Lin Haihai briefly packed up and transferred the rest of the patients to the imperial physicians. Zheng Feng looked at her and asked, “Aren’t you going to change your clothes?” 

Lin Haihai was confused but replied, “I changed right after I came back. It’s clean!”

Zheng Feng shook his head and exclaimed, “That’s not the issue. The question is whether you’re going to see the empress dowager in these coarse clothes. That secondary consort is definitely going to dress extravagantly. You won’t have a place within the residence if you keep acting this way!”

Lin Haihai didn’t understand what he meant, but didn’t want to speculate any further. She brushed him off and walked away. “Are there any connections between the clothes I wear and my status? Since when did you start talking in riddles? Let’s go. Help me come up with an explanation on the way there!” 

Zheng Feng quickly followed and murmured, “What explanation can I possibly come up with?!”

After Yang Hanlun withdrew from court, he returned to the residence to pick up Chen Birou, so they could enter the palace together to pay respects to the empress dowager. Chen Birou dressed meticulously. The pink muslin dress hugged her slim body and she pulled her hair up into a lotus bun with a few golden dangling ornaments inserted in her hair. She looked beautiful, magnanimous, and appropriate. She walked over slowly and curtsied. Her voice was like a black-naped oriole leaving its nest. “This daughter-in-law pays respect to Imperial Mother!”

The...