In the cold palace, Princess An Ning sat in front of the window, looking at the desolate courtyard. The imperial concubine looked at her daughter. She understood her daughter. She was very similar to herself, not only in personality, but also in fate.
The Imperial Concubine walked over to An Ning, hugged her in her arms, and said, "Your father is just angry with your mother. He will take us out in a few days. Don't worry, your brother will not ignore us."
An Ning said: "I'm not worried that we won't be able to leave. With my uncle here, my father won't do anything to us."
"Mother, I asked my father to give me to my cousin today, but he didn't agree. How else can I go to my cousin?"
"That Chen Qiu is not worthy of my cousin, mother, I must marry my cousin!"
The imperial concubine sat down in front of An Ning, sighed and said, "How could this happen? I didn't expect you to follow my old path!"
An Ning asked, "Why did you say that, mother?"
The imperial concubine smiled bitterly and looked down at her hand. There was a scar on her hand, not big, only less than half an inch long, at the base of her palm.
The imperial concubine seemed to be talking to An Ning, but also seemed to be talking to herself, saying: "I am just like you. We both like someone we shouldn't like."
An Ning frowned and said, "Mother, there is no one I shouldn't like. No matter if he is a royal family member or a common beggar, if I like him, then I should like him. Now that I like him, he is mine, and no one can take him away from me!"
The imperial concubine looked at An Ning and said, "It seems I've spoiled you. If it were an object, you could buy it back at a high price, but this is a person, and one who already has someone else in his heart. Even if you keep him by your side, he's just a walking corpse. What's the point?"
Then the imperial concubine sighed and said, "I used to be like you. Only when I was really with him did I realize that I had only created a cage for myself. It seemed that I was controlling him, but in fact, I was controlling myself."
An Ning looked at the Imperial Concubine and said, "Mother, why do you think this way? You and Father...?"
The imperial concubine touched the scar on her hand and said, "Look, this scar was left when I was eight years old, climbing a tree out of mischief. When I fell from the tree, I stepped on a rock."
An Ning looked at it and said, "I know this. You told me before!"
The imperial concubine continued, "That day, he followed the late emperor to the general's residence. My brother was away, so my father asked me to play with him. I took him to climb a tree, but he said it wasn't a good idea because he had never climbed before. So I showed him how to do it, but I only had eyes for him at the time, and I slipped and fell."
"Although it was excruciatingly painful at the time, I forgot about the pain when I saw him blowing on me nervously and asking me if it hurt!"
"Later, I always dragged my father to take me to the palace to see him."
"Later, when he was in trouble, I begged your grandfather and forced him to marry me. Although I was only a concubine, I was still happy. But since then, he has never smiled when he saw me again."
"And yet your grandfather, a hero of his generation, was ridiculed by the people of the Great Yin Kingdom just because he had a daughter like me!"
When the imperial concubine was between eight and ten years old, whenever she had the chance, the imperial concubine, who was still a little girl at the time, would drag her father, Lu Guiyi, who was then the general defending the country, into the palace. Sometimes she would get to talk to the emperor as she wished, but most of the time she could not see him.
He is the crown prince, and he has to learn how to govern the country, so he is very busy every day.
In the spring when the emperor was ten years old, the late emperor passed away. Few people took the ten-year-old emperor seriously. Although there were some people around him to protect him, the three brothers of the late emperor were eager to spoil him.
The late emperor passed away suddenly, leaving no regent. The civil officials were engaged in all kinds of intrigues. Fortunately, the military officers had followed Emperor Taizu and fought all the way from the battlefield to Kyoto. The late emperor's reign was short, only ten years, and they watched him grow up.
They knew what they had to do, and the army was not in chaos but was scattered everywhere.
The Imperial Guards and the patrol camp in Kyoto only had 50,000 soldiers and horses. The nomadic tribes in the north were eyeing them covetously, and wanted to take advantage of the death of the Emperor of the Great Yin Kingdom and the young age of the new emperor to bully them. At that time, the Marquis of Yong'an, who was guarding the northern border, could not withdraw any men or food to support Kyoto.
There are no strong enemies outside the south, but there are two princes inside, one in the southeast and the other in the southwest. In the middle is the army of General Lu Guiyi, who is considered the army of the court.
After the death of the previous emperor, Lu Guiyi rushed to the south to take charge of the overall situation, and the seal of the northern army was in the hands of Fuguo Gong Ye Xuan.
One hundred days after the late emperor's death, the eldest princess married Ye Zhuoran, the heir of the Fuguo Mansion. The loyalty of the Ye family, coupled with the eldest princess's becoming their daughter-in-law, gave her control of the northern military power. She subsequently supported Yan Qinglian as the chief minister of the cabinet and rectified the government.
It was also because of this that the three princes had a reason to send troops. They said that the eldest princess and the Ye family were using the emperor to control the princes, and they sent troops to support the king.
The King of Qi in the north was isolated and helpless, so the Duke of Fuguo quickly reorganized the north and handed over his military power to prevent the rumors from continuing.
The two princes from the south were surprisingly united. Lu Guiyi had a hard time supporting them, but he managed to hold on for five years.
Five years later, the two princes seemed to have lost their patience and sent troops together. At the critical moment, Concubine Lu begged Lu Guiyi, and she begged Lu Guiyi with her own life, asking Lu Guiyi to ask the emperor to agree to take her as a concubine.
Later, for the sake of the overall situation, the emperor took her as his concubine. At the same time, Ye Xuan took his son and the army to the south, intending to put an end to the rebellion of the three kings at one time.
Afterwards, the Ye family completely surrendered their military power, and Lu Guiyi was crowned the Prince of Zhennan, becoming the only prince of a different surname. After surrendering their military power, the Ye family remained out of politics for nearly a decade, until the northern Tatar invasion six years ago, when Ye Xuan, at the age of seventy-two, led his army into battle.
Concubine Lu used improper means to sleep with the emperor, and she gave birth to a son as her first child, who was the emperor's eldest son.
After listening to Concubine Lu, Princess An Ning said, "That's good too. At least the emperor treats you well now."
Concubine Lu sighed and said, "Not bad? I'm not bad in front of you and your brother."
"Do you know that in the seventeen years since I married you, we've only slept together five times? Even though I'm a noble concubine, I'm still a widow!"
"The only thing I'm thankful for is that I was able to have sex twice. I got pregnant with your brother once and you once. So, we finally have a bond!"
Princess An Ning had never imagined that her father and mother would be together like this, and she had never imagined that the couple who treated each other with respect in front of them would require their mother to use despicable means to have sex with them.
But Princess An Ning said: "Mother, I will not be another you, my cousin will definitely like me!"
The imperial concubine shook her head and said, "No, Ye Chen's heart is colder and harder. There is no possibility of you marrying him at all."
An Ning stood up unwillingly, paced back and forth, and then suddenly shouted: "Why? How am I inferior to that Chen Qiu?"
The imperial concubine said: "You are better than her in every way, except for one thing: she is in Ye Chen's heart, and you are not, then you have already lost!"
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