The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

"......" Xie Yu really didn't know what to say. She wanted to curse the late emperor for his actions, but as soon as she thought about what he had done, she felt that even if she used the most vulgar and vicious words to curse him, it would still make her mouth dirty.

The queen looked up at the hook hanging above the bed curtain: "The child grew up in there without making any sound, and she also locked the little door. The palace maids were driven out by her, and they dared not say much for fear of upsetting her, so they could only wait outside. After a long time, they felt something was wrong, and found that she had locked the door... Later, although they forcibly removed the little door and called the imperial physician to rescue the child, he still... died.

Perhaps the sisters had been dating for many years, and Concubine Ning suddenly woke up at night. She had just experienced something like that and lost her child. When she woke up and didn't see the girl beside her, she struggled to find her. A maid who came to the princess's mansion to serve her was not careful and accidentally revealed the news of the eldest princess' death..."

The grief-stricken Concubine Ning only managed to catch up with the sister whom she regarded as her half of her body and took her last breath.

"Since then, Concubine Ning has not been in a good condition."

The queen closed her eyes, her hands already wrinkling her clothes. "Sometimes she can remember what happened that day, and sometimes she can't remember anything. Sometimes she knows her own name, and sometimes she thinks she is the dead sister. But sometimes she will combine all her and her sister's experiences into one person, thinking that she is the only girl in the Princess's mansion."

"Old Imperial Physician Bai has some methods for this kind of emotional illness, and he was originally brought here specifically to treat Concubine Ning."

"After a long period of treatment, we were able to stabilize Concubine Ning's condition. However, we were worried about letting Concubine Ning leave the palace again, but we also couldn't bear to kill her, so our mother decided to change her surname and return to her clan name. Later, we still felt that it was not safe enough, so we let her enter the palace again."

After telling the whole story, the Queen told Xie Yuzhen about Concubine Ning's illness in detail: "She looks like a normal person now, but in fact she only remembers that she is the princess of the Princess's Mansion. Her mother died to protect the emperor. She broke off relations with her husband's family because of treason. She changed her surname because her father's family also committed treason. The Queen Mother saw her mother's loyalty and showed mercy, not letting her father's family's treasonous crime implicate her. Although she returned to her clan, she didn't want to marry again, so she entered the palace to avoid idleness."

"When she's in a good mood, she remembers nothing and lives happily as she did in the boudoir, but sometimes when she wakes up, she just..."

Although the Queen could not continue speaking, Xie Yuzhen could already imagine how heart-wrenchingly painful Concubine Ning would be if she woke up from her false calm.

"So we specially called palace maids to accompany Concubine Ning to play in her own palace. Later, we saw that every time she was having fun, she would habitually look for the person she was playing with, and she would wake up again while looking for him...so we gave the third princess to her to raise."

"After so many years, Concubine Ning... has become more and more like a normal person, but I know that she is becoming less and less able to wake up."

"It's better that she can't wake up." Xie Yuzhen felt a little pity for Concubine Ning, and at the same time he subtly understood the emperor's thoughts.

As a filial son, he did prepare poisoned wine for the late emperor, but no one could have expected that the late emperor would die ahead of time because of his own evil deeds.

In order to cover up the matter and save her two daughters' lives, the eldest princess decisively surrendered to the emperor and handed over the secrets of several officials who were loyal to the previous emperor. At the same time, in order to help Empress Dowager Hu stabilize the situation and delay time so that the emperor could smoothly mobilize troops, she chose to drink the poisoned wine.

She probably didn't expect the poison to be so potent that it would directly take her life.

For all those who wanted to fight for power, the successive deaths of the late emperor and the eldest princess were really unexpected. At that time, Empress Dowager Hu and the emperor had no choice but to cooperate with the eldest princess and use the quickest and safest method to conclude the whole thing - Concubine Yuan and others intended to poison the late emperor, but killed the eldest princess by mistake. The late emperor was shocked to hear that someone was plotting treason, his sister died suddenly, and he took elixir, which led to his death.

After the emperor ascended the throne, he carried out a massive purge of the so-called "rebels", completely covering up the extremely disgraceful scandal that the previous emperor had died from bullying his niece or daughter and the resistance from her.

But the only one left in this matter is Concubine Ning, whose mental state is very out of control.

Xie Yuzhen tried to put himself in the emperor's position and use his logic to think about what the existence of "Concubine Ning" meant to him.

Poor guy.

But he is also the murderer of his father.

It's a big trouble that gives me a headache.

Rather than arguing with court officials about the comet and the poisoned wine over such a somewhat pitiful "handle", it would be better to let her take the blame. This would also allow the matter to be exposed, completely eliminate the only uncertain factor in the sudden death of the previous emperor, and let her bear the blame for the "evil spirit" indicated by the comet rising to the east.

Kill three birds with one stone.

Shivering, Xie Yuzhen suppressed his nausea and pulled himself out of the state of simulating the emperor's thoughts.

If there were no other unexpected circumstances, the emperor should have decided to abandon Concubine Ning. The only thing that would worry him would be how to keep the queen, his wife and harem manager, whom he was once very satisfied with.

If things get too serious, he might even abandon the Queen...

"Your Majesty." Xie Yuzhen thought for a long time before asking, "I know that Concubine Ning is really pitiful and innocent, but do you really want to sacrifice yourself for her?"

The queen opened her eyes and looked at her tenderly: "I am not sacrificing for her, but to fulfill myself... I am always meddling in other people's affairs. I have been like this all my life and I cannot change it. But I am really too tired. If I can't take care of her while I still have some strength, I..."

She suddenly started coughing.

The warning sound of the dream system in Xie Yuzhen's mind became more and more rapid and loud.

He raised his hand to help the queen up and gently smoothed her back. Xie Yuzhen felt more and more uneasy: "But I hope you can live."

"Live well."

The queen suddenly found strength from nowhere and turned sideways to grab Xie Yuzhen's hand: "Silly child, you... cough cough..."

"I told you this just to prevent you from being blinded by it and causing trouble in the future. You don't have to worry about what I'm going to do, you don't have to... cough..."

"You think... I'm sacrificing myself, and you want me to stop... doing this..."

"I know...I know everything..."

The Queen's breathing became difficult, and a hoarse sound came from her throat, but her eyes suddenly brightened up: "But... then, what about you...?"

"Empress?" Xie Yuzhen looked at the hand that was being held. The sudden light that bloomed in the Queen's dead eyes made her instantly confused.

"Why... don't you leave..."

“Let’s go…”

“Let’s go…”

"...Don't look back......"