The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

After this conversation, Wang Xianshi's eyes became more determined, revealing the resentment that had accumulated in her memory for many years: "You are right, I shouldn't have been soft-hearted towards her. She has ended up like this, it's all retribution for the evil things she did in the past!"

Just like when she had concealed her pregnancy and taken care of the fetus herself before, Lady Wang once again used Shanlu's words to convince herself.

Today should have been the day for all the concubines to pay their respects in Kunning Palace, but because the other two noble concubines passed away, the queen would not keep the concubines to talk. Instead, after asking for their well-being, she prepared to let everyone disperse and go to the coffin to mourn.

After a period of hopeful recuperation, the Queen's health has improved a lot with the help of miraculous medicine. Today, she specially put on makeup so that people could tell at a glance that she was seriously ill and almost dying, so that she could meet the concubines.

After the queen had dealt with the concerns of several concubines, the king's concubine finally arrived.

Contrary to her usual practice, Consort Wang, who appeared last, swaggered into the hall without waiting for anyone to report or bowing to the Queen. Instead, she stood there and looked around at the concubines. She found that Concubine Ning was not there as usual, so a bold idea came to her mind.

Before she could say anything, Yun Rong stood up and scolded her: "Concubine Wang, you trespassed into Kunning Palace without notifying her. When you arrived in front of the Empress, you did not greet her first but looked around furtively. How disrespectful and insolent!"

As the Queen's female official, Yunrong was of a proper rank and was equivalent to a Shanggong in the Shanggong Bureau. The Shanggongs could not easily supervise the concubines, but Yunrong was the Queen's mouth and hands. Many times she had to take the initiative to stand up and reprimand the concubines who overstepped the line on the Queen's behalf to safeguard the Queen's dignity.

As the queen's most trusted female official, she was aware of the plans of the queen and others, but even so, Yun Rong couldn't help feeling angry at Wang Xuanshi's ignorance and disrespect.

After receiving her rebuke, Consort Wang was subconsciously cowed for a moment, and then her hatred grew stronger. She ignored Yun Rong and went straight to the Queen: "My Queen, this is probably the last time I will call you Queen. You are a witch who conspired with outsiders to poison my father-in-law. How can you still have the dignity to continue sitting on the throne of the Queen Mother?!"

When the late emperor died, Concubine Ning was still the daughter-in-law of another family.

As soon as Lady Wang Xuanshi said this, there was a dead silence in Kunning Palace.

Xie Yuzhen, who was particularly well-behaved today, quietly used his fingers to dig a hole in the cushion he was sitting on, and stared coldly at Wang Xuanshi who was standing in the middle and making irresponsible remarks: "Wang Xuanshi, before you speak, consider whether your small body and your useless family can withstand the consequences of slandering the queen!"

As the harem had reached a consensus that this was a crazy woman who was not easy to mess with, as soon as Xie Yuzhen opened her mouth, Wang Xianshi immediately took two steps in the opposite direction and said, "How did I slander her? The gentlemen of the previous dynasty have already found out the truth about the death of the late emperor. It was this vicious woman who conspired with Concubine Ning to kill the late emperor. I just couldn't bear to see such a vicious woman hiding it from everyone for so long..."

She continued to take two steps back and looked around at the concubines, trying to find a supporter. However, when she looked around, she saw that most of the concubines had expressions of surprise and disbelief on their faces, and the rest were all suspicious - not as she wished, suspicious of the queen, but, they all looked at her with eyes that were as if they suspected that the queen had gone out without a brain this morning.

"Ahem." Concubine Chen cleared her throat. "Could it be that Concubine Wang has gone mad? We are in the harem, and it's so early in the morning. How can we know the news from the previous dynasty so early in the morning..."

Before she finished her words, Li Fei, who was held tightly by Ruyi, opened her mouth angrily: "Look at your pretentious appearance, are you still dreaming? No one wants to care if you like to be a slut. Why do you have to be a slut in front of everyone to make you feel refreshed?!"

The Emperor was wary of what Concubine Li, who used to be very close to Concubine Deng, might do, so he took most of the power from her and divided it between Concubine Chen Guipin and Xie Yuzhen. Concubine Li was unaware of this and only thought that the loss of her close sister was enough to make her sad and angry. However, Concubine Wang actually jumped out at this time to slander the Empress, who was already in poor health, with such a serious charge. Even she could see clearly that this was clearly aimed at the Empress' life!

"You..." Concubine Li wanted to continue scolding.

Ruyi was quick to pull her back with increased force, and whispered in the ear of the aggressive Concubine Li: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, don't be impulsive. If the lady who selected the concubine really has that problem, you will only make her feel better if you continue!"

Ruyi, who had mastered the technique of smoothing Concubine Li's hair when she was getting angry, finally pushed Concubine Li back.

Xie Yuzhen, who was watching from the side, glanced at the queen, and after making sure that she was in a normal mood, he continued to stare at Wang Xianshi with a murderous look: "You mentioned the adults of the previous dynasty, then this palace is very strange. Because the two queens passed away one after another, His Majesty has been absent from court for several days, and the palace gates are not open yet. How did Wang Xianshi get the news to know what happened in the past? Could it be that you are spying on the emperor, or... have colluded with someone in the previous dynasty!"

Wang Xuanshi was stunned by what she said. Her purpose of entering the palace had always been very clear. One was to deliberately annoy the queen, and the other was to gain favor and whisper in the emperor's ear so that he would restore her family. It was an unexpected surprise to have the opportunity to overthrow the queen.

She trusted the "lords of the previous dynasty", just as she firmly believed that her uncles who were officials had not committed any crime and were only convicted because the Dongxiang Palace abused its power to bully people.

In her eyes, the "adults" who are officials are so tall and reliable.

Seeing that her words were easily refuted by several empresses, Wang Xianshi was anxious and said loudly, "You poisoned the late emperor and thought you could hide it from the world, but God has eyes and floated the stone tablet of the evil woman in the Jing River to warn the world that there is an evil spirit in the harem, so that the empress will know that Concubine Ning has been convicted and sentenced to death. How long can you, the empress, do this?"

"How dare you!" The more Concubine Chen listened, the more she felt something was wrong. Anyone could see that Concubine Wang had a problem, but as soon as she opened her mouth she started talking about the previous dynasty and the Jinghe Stone Stele. It was obvious that she was colluding with both the inside and the outside to target the queen. No matter what the truth was, she couldn't be allowed to continue talking nonsense here. "Concubine Wang has lost her mind. Someone, take her away!"

Seeing that the time was almost right, Xie Yuzhen was ready to rush to the queen's side to cooperate at any time.

When Wang Xianshi saw that her revelation of the Queen's crimes not only did not win the approval of the public, but she was also being arrested by the palace servants, she became anxious and said, "No wonder the Fifth Prince died. This is also God's reminder for the Queen to confess her guilt as soon as possible and stop resisting stubbornly!"

When these words were spoken, everyone was horrified.

Xie Yuzhen had never expected that this coward would dare to say anything when he was pushed into a corner. He immediately rushed to the front. At this moment, Yun Rong uttered a shrill cry: "Empress!"

The queen seemed unable to bear the shock and fainted.

"Shut her mouth!" Xie Yuzhen shouted, and skillfully pushed Concubine Li, who was closest to the queen, away. He rushed to the queen's side and hugged her, anxiously saying, "Your Majesty?!"

Feeling someone gently pinching his forearm, Xie Yuzhen secretly breathed a sigh of relief at the Queen's pale face: "Yunrong, go and call the imperial physician. I'll carry the Queen in first."