The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

In this way, another two days passed.

After submitting the letter of apology, the Marquis of Jingjun thought he had escaped a disaster as he was no longer reprimanded by the emperor. After feeling sad for a moment that his ancestral fiefdom had been lost in his hands, he did not dare to delay any longer and hurried to the capital with his eldest son.

Liu Baokun, the eldest son of Marquis of Jing, didn't understand why his father was so cowardly and was actually willing to hand over his fiefdom. This was the territory of their Liu family. Once Marquis of Jing died, all of it would be his.

However, he is now just a prince with little say. He cannot influence his cowardly old father, let alone bypass his father to mobilize his family's 3,000 soldiers to carry out a "rebellion" that would cost his entire clan.

But he couldn't help but complain a few words. The Marquis of Jing County looked at his eldest son, who was not young anymore, with his triangular eyes drooping: "Do you still remember how many troops were stationed in the entire Jing County?"

Liu Baokun scratched his head and said uncertainly: "30,000 or 40,000?"

"Eighty thousand." And they are the best elite soldiers who are good at mountain warfare. They are totally not in the same league as the three thousand men they keep in the city.

Seeing his foolish son gradually understand, the Marquis of Jing couldn't help but sigh: "Do you think I'm too old and too timid?"

“No...no, father, I would never think that way..." Liu Baokun is in his twenties or thirties, but he still lowers his head habitually when being scolded.

The Marquis of Jing County shook his head and said, "In fact, if you can fight 83,000 people alone, then I can be more courageous."

Why is it eighty-three thousand?

Liu Baokun felt as if he understood a little bit, but also seemed not to understand it very well.

The Marquis of Jing County was too lazy to explain to him, and instead sighed and said, "...Men of our family just need to drink and have fun on weekdays. There is no need to be ambitious. As long as we are well behaved, it will not be a problem to pass it on to more than ten generations. Alas...you married an unvirtuous wife..."

As he said this, the Marquis of Jing County felt even more bitter inside.

Liu Baokun looked at his back and suddenly thought of his mother who had been imprisoned and would be executed soon. His fists clenched suddenly - if you were not greedy and lustful, and had not brought in one daughter after another into the house, how could your mother have become increasingly extreme?

He took a long breath. Although he felt that it was not worth it for his mother for a moment, when he thought of the benefits he was about to lose, he felt more resentful in his heart.

No matter how much you dislike that concubine, you wouldn't rush into the palace to beat her up, right?

Isn’t it enough to mess around in your own house on a daily basis?

Now, the whole family is in trouble because of the trouble.

Liu Hong, who was imprisoned in the prison, was completely unaware of the complaints of the father and son. She squatted in the corner with disheveled hair, and she had not changed her clothes for several days. Because the cell was specially used to detain the wives of criminal officials, outsiders were not allowed in normally, and there were only two or three people imprisoned in the cell.

As a death row prisoner, Liu Hong was imprisoned alone in the innermost room. There was only a strong female jailer who brought her meals once in the morning and evening. Every time the meal was delivered, Liu Hong would grab the jailer and ask if Liu Shuyi from the palace was coming to rescue her. She also asked in a confused manner if her own marquis had come to take her home.

The jailer was used to this kind of scene. She shook her head and put the food on the ground: "Madam, you should eat more now, otherwise you will starve to death in the underworld."

Liu Hong shuddered and immediately became furious: "How dare you! I am the wife of a first-rank marquis! The legitimate wife of the Marquis of Jing County! My daughter is the Empress Shuyi in the palace!"

The jailer looked at her with pity in his eyes: "The Marquis of Jing County is gone, so where did the Marquis' wife come from?"

The once dignified lady in front of him froze up in an instant, and could only mutter: "...You lied to me, were you sent by that concubine's maid to torture me on purpose!"

Her husband respected her the most. Although he had so many concubines, she was the only mistress of the mansion. Those seductive vixens were played with by her husband and thrown away. In the end, they would fall into her hands, right?!

Her son couldn't be more filial. Thinking back to the beginning, she had a son and continued the family line for the Marquis's mansion. Her husband and mother-in-law all praised her. How glorious! The only regret was that her son didn't marry a good wife, and he gave birth to two daughters in a row. Fortunately, she had the means to pick a few beautiful concubines for her son, and the one who didn't lay eggs was so angry that she asked her son to marry her niece from her mother's family. Although the age difference was a bit big, how many couples were really well-matched and in love these days?

It was all my sister-in-law's fault for raising her little daughter to be too pampered. She was just serving a man, but she dared to pretend to be sick and give me a bad look, which made me angry and I accidentally punished her. That would have been fine, but which daughter-in-law doesn't get punished a few times?

But she was so delicate that she knelt for less than half a cup of tea before her poor grandson died...

Liu Hong curled up in the corner, shaking constantly.

She kept picking out women who might be her enemies, trying to find the one who was most likely to bribe the jailer to deliberately intimidate her.

As she counted, Liu Hong couldn't help but think of Liu Shuyi, her only daughter.

When her daughter entered the palace, she was favored and became pregnant. Liu Hong was filled with pride at that time. She truly felt that Liu Shuyi was worthy of being her own biological child who was raised by her. She was different from those lowly illegitimate children in the mansion who were only fit to marry slaves. A girl from an aristocratic family should be born noble and have the best of everything!

But Liu Shuyi eventually fell out of favor, and to make matters worse, she gave birth to a girl.

What use is a girl?

Liu Hong stared at a shabby part of the prison floor with hatred, feeling unwilling: if she gave birth to a girl, even if she became an empress, she could not protect her biological mother. If she had given birth to a son, why would she have worked so hard to plan for her? In the end, the mother went to jail, while the daughter continued to enjoy wealth and honor in the palace.

Liu Hongshi did not know that Liu Shuyi had been under house arrest by the emperor. The emperor was also considerate and cut off all outside news of the Yanzhang Palace so as not to let Liu Shuyi know about the affairs of the Jingjun Marquis' Mansion.

In prison, Liu Hong felt sorry for her son and blamed her daughter at the same time.

Outside the prison, the former Marquis of Jingjun, now the Earl of Shunyi, knelt in a daze at the palace gate. They had traveled all the way from Jingjun, but they didn't expect that they wouldn't even have the chance to enter the palace. Outside the gate of the imperial palace, in front of all the officials, they were stripped of their marquis's robes, forced to kneel on the ground by several imperial guards, and listened to the eunuch read out the emperor's decision on their family in his unique voice.

The Marquis of Jingjun was stripped of his title and changed to the Earl of Shunyi. After two generations, he was beheaded and his inherited title was demoted to a lower rank.

Liu Baokun was deposed from the position of Crown Prince and replaced by Shunyi Bo's concubine's son. If the Crown Prince died without cause, his title would be immediately stripped and he would be punished.

The former wife of Marquis of Jingjun, Liu Menhong, was sentenced to death.

In the palace, Liu Shuyi, considering her contribution in giving birth to the royal heir, was only confined to her house to repent, and no one was held accountable.

Shunyi Bo's back suddenly bent completely. He took the imperial edict with trembling hands and forced himself to kowtow to express his gratitude. When he stood up again, he heard a thud behind him. It turned out that his disappointing eldest son Liu Baokun had fainted from shock and anger.