The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

"My pain and sadness are just a trivial matter to you. Of course, you can use my hardship to show your kindness and nobility as if you were pitying a cat. I'm just a little pet bought by your family." Shen Nanliu said, and started laughing again.

"I hate everyone in the Yuyang Marquis's Mansion. I don't hate you the most, but who made you so kind and compassionate to the weak that you always hang around in front of me?"

"You caught a stray dog, locked it up, kicked it every time it went in and out, and threw some leftovers to it to fill its stomach. And you, a clean, beautiful, noble, famous domestic dog, ran around beside a dirty and lowly stray dog ​​like me, and then told me that the chain was made of gold and the leftovers were all the leftovers of delicacies from the mountains and the sea. I am so happy!"

Shen Nanliu laughed uncontrollably: "Isn't this funny? Wild dogs are of course ignorant of etiquette and humanity. Of course they will bite people. Why did you take the initiative to invite wild dogs, and you don't allow them to bite you?"

Xu Ronghua couldn't see what Wen Baolin's expression was.

But she knew it would be ugly.

Because... when Xu Yueyuan was taken into the Jingjun Marquis' Mansion which no longer existed, she was not so docile at the beginning. Of course she made a fuss and protested, but the woman who was still the Jingjun Marquis' wife at that time easily strangled her throat, and then she scolded Xu Yueyuan for being ungrateful, while showing a very ugly and even ferocious expression.

No.

Perhaps such an ugly expression would not appear on Wen Baolin's handsome face.

She probably really wanted to show kindness to Shen Nanliu, but that was just rubbing salt into the other person's wounds - that was what she thought was kindness, because she could not truly empathize with the common people when facing oppression from the powerful, and could not truly understand the fear of having one's life and property held in the hands of others, being abandoned at any time, or being hanged; she was even less able to ask her uncle, her father, not to use a powerless and weak woman to fight each other.

Her kindness, in a predicament that others cannot change, sometimes seems invaluable, but sometimes, because of this little bit of light, that person will more deeply understand what a desperate hell he is in.

Besides, Shen Nanliu himself is not a wise and kind person who has seen through the mundane world.

Isn't it expected to be bitten back?

Xu Ronghua didn't quite understand why Wen Baolin thought that if she did good deeds from a high place, the people who were floating in the deep pool under her feet would definitely repay her with kindness?

Perhaps only someone like her, who was born extremely noble, would have the leisure to look down and see whether those servants, slaves, and common people who were stepped on are pitiful and lovable.

Perhaps Shen Nanliu's words touched him and he finally figured something out; or perhaps the other party was too stubborn to reason with, so Wen Baolin said nothing in the end and left quietly with Yan Yuru as he had come.

Xu Ronghua squatted on the ground and listened for a while. When he didn't hear anyone coming, he stood up and walked back to the door.

The door was open.

Shen Nanliu sat on an old stool, holding a purse upside down in her hand, with many gold beads scattered around her feet. When she heard someone coming, she raised her head and said, "You actually still remember me."

Of course Xu Ronghua remembered.

She wants her life.

"What do you want to say again?" Shen Nanliu asked.

Xu Ronghua asked Shuangyi to stand outside the door and close it. Then she walked to Shen Nanliu and lowered her voice: "I want to talk to you about the voice in your head."

Shen Nanliu, who had a dead face, finally changed her expression at this moment. Her eyes almost rolled out of their sockets. She was stunned for a long while before she looked at Xu Ronghua in disbelief: "So you knew...you have been lying to me?!"

"Aren't you still hurting me?" Xu Ronghua sneered, "You sisters are really interesting. You always think that Wen Baolin doesn't care about your own feelings, but how can you care about me?"

"......" Shen Nanliu hesitated and gritted her teeth, "If it weren't for you, if you stepped on me to get to the top, why would I want to target you?"

"I stepped on you to get to the top?" Xu Ronghua just thought it was funny. "Wake up your mind. Did I step on you? I stepped on Liu Shuyi who had no sympathy for the concubines of lower rank and took the imperial physician away. You really value yourself and take yourself too seriously."

Shen Nanliu's face suddenly turned green and red: "Your Majesty is..."

"Love you?" Xu Ronghua raised his hand and pressed her lips. "Love you so much that you demoted you to a commoner and banished you to the cold palace, and refused to see you even once?"

"Don't be such a bitch."

"This is not the way to treat a cold butt with a warm face."

Shen Nanliu clenched his fists and used his fingernails to dig crescent-shaped wounds on his palms.

The emperor loved her.

Even she knew that this was just a lie to deceive herself.

So I can only emphasize this repeatedly, over and over again, to myself and to others, countless times.

The emperor loved her.

......No.

She was never loved.

That was just her fantasy that she was unwilling to accept her failure and start her life over again, which would still be full of failures.

"You also think that my life is a joke, right?" Shen Nanliu asked with a choked voice.

Xu Ronghua looked at her steadily, then shook his head slowly: "Only you can judge your own life."

"......Thanks."

Shen Nanliu wiped her tears with her sleeves, and her face became much calmer. But a moment later, her expression became crazy again: "You want to kill me, right? We all know how magical that voice is, but don't worry, the voice in my head has disappeared. There is no need for me to lie to you at this time."

She laughed oddly: "If I knew in advance that you could hear it, I would definitely get rid of you first no matter what the cost."

Shen Nanliu looked at Xu Ronghua with a cold face and shrugged: "I may have gone crazy. Many times when I think back, even I feel that I am... a crazy woman."

"It was me who did it." Xu Ronghua said concisely.

Shen Nanliu was stunned for a moment and said, "So that's the case, but that's not important. I do have the habit of taking a walk in Taiye Lake recently, because when your Majesty goes to Kunning Palace to visit the Queen, he may pass by there...ah, this is not important either."

"But in fact, I am more used to passing through Kunning Palace and Cheng'an Palace. I would not have taken that road to Taiye Lake that day." Shen Nanliu hooked her finger at Xu Ronghua with a grin, and lowered her voice, "I'll tell you a little secret."

"Actually, my last name isn't Shen at all."

"She is not the daughter of a distant branch of the Shen family at all."

"My mother is just a singing girl on a boat, and my father is a businessman. We only see each other a few times a year."

"The eldest master of the Yuyang Marquis's Mansion has committed a crime similar to that of your stepmother, or perhaps even more serious."

"Hmm..." She tilted her head like a little girl, "By the way, I was not a virgin before I entered the palace. I don't know if His Majesty knows this, or maybe he knows but doesn't care. I'm so unlovable that I'll be in trouble sooner or later."

"Don't be so hasty. Since you don't want to judge my life, then don't interfere with how I die freely."