The emerald green jade hairpin made a crisp sound when thrown into the jewelry box, and the tail of the hairpin was exposed outside the box, exuding a bit of coldness.

"Master," Tingzhu glanced at the jade hairpin and saw the smile on the corner of the master's mouth, so he said: "Master, you wear this hairpin today..."

"I remember this hairpin was a reward when I was promoted to Zhaopin," Zhuang Yuyan let her long black hair fall on her shoulders as she took the hairpin out of the box and carefully stroked the auspicious cloud pattern on the end of the hairpin. "The jade hairpin that Linpin broke that day is very similar to this one, but mine has three auspicious clouds, while hers has six."

Ting Zhu took a closer look and found that the two jade hairpins were indeed slightly different. Without careful observation, it was impossible to tell them apart. However, she did not understand what Zhuang Yuyan meant for a moment and looked at her in confusion, as if she was thinking about the meaning of these words.

"I just want her to understand that auspicious clouds do not represent nobility. The day she made things difficult for me, she should have thought about whether she could have the last laugh. I am a petty person," Zhuang Luoyan said nonchalantly, taking an agate jade comb and slowly combing the black hair on her shoulders, "It is better to be a little crazy sometimes than to be as stable as a mountain all the time."

If she behaved calmly all the time, the first person who would be unable to tolerate her would be the empress. Occasionally showing a little bit of her weakness would at least allow others to see her shortcomings.

In the minds of the women in the harem, a woman who is a little bit arrogant is not scary. The scariest thing is a person who is always gentle and smooth. She is happy to make people think that she is a villain. What's more... the feeling of a villain being successful is also quite satisfying.

"But if the master behaves like this, won't the other masters and ladies be dissatisfied?" Yun Xi came in with a lotus leaf-shaped food box and happened to hear these words. "If this is the case, it will be very bad."

"In the past years, Concubine Yuan has offended many imperial concubines, not to mention my appearance of a villain who has succeeded. I don't know how many people have been pleased with me," Zhuang Luyan smiled lazily. Who doesn't want his opponent to be a little dumber?

Yun Xi understood immediately and opened the lid of the food box. Inside was a delicate snack. "Master, this is a new snack sent by the Shang Gong of the Shang Food Bureau. They said that they wanted you to taste it. If you like it, they can send it to us in the future."

Zhuang Yuyan took a look at the things in the food box, nodded and said, "Thank you." But she didn't say whether she would eat it or not.

Yun Xi understood, closed the lunch box, took a purse from the box, and went out.

Ting Zhu glanced at the food box thrown aside, then lowered his head to tidy up the jewelry box in front of the bronze mirror.

A few days later, news came from the harem that two palace maids fell into the lotus pond during a quarrel and drowned because no one found them. The queen was kind-hearted and sent someone to give a subsidy to the two palace maids' families.

Another month passed, and a fifth-rank official named Ronghua died suddenly. In the end, she was buried with the fine rituals of a sixth-rank official. No one cared about the cause of Ronghua's death, let alone her funeral. In the eyes of the women in the harem, Ronghua was too insignificant. She was gone, but there was only one less person to share the emperor's favor.

Zhuang Yuyan had a vague feeling that the cause of this Ronghua's death was related to the two "fallen" palace maids, but seeing that the women in the harem had already taken it for granted, she pretended not to know about it and only asked about some things about this Ronghua. After asking around, she found out that the two palace maids were Bai Ronghua's people, and that this Ronghua's residence was close to Ye Shurong who had a miscarriage some time ago. She didn't know what the conspiracy was.

Rong Hua died, Ye Shurong did not speak out, and the Queen did not continue to investigate, so the matter was covered.

As summer approached, some favored concubines had already begun to be supplied with ice in their palaces, with varying amounts.

Although Taoyu Pavilion was not the place that received the most attention from the emperor, none of the servants in the Sixth Bureau of the Palace Province dared to withhold anything, and the ice was delivered on time, without any slackness.

Yunxi is very good at making ice cream. She first asks the eunuch Dali to grind the ice into fine pieces with an instrument, and then adds various seasonal fruits to it. It is very refreshing to eat.

Zhuang Yuyan held the thing called ice bowl in her hand and couldn't help feeling deeply ashamed for looking down on the ancient people. When she was a student, she mentioned time travel to her friends and said she made shaved ice to attract attention. But when she got here, she realized that shaved ice was nothing compared to the ice bowl.

Lying on a soft chair and eating an ice bowl, two palace maids fanning, one palace maid tapping legs, and one palace maid massaging shoulders, is there a more corrupt life than this? Passing the empty bowl to Yun Xi next to her, Zhuang Yuyan yawned, "I'll take a nap. If other palace masters come to visit, let me know."

"Yes," Yun Xi reached out to support Zhuang Yuyan. Just as the master and servant took a step, the eunuch's high-pitched voice came from outside.

"The Emperor has ordered that Taoyu Pavilion be lit tonight."

Everyone in Taoyu Pavilion was delighted to hear the news. Ever since the weather started to get hot, the Emperor had been flipping cards less frequently. It was naturally a happy event that he flipped Taoyu Pavilion's card today.

After rewarding the eunuch's purse, Zhuang Yuyan thought that she would not be able to sleep well if she had to make pancakes in the hot night, so she waved her hand and calmly decided to continue her lunch break.

Summer is a season that women in the imperial harem love and hate. They love it because summer dresses are flowing and beautiful, but they hate it because they sweat a lot in summer. If they are with the emperor, they will smell of sweat, which is really not beautiful. So some women fumigated their clothes with fragrance, and even the incense in the palace was selected with more obvious fragrance, so that the emperor would not find anything wrong and naturally would not be angry.

As a man, Feng Jin actually didn't like the strong fragrance that filled his nose when he entered the concubines' quarters in hot weather, but the harem had always been like this, and he didn't show his likes or dislikes. It was just that every summer, the number of visits to the harem would decrease, and the more senior concubines in the harem knew that the emperor didn't like to go to the harem every day in the summer, so they got used to it.

After a nap, she slept until the evening. Sitting by the window, looking at the orange sunset in the sky, Zhuang Luyan couldn't help thinking that if she became a farm girl, she would still be working in the fields at this moment, not to mention putting whole blocks of ice in the house to cool down.

Even nowadays many farmers work very hard, not to mention the ancient times when farm tools were backward and farming was not easy. She felt that for someone like her, the harem, where she had food, shelter and men to go to for sex, was more suitable for her than running around outside.

"Master, everything is ready, it's time to take a bath." Yun Xi spoke quietly.

Zhuang Yuyan nodded, got up and went to the side room to take a bath. In such weather, no concubine would have the courage to not take a bath before welcoming the emperor.

She picked a light green floor-length dress without a waistband and put it on. The dress was fumigated with mint leaves. Although the smell was light, it gave people a cool feeling. Mint leaves seemed to be no different from weeds here. Zhuang Luoyan happened to like this smell, so she asked Yun Xi Ting Zhu to pick some when no one was around. The effect seemed to be quite good.

Seeing the palace maid who was serving her with her makeup was about to apply hair oil on her hair, Zhuang Yuyan quickly waved her away. Although hair oil made the hair look more lustrous, the smell of hair oil was a bit stuffy in the summer, and it was better to use it in a refreshing and natural way.

She tied her hair into a simple bun, picked two summer hairpins and put them in her hair. She didn't even put on makeup, but only used fruit-scented lip balm to paint her lips. Zhuang Luyan waved her hand and said, "That's it."

Tingzhu saw that although the master's outfit was not the most beautiful at the time, it was very comfortable to look at, especially in this summer, making people feel refreshed at a glance.

Zhuang Yuyan's hard work was not in vain. After the emperor came to her place, his expression relaxed. It was obvious that her dress and the furnishings of Taoyu Pavilion made him feel comfortable.

In general, although this emperor is difficult to deal with, he is much easier to serve than her boss who was always unkind in his life. She doesn't feel that much pressure on her.

Feng Jin slept very comfortably that night. He did not smell the pungent smell of incense, nor did he feel greasy hair. In addition, the faint and cool fragrance on Zhaopin's body made him very comfortable. In the morning, it was Gao Dezhong who knelt down to wake him up.

Feng Jin was in a very good mood after a good sleep. He smelled the cool and elegant fragrance in Zhaopin's room, appreciated a lot of things, and decided to upgrade Zhaopin's rank. After all, she was a woman who suited his heart and fell in love with him, so he shouldn't let her stay in the fourth-rank concubine position forever.

"Swing!"

When Zhuang Yuyan saw Feng Jin leaving, she stroked her neck, which was not sweaty at all, and yawned. It must have been a long time since the emperor went to the harem, so he was so cruel last night.

"Master, this is the tonic given by the emperor." Yun Xi brought a small bowl of medicine to the bedside, followed by a eunuch from the palace.

Zhuang Yuyan took the bowl and drank it. What kind of tonic is this? It's just a contraceptive. The emperor doesn't want her to have a child now, and she doesn't have this idea. Not to mention that her current status and imperial favor can't protect a child. Even if she has all these, she doesn't want to use her 18-year-old body to give birth to a child. Although fighting for favor is important, only if you have a life can you enjoy the wealth and glory you have fought for. She doesn't want to use her luck to challenge the danger of giving birth.

The eunuch from the Internal Affairs Bureau took the bowl with not a drop of liquid left, uttered a few auspicious words, and then left.

"If there was a child..."

"If there is a child, it can just be handed over to other concubines to raise," Zhuang Yuyan smiled nonchalantly, "Have you seen any concubines of lower rank in the harem who have children and can raise their own children?"

Yun Xi showed a trace of helplessness on her face. She also knew the twists and turns in the harem. "This is just my thought."

"It's bound to happen sooner or later," Zhuang Luyan didn't want to talk about this with Yun Xi. She sent her off with a casual remark and yawned, "Ask them to come in and help with changing clothes." She needed to pay her respects to the Queen again. The difference between this and clocking in at work was that the former required thinking, while the latter only required swiping a card or fingerprinting.

Just after she changed her clothes, the gifts from the Qianzheng Palace arrived. Zhuang Yuyan looked at the jade bracelets, jadeite hairpins and other things and couldn't help but curl her lips. Although she was a vulgar person, she still liked these beautiful jewelry.

Because of this delay, she went to pay her respects to the empress a little later than usual. However, the empress did not show any displeasure on her face. Instead, she gave her a seat and encouraged her.

The other concubines present did not deliberately cause trouble for her. First, Zhuang Yuyan was delayed because of the emperor's reward. Second, although Zhuang Yuyan was not the most favored one recently, she was still in the emperor's favor, and there was no benefit in offending her.

The weather was hot, so the empress did not say much and asked the concubines to leave. When leaving, Concubine Shugui walked in front, and no one dared to cross her seat. Only after Concubine Shugui left in a carriage did the other concubines disperse in twos and threes.

Because it was still early and the sun was not very strong, Zhuang Yuyan wanted to walk to a cooler place to prevent her thin arms and legs from staggering with every step.

But as soon as I reached a secluded place, I met an unexpected person.