Professional Ethics of a Concubine

She just knew that once a girl started having her period, it meant she had grown up, but she had never studied in depth what growing up meant.

In ancient times, sex education for women before they got married was almost nonexistent.

Even when they were getting married, when it came to sex education, the mother would give her a fire avoidance chart and briefly explain to her what the bridal chamber was all about.

Too embarrassed to speak up.

On the wedding night, if a woman meets a husband who has no mercy on her, many women may feel that the so-called sexual enjoyment is just a torture.

Ling Yue knew what lovemaking between men and women was like because she had secretly seen the fire avoidance chart, but she didn’t know that pregnancy was related to having a normal life.

"Yes, it has a lot to do with it. When is it easier to get pregnant? After conception, how to calculate the pregnancy period and when is the expected date of delivery are all related to the daily life."

Seeing that she was interested, Ye Qingzhi asked the maid to leave, pulled her to sit down, and gave her some basic knowledge in this area.

Ling Yue's cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkled as she listened to this. She finally exclaimed, "There's so much knowledge in this."

"Yes." Ye Qingzhi teased her with a smile, "In a few months, you will be getting married. It won't hurt to know more about you. We women can't suffer unnecessary hardships in this regard."

Ling Yue nodded with a red face, but then felt really embarrassed and quickly changed the subject.

"I'm going to visit Aunt Huang and the others tomorrow. Do you want to go?"

"Okay." Ye Qingzhi nodded with a smile.

After moving out of Prince Jing's Mansion, it will be inconvenient to visit my beautiful mother in the future.

However, if you say it is too troublesome, it is not really that troublesome. If you don’t want to be tired of walking, you can take a comfortable and luxurious carriage or sedan.

"There is one more thing. Recently, my father asked the palace to reduce food and clothing, and also to release some palace maids and eunuchs. The virtuous concubine claimed to be ill and did not take care of it. The other concubines were also unwilling to take over this hot potato.

Therefore, the Imperial Household Department in the palace was in a state of chaos, causing panic among the people.

You and the Crown Princess have just moved in, if there is any oversight in not delivering the allowance, you should send more people to inquire."

Ling Yue spoke again,

"However, the Crown Prince's prestige is at its peak, and you are the Crown Princess and the Concubine. The Ministry of Internal Affairs should not dare to neglect you."

Ye Qingzhi couldn't help but think about it after hearing this, and asked Ling Yue again,

"Why does the emperor want to cut back on food and clothing?"

"I don't know. Maybe Father doesn't just want to save money, but has more considerations."

Ling Yue shook her head, still confused.

Ye Qingzhi didn't ask any more questions, since it was none of her business anyway.

As for matters in the harem, the Crown Princess is in the front to take care of them. If worst comes to worst, there is still the Crown Prince.

-

But that night, when Prince Xie Jin came back from outside, he said to Ye Qingzhi,

"Qingqing, the emperor got angry today, not because of the court, but because of the harem."

Ye Qingzhi blinked, thinking that this had nothing to do with her, but she still asked,

"Today, I also heard Ling Yue talking about the palace's cost-cutting policy. How come this anger has spread to Your Highness?"

"Because this fire started alone." Xie Jin rubbed his forehead and said helplessly,

"The emperor despised his concubines for being useless. They were afraid to do anything and passed the buck to each other. So the emperor asked me to take care of this matter for him."

"Your Highness, do you want the Crown Princess to be responsible for this matter?" Ye Qingzhi asked.

"I told my father that the Crown Princess should be in charge. My father also said that the Queen is gone and the other concubines are useless, so it is reasonable for the Crown Princess to take over temporarily. This is equivalent to the daughter-in-law taking charge of the family without a mother-in-law.

Ye Qingzhi also nodded.

There is indeed nothing wrong with that. Sooner or later, the Crown Princess will be the one in charge of the harem. Since the Emperor has delegated his power, let the Crown Princess take over the position early.

However, the Crown Princess had just arrived at the palace and knew nothing yet. It would be much more difficult for her to take charge of power at this time.

Just as Ye Qingzhi was about to sympathize with the Crown Princess, she heard the leader continue,

"Qingqing, don't think about being lazy. In the next two or three months, you should spend more time and sort out the harem affairs with the Crown Princess, and cut down on expenses wherever possible.

Just like what you did in the palace, set up rules and procedures for all matters so that the servants can follow a path to do their work.

Once everything is in place, we can let the people below do it.”

"Your Highness, you sound so casual." Ye Qingzhi rolled her eyes at him without any hesitation.

It's not that easy!

Compared with the Imperial Palace, Prince Jing's Mansion is just a small branch.

The senior leaders fully support their efforts, and there are no troublesome middle and senior leaders, department leaders, or junior leaders to get in the way. By setting the rules, the process is naturally easy.

However, the imperial palace is much more complicated.

Let’s talk about the concubines first. Those who are of low status and have little say will basically not cause trouble. However, the four great concubines, the imperial consorts, and the imperial concubines all have princes and princesses, so you have to be polite and respectful to them.

If you touch their rights, even if they swallow their anger in silence, they will probably do something to harm you behind your back. They are all big shots in palace fighting, who can really be a Buddhist?

There are also departments such as the Imperial Household Department, the Imperial Food Bureau, the Imperial Clothing Bureau, the Imperial Medical Service, the Jingshifang, the Imperial Clan Court, etc. in the palace, which are also tough nuts to crack.

Each of the departments mentioned here is quite large, so naturally there are many twists and turns involved.

If you cut it directly, who knows if you will cut the aorta, causing more chaos.

It is definitely not an easy task for large companies to cut costs by laying off employees without causing major damage.

You say you have a standardized process for layoffs and you follow the rules, but those who are laid off are not flowers or plants, but people.

People have emotions. If you disturb the foundation of their livelihood, they will be unable to resist and will only threaten you with death or commit suicide directly.

When you said you wanted to send the eunuchs and palace maids out of the palace, you meant to set them free, but that's not entirely true.

It’s better for palace maids, as they can get married after leaving the palace. Maybe they can even be looked up to because of some skills they learned in the palace.

But eunuchs... they can really be abused to death.

Many eunuchs left the palace and lost their power. Even if they had money for their retirement, they could not survive outside.

You said that you laid off employees in order to save money, but it ended up resulting in a lot of deaths. Don't you feel bad about that?

Maybe the superiors in ancient times were more indifferent to human life, but Ye Qingzhi couldn't do that.

After she was involved in this matter, if she failed to properly reassign these laid-off eunuchs and palace maids, resulting in many of them dying after leaving the palace, she would feel guilty and have nightmares every night.

So, this is really difficult to do!

But that’s how things are at work. Your boss assigns you a task, and you say it’s difficult, so you just don’t do it?

There is nothing so beautiful.

No matter how difficult it is, when you can't shirk it, you have to find a way to do it, and do it in the best way possible.

Don't think that you are at a disadvantage or in a difficult position by doing this.

Because of the challenges at work, once you complete them, you will also benefit.

However, when faced with a difficult task or a particularly challenging task, the first thing you must do is to let your leader know clearly where the difficulty of the task lies and gain his support and understanding.

When reporting the difficulties in your work, be sure to be specific!

Don't ever say with a constipated look on your face, "Oh, leader, this may be difficult to achieve, the task is urgent and the time is tight" and so on.

Divide the work you need to complete into stages and make a table.

Clearly list the time required to complete this small piece of work, the funds required, and the people from other departments who need to be communicated with.

What are the specific difficulties, what solution do you come up with, what support do you need from your leaders if this solution is to be implemented, etc.

Don't worry about how feasible the plan is, and the preliminary plan doesn't have to be perfect. Regardless of whether it is correct or not, the more specific and detailed it is, the better.

The main point is to make the leader understand that this matter is not easy to handle and that it requires a lot of time, money and resources.

If after you have listed so many difficulties, your leader still tells you, "Xiao X, don't be afraid of difficulties. Just give it a try first. As for funding and resources, we can see and think of solutions as we go along."

Okay, let’s do it.

What you need to do next is to tie your leader firmly to your boat!

For any progress and difficulties in work, you must give him a clear report on time so that he knows what you have done.

One is to increase his sense of participation, and the other is to let him help you promote the project progress.

Second, if the project fails to be completed, your leader will know all the efforts you have made. Even if you have no credit, you have worked hard. Unless your leader is an idiot, he will not put all the blame for the failure of the project on your head.

Ye Qingzhi expressed her opinion at the first moment, saying that this was not an easy task.

Because her relationship with her leader was not pure, her attitude was very presumptuous, and she rolled her eyes and expressed her dissatisfaction directly to her leader's face.

Well, this is not the relationship between us and the leader, so no matter how many faults the leader has, we still have to respect the leader and give him enough emotional value.

"Qingqing, if you have any difficulties, just tell me and I will help you." Xie Jin was not angry. He smiled and held her in his arms, coaxing her.