The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

There were few people in the cold palace to begin with, and now it was in chaos.

The little palace maid with blood on her body was originally helping two commoners in the cold palace to resell embroidery - this may be a bit general, but Shen Huiwan and Qian Xianhui were both demoted and lost their salaries. Although the latter's parents were also convicted of suggesting that the deposed concubine commit suicide, the Qian family has since settled down and would occasionally send Qian Xianhui some money for her survival through the Shanggong Bureau. Qian Xianhui also learned to grow vegetables, and the vegetables she grew were either sold or given away to the little palace maids at the bottom to improve their meals.

In addition, although she was illiterate, she was very good at needlework. After farming, she would mend clothes for the palace maids or embroider some inconspicuous small items, which provided another source of income.

In this way, although Qian Xianhui's life was not as luxurious as when she was a lady or a queen, she was not completely without food and clothing.

Shen Huiwan's situation was very different from hers. The entire Shen family was taken away in one wave. Although some relatives and old friends were still there, in the first few years, the existence of Shen Huiwan was tacitly forgotten by those people.

At that time, all the people close to Shen Huiwan were executed, and her health was ruined by several serious illnesses after Shen Nanliu's death. When she was sent to the cold palace, she was almost half dead. She had no money and no one cared about her, and she almost died in the cold palace.

Qian Xianhui carried a hoe and walked around the small courtyard that the two of them used together for a hundred or so circles. Finally, she decided to let go of all the prejudices in the past that seemed ridiculous now. She paid out of her own pocket and asked a familiar palace maid to go to the Imperial Hospital to find an apprentice of a medical officer to treat Shen Huiwan. It didn't matter whether the case was successful or not. At least she had saved and treated her. If she died in this courtyard in the future, she would not be unable to live a peaceful life because of her tragic death.

It was beyond Qian Xianhui's expectation.

Shen Huiwan was so seriously ill that it seemed like she had no reason to continue living, but she survived. However, her life seemed not right. She would talk to herself like a madman every now and then. Although she didn't hurt anyone, it was still creepy to watch.

However, Qian Xianhui had to admit that Shen Huiwan was indeed a good cohabitant in the cold palace. When she was awake, she would help with farming and mending clothes. She was literate and quite knowledgeable. Some ambitious young palace maids would ask her to tutor them in their spare time, privately calling her a teacher and giving her some rice or change as a gift.

When I go crazy, I just lock myself in the room and keep muttering. When others remind me that this will disturb me, I stop.

Life in the cold palace was very difficult, but Shen Huiwan managed to survive.

It was not until some of her former friends or relatives with whom she had some contact realized that the emperor and the empress did not care much about the orphan of the Shen family in the cold palace that they tentatively handed things to the Shanggong Bureau to see if they could be delivered to Shen Huiwan.

Xie Yuzhen naturally didn't bother to hold her back on such matters, and the emperor had completely forgotten the existence of such a person in the palace.

With the help of old friends, Shen Huiwan's life became much better. She built a small altar in her house, with only a blank tablet on it. Qian Xianhui had seen her cry in front of the tablet when she went crazy, but she couldn't hear clearly what she was crying about.

Her blood relatives were sinners, and being able to have such a blank tablet as a place of hope was already an incredible forgiveness.

And today.

The blank tablet fell to the ground and broke into two pieces.

The woman who was worshipping it had a pale face and blue lips. She huddled in a corner with her head covered. Her lips were wide open, but no sound came out, only the sound of "hehehe" panting.

In the middle of Shen Huiwan's little house, lay a palace maid whose life or death was unknown.

The palace servant was a eunuch, not young at all and a little fat. He was lying on his back on the ground, his clothes in front of him were wrinkled and stained with blood, and there were two large wounds on his chest. Behind him was a pool of blood that was constantly expanding and emitting a faint hot smoke.

On the other side of the bloodstain, Qian Xianhui, who was also splattered with blood, was holding a bloody shovel in her hand. She was gasping and trembling, sitting on the ground with her legs apart.

"What happened?!" Concubine Li Shufei did not arrive immediately. When she heard someone shouting for help, she rushed over. As a result, she fainted after seeing the little palace maid who ran out of the cold palace was covered in blood.

Ruyi remained calm in the face of danger, and divided the palace servants who followed her into three groups. One group went to ask for instructions from Concubine Xu, one group carried Concubine Li to a nearby place to rest, and by the way, another group was assigned to invite an imperial physician; the rest followed her to the cold palace to "put out the fire."

The young eunuch guarding the cold palace stood at the door and didn't dare to go in. He couldn't answer Ruyi's questions, so Ruyi had to go in first to check the situation.

Even though Ruyi has always been steady, she couldn't help but shudder when she saw such a bloody scene: "You two..." She glanced at Shen Huiwan, who was huddled in the corner with her hands covering her ears and was obviously in an abnormal state, and then looked at Qian Xianhui who was holding a shovel in her hand, and took a deep breath.

He asked two palace servants who had practiced martial arts to go to Qian Xianhui, while he slowly walked towards the more harmless Shen Huiwan.

But the situation she was prepared for did not happen.

Qian Xianhui, who was stunned, saw someone coming over, and it was a familiar female official. Her tense hands suddenly relaxed, and the shovel fell to the ground with a clang. She used her hands and feet to crawl into the arms of the palace servant closest to her, and cried out directly: "Help...Help, help!!!"

The palace maid who saved Qian Xianhui was not very old. After being stunned for a moment, she raised her hand and gently patted the other person's back, enduring the blood on the tip of her nose. She then looked up at Ruyi who had helped Shen Huiwan up from the ground and said, "Master Li."

Ruyi nodded: "It's okay, leave two people to watch the scene, and we will go out first."

She put her arms around Shen Huiwan, whose eyes were hollow. "It's okay. Let's walk out slowly, okay?"

Shen Huiwan didn't answer, but just nodded blankly.

Just as the group was about to leave the gate of the cold palace, a team of soldiers dressed as Yulin Guards came towards them - this was the cold palace, on the edge of the imperial palace. Although it was not too far from the patrol station of Yulin Guards, the Yulin Guards would not easily enter without important matters and clear orders from above.

Ruyi instinctively felt that something important had happened, but before she could react, she saw the group of Yulin Guards quicken their pace, draw the swords at their waists, and charge towards the crowd without saying a word.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!" Ruyi shouted anxiously, "Retreat to the cold palace quickly!!!"

The sound of the armor rubbing against each other turned into a deadly melody.

The group hurriedly retreated towards the gate of the cold palace. When the eunuch guarding the gate saw this, he hurried to help close the door.

Originally, Ruyi was supporting Shen Huiwan and walking in the front, but now she retreated and became the last one left. Seeing the blade getting closer and closer, Ruyi became anxious, and suddenly she felt a force coming from her body, pushing her into the door.

Shen Huiwan, whose eyes had sparkled with a divine light, had tears in her eyes and murmured, "I'm sorry..."

She didn't say the name of the person she felt most sorry for, blood started to spread behind her, and her face was instantly filled with pain.

Ruyi gritted her teeth, stretched out her hand, and dragged Shen Huiwan into the door before the second knife fell.

The door is closed.

The blade hit the door with a "bang bang bang".

The palace servants quickly moved things to block the door.

Ruyi fell to the ground holding Shen Huiwan, her hands full of warm liquid, which she could no longer hold back.