The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

It took Xie Yuzhen two days to learn that the queen had fainted.

She was still in confinement and couldn't go out, so she could only ask Xia Zhi to visit her in Kunning Palace on her behalf.

"What happened? Why did the queen suddenly faint?" Xie Yuzhen was lying on the bed in her pajamas with her daughter's cradle next to her.

The little princess's name had already been officially decided. She was called Lu Weiyuan, and the emperor gave her another nickname, Yuanjun. Xie's mother was worried that the name was too flashy, so Xie Yuzhen had to explain to her that the emperor had dreamt that the child was the reincarnation of Xuannv, so he took the word "Yuanjun", which was often used to refer to female fairies, as her nickname.

Besides, Xie Yuzhen didn't think that his daughter was unworthy of such a name and nickname. If anyone dared to spread rumors, he would just push the emperor to slap him back - after all, it was he, the emperor's biological father, who wanted to spoil his daughter - and there was no need for him to feel inferior and belittle himself because of sour grapes.

Since giving birth to her daughter, Xie Yuzhen felt that she had regained a lot of energy: "If there is someone who dares to speak ill of my precious daughter in front of me, haha, wait and see how I deal with him!"

She never felt that she was unworthy, but rather felt that others were unworthy of commenting on whether she was worthy or not.

The imperial edict for promotion to noble concubine had been delivered long ago. From now on, Xie Yuzhen would be the mistress of Shouning Palace. The concubines who came to congratulate her were all very warm. If Xie Yuzhen had not yet to recuperate after childbirth, they would not have been able to sit for long. I'm afraid Shouning Palace would have been crowded with people.

After receiving congratulations from concubines throughout the entire day, Xie Yuzhen impatiently used the excuse that she needed to rest, closed the palace gates and refused to receive outsiders.

Even the news of the Queen's fainting was brought by Xu Baolin.

"To answer your question, Aunt Yunrong said that the queen was ill from overwork and couldn't hold on any longer, so she fainted. She will be fine after a period of rest." Xia Zhi said, "I didn't see the queen, but I smelled a strong smell of medicine..."

"Is that so..." Xie Yuzhen seemed to be thinking about something.

She had always thought that the queen was in poor health, but she never thought it had gotten so bad.

Thinking back to when she was first preparing to enter the palace, she was still worried whether she would have to wait a long time before becoming the queen... Xie Yuzhen felt a bitter taste on the tip of her tongue, and she wanted to laugh at her past self.

The Queen is undoubtedly a lovable and good person.

But Xie Wei's ambition really didn't allow him to save this good man.

What to do...

She felt a little confused for the first time in a long time. Looking at her daughter sleeping in the cradle, she slowly curled herself up into a ball.

Before Xie Yuzhen could figure out a solution, the queen announced that she had recovered from her illness.

At the same time, Xu Baolin was promoted to a beauty for her contribution of medicine.

For a time, in addition to Xie Yuzhen, the shocking Concubine Zhao, the most popular person in the entire harem was Concubine Xu. Unfortunately, these two concubines were on good terms. Even though outsiders were secretly hoping that they would fight each other and used many words to alienate Concubine Xu, the two of them were still very affectionate and had no grudges against each other, which disappointed those who were waiting to watch the fun.

In the previous dynasty, because the intention to replace the princess was so sensational, the matter of Xie Yuzhen's promotion was completely suppressed. The censors were more willing to step on the rebellious members of the Meng family at this time than to care about the rise and fall of a palace concubine.

Meng Ronghua and Huisu were both demoted to commoners. The father and son of the Meng family who were officials in the court were stripped of their official positions and thrown into prison. Together with all the adult members of the Meng family, their homes were searched and they were detained, waiting for the day to be executed. Those who were under the age of seven were made official slaves and sent to the official slave farm for training.

The current emperor would become filled with rage whenever he thought about these disrespectful people trying to exchange his fairy daughter. Even if Huisu and Meng Ronghua confessed their crimes and committed suicide, begging for mercy, he had no intention of leniently punishing Meng.

It was also because in that dream, Xie Yuzhen had said in advance that there might be a disaster during childbirth. The emperor believed the dream without a doubt, and naturally put the hat of evil on the Meng family without Xie Yuzhen's reminder. While announcing the serious crimes committed by the Meng family to all parties, he was also petty and turned all the boys that the Meng family regarded as treasures into eunuchs, to ensure that no trace of the Meng family's blood would remain in the world. Only then did he feel much better.

The emperor's ruthless move this time also intimidated the wealthy families who were ready to make moves due to the prosperity of the times, and temporarily stopped their small actions of annexing land and concealing population. In particular, the emperor almost killed all members of the Meng family, but spared the lives of thousands of slaves who were not the most core members of his family, and ordered them to return to good status. He also remeasured and divided up the Meng family's hidden land.

This made the so-called "aristocratic families" who had no military power and no popularity and were barely surviving tremble with fear, and even the nobles who had become increasingly arrogant and extravagant in recent years became much more obedient.

However, the emperor's halo as the Son of Heaven was also stained with a layer of tyranny. But just as the empress did not care about her reputation and Xie Yuzhen did not care about his face, the emperor did not care much about how the aristocratic families portrayed him in private.

They are nothing more than some unofficial historical stories that brag about how dignified and noble the noble families are, and how cruel and inhumane the royal family is. Anyway, as long as they are alive, they will never dare to publicize those things. As for if they die... they are dead, so why bother about it?

If people in later generations believed unofficial history casually, it only shows that the talents of those people were mediocre and they just followed what others said.

Anyway, the emperor doesn't care if it can't hurt him. But if someone tries to hurt him with this, then... it will be a ghost story about nine clans queuing up to go to the underworld.

The emperor, whose self-confidence was as overflowing as ever, finally dealt with Meng's affairs. He entered the palace to visit the empress who had just recovered from her illness, and Concubine Song Shu, who was still bedridden. Then he quickly changed into clean new clothes and headed for Shouning Palace.

The little princess Lu Weiyuan was no longer the red and wrinkled little baby she was when she was born. She quickly grew into an extremely delicate white jade ball, with thick hair, fair skin with a rosy glow, strong limbs, and a pair of eyes that looked very much like Xie Yuzhen's, round, bright and cute, yet dark and cunning.

The emperor simply couldn't let go of his daughter.

Lu Weiyuan seemed to have a very good temper and always loved to smile at people. However, only her mother Xie Ruizhen knew that her little girl seemed to have a soft and good temper and always smiled at people, but in fact she clearly distinguished between relatives and strangers. She smiled the sweetest to her parents, grandmother and brothers, and her smile to other people was a bit perfunctory. She refused to be hugged by these blood relatives or people other than Xia Zhi, and would whimper if she was hugged, indicating that she was about to poop.

After a few times, Xie Yuzhen finally understood his daughter's temperament - a natural sesame dumpling, worthy of being the future emperor's baby, born so extraordinary!

Xie Wei was really proud.