Queen of the Lin family in the Red Chamber

Being able to stand out from the draft all the way, becoming the crown princess, and transitioning to the empress fairly smoothly after all these years, and now relying on her own son to become the empress dowager, she is naturally not a role that can be fooled.

When I was a princess earlier, I hoped that the palace would be as chaotic as possible. That would be fishing in troubled waters. When I become a queen, I don’t want the palace to be too peaceful. After all, the emperor’s harem does not say three thousand, thirty is always there. She is better than her, and the emperor likes it, so it is even more difficult to calm down. Something has to happen, so that the emperor can know that she is hardworking as a queen.

But now that she is the empress dowager, her identity is completely different. She hopes that her son's harem can live in peace, and don't make moths all day long, and don't let her son's thoughts be wasted on these women all day long.The queen can't do this job well, the queen mother can help, but the queen mother thinks that she can't help for a few years, so the queen mother wants to find a successor.

Concubine Wu can't do it. Concubine Wu's background is too low, and she has followed the line of pampering concubines for so many years. It is inevitable that she has a little petty air in her life, and she can always show some flattery from the bottom of her heart when facing someone with a higher status than her. Facing someone with a lower status than her, but so arrogant and domineering, I feel a little annoying.

Just like what I said today, what does it mean that "Kant has taken a fancy to the little girl from the Li family"?The little girl from the Li family came in with a large army, and the two of them had never seen each other before.

The queen mother narrowed her eyes and said, "Little girl from the Li family? I don't have much impression."

Concubine Wu Gui smiled, "Hey, on the way back, I accidentally met each other. He said that the girl looked gentle and virtuous, and she was destined to be a filial child, so I asked the concubine. Although the concubine thought about it It’s been half a month, but it’s so easy for Kant to fall in love with one, so I’m here to talk to you first.”

The Empress Dowager nodded, and Concubine Wu looked up cautiously, seeming to agree with her statement. "It's a little late today. I'll invite someone to come and see it tomorrow. Even though getting married is what the parents say, they still have to think about the children's opinions."

Concubine Wu Gui went to Wanfu and resigned.

Only the Queen Mother and Cui Zhu remained in the hall.The queen mother is no longer a kind-hearted little old lady when no one is around, and her voice has become much firmer, and she no longer feels a little slow to respond before there is no one. "Kang Yang is her real son."

Cuizhu nodded, and persuaded with a smile: "Isn't it because of this that the empress is sad. In this palace, there are many things about mothers plotting against their own sons, let alone this one who is not her own."

"She doesn't make a lot of moves. She has raised Kant for so many years. This is the only time, but this time can basically cut off Kant's future." Chu Ming knew all about their situation clearly, and the attitude he had shown in front of Concubine Wu Gui that he had no impression of the girl from the Li family just now was just pretending.

Cuizhu recalled what the nanny who spoke back and forth last time said, "Ms. Li's temperament is gentle, but she is a bit soft, so she can't be a regular wife." The girl cried twice.

The queen mother nodded, "She must have worked hard to find such a person." The queen mother frowned slightly, "I just don't know Ruiyong...you will send someone to the Qing Palace later, please let him go early tomorrow." Come, I have something to ask him."

Cuizhu smiled and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I won't delay any mistakes at any time."

In Chuxiu Palace, the atmosphere of the showgirls was much better than when they first came here. They were all fourteen or fifteen-year-old girls, and they were born to be lively. The past two months have been considered peaceful, and the aunts have also seen it. It was tight, nothing happened to frame each other, so until now at least on the surface it was peaceful.

Both Wanyu and Sun Xiazhen didn't like to eat in the house, they thought it tasted bad, so at this time, they and several other girls were eating in the small room in the side hall of Chuxiu Palace.

This place is a small cafeteria. There is a small stove outside the door. The fire is watched by two eunuchs. Because the servants in the palace are divided into several shifts, the big kitchen will not cook for twelve hours a day, so everyone After the meal time, the little eunuch who delivered the meal would deliver the food, and then heat it on the fire in each palace, and whoever got off work would get his share.

This is a very good thing in winter, but it is a bit tormented in summer.

Especially now, the small cafeteria is occupied by beautiful ladies, and the maids who are off work can only eat outside.

Wanyu and Xia Zhen basically go in and out together, so that they have a companion at all times, which is a little safer.Of course, not all the girls in the same room are like this, after all, there are some people who think that it is better to start with the near water.It's just that Wanyu's father and Xia Zhen's grandfather are on the same shift, but from this point of view, a temporary alliance is not bad.Forgot to say, thanks to Lin Ruhai, Sun Xiazhen also met her family once.

Naturally, the two of them left together after dinner, but just as they stood up, they heard someone calling her cousin, and she thought of calling someone that way, except for Yingchun.

In the two months since Yingchun entered the palace, she also went to many places when the concubine first announced people to meet, but she calmed down in the past month, and withdrew from the team called by the concubine.

Yingchun was a little scared at first, but now it's just right. She only thought that she would be able to go back in half a month. Unexpectedly, Miss Zhang, who was in the same room with her, suddenly became familiar with her.Miss Zhang's single name is Lu, and her father is a fourth-rank road guard, but he didn't say which province he is from.But Yingchun is also thoughtful, only saying that her father is a general, and not mentioning anything else.

Wanyu's footsteps slowed down with Yingchun's voice, and immediately there were two girls standing in front of her, one was her cousin Yingchun, and the other was a beautiful woman who shared the same room with Yingchun.

Sun Xiazhen was a little anxious to eat just now, but now she was thinking about going back to wipe herself, so she said, "I'm leaving first, you should hurry up too. It's really hot today."

Yingchun was fine, Miss Zhang's complexion suddenly turned bad, she was so embarrassing, she left without even saying hello.However, there is still one, and it is not completely useless.

Miss Zhang smiled and said, "Miss Lin. My father's surname is Zhang, and my single name is Lu."

Wanyu is not surprised that this person knows her, just saying that she and Sun Xiazhen basically live in the best room is enough to explain the problem, not to mention that she also shares a room with Yingchun.Wanyu glanced at Yingchun secretly, feeling that she was a little impatient.

"Miss Zhang." Wanyu smiled, this girl obviously knew who she was, so she didn't need to introduce any more.And... this girl Zhang is not familiar at all, so there are only two situations, this Mr. Zhang is a Beijing official, but below the third rank, or this Mr. Zhang is not a Beijing official, but is still below the third rank.

"My father was the deputy envoy of Jiangnan Transfer Salt Transport Envoy. Today, I met my sister and came here to say hello." Miss Zhang said.

Feelings, this is Lin Ruhai's subordinate?But only for one term... According to my father's character of using acquaintances, there are many problems here.But it seems that Master Zhang is obviously promoted now, Wanyu still smiles, in short, putting a smile on her face can avoid a lot of unnecessary nonsense.

In fact, Wanyu is also a little irritable, eating on a hot day, and there is no air conditioner on her head, so she will go to hell if she doesn't sweat.However, she pressed "Then why did it take you two months to say hello?" Wanyu was about to say that when the weather was too hot, a small pot fell in front of them, and the soup and water spilled all over the floor, and a lot of it splashed onto the three of them. on people's clothes.

The little palace lady who was holding the soup on the opposite side started to tremble in fright. After shaking twice, she immediately knelt down on the broken tiles and the hot food, and shouted: "Miss Lin, please spare me! I didn't mean to."

The tiles are sharp, and the little maid kneels with a lot of strength, coupled with the thin summer clothes, there will be blood stains on the ground immediately.

At this time of dinner, all the ladies were there, and there were quite a few court ladies and eunuchs coming and going in the courtyard, so Wanyu immediately became the focus.

This is being framed again?

The aunt who was still on duty in the shift room came in. Seeing this scene, she said angrily, "Where are you? Come and take her away, come over and clean up the place." After speaking, she smiled at the girls and said: " It's a mess here, you guys should go back to your room first?"

The draft is currently the most important thing in the palace, so before dinner time, the confidantes of the masters in the palace got the news.

Wanyu was sitting in the room, thinking about this question too.

The court ladies also have factions.

Palace ladies are different from eunuchs. Palace ladies can leave the palace, but eunuchs basically die of old age in the palace.Therefore, many of the court ladies were sent in by their families to fight for their future. As for the eunuchs, if they hadn't lost their faces and lives, who would let their children die.

So there are family members, and they can still visit relatives. The maids who can leave the palace at the age of 25 are much easier to win than the eunuchs.

But there is another problem. There is no cure for the palace maid and eunuch's illness. At most, the medicine boy who is in charge of decocting medicine in the imperial hospital will come to see it. Then the palace maid who dared to kneel her legs to death just now... Really put in a lot of effort.In this weather, there is a lack of medical treatment and medicine, and the possibility of the wound rotting and losing his life is much greater than recovering.

Wanyu has offended quite a few people. When the crown prince came to power, Concubine Yu, Concubine Chen, and Concubine Wu became enemies, as well as the empress who is hiding in Jingren Palace and dare not go out. used to her.After all, if you do something to her, the people in the back row will be more likely to be in the top position.

Wanyu thought about the maid just now, if there were any palace maids who hit something.However, the first thing the little palace maid does when she enters the palace is all kinds of cruel training, for example, even if she burns her hands, she can't scare the master or something.

The court lady looked seventeen or eighteen years old, so she shouldn't have been.Wanyu's family also took in a few nanny who used to work in the palace. According to them, if they hit something, they would beat her with a board, or even kill her. So this maid dragged her into the water with the determination of death?

But what has she to lose?A worthless life?It's really not a problem to be bad to the maid, or to vent your anger.

Palace concubines can die silently two or three times a year, not to mention palace maids, the small elections are held every year, even if you exclude those who are old enough to leave the palace, there are still one to two hundred vacancies, among them are those who died due to illnesses and medical treatments. Up to two or three out of ten.

But... Forget it, since she entered the palace, Wanyu has always been very high-profile, fighting with many people openly and secretly, and a lot of things happened to her.

In other words, someone wanted the people above to think that she was busy?Wanyu smiled, suddenly not worried anymore.

Early the next morning, the emperor was not the only one who went to the Palace of Compassion and Ning to pay his respects, and the emperor was not the first one to go.

When the emperor arrived, Concubine Yu, Concubine Chen and Concubine Wu were already sitting next to the Empress Dowager, not knowing what to say. Looking at the expressions on their faces, the emperor passed by without thinking too much.

Greeting the Empress Dowager, sat down and drank two cups of tea, the emperor felt that he was in a good mood, but why didn't these three leave.

The emperor looked at the three as an eyesore. One son bullied his son when he was imprisoned, and the other two sons jumped up and down to grab the throne when he was imprisoned.The emperor was annoyed seeing them, and even thought about letting the three of them be buried with the Supreme Emperor when he drove west.

The emperor was a little distracted, and then was pulled back by the word "Wanyu". There was no way, the emperor couldn't do without Father Lin.Last time, two of the cabinet scholars were ill. When Lin Ruhai was on duty, one person was able to do the work of three people. Also, Lin Ruhai was the one who made up for the mistakes made by the imperial censor who visited the south of the Yangtze River last time.

It was Concubine Chen who spoke, "Although this is a good boy, he has only been in the palace for a long time, and there have been so many troubles. It must be that the horoscope is not in line with the royal family." These words are really vicious. The best in the world, if the horoscope does not match the royal family, then you will die.

Concubine Yu sighed, but did not speak.Concubine Wu continued, "Oh, I've heard that the maid was so frightened that she cried all night at such a young age. Why didn't she see it before?"

"Our silly boy," Concubine Yu hesitated, "I'm afraid his life is not hard enough."

The Queen Mother didn't speak, although it could be heard that these three didn't want to marry Wanyu back, but the Queen Mother wouldn't ask the truth, the three of them had to speak out.Besides... the three of them only said this after the emperor came in, so it's not sure who they were talking to.

The emperor's face was not very good, and he said: "Mother, I will come back in the afternoon, and there are still some government officials to deal with."

Seeing the emperor go out with a gloomy face, Concubine Yu raised the corner of her mouth and said, "Miss Sun is pretty good too." After speaking, she looked at Concubine Wu, "I think it's a good match for the eldest grandson of Sister Wu's family."

Concubine Wu also smiled and said: "Hey, the eldest girl of the Liu family is also pretty good. We have been with Ruile for another year, and we have a good temperament. Why don't you take a look at her, sister?"

Concubine Chen continued: "It is very important to marry a good daughter-in-law and go home. Look at my family, Ruicheng. Zhao's temper is too strong, and he hasn't given birth to a son yet. Although he has two concubine sons, how can he be regarded as a serious grandson?" To marry a wife, it’s better to find someone who is safe and peaceful.”

A few people were talking, when suddenly a palace official came in and said, "Your Majesty, Princess Qing is asking to see you."

Princess Qing is the daughter-in-law of the emperor's second brother. The emperor looked down on his brothers, but he couldn't help giving them the title of king, so he was lazy and took a word from their names as titles.The second child is called Ruiqing, so he is Prince Qing.

Although Prince Qing lives outside the palace, Princess Qing's family has a niece who is also drafting this year, plus she wants to find a wife for her son, so she is also very concerned about the beauty's movements, and the number of times she goes to the palace to pay her respects is also much more.

Prince Qing is a straightforward person. After so many years of hearing and seeing, Princess Qing also has something to say. After coming in to say hello, before she stood up straight, she said: "The Empress Dowager, the Wanyu I saw last time, I have to change it."

"Okay, I understand." The queen mother looked at the few people who came to pay her respects today, "You all mean that?"

Everyone nodded, seeing that the Queen Mother's face was not very good, they left one by one.

After the people left, the Queen Mother said: "Go and find out, how did the news get out, how did the second family know about it."

The three concubines went back to the small courtyard behind the Compassionate Ning Palace together, and they didn't speak for a long time after they sat down.Although becoming a concubine is a step forward in name, the treatment of the concubine is more than one level worse than that of the queen mother, and even the courtyard where she lives is much worse than when she was a concubine before. The superior Wanyu hated her to the bone.

After a while, Concubine Yu said: "It should be almost the same now, she must not be able to enter the palace."

Concubine Chen shook her head, "Not necessarily, she helped the emperor earlier, maybe..."

"No matter how much she helps the emperor, the emperor can't like a troublemaker." Concubine Wu said firmly.

Concubine Yu sighed quietly, "There is still more than half a month."

Not two days later, Xiu Nu was swarmed into the imperial garden. Of course, there were also young talents who were to be married this time waiting in the garden, only the outstanding ones. After all, the rest had to wait for them There is only one choice after picking.

The emperor is not among them. His last child is five years old. Although he doesn't want to admit it, there is a part on his body that is more ornamental than practical.

The showgirls dispersed as soon as they entered the Royal Garden. This was the crucial finishing touch. It would be fine if you really missed the last chance to show off in front of the princes, but no one wanted to let the "false girlfriends" Stealing one's own limelight is a blessing or a curse alone.

Wanyu was thinking about a question, should she find someone to marry in this session, or just tell her father that she didn't like one and wait for the next session.

But thinking about the next session, she will be seventeen years old. Although she doesn't feel old, but the age of the young fresh meat in the next session, the oldest is fifteen, and the youngest is thirteen. Besides, who is she looking for?The one who digs out the eggs?

Although her father said whoever she likes is whoever she likes, there is still a premise before this, the son of the emperor, so there are only two candidates.

Wanyu was wandering aimlessly in the imperial garden, and occasionally she could see a certain prince and grandson asking for greetings. Unknowingly, she came under the maple tree last time, and there was a person standing under the tree, the king of Nan'an. Ruiqi, the second son of his wife, saw Wanyu's eyes light up, and the two of them were walking side by side. Ruiqi said, "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Wanyu didn't speak, and Ruiqi felt that it shouldn't be like this, but then continued: "I have an older brother in my family, and my sister-in-law takes care of the housework." You don't have to worry about it when you go, but the latter sentence It was too explicit to say it.

Wanyu still didn't respond, and Rui Qi couldn't say too much, so she said: "You are a bit too conspicuous in the palace." Rui Qi remembered the word "provoking trouble" that her mother said, and said again: "But... wait... just alright."

Rui Qi could only say two or three words, and Rui Qi regretted not waiting for Wanyu's answer, but according to the news in the palace, the concubines who asked to marry her all backed down, so it must not be difficult, besides, her mother was here. After repeatedly emphasizing that Lin Ruhai is a first-rank official, he reluctantly agreed.

Wanyu was a little annoyed when she heard the word "conspicuous", especially when Ruiqi's words were always tinged with pity.She said goodbye in a friendly way, found a rockery and turned around, and soon there was no sign of Rui Qi.

There is a small waterfall in front, and a pond below. Because there is no shade on it, there are no people there, but when Wanyu turns around, she finds that there is actually a person sitting on the stone by the pond, the prince's bastard son Kant.

When she saw her, she couldn’t hide. Wanyu stepped forward to greet her and wanted to leave, but Kant suddenly said: "My mother died in this pond, and I was less than three years old that year." Kant stared at the pond water. I didn't look at Wanyu.

But... you are lying, the ponds in the palace are very shallow, it is impossible to drown people, let alone the maids and eunuchs?

"My mother died with my younger brother...then I went to Concubine Wu's palace."

Not to mention anything else, this kind of palace is secretive, although Wanyu knows to hide away, she can't help but become curious.

Kant stood up suddenly, strode up to Wanyu, held a hot jade pendant in his hand and put it into Wanyu's hand, "This is what my mother left for me, you take it well."

And then...he's gone!

Wanyu was attracted by the secrets of the court, and was stunned for two seconds by Kant's unreasonable play, and then...

I can't catch up, and I can't scream, but with her well-protected eyesight of at least 5.0, the ears and the back of the neck of the person who strode away in front of her are red, and her fists are tightly clenched. , but at least not with the same hands and feet.

How to put it, red ears are more exciting than "conspicuous".

Wanyu squeezed the jade pendant in her hand, and had to admit that she had also been successfully plotted once.

This... but the feeling of giving and receiving in private is really good.