When Xu Lejin was poisoned, Emperor Kangxi specially bestowed two imperial aunts, Chunhua and Qiuyan, upon her.
The older palace servants all knew that Aunt Chunhua and Aunt Qiuyan had served Empress Xiaokangzhang before. Now that Emperor Kangxi had bestowed them upon Xu Lejin, the meaning was self-evident.
Emperor Kangxi either valued Xu Lejin or the imperial heir in her womb.
The next day, the news reached Cining Palace. The Empress Dowager, who was accompanying the Empress Dowager to worship Buddha, froze, then revealed a bitter smile and lowered her head with a forlorn look in her eyes.
After a moment of contemplation, the Empress Dowager spoke in a deep voice, "The Emperor has few children. Several imperial offspring have died young in recent years. Xu is pregnant with twins, a rare occurrence. It is normal for the Emperor to pay more attention to this."
"Empress Dowager, you are the late Emperor's Empress, my niece, and the Emperor's legal mother. As long as you don't make any terribly wrong mistakes, your position as Empress Dowager is secure."
The Empress Dowager respectfully agreed.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I will follow your teachings."
After a pause, the Empress Dowager carefully chose her words and spoke softly in Mongolian, "Your Majesty, four years ago, Consort Hui passed away. I heard you mention that you wanted to bring more women from the Khorchin tribe into the palace. Now, Lady Xu is pregnant with twins. What are your thoughts on bringing women from our Khorchin tribe into the palace, Your Majesty…?"
Looking at the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager said softly, "The Manchu-Mongol intermarriage is an old custom. Although you and I have married into the Qing Dynasty and follow our husbands, we must also seek benefits for our mother clan, the Khorchin. After all, the Khorchin is the foundation for our position in the palace."
The Empress Dowager frowned, pondered for a long time, and then said in a deep voice, "I will discuss the matter of bringing eligible women from Khorchin into the palace with the Emperor. The kinship between the Qing Dynasty and Khorchin cannot be severed. Even if a woman from Khorchin cannot become the Empress of the Qing Dynasty, she should still become a concubine."
"Even if we are not favored, we must still have a rank; this is the mission of us Khorchin women!"
The Empress Dowager paused for a moment, her face filled with bitterness.
"Yes, Your Majesty's teachings are correct, I understand."
The Empress Dowager lowered her head and continued reciting Buddhist scriptures.
The Empress Dowager's aged face was solemn; her thoughts had already drifted far away, to the Horqin region...
At Kunning Palace, the Empress dismissed all the concubines who came to pay their respects, citing feeling unwell.
Reclining on the soft couch, the Empress said in a cold voice with a gloomy face, "The Emperor treats Xu Shi very differently. Xu Shi was poisoned, but her body was not seriously injured. As a result, the Emperor bestowed Chunhua and Qiuyan, who had served Empress Xiaokangzhang, upon Xu Shi."
"Today, when the concubines in the harem paid their respects, Xu was accompanied by Chunhua. I was furious and wanted to cause trouble for Xu, but I had to suppress it because of Chunhua's presence."
"Xu is a vixen who seduced the Emperor. Now that I think about it carefully, I am really angry and regret that I should not have sent Xu to the Qianqing Palace to deliver pastries to the Emperor."
Yun Cui, Chu Qiao, and the others carefully served the Empress, their heads bowed, not daring to utter a sound.
After a long while, the Empress gave a cold laugh.
Where is Xingxi?
Yun Cui paused for a moment, then said respectfully, "Your Majesty, Xing Xi failed to win the Emperor's favor. I think she's useless, so I sent her to be a third-class palace maid in Kunning Palace, just like Nong Yu."
The Queen nodded.
A cold smile curled her lips as the Empress spoke in an icy tone, "Bring Xingxi to the main hall. Xu, that vixen, seduced the Emperor. Now she's pregnant, and with Chunhua and Qiuyan, bestowed upon her by the Emperor himself, by her side, I can't do anything to her, but Xingxi…"
“Xingxi is a palace maid in my palace. If she did something wrong, even if I beat her to death, it would be her just deserts.”
Yun Cui trembled slightly and respectfully replied, "Yes."
An hour later, Xu Xingxi was carried out of the main hall of Kunning Palace by two rough eunuchs. His face was pale and he was weak all over, as if he had suffered extremely severe torture.
Two eunuchs roughly threw Xu Xingxi into a side room at the back of Kunning Palace, like a rag doll.
"Xingxi, what happened to you? You were fine, how did you get like this?"
Nongyu stared at Xu Xingxi with a look of horror.
Xu Xingxi silently shed tears, and after a long while, she recounted to Nongyu the torture she had suffered in front of the Empress. Nongyu was horrified upon hearing this.
The dignified and virtuous Empress in public was actually so ruthless in private.
A woman's body is inherently vulnerable in its most intimate areas, yet the Empress was so ruthless as to treat Xingxi so cruelly, simply because Xingxi's elder sister is Consort Xu of Yikun Palace, who is currently pregnant with the Emperor's child...
Nongyu shuddered, lowered her head and pondered for a long time before finally deciding to go all out!
It's all or nothing.
At worst, you'll just die. Rather than living a life worse than death, constantly living in fear and trembling, it's better to take a gamble and go all out.
Three days later.
Yingchun, Zhishu, and Ruhua, who served Xu Lejin, had been through the Shenxing Division prison and had lost a lot of weight, but fortunately they returned safely to the west side hall of Yikun Palace to continue serving Xu Lejin.
Only Jing'er, the palace maid bestowed upon her by the Empress, is said to have caught a cold while in the Shenxing Division. Her illness struck like a mountain and she did not survive, passing away in the prison cell of the Shenxing Division.
Xu Lejin simply laughed off the cause of Jing'er's death.
Whether Jing'er truly died of illness in the Shenxing Division prison or there were other hidden reasons, these were not matters for her to concern herself with now. What she needed to do now was to take good care of the imperial fetus and give birth to the royal heir safely.
Yingchun bowed as she entered the hall and whispered to Xu Lejin, "Your Highness, news has come from Kunning Palace that the Empress has punished Nongyu, a third-class palace maid, by making her kneel under the scorching sun in Kunning Palace for two hours because the Emperor glanced at her too often."
"Nongyu?"
Xu Lejin smiled and said, "Nongyu used to be a senior palace maid in the Empress's palace, but she was demoted to a third-class palace maid because of a mistake. I remember a month ago, I met Nongyu on the long street. The Empress of Chuxiu Palace and the Empress of Chengqian Palace joked that it was a pity that Nongyu was so young and beautiful and was only a third-class palace maid."
“Now, even though Nongyu is a third-class palace maid, she still attracts the Emperor’s attention. This shows that Nongyu is quite capable. Nongyu and I once served the Empress together, so we have some friendship.”
After a pause, Xu Lejin looked up at the direction of Qianqing Palace, then turned to Yingchun and instructed, "Have Ruhua send some medicine to Nongyu to treat her sunburn."
"It would be such a pity if a beautiful woman had scars on her face from being scorched by the sun!"
The welcoming of spring is a respectful response.
Xu Lejin smiled faintly and murmured to herself, "The Empress has repeatedly tried to harm me and the unborn child in my womb. I am but a lowly person and have no power to fight back against her, but I will do my best to do anything that will displease the Empress."
Yingchun withdrew.
Aunt Chunhua and Aunt Qiuyan exchanged a glance and sighed inwardly.
Having served the emperor before, they had a better understanding of the inner palace and thus knew that the empress's personality had changed drastically since she became pregnant with the emperor's child. Her behavior had changed from her former gentle, virtuous, dignified, and composed manner to something completely unruly.
The Emperor, considering the overall situation of the court and the harem, and remembering the Empress's loss of her son...
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