The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

As dusk fades, the night deepens.

Wang Xuanshi sat on the couch, asking the palace maid to help rub her sore and numb legs. She couldn't help complaining, "I really don't know what evil has happened in this palace. People are dying one after another. Funerals are exhausting, and two funerals are happening one after another. We can't rest for a moment..."

The palace maid who was massaging her legs raised her head and smiled, saying, "With the two ladies gone, the position of the fourth lady in the palace will be completely vacant."

Concubine Wang's eyes lit up: "Yes, if these two ladies are gone, Liu Shuyi will commit suicide. Now the only main positions left in the palace are those four, right?"

She waved her hand to signal the maid not to continue massaging her legs. "It's not a good look for the Fourth Lady's position to remain vacant for too long. After the funeral, His Majesty will definitely raise our positions so that the joy can dispel the dejection in the palace."

"Empress Li has a long career and a princess, so she will definitely be promoted this time. As for Concubine Chen... although she is not favored by His Majesty, she has taken over some of the palace power, so she should also be promoted. I just don't know if she will be the ninth concubine or a concubine. As for Concubine Zhao..." Wang Xianshi frowned slightly, as if she was very displeased with this person, "She is in great favor. Although she has been promoted several levels because of giving birth to a daughter, it is not reasonable for her to be promoted again in a short period of time, but His Majesty loves her, I can't say for sure."

It had been a long time since she had a miscarriage, but Wang Xianshi still couldn't forget it. She cherished and wanted to protect her child so much, but she was easily tricked by someone. It was really...

Hatred flashed in her eyes, but in just a moment, she retracted the murderous look.

"Given your background, you will definitely be promoted. I am here to congratulate you first." The maid said flattering words and took a bowl of tonic from another young palace servant. "Madam, please take today's tonic first."

"My tongue is almost losing its function after taking this tonic every day." Wang Xianshi complained, raised her head and drank the whole bowl of medicine. At the end, she put the bowl aside and smashed it on the small table. "It's numb and bitter. Go to the Imperial Hospital later and ask, how long do I have to take this medicine?"

The maid was already used to her sudden temper: "Yes, I will go after I pack up."

Wang Xuanshi resisted the urge to vomit after the medicine fell into her stomach, and called the palace maid again: "It's getting late, let's go to the Imperial Hospital tomorrow. Go and see if your sister Shanlu is feeling better. Without her by my side, I always feel uncomfortable anywhere."

Shanlu was a slave girl brought by Wang Xuanshi from her own family, and later became a female official. This morning, when she went to the Shanggong Bureau to collect the monthly salary that was paid in advance, she accidentally fell and sprained her foot.

The maidservant seemed not to notice that she was secretly despised, and smiled enviously, "My lady thinks so highly of Sister Shanlu, Sister is so lucky."

Wang Xuanshi smiled but said nothing, then began to untie her beautifully combed hair.

She entered the palace with a very low rank and could only bring one maid with her. Later, the Shanggong Bureau only assigned two or three servants to serve her, which was completely incomparable to when she was at home.

She suddenly wanted to sigh to the people around her as usual, saying that if she had not entered the palace, she would never have lost her child. But as soon as she opened her mouth, she found that the two servants who were qualified to serve in the palace, one had an injured foot, and the other had just been sent by her to visit.

Wang Xuanshi was not in a position to tell others what was in her mind, so she looked at her slightly blurry face in the bronze mirror, and felt a surge of resentment and dissatisfaction in her heart.

If only the child could be saved...

She thought so more than once.

Although the Wang family is related to the Dongxiang Palace by blood, they were just ordinary landlords in the previous dynasty. Even with this little kinship, they have become an official family, but they lack the foundation and are looked down upon by the great families that have been passed down for hundreds of years. In addition, the children in the family are not good at studying, so they can only make connections everywhere and try their best to keep the few official positions that have been passed down since the founding of the country...

He could not break into the circle of aristocratic families, and there were few relatives in the court who had any say. In fact, due to poor management, his family had already fallen into the dilemma of living beyond one's means. He could only rely on the title of "official" to marry a merchant girl with a generous dowry in order to maintain the dignity of his family.

By the time of Wang Xuanshi's generation, the situation had improved slightly thanks to the joint efforts of several merchants' wives. However, King Dongxiang, who had always been able to use him as a banner, passed away, leaving behind only a daughter who could not inherit the throne.

The head of the Wang family thought that although the two families were separated, they were still blood relatives, and they were still connected by blood. In the past, when his family was socializing in the capital under the name of King Dongxiang, didn't King Dongxiang come from the border to express anything?

It can be seen that he probably still recognizes this relative of his own.

Therefore, Patriarch Wang began to think about having one of his younger sons adopted by King Dongxiang.

But not surprisingly, his idea was decisively rejected by Princess Togo.

Although the King of Dongxiang still has the surname Wang, from the perspective of etiquette and law, his relationship with the royal family is much closer than that of the Wang family. No royal family member has asked for an adopted son for him, and the late emperor even hypocritically expressed his willingness to let Wang Linghui give birth to a son to inherit the throne... But what does this have to do with the Wang family, which separated from the family eight hundred years ago?

The intention of the prince to adopt a son was ulterior motive. He was plotting for the title and property. He even said something like he was willing to give the princess a generous dowry after the son was adopted. If the son was adopted, his daughter would only have a dowry and would become an outsider. If the son was not adopted, with the help of the royal family and her own family, then the entire palace would belong to the daughter!

Princess Dongxiang was furious at Patriarch Wang's foolish greed. After arriving in Beijing, she began to collect all the things Wang had done in the past in the name of King Dongxiang and settled accounts with his family one by one. After meeting the emperor, she saw that the late emperor did not want the Dongxiang Palace to continue to exist. Not to mention that Wang's behavior was disgusting, now she could not agree even for her daughter's future.

But in the eyes of Patriarch Wang, it was Princess Dongxiang who betrayed their kinship and rejected his kindness, and it was she who had lost the loyalty to her clan and wanted to step on his back. If the other party and his family were not two completely separate families, and the Dongxiang Palace was not a royal family, then this self-proclaimed patriarch Wang would probably use the identity of the "head of the family" to force Princess Dongxiang to become a widow in the same way as they did in the clan, sell the concubines in the palace or give them to bachelors in the clan, find a family to send Princess Qingning away, and then take the wealth of the entire "palace" for himself.

fortunately.

When he refused to admit that he had accepted bribes in the name of the King of Dongxiang, the Princess of Dongxiang took him directly to Jingzhao Prefecture. Although the Wang family found out many unjust cases and crimes, and all the men in their family who had taken bribes were exiled, causing great damage to the entire Wang family, at least they did not fall to the point where the whole family was eliminated~

But this did not prevent Wang Xuanshi and others from reporting to the Dongxiang Palace with resentment because they had lost their cousins, uncles, and other minor officials who could still support the family.

"I should have been chosen to enter the palace as a daughter of an official family. Because of them, I ended up being only a commoner's daughter. Moreover, if she hadn't disregarded the relationship between relatives, how could I be just a mere concubine?" This was what Concubine Wang often complained to Shanlu before she had a miscarriage.