The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Out of the poetry and painting garden.

Lu Yanzhen put away the smile on his face and led the palace servants to the side room for the female family members to rest and change clothes. He wiped his face with cold water first and asked: "How long have those two not appeared?"

The palace servant who followed her whispered, "It's been more than an hour. Not long ago, I saw Aunt Xia Zhi, who was beside Concubine Zhao, heading in that direction. The matter... should have been settled."

After saying this, the palace maid showed a hesitant expression.

Lu Yanzhen glanced at her and said, "Anything else?"

"I am...I am stupid and don't understand why Your Highness wants to do things in such a roundabout way. If you explain the situation directly to the Second Princess, she will definitely help you."

After a moment of silence, Lu Yanzhen dipped his hands into a lotus-shaped copper basin filled with water and said calmly, "When my mother passed away, I secretly checked the wound on her neck. It was not the injury caused by falling from a carriage. It looked more like she was hit by something. She was... injured after she went to the side hall of Lefu Palace. Although there were traces where the carriage fell, the carriage was quickly taken away by my father. I always have some doubts in my heart."

"Only the late queen, Consort Zhao, Liu Shuyi, Concubine Chen, and Concubine Xu were in the side hall that day."

"The former queen has passed away. Liu Shuyi failed to assassinate the emperor and was executed by her entire family. Concubine Xu was pushed down by Liu Shuyi and had a miscarriage that day, so she was moved to the side hall..."

"Tell me, among these people, who has the ability to hurt mother?"

The palace maid was stunned: "This...I don't know."

"I don't know yet." Lu Yanzhen lowered her eyes. Her young face was still full of calmness that didn't match her age. "My mother didn't leave me any information either..."

"Father...he has always been cold and indifferent to mother, and mother may have done something that father would not like..." She stopped suddenly, opened her eyes and looked at her own reflection in the water.

Shortly after Concubine Deng passed away, Duke Ying and the Crown Prince also died one after another.

When Lu Yanzhen learned the news, he vaguely guessed that his mother, who raised him, must have done something inappropriate, which was why his father was unwilling to give her even this little respect.

"I know that Ruan He is ambitious but incompetent, stupid but unaware of it. He has a good family background and is easy to manipulate. Otherwise, my mother would not have chosen him to be my consort. As long as we get married and wait for Marquis Anguo to die, the entire Marquisate will fall into our hands and become a helper to my second brother."

The palace maid is Lu Yanzhen's confidant who grew up with her. Her most notable advantage is that she is obedient and tight-lipped.

Upon hearing this, the palace maid showed a distressed expression on her face: "But he is clearly not a good match. He is already engaged to His Highness, and yet... he is still flirting with other women. How indecent!"

"Whether he is a good match or not depends on what this marriage can bring to me." Lu Yanzhen took a white handkerchief and gently wiped the water stains on his hands. "I will not cancel this marriage just because he has someone else outside. On the contrary, I can use this as an excuse to make him more obedient. So I can't come forward and make a fuss about this. Second sister is straightforward and simple-minded. It will be much better if she finds out about this herself than if I tell her directly."

Lu Yanzhen looked up at herself in the mercury mirror in front of her. Her face was still slightly drunk and pink. As if to strengthen her belief, she emphasized again: "I will not cancel this marriage. The Anguo Marquisate has been of great help to me... Even if he has many other women and has many children, those bastards cannot enter the princess's mansion. But my child, no matter whether his biological father is surnamed Ruan or not, will definitely be the grandson of the Anguo Marquisate!"

The girl's eyes in the mirror were cold and firm, just like the woman who raised her, looking into the distance alone in the night and under the moonlight.

"I asked you to investigate the whereabouts of the woman from the Zeng family. How is the investigation going?" Lu Yanzhen asked.

The palace maid lowered her head and answered her, "The Zeng family secretly sent someone out of the capital a month ago without telling the Anguo Marquisate. Our people found out the waterway they took and boarded a ship to the south. We also heard that the eldest young master of the Zeng family went on the ship himself. It seems that Miss Zeng is not only pregnant, but also infected with a strange disease. She faints from time to time. Sometimes she opens her eyes and remembers nothing, not even who she is, but sometimes she is normal."

"The eldest young master of the Zeng family personally escorted him there?" Lu Yanzhen sneered, "Hasn't he, the son of a stepmother, always been at odds with his half-sister? Why is he so kind now?"

"These two siblings are quite interesting. The elder sister has her eyes on her cousin, the Prince of Anguo, while the younger brother tries to get close to his cousin. However, he is much smarter than Zeng Suqiu. He knows to coax the person first instead of rushing to pull the person to the bed."

"Tell our people to keep an eye on them. These two may be useful in the future."

In a county in the southwest.

The "still useful" Zeng Fu had no idea that the fact that he and his "sister" had secretly left the capital had been completely discovered by the eldest princess.

This small county town is the ancestral home of the Zeng family. However, when the Dasheng Dynasty was founded, the entire Zeng family was uprooted by Taizu. Some clan members died, some fled. The ancestral home was completely demolished, and the fields were re-measured and distributed to local civilians.

At this time, Zeng Fu was in the house that his family had bought later. He was sweating profusely and kept pacing back and forth in the yard, asking, "Why haven't we found the person yet?"

He got angry at the servants: "You can't even take care of a weak pregnant woman. You are really wasted!"

The servants of the Zeng family apologized again and again. The one at the front said to Zeng Fu with an embarrassed look on his face, "Master, calm down. It's because we are new here and we are not familiar with the surroundings that the young lady got lost. Don't worry, the young lady can't walk far. We will definitely find her if we search for a few more days."

Zeng Fu glared at him and said, "If I still can't find him after today, I will have no choice but to report him to the police. Tsk, what a hassle."

After saying this, he waved his hand and urged the servants to continue looking for someone.

After driving away the servants, Zeng Fu returned to the house with his hands behind his back. He walked around the room for a few times and finally stopped in front of a mirror in the corner. Looking at the not-so-handsome but decent face of a young man in the mirror, Zeng Fu raised his hand and touched his face: "Tsk, what bad luck, I've been reincarnated as a rich young master of an official family, but I have a crazy woman who writes abusive female novels as my sister, and I have to be responsible for cleaning up her mess... If I hadn't merged the original owner's memory when I first came here, I wouldn't dare to act rashly. I would have..."

He smacked his lips, secretly hoping that his sister in this body, Zeng Suqiu, would just die out there. That way, he could quickly return to the glamorous world of the capital and continue to enjoy the corrupt life of the aristocracy.