Before the Empress Dowager arrived, her voice arrived.

  Entering the palace, the Empress Dowager was followed by Li Lingling.

  Li Lingling looked at Qiao Jinniang gloatingly. “Mammy Bai knows court etiquette best among Grandmother’s mammies, and she has taught many women in the imperial palace the rules. It’s your blessing that Grandmother let Mammy Bai teach you the rules!”


  Qiao Jinniang followed the Queen to salute the Empress Dowager. She lowered her head and said, “Mammy Bai is the Empress Dowager’s mammy. How can I trouble Mammy Bai?”


  The Empress Dowager said, “You’re wrong. Mammy Bai is just a maid after all. You are her master. How can you ‘trouble’ her?”


  Qiao Jinniang bowed her head and said, “I see, Your Grace. Thank you for your generous reward.”


  Seeing Qiao Jinniang accept Mammy Bai so easily, Li Lingling laughed secretly at her stupidity in her heart.

  Qiao Jinniang probably didn’t know how difficult Mammy Bai was to deal with!

  Queen Zhou said, “Since there is already Mammy Bai, you can choose another mammy, Jinniang.”


  Qiao Jinniang nodded and chose a young aunt who seemed to be in her early thirties among the people in the Shanggong Bureau.

  “Nice to meet you, Your Highness. My name is Qingmo.”


  “Aunt Qingmo, please get up.” Qiao Jinniang said, “I will need you and Mammy Bai to give me advice on etiquette in future.”


  Qingmo bowed her head and said, “I’ll try my best to give you advice on etiquette, Your Highness.”


  Leaving Mammy Bai here, the Empress Dowager went back to her palace with Li Lingling. She sneered, “I thought that His Majesty loved Lu Chen, but he actually allowed Lu Chen to marry a woman who was raised by slaves as the crown princess.”


  Li Lingling supported the Empress Dowager’s hand and said, “Grandmother, you don’t know how overbearing Qiao Jinniang was! She even forced me to kneel and kowtow to her in public! You must avenge me!”


  The Empress Dowager ordered her maids and eunuchs to leave before she said to Li Lingling: “Changeable in prosperity and decline capricious in rise and fall. Let’s just wait and see.

  “What Qiao Jinniang relies on is only Lu Chen. If Prince Huai gains power, let alone Qiao Jinniang, even Lu Chen will have to kowtow to you!”


  Li Lingling said angrily, “But Cousin Huai has no interest in the throne at all!”


  The Empress Dowager looked into the distance and said, “How could a prince not be interested in the throne? It’s just that those who achieve great things need to be patient and can’t be like that idiot Prince Mediocre, who was easily defeated by Lu Chen!” Li Lingling saluted. “I see.” Lu Chen took her love for him like dirt, and Qiao Jinniang, that lowly b*tch, humiliated her. She would just wait until Prince Huai seized power.

  Then she would definitely get even with them.

  The wedding was only two months away, so the Anyuan Mansion had to prepare for the wedding now.

  The news of the Crown Prince’s wedding was announced to the world, and many vassal countries and neighboring countries would send envoys to attend the wedding.

  This was the most important event of the royal family in the past twenty years.

  Many common people in Chang’an bought new clothes, not wanting to lose face in front of the people from foreign countries.

  Qiao Jinniang was locked in the yard in order to learn court etiquette. With exception to painting, she had always been a quicker learner ever since she was a child.

  As long as she was willing to learn, she would definitely be able to make rapid progress.

  Moreover, she had learned many of the rules in school. It was just that the rules of the royal family were more complicated.

  On the second day when Mammy Bai came to the Qiao Mansion, she couldn’t find a chance to torture Qiao Jinniang.

  She only needed to demonstrate a rule once, and Qiao Jinniang could exactly do it, giving her no chance to find fault with her.

  Aunt Qingmo said from the side, “Your Highness, did you learn etiquette before?”


  “I had learnt it in school. And after I returned to the Duke Mansion, my mother had had two mammies teach me some rules,” Qiao Jinniang said.

  Aunt Qingmo smiled and said, “Your Highness, you have already learnt the rules well.

  “However, there are complicated rules for events like ancestor worship ceremonies and weddings, and these rules are the most difficult to master.

  “But it’s getting late today, and it’s time for dinner. Let’s continue to learn the rules tomorrow, okay?”


  Qiao Jinniang nodded. “Okay.”


  However, Mammy Bai said to Qiao Jinniang,

  “Excuse me, Your Highness. I haven’t checked your table manners, which are very important in the imperial palace. Why not learn it now?

  “If you make any mistakes on table manners, don’t blame me for being rude.”


  There were many rules for dining, even a princess who grew up in the imperial palace might not be able to fully learn them.

  If Mammy Bai wanted to pick on Qiao Jinniang, she could always find faults with her on this.

  As ordered by the Empress Dowager, Mammy Bai was determined to teach Qiao Jinniang a good lesson.

  Now she finally found a good opportunity to torture her.

  Qiao Jinniang glanced at Mammy Bai indifferently. “Okay, Hongling, serve the dishes.”


  Qiao Jinniang had been conferred the title of crown princess, and although the canonization ceremony hadn’t been held, she couldn’t dine with her parents anymore.

  So she had dinner in her own room.

  Qiao Jinniang sat down. After rinsing her mouth, she picked up the chopsticks when she was suddenly hit hard on the wrist by Mammy Bai.

  “Your Highness, it’s wrong! Before you pick up chopsticks, you have to ask the maid to pick the food you like and put it in your bowl.”


  Qiao Jinniang put the chopsticks aside heavily. “Mammy Bai, when the Empress Dowager gave you to me, she said that you were just my servant.

  “Even if I make a mistake in table manners, you’re not in a position to hit my wrist and take the chopsticks off my hand!”


  Yuyan said on the side, “Yes, what makes you think you, an old maid, can hit Miss, well, no, Her Highness?”


  Unable to find a chance to torture Qiao Jinniang in the last two days, Mammy Bai was so anxious that she hit Qiao Jinniang as soon as she saw her finally make a mistake.

  Hearing what Qiao Jinniang said, Mammy Bai didn’t panic at all but said slowly,

  “I was ordered by the Empress Dowager to teach Your Highness the rules. You made a mistake just now. I was eager to teach you the rules well so I hit you. But I just followed the order of the Empress Dowager! I didn’t do anything wrong!”


  Qiao Jinniang snorted coldly. “Followed the order of the Empress Dowager? Did she order you to hit my hand?”


  “Don’t even think of taking the Empress Dowager as an excuse. She said that you were nothing but a servant.

  “Can a servant hit her master’s hand? Can you tell me what kind of rule this is?”


  Mammy Bai had thought that “teaching” Qiao Jinniang was an easy task.

  She and another mammy had been sent to teach Queen Zhou the rules before, and Queen Zhou was tortured terribly by them.

  Even Queen Zhou couldn’t do anything to her, let alone a slaved-raised little girl!

  But she didn’t expect Qiao Jinniang to be so difficult to deal with.

  Mammy Bai said solemnly, “I just did what the Empress Dowager ordered me to. If Your Highness makes a mistake, I can hit you…”


  “What I am asking you is what kind of a rule it is that a servant can hit her master?!”


  Qiao Jinniang’s voice was not loud, but it was cold and sharp.

  Mammy Bai suddenly felt a little scared and had to kneel down and say,

  “Your Highness, I am here to teach you the rules. You shouldn’t have taken the chopsticks at that time, so I, I…”


  Qiao Jinniang said coldly, “Although I don’t know what kind of a rule it is that a servant can hit her master, I know the rules of Da

  Tang.

  “The Empress Dowager’s kindness to me was twisted by you. I will not spare you easily.

  “Come, lock Mammy Bai in the firewood room, send her back to the imperial palace tomorrow, and hand her over to the Empress Dowager for punishment!”


  Hearing about this matter in her yard, Zheng Xiao hurried over and said to Qiao Jinniang, “Jinniang, Mammy Bai was given to you by the Empress Dowager. I’m afraid it’s inappropriate to do this, is it not?”