The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Although the previous dynasty was in turmoil due to the purge of Meng's followers, Lu Weiyuan's third-day bathing ceremony was still extremely lively and grand.

Because Xie Yuzhen was not in a good condition to have her daughter exposed to the wind, she only asked her mother to carry her daughter out, and after going through the formalities, she quickly brought her back to the house. The concubines from various palaces and the ladies from other courts who were invited to the ceremony presented her with gifts, most of which were golden ingot jewelry, white pearls, and already polished gemstones that lay at the bottom of the basin, glittering...

If it were in the past, Xie Yuzhen would have been envious, but after being in the palace for a long time, she was allowed to go back and forth between the emperor's private treasury as often as she wanted. Now her taste for appreciating property had become very high. Looking at the dazzling golden light in the basin for her daughter's third day bath, Xie Yuzhen simply instructed Xia Zhi to have people count and make a list and store it for her daughter.

"It's good to be born in a royal family..." Xie Yuzhen whispered while holding her daughter. She still had to blame her father for being so incompetent. If he had been more motivated, she would not have been tortured by those inhuman things and become what she is now - but it doesn't matter, as long as she can live a good life and protect her loved ones, Xie Yuzhen is willing no matter what she becomes.

The daughter in her arms giggled and waved her hands. Xie Yuzhen stretched out a finger and asked her daughter to hold it in her hand: "You little rascal, you can't even see people clearly, but you want to grab everything in your hands..."

The mother and daughter were kissing each other on the bed.

Xie Yuzhen heard familiar footsteps approaching the door. She turned around and saw that it was Xie's mother who was walking in with a worried look on her face. She raised her voice and asked, "Mother, what's wrong?"

Mother Xie walked under the door curtain and sat down on the chair that the palace servant dragged over. "Just now, I went to see your aunt Jun out of the palace. On the way back, I found that there seemed to be some noise in the direction of Kunning Palace. When I passed by, I heard a child crying."

For Lu Weiyuan's third-day bath, he invited families that were close to the emperor and Xie Ruizhen. On the emperor's side, naturally all the royal family members who could come came, as well as a few female relatives from the courtiers whom he valued; while Xie Ruizhen's side was much simpler, with only the Jun family present.

However, this time, only Madam Jun Ye came. Jun Yuexin did not come to the palace with her - she said that she had gone to the city with her brother to train troops half a month ago. She only asked Ye to deliver a gift on her behalf, and said that she would come on the day when Lu Weiyuan's full moon came.

Xie Yuzhen was well aware of Jun Yuexin's restless personality, so he naturally had no grudge against her for not being able to attend his daughter's third-day baptism. He just felt a little regretful that he didn't take this opportunity to see her.

"The sound of a child crying?" Xie Yuzhen couldn't help but be surprised.

There were two children raised in Kunning Palace, one was the fifth prince born to the queen, and the other was the fourth princess born to Liu Shuyi.

The fifth prince was very sickly, and both the emperor and the empress were extremely careful with this son. Not only did they take care of his food, clothing, housing and transportation, they also tried their best to make him happy and not let him have any bad emotions, for they were afraid that his bad mood would lead to his health getting worse. Therefore, although the fifth prince was young and weak and did not see outsiders, according to the news that Xie Yuzhen occasionally heard from the empress, the fifth prince had a cheerful temper and had rarely cried since he was born.

But the fourth princess is a little different.

She also had a poor health, but it was not congenital. It was caused by her mother Liu Shuyi, who valued the emperor's favor more than her own daughter.

When Liu Shuyi was pregnant, she fell out of favor for criticizing the queen. After giving birth to a daughter, she won the emperor's favor again because her daughter fell ill. She then thought of a new way to win favor - she deliberately made her daughter sick to attract the emperor to visit, and took the opportunity to win favor.

But the emperor was not a fool after all. He would have been fine if it happened once or twice. During these ten days, the fourth princess went to see her father for seven days due to illness. When the emperor went there, he found that his daughter had all these old illnesses caused by being ignored. He no longer gave Liu Shuyi any face and scolded her severely. He even thought about taking the fourth princess away and finding a new adoptive mother.

However, it was only after Liu Shuyi begged hard and repeatedly promised that she would never do it again that the emperor kept the fourth princess in her palace.

Since then, Liu Shuyi never used such means to win favor again, but it was a pity that she ruined the Fourth Princess's health. Later, Liu Shuyi's biological mother, Hong, slapped Concubine Xu, violated the royal dignity and was executed. On the day of the incident, Liu Shuyi held the Fourth Princess out to wait for the Emperor, but she did not pay attention to taking good care of her daughter and almost dropped the Fourth Princess.

The emperor was already displeased with her biological mother's offense against the royal family, and seeing that she seemed to be returning to her old ways towards her daughter, he took the fourth princess away to be taken care of by the empress and put Liu Shuyi under house arrest.

From then on, until Xie Ruizhen gave birth, Liu Shuyi never came out again.

"Mother, can you tell whether it's a boy or a girl crying?" Xie Yuzhen asked.

Mother Xie thought about it carefully and replied, "It should be a girl... I heard that the fourth princess is currently being raised in the Queen's palace?"

"Yes." Xie Yuzhen nodded. "In the past, I went to Kunning Palace to pay respects and met the Fourth Princess once or twice. The Queen is much better at raising children than her own mother. Since the first time I met the Fourth Princess, she has not only grown up, but also become rounder and healthier. Except for the period when she just left Liu Shuyi, I have never seen her cry."

"Did something happen?" Xie's mother asked worriedly.

Xie Yuzhen held her daughter in her arms and thought for a while, then comforted her: "Who knows... Mother, don't worry about it. Children are bound to cry and make trouble. Even our Yuanjun, who loves to laugh, would cry for a while just because the mat was wet, right?"

Maybe she understood what her mother said, but the little girl groaned and kicked Xie Yuzhen's arm softly, earning a kiss from the latter: "You're getting stronger and stronger, Yuanjun is awesome!"

After kissing his precious daughter, Xie Yuzhen raised his head and said to his mother: "Anyway, mother, don't worry about these things. Just take good care of Tan Nu. When the Yongjia Marquis's Mansion is built, we will have to move out... If there are students or officials from the capital who come to seek refuge, if you and your brother don't know how to deal with it, just ask the housekeepers and maids sent by His Majesty."

Compared to the legitimate owner of the Yongjia Marquisate, Xie Yi is now more of a plaque in Xie Yuzhen's hand to recruit power. Xie Yuzhen needs to use his son's name to accumulate power of his own outside the palace.

It's not that she didn't want to keep Xie Yi by her side, but now that she had just given birth to a daughter, she naturally focused most of her attention on her daughter, and it was inevitable that she would not be able to take care of Xie Yi enough. If she sent him outside the palace, Xie's mother would be able to concentrate on taking care of and teaching him.

As for whether there will be any plots against my family... Actually, as long as there are people who want to plot against my family, it doesn't matter whether it's inside or outside the palace.

Except for the orphan whom Xie Yuzhen had asked his mother to pay attention to and train, all the people in the Yongjia Marquis' Mansion were arranged by the emperor. In fact, it was much safer than his own Shouning Palace. Even Wang Cheng, the eunuch who was suspected of helping the emperor do shameful private work... was sent there.