Chapter 206
Zhu Ruodie was panic but when come to think that she was reborn and given such a noble role, she was sure that she was the leading role . There was no way she could be killed by ruthless Baili Jue as a supporting role in last life .
Taking a deep breath, Zhu Ruodie tried to calm herself down and began to think of countermeasures to deal with the rising Xiangkelai .
First step, she needed to introduce new dishes and lower prices and also give away gifts to win customers back .
More importantly, if customers died at Xiangkelai, no one would dare to go there anymore no matter how cheap or delicious their food was .
Thinking of this, Zhu Ruodie had an evil smile . She knew a lot of such dirty plays against her enemies .
However, it never occurred to Zhu Ruodie that the staff members and hidden securities at Xiangkelai were professional, although her plan was perfect .
The people she sent to put poison at Xiangkelai was caught . Although he didn’t tell on her, it was still a great loss for Zhu Ruodie .
Xia Liang didn’t anticipate that Baili Xi would fight back so quickly but she did arrange securities to guard the shops in such case .
Therefore, she did the same thing to get back at them in order to get them busy with dealing with troubles and staying away from meddling with them . But Xia Liang didn’t put poison to kill customers . She just put something in their food to make them suffer from diarrhea .
A few days later, people had funny stomachs and almost died after they ate at Pinxiang Ju, and the news spread throughout the city .
Pinxiang Ju’s business therefore collapsed further .
Xia Liang defended and fought back once again and again at Zhu Ruodie since then .
While they were fighting back and forth, Xiangkelai obviously outran Pinxiang Ju, and Baili Xi and Zhu Ruodie were upset because of all these troubles, the banquet held by the empress dowager was about to begin .
…
Haitang Yard at Xia’s Mansion .
Mrs . Xia frowned at the invitation card in her hand . She was apparently upset .
Although her husband was highly appointed as the Minister of Finance, when it came to selection of imperial concubine, her daughter Xia Liang was surely qualified .
The thing was that she only had one precious daughter and she didn’t want to marry her daughter to a man who would fight over the emperor’s love with many women . In that scenario, her life would be miserable .
That was why she was not happy but worried to receive the invitation card to the empress dowager’s banquet .
If Xia Liang was chosen as imperial concubine, she would push her own daughter to hell .
Now that she already received the card, if she forbad her to go, the family would betray the emperor .
Wang kept figuring out if there was any way to save her daughter . Suddenly, an idea popped out of her mind . Perhaps her daughter could fake being sick .
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Yes! Yes! Brilliant idea! She could fake being sick!
It made sense because her daughter had been sick for a while .
Mrs . Xia’s eyes brightened . If they could succeed this time, she would arrange her daughter and Shao Yang to get engaged right away to stop her daughter marrying the emperor .
Unfortunately, Mrs . Xia’s plan was perfect but the fact was that Xia Liang had already been engaged with someone else .
“Go get Xia Liang here . ” Mrs . Xia sent a maid to get Xia Liang over to discuss about it .
…
“Mother, are you looking for me?” Xia Liang asked as she sat down next to her mother, holding her arm .
Xia Liang had spent two days to rest at home . Thanks to good sleep, she looked much better than she did a few days ago . Mrs . Xia nodded satisfactorily because her daughter’s health was the most important .
Mrs . Xia pet Xia Liang’s head and told her about the banquet and finally said, “Liang, don’t worry . As long as you fake being sick, you won’t be picked . ”
Xia Liang frowned at her mother’s words because she needed to find a way to explain to her .
For one thing, she couldn’t tell her mother that she and the emperor had known each other long time ago and they had engaged to each other, otherwise her mother would be freaked out .
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“Mother, if we get caught, it would be a big crime and the entire family would be involved . ” Xia Liang tried to convince her mother this way .
“Therefore, faking being sick is not a good idea . But don’t worry . I am not afraid to be picked . ”
“I wouldn’t allow it . ” Mrs . Xia disagreed, “I won’t allow you to go to palace . It will eat you alive . Besides, if you get picked, what about your engagement with Shaoyang?”
“Mother, I don’t like him . I am not marrying him!” Xia Liang said seriously .
Mrs . Xia looked at Xia Liang in surprise and made sure if she was being shy or serious .
Had she misunderstood Xia Liang’s mind?
“Mother, I really don’t want to marry Shao Yang . ” Xia Liang added, “I hear that his majesty is good-looking . It is not that bad to marry him . ”
Mrs . Xia thought her daughter must be mad . How could she come up with such a mind?
Just because the emperor was good-looking, she wanted to marry him?
“Daughter, have you made up your mind? You are not allowed to come out easily after you get to the imperial palace . It is dangerous in there . Your father and I won’t be able to protect you . You will have to rely on your own . ” Mrs . Xia tried to stop her .
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“Mother, don’t worry . I will be fine . ” Xia Liang nodded .
But then when she remembered that Baili Jue said that she was ugly, she said, holding her mother’s hand, “mother, can you help me with makeup for the banquet tomorrow?”
Mrs . Xia had a complicated feeling about her daughter’s action .
She was worried about her and tried to stop her from going but her daughter insisted in going .
Mrs . Xia touched Xia Liang’s face and forced a smile, “my daughter has grown up . Finally you want to look pretty . All right . I will make you look gorgeous, so gorgeous that you will make an astonishing debut tomorrow . ”
…
The next day in the carriage to the palace .
Chunxiang couldn’t take her eyes off the well-dressed Xia Liang . She said with sparkling eyes, cupping her chin with both hands,
“You look gorgeous today!”
“Um . ” Xia Liang responded, sitting up straight like a lady . She couldn’t lean on anything, otherwise the head wear would be ruined .
She wore a lot of jewelries on head, makeups on face and even trimmed her eyebrows, which caused Xia Liang uncomfortable .
However, since her mother said she was beautiful this way and so did Chunxiang, she had to bear with it because the emperor used to say that she was ugly .