Inside Jiaofang Palace, the Empress had not been punished for the incident at the palace banquet, yet she spent the following days in a state of frantic exhaustion. Time and again, palace attendants arrived to report that some official had severed ties or some noble had refused to lend a hand. Aside from the Duke of Zhenguo’s Mansion, the Right Prime Minister Meng’s family, and the Wen family—to which the consort Wen Shuyan belonged—who remained steadfast in their support of the Third Prince, many ministers had shifted their allegiances. They were either playing it neutral, staying out of both sides' affairs, or they were aligning themselves with the Crown Prince to uphold the line of succession, scouring the capital for physicians to treat his leg injury.
The Empress had exhausted herself over this, and in her utter bewilderment, she asked the head eunuch, "During the private meeting at the banquet, I clearly did not say anything wrong, nor did I do anything inappropriate. Everything I did was for the sake of upholding the dignity of the Imperial family. But why..."
Why was the punishment she and the Third Prince had actually received several times more severe than that of the Noble Consort Shu, who had been demoted in rank? Was it all because of the arrogant ravings of that dog Wu De after he had drunk too much?
Chapter 208