In September of the 47th year of the Kangxi reign, Crown Prince Yinreng was deposed for violating the ancestral virtues and being violent and promiscuous.

For a time, the late emperor's sons had different ideas, and people from all walks of life in the court and the country began to place their bets.

After deposing the old crown prince, a new one must be appointed.

The first person to jump out at that time was the eldest prince Yinzhi. Although he was the eldest son of the emperor, his younger brother took the position of crown prince, and he had been resentful for many years.

As soon as Yinreng was deposed, he started to jump around. Firstly, he relied on his military achievements, and secondly, he was the eldest among his sons. He immediately gathered a group of people to plot to seize the position of crown prince.

However, he underestimated the late emperor's deep love for Yinreng.

The Fourth Master at that time, now the Emperor, saw through the late Emperor's regret for hastily abolishing the Crown Prince, and successfully gave the late Emperor a way out by saying that the Crown Prince's temperament had changed drastically because he had been cursed, and thus Yinreng was released from Xian'an Palace.

The one who cast the nightmare curse was naturally the eldest prince Yinzhi, who wanted to become the crown prince.

The late emperor was furious. The eldest prince Yinzhi was stripped of his title and imprisoned, and all the officials of the eldest prince's faction were purged.

Bijuer's family lived far away in the southwestern border area. Because of the chieftain disputes in his early years, his father surrendered to the imperial court early and was granted the position of a prefectural judge.

Logically, it would be impossible for him to have any contact with the powerful people in Beijing in this life, but when the eldest prince's mansion was sealed off, a large number of silver ingots cast in the southwest were seized.

Following the clues, they found out that Bijuer's father had always been in contact with the eldest prince, and even provided him with a lot of silver.

The late emperor was furious and ordered Bijur's family to be sent to the capital for trial.

When the arrest was made, Bijuer escaped cleverly. She even had the courage to secretly follow the officers and soldiers into Beijing, hoping to find an opportunity to exonerate her family.

At the end of the 47th year of the Kangxi reign, she met Zhen Yuandao, who was then the left assistant minister of the Dali Temple.

Whether it was intentional or not, or they really had feelings for each other.

In short, Zhen Yuandao kept Bijuer alive outside without telling his family.

Bijuer wanted to sacrifice herself to save her father, but the political situation was fierce and Zhen Yuandao, a minor official of the sixth rank at the time, was powerless to save the situation.

By the time Bizhuer discovered she had been deceived, her father had already been executed, the rest of her relatives had been exiled to Ningguta to be slaves to the armored men, and she was pregnant with Zhen Yuandao's child.

What's even more tragic is that she fell in love with Zhen Yuandao and even changed her name to a Chinese name: He Mianmian.

After she gave birth to a daughter, she was often depressed because she felt she was powerless to do anything about the great changes in her family. She passed away when her daughter was five years old.

Afterwards, Zhen Yuandao brought his daughter back to the Zhen Mansion and handed her over to the household steward to train her for a period of time. After that, she was raised as a maid by Zhen Huan.

In addition, when He Mianmian was in the southwest, she had a close friend who was much older than her, the biological mother of Prince Guo, the former Shu Fei, and now Master Jingchong.

This is the sticky place, where the detailed origins of the relationship between Zhen Yuandao and Huanbi, including the letter that was swapped and the case file of Bijuer's father, are placed on the desk in the Qinzheng Hall.

After receiving this secret report, the emperor has not given any instructions.

Xia Jian also remained silent like a mute.

All these things were unknown to the people in the harem, and they were still self-righteously thinking about how to defeat each other through calculations.

Xiao Yunzi was on guard against everything, but she never expected that Concubine Shen would use the fact that Princess Wen Yi liked crape myrtle as an excuse to persuade the emperor to have the gardener transplant crape myrtle flowers in the Qingliang Palace.

And Song Mao was the person responsible for the transplanting.

He accepted a generous amount of silver from Concubine Hua and passed the news to the Nian family.

The Nian family did find out some clues. They said Zhen Yuandao had bought a small house in the outer city, but sold it six years later.

However, before they had time to investigate further along this line, the Nian family began to collapse. People were in a panic and only thought about using their connections to save Nian Gengyao first, so they didn't bother to investigate further.

When Cao Qinmo got the news, she was overjoyed. She felt that there was some unspeakable secret about Zhen Yuandao's buying and selling of the house. Maybe if she carefully visited the surrounding residents, she could gain a lot from it.

But she was just a woman, unable to leave the deep palace, and had no one to help her in the previous dynasty.

After thinking about it for a while, she finally thought of someone who could be used.

Noble Lady Qi, that beautiful woman who looked full of ambition and calculation at first glance, no matter how well she hid it when she looked at Zhen Huan, the unwillingness in her eyes could not be deceived.

Cao Qinmo was calculating silently in her heart.

With this news, Song Mao received a sum of money from Shenpin as a hush money. He was so happy that he went out to drink and gamble after his shift was over.

When he hurried back drunkenly, it was already late at night. He felt dizzy and stepped on empty air, and fell into the Fuhai Lake. When he was found the next day, he was already lifeless.

"My queen, I'm scared." It was the first time that Yinxiu did such a thing. Seeing Songmao fall into the lake, she trembled with fear.

"If you keep yelling, the guards will be here. Shut your mouth, or we will all die." At this moment, Cao Qinmo seemed to be possessed by Concubine Hua and threatened Yinxiu fiercely.

After threatening, she began to comfort Yinxiu: "It's not that I'm cruel. If Concubine Wan knows anything about what he said today, I will be in trouble. When I get into trouble, you will also be in trouble. Do you understand?"

Yinxiu thought of the past Songzhi and nodded blankly.

In the darkness of night, the two of them quietly pulled their maid's uniforms together and quietly returned to the bedroom through the back door of Qingliang Palace.

On the second day, Cao Qinmo began to pay attention to Concubine Qi's whereabouts.

She naturally discovered that Xiao Yunzi was spying on her, but she didn't take it to heart because he was just a eunuch.

Two days later, she finally found an opportunity.

The weather was hot, and four-year-old Wen Yi especially liked to take a boat ride and play in the water. Coincidentally, Concubine Qi was also feeling stuffy that day, so her maid suggested taking a boat trip to relieve boredom.

The two groups of people actually met at the Fu Hai Wharf.

Concubine Qi would deliberately flatter those who were higher in status than herself on the surface, but as for what she thought of Cao Qinmo in her heart, only she herself knew.

She stood beside the flower boat and invited with a smile: "Sister Shen, it's fate that we met. How about we go together?"

Cao Qinmo was delighted by this, and the two of them boarded the flower boat together.

Children are the easiest topic to start. Concubine Qi first kept praising Wen Yi for being smart and pretty, which made Cao Qinmo very happy:

"Yes, Wen Yi is young but very sensible. With her, I feel that life in this palace is no longer difficult. Sister, you should also think about yourself and get pregnant with the dragon fetus as soon as possible. With your family background and appearance, you can become a concubine by then."

She said what Concubine Qi wanted most, and Concubine Qi smiled reluctantly: "Sister Shen, I don't have this blessing. Sister Wan is deeply favored, and I can't even dream of it."

"Why don't you belittle yourself? All my sister lacks is an opportunity."

"I heard that my sister's father was quite useful in the previous dynasty. Maybe my sister will be promoted because of this."

Although Concubine Qi was a little bit stupid, she also heard Cao Qinmo's provocative words, and she sneered:

"Sister Shen, if you have something to say, just say it directly. Why do you have to beat around the bush like this?"

Cao Qinmo raised her eyes slightly, as if she didn't see Concubine Qi, and looked straight through the flower boat to the outside:

"I wanted to sell it to my sister, but I don't mind your defense. Well, I think Concubine Wan would be more willing to listen. Now just enjoy the scenery."

Concubine Qi hated being looked down upon the most. She threw away her guard in an instant and turned to coax Cao Qinmo:

"Sister Shen, I was reckless just now. I apologize to you here. Please tell me. I will repay you in the future."

Cao Qinmo then retracted her gaze and looked at the ignorant Wen Yi gently:

"Sister Qi, why don't you come sit with me later?"

Concubine Qi quickly agreed.

The day passed like this, and Concubine Qi smiled particularly brightly when she came out of Qingliang Palace.

In the blink of an eye, it was early August, the day when the emperor set out to return to Beijing.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like