The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

It was a clear and sunny day, and the realgar in the imperial garden had almost dispersed. Xie Yuzhen began to take the palace maids for a stroll again. She entered the palace in June and was conceived in May. The baby was almost three months old now. She felt her body gradually becoming heavy and her taste became more picky.

After walking a few steps, she met Meng Ronghua who had just been released from house arrest - she had been under house arrest for a month for being late for paying her respects to the empress. But not long after, Concubine Deng pleaded with the empress to release Meng Ronghua from house arrest early, saying that the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching and that Meng Ronghua had admitted her mistakes and repented.

This made Meng Ronghua, who had originally suspected that Concubine Deng had deliberately caused him to be late for paying his respects, very grateful, and all his complaints about Concubine Deng disappeared in an instant. He even rarely spoke to his personal maid Lu Yi, praising Concubine Deng for being worthy of her birthplace of the Duke's Mansion, and for being gentle, generous, and considerate of others. It was really wise of her to ask the Queen Mother to move her to Changrui Palace.

When Xie Yuzhen saw Meng Ronghua again, she no longer looked like a drowned rat as she did that day in Kunning Palace. Instead, she had carefully combed her makeup and dressed up. She and her personal maid each carried a small and exquisite bamboo basket containing a few freshly picked chrysanthemums.

"Hello, talented lady." When Meng Ronghua saw Xie Yuzhen, he secretly cursed it as bad luck and reluctantly stepped forward to pay his respects.

After all, she is young, and even though she has suffered losses, she still cannot hide her true emotions well. But - isn't it more refreshing to have Meng Ronghua feel unwilling to accept but have to kneel down to her?

Xie Yuzhen lazily called out, and seeing that Meng Ronghua didn't want to stay for long, she wanted to pull him aside to talk a few more words: "Meng Ronghua picked so many chrysanthemums, what are you going to do?"

Meng Ronghua took a breath and said, "When I was at home in the past, every time the Mid-Autumn Festival came, my mother would personally instruct the kitchen staff to make wine and cakes with chrysanthemums. The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and I miss home a little, so I found some chrysanthemums from the flower and grass room and wanted to learn to make some according to the recipe my mother gave me."

"It sounds good. I wonder if Meng Ronghua could send me some after he makes it?" Xie Yuzhen looked at Meng Ronghua's increasingly grim expression and said more demandingly.

Meng Ronghua was stunned for a moment, secretly pinched his palm, and reluctantly said: "Ms. Xie is pregnant. Chrysanthemum is cold in nature, so you'd better be careful."

She glanced at Xie Ruzhen's belly with jealousy. As a girl from a noble family, in addition to helping her mother manage the household and taking care of the accounts, she also studied poetry at home. However, Meng Ronghua had no talent for poetry and had only learned the basics of music, chess, calligraphy and painting. Later, when she was chosen to enter the palace, Meng's mother regretted not disciplining her daughter more strictly earlier. She was neither good at literature nor martial arts, and did not even have any skills to show off.

So she packed up a bunch of various prescriptions and cookbooks overnight and stuffed them into the dowry box. During the days of house arrest, Meng Ronghua was bored, so she took some time to read the books that she used to be most impatient to read. The more she read, the more she missed home, and then she came up with the idea of ​​making chrysanthemum cake.

Originally, she went out happily to pick chrysanthemums to make cakes, but she didn't expect to meet the annoying Xie after walking a few steps. Unfortunately, she was of low status and had to answer her respectfully.

"That's true. After the royal heir in my belly is born, I will have to ask Meng Ronghua to work hard again." Xie Yuzhen said with a smile.

This guy is really interesting. He clearly looks down on his own humble background, but he has to endure finding fault with himself and pretend to be respectful and polite. Unfortunately, his frustrated emotions are clearly written on his face, just like a frog that is annoyed by being poked by someone.

Meng Ronghua's expression became even uglier, and he gritted his teeth and said word by word: "I'm afraid Chrysanthemum won't be able to stay until then."

Ever since he saw Xie Yuzhen crying and making a fuss, and turning Qian Guipin into Qian Shunyi, Meng Ronghua began to regret provoking this crazy woman before the selection - of course, the crazy woman is not scary, what is scary is that the most honorable person in this country indulges her madness.

"That's really a pity, I..." Before Xie Yuzhen could finish his words, he heard a clear flute sound coming from somewhere not far away, where the flowers and plants blocked his view.

The flute music is melodious, clear and a little melancholy, which is very suitable for the atmosphere of late autumn.

"Who's there?" the man's voice rang out.

Oh?

Xie Yuzhen immediately became interested. She glanced at Meng Ronghua, who was delighted, and said, "It sounds like your Majesty's voice. I wonder which sister plays the flute so well that she even attracted your Majesty here."

She was still vying for favor even when she was pregnant, so it was no surprise that other concubines would fight for it in all kinds of ways.

As soon as he finished speaking, Meng Ronghua seemed to remember something, and his expression changed slightly: "...Mr. Xie, are you going over there?"

She was thinking, if Xie Yuzhen hadn't dragged her here to chat for a long time, would she have just met His Majesty instead of watching this inexplicable flute music seduce His Majesty away.

"Of course I have to go and see. This flute sound, not to mention Your Majesty, even I am curious about who is playing it." Xie Yuzhen's family was poor and she was a daughter, so she could only study with the help of her brother's books. As for the arts of playing the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, perfumery, and polo, she had no chance to get in touch with them at all.

After getting married, I wanted to continue looking for books to learn, but people ridiculed me for being an ugly imitator and being pretentious.

It was only after she got close to the emperor that someone other than her mother finally expressed support for her ambition to study.

"It would be great if I could hear such beautiful music often in the future." Xie Yuzhen suddenly wanted to learn it.

Meng Ronghua felt that this man was indeed of low birth, greedy, and wanted everything he saw, without even considering whether he was worthy of it... She kept complaining in her heart, but because her face was always very ugly, she didn't change because of this little bit of indignation: "But if I go over now, will it disturb His Majesty?"

Of course, Meng Ronghua also wanted to know which seductive woman seduced the emperor in the imperial garden, but she was proud of being a noble lady from an aristocratic family and disdained to do anything jealous. Besides...she was not good at poetry and had no talent. What if the emperor was annoyed by her interruption, and she could not compare with the palace concubine who played the flute, wouldn't she be humiliating herself?

"Bothering?" Xie Yuzhen laughed and deliberately gave Meng Ronghua a flirtatious and amorous glance, "Your Majesty will not think that I am disturbing him."

The confidence and pride that was about to overflow from his tone made Meng Ronghua feel sour in her heart. When she came to her senses, her body had already involuntarily followed Xie Yuzhen.

A tall man in an indigo-colored uniform stood outside the bamboo forest. Xie Yuzhen walked over to him as excitedly as a butterfly, bent her knees slightly, and asked in her sweeter voice, "Your Majesty, have you seen the fairy playing the flute in the bamboo forest?"