The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Meng Ronghua was very embarrassed.

Before she could even step into the main hall of Kunning Palace, the person she wanted to pay her respects to - the Empress - had already walked up to her and sat down on the phoenix chair.

Meng Ronghua, who has always paid attention to his manners and walked gracefully, now wanted to run as fast as he could.

"Tsk tsk." Xie Yuzhen raised her sleeves to hide the upturned corners of her mouth. She held a grudge and remembered clearly all the times Meng Ronghua had made sarcastic and slanderous remarks to her.

Now I don't know whether this man was tricked by Concubine Deng or took advantage of Qiao too much and lost his sense of proportion, making such a fool of himself in public, which really made Xie Yuzhen feel relieved both physically and mentally.

As soon as Meng Ronghua entered the hall, she threw herself on the ground and apologized: "I am Changrui Palace Ronghua Meng, and I pay my respects to the Empress. I...I got up late today, so I am late. Please forgive me, Empress!"

She finally slept with the emperor last night, and was still excited for most of the night after the ceremony. It took her a long time to fall asleep. This morning, when it was dawn, the emperor got up to attend court. Although Meng Ronghua was tired at that time, she still got up as well.

After seeing the emperor off, the palace servants reminded her that today was the day to pay respects to the empress, and she had to go to the main hall of Changrui Palace early to pay her respects to Concubine Deng. However, Meng Ronghua's mind was full of the emperor's gentleness and kindness last night. She believed that she would definitely be favored. She also thought that Concubine Deng was always good-tempered, so she could just take a nap and go to Kunning Palace alone to pay her respects when the time was right.

However, she did not expect that she would sleep past the hour and slept so soundly that the maid called her several times but failed to wake her up. Finally, it was Meng Ronghua's personal maid who took the initiative to fetch cold water, soaked a handkerchief and slapped it on her face, finally waking her up.

Meng Ronghua suddenly realized that she was about to miss the time for paying respects, so she hurried as fast as she could, without even putting on makeup, and trotted all the way from Changrui Palace to Kunning Palace, but she was still a step late.

Kneeling on the cold ground, Meng Ronghua's brain, which had been overwhelmed by the joy of serving the emperor in bed, finally slowly came to mind.

The Dasheng Dynasty attached great importance to hierarchy, and even though the current emperor had a harem full of beauties, he still respected and valued his original empress. Meng Ronghua made such a big mistake as soon as he slept with her, which was considered extremely disrespectful in the eyes of the emperor.

After realizing this, Meng Ronghua felt extremely regretful.

"Xian Fei, Meng Ronghua is a member of your palace. What's going on?" The Queen's tone was cold.

She was the Crown Princess hired by the late Emperor himself for the current Emperor, and then she became the Empress smoothly. She gave birth to a legitimate son last year. She has both power in the palace and the position of crown prince. The Emperor has always respected her. Even a favored concubine like Concubine Song Shu would never dare to offend her easily, let alone other concubines in the palace.

Upon hearing this, Concubine Deng stood up respectfully, with shame on her gentle face: "This is my fault... I originally thought that Meng Ronghua was young after all, and it was the first time he was favored by the emperor, so he might really be tired, so he got up late, so I only waited for a few minutes and then stopped..."

Her voice was gentle, filled with great guilt and uneasiness: "I have always admired the family education of the Meng family, so I never thought that Meng Ronghua would miss the time to pay respects. If I had known this... I should have asked someone to invite Meng Ronghua. Your Majesty, everything is caused by my negligence. Please punish me."

After Concubine Deng finished speaking, she bowed down.

Meng Ronghua, who was kneeling below, became paler and paler.

Xie Yuzhen secretly exclaimed that this was brilliant. At first glance, every word that Concubine Deng said seemed to be taking the blame on herself, but upon closer inspection, it was obvious that Meng Ronghua had just accepted the emperor's favor and was now taking advantage of him. She did not go to greet the host and made the host wait for her for a long time in vain. This was already extremely disrespectful, not to mention that she had missed the opportunity to pay her respects to the Empress.

Among Concubine Deng's remarks, Xie Yu really felt that the most interesting part was the one about the Meng family education. The Meng family was a prominent family that had stood firm since the previous dynasty, and had many concubines. Meng Ronghua had been proud of her family background and education in the past. Now that she had caused trouble, wasn't she tearing off the Meng family's face and stepping on it?

"Meng Ronghua was not careful enough, how can it be your fault?" The Queen said coldly, shaking her head, "Xianfei, please stand up."

"Yes." Concubine Deng still looked ashamed.

Seeing that Concubine Li next to her was furious with the troublemaker Meng Ronghua, she said, "The Queen is so kind that she exempted the sisters from visiting her parents every morning and evening. Meng Ronghua, you have only been in the palace for such a short time and have just been favored, but you are so frivolous?"

She looked like she wanted to rush forward and slap Meng Ronghua. The Queen glanced at Concubine Li and said, "Meng Ronghua was disrespectful to the emperor and violated the palace rules and missed the time to pay respects... Considering that you have just entered the palace and are still young, you will be fined three more months of monthly salary, copy the palace rules fifty times, and be confined for one month."

"As for the palace servants around you, they will also be fined three months' salary for not taking good care of the master. Those who are on duty in the room today will be beaten with ten boards."

To be honest, the punishment was not that severe. However, Meng Ronghua had just entered the palace and was punished one after another. How could she keep her face?

Her old face immediately turned red, and her chin, which was always held high, seemed to want to shrink into her chest. After accepting the punishment and thanking the master, she crawled to her own seat with weak hands and feet and sat down.

"Your Majesty is too soft-hearted." Concubine Li murmured softly, feeling sorry for Concubine Deng who was treated with contempt by Meng Ronghua.

Concubine Deng patted the back of her hand soothingly: "Your Majesty has always been kind and tolerant, and has always been good to us."

After resolving Meng Ronghua's issue, the Queen did not want to keep the concubines in Kunning Palace any longer, and just said that since there was nothing else to worry about, they could just leave.

Just as Xie Yuzhen was about to stand up, Wen Baolin suddenly walked to the middle, knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to report."

Her sudden action caused the room to fall into silence.

Xie Yuzhen subconsciously looked at Liu Shuyi, only to see that the latter suddenly grabbed the armrest of the chair with her right hand, her eyes wide open, as if she was very surprised by Wen Baolin's behavior. In her surprise, there was obvious annoyance. When she looked at Wen Baolin, her eyes were full of blame, and her lips moved slightly, as if she was cursing.

It seems that Liu Shuyi does have some problems.

Xie Yuzhen took a sip of the warm water on the table, and then heard the queen ask, "What's the matter, Wen Baolin?"

Wen Baolin gritted his teeth and knelt down: "Your Majesty, please allow me to report. Yesterday, I went to visit Shen Xiaoyi. Shen Xiaoyi had a high fever and was unconscious. The palace servants could only wipe her body with cold water to cool her down. The imperial physician was nowhere to be found... I would like to ask Your Majesty to move Shen Xiaoyi out of Yanzhang Palace and find another place for her to live."

"How dare you!" Liu Shuyi stood up and said, "Empress, the Fourth Princess caught a cold yesterday morning. I couldn't wait to call the imperial physician, so I temporarily called in the imperial physician Zhou who was treating Shen Xiaoyi... Maybe Wen Baolin misunderstood something, and he has been relentless since yesterday. Today, he even dared to slander the emperor!"

Her anxiety was obvious.

Xie Yuzhen covered her lips and smiled, "No wonder I didn't see any trace of the imperial physician when I went to visit Shen Baolin yesterday afternoon."

Liu Shuyi immediately looked at him fiercely.

Xie Yuzhen covered her chest in a pretentious manner, and slightly puffed up her belly which was not yet visible: "I am just telling the truth. Madam Shuyi, you are glaring at me like this, I am so scared..."