The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

She can't die yet.

After asking the palace maid to carefully put away the small porcelain bottle, Xie Yuzhen silently watched Qian Xianhui cry. No one came forward to comfort her. She gradually stopped crying and wiped her tears with her sleeves: "Have you seen enough of my jokes now?"

Without answering her resentful question, Xie Yuzhen changed the subject: "You previously told His Majesty and the Queen that you wanted Huizhu to gain my trust and persuade me to give the heir to you for raising after giving birth..."

Huizhu betrayed her master and was sent to the Ye Ting Palace as a criminal slave. Unlike other palace maids who were sent there for major or minor violations, she would never have the chance to get out. Even if she was not worn out by the heavy labor, she would have to stay there for the rest of her life.

Her parents and brothers outside the palace, as well as Yan Rou's relatives in the Qian family, were all made official slaves.

On the contrary, Qian Xianhui's parents and brothers used their official positions to atone their sins and paid a large amount of fines. In the end, they were only stripped of their official positions and demoted. Their lives and property were not in danger, and they did not fall into slavery.

"I don't believe you can be so...kind." There was always a hint of sarcasm at the corners of Xie Yuzhen's lips. She knew too well the methods these noble ladies from aristocratic families used to scheme against people.

Things like making sarcastic remarks in person or spreading rumors behind your back are just small tricks. The truly sophisticated and vicious ones will put on a kind smile and take your life silently. They don't even need to use poison like Zhou Ting did. They just need to use rules, seniority, emotions, and men's will little by little to slowly erase a person's mind and drive him crazy.

However, this method is basically limited to the inner house. As long as they leave the house, no matter how smart she is, she can't control outsiders.

After marrying into the Wuwei Marquis's Mansion, the Marquis's wife was obviously dissatisfied with the background of her daughter-in-law Xie Yuzhen. She kept asking her to behave herself, scolding her with every sentence, and belittling her with every word. Even the maids serving the people in the Wuwei Marquis's Mansion were given a small stool to sit on. Only Xie Yuzhen took on the servants' work and was busy serving her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law.

Even so, the people in Wuwei Marquis' Mansion could always easily find faults with Xie Yuzhen, and if they disagreed with her, they would ask her to kneel outside the door. They would make her kneel in the snow in scorching sun, heavy rain, or even heavy snow.

There were many times when Xie Yuzhen almost thought he was going to die there.

But the wife of Marquis Wuwei just wanted to teach her unruly daughter-in-law a "little lesson", so how could she let this punishment cost Xie Yu's life?

Every time Xie Yuzhen was punished, she would personally bring a bowl of boiling hot medicine and have someone feed it to Xie Yuzhen spoonful by spoonful. She also required her to say one sentence about her mistakes after each sip, then admit her mistakes and promise to the wife of Marquis Wuwei that she would not make the same mistake again.

This is just the most superficial torture.

At that time, Zhou Ting and Xiang were living a happy and healthy life outside the mansion, while Xie Ruizhen was under pressure from the whole mansion. Zhou Ting was the beloved son of the wife of Marquis Wuwei, and she could not bear to blame him, and was also afraid of hurting Xiang and causing a rift between mother and son. So Xie Ruizhen, the woman who was married to silence them, naturally became the best tool for venting.

As for what would happen to Xie Yuzhen after being tortured like that day after day, no one in the mansion cared.

They were certain that a mere common woman could not cause any rebellion, and that Xie Wei's only fate was death. Whether she was finally tortured to madness or accepted her fate and became a walking corpse, her state before death was only slightly different.

They were happy to see Xie Yuzhen go crazy and die, just like watching a cricket being bitten to pieces in a jar. Even if they looked up, they could only see a circled sky. But so what? They were raised with great respect and could tear and devour Xie Yuzhen's flesh and blood at will without worrying about being punished.

The women in the Wuwei Marquis' Mansion never thought of blaming the source of everything - Zhou Ting. They also could not have imagined that it was this hand that stretched out from the cricket jar that gave Xie Yuzhen a way to escape when he wanted to crush the little bug to death completely.

After Xie Ruzhen realized that the food was poisonous, she would rather cook by herself and no longer allow others to interfere with her diet. Zhou Ting was not a very decisive and patient person. After persuading Xiang, who was impatient to become a regular wife, several times, he took the initiative to loosen his supervision over Xie Ruzhen and deliberately gave her the news that he and Xiang were going to have a secret meeting in Jinghe to stimulate her to chase after them.

He also bribed the boatman and tampered with the boat.

Even if Xie Yuzhen was standing steadily on the boat at that time, they had plenty of ways to drown her in the Jing River.

However, all these calculations actually facilitated Xie Wei's rebellion.

Looking at Qian Xianhui who pursed her lips, Xie Yuzhen felt that he really hated these sons of aristocratic families and daughters of wealthy families. Even when she was sadly taking poison, out of an instinct that Xie Yuzhen himself could not explain, he saved Qian Xianhui's life without thinking. But now, what Xie Yuzhen wanted most in his heart was to study the system in Qian Xianhui's body, and then it would be best if she could live until his precious daughter ascended the throne, to see if he could anger this old-fashioned and hypocritical woman to death.

After a long silence, Qian Xianhui spoke up: "...Yes, I am not that kind."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and turned to look at Xie Yuzhen. "There was a concubine in my family before. My father liked her very much, but my mother didn't like her very much because she looked seductive and coquettish. At first glance, she looked like a restless vixen. But she was a decent girl hired by my father from outside, so my mother couldn't do anything with her."

"Later, she got pregnant. During that time, my mother treated her very well, very well. Whenever there was anything delicious or useful at home, she would give it to her first. She was so young and ignorant of the world. She thought that she was born in poverty and had a weak health. My father was old and the baby she gave birth to would probably be weak."

"So she listened to her mother's words and worked hard to nourish herself. She nourished and nourished until her belly was half her size. She stayed in bed the whole time to take care of the baby. She didn't have any strength at all," Qian Xianhui suddenly laughed foolishly. "She didn't even make it to the full-term day. Just getting up would cause her to have continuous bleeding!"

"But she couldn't give birth to the baby. It was too big. It was really too big."

"I could hear her screams from the embroidery building. She screamed for a whole day, and then there was no sound. I heard from the nanny that she finally gave birth to the child, but the tears were too many and too big, and the bleeding could not be stopped... Later I learned that the mother had someone cut the baby out while she was still alive after she had no strength left. She died of pain."

Qian Xianhui's tone was calm but sad, but more of it was numbness. She collapsed completely to the ground, ready to be killed: "This is what I want to do to you."