The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Xie Yuzhen pulled the queen into the room without any hesitation. She took the opportunity to touch the queen's palm and found that it was a little cold, so she took out a hand warmer that she had prepared earlier and gave it to her at the right temperature: "Your Majesty, you came to visit me in your busy schedule, but why don't you warm your hands with something hot? Look at your hands, they are cold, don't catch a cold."

The queen only felt her palms warm, and when she looked down, she saw a small hand warmer wrapped in a goose yellow cover with a bunch of purple grapes embroidered on it. She held it up to admire it and said, "It's just my old problem of cold body. I don't really like holding things in my hands..." She had too many things to worry about, and she was not in good health as she aged. She often held things and then forgot where to put them. As time went by, she was too lazy to play with such delicate little objects.

"It's an old problem, so I need to pay more attention to it." Xie Yuzhen and the queen sat down face to face on a low couch with a small table between them.

Yun Rong stood behind the Queen dutifully. Upon hearing what she said, she couldn't help but feel a little more favorable towards Xie Yuzhen. Her lips moved, not knowing whether she should take the opportunity to interject something.

Generally speaking, when the palace concubines are talking to each other, the servants are not allowed to interrupt without permission unless the master speaks first. However, this rule is not very strict, especially in such private occasions. If the palace servants have a close relationship with the concubines, or the concubines are willing to treat the servants well in this regard, then the palace servants can also chat and joke with their masters.

The queen just happened to have a good temper. Even though she tried to keep a stern face and maintain the dignity of the palace all day long, the palace maids around her knew how soft-hearted their master was.

She was busy with palace affairs every day and fell ill several times, but the queen didn't care much about it. It seemed that she was accustomed to her own illness and had a feeling of giving up.

"You are right, Madam." Yun Rong didn't want to miss this opportunity, so she gritted her teeth and said, "Your Highness said that she would get hot if she walked for a while, so she only wanted to wear a cloak."

As soon as she said this, Xie Yuzhen knew that although the queen looked serious, she should be very tolerant towards the people in her palace - even if she was just referring to the closest eunuchs and female officials.

Xie Yuzhen herself was not bad to her subordinates, but except for the two of them, Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, the other palace servants treated her with respect and were not willing to get close to her.

But it was not their fault. After Xie Yuzhen entered the palace, she punished a palace maid and lost her temper again and again, scolding all the concubines who dared to make trouble in front of her. She also kicked Qian Xianhui, a noble concubine, into the cold palace in a few seconds...

After thinking for a moment, Xie Yuzhen made a disapproving expression before the queen could speak: "The autumn weather looks calm, but in fact the cold will slowly seep into people's bones! How can your majesty be like this..." She looked a little angry.

A pair of big, round, bright eyes like a cat looked at the queen reproachfully and affectionately. The queen felt a little guilty when she saw this look: "Well, it's all old problems. No matter how much I try, it's just the same. It's better not to try."

"Don't bother taking care of your own body." Xie Yuzhen repeatedly asked Xia Zhi to replace the tea she had prepared with a health-preserving soup. "I wanted to ask you something, Your Majesty. Since you are like this, I dare not bother you anymore."

She deliberately spoke soft and sweetly, but not in a voice that sounded like someone pinching her throat. Instead, her voice had the innocence of a young girl. However, Xie Yuzhen's voice itself was not too soft. Instead, when she spoke seriously, she exuded a sense of loneliness and coldness.

The balance of these two aspects made Xie Yuzhen's words carry a strange charm, which would not make the listener notice it at once, but would slowly hook into the person's heart with every syllable - that's how the emperor fell for her.

The queen did not notice the voice changes that Xie Yuzhen had carefully designed. She only felt that the woman's voice was getting more and more pleasant, as if she was trying to be nice to her again... Hiss... Mid-Autumn Festival had just passed, and the Double Ninth Festival was approaching. Soon, the prince sent by Danzhu Wangzhang and the noble ladies sent by Silla as tribute as usual would enter the capital at about the same time...

As the outside world became busier, the emperor rarely went into the harem. After he was tied up in state affairs, there were fewer incidents in the inner palace.

Anyway, the queen thought about it over and over again, but she couldn't remember who Xie Yuzhen had quarreled with recently.

She cleared her throat and said, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

The Queen took the initiative to change the topic about her health. Yun Rong, who was standing behind, looked frustrated, but Xie Yuzhen smiled slyly and said, "I would like to ask your Majesty - stretch out your hand and let me see if it is warm."

this......

The queen was helpless yet heartwarming.

She kindly stretched out her hand and asked Xie Yuzhen to pinch her fingertips. Then she saw the pretty woman opposite her imitate the old doctor and nodded: "My matter is not urgent. If it makes Your Majesty's body uncomfortable because of that, even if Your Majesty forgives me and doesn't blame me, I will blame myself in my heart."

The last syllable of her voice was curled, which sounded a little resentful and pretentious, but because she had a bright face and straightforward behavior, this little pretentiousness became cute.

"Since I am the queen, I must take good care of you." The queen said softly.

Xie Yuzhen pretended to think about it, and then hesitantly told her his purpose: "I received a letter from home earlier, saying that my father drank alcohol at night and was shocked by the wind, and he had some symptoms of stroke."

"Ah?!" The Queen was first startled, then worried, "Have you asked the Imperial Physician to take a look?"

Xie Yuzhen nodded obediently: "I asked for your majesty's order and invited the imperial physician to come and see my father. He said that my father's life is safe, but half of his body cannot move."

She revealed a bit of sadness at the right time: "I only have my elder brother and I at home. My elder brother...had an unhappy marriage and remains unmarried, and has been away studying for many years. I also entered the palace, so usually, my parents are left at home staring at each other."

It was obvious that her father's illness was a sad thing, but she deliberately made it sound interesting. The queen couldn't help but start to worry that Xie Yu was just forcing himself to smile. However, the woman opposite her was very eloquent and didn't give the queen a chance to interrupt her.

"Since Dad got sick, Mom has no one to talk to. Fortunately, the Queen is kind enough to ask Aunt Xu to live with her, so she now has someone to talk to. But it's always a bit lonely for the two of them to stay at home."

"Before I entered the palace, I heard that the Empress had set up a home for orphans and a home for the elderly to take care of the widows and orphans... I wondered if I could ask my mother to take a few children from the home and bring them home to raise..."

The orphanage and the nursing home, which were run under the leadership of the empress, were supported by the emperor and funded by the officials' families.

The widowed and childless elderly people in the nursing home usually have no one to take them home to take care of them, but the healthy children in the orphanage are often taken home by families who cannot have children to adopt. However, the queen was afraid that the adoptive families were engaged in human trafficking or that the children were born to wealthy families, so she set very strict adoption conditions and rarely did they really adopt out children.

After hearing what Xie Yuzhen said, the first thing the queen thought of was not the plea in her words, but the fact that the woman in front of her had also given birth to a child before entering the palace.

It’s mother-child nature, how can they not miss each other?

Her eyes turned softer as she looked at Xie Yuzhen, and she also understood the difficulties Xie Yuzhen faced in entering the palace.