The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Shouning Palace.

Xie Yuzhen held the letter that had just been sent in from outside the palace, and his eyes slowly widened: "Xia Zhi, call Bao Xi in!"

She crumpled the letter paper in her hand, which was exceptionally thin compared to ordinary paper.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Xia Zhi was stunned for a moment, and realized that there might be something wrong with the contents of the secret letter. Without delay, she trotted out and called Baoxi from the yard in.

Like the empress, Xie Yuzhen preferred to have palace maids and female officials do things for her rather than eunuchs. Therefore, the two young eunuchs who were assigned to the palace on the first day of entering the palace were never given important positions. The most they did was running errands, guarding the door, and helping to move heavy objects.

Soon after Xie Ruizhen entered the palace, he had already checked the family backgrounds of the two young eunuchs. Baolu had a godfather who worked in the Imperial Study. Although there was nothing special about Baoxi, he had once secretly contacted someone outside Shouning Palace. At that time, Xie Ruizhen was unable to find out who he was in contact with. Since then, Baoxi has always been very well-behaved and loyal, so Xie Ruizhen could only let the matter go for the time being.

When Xie Yuzhen was still pregnant with her daughter, in the months leading up to the delivery, the Shanggong Bureau assigned her a midwife and a female doctor. Xie Yuzhen took the opportunity to test these two not-so-innocent young eunuchs again. Baolu still appeared to be fine, and Baoxi also seemed to be very thorough, but in fact, there was something in his words that secretly misled Xie Yuzhen, making her think that there was something wrong with the midwife.

However, his words at that time were cryptic and not out of the ordinary. Although Xie Yuzhen had some doubts, he could not get any solid evidence. So he wanted to keep him for the time being to see if he could use the opportunity of his production to lure out the hidden hand behind him.

However, when the Meng family aunt and nephew fell into her trap ignorantly, Baoxi maintained her usual quiet and loyal attitude, without revealing any flaws.

Then, a series of events happened, such as Xie Yuzhen giving birth to a daughter and Concubine Huaijing passing away. She no longer had the energy to plot against a little eunuch. She just kept a little distance from him and asked Chunfen and others to follow him secretly.

Until today, when I received this unexpected letter.

Baoxi is still as quiet and honest as ever.

Thinking about the contents in the letter that made him feel scared, Xie Yuzhen was absolutely certain that this little eunuch with the character "宝" at the beginning of his name was indeed the most hidden and restless one in his palace!

only......

She twisted the thin piece of letter paper in her hand, unsure whether she should give it a try.

"Greetings to the Empress." Bao Xi was wearing an indigo-colored robe with narrow sleeves tied tightly and the hem only reaching his calves. He wore a pair of plain cloth shoes that were easy to walk in. His hair was neatly tied into a small ball behind his head. With his ordinary face and ordinary attire, he would be hard to find if thrown into a crowd of eunuchs.

Xie Yuzhen looked at him and said, "Get up."

Bao Xi stood up and bent down as usual: "What does the Majesty want me to do?"

Xie Yuzhen gave Xia Zhi a look and said, "You go out first and tell people to keep an eye out. Don't let anyone grow ears on the walls of our Shouning Palace."

"Yes, your majesty." Xia Zhi's expression became solemn.

After explaining, Xie Yuzhen turned to Baoxi and asked, "How do you usually contact the Changrui Palace? What did your master tell you?"

Her tone was very calm.

Bao Xi in front of him was obviously stunned for a moment. He subconsciously wanted to raise his head, but he quickly suppressed it. He still lowered his head and said in a very respectful tone: "Please forgive me, Your Majesty... On weekdays... I don't take the initiative to contact Changrui Palace. It's always, it's they who took the initiative to contact me, so I..."

Xie Yuzhen treated the palace maids well, and could even be said to be very friendly. During the New Year or other festivals, or simply when she was in a good mood, she would not hesitate to reward them. If there were any difficulties in the palace families, she would never ignore them or shirk them, but would do her best to help them...

Baoxi had been Concubine Deng's person since a long time ago.

The cases of eunuchs in the palace colluding with each other and bullying the new ones were much more frequent and serious than those among the female officials. If a young eunuch like him wanted to live a better life in the palace and not be bullied by the old eunuchs, he would definitely have to find a strong supporter to hold on to.

Bao Xi, who entered Shouning Palace early as an undercover agent, always remembered the kindness that Concubine Deng had shown her, but when Xie Yuzhen bluntly exposed the matter, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty: "...the person who came to contact me would put the secret letter under a blue brick on the path of the Bizhu Garden in Shouning Palace. Because that place is at the edge of Shouning Palace, the bamboo forest is dense, and there is moss growing on both sides of the path all year round to cover up the traces of the blue brick being pried up, and your Majesty doesn't like to go there, so no one has discovered it."

"I didn't know that Shouning Palace is full of holes just because of you!" Xie Yuzhen said with a little anger, frowning his handsome eyebrows, and calmly estimated the value of the words he saw in the letter, and then continued to pretend to be angry, silently putting pressure on Baoxi.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me." Baoxi knelt down.

Xie Yuzhen looked at him coldly: "You know I don't like you guys kneeling around, stand up and talk."

"Yes."

"Just now, I received a letter from home. The letter listed the personnel that Concubine Xian had developed in the palace over the years, as well as... the restaurants, teahouses, and pawnshops she opened outside the palace. It also listed the names of some officials who had private transactions with her through these secret agents. She said that she wanted to entrust these things to me, and only asked me to ensure that her family would continue to be passed down when the emperor attacked the Duke of Ying's mansion."

Xie Yuzhen did know that Concubine Deng was very good at using subtle clues, but he never thought that she could predict things so far ahead.

To know.

The miscarriage of Concubine Xu was a plan made by himself and others through the information passed to her, and the sword strike on that day was also an action that Xie Yuzhen came up with on impulse, a flash of inspiration to break the stalemate between the Emperor and the Empress.

It was impossible for Concubine Deng to have anticipated that Xie Yu would use such a straightforward method to take her life over a disagreement, and succeed.

This secret letter.

It must be a backup plan she had left before that day, or even earlier!

The more Xie Yuzhen thought about it, the more he felt that he still had a lot to learn and improve. Although thinking this way might be a bit unfair to the Queen, at this moment Xie Yuzhen was extremely grateful that the Queen was such a serious person and confronted the Emperor face to face, allowing that man to force him to come up with such a way to break the impasse.

Not only did he resolve his own predicament, but he also unexpectedly knocked out such a meticulous opponent as Concubine Deng with a single sword, thus preventing her from having more time and opportunities to target him again.