Chapter 447: A Little Fox
Xiao Xiao suspected that Huo Qing was hiding a woman. If not for that, why would he have ignored all the women in the inner palace for half a year? Huo Qing was the emperor, it was natural for him to have a lot of women. However, she as the master of the inner palace had a right to know, right? Why hide the woman?
When Xiao Xiao asked Huo Qing why he hadn’t come to the inner palace for such a long time, he irritatedly replied that an issue had come up in court and he hadn’t had time to go to the inner palace.
Since it was matters regarding the imperial court, as a woman in the inner palace, it wasn’t Xiao Xiao’s place to get involved or ask about it.
Xiao Xiao saw that Huo Qing was carrying a little fox and that he was glancing at it very dotingly, but she didn’t mind it. After all, it was just an animal.
She never imagined that Huo Qing would spoil this fox to an unprecedented degree. It overturned the entire inner palace. If it didn’t break the noble consort’s flower vase, then it ripped the fair lady’s garments. It was a complete glutton and ate everything. It’d often sneak into the kitchen to steal food. In brief, it was extremely naughty.
All the consorts and concubines in the inner palace were very angry and ran over to Xiao Xiao to complain, so Xiao Xiao went to find Huo Qing to teach the fox a lesson. The inner palace was seriously a complete mess.
However, Huo Qing just affectionately poked the little fox’s forehead, then expressed his displeasure at the fact that Xiao Xiao was raising such a fuss over small things and bickering with an animal.
Xiao Xiao almost passed out from anger. Afterwards, the fox messed with her again so Xiao Xiao was so angry that she wanted to just beat the fox to death with a stick.
However, she didn’t dare to. Even if this animal started a fire and burned down the entire imperial palace, Huo Qing wouldn’t say anything. He just had unconditional affection for this fox.
A fox, an animal, had actually been able to enjoy a treatment that no human had been able to enjoy. All the women in the inner palace hated the fox, even Xiao Xiao was envious. She had been married to Huo Qing for so long, but Huo Qing was always very indifferent towards her. All these years, she hadn’t been able to obtain any trace of such warmth and affection from him.
The consorts complained to Xiao Xiao while crying everyday and fueled her hatred for the fox. She tried sending someone to kill the fox multiple times, but all the attempts failed. After Huo Qing found out, he was furious and wanted to depose her. If it weren’t for the fact that Xiao Xiao’s grandfather stepped out and stopped it, Xiao Xiao would already be in the Cold Palace.
However, she lost the dignity and status that an empress should’ve possessed since she was an empress that the emperor loathed. This made Xiao Xiao’s heart fill with even more envy, hatred, and pain.
It was just a vicious cycle, and this fox would often come to mess with her. It would jump onto her and make her hair and clothes a complete mess, then run off with its paw covering its mouth like it was laughing.
All the consorts and concubines in the inner palace soon figured it out. If they wanted to obtain the emperor’s affection, they had to get on this fox’s good side. So no matter what outrageous things the fox did, the consorts and concubines just gritted their teeth and endured it.
Xiao Xiao was unwilling to accept this and continued trying to kill the animal. She even asked her grandfather to help her, but right afterwards, someone found evidence that the marshal’s residence was selling information to the enemy country. Huo Qing immediately took back the grand marshal’s military power and had the entire family executed.
When Xiao Xiao found out about this, she vomited blood. She felt responsible for the deaths of her family. There was no way her grandfather would betray the country. He was already so old, there was no point in him doing so.
Huo Qing just wanted to take back the military power. After all, once the crafty rabbit has been caught, there was no longer any need for the hunting dog. Xiao Xiao really regretted marrying Huo Qing. This decision ended up causing the deaths of her entire family. Furthermore, her own son, Huo Chengwang, was now running around everywhere with the fox and all he cared about now was playing. Xiao Xiao had no way of getting him to study and since he seemed to be such a hedonistic son, he was always being reprimanded by Huo Qing.
Xiao Xiao’s heart was filled with despair. While crying blood tears, she hung herself.
Ning Shu: …
Truly beautiful way of courting death.
>A little on names! Xiao Xiao – the first Xiao is a typical surname, the second Xiao refers to dwarf bamboo. The qing in Huo Qing is a term referring to a high ranking official. Chengwang in Huo Chengwang means looking forward to, aka, expectations.