The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

The two children's words chilled He Sangrou's heart. She quickly grabbed them and asked anxiously, "He always says I'm useless?"

Her hair was messy and her expression gradually became distorted: "Does he always tell you that I'm useless?!!!"

The two children were startled by their mother's appearance. The older boy answered hesitantly, "Dad is a general. He works hard to support our family. Mom only knows how to get jealous with other women in the backyard and have conflicts with grandma and aunts..."

"What do you mean he supports our whole family?!" He Sangrou screamed in despair, "My father helped him get his position as general! There has been no war in Dasheng for many years. How could he support dozens of people in the Yao family with his salary alone!"

"You! Your father! Everything your grandmother, aunt, and uncles eat and use is clearly from my dowry shop!" He Sangrou gasped heavily.

She was General He's daughter who came of age later in life, and was very much liked by the old general. Therefore, not only was she pampered at home, but when she got married, she was naturally given a beautiful wedding dress and countless dowries.

She screamed at the two children: "What on earth does he say to you guys about me?"

The boy was stunned for a moment, and he said with a pursed mouth, "But isn't mother's dowry already part of our Yao family's property? Mother, you can't be an official like father... Even if my grandfather helped him get his official position, if father wasn't capable, how could he have held that position?"

He glanced at He Sangrou quickly, then lowered his head again: "Anyway...anyway, we can all see how busy Daddy is on weekdays, but it's you, Mom, who stays at home all day chatting idly with those aunts and mothers, and from time to time, you ignore Daddy's hard work on duty and make a fuss about trivial matters..."

"Pa!" He Sangrou finally couldn't help it and raised her hand to hit her son on the face. While hitting him, she cried and said, "I take care of the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the Yao family. You bought swords and guns today, and asked for calligraphy and paintings tomorrow. The decorations in the room, the daily meals and even the servants around you, which one of them is not done by me as a mother!"

The little girl at the side was frightened by her mother's sudden slap on her brother and burst into tears. The boy also covered his face and cried after a moment of daze.

He Sangrou also cried at the top of her lungs: "In order to let you live a good life, I gave up most of my dowry; in order for you not to learn bad tempers, I endured the open and covert difficulties from your grandmother and your aunt, and used my own money to send away their poor relatives who only knew how to beg for money... I..."

She suddenly kicked over a chair beside her: "Why am I doing this..."

Men and women, old and young, for a moment, the increasingly sharp cries of the mother and her two children intertwined above Yao's residence.

On the other side, Yao San had already brought gifts and went to the He family to ask for an audience with General He.

General He had just had a quarrel with his daughter and didn't want to see Yao San, the troublemaker, at this moment. He was about to ask someone to send him away, but then he changed his mind and said, "Let him wait outside."

"Yes." His most trusted butler, Uncle Wu, responded first, and then asked, "What about the young lady..."

General He blew out two streams of air from his nostrils: "Let her suffer a little first. Sigh, I have spoiled her too much... If it were a normal time, I could give her one more licence, but that person is obviously going to resort to knife tactics... Forget it, I don't know when I will have to follow the late emperor, so I will just give the little ones one last shot. After that, I will not be able to control whether my children and grandchildren will rise or fall, or whether they will be blessed or cursed!"

The He and Yao families soon became lively.

First, the father and daughter had a conflict, and they were so angry that they wanted to sever ties with each other. However, the daughter was stubborn, so the son-in-law, an outsider, hurried to find the angry father-in-law and ask for forgiveness.

Yao San's attitude to mend the rift between his wife and father-in-law was very sincere, not much different from the time when Emperor Zhaolie invited Zhuge Wuhou for the third time.

After more than half a month, General He was finally "moved" by Yao San's perseverance and invited him into his home.

The gossip about the He and Yao families and whether Lin Qiao was a woman disguised as a man were two things that made the powerful people in Beijing eat their fill of gossip - but the former was just an ordinary and exciting thing, while the latter was much more of a fuss.

First, someone posted notices at the gates of various academies in Beijing accusing Lin Qiao of deceiving the emperor. Then, Lin Qiao, the person involved, was visited by indignant scholars several times, asking her to prove her identity. Every time, Lin Qiao was able to easily resolve the dilemma. Not only did she make the other party speechless, dizzy and forget their original purpose, but she also never gave a direct answer as to whether she was a man or a woman.

The news reached the palace, and the emperor could not help but praise Lin Qiao's quick wit and eloquence several times. At the end, he said to Xie Yuzhen with emotion: "Xianming, why don't you think about whether there are any undiscovered gems in your mother's family..."

Xie Yuzhen rolled her eyes at the emperor and said, "Even if there is, I don't know. But my father did say that my ancestors were somewhat related to the Xie family in Maozhou, but that was probably just his boasting for the sake of face. A few generations ago, my great-grandparents were just poor people digging in the fields outside Beijing."

The Xie family gradually became wealthy after Xie's father passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. They moved from a village on the outskirts of Beijing to the common alleys of the capital.

"As for my mother's family... my uncle is a gambler, and he once wanted to sell my mother. However, he has disappeared for many years, and my aunt has remarried." Xie Yuzhen had some speculations about the whereabouts of his gambler uncle, but it had been a long time since the incident, and his uncle and aunt had never had children. Moreover, his aunt lived a good life after remarrying. Why bother to dig up the past and find out what had happened?

Xie Yuzhen smiled: "If your majesty is really free, why don't you take a look at this list for me to see if there is anything wrong——"

She made a list of people in Beijing who had recently joined in denouncing Lin Qiao, dividing them into those who deliberately wanted to use this incident to attack their own followers, and those who did not know the truth and just wanted to take the opportunity to step on Lin Qiao.

The emperor took the list and glanced at it briefly, then pointed at a few names and asked, "These families don't seem to be involved."

"I want to eliminate dissidents." Xie Yuzhen's soft voice spoke cruel words that threatened to kill people, "Moreover, they all secretly lent their hands during the stone tablet case. At that time, because we couldn't get enough solid evidence against them, we let them go lightly..."

She smiled sweetly: "Your Majesty, do you allow me to bear grudges and kill people?"