The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

"Father, are you looking for me?" When Lu Weiyuan arrived at the Lizheng Hall, she saw the emperor sitting alone behind the imperial desk, waving at her.

The emperor is over forty years old this year, but he takes good care of himself and does not look much old. His hair is still thick and black, and he has no beard. When he goes out hunting and riding a horse on weekdays, he can still make some young people who neglect exercise feel ashamed of themselves.

"Yuanjun, come and see the princess mansion that your father has chosen for you. Originally, there were two princes' mansions here. They are close to the palace and just next to each other. I plan to connect the two mansions and renovate them. It will be spacious for you to live in in the future."

Lu Weiyuan lowered his head and glanced at the table: "I'm only fifteen years old, why are you so anxious to send me out, father?"

She walked around to the emperor's left hand side and asked: "I beat up the boy from Duke Shen's family in the imperial study earlier this month. Did the Duke's wife go to complain to the queen mother?"

Twelve years later, the Shen Guogong Mansion had also undergone great changes. Chen Peiluan, who had begun to turn her attention to officialdom, took action after the death of the Shen Guogong's son and seized the position of son for Tao Er. However, the Shen Guogong, who had lived too long, died shortly after the death of his eldest grandson.

The head of the Shen Mansion is now the Duke's wife Chen Peiluan. This time, she did not try to urge and help Tao Er to make progress. Instead, she was very tolerant and let him be a leisurely Duke. The affairs of the family and the previous dynasty were all handled by Chen Peiluan. She did not try to advance through the imperial examinations like other women. As the Duke's wife, Chen Peiluan was already at the first level among the women of the outer court.

After seeing what Lin Qiao had done along the way, Chen Peiluan started from this point and managed to secure a position for herself among the nobles of the previous dynasty by being the wife of a duke.

More than a decade had passed, and although they still outnumbered male officials, female officials in various places in the Dasheng Dynasty had sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Many of the noble women, represented by Chen Peiluan, had directly replaced their husbands' duties outside the court and began to get involved in political affairs.

The wife of Duke Shen and the wives of several other noble families either left their husbands at home or went to court with their husbands. This was no longer a rare sight in Dasheng today.

Although Chen Peiluan's temperament was indeed a bit extreme, her abilities were also very strong, and she was soon allowed to attend government meetings in the Lizheng Hall. She was considered a very useful chess piece in the hands of the emperor and empress.

Her and Tao Er's eldest son is only one and a half years younger than Lu Weiyuan, and is also studying in the Imperial Study. Perhaps because he is used to being spoiled by his elders at home, he seems to be fearless in the Imperial Study. Earlier this month, he deliberately missed the exam and had a quarrel with the invigilator. He was dragged out by Lu Weiyuan who passed by and beaten up in the name of a competition. Since then, he has become much more honest.

Hearing his daughter's quick question, the emperor smiled and shook his head.

Seeing this, Lu Weiyuan tilted his head slightly and said, "That's because he found out that I secretly put laxatives in the wine glass of my second brother when he was taking a concubine a few days ago. His eyesight is not good and he couldn't find me, the culprit, so he came to you to ask for an explanation?"

Hearing this, the emperor looked at his daughter with a little surprise: "I was wondering why... Although your second brother is strong, he can't stand your tossing and turning. Alas... You are so disrespectful, what a temper you have..."

Although he said this, the emperor had no intention of disciplining his daughter or asking her to change her temper.

Lu Weiyuan tilted his head to the other side: "So it's not the case..."

The emperor did not have too many children, only eleven in total, male and female, not including the fourth and fifth princes who died young, and the third prince who was later adopted by Prince Gong.

The eldest prince Lu Yunkang was born to Consort Huaijing (Consort Song Shu). Although he was always sickly, he finally grew up with difficulty. At the age of 19, he was named Prince of Yiyang, moved out of the palace to set up a residence, married a wife, and was allowed to study and handle some affairs in the Ministry of Works.

It has been three years since the marriage of Prince Yi Yang and his wife. They have no children, but they do not seem to be in a hurry to have children either.

The third prince Lu Ningguang, the brother of Prince Yi Yang, was adopted by the emperor's heirless brother Prince Gong many years ago. Not long after his adoption, Prince Gong died of illness. As the new Prince Gong, Lu Ningguang, who was once believed by everyone to not live to adulthood, survived with difficulty but stubbornly, just like his biological brother.

He is only one year younger than Prince Yi Yang, but he has never married because his health is too poor. He stays in the palace every day and rarely appears in public.

The second prince Lu Jingcheng, who was born between the two brothers from the same mother, lived a completely different life.

He was the same age as Prince Yiyang, only a few months younger. Not long after Prince Yiyang's wedding, he also married the princess on the nearest auspicious day.

The emperor had never liked this son, and seeing that he was so eager to compete with Prince Yiyang for seniority, he just didn't bother to care about him. After conferring the title of Prince Jinxiang on the second prince, he completely let him go and let him make trouble. It was Empress Xie who advised that since one of the brothers had a real job and the other did not, they would inevitably feel resentful and it would hurt their brotherhood.

The Prince of Jinxiang finally got a position in the Honglu Temple.

Da Sheng was powerful and had many foreign enemies. The Honglu Temple was a rich and leisurely place. One only had to learn how to play Tai Chi with foreign envoys and know how to distinguish their sweet words, not be bribed to do wrong things, and not accidentally reveal important information of the country. Xie Yu really believed that even if Prince Jinxiang was stupid enough, he would never fall for these things. As a prince, what he lacked the least was experience in dealing with flattery. As for state secrets... to be honest, he couldn't get access to them. As for the others... even if he wasn't clear-headed, didn't Princess Cheng'an cover for her brother?

Half a year after the marriage of Prince Jinxiang, there was no news of the princess being pregnant for a long time, so he personally went to hire the daughter of an official as a concubine. The concubine did become pregnant soon, but the child died not long after being born.

Prince Jinxiang did not believe in evil. Over the years, he had taken in many concubines, young and old, and had children one after another. They had become the most populous branch of the second generation of the royal family. Prince Jinxiang did not stop his pursuit of women. Not long ago, he took in another woman. Because she was a concubine, he specially set up a banquet and invited relatives and friends.

Lu Weiyuan didn't want to go at first, but then she thought about the conflict between Princess Cheng'an and her last month over the statistics of this year's Ministry of Revenue tax revenue, so she accepted the invitation and gave Prince Jinxiang a laxative gift package, causing the other party's festive banquet to end in a miserable way with the host's family staying in the Gongfang.