The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

"You!" The bitter-faced nanny heard the young scholar scolding her and her master so bluntly, how could she bear it, "Do you know that my master is..."

"As for the Mansion of Duke Shen, didn't Nanny emphasize it just now? How come you have forgotten it after such a short while?" Lin Qiao said with a smile. If it were in the past, she would never confront a Duke's Mansion at this time - no matter how much sympathy and pity she felt for Bai Queci, she would put her own life and property first.

But now...

"Oh my, Madam, you are old and your memory is bound to be a little worse. I was wrong." Although Lin Qiao was a little angry, it was far from the point of making her lose her mind. On the contrary, she continued to irritate the bitter-faced Madam with words and expressions.

Although the bitter-faced nanny was a servant, it was often said that a seventh-rank official was in front of the prime minister. Although her master was not the prime minister, she was also a noble lady of the first or second echelon in the capital. Moreover, Chen Peiluan herself was very arrogant and strong-willed. In the past, she was competitive and unwilling to suffer any loss in the inner house. She snatched most of the power of the housekeeper from the wife of the grandson, and as a result, her confidants became more and more arrogant.

"But memory is the residence of the human soul. Madam, you have such a bad memory, so you should be more careful and remember to prepare the coffin in advance, so that you won't be unprepared on that day." Lin Qiao's words became more and more sharp.

The bitter-faced nanny and her son were very angry. They knew a little bit of literacy and had been taught some poetry and books by their master, but they just hadn't learned them very well. However, they could easily understand Lin Qiao's merciless and even extremely vicious words.

"How dare you curse my mother?!" The bitter-faced nanny's son was tall and strong, and most importantly, he listened to his mother very much. He took a step forward and raised his hand to grab Lin Qiao's collar.

Lin Qiao took a step back, without any panic on his face. Instead, the smile on his face became more cheerful. "Oh my, the Duke of Shen's Mansion is so powerful. I just said a few truths. Why are you so angry that you want to hit me?"

There are always people in the Red Light Alley. Although it is still daytime, there are still many people coming and going in groups on this street. Originally, Lin Qiao and the others were just confronting each other secretly. Even if someone passed by, they would just look at them as if they were not surprised.

Now that she directly called out the name of the Duke of Shen's Mansion, it attracted a lot of attention.

On a brothel across the street, a man with a sallow complexion lazily lifted the curtain and looked down. After taking a look, he first pouted at the air, and then shouted loudly: "What kind of cats and dogs are trying to get close to the Duke of Shen's mansion?"

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Oh, isn't this the head nanny of the Second Young Master's wife? How come this young master's, that young master's relative finally couldn't stand the tigress in his family and finally decided to come to the music house to have fun?"

The bitter-faced nanny was startled by the man's sudden voice. She looked up and her face changed drastically - this man was the elder brother of Mrs. Shisun. His surname was Ding and he was the eldest son in the family. Others called him Ding Dalang.

This man can be said to have indulged in all the five vices of eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, and he is extremely dissolute and unruly. Whether it is the wife of the Grandson or the parents of the two, when they mention Ding Dalang, they all wish that such a person had never existed in the family, but they are unwilling to have the heart to discipline him, and just turn a blind eye to his ridiculous behavior.

This kind of person is the kind that Chen Peiluan despises and hates the most. In the past, the two families inevitably had some dealings with each other, and Chen Peiluan had repeatedly warned her servants not to get involved with Ding Dalang.

The bitter-faced nanny had never expected that Ding Dalang would be in the brothel in broad daylight. Her face became increasingly uglier, but she could not allow him to slander the male owner's reputation like this: "Young master, you are joking. Our second young master is the most self-disciplined person. How could he condescend to come to a place like this?"

Ding Dalang laughed and said, "Then why are you here? Could it be that you have a lover here?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, I didn't expect that at your age, you are still so smart!" He touched his chin in an obscene manner, with most of his body leaning out of the window. Passersby who looked up could see that his clothes, which were stained with traces of wine and rouge, were just draped casually, revealing most of his chest which was not at all attractive.

Ding Dalang, with his unshaven beard and drunken eyes, only said a few words to make the bitter-faced nanny break down: "Master Ding, please be careful with your words. I have been a widow for many years and I always remember to keep my chastity... I came here on the orders of my master to find..."

Find a girl who lives in the music hall and red-light district to be the male owner's concubine?

That doesn't sound very nice.

Although the bitter-faced nanny was so angry that she almost lost her mind, she quickly realized that if she told Ding Dalang about Chen Peiluan's purpose, she would probably be harassed by countless dirty words.

Her face darkened: "I just came here to ask someone something. Master Ding, are you going to interfere in the internal affairs of the Duke's Mansion?"

Ding Dalang stroked the short beard on his chin and asked, "Why are you looking for internal affairs in this place?"

He rubbed his eyes as if he had just discovered that there was a handsome scholar standing opposite the bitter-faced nanny: "Oh, could it be that your master finally thinks that Tao Laoer is not romantic and wants you to come here to find her a foster brother?"

He laughed out loud, and his sound was unpleasant, like a donkey.

Lin Qiao frowned slightly and bowed to Ding Dalang upstairs, saying, "I was just passing by and happened to see this maid trying to forcibly take away a girl from here. I took a second look at her, and somehow she thought that I had a secret relationship with that girl, so she refused to let me go."

"Oh?" Ding Dalang leaned forward even further, "There is a good-looking maid here? I wonder how pretty she is to be favored by the second wife of the Duke of Shen's mansion?"

"Hey, you, old woman, hand over that girl to me for a look!"

"Then Master Ding will probably be disappointed. That girl looks only in her teens, and her appearance is not as charming as the sister next to Master Ding."

But Hua Niang inside was afraid that Ding Dalang would fall out of the window, so she came over to pull him up.

Ding Dalang was surprised when he heard this: "How old is she?! My God, I think she's too young. Whatever Mrs. Tao asked you to do with a little girl like this, she's really inhumane!"

The bitter-faced nanny's face had turned completely crimson purple. She covered her chest with her hands, unable to breathe or speak. Her son didn't bother to teach Lin Qiao a lesson. He turned around to support his mother to prevent her from suddenly fainting and falling to the ground.

Compared to the two sentences Lin Qiao said before, it was obviously more unbearable for Bitter-faced Nanny to be belittled by Ding Dalang, a recognized trash.

"That little scholar over there, you must have pissed off that old woman this time. Tao Er's wife is the most vindictive. You are pretty good-looking, too. Do you want to coax me? I will protect you!"

Lin Qiao maintained his unchanging polite smile: "Master Ding, there is no need to do that. Alcohol and sex are the two things that shorten a person's life. In my eyes, you and this old woman are the same. You should prepare a coffin for yourself in advance, so that you won't be too late in the future."

"Hey you!" Ding Dalang never expected that he would be scolded by Lin Qiao.

"Do you know who I am?!" He immediately became angry.

However, Lin Qiao remained calm and polite: "Of course I know. He is the eldest son of Mr. Ding, the Minister of Works."

After that, she sighed deliberately and shook her head: "Just now I told this old lady that when a person's memory starts to deteriorate, it is also one of the signs that their life span is beginning to come to an end. Master Ding is much younger than this old lady, how come he also has a bad memory?"

More and more people stopped to watch this wonderful sight.

A young master of a high-ranking official and a nanny in a mansion were repeatedly confronted by a young scholar who was not very old and dressed simply, leaving them speechless. It really makes people wonder what this young scholar relied on to offend these two families at once.

When the brothel owner brought out Bai Queci, who had lost half of her spirit, with a smile on her face, she saw the bitter-faced nanny leaning on her son, looking like she had suffered a great crime. When she looked outside, she saw a circle of people watching the show...

"You! How dare you curse me!" Ding Dalang was hanging on the window frame on the second floor with his clothes in disarray. Behind him, Hua Niang was holding his collar tightly with an anxious look on her face. As a frequent visitor to the music house, the brothel madam must have known Ding Dalang.

Following his gaze, the brothel owner saw the young scholar who was confirmed by Bai Que Ci to be just passing by - the young scholar seemed calm and composed, and the leisurely smile on his face was no different from the one she had seen before.

The madam's mind went blank for a moment after seeing this scene. After she came to her senses, she decided not to care about what the dispute between Ding Dalang and the young scholar was. She immediately dragged her daughter to check on the bitter-faced nanny: "Mammy, what's wrong with you?"

The bitter-faced nanny held her chest and glanced at the brothel owner, then raised her hand tremblingly and pointed at Lin Qiao: "You! Your good daughter, your daughter's good lover... just wait, if you offend the Duke of Shen's Mansion, you will be in trouble!"

The madam was stunned for a moment, shuddered, and quickly smiled flatteringly: "This, this, this. What are you talking about? That man is, I misunderstood. My daughter has nothing to do with him!"

But the bitter-faced nanny refused to listen to her explanation and just shouted that she wanted to go back home quickly and ask the master to make the decision for her.

On the other side, Ding Dalang finally broke free from Hua Niang's hands, shouting that he would teach Lin Qiao a lesson. Then, he fell from the window frame, drunken, and fell from the second floor to the ground on the first floor with a "pa" sound. Then he slowly turned over and began to wail with two streams of blood from his nose.

There was also a panic in the brothel. One could only hear many footsteps hurriedly going down the stairs in a disorderly manner. Several servants, who were also drunk, kept calling "Young Master" and surrounded Ding Dalang.

Among the crowd of onlookers, there were many playboys who were as unrestrained as Ding Dalang. Seeing this, laughter broke out one after another, mixed with the complaints and harsh words of the bitter-faced nanny, and the voice of Ding Dalang who was crying and shouting in pain. The scene became more and more chaotic.

In chaos.

The madam finally figured out what happened. She never expected that the young scholar she had called out on impulse would cause such a big trouble. Seeing that the bitter-faced nanny insisted on identifying her and her daughter with the young scholar, she felt very disappointed: "Scholar, you have really ruined us!"

Lin Qiao looked over, smiled and waved her hand, still very polite and courteous: "Mom, don't panic."

The brothel owner's face was full of bitterness: "I am just a lowly brothel owner. I am afraid that I will never be able to leave this brothel alley in my life. Now that I have offended the Duke of Shen's Mansion, I am afraid that..."

"Mom." Lin Qiao shook her head and said, "It was only me who offended the Duke of Shen's Mansion. Most people in this world still have to be reasonable."

"You...how could those nobles be so reasonable with me? You have caused us so much trouble!" The brothel owner threw away her handkerchief, covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

Bai Queci reluctantly supported her and completely gave up the hope of escaping from here: "Mom, since the Second Madam specifically asked me to go, I must be of some use to her. I will not think about those things anymore. I will go to the mansion peacefully to apologize to the Second Madam. Even if she wants to beat me to death, I will..."

"If I saw it correctly, the girl lives in a good citizen's house, so she should also be of good nationality." Lin Qiao suddenly interrupted.

Bai Queci originally felt a little guilty for dragging this strange scholar into this, but seeing how much trouble he could cause, that guilt disappeared: "How about a good book?"

"Even if they are lowly slaves, you can't just beat them to death. How can the young lady of the Duke of Shen's mansion break the law knowingly?"

"She is a noble lady, and noble ladies are different from us." Bai Queci spoke with some sarcasm, and her voice was somewhat sad. "She has a title, and her father, grandfather, and brothers are officials. Even if she beats and kills a few slaves, or a person like me who is of low birth and has no one to rely on, what can she do? Isn't it just a few fines?"

"Scholar, the truth is only talked about with valuable people with good background. Look at what I have and what do you have?" Bai Queci's words revealed a sense of dejection and despair.

Lin Qiao was no stranger to similar despair. She nodded and said, "Miss, what you said makes sense. It's just that I'm just right. I also have some connections."

"Huh?" Bai Queci and her daughter looked at Lin Qiao in confusion when they heard this.

The moment Lin Qiao mocked the bitter-faced nanny and her master, she had already made new plans for her future and made a new resolution: "Don't underestimate me because I am just an ordinary scholar. I can't compete with the Duke of Shen's Mansion and the Minister of Works, Mr. Ding. But I happen to have relatives in my family, and I can ask these two families to have a good talk with us."

Lin Qiao was not afraid of what was wrong with her behavior of causing trouble outside and then going home to seek support from her "elders". She also did not worry about whether her actions would cause disgust from her biggest backer at the moment - Concubine Zhao in the palace.

Since its founding, the Great Sheng Dynasty had begun to continuously weaken and suppress the aristocratic families. By the time of the previous emperor, those aristocratic families had been completely destroyed, leaving only their surnames, family trees, and those outdated rules.

The royal family hates aristocratic families so much, so what attitude will the emperor have towards the nobles who have been passed down since the founding of the country and have gradually formed the rudiments of aristocratic families?

Lin Qiao carefully studied every move made by the Emperor since Concubine Zhao entered the palace.

Just by looking at the fact that one duke's mansion and two marquis' mansions had suffered heavy losses that affected their nine clans at their hands, Lin Qiao knew that even if she took the initiative to provoke the Duke of Shenguo's mansion, Concubine Zhao would not blame her. On the contrary, by handing them a knife, her weight on their chessboard would increase.

Now that we have met, we might as well go with the flow. After all, Lin Qiao, who is guilty of deceiving the emperor, really needs to be valued by those two nobles.