"Phew~" Qi Lan breathed a sigh of relief.
Wan'er turned to him and smiled, "What? Are you afraid that I will fall for her trick?"
Qi Lan nodded vigorously, not denying it. "Yes, this servant is truly worried. Since your youth, Your Highness has suffered greatly at her hands. If it weren't for your current rank being above hers, she would only become more unscrupulous. This servant has advised Your Highness not to believe her words, but Your Highness always..."
She fell silent at this point, seemingly finding it difficult to speak.
Seeing this, Wan'er understood, but she didn't blame Qi Lan for saying too much. Instead, she comforted him, saying, "I know I was foolish before and trusted the wrong people. I have seen your loyalty."
Hearing this, Qi Lan felt a little relieved.
Wan'er rubbed her temples. "Since Songdan has humiliated me like this, I will naturally not let it go. However, I have forgotten many things from the past. You should tell me what she did to me."
"Yes," Qi Lan replied, and then began to explain.
It turns out that Wan'er came to the capital when she was twelve years old, following her father's promotion.
Because of Wan'er's arrival, Songdan lost her title as the most beautiful woman in the new Manchuria and Mongolia, and the title was transferred to Wan'er. It was at this time that she incurred Songdan's resentment.
Therefore, Songdan would either push Wan'er into the pond under the pretext of accident or trick Wan'er into going to a deserted mountain to play. When the sun set, she would leave with her maids, leaving Wan'er alone in the deep mountains.
Perhaps it was a mother's intuition, but Wan'er's mother, guided by her intuition, gathered many people and searched until midnight before finally finding her.
When they found her, her lips were frozen and purple, and there were hungry wolves watching her from not far away. If her mother hadn't arrived in time, she would have become food for the wolves.
However, this was not the worst of all. What was even worse was that when Wan'er came of age, there was a talent show, and Songdan was afraid that Wan'er would take away her spot. So she sent an ugly cousin to steal Wan'er's innocence.
Fortunately, Qi Lan discovered this time and knocked the ugly man unconscious without alerting anyone.
In this way, Wan'er's innocence remains intact, and her reputation is undamaged.
However, Wan'er was greatly frightened by this and subsequently fell seriously ill. After waking up, she completely forgot about the incident, but thus missed the talent show.
That's why she entered the palace at eighteen; normally, one could be selected at fifteen or sixteen.
Upon hearing this, Wan'er remained silent for a long time. "It's a pity she still lost. Even though I entered the palace a few years later than her, my rank is still above hers."
"Exactly!" Qi Lan gently patted her shoulder. "No matter how much Consort Ning tries, she can never compare to you."
Unfortunately, the original owner was clueless. Even though others hurt her like that, she was still foolishly kind to them. Did she really want to be a bodhisattva, saving all sentient beings and repaying evil with good?
Human nature is never as simple as it seems; her act of repaying evil with kindness is the root cause of others taking advantage of her.
So Wan'er stopped holding back and was determined to teach Songdan a lesson.
She wanted to make her suffer a fate worse than death, to make her regret ever being born.
Fortunately, although Wan'er was envied by the harem, Fu Lin and Jing'er were on her side, so her actions were not too difficult.
Take, for example, the matter of Yu Yan being adopted by Songdan Ama. Fulin agreed to it without even asking.
Now the humiliation that was originally meant for Dong E Shuo was transferred to Songdan Ama, becoming the subject of gossip among the nobles in the capital.
After burying Yu Yan, Song Dan's father, Dong E Jun, rushed to the palace.
Upon hearing this, Wan'er wanted to go see what was going on, but she couldn't go openly. So she lied to everyone that she was going to take a nap and, with the help of the system, rushed to Songdan Palace.
Through the crack, she saw Dong Ejun, dressed in an official robe, enter the palace.
His jaw was covered in stubble, he looked haggard, and there were faint red veins in the depths of his eyes, suggesting he hadn't slept well for several days.
"Your subject pays respects to Consort Ning!"
Although Songdan was the biological daughter of Dong'e County, she was still a concubine of Emperor Fulin, and there was ultimately a difference in their social status.
"You may all leave!" Songdan ordered.
After all the palace maids and eunuchs had left the hall, she called out, "Father, what important matter brings you to the palace?"
"What do you think?" Dong Ejun's face darkened instantly. He walked step by step to Songdan, his presence as terrifying as Mount Tai pressing down on him.
At this moment, Dong Ejun suddenly stopped, as if he had noticed someone spying on him, and turned to look out the window.
Having been a warrior on the battlefield, he proceeded with utmost caution with every step.
The window was half-open, but Wan'er wasn't flustered at all, after all, she had the system with her.
After a long while, seeing that everything outside the window was as it had been, Dong Ejun finally felt relieved.
“Dan’er…I don’t know!” Songdan said tremblingly, as if she was very afraid of Dong E’shuo.
"How dare you say you don't know!" Dong Ejun was so angry that his veins bulged, and he slapped Songdan hard across the face. "You're really getting more and more ambitious. Look at what you're doing now!"
The sound of the slap was heard by Wan'er outside the window. As if she had been constipated for days, she suddenly felt a thud and her body and mind were filled with boundless joy.
"Hit her a few more times, it would be best to kill her," Wan'er prayed in her heart.
Songdan covered her stinging face, not daring to utter a sound. "Father, your daughter...your daughter was wrong!"
Dong'e County snorted coldly: "Wrong? Where did I go wrong?"
Songdan lowered his head and said with resentment, "I made a mistake by underestimating Dong E Wan'er, which allowed her to outmaneuver me."
Upon hearing this, Dong Ejun temporarily suppressed his anger and sat down opposite her. "I have fought for many years and have never felt so humiliated. Now that I am old, I have to suffer this insult. You have ruined all my reputation in this life."
"I'm sorry, Father!" Songdan choked out, "It's all because of that vile woman Dong'e Wan'er, all of this is her fault."
She blamed all the mistakes on Wan'er, but didn't think that she had provoked her first.
So she recounted everything that had happened in Chengqian that day.
Dong Ejun laughed angrily: "You still have the nerve to say that? I've raised you for so many years, and you can't even beat a stupid and clumsy Dong E Wan'er. Are you still my daughter? Someone as stupid as you would be better off becoming Dong E Shuo's daughter."
“Father, I didn’t… I was just confused for a moment!” Songdan said, feeling aggrieved.
Dong Ejun waved his hand: "That's enough. This has already happened, and I'm too lazy to waste any more words with you. Now that Dong E Wan'er has moved to the palace, her health will definitely get better and better. When she gives birth to a prince, not only will you not have a position in the palace, but even your father will be ignored. Everyone will rush to curry favor with Dong E Shuo."
That's how the imperial harem is; often, a single move can have far-reaching consequences.
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