Now, more than three months have passed since the end of the New Year, and An Yuan'er is still three months late in returning to the An residence.
Not only did An Chaoli send people to invite An Yuan'er multiple times, but even his grandparents couldn't hold back and kept urging him to return home.
There are rules and regulations in the palace, and anyone who does not follow them is held accountable.
The young ladies of the An family—the second, third, and fourth young ladies—have all reached marriageable age, and countless noble families have come to the An family to propose marriage. An Yuan'er, as a prince's companion and quite beautiful, has attracted even more suitors to propose marriage to An Chaoli.
An Chaoli had originally agreed that once An Yuan'er returned home, he would arrange an opportunity for them to meet and get to know each other.
However, this arrangement was delayed because An Yuan'er had not returned for a long time.
Those aristocratic families who visited multiple times but never even got a meeting were arrogant and inevitably harbored resentment after being rejected repeatedly. Coupled with the rumors spread by malicious individuals, bad gossip began to circulate.
The rumors mostly connect An Yuan'er and Yi Chenli. An Yuan'er is a woman, and a woman's reputation is very important.
When she was a child, she stayed in the prince's residence by imperial decree, which was understandable. But now that they are both grown up, there is no reason for them to stay.
Unless she is a prince's woman. But the sixth prince has not yet been formally married, so An Yuan'er's status is illegitimate at the moment, which has led to a lot of gossip.
An Yuan'er has been in a bad mood lately, and she doesn't care at all what people outside are saying about her.
Life is for yourself, not for others to see.
Guoguo, An Yuan'er's personal maid, had been with her since childhood. The family constantly pressured Guoguo to persuade her mistress to return home.
Guoguo has been under a lot of pressure lately: "Miss, you're ignoring the prince and unwilling to go back. Can you tell me what you're thinking?"
An Yuan'er let out a long sigh.
It wasn't that she was ignoring Yi Chenli; all this time, she had been waiting for him to come to her and tell her that he had taken back the three things he had made her agree to.
Unexpectedly, Yi Chenli was a very stubborn person.
He came to see her every day, just like always, and accompanied her to do everything she wanted to do. But he never went back on his word about taking back those three things.
An Yuan'er was unwilling to leave like this.
*
But good things often come with difficulties, and before the two could clarify things, a new change occurred.
The unexpected turn of events stemmed from an imperial edict issued by the emperor.
Before a prince's formal marriage, although he did not have a formally appointed princess consort, he would be assigned concubines to take care of and serve him.
After all, the royal family values having many children and grandchildren. Although they value both legitimate and illegitimate wives, they cannot ignore the importance of having many offspring.
If a concubine becomes pregnant during the marriage, the prince usually keeps it a secret until he officially marries his principal wife. Then, the children born to the concubine are placed under the principal wife's name.
The eldest prince is only 3 years older than Yi Chenli, but it is said that he already has more than a dozen concubines, and there are even rumors that some of them have given birth.
Other princes, to varying degrees, all had concubines arranged for them when they reached marriageable age.
But Yi Chenli was the only one who had not made any arrangements.
That day, some minister mentioned to the Emperor that the Emperor had never been a qualified father and had shown little concern for Yi Chenli over the years, but on the surface he still liked to play the role of a good father.
Not long after, the Emperor personally bestowed two concubines upon them and sent them to Chenyang Palace.
A woman sent by the Emperor is naturally not to be refused.
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