The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

After packing up all the things to be sent home, Xie Yuzhen heard a palace servant come to report that Wen Baolin wanted to see him for something.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Wen Baolin was also quite favored in the palace, second only to Concubine Song Shufei and Xie Yuzhen. However, she had never liked to cause trouble or make friends with concubines. Even though the Baosi Pavilion where she lived was not far from Shouning Palace, she rarely interacted with Xie Yuzhen. Instead, she seemed to deliberately avoid Xie Yuzhen.

I don’t know why he came to me today.

Xie Yuzhen became a little curious. She signaled Chunfen to report the packed things and books to the Queen so that they could be sent out of the palace earlier. Then she stood up and walked to the main hall.

Wen Baolin had been invited in by Xia Zhi. She was dressed simply and elegantly in a moon-white palace skirt with the word "Fu Lu" in cursive script and delicately arranged chrysanthemum patterns embroidered on the hem with fine gold thread. She also had a freshly picked orange-yellow flower pinned on her hair. On the side of her bun she had only a pavilion-style hairpin, from which hung a tassel made of rice-sized pearls without any other colors. At the bottom hung a blue gem that looked like a water drop.

Wen Baolin's outfit was gentle, elegant, dignified and decent, yet still girlish in its beauty. Even Xie Yuzhen, who was so picky, couldn't help but secretly admire it in her heart.

Seeing her coming, Wen Baolin put down the tea he had just served, stood up and saluted, saying, "Greetings, madam. Sorry to bother you, madam."

Xie Yuzhen waved her hand and did not sit in the main seat, but sat down on the left side of Wen Baolin. Strictly speaking, her behavior was not very polite, but Xie Yuzhen did not care. She could see that Wen Baolin was deliberately trying to distance himself from her, but for some reason he came to her today. If she didn't pretend to be close to her and tease her, how could she be worthy of her own little heart that was eager to act and full of curiosity?

"Wen Baolin, you are too polite. I am the only concubine in Shouning Palace, and I feel lonely. I am so happy that you can come here. But please don't be polite anymore." Xie Yuzhen said affectionately.

Wen Baolin lowered her eyes slightly, but she didn't look uncomfortable. This action just made her look a little timid and soft: "Since the talented lady doesn't despise me, then I will... just say it directly."

She had personally witnessed Xie Yuzhen's angry - or rather, crazy - behavior several times, and knew that this person was not easy to deal with, so she decided to be frank with him: "I came here this time to ask you to tell me about Liu...Xu Xiaoyi."

It would take some time for the emperor's edict to reach Jingjun, and the wife of the Marquis of Jingjun had been imprisoned that night and was currently being held in a cell in Kyoto Prefecture that was specially used to detain officials' families. The empress also learned the day before that Xu Xiaoyi had changed her name in the palace register. Except for Liu Shuyi, who had been reprimanded by the emperor and put in solitary confinement, everyone in the palace already knew about it.

However, neither the emperor nor the empress had any intention of explaining the whole story to the concubines for Xu Xiaoyi. The empress might have explained it specially, but she was busy with palace affairs and was too lazy to ask the concubines to pay their respects every day. The next time they had to pay their respects was at the end of the month...

Xie Yuzhen guessed that, if nothing unexpected happened, the Queen would most likely make a special effort to save face for Xu Xiaoyi on the day of paying respects at the end of the month to show how much she values ​​her, so as to shut up everyone in the palace and nip any possible rumors in the bud.

Speaking of the Queen, although Xie Yuzhen still maintained a wary attitude towards her, she gradually became convinced by the words and deeds of the Empress...

Pulling his thoughts back to their original state, Xie Yuzhen asked with a faint smile, "Why did Wen Baolin suddenly fall in love with Xu Xiaoyi?"

Her tone was still cordial, and her smile was especially sweet, but Wen Baolin was extremely cautious and said, "It's because of Shen Xiaoyi. Since she fell into the water that time, her temper has become a little... a little stubborn for some reason."

Wen Baolin said this to save face for Shen Xiaoyi.

After Shen Xiaoyi woke up from falling into the water, she first had an argument with her cousin for unknown reasons. Not long after, she not only interrupted Xu Xiaoyi, who had worked hard to take care of her, but also asked for satin from her cousin, made clothes overnight, and put on a show of playing the flute in a bamboo forest to seduce the emperor. However, she did not succeed in seducing the emperor and was never summoned to his bedchamber again.

If she had acted more low-key and knew how to cover up, it wouldn't have been so embarrassing. However, she was so angry that day when she played the flute that she yelled in front of Meng Ronghua. With Meng Ronghua's temper, how could he be willing to indulge Shen Xiaoyi? He turned around and spread the news of that day, mocking her to the utmost.

Shen Xiaoyi was so angry that she didn't go out for three days. As soon as she went out, she went to look for Xu Xiaoyi.

At that time, Xu Xiaoyi was still willing to pretend to be nice to her and perfunctorily treat her as if she didn't blame her. But after the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, when her mother, the only person Xu Xiaoyi was obsessed with, was rescued, and she completed the system's task and received the reward, she was no longer willing to care about Shen Xiaoyi.

However, Shen Xiaoyi was obsessed with it and disregarded her own face, going to Yuchunju every day to see Xu Xiaoyi.

Xu Xiaoyi was so impatient that she closed the door and didn't even want to deal with Shen Xiaoyi anymore. Shen Xiaoyi was so embarrassed that she finally realized that Xu Xiaoyi no longer liked her and she threw a tantrum in the palace. Unexpectedly, Wen Baolin saw her.

All the new and old grudges flooded into Shen Xiaoyi's heart at once. She didn't care about status or blood ties, and pointed at Wen Baolin and spoke harshly to him.

Wen Baolin was completely confused. She really couldn't understand why Shen Xiaoyi became like this. After thinking about it for a while, and combining it with Shen Xiaoyi's recent actions, she thought that Xu Xiaoyi might have suddenly changed her name.

She wanted to ask Xu Xiaoyi what was going on, but ever since she rescued her mother, Xu Xiaoyi refused to see anyone except Xie Yuzhen, the emperor and the empress. She would push away anyone who came to inquire about her, saying that she needed to recuperate.

Since Wen Baolin was unable to meet the person involved, he had no choice but to shamelessly look for his "neighbor" Xie Ruizhen.

After listening to her story and seeing the worry and helplessness on Wen Baolin's face, Xie Yuzhen asked in confusion, "Although I have been concentrating on my pregnancy and not paying attention to other things recently, I have also heard about Shen Xiaoyi's disrespectful behavior towards Baolin. She was so presumptuous and mean, but Baolin was good-tempered and was still thinking about her."

"After all, we are sisters from the same family. We got along well with each other when we were in the mansion. I really don't want to watch her change her temperament." Wen Baolin said with a wry smile.

Xie Yuzhen smiled and said, "Has your temperament changed?"

She took a sip of warm water, raised her eyebrows deliberately, and said provocatively: "How does Wen Baolin know that she is not exposing her true nature?"

Wen Baolin choked and said, "We are all surnamed Shen. As long as we haven't really reached the stage of breaking up as sisters, I naturally hope that she can get better."

"You have a good heart, but others may not." Xie Yuzhen had seen the ladies from aristocratic families being affectionate on the surface but ruthlessly scheming against each other in private. She herself had also suffered greatly from this, so she was not willing to believe Wen Baolin's words.

Wen Baolin was stunned for a moment, and then she continued in her gentle and calm voice: "You can't write two Shen characters with one stroke. How can blood relatives really fight to the point of being like black chicken eyes? Maybe there is indeed a disagreement between her and me, but in the end... I still worry about her, and I am afraid that she will really go astray and hurt others and herself."