These won, clad in their finery and at the pri of their beauty, stood before her with slender figures and distinctively attractive faces. Wearing variously colored palace garnts, Yuan Yuan felt no jealousy towards them; instead, she found them enjoyable to watch—far better than admiring re flowers and plants.
As an old demon who had lived through four lifetis, their ages would allow them to pass as her granddaughters. So, rather than being envious, she found them amusing, especially when they clustered around her, engaging in pedantic debates, which was all the more laughable.
They mostly assud she was illiterate, so even if they cursed her in various ways, she supposedly wouldn’t understand. Unfortunately for them, not only did she understand, but she also heard them quite clearly.
But she didn’t take their bait. After all, they were pitiful souls—longing for the Emperor, unable to show their best selves; they could only flaunt and compete among these won to satisfy their vanity. She understood this age of desiring beauty, as she had been through it herself. Understanding, very understanding.
Particularly in her previous life, when she was in the guise of a man, she didn’t feel there was anything wrong with blending in with these beauties.
Therefore, she sat there, full of interest, listening to them sourly envy one another, competing relentlessly, refusing to yield even in argunt.
The beauties talked on and on, while Empress simply drank her tea on the sidelines, smiling and watching them with an easy-going deanor. Even when they indirectly insulted her, not a flicker of emotion crossed her face. The palace maids by her side had all understood; how could she not? Was she possibly a fool?
Just when they thought the Empress truly was an illiterate and exceptionally uninteresting person, she suddenly spoke up with renewed interest.
"Go on, continue," she said. "It just so happens that I was feeling bored. Never expected to stumble upon a gathering like this right after stepping out—it saves the trouble of finding soone to perform a grand play!"
A grand play?
Did this Fat Queen think of them as re perforrs?
One particularly attractive Ma Changzai felt the comnt was offensive and blushed, her eyes brimming with grievance.
"Lady, are you equating us sisters to vulgar perforrs?"
Yuan Yuan widened her eyes. "Ma Changzai, is it? What do you an by that? Even if you look down on yourself, you can’t degrade yourself to a perforr, can you? If you’re a perforr, then what does that make the rest of us? What does that make the Emperor who brought you into the palace?"
"It was you, Empress, who said it just now," she countered.
"I was rely planning to find soone to entertain with a play, to relieve my boredom. However, what does that have to do with you?"
"You, Lady, you clearly implied we were like grand play perforrs," she protested.
"No, no, no," the Empress clarified. "I rely said that I happened upon your gathering and found your conversations interesting, hence there was no need to seek entertainers to alleviate my boredom for the ti being. One might eat aimlessly, but one must not speak carelessly."
Ma Changzai trembled with rage at Yuan Yuan’s twisting of words, while Yuan Yuan carried on, looking completely harmless as she said,
"If you’re all going to argue that way, then we need to sort this out properly. If I rember correctly a mont ago, Ma Changzai said, ’Your skin is so thick that probably not even the most poisonous mosquito could bite through.’ Although you were addressing Bai Daying at the ti, when I look around and consider who here has the thickest skin, could I assu that you were in fact indirectly criticizing my skin for being rough and tough?"
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