The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

"Are you jealous again, Mr. Xie?" The emperor raised his hand and helped her up. With the beauty in front of him, he didn't have the heart to continue paying attention to the flute music that was full of deep thoughts.

Xie Yuzhen said coquettishly, "Your Majesty, what are you talking about? I was just out for a stroll in the garden and happened to meet Meng Ronghua. I talked to her for a few words. As we were talking, we heard the sound of a flute. Meng Ronghua and I were curious about which lady was so elegant that she would play the flute in this bamboo forest... so we came over to find out what was going on."

"Oh?" The emperor then noticed the girl behind Xie Yuzhen and raised his eyebrows, "Meng Ronghua is here too?"

Meng Ronghua felt a little aggrieved. She was obviously not bad looking. The emperor had praised her personally when she slept with him that day. How come it was as if the emperor had forgotten about her after so many days? She also saw how affectionate and gentle the emperor was with Xie Yuzhen, and she felt even more sad: "May your majesty be well."

"Well, get up." The emperor nodded perfunctorily.

He indeed had forgotten a little about Meng Ronghua. Only after thinking carefully did he remember that she was the daughter of the Minister of Justice and had a brother who was a governor outside the capital. Compared to Meng Ronghua herself, in the emperor's heart, her father and brother were much more likable.

This time, the selection was basically done by the Empress and Consort Deng. The Emperor only looked at the list at the end, casually inserted Xie Yuzhen into the list, and never intervened again.

He didn't care which family's daughter entered the palace, but considering that the father and son of the Meng family were still useful, the emperor was willing to give Meng Ronghua some favor. However, this woman was really tactless. She did something disrespectful to the empress the next day after she was favored, which made the emperor have a bad impression of her.

Feeling ignored, Meng Ronghua pouted in grievance and stood at the back with his personal female official.

Xie Yuzhen couldn't help but feel happy when she saw this. Although she had never thought from the beginning that she would be the only one favored, she was still very happy to see Meng Ronghua, who had looked down on her and mocked her, being humiliated.

The bamboo forest is still green in autumn and is well maintained by the flower and plant house.

The sound of the flute in the bamboo forest slowly dropped its last syllable, and the eunuch Li Zong beside the emperor came in with two palace maids. Not long after, a woman in green clothes appeared, with faint silver bamboo branch patterns faintly visible on the corners of her clothes. The hem of her plain white skirt just covered her shoes, she wore a bamboo hairpin on her head, and a string of the simplest silver cloves on her ears.

In her hand she held a very simple and lustrous bamboo flute. She looked up and smiled, looking quite beautiful like a lotus flower emerging from clear water.

It was Shen Xiaoyi.

Xie Wei almost couldn't hold back his laughter.

She really didn't expect Shen Xiaoyi to be so proactive. She had just mentioned it yesterday, but Shen Xiaoyi had already made a whole set of clothes, and even added bamboo flutes and flute music to it...

Then I looked at the material she was using to make her skirt. Wasn't it the same one I had given to Liu Xiaoyi?

Liu Xiaoyi is actually smart and mischievous, and actually gave...

Xie Yuzhen glanced over and saw that the relaxed expression of enjoying the music on the emperor's face was gone, replaced by impatience.

He loved his women to be dressed up in gorgeous clothes, but if his beloved concubine was deliberately being different to win his favor, he would be willing to cooperate.

It's a pity that Shen Xiaoyi is not the beloved concubine, and secondly... Don't forget that her temperament changed drastically since she fell into the water. She loves to wear red clothes and red skirts, and her hair is covered with jewels, as if her previous dignified and docile dress was an injustice to herself. On the day she served the emperor, she naturally dressed up according to what she thought was the most beautiful. It can't be said that she looks exactly the same as now, like a lotus in pure water. It can only be said that she has become a completely different person.

Such a crude method of winning favor might have some effect if used when there was a deep emotional foundation between the concubine and the emperor. But if used now, it would only make this arrogant man feel that he was being deliberately fooled by the concubine.

"It turns out to be Shen Xiaoyi. The song is really beautiful. She is worthy of being the daughter of Marquis Yuyang. She is multi-talented..." Xie Yuzhen praised her without any disobedience.

Shen Xiaoyi claimed to be the emperor's true love and had no eyes for other concubines. She bribed a palace maid who walked in front of the emperor to learn the emperor's whereabouts today and waited here on purpose.

She thought that today would be the beginning of a perfect love between the emperor and his concubine, but she never imagined that the emperor already had other women by his side—and not just one, but two!

Shen Xiaoyi was so angry that she wanted to curse, and she deeply hated these two guys who had no manners to disturb her meeting with the emperor.

She stepped forward with some grievance: "Greetings to His Majesty, and to Xie Cairen and Meng Ronghua."

"No need to be polite," the emperor said indifferently, "Why did you want to come here to play?"

"When I woke up this morning, I saw a flower with withered leaves in the yard, and I felt sad. Thinking about the cold autumn and winter, I wondered how the people outside were living. So I put on plain clothes and a bamboo hairpin, and came to this evergreen forest to play music and express my feelings." Shen Xiaoyi knew that she had no literary talent, so she pieced together the words she had heard from other concubines in her previous life.

After she finished speaking, she found that the emperor did not look moved as she had wished. Instead...he looked as if he had seen something dirty.

This thought made Shen Xiaoyi's heart skip a beat.

Then the emperor said, "Shen Xiaoyi is really concerned about the country and the people. If that's the case, I'll cut your salary in half and send the rest to the Ministry of Revenue for the people's livelihood. This way, I won't let you down for your piety!"

He is the emperor, the father of all peoples.

Saying in front of him that he was worried about how the people would survive the autumn and winter, wasn't that accusing him of not being a good king and father?

Xie Wei really knew how much the emperor cared about the country, and Da Sheng was extremely powerful, and even had the spare capacity to take care of more than 80% of the orphans and widowed elderly people.

Although it was not to the extent that no one would pick up things on the road or lock their doors at night, at least even civilians could eat meat once every few months, and even hooligans could get thick clothes to keep warm in autumn and winter. Even if they were cold and sick, the government would collect them, distribute medicine, and find jobs for them. Nowadays, most people who starve to death or freeze to death are those who are so lazy that they are hopeless.

If Shen Xiaoyi was just wearing bamboo, even if she performed magic in front of the emperor, the emperor would just say that this woman might not be very smart. But she was so stupid that she pointed at the emperor and said that his policies were not good and he could not keep the people at peace in order to show her simplicity. This was really...

Xie Wei really felt that although Shen Xiaoyi was stupid, she was also extremely courageous.

After the emperor had his outburst, he dragged Xie Yuzhen away. Shen Xiaoyi was so aggrieved that she was about to cry. She hadn't figured out what she had said wrong yet, so she knelt on the ground with her face flushed red.

Meng Ronghua curled his lips: "If you don't have the vision, don't show off, tut tut."

"It's all your fault! Did you say bad things about me in front of His Majesty? It's all your fault! You seduced His Majesty!" Shen Xiaoyi suddenly pounced on him regardless of anything.

After being hit once, Meng Ronghua became much more alert. She screamed and dodged quickly: "Shen Xiaoyi, are you crazy?!"

Shen Xiaoyi stared at her with a resentful look: "...You will definitely be in trouble! Definitely! Just wait!"