The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

It’s midsummer again.

After the rain, on the Wangshan Tower surrounded by green leaves and red flowers, a woman with pink peonies of varying shades and gentle eyes, with her hair pinned with beautiful hair, holds a white chess piece on a jade-carved chessboard.

The sound of pieces falling was crisp. A black piece followed the white piece by the dignified woman on the opposite side. With just this one piece, the white dragon was cut in half. "Thank you, Sister Song."

Song Hengzhi smiled slightly, raised her hand and gently supported the peony on her temples: "Sister Deng, don't be in a hurry to win, just look back."

Deng Qingzhi frowned slightly, only to realize that the white chess piece that was cut off in the middle had quietly left a way out behind the black and white battlefield. Song Hengzhi made a move to turn the deadlock around, and continued to smile: "Sister, you are good at planning and thinking, and have the vision to command the overall situation, but you always ignore the small details, and you like to plan before you act, lacking the determination to go all out... You may be able to defeat me for a while, but you will never be able to force me into a dead end completely."

Staring at the black and white changes on the chessboard, Deng Qingzhi sighed and said, "Sister, please don't make fun of me... Thousands of years ago, my sister didn't live long, so you and I were just on guard against each other and never had a head-on confrontation. Sister, you left before me..."

"At least I left something useful for Sister Xie."

"It's a pity that she didn't use this item much." Deng Qingzhi raised her hand and touched her neck. "I have never seen such an unreasonable person. Her sword still hurts me when I think about it now. It's a pity that although she brought us back to life, she never shows up in front of us."

Song Hengzhi covered her lips with her sleeves and laughed: "Extraordinary people have extraordinary actions, so don't worry about that... Look, isn't that a wonderful thing?"

Deng Qingzhi looked towards the misty mountain ridge, and saw Li Miaoduan controlling a cloud that was half white and half black. He looked furious, but in an instant he came to the top of the Wangshan Tower: "My two sisters, you are really pissing me off. My Wujiu was fine, but who knew that her mother came back home quietly yesterday. The two of them, with a combined age of several thousand, not only made a scene in my alchemy room, but also said that the iron-eating beasts of Shu were cute, and dyed all the cloud beasts at home like this..."

She muttered a lot, and was calmed down by Deng Qingzhi's words. Then she remembered to ask, "Didn't we say that we would discuss Taoism in Wangshan Tower today? Why didn't anyone else come?"

"You're here early." Song Hengzhi said, "Huh? Did you hear the singing?"

A faint singing sound came from the forest after the rain.

It is gentle and lasting.

However, before the singer appeared, a white light flashed in the building, and Shen Huiwan, dressed in light green clothes and simple attire, appeared with a nervous look on her face: "Hello, sisters."

She straightened the wrinkles on her sleeves and said, "I encountered something on the way, so I'm late."

"Not too late." Li Miaoduan pointed outside the building and said with a smile, "You two arrived at the same time."

Shen Huiwan smiled a little uncomfortably.

The singing was getting closer and closer. What was being sung in the song was about the small boats on the green waves of the south of the Yangtze River, the floating light under the lotus leaves, and the wisps of lotus fragrance floating in the alleys of the water town.

A girl who looked somewhat similar to Shen Huiwan, wearing a pink skirt, a white shirt, and a pretty snake-like bun, holding a bunch of freshly picked lotus flowers and lotus leaves in her arms, came on a cloud and sang. As soon as she landed, Mi Baobao dispersed the cloud breath under her feet and looked at Shen Huiwan: "You ran to my house and told my mother that you wanted to ask me out to play. Now that I'm here, why are you so uncomfortable?"

After she finished speaking, she smiled and greeted everyone present one by one: "It's been thousands of years, and I haven't felt awkward at all, but this person still feels awkward."

Mi Baobao placed the lotus bouquet on the table and nodded at Shen Huiwan twice: "If you do this again, I will ignore you in the future."

"You clearly know that Jixiang'er is like this, but you still take this opportunity to bully her?" As he was speaking, another person came in. She was wearing a thin purple gauze skirt and a long shawl. A fiery red jade was hanging on her slender white neck. The person had charming and beautiful eyebrows and a high spirit. It was Qian Xianhui, who had lived with Shen Huiwan for a period of time.

When Mi Baobao saw it, he raised his eyebrows and was about to say something.

Shen Huiwan interrupted immediately, and changed the subject with a slightly red face: "I came from the capital and heard a piece of gossip."

Seeing her like this, Mi Baobao laughed a few times without any hesitation, but did not interrupt.

"Noble Consort Xu is no longer in the palace. Our Majesty..."

She fished out all the souls of her brothers and sisters who had died young.

wrong.

Now I should say sisters.

Lu Baohui looked up blankly at the bright and majestic woman in front of her: "Fifth sister?"

Lu Weiyuan's eyes were full of joking: "That's not the right way to call me Baohui. My fourth sister, Prince Huaimin, has passed away. You should call me Queen Mother."

Click.

Lu Baohui seemed to hear the sound of something breaking in her brain. She was unable to react to what the person opposite her said for a moment, and asked subconsciously, "Will you miss me? Or pity me?"

No need!

But before Lu Baohui could finish her harsh words, she saw Lu Weiyuan bend down and pick up the tiny girl: "My pity for you ran out the moment you lost to me. This posthumous title was just randomly chosen by me by the Ministry of Rites by drawing lots. It doesn't have that much meaning."

She smiled smugly, "I always do what I think, so don't think too much, and don't guess what I'm thinking. That's why I asked my mother to bring you back to life. At least I don't want to see you become a lunatic now."

"You know you're crazy!" Lu Baohui's short limbs moved in the air for a while, and she found that her heartless sister had not given up her plan. "You let me be resurrected now, so that I can live with longer regrets?"

"No." Lu Weiyuan rejected it and said, "I just want you to see the new world I created. If you still want to die after seeing this new world, I won't keep you."

Her hand loosened and Lu Baohui fell to the ground.

After another clap of hands, a female official came and led Lu Baohui, who looked like a young child, back out.

Hu Ziyi, who was standing aside as a pillar, asked, "Does your majesty really think so?"

"Of course - no, I still hope Baohui can stay. Alas, the Queen Mother said that she promised Aunt Yuan to take her to travel around the world, but she was always delayed by various mundane things. Finally, she got the chance, but she packed up and took away the Queen Mother, Aunt Lu, and Aunt Jun... Even Aunt Lin Qiao and Aunt Zhu Queyin have gone to live together, leaving me alone, helpless, and left here to stare at you."

Lu Weiyuan exaggeratedly wiped the non-existent tears with her sleeves. After pretending, she smiled and said, "Since Fourth Sister is only willing to be a good daughter and not a good sister, then in this life, why don't you be my daughter?"

Hu Ziyi: "...Your Majesty, let me remind you not to follow the example of the late emperor. This world cannot stand your tossing and turning."

"What can I do? I just taught people in the world how to stand up on their own." Lu Weiyuan restrained the smile on his face and said lightly, "I will not stay here forever. If after I leave, people in the world still want to find someone to kneel down to, then let them find someone."

Over the past thousands of years, the Lu clan members have died or dispersed. Although they are still respected in name, they have no real power. The court and officials have completely become an institution to assist people in their lives. There are no more powerful people, no aristocratic families, and no so-called "parent officials".

The way of spiritual practice lies within oneself and in one's heart. Those who practice spiritual practice should not be bound by any constraints.

On the other side, Lu Baohui, who was led out of the emperor's bedroom by a female official, saw her three sisters who she had not seen for too long in her mind, and -

Two little girls who looked somewhat strange, yet very familiar, with awkward expressions on their faces.

"Brother Yi Yang?" Lu Baohui called out uncertainly to the girl who looked older and calmer.

Lu Yunkang forced a polite smile and said, "Baohui."

Only then did Lu Baohui notice that her elder sister-in-law was standing behind Lu Yunkang with a dazed look on her face.

Beside the two, Lu Ningguang gnashed his teeth as he struggled with the mess of the scarf on his arm: "Where is that brat Xie Yi? Was it his bad idea?!"

Lu Xianqiong covered her mouth but couldn't hide the smile in her words: "Tan Nu has succeeded in his cultivation and has long gone to the outside world to gain experience - over the years, our family has changed a lot. Those who failed in their cultivation died, and those who succeeded were mostly sent out by His Majesty to travel. Otherwise, I'm afraid there would be more people watching you today, hahahaha."

Lu Ningguang was extremely embarrassed.

She snorted and turned to leave, but her foot caught the hem of her skirt and she fell flat on her face.

The sisters' unscrupulous laughter became even more cheerful.

Lu Yunkang helped his sister up, coughed softly, and asked, "Third sister, how come we have all become girls?"

Lu Zaiguang said, "As early as a thousand years ago, after we embarked on the path of cultivation, many women were not interested in romance and childbearing. If there were any who really wanted children, they only needed to stir up the yin and yang energy and combine their own blood to directly conceive a child. Therefore... men gradually disappeared from this world."

"So that's how it is." Lu Yunkang suddenly realized. She asked about her mother and her child with the princess.

The sisters talked affectionately for a long time before saying goodbye to each other.

The prince consort that Lu Baohui had married had died long ago, and she had no children, so there was no one she cared about too much. A thousand years had passed, and the capital had changed a lot. She was not sure whether her princess mansion was still there, but she did not want to obey Lu Weiyuan's wishes and turn back to be the daughter of her former sister.

She walked with her short legs, each step heavier than the last, making a clattering sound on the stone road.

The female official sent by Lu Weiyuan followed her quietly without saying a word, as if she didn't exist.

She walked along angrily, but her eyes couldn't help but be attracted by the exotic flowers and plants passing by.

As Lu Baohui walked, she gradually forgot her original intention. Her heart and eyes were full of anticipation for what kind of wonderful and strange scene would appear before her eyes next in this palace that had undergone a drastic change.

Passing by the jade-like and star-like flowers, and through the flock of butterflies flashing with faint light.

What Lu Baohui saw before her eyes was no longer a strange scene, but a familiar figure that had appeared in her dreams countless times. It stood at the end of the road and slowly turned towards her.

--Finish--