Rebirth of the Ninth Princess

With her goal achieved, Hanxue quickly excused herself.

She could already envision what would happen next.

By intentionally praising Noble Consort Yu, she ensured these maids would gossip about the incident to their mistresses.

Word would spread rapidly, and soon, everyone in the palace would know.

Other girl in the harem, being naturally jealous, wouldn't pass up the chance to report Noble Consort Yu to the palace steward.

It might even escalate to His Majesty himself.

When that happened, Noble Consort Yu would surely face consequences beyond what she could handle.

In essence, this was a classic killing someone using other people knife strategy.

While they couldn't directly deal with Noble Consort Yu, it didn't mean others couldn't.

Thinking about Noble Consort Yu's impending troubles, Hanxue covered her mouth and chuckling as she hurried back to the Cold Palace under the moonlight.

Yuanjiu wasn't asleep.

Taking advantage of her alertness, she quietly practicing to circulating her energy.

Hearing footsteps, she opened her eyes and saw Hanxue come back from outside.

Watching Hanxue's happy expression, Yuanjiu couldn't help but smile helplessly—who would've thought someone that was already a mother could still act so childish?

The next morning, Hanxue woke up early and humming a cheerful tune.

She even managed to wake up Yuanjiu and Aunt Yue with her noise.

In the cool morning air, Hanxue and Aunt Yue played with Yuanjiu in the courtyard, teasing her by tickling under her arms.

Poor Yuanjiu who is weak as she was, could do nothing to stop them.

She rolling her eyes in exasperation as they bullied her.

Seeing this only made Hanxue and Aunt Yue laugh even harder.

After playing for a good half-hour, Aunt Yue went off to prepare breakfast, leaving Hanxue wandering alone in the courtyard.

Her eyes kept darting toward the outer path, hoping to catch sight of any passing guards or palace maids from whom she could glean information about Noble Consort Yu's fate.

Finally, in the afternoon, Hanxue spotted the two palace maids who are walking by outside.

She rushed over to stop them, said a few flattering words, and soon managed to coax the pair for sharing the latest gossip with her.

Just as Hanxue expected, the maids from last night wasted no time to report what they had heard to their mistresses first thing in the morning.

The news spread like wildfire, and every girl in the harem's eyes are lit up—this was the perfect opportunity to criticize Noble Consort Yu.

The Empress, in particular, was thrilled.

She had always been at odds with Noble Consort Yu, who shared much of Emperor Ouyang Qingcheng's favor.

Now that she finally had something on her rival, she wasn't going to let it slide.

Taking advantage of her routine visit to greet the emperor after his morning court session, she "casually" mentioned Noble Consort Yu's breach of palace rules.

When Emperor Ouyang Qingcheng heard that his favorite consort had violated protocol, he flew into a rage.

Without hesitation, he issued an imperial decree: Noble Consort Yu was demoted by one rank and had her monthly allowance suspended for two months.