The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Hearing Ruan He's disgusting remarks, the second princess could no longer bear it and rushed out with the whip in hand.

Although she was much younger than the brother and sister, Ruan He was a typical weak scholar who could do nothing but study, and he was completely defenseless against Lu Xianqiong's attack. Although Lu Xianqiong was young, she had studied martial arts seriously with Master Wu for several years. She jumped out and hit Ruan He, who was standing by the pool, in the face with a hard blow, and the latter rolled into the pond.

Seeing her brother fall into the water, Ruan Xiang'e screamed and saw who was coming. She wanted to push the girl who "came alone" into the water to take revenge, but the next moment she saw seven or eight heads popping out from behind the rockery...

then.

She could only stand by the pool and scream at Lu Xianqiong.

Time goes back to the present.

Facing the pale-faced Ruan Xiang'e, Lu Xianqiong put away her whip and ordered the palace servants behind her: "Bring her up, and also fish out the one in the water. Keep them all under guard."

She was angry and sick.

On the other side, Ruan Xiang'e was still struggling: "I am the daughter of the Marquis, how can you insult me ​​like this, Second Princess!"

"Don't say that you are the daughter of a marquis, and you did such a disgusting thing. Even if your father came in person, I would still do the same!" Lu Xianqiong now wished that she could beat up the Marquis of Anguo - since he could raise such despicable children, this old man must not be a good person.

She was now having a headache about how to tell her elder sister about this without making her too sad...

The palace servants who came with Lu Xianqiong quickly captured the brother and sister. Not long after they tied them up, Xia Zhi, who was ordered by Xie Yuzhen to investigate the situation, arrived. Seeing the second princess's face full of anger and the palace servants behind her holding a man and a woman, she frowned and stepped forward.

"See the second princess."

"Aunt Xiazhi." Lu Xianqiong didn't want to disrupt the opening banquet of the Yongjia Marquis' Mansion because of these two people, so she asked, "Aunt, do you know if there is any secluded room nearby where we can stay temporarily? Also, is Empress Zhao free now? Does Aunt know where my elder sister is?"

In the past two years, apart from when she was at school, Lu Xianqiong often loved to play with Xie Yi. Concubine Li originally disliked Xie Yuzhen and always found excuses to prevent her daughter from getting close to the mother and son in Shouning Palace. However, she did not have the heart to tell her daughter directly that she did not like Xie Yuzhen and therefore did not allow her to play with Xie Yi. After all, there was only one person of the same generation in the palace who could play with Lu Xianqiong...

After a few times, Concubine Li saw that even though Xie Yuzhen had some minor verbal conflicts with her occasionally, he never used his daughter to cause trouble, so she gradually put her mind at ease and let Lu Xianqiong and Xie Yi become friends.

Although they said they were making friends, between the two children most of the time it was actually Lu Xianqiong who was enjoying the happiness of being an older sister. Xie Yi especially showed a very gentle temper and was well-behaved, which made him particularly likable.

Because of this relationship, Lu Xianqiong is also very familiar with everyone in Shouning Palace.

She threw a series of questions without hesitation. Xia Zhi was already accustomed to the style of this prince, and immediately led everyone around the rockery, walked along a path in the bamboo forest, and entered an empty courtyard.

"I will report the situation to Her Majesty right away. Your Highness, do you want to go with me?" Xia Zhi asked respectfully.

Lu Xianqiong thought for a moment and said, "I want to go look for my elder sister first."

"When I came here just now, I saw the eldest princess in the poetry and painting garden. Her Highness was playing drinking games with the other ladies."

"So that's how it is." Lu Xianqiong frowned. When she was looking for her sister just now, she also went to the Poetry and Painting Courtyard. There were many people in the Poetry and Painting Courtyard, but she didn't find the eldest princess at that time. Now that she learned the whereabouts of the eldest princess from Xia Zhi, Lu Xianqiong didn't think much about it.

She nodded to Xia Zhi and said, "Then I'll trouble Aunt Xia Zhi to tell Empress Yu Zhao. I'll go find my elder sister first." After that, Lu Xianqiong quickly told her that the prince of Marquis Anguo had an affair with a cousin named Zeng before marriage and got pregnant, and that he was planning to force the eldest princess to accept the news.

Xia Zhi frowned upon hearing this - although not all princesses in all dynasties had the power to control their husbands and stop them from taking concubines, in the past in a certain dynasty even the children born to the husbands' concubines were treated as legitimate heirs and enjoyed the resources of the princess's mansion, but the people of Dasheng were open-minded and tough, and the princesses of the royal family in particular were extremely ambitious in their power and very selfish in their lifestyle.

Since the establishment of the Sheng Dynasty, only princesses had kept male lovers, and no prince consort could openly keep a concubine. After all, there was a rule in this dynasty that a prince consort could not participate in politics without marrying a princess. On the contrary, marrying a princess, especially a princess who was valued by the emperor, would undoubtedly gain enormous political resources for the prince consort's family and descendants. The influence of the princess's mansion and the princess herself on the emperor and the government was the ladder to heaven and the most stable nepotism between the prince consort and his family.

She already has a ladder to the imperial power, so what if the princess has a bad temper?

more importantly.

Although the eldest princess is not the emperor's favorite child, the emperor is definitely a tiger protecting his cub in this regard.

However, the eldest princess's biological mother and adoptive mother had both passed away, and her adoptive mother was not posthumously honored, nor was she placed in a separate tomb according to the rules. She was just hastily buried next to Concubine Huaijing's tomb. This sent a message to the officials in the capital that Concubine Deng probably died in disgrace and also incurred the emperor's displeasure.

Especially after the Duke of England's Mansion also fell silent, Ruan He and others were more certain of their thoughts.

At the same time, the eldest princess herself was not a person with a too strong and overbearing temper, which undoubtedly made the Ruan He brothers and sisters more confident in using some means to control her and make her give in.

He wanted to marry the princess to consolidate the status of the next generation of the Anguo Marquisate, and he also wanted to take a girl who was "mutually in love" with him as a concubine.

The only thing that Ruan He, the son of Anguo Hou, was worried about in this matter was that his relationship with his great cousin would be exposed in advance, causing the eldest princess to break off the engagement.

He hid it carefully. While tasting the forbidden fruit and promising his great cousin a bright future, he also kept in touch with the eldest princess through letters through his cousin who was the second prince's study companion in the imperial study. Because they were an engaged couple, their elders turned a blind eye to their private correspondence.

But he never thought, or even if he did, he didn't care much about it, that his cousin was pregnant.

Ruan He's sister has always had a kind of "chivalrous spirit" towards such weak women who have no choice. After learning about this from her cousin, she forced her brother to take responsibility and persuaded the princess to allow her cousin to enter the house as a concubine first and ensure that she gave birth to this innocent child. She also took the opportunity of attending a banquet to send someone to make an appointment with the eldest princess.

Of course the eldest princess didn't want to see them.

The eldest princess, Lu Yanzhen, was sitting at the table. The celadon wine glass in her hand was already empty, with only a faint aroma of wine left. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and the phoenix hairpin on her bun was slightly tilted. "No, no, you evil-minded people, why did you catch me and force me to drink?"

A noble lady beside him laughed and said, "Your Highness is very approachable and considerate of those of us who get drunk easily after drinking."

Lu Yanzhen smiled and tapped the tip of the noble lady's nose: "You have said all the nice things. Well, you guys can have fun first. I will go out to sober up."