Chapter 2 Chapter 2
Tangquan Palace was far away from the imperial city. It took seven days to send a new palace maid to serve in the temporary palace. Perhaps knowing the imperial concubine's picky nature, she might not be satisfied with the candidate, so she sent someone to bring several lists of palace maids from previous years for the imperial concubine to review.
Shen Youyi stayed in the palace for several months and dealt with the eunuchs on a daily basis. Her aunt had taught her that once a concubine entered the palace, favor and offspring were more important than noble birth. The emperor was the most noble man in the world. If she could not win the favor of the noble, even the daughter of the Shangshu and the prime minister would be neglected.
Concubine Wei had been out of favor for a long time and had not given birth, so the Yunting Bureau became perfunctory. Many things did not need to be done openly, and there were many places where people were tortured in secret. It used to be a good place that palace people tried their best to get in, but now it has become deserted.
Such a gap is enough to hit a spoiled aristocratic woman hard.
Shen Youyi occasionally felt a little sympathy for her own body. Perhaps women with their looks had a miserable life. First, their husbands died, and then they were sent to the palace by their families to serve the emperor.
It was obvious that the young girl was unwilling to live her life guarding a dead person's tablet, and she insisted on entering the palace to be a widow.
The current emperor is at least thirty-six or thirty-seven years old. Not to mention falling out of favor, even when he was in favor, he might not have received much favor. He could not give birth to children and had no hope for future blessings. All he could enjoy was the wealth in his present life, but now all this wealth has disappeared.
Fortunately, the person in this body now is her. She has never received the honors that Concubine Wei enjoyed in the past. Even if she is a little unhappy about her original body, it will be gone in a moment of wind.
Apart from these fickle human relationships, the imperial concubine's food, clothing and other expenses are generally in line with her share. All concubines in the palace have times when they fall out of favor, so who can laugh at whom?
Some of the newly arrived women were only responsible for rough work. One of them looked no more than twenty-four or twenty-five years old, spoke softly, and the embroidery work she brought was quite outstanding, but there was a faint smell of milk on her body.
"My maidservant's name was Sui Chao. I entered the palace in the tenth year of Yuanshuo and have been serving in the Sixth Bureau ever since. Three years ago, I was granted leave from the palace and returned after giving birth."
Sui Chao wanted to please the new master, but the imperial concubine in charge was obviously not interested in her. Instead, she was flipping through the list of palace ladies sent by the Yunting Bureau. She seemed to have suddenly stopped when she read the list of the fifteenth year of Yuanshuo, and after a moment she laughed out loud.
Tan Rui observed the imperial concubine's expression and saw that she was lost in thought. She asked, "Madam, are you not very pleased?"
Shen Youyi came back to his senses, closed the list casually, shook his head and said, "Nothing, just her."
In order to facilitate the classification of palace slaves into different levels, the register recorded their date of birth, appearance, reason for entering the palace, the quality of their knowledge and skills, and where they were currently employed.
However, there are only a few words on the page about Shen's daughter.
Palace maid Shen and her mother were imprisoned for a crime, but before they were assigned a place to stay, they had a high fever for several days and were therefore moved out of the palace to recuperate. They later died on the seventh day of the seventh month of the fifteenth year of Yuanshuo.
Fresh and young beauties are rare, but if the crown prince loses one, there will be another. No matter how passionate his love for her was at the beginning, the prince has long forgotten her as a passer-by. Just like the emperor, he holds her in his palm when he likes her, but once she doesn't suit his taste, he will abandon her like a worn-out shoe.
She had already prepared for the worst and had been let down many times before. When she learned of the result, she didn't feel sad, just a little disappointed.
When her brother hugged her tightly in the study, he said that he would never let her get married. He ignored her for ten days just for her to go to the Second Prince's house to appreciate the flowers. She still couldn't forget the painful and horrifying look on his face, but in the end he still sent her to the palace with his own hands.
The prince panted as he pressed his hands on her chest, marveling at her shy and graceful demeanor. He affectionately called her Yiniang and feared that he would give his life to her if they got married in the future.
What does she want with the prince's life? She only wants her own life.
However, after waiting for so long, no one ever came to rescue her.
Just like what her mother said when she told her to go out without telling her brother: There is no difference between a young man and a child. There is no need to take every word they say to heart. After a while, they will forget everything and instead blame women for holding on to the past.
But inexplicably, she also felt relieved.
Many men have expressed their passionate love to her and are so infatuated with her that they would die for her. This overwhelming emotion makes her feel a little proud, but most of the time she feels embarrassed.
Unfortunately, she was just an ordinary young lady. She had neither the power to kill nor any major event that required someone to die for her. She could not verify the authenticity immediately, and only when something happened could she see it clearly.
They just coveted her beauty. When the Shen family was prosperous, they thought of keeping her at home for private collection. After the Shen family fell into decline, no one dared to have anything to do with her.
It was understandable that these people had treated her badly. They had many reasons to do so, so... the body she had taken over had once slept with the prince's father. If she had to sleep with him a few more times in the future, it would also be out of necessity.
Who told him not to lend a helping hand in the first place?
Shen Youyi looked at Sui Chao again and again, and for the time being, he could not see anything wrong, so he said with a pleasant face: "You all go down, I still need to read a few pages of books to calm my mind. You don't need to come in and serve me without my order."
It's like this again... Tan Rui looked at her master again and again. After hesitating for a long time, she slowly said, "Madam, it's almost the beginning of June. Do you really have no plans at all?"
Shen Youyi was a little puzzled, she blinked: "Is there anything important in the next few days?"
Tan Rui said helplessly, "The Emperor's birthday is in a month. Someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs has come to ask for the scriptures you copied for the Empress Dowager. They said they want them to be offered before the palace. If you delay, I'm afraid it will be difficult to report."
In the past three months, the imperial concubine always ordered people to deliver the scriptures on time, but she has hardly written since this month. She took a careful look at it that day, and the few thin pages were shocking.
The scriptures were not a big deal. What mattered was that the Emperor's birthday was just around the corner, and the imperial concubine hadn't even expressed anything.
Shen Youyi's slender eyebrows slightly frowned. It was the duty of palace concubines to compete for favor. If Concubine Wei was still alive, she would definitely not be willing to die of old age in the palace.
What's more, when the Shen family was defeated, she was implicated in it without knowing the inside story. If it weren't for the favor and status of Concubine Wei, she would never know the truth even if she worked as a palace maid in the Ye Ting for her whole life.
But she was very different from her original self. Concubine Wei was somewhat familiar with the emperor's preferences, but she knew nothing about it. It would be extremely difficult for her to attract the emperor's favor again.
Not only that, the original body had to write a scroll of scriptures with thousands of words and send it to the palace every month. However, every time she wrote, it was all her own handwriting.
She secretly practiced calligraphy on forty sheets of paper, only to achieve a similar style. However, when comparing the two, it still looked a bit ridiculous, like copying someone else's calligraphy.
Unfortunately, she couldn't tell anyone else about the difficulty, otherwise others would think she had seen a ghost.
Seeing that the imperial concubine looked hesitant, Tan Rui considered whether to speak.
No one knows the truth about why the emperor and the imperial concubine fell out, but the imperial concubine herself knows it very clearly.
If it were up to the imperial concubine, regardless of who was right or wrong in a quarrel, she and the emperor had been cold to each other for three months, so she should at least give in and either spend some time trying to please the emperor, or spend even more time trying to get the emperor to visit her on his own initiative.
If one were to say that a month or two ago, Tan Rui still had full confidence in this young and charming imperial concubine, now she has some doubts as to whether her recent uncharacteristic behavior is actually the imperial concubine's scheming.
But she had served Emperor Yuanshuo's two empresses before, and had seen quite a bit of what was going on in the palace. She smiled faintly and said tentatively, "I followed your instructions and sent Hanxun to Yang Xiuyuan's palace. Yang Xiuyuan reciprocated by giving you a gift when the Yiting Bureau sent someone back."
After all, the imperial concubine was a proud and arrogant woman. Even if she had temporarily lost her fighting spirit, she could not bear this humiliation.
Although Yang Xiuyuan's gift was disgusting, it was a good medicine in her eyes.
Tan Rui's gentle and shallow smile made Shen Youyi subconsciously retract and tighten her arms. Although she was young, she was not stupid. She knew at once that it was not a good thing.
Shen Youyi's impression of Yang Xiuyuan all came from the crown prince. This future mother-in-law should be a straightforward person with a slightly impatient temper, which is not very pleasing to the emperor. Even after giving birth to the crown prince, she has always been in the mediocre position of the ninth concubine.
However, the prince also said that he wanted to ask Yang Xiuyuan to meet her in advance, but she never heard any noble summons when she was in the inner court.
On the contrary, her roommate, a good girl from a good family, although she had no hope of being selected, was rewarded with some spices and cloth.
Perhaps he wanted to tell her clearly that she should stop dreaming about climbing to the top of the social ladder.
But she is not the type to listen to advice. The prince likes her. As a mother, why doesn't she advise her own flesh and blood, but instead makes things difficult for an outsider? How can this be justified?
Shen Youyi suppressed the thousands of thoughts in his mind and said calmly: "Bring it to me and let me see it."
In the past, they were mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and now they are concubines serving the same husband. Neither of these two relationships is necessarily good. The moment she sent Hanxun back, she could be considered an active provocation.
But who told the concubines not to leave the palace easily? Tangquan Palace was really far away from the emperor. Even if Yang Xiuyuan was dissatisfied with her, could she still come to her door and make trouble?
As long as the emperor is alive, she cannot do it, and neither can the prince.
She deserves to sulk behind closed doors for having such an idiot by her side to monitor her!
Yang Xiuyuan's palace maid held the brocade box. Before she even stepped into the palace gate, the strong scent of Lingling incense made Shen Youyi frown. She subconsciously covered her mouth and nose, sniffed the smell carefully, but then took her hand away and said nonchalantly: "What did Madam Yang say?"
The palace servant bowed deeply and said respectfully, "That lowly maid Hanxun was spreading rumors and making random accusations. Xiuyuan was completely unaware of this, but when she saw someone bringing her over, she was afraid the Imperial Concubine would misunderstand her. After much deliberation, she decided to have the lowly maid's tongue pulled out and demoted to a lowly servant to avenge the Imperial Concubine."
The patterns and beads on the brocade box were extremely ingenious, but once it was opened, the half-shriveled dark purple piece of meat exuded a strong and rich aroma that lingered.
Even though she was prepared, Shen Youyi was still shocked and stood up when she saw this disgusting thing. She had only seen such cruel methods in the torture chamber, but she didn't expect that the concubines would put these things in the open!
The palace maid raised her eyes and took a peek at the imperial concubine who was denounced by Yang Xiuyuan as a seductress. She was indeed extremely beautiful, delicate and charming, and she was pitiful. She was a little frightened by Xiuyuan and her eyes were filled with tears. She was so shocked that she couldn't even speak. She could not withstand such a response.
No wonder the prince has been possessing her for so many years and refuses to let her go.
But who would have thought that this was such a timid and cowardly beauty, who not only transformed herself into a daughter of the Wei family without the knowledge of His Highness, but also climbed up a higher branch, which made Xiu Yuan very angry.
It would have been fine if the imperial concubine had stayed quietly in the palace, but after losing favor, she became even more arrogant. She even dared to send Hanxun, who had been secretly setting her up with the prince, to Xiuyuan to provoke her, and openly flaunted her intimacy with the prince.
Even if she betrayed the prince, what would it matter? This crown prince, who was known for his courtesy, kindness and generosity, could not bear to leave her. He was so eager to have a secret relationship with her that he even forgot about his father, whom he had always revered.
Xiu Yuan was so angry that she almost vomited blood. She wished she could come over and kill this bitch who seduced the emperor and his son with a sword!
She felt her legs weaken as she recalled the terrifying look on Yang Xiuyuan's face before she left. She steeled herself and said respectfully, "I wonder if the Imperial Concubine is satisfied with Xiuyuan's sincerity?"
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