"Are you saying that the ones who are more favored now are Shu Guifei, Rou Fei and Yan Guipin?" After eating and sleeping well and getting to know the servants who served her, Zhuang Yuyan finally felt that she should work hard to improve herself.
"My lord, that's right. The next three are Concubine Ning, Xu Zhaorong, and Ye Shuyi. The three ladies are very prestigious in the eyes of the emperor. There are also Concubine Xian and Concubine Yuan. They have been serving the emperor since he was still the crown prince. They are also different from the other concubines. Recently, the emperor has also favored Concubine Zhuang... and Bai Ronghua and Jin Liangyi." Yun Xi saw that Zhuang Wanyi had no emotion at all when she heard about Concubine Zhuang. She knew that her master was indeed calmer than before, so she felt relieved. They, Taoyu Pavilion, finally had some hope in the future.
In fact, in terms of appearance, my master is considered to be extremely outstanding in the harem, with fair and tender skin, black hair and dark eyebrows. If not for this, with my master's previous personality, how could she have attracted the emperor's favor? It's a pity that her previous personality has wasted such a good-looking appearance.
Concubine Shu and Concubine Yan are both beautiful and good at dancing, Concubine Rou is good at music, Concubine Ning is good at painting, Xu Zhaorong is good at poetry, Ye Shuyi is extraordinary, and even Bai Ronghua and Jin Liangyi are gentle and lovely. This shows how capable the concubines in the harem are. In their previous lives, any one of them would have been the object of pursuit by many men, but it was a pity that they were born in the wrong place.
Even Concubine Zhuang, who had recently received the emperor's favor twice, was the half-sister of this body, and was also a beauty with a good figure. It was no wonder that the original owner of this body was forgotten by the emperor after being favored a few times.
For an emperor who has countless beauties, beauty alone is not enough to secure the emperor's favor, because the thing that is most lacking in the harem is beauty.
As for the most favored Concubine Shu and Concubine Yan, they are both good at dancing... Zhuang Yuyan thought a little evilly that people who are good at dancing are mostly petite and slim, and the emperor is probably very satisfied with them in some way. Because no matter how many external conditions there are, for men, some aspects are probably the most important.
Zhuang Luoyan is now only a fifth-rank official, so she has only three palace maids and three eunuchs serving her. In addition, a few who are not loyal enough have been eliminated. Now there are only palace maids Yunxi and Tingzhu, and eunuch Fubao by her side. Fortunately, Taoyu Pavilion does not have any important matters to prepare, so it is quiet now.
"Now there are only three of you by my side. As the saying goes, trust the people you employ and don't employ them if you don't trust them. In the future, we will prosper together and suffer together. If I succeed, I will never let you fall into the mud." Zhuang Luyan certainly didn't believe that there are no unchanging hearts in this world, but as long as these people's hearts are loyal at this moment, it is enough, and she will not be stingy with these good words.
"The slaves swear to follow the master till death." The three knelt down in front of Zhuang Yuyan, hoping that Taoyu Pavilion would rise to prominence one day. If the master is favored, the slaves can stand up straight in the harem. Isn't this what the slaves hope for?
If people want to live a good life, they must learn to adapt to the environment. So no matter whether they kneel to others or others kneel to them, Zhuang Yuyan can bear it calmly. A good woman can bend and stretch. She kneels to others today and waits for others to kneel to her tomorrow.
Having beauty does not mean that you can be favored, but without beauty, it is very difficult to be favored. In this harem, beauty is not the only condition, but it is a necessary condition.
All men are lustful, no matter whether he is an emperor or an ordinary person, or whether he is a wise ruler or a foolish ruler.
Zhuang Yuyan was very thankful that she had a good-looking body in this life. In her previous life, she thought she was quite pretty, but compared to this body, she was far inferior.
But a beautiful woman, besides having a pretty face, must also have smooth and delicate skin and an appearance that can attract men, but she must not appear too artificial. If she is too much, she will appear pretentious, and if she is not, she will appear not dignified enough. The original owner of this body lacked something besides her appearance, so she quickly fell out of favor.
There is never a shortage of favored women in the harem, nor a lack of favored women, so after half a month, the concubines who originally loved to make fun of Zhuang Wanyi gradually lost interest, and even got used to her not appearing in lively occasions. Gradually, the name Zhuang Wanyi slowly disappeared from the mouths of the concubines.
"Master, the peach blossoms are blooming outside. Do you want to go out and take a look?" Although it is already spring, it is still chilly in March this year. Tingzhu brought out a 90% new cloak and put it on Zhuang Yuyan.
Zhuang Yuyan tilted her head to look out the window, folded her cloak, and handed her hand to Tingzhu, "Okay, it's boring to stay in the house these days anyway."
To the left of the main entrance of Taoyu Pavilion is a peach orchard. Because Zhuang Wanyi had fallen out of favor, few concubines came here. Zhuang Luoyan walked into the pink forest and wanted to open her mouth to recite a few lines of poetry in an elegant manner, but then she regretted not reading "Three Hundred Tang and Song Poems" carefully. After thinking about it, she could only think of the line "I don't know where the person has gone, but the peach blossoms still smile in the spring breeze."
However, she was in a good mood looking at the peach blossoms, so it was inappropriate for her to recite such a sighing and despairing poem. In the end, she could only shake her head and give up. She also picked a branch of peach blossom and pinned it in her hair. She would not dare to do such a pretentious thing in her previous life, but today she finally fulfilled her princess dream from her girlhood.
"Master, when you wear this peach blossom, it actually makes the flower look more delicate," Ting Zhu saw that Zhuang Yuyan was in a good mood, so he walked up to her and started talking to her.
"Please stop comforting me like that. The beauty of peach blossoms is far beyond the reach of an ordinary woman like me. I am just more charming because of the beauty of peach blossoms." She looked at the beautiful peach blossoms in the garden and suddenly remembered what an elder sister once said: "As a woman, don't be like a peach blossom. Although you may be beautiful for a while, when you wither, you will not attract any sympathy from others."
This senior sister is a young literary person. According to Zhuang Yuyan's idea, as long as a woman does not tie her life's hope to the love of a man, she can be like any flower. All she needs is freedom.
"If we say the greatest benefit of peach blossoms, it is that when they bear fruit in the hot summer, they are sweet and delicious," Zhuang Luoyan said this while looking at the peach trees with some expectation. The fruits that are not touched by chemicals are all rare varieties.
"If the master likes it, when the peaches are ripe, we can pick more and make them into dried peaches, okay?" Ting Zhu carefully supported Zhuang Yuyan to prevent Langxi from falling.
“That’s not necessary. I like eating peaches simply because I like their freshness. If they were dried, what would the taste be like?” Zhuang Luoyan shook her head, lifted her skirt, reached out and plucked open a peach blossom.
She was wearing a snow-white dress covered with peach blossoms today. Although it matched the current scenery very well, it made it a little inconvenient for her to move. Sometimes the peach blossoms fell on her neck, making her feel itchy and uncomfortable.
Ancient women's palace dresses are all exquisite in the eyes of modern people. The only drawback is that they are inconvenient to wear. However, women will often overcome all hardships for the sake of beauty. Zhuang Yuyan is working hard towards this goal.
The master and servant finally found a stone table in the peach forest. Before they could sit down, a gust of wind blew and peach blossoms fell. If someone saw it, they might say that the flowers were more beautiful than the women. At this moment, Zhuang Yuyan covered her eyes and almost rubbed them red. The heroines in TV dramas looked so beautiful when they smiled in the rain of petals, but for her, it was like dust falling into her eyes.
"Tingzhu, help me go back." She rubbed her eyes a few times, but they felt more and more uncomfortable. She finally decided to go back and wipe them with half-dry silk.
She stretched out her hand but was not supported for a long time. She couldn't help but frowned, "Tingzhu?" Seeing that Tingzhu didn't respond, she opened her dust-free eyes, knelt down after just one glance.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you." All the stories of making a stunning appearance on some occasion, winning the emperor's favor with a poem, are now gone. Now with a face full of wrinkles, how can she be beautiful, how can she be graceful?
"Stand up." Emperor Chengxuan was not yet thirty years old, and his appearance and inner qualities met the requirements of a male protagonist in a romance novel. The only thing he lacked was probably the infatuation of a romance novel male protagonist who could die and live again for the heroine.
"You are..." Maybe there were too many eloquent women around the emperor, or maybe Zhuang Wanyi had changed her inner core and the emperor didn't recognize her for a while. No matter what the reason was, Zhuang Wanyi understood one thing in her heart: Zhuang Wanyi, who had been favored several times, had long been forgotten by Emperor Chengxuan.
If she remembered correctly, this Emperor Chengxuan also had a name suitable for a male protagonist in a romance novel, Feng Jin.
With such complete hardware and software, it is no wonder that the women in the harem competed for him. Not to mention the high status of the emperor in this era, how could these women who have been raised in seclusion since childhood not be tempted when they saw such a talented and beautiful man?
Whether it is jealousy or power struggle, few people have the last laugh, while the emperor can live a glorious life and have countless women. Therefore, such a man is not worth being tempted even if he is as handsome as Pan An and as talented as the Eight Fighters.
"Your Majesty, I am Wanyi Zhuang from Taoyu Pavilion," Zhuang Yuyan wanted to smile, but she felt so uncomfortable that tears flowed instead, making her look even more miserable.
Emperor Chengxuan then remembered who the woman in front of him was. It turned out that she was Concubine Zhuang's sister. She had looked like a beauty, but unfortunately after favoring her twice, he found her boring and no longer favored her. Today, she didn't seem so boring after all.
"Assist your master back and serve him well," Emperor Chengxuan reached out to wipe away the tears from Luo Yan's cheeks, his tone calm and without any disgust.
Luo Yan heaved a sigh of relief. She didn't want to be killed on the beach before she could even start her ambitious voyage.
But is there really nothing wrong with the emperor's brain? After all, he had just favored this person more than a month ago, how could he forget so quickly?
At noon that day, when Zhuang Yuyan was eating a half-cold meal, the reward from Palace Qianzheng came.
The rewards were not many, just two glazed peach blossom hairpins and two pieces of palace silk with peach blossom patterns.
She was playing with a colored glass hairpin, which was very finely crafted and was considered extremely precious at the time. However, Zhuang Yuyan, who was used to seeing crystal glass, did not feel excited at all. She was just a little confused. Could it be that her ferocious behavior in the morning had made the emperor look at her differently?
It seems that the emperor has some problems with his taste.