a dark red crane auspicious cloud pattern on the cuffs, neckline, and skirt, and with the dark red wide belt, the whole person looked elegant and noble.

She only wore a simple flowing cloud bun, and the headdress was rarely streamlined, which was very suitable with this red flower.

But, the point is, it's a pomegranate flower!

Pomegranate means more children and more blessings, and the concubine is the only person in the audience who has a dragon heir, but she also picked this flower before the queen started, if it is not to provoke the queen and show everyone his favored status, the fool will not believe it!

Thinking about it a little deeper, did Concubine Shu have a plan for a long time, so she chose this body to attend the Flower God Festival?

The corner of the queen's mouth stiffened, and she said lightly: "It's good if my sister likes it." ”

After that, he casually picked an orange-pink double-petaled Yueji and held it in his hand, and he didn't seem to be ready to put it on immediately, so he just looked at the little concubine coldly and didn't speak.

Everyone was a little nervous, and their hearts were even more helpless.

Most of them really just want to enjoy the flowers and breathe today, and they don't want to get involved in this high-level struggle!

He Zhaorong sneered in his heart, although Concubine Xiao said that she didn't dare to compete with the queen, wasn't she showing off her favor in her words? What nonsense about the peony has become a disaster, isn't it implying that the queen is not valued by the emperor?

Seeing that the atmosphere was deadlocked, she simply interjected with a smile: "The concubine heard that this pomegranate flower has to be pumped three times a year." However, only in May can it bear fruit, and in February and October, all the flowers are lies~ Hehe, this is also a folk rumor, it can't be true, Sister Shufei don't be angry. ”

Hearing this, Concubine Shu's hand holding the flower froze, and her knife-like eyes flew towards He Zhaorong's face.

The queen's face was much better: "Okay, what kind of lying flowers don't lie, let's just worship a flower god, how can we pay so much attention?" Sister Shufei, do you say this is the reason? ”

Concubine Shu endured her anger and said coldly: "The queen mother said yes, naturally." ”

As soon as these words came out, they were a little cold.

The queen didn't pull down her face again, but she didn't pay attention to the concubine, and the concubines continued to be silent.

Only He Zhaorong smiled and said a few funny words, and the atmosphere on the field slowly eased again, the little concubines each picked flowers and picked flowers, and the good relationship also helped each other to make hairpins, but Wei Zi in the plate was not moved.

As soon as he said a few words of laughter, a delicate cry of pain suddenly came from the crowd.

"Oops, my hand ......"

The queen looked up and saw a few little concubines clustered around the center of the commotion not far away, as if someone had been injured.

"What's going on?"

All the concubines gave way to the queen one after another, and said gossipsily: "Queen Mother, Wen Meiren seems to have accidentally been pricked by a flower branch and shed a lot of blood." ”

The queen looked at the pink rose that had rolled to the ground and was stained with blood, and frowned, but did not speak.

Concubine Shu said lukewarmly: "Yo, now this Siyuan Bureau is really getting better and better, and the flower branches presented are still thorny, so it should be punished." ”

The queen secretly hated in her heart, Concubine Shu's little hooves clearly meant that Sang scolded Huai, implying that she was ineffective in doing things, and the flower god sacrifice she handled had such a low-level fork!

"The order goes down, the Siyuan Bureau is sloppy, everyone up and down will be fined one month, and the steward will be fined three months!"

Wen Meiren subconsciously asked for love: "Niangniang, it's all the concubines who didn't look carefully, and the concubines are not good." On this good day, how can you lose your interest because of the concubine? Presumably, the palace people of the Siyuan Bureau did not do it on purpose......"

Wen Mei's family background is average, but there is an uncle who is quite capable, and he has made several contributions in the army recently, plus two New Year's Day seals, she also slowly climbed from the seven-rank royal maid to the position of the four-grade beauty.

But her appearance can only be regarded as average in the palace, and her temperament is not very pleasing to Huo Yanzhi, knowing that she is most likely to stop at the position of beauty or Jieyu, she has always been cautious, for fear of falling into some tricks for others to figure right and wrong.

Wen Meiren is not a bodhisattva who is particularly sympathetic to the palace people, but she is afraid that this matter will spread, and the Queen Mother and Her Majesty feel that she is pampered and arrogant.

What's more, where does she have the "pet" who is pampered and proud?

Wen Meiren wants to make a good name for herself, but how does she know what the queen thinks in her heart.

Concubine Shu's squeeze was so bright that she was about to point at her nose and scold her for not being useful, if she gently exposed this matter, how would she stand up in the palace in the future?

He Zhaorong climbed to the position of the third concubine during the New Year's seal this year, replacing the position of Zhaorong of the original concubine, but he did not get half of the grace of the concubine, and once he was turned over by His Majesty and was cut off by the concubine halfway, and the palace concubines laughed behind their backs for several days.

Therefore, He Zhaorong is the most unaccustomed to Concubine Shu.

The enemy of her enemy is her friend, and she hurriedly stood up for the queen.

"Niangniang, although this matter is small, it is difficult to ensure that there are people in the palace of the Siyuan Bureau who harbor evil intentions. It's just a fine, but it doesn't treat the symptoms, so why not take this opportunity to conduct a thorough investigation? ”

The queen pondered for a while and nodded: "Sister Zhaorong is reasonable, and she thinks of a place with this palace." That being the case, let's finish worshipping the god of flowers first. Wen Meiren, can your injuries get in the way? ”

Wen Meiren hurriedly said that it was just a small injury, and it was not a big problem, so she simply chose another flower and put it on her head, but she didn't pay attention to the fact that the flower was magenta, which did not match her goose yellow dress, and caused several strange eyes from others.

Wen Meiren felt aggrieved, but she could only pretend not to care.

After worshipping the god of flowers, the queen ordered someone to bring Steward Li of the Siyuan Bureau over for questioning, and did not let the other concubines go, obviously to establish authority by investigating the matter.

Concubine Shu stood next to her, a mocking smile on her lips.

When Steward Li learned that something had gone wrong with the flower branch he sent, he hurriedly slapped his two big mouths, and kowtowed to Wen Meiren to confess.

The queen said unhappily: "Steward Li, how do you manage this Siyuan Bureau?" Something just went wrong yesterday, but fortunately, His Majesty has a broad mind and has not been seriously responsible. Today's flower god sacrifice, you are not so careful, and the flower branches sent over actually have barbs! If there is no explanation for this matter, this palace will look at it, and the Siyuan Bureau should also change someone to rectify it! ”

It was a little strange to have the little concubine who was not well-informed, and began to whisper and discuss, what went wrong yesterday. The high-ranking concubines were very calm, and they didn't know whether they had received the news a long time ago, or they pretended to be well-informed and already informed.

Steward Li confessed a few times again, and after asking if the "culprit" was a rose, he cursed in his heart.

"Queen Qiyu, these flower branches were newly cut this morning, and the palace people of the Siyuan Bureau performed their duties, and the flowers that each person was responsible for were different. The slave maid remembered clearly that the rose that hurt Wen Niangniang should be the responsibility of a palace maid named Zhiwei under the slave maid. The slave and maid are ineffective, and the emperor has no way, and he is willing to be punished......"