The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

This night, Noble Princess Consort Chu stayed at Qianyuan Palace.

Early the next morning, after the concubines inside the palace learned of this, countless items were broken again inside the palace.

Even the Empress was furious for quite a while.

A few days later, Bai En brought several account books, rosters, and a lot of information into Qianyuan Palace.

”Your Majesty.”

As soon as Bai En entered, he knelt on the ground: ”Your Majesty, this servant is guilty and begs Your Majesty to punish him.”

Emperor Jianyuan paused for a moment, then got up to support Bai En: ”What is the matter?”

Bai En respectfully handed those account books and rosters to Emperor Jianyuan: ”Your Majesty, this servant has always thought of revenge. Since recognizing my daughter, I’ve constantly thought of my parents who died miserably. I couldn’t resign myself to it, and secretly investigated the Miao Family. Who knew that this investigation would uncover a significant matter.”

While speaking, he knelt on the ground again: ”This servant said he wouldn’t seek revenge without Your Majesty’s permission, but I couldn’t control myself. This is my great sin.”

Emperor Jianyuan sighed helplessly.

He ignored Bai En and returned to the Imperial Case to pick up those documents and began to read them.

The more he read, the more displeased and furious Emperor Jianyuan’s expression became: ”Well, well, one after another, they truly disregard me.”

Bai En kowtowed repeatedly: ”This servant deserves death.”

”You deserve death. You’ve been excessively bold, hiding from me to do all these things. What punishment should I give you?”

When Emperor Jianyuan looked at Bai En, his face still carried traces of anger.

Bai En knelt, not daring to move: ”I await Your Majesty’s punishment.”

”Go out and receive ten lashes.”

Emperor Jianyuan turned his attention back to those account books and rosters.

Outside came the sound of lashings, along with Bai En’s muffled groans, making Emperor Jianyuan even more irritated.

He stood up and paced in the hall, finally taking the account books and throwing them hard onto the Imperial Case: ”Enough, enough, I can no longer let Chuchu suffer injustice.”

Wuyuan City

Anning and Xiao Yuan looked at the food served, both feeling quite helpless.

As for Xin Lan, it’s uncertain whether to call her foolish or too vengeful.

Despite knowing Anning has become a Commandery Princess, she still hasn’t given up on mistreating Anning, even starting to skimp on food.

”Let’s go out to eat.”

In the past few days, Xiao Yuan didn’t want to stir trouble, so he took Anning and got ready to leave.

Anning followed with a smile.

She wouldn’t stay long at the Wei Family; the time was too short to be worth tangling with Xin Lan.

Moreover, the situation over in the Capital was somewhat unclear, so Anning and Xiao Yuan naturally needed to act more discretely.

The two changed clothes and went out, finding a nearby restaurant for a meal before returning.

When they returned to the Wei Family, they received a secret letter from the Capital.

After reading it, Anning told Xiao Yuan: ”Tomorrow, inform the Old Madam and Mr. Wei that we’re setting off for Qingjiang.”

Xiao Yuan nodded.

He burned the letter in the candle flame, then opened the window to let the unpleasant odor disperse.

The letter was secretly sent to Anning by Bai En.

The letter simply stated that the Empress and Crown Prince had erred, angering Your Majesty, and now the Crown Prince has been detained, and Your Majesty intends to depose the Crown Prince and Empress.

Though the letter was brief, Anning and Xiao Yuan understood the situation clearly.

Bai En was uprooting carrots and pulling out mud.

Over the years, Bai En has paid much attention to the Miao Family and has always planted spies against the Empress’s Gao family, collecting evidence of crimes.

His interest in the Miao Family was for revenge, while he watched the Gao family due to Bai En and Noble Princess Consort Chu’s ambitions.

Bai En and Noble Princess Consort Chu held a lot of evidence against the Miao and Gao families, and interestingly, it even connected the two families. Though the connection was somewhat tenuous, as long as the evidence was well prepared, Emperor Jianyuan could be made to think Bai En accidentally uncovered the Gao family’s crimes while investigating the Miao Family.

Bai En had been holding onto these pieces of evidence, waiting for the right time.

Noble Princess Consort Chu’s severe illness had distracted Bai En, but once she recovered and he recognized his daughter, they had the opportunity to cause such a series of events aimed at revenge and toppling the Gao family, and implicating the Empress and Crown Prince, leading to their deposition.

Since Anning entered the palace to treat Noble Princess Consort Chu, claiming she was poisoned, Bai En had been orchestrating everything.

He and Anning manipulated the situation, and Noble Princess Consort Chu started to increase her weight in Emperor Jianyuan’s heart.

Over the years, Emperor Jianyuan actually always loved Noble Princess Consort Chu.

However, Noble Princess Consort Chu previously ignored him and did not bother with palace intrigues, so Emperor Jianyuan hadn’t considered deposing the Empress.

But now things were different. Since Noble Princess Consort Chu recovered, she gradually made Emperor Jianyuan increasingly infatuated, eventually leading him to believe the Empress had poisoned her, making him wary of the Empress and more favorably disposed toward Noble Princess Consort Chu.

Recently, Noble Princess Consort Chu led Emperor Jianyuan to entertain the idea of deposing the Empress.

Bai En took advantage of this opportunity to present evidence against the Gao family, the Empress, and the Crown Prince.

As for why Bai En had evidence against the Gao family, the reason was Bai En’s desire for revenge and his search for the Miao Family’s crimes.

The evidence presented by Bai En was indeed timely.

Upon seeing it, Emperor Jianyuan’s anger was unrestrained.

Emperor Jianyuan never guessed the Gao family had committed so many vicious deeds over the years.

As for the Empress, earlier several children of Emperor Jianyuan’s lower-ranked concubines died at her hand, and she had previously attempted to harm several concubines from good families.

Then there’s the Crown Prince, who, having grown older, harbored greater ambitions; he even began interfering with the military, secretly manufacturing weapons, and meddling in salt and iron affairs. What was he planning? Was this intended rebellion?

Emperor Jianyuan could tolerate many things, but the Crown Prince’s actions were intolerable.

Moreover, Emperor Jianyuan had already decided to depose the Empress.

He wanted to offer more assurance to Noble Princess Consort Chu, to make her Empress, things which meant the Crown Prince and Empress could no longer be tolerated. Their deposition was inevitable.

And after deposing the Empress, there would be significant changes in the court, the Gao family would fall, and officials attached to the Gao family and Crown Prince would face bad outcomes. In a few days, the Miao Family would have their downfall too, for their association with the Gao family.

Anning and Xiao Yuan leaving Wuyuan for Qingjiang was partly to recover Anning’s grandparents’ remains and partly to avoid a confrontation with the Miao Family.

On the following day, Anning informed the Old Madam and Mr. Wei, then began preparing to leave for Qingjiang with Xiao Yuan.

Before long, after they departed, Mr. Wei returned from the government office and told the Old Madam: ”Your Majesty deposed the Empress, the Crown Prince has been deposed, and there’s an open decree to make Noble Princess Consort Chu the Empress.”

”My goodness, doesn’t that make our daughter-in-law the Empress’s goddaughter?”

The Old Madam was startled yet delighted upon hearing this.

Mr. Wei’s face gleamed with joy: ”Exactly, the Empress has no biological children, she truly cherishes Ayuan’s wife. In the future, we must treat Ayuan’s wife even better.”

”Indeed.”

The Old Madam nodded.

She then remembered something.

”Speaking of which, you should discipline your wife; look at the things she’s done. It’s exactly the behavior of a small household, narrow-mindedness reflects small-time thinking. How many people do we have anyway, are we lacking that bit of silver for food? Does she need to be thrifty about that?”

”What happened?”

Mr. Wei was dumbfounded.