The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

“Escaped?”

"Who did you say escaped?"

"Ruan He?!"

"That wimp?!"

"Pah!" Lu Xianqiong's disdain turned into confusion, and she asked the palace servant who came to report the news, "Why did he escape?"

The palace maid showed a guilty look on her face, "It was... the servants of the Marquis of Anguo Mansion, somehow they informed the eldest princess that they were captured and imprisoned by you, Your Highness. The eldest princess personally led people to find them and wanted to release the prince and Miss Ruan. I didn't want to release them at first, but the people from the Marquis of Anguo Mansion who attracted the eldest princess took the opportunity to make a scene, and in the chaos, the two escaped."

"Damn it!" Lu Xianqiong had originally headed straight to the Poetry and Painting Courtyard to look for the eldest princess, but she didn't expect that not only did she fail to find her, but from the sound of it, it seemed that someone from the Anguo Marquis' Mansion had gotten there first.

She didn't know that everything that happened today was the result of the eldest princess's calculations. She just thought that the family of the Marquis of Anguo was too shameless, and that the cowardly pretty boy had used some unknown means to confuse her eldest sister.

"No, we have to catch those two people back quickly. We must not let them confuse right and wrong in front of Big Sister, and we must not let them make a fuss here and ruin the opening banquet because of me. By then, even if I have a thousand reasons to do so, it will be wrong." Lu Xianqiong was in a hurry to take people away from the Poetry and Painting Courtyard.

However, before I even walked out, I saw the summer solstice from afar.

Xia Zhi looked calm and even had a faint smile on his face. He stepped forward and saluted Lu Xianqiong and said, "Hello, Second Princess. A few ponies were just delivered from the horse farm in the suburbs of Beijing. Concubine Zhao would like to invite you to pick one. The eldest princess and the third princess have already gone, and even the prince of Anguo Marquis is here too."

As soon as she finished speaking, Lu Xianqiong understood what she meant: "I was looking for the elder sister everywhere, but I didn't expect that she would secretly go to see the foal..."

It is true that he was picking the foal, but what was more important was the message that Xia Zhi was conveying - the Anguo Marquis's son and his sister could escape from Lu Xianqiong's not-yet-fully-grown palm, but they could not escape from the palm of Concubine Zhao, who had already noticed something was wrong.

I'm afraid that as soon as he escaped from the predicament, he would fall into the encirclement of Concubine Zhao.

Thinking of this, Lu Xianqiong felt much more relieved, and said to Xia Zhi with a smile: "Let's go quickly, we can't let them pick the good ones first."

The little girl became excited again.

In a small pavilion next to the racecourse in the Yongjia Marquis Mansion, Xie Yuzhen sat at the very top, teasing his daughter in his arms. On her left was the eldest princess, whose face no longer showed any sign of drunkenness. The taciturn third princess sat on the other side, staring blankly at a pear blossom on her light-colored sleeve.

The third princess was born only a few months after the second princess. She is already twelve years old this year. However, when Concubine Ning was alive, she was not as anxious as Concubine Li to choose a good son-in-law for her. After Concubine Ning "passed away", the third princess had to bear the burden of mourning for her mother in addition to the queen, so she was even less anxious to get married.

She herself doesn't care much about it.

Thinking of the affection that Concubine Ning had shown her in the past, Xie Yuzhen often cared for and looked after the Third Princess Lu Zaiguang who had already moved into Chonghua Palace. She had asked her opinion on finding a prince consort, and Lu Zaiguang had bluntly said that all men looked the same, and instead of wasting time on such boring and mundane things, she might as well read a few more books.

In the past, Xie Yuzhen, who only knew that Lu Zaiguang was a quiet little bookworm, had some interest in this girl. After a few more interactions, the "mother and daughter" were now quite harmonious. When he came over to ride horses, he asked her to come along for some exercise. However, he didn't expect that Lu Zaiguang was lazy and hid in this small pavilion to read a book. He happened to run into the scene where the brother and sister of the Marquis of Anguo were captured by Xia Zhi and his men, and followed by a princess with a heartbroken face...

Unlike the two princesses, who were treated well by having seats and snacks and tea.

The two siblings from the Marquis of Anguo's Mansion were both kneeling on the ground. There was a conspicuous, bright red whip mark across the face of the Crown Prince Ruan He, which was already swollen. His bun was askew and his long hair was disheveled, and his clothes were still wet and stuck to his body. Fortunately, the weather was not hot today, so he was wearing an opaque Confucian robe. If he had worn a gauze dress that allowed a faint glimpse of his flesh like other dandies who pursued "romanticism"... Xie Yu's eyes hurt just thinking about that scene.

Since everyone had not yet arrived, Xie Yuzhen just hugged Yuanjun and used the dragon-headed golden hairpin given by the emperor to make his daughter giggle: "Yuanjun wants it!"

"What does Yuanjun want?" Xie Yuzhen's face was full of loving smile. The different expressions on the faces of the people she saw out of the corner of her eye were not enough to disturb her good mood.

Lu Weiyuan raised his hand to grab the golden hairpin in his evil-minded mother's hand, which was deliberately raised high: "You want a dragon! Catch the dragon!"

When she found that she couldn't reach the hairpin even when she stood on tiptoe, she didn't get discouraged, but started to try to jump up a few times. Xie Yuzhen deliberately lowered his hand slightly, allowing his daughter to grab the hairpin: "Oh, Yuanjun is really amazing."

Lu Weiyuan held the hairpin and said, "Of course! Yuanjun is smart, absolutely! For sure! No doubt about it!"

"Where did you learn this witty remark?" Xie Yuzhen asked with a smile.

Lu Weiyuan thought about it, and it seemed that he heard these four words from some of his siblings' study companions. He really couldn't remember them, so he opened his mouth and said, "Daddy taught me."

He decisively and habitually put a hat on the emperor's head.

Just as she was speaking, Lu Xianqiong came hurriedly over. As soon as she entered the room, she called out coquettishly, "Empress Zhao!"

She trotted forward a few steps: "This bad guy didn't say anything nonsense, did he?" Lu Xianqiong looked at the brother and sister with disgust. Seeing that Ruan Xiang'e still looked dissatisfied, she curled her lips and said, "Empress Zhao, big sister, you must not be fooled by this ruthless pretty boy!"

She looked so indignant that she almost jumped up.

Xie Wei really found it very interesting.

After all, if it were in the past, in this kind of court-like scene, the person running around and fanning the flames would have been her. Now, it was Xie Yuzhen's turn to sit in the position of judge.

"Miss Ruan said that you, Xianqiong, punished Guan and his sister for no reason. The prince of Anguo... didn't say much, just said that he did offend you and was willing to be punished." Xie Yuzhen held his daughter to his side and asked her to sit down. He said that he was willing to be punished, but he didn't say how he had offended the princess. This only made him look more wronged. Lu Xianqiong was bullying others by taking advantage of her power.

Compared with his straightforward girl, this man is quite scheming.

If other royal elders were here, they would inevitably act more impartially and let these young men of status stand up and sort out the matter together, and then make a judgment. However, Xie Yuzhen didn't care about this. He just asked the two sons of Anguo Hou to continue kneeling, and said softly to Lu Xianqiong: "Since he has admitted his mistakes, Xianqiong, you sit down first. Let's listen to where he went wrong and then figure out how to punish him."