The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

When the queen arrived, the people who caused the trouble had been quietly placed in a small palace.

Liu Hong's face was covered with red slap marks, her hair was completely disheveled, and she looked extremely dishevelled. However, as a court lady, she was the only one among the parties involved who had to stand.

Liu Xiaoyi, who was also beaten, looked a little uneasily as she sat beside Xie Yuzhen. There was also a slap mark on her fair and delicate cheek, and there was a bloodstain at the corner of her mouth. On the other hand, Xie Cairen, who had beaten someone, was still dressed in glory and looked high-spirited. If it were not for the vague sight of the slightly convex curve under her dress, no one would have thought that this fierce woman who beat people was actually pregnant.

While waiting for the arrival of the Queen, Liu Hong saw the two palace concubines busying themselves, but no one paid any attention to her own palace servants. She felt unwilling and resentful, but she also gradually lost confidence and her fear slowly grew.

Although she was the wife of Marquis of Jingjun and the biological mother of Liu Shuyi, she was rarely able to enter the palace.

During the period when Liu Shuyi first entered the palace and was favored, Liu Hong was summoned in several times. However, Liu Shuyi gained favor quickly and lost favor quickly. Ever since she lost favor and gave birth to a daughter, Liu Hong had never been able to enter the palace alone to see her daughter again. At most, she had seen her from afar at palace banquets of various sizes, or had found opportunities to speak a word or two to her in private.

She began to regret why she didn't go looking for her daughter as soon as she entered the palace, but took Liu Xiaoyi away directly after seeing her?

If her daughter were present, Liu Hong would be more confident.

She looked down on the two palace concubines who were "just the emperor's concubines", but she did not think there was anything to be ashamed of for her daughter to also be "the emperor's concubine". In Liu Hong's view, she was the principal wife and Liu Shuyi was the legitimate daughter. They were much nobler than Liu Xiaoyi, who only knew how to show off her charm, and more noble than Xie Cairen, who came from the market and was a second-married woman.

What's more, although Liu Shuyi failed to give birth to a prince, she had a princess!

Liu Hong kept comforting herself, thinking that the Queen Mother must be able to understand her feelings. As the principal wife, she must be as annoyed with these lowly concubines as she is. She would not blame herself for teaching the concubines a lesson. She should give herself respect as the principal wife of the Marquis!

In the previous dynasty, the Hong family made their fortune with medical skills, and later gradually developed into a large family. However, they gradually abandoned the medical skills used by their ancestors to make their fortune, and believed that being a doctor was a lowly profession that did not match their status as an aristocratic family. However, they still kept some good prescriptions at home.

When Liu Hong married into the Marquis's mansion, she also brought some of her best prescriptions with her. She was thinking about sending a few of them to her daughter and then sending them to the Queen through Liu Shuyi. Liu Shuyi said that she was injured when she gave birth to the fifth prince, and the fifth prince had been sick since he was born...

Of course, this has to be done after dealing with Xie Cairen and Liu Xiaoyi first.

Thinking of this, Liu Hong felt a lot more relieved.

She was a typical girl from an aristocratic family. She had lived in a small building since she was born, embroidering flowers and plants, reading "Female Training" and "Female Admonitions", and sitting in the house all day long, with her feet hardly touching the ground. If it were not for the dynasty's strict order prohibiting foot binding for women, she would probably still have a pair of three-inch golden lotus feet and be the lady of a marquis's mansion.

Such women, apart from being obedient and contented, have no other "strengths" to speak of. At home, their parents never asked them to study and learn reason. After they get married, their husbands will not discuss political affairs with them. They follow their mother-in-law to learn how to manage the household, do accounting, and learn socializing. All they have in their minds are their mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, concubines, concubines, and legitimate and illegitimate children.

Because of extreme ignorance, we are so fearless.

The Queen arrived and everyone stood up to welcome her.

When Liu Hong saw the queen, she thought she had seen her savior. When the queen sat down on the main seat, she rushed forward and said, "Please, Queen, make the decision for me!"

Xie Yuzhen was tall and slender. She walked over with one big stride and stretched out her hand to push Liu Hong away: "How dare you! Is it your turn to speak?!"

The queen glanced at her with a headache and said, "Thank you, talented lady."

"Your Majesty, Concubine Xie dares to be so rude in front of you..." Before Liu Hongshi could finish her words, Xie Yuzhen slapped her again, making her dizzy. However, she was secretly happy in her heart. See, as a concubine she is so arrogant, the queen has to stand up for herself!

"Thank you, talented lady!" the queen said sternly.

Xie Yuzhen took back her hand, her voice soft and sweet, revealing grievance: "Your Majesty, I and Liu Xiaoyi, the victim, haven't spoken yet, and she is so anxious to confuse right and wrong. I am also... impatient. Please punish me, Your Majesty."

Hearing her voice, which was completely different from the one she used when she yelled at Liu Hongshi, the queen felt even more helpless: "I know, you should at least be careful. You're pregnant. What if you use too much force and hurt the baby?"

She didn't mention the beating Liu Hong had received at all.

In the eyes of the Queen, the royal family is the monarch and the Marquis of Jingjun is the minister. Even though Liu Xiaoyi was once the concubine of the Marquis of Jingjun, her status was different after she entered the palace. She was already a part of the "monarch". No matter what reasons Liu Hong had, she was a minister who offended the monarch. It was her fault. To put it in a bigger way, this was disobedience, a crime punishable by the execution of the entire clan!

The emperor's dignity could not be violated, even if the person being beaten was only a concubine he did not favor.

Liu Hongshi heard the gentle responses from the two concubines and realized something was wrong.

Why didn't the Queen reprimand Concubine Xie? She, the Marquis' wife, was beaten!

She looked up in disbelief, only to see that Concubine Xie, who had just slapped her in the face, now acted in a weak and timid manner that Liu Hongshi despised the most, and actually acted like a spoiled child to the queen: "Your Majesty is right, I was reckless, this man is so shameless, my palm hurts from hitting him, look, is it red?"

The queen couldn't stand the coquettishness of a beauty like Xie Yuzhen, and wanted to drag the emperor, who was now somewhere unknown, to take the blame: "It's good to know, sit down and talk first."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Xie Yuzhen responded in a tender voice and raised her eyebrows at Liu Xiaoyi.

Liu Xiaoyi was greatly enlightened.

She grew up in the countryside, and her only knowledge of noble ladies was that of evil-looking ladies like Liu Hongshi. Where had she ever seen ladies like the Empress and Concubine Xie?

The queen looked solemn, and after Xie Yuzhen sat down, she asked, "What happened to cause such a mess?"

Seeing this, Liu Hong wanted to speak again, but Xie Yuzhen gave her a ferocious look as if he wanted to eat her, which scared her so much that she hiccuped and took a step back unconsciously. When she wanted to speak again, she had already lost the opportunity.

Concubine Ning, who came with the Queen, watched with great interest, her interest in Xie Yuzhen becoming more and more intense.

"Your Majesty, you know that I never tell lies. After seeing my mother today, I couldn't sit still and thought about picking some osmanthus branches to relax. But when I got behind the tree, I heard this shameless lady scolding Liu Xiaoyi!"