The Queen claimed sickness and excused herself from the concubines' greetings, and remained confined to the palace. Nian Shilan immediately took advantage of her power and openly ordered all the concubines to arrive at Yiku Palace at noon to receive instructions.

The concubines were naturally unwilling to do so. They finally got a holiday, and who would want to hear you, Nian Shilan, talk about how powerful your Nian family is and how much the emperor favors you?

They all went to Kunning Palace to find Ran Dong, who was by Wang Ruofu's side, to complain.

After learning about this, Ran Dong immediately reported it to Wang Ruofu, "Your Majesty, Concubine Hua is too arrogant and domineering. Is she coveting the position of empress?"

Wang Ruofu raised her eyes and glanced at Ran Dong: "Why did you become stupid after entering the palace?"

"She has been coveting the position of empress for a long time, but she just didn't have the opportunity to show it before. She has been feeling aggrieved for so many years. Now that I am sick and have the power of the palace in her hands, she naturally wants to show off."

Ran Dong saw Wang Ruofu's calm look and asked in confusion, "What does the Madam mean?"

"Don't worry about anything. She won't be so arrogant for long anyway." Wang Ruofu snorted and laughed. "Since she paid for my son's talent show, I should let her be happy during this period."

Besides, she is busy making a lot of money now. How much money can she make by managing the harem? If Nian Shilan wants it, just give it to her and hand over Nian Gengyao's silver.

An imperial decree was issued, temporarily placing all matters concerning the harem under the jurisdiction of Concubine Hua.

The days of Nian Shilan's pride and joy have arrived. She gets up early in the morning and lectures the concubines in the harem. In the afternoon, she takes people to handle palace affairs and keep an eye on the selection of concubines. She also takes time to care about her son Hongsheng, who was born after much suffering.

With a son and power, she is in high spirits wherever she goes. Even Yun Ruofang, who used to love to compete for her favor, now has to be respectful and flatter her with a smile when she sees her.

She had become the de facto queen, and since she could no longer see Wang Ruofu, Nian Shilan became more and more convinced that she was the emperor's wife and that she was the most suitable candidate.

The concubines also began to feel numb. On the one hand, they hoped that Wang Ruofu would recover quickly, but on the other hand, they felt that the possibility was not high.

Otherwise, how could Wang Ruofu, who can't tolerate any grain of sand in her eyes, allow Nian Shilan to overstep his boundaries for so long.

Nian Shilan fiddled with the jadeite in front of her for a few times, then threw it away in disdain: "Huang Guiquan only gave me this kind of jadeite with water head to deal with me. Doesn't he want his head anymore?"

"Your Majesty." Song Zhi hesitated, "All our money is used to subsidize the selection and to pay for the maids and eunuchs in each palace. Huang Guiquan can't conjure up money."

"I'm sick!"

"Take it and give it to someone else. I will never take jadeite of this quality." Nian Shilan pushed the jadeite away and asked, "Where has the emperor been recently? It's been a long time since he came to Yikun Palace."

Songzhi trembled timidly: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty has been staying in the Queen's Palace and has not summoned other concubines."

Seeing that Nian Shilan was showing signs of getting angry, he quickly said, "I think the Queen must be seriously ill, so the Emperor is like this. After a while, when the Queen recovers, the Emperor will definitely come to our Yikun Palace."

But to Nian Shilan, this meant that the emperor valued the queen very much and would not see other concubines because the queen was seriously ill. The more she heard it, the more sad she felt: "The queen is an old woman, isn't she afraid of passing her illness to the emperor?"

In anger, he pushed Songzhi, who fell to the ground without warning: "Ah!"

"Your Majesty, please spare your life, Your Majesty, please spare your life!"

Nian Shilan looked gloomy for a long time before she said, "Get up and take Hong Sheng with you to Shoukang Palace. I don't believe that my cousin's daughter can be older than the Queen Mother's own son and grandson."

Shoukang Palace.

"I send my regards to the Queen Mother. May the Queen Mother be blessed with peace and happiness."

Nian Shilan changed her usual high profile in the harem, put on plain clothes, and coquettishly and sensibly presented the Buddhist scriptures that Yun Ruofang had copied as a punishment.

Without changing her expression or heartbeat, she said, "Queen Dowager, this is the Buddhist scripture that I copied for the Queen. I wish the Queen a speedy recovery. But the Queen has not been meeting the concubines in the harem recently. She said that she was afraid that her illness would spread to others."

"Hua Fei is thoughtful," the Queen Mother praised, pretending to flip through the Buddhist scriptures. "Zhu Xi, look at Hua Fei's handwriting, isn't it better than the Queen's?"

Zhu Xi agreed, "The Queen Mother is too modest, but Concubine Hua's handwriting is indeed very good."

Nian Shilan felt a little guilty after being praised by the Queen Mother and Zhu Xi, and was afraid that she would not be able to get back to the topic if it was changed.

She quickly added, "I am not worthy of being the Queen Mother. I wonder if the Queen is feeling better lately. To be honest, I haven't seen the Queen and the Emperor for a while."

The Queen Mother restrained her smile and only smiled faintly: "The Queen is lucky to have the Emperor personally taking care of her. I think she will recover soon."

Nian Shilan's face froze, but the Queen Mother pretended not to see it.

As soon as Concubine Hua entered the room, she knew what it was about without her having to speak. If the Queen was really sick, she might even be able to advise the Emperor to take care of his health.

But the Queen would have people deliver letters to her every now and then, asking her to pass them on to the Fourteenth Prince. Plus, the gifts the Fourteenth Prince gave her recently were becoming more and more valuable. How could she not guess what the Emperor and the Queen were up to?

After knowing the truth, she dared not say anything more. Otherwise, if the queen got upset, she would turn around and rob Uya. That would be...

Don't even think about it!

The Queen Mother took a deep breath and said, "Zhuxi, go and fetch me my gold, pearl, and kingfisher hairpin."

He smiled kindly at Nian Shilan and made big promises to her: "I am old, and the emperor and empress are not young either. We will always need to rely on you in the future."

"This hairpin was given to me by the late emperor. Now I give it to you. I hope you can give me a granddaughter as beautiful as you."

Nian Shilan's heartbeat accelerated uncontrollably when she heard the word "giving birth". When she heard about the word "giving birth", her heartbeat suddenly stopped.

Having one child was enough to give her a headache. It was also because she did not do good deeds in her previous life that she gave birth to Hong Sheng, a devil like him in this life who causes trouble all the time.

After a few fake smiles, he left in dejection.

After that, Nian Shilan lived a life of promotion, power and "dead" husband. If she could think positively, she would be so comfortable. But she couldn't, and she became a wife waiting for her husband every night.

This kind of life continued until the selection half a year later - the queen recovered from her illness.

In Kunning Palace, Wang Ruofu drank a sip of tea and said, "During this period, Concubine Hua has been really hard-working. She has to manage the harem and the selection at the same time."

Nian Shilan said in a gloomy tone, "I dare not take credit for it. I just followed the Queen's previous actions."

"Ah."

Wang Ruofu was not in a hurry to take back the palace power. Now that she had earned enough money, it was time to put Honghui's marriage on the agenda.

She already had a daughter-in-law in mind, and was waiting to decide on the day of the selection. "Then I'll have to trouble Concubine Hua to take care of it for a while longer. I have to accompany the emperor to participate in the palace selection."

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