The two of them discussed in the study for a long time. Apart from themselves, no one knew what they had talked about. This would also facilitate the implementation of the subsequent plan.
When Zhao Jin walked out of the study again, he sent someone to send the maid back.
"Be careful. I'll send some trustworthy people in the palace to meet you. Don't let anyone find out, or even I won't be able to protect you."
"Your maid obeys."
The maid certainly knew how important this matter was. It was related to her own life, so she mustn't be careless.
She returned to the palace cautiously, but was stopped when she was about to enter the princess's palace.
"Bold! Concubine Rui has already said that no one is allowed to enter or leave here for the time being. Get out of here. Don't force us to take action."
When the maid saw that the guards at the door were two soldiers, she secretly felt relieved.
She had served beside Concubine Ning for so many years, and it wasn't in vain.
"I hope you two big brothers can be accommodating. I'm the personal maid beside Concubine Ning. I just went to get some clothes for the empress. I believe you two big brothers are reasonable. After all, it's impossible not to let the empress change clothes."
The two guards glanced at each other. Seeing that the purse the maid took out from her body was bulging, there should be quite a lot of money in it.
They were a bit greedy for a moment. They had been guarding here for so long, and finally found such an opportunity to get some benefits. Since the opportunity was right in front of them, how could they let it go?
However, they still had to put on a show on the surface to avoid being criticized later.
"What are you doing? We're guarding here by the order of Concubine Rui. It's for official business, not for your little bit of silver."
The words were clear enough, and the maid understood. Gritting her teeth in pain, she took out another bag of silver from her other sleeve.
"I'm really the maid beside Concubine Ning. You've seen these clothes. Please let me in, two big brothers. You know that the empress has a well - known bad temper. If she gets angry because of this, I might end up dead without a whole body."
When the two saw so much silver this time, they couldn't resist anymore.
No one in this world would say no to money.
They pretended to be calm and serious. One of them turned around and said, "Although what you said is right, I still have to go in and confirm with the empress. Otherwise, in case there are thieves pretending to be someone, it would be bad if they hurt the two noble masters."
Since the two bags of silver had already been taken by the guards, the maid knew that this matter was almost settled. A smile appeared on her face.
"You two big brothers are really reasonable. Don't worry. I'll never cause you any trouble."
Soon, the maid appeared in front of Concubine Ning. And this time, Concubine Ning was very smart. In order not to arouse anyone's suspicion, when she saw the clothes in the maid's hands, she began to lose her temper.
"You slut! I told you to get clothes. Why did it take you so long? If I accidentally catch a cold or get some bad luck on me, you'll see how I punish you."
"Ah! Your empress! Your maid knows her mistake. It's just that the two big brothers outside stopped me from coming in. Otherwise, I would have brought the clothes to you just now."
The guards who were waiting outside the door to watch the show immediately came in to defend themselves after hearing this.
"How can you talk like that? We two brothers are just following Concubine Rui's order to guard the door well and prevent anyone with ill intentions from coming in. If you shift the blame to us now and make the empress misunderstand, what should we do? Besides, we're doing this for the good of the two masters, to check every possible suspect."
The guard caught Concubine Ning's inquiring look, glared at the maid fiercely, and then left with an ugly face.
To prevent someone from eavesdropping outside, the maid kept covering her arm.
"Ouch, your empress! Your maid really knows her mistake. Please don't beat your maid anymore."
"Slut! I'll teach you a lesson today. I haven't stepped down from this position yet, and you dare to neglect me. See how I'll deal with you today."
"Please calm down, your empress. Your maid really knows her mistake."
As these words were spoken, a dark shadow flashed by outside. Concubine Ning certainly knew who that shadow was.
Concubine Rui wouldn't really be at ease with her.
This time, unexpectedly, after the guard left, she helped the maid up from the ground and asked, "Are you okay? It was an emergency just now. I didn't control my strength. Are you all right?"
"Don't worry, your empress. Your maid can bear this pain. By the way, the head of the Zhao family already knows what happened between the princess and you. He seems to have made a decision. I believe he'll take action soon."
Hearing the news about that man, she couldn't help asking a few more questions.
"How is he recently? Did he give any other instructions for me to follow?"
The maid had served beside her own master for so long. She had been with her even before she entered the palace, so she was used to such words from her.
"The head of the family is fine and didn't give any other instructions. Your empress, the head of the Zhao family will surely rescue you and the princess. Don't worry. Everything will be okay."
Her words of comfort really calmed Concubine Ning down a lot, and she was no longer as worried as before.
"I'll wait."
Not long after, a piece of news came from Zhao Jin's side, which shocked the whole capital.
"General Zhao is about to return in triumph. At that time, he also intends to visit his elder sister, the princess."
This news certainly couldn't be hidden from everyone. They never thought that the man who had always intended to stay on the border would come back one day.
"Didn't General Zhao say before that he would never return to the capital again and that no matter what happened in the capital, it had nothing to do with him?"
Another official was a bit impatient seeing the official who was talking pacing back and forth in front of him.
"Can you stop pacing like this? How would I know the relationship? Maybe General Zhao just couldn't let go of his relatives in the end. It's reasonable. But now, what we should think about most is how to confirm the authenticity of this news. If the news is true, we really should consider whether we should continue to cooperate with Concubine Rui."
General Zhao was really kind to his elder sister. Once, because the king of the Western Regions took a concubine, he dared to chase him for three streets with a knife without getting out of breath. Such a person was really not easy to deal with.
Moreover, most of the Zhao family's forces had now submitted to Concubine Rui. If Zhao Jiangjun came back and found out about this, he would surely execute most of the court officials.