Professional Ethics of a Concubine

During the Chinese New Year last year, because of the trap set by Xie Jin, neither the former crown prince nor the Chen family had an easy time.

The emperor did not host a palace banquet. He moved to a hot spring villa to relax and have a different New Year.

This year is very different.

Although many troublesome things happened because of the promotion of new rules and the abolition of old etiquette, those trivial matters did not come to the emperor's attention.

With a stomach full of Master Ye's chicken soup, the emperor felt more relieved about the past relationship between himself and the empress.

Drawing on the relationship between the talented scholar and Madam Zhaohua at the end of the story, the emperor also felt that he had found the correct model for getting along with the empress in the future.

He would still write letters, but they were no longer full of sarcasm, boasting or sarcasm. He would calmly share with the empress some of the political affairs of their Great Zhao.

Of course, one must also attach pictures of his son's daily life to please the empress.

As for the possibility that the empress would reply very briefly or just tell him that she had read it, just like marking a memorial, the emperor felt that he could accept it calmly (though he might still be a little angry).

Just as the story says, getting along with others requires adjustment, gradual progress, and sincerity.

If he and the empress share the same ideas and can find resonance, the emperor believes that as long as he doesn't act crazy or sarcastic, the empress will always treat him like a friend.

Sincerity can open up even metal and stone.

Therefore, it is impossible to say that the emperor has no imagination about his future "retirement" life.

In the past, because he was worried about handing over the country to the former crown prince, the emperor felt that he would stay on the throne until his death. But now, the emperor feels that he can abdicate early.

After abdicating, he would definitely go to meet the empress. Well... As for how long he could stay with the empress without being driven away, the emperor had no idea, but he inexplicably had expectations and hopes.

As a result, the emperor was in a very good mood. He was the benevolent emperor who liked everyone and would give rewards if they disagreed with him.

The emperor was in a good mood and no longer had his tantrums. Both the chief steward and the other eunuchs and palace maids who served the emperor shed tears of happiness.

Oh, let’s not talk about rewards or salary increases for now. The working atmosphere is finally relaxed and I don’t have to be tense all the time.

Because everything was going well and he was very happy, and the New Year was all about having a lively, festive and joyful reunion, the emperor not only did not want to sit back and relax this time, he also wanted to hold a grand palace banquet.

The emperor not only had to entertain his ministers, but also some of the people to celebrate the New Year together.

Therefore, the Crown Princess, like Feng Shengxue, was busy preparing for the banquet.

Even though they both have a lot of work to do under them, it is not easy at all.

Because hosting a large-scale banquet involves a lot of processes and is very cumbersome. Not to mention deciding on the cuisine, singing and dancing and other big things, even small things like what plates and dishes to use at the banquet require them to confirm.

Every day, just listening to each of my subordinates report on work progress can take more than an hour.

In addition to taking care of other palace affairs and festival matters, the Crown Princess was so busy that she had no time to rest, so she quickly asked Ye Qingzhi to help her.

For Ye Qingzhi and the royal family, organizing banquets is a highly repetitive job with complicated procedures, and this kind of work is most suitable for establishing standardized procedures, which is the so-called SOP.

In daily work, individuals should use this tool to improve work efficiency. In fact, you don’t need to write down what to do at each step. Don’t do the so-called boilerplate work, which is for others to see, not for yourself.

You just need to organize some commonly used forms and templates in a clear and classified manner, such as meeting minutes, data statistics, various speeches, etc.

Then, based on this, create your own folders and databases so that you can easily retrieve and call up this type of information at any time.

By doing this, you can save a lot of time and energy in your daily work.

In addition, when you complete a project or activity, record the detailed process you completed this time.

In particular, record the information of other businesses or units involved in the process to see if they can be used in the future and accumulate your own personal connections and social resources.

These can be kept as reference for the next project or activity, and modified accordingly to continuously optimize the way you do activities or projects.

Ye Qingzhi helped the Crown Princess organize the banquet, and worked with her to establish the SOP for holding the banquet.

Determine the range of cuisine to choose from, determine the specific responsibilities of the people in charge, then delegate authority and supervise at all levels to ensure that all processes can proceed smoothly.

The Crown Princess naturally still had to listen to work reports, but she no longer needed to listen to such detailed and tedious content. She only had to ask about the results and completion rate according to the process, and then randomly select and personally check the results.

After the entire banquet was completed, the basic operating procedures were determined and can be used to guide the next palace banquet.

The Crown Princess exclaimed that this method was very effective. It saved her a lot of time and greatly improved her work efficiency.

Later, Princess Ling Yue found out about it, and she also said that she wanted to use this method in the banquet garden of the royal estate. She wanted to apply the same process to any standard banquet, making it fixed and templated, so that people wouldn't have to come to her for instructions every time.

Because after she got her divorce and went to work at the manor, she found that as the year came to the end, more and more banquets came to the manor. As a result, she was busier than her prime minister!

The couple’s life is seriously affected!

After a tiring day, she no longer had the energy or mood to pamper her prince consort and enjoy the pleasure in bed. She just wanted to lie down and rest without saying a word.

This resulted in her Prime Minister Fang having to go to the manor to help her with manor affairs after he finished his work at court, and then the two of them would return to the princess's mansion.

This is really not something a princess would do!

She is a daughter of a rich family, why can't she enjoy herself but be so busy? !

So, on the twenty-ninth day of the lunar year, the manor was finally closed for rest, and Princess Ling Yue came to the East Palace to protest.

Whoever wants to manage this manor can manage it, whoever wants this power can take it, she strongly demanded to reduce her workload.

She wants to find someone in charge who can share the burden with her, not a servant who is unable to delegate power and make decisions!

When Ling Yue arrived at the East Palace, she found out that Ye Qingzhi was not there. She said that she had gone out with the prince.

Ling Yue went to pay a visit to the Crown Princess, and was then pulled aside by the Crown Princess to show off a new work method she had recently learned.

When Ling Yue heard this, she realized that this was what she urgently needed, so she immediately started chatting enthusiastically with the Crown Princess and studied hard to learn what to do.

"I'll write a booklet for you later, and you can ask Qingzhi to fill in the missing parts. These are all her ideas. If you don't understand anything, ask her. She can explain it more clearly than I can. I'm just getting started, too."

The Crown Princess said with a smile.

Ling Yue also responded with a smile, picked up the teacup and took a sip, then began to chat with the Crown Princess, saying that he wanted to divide the affairs of the manor and asked her to help find a suitable candidate.

"You may not know this, but two days ago, the second princess came to the emperor and cried, saying that her husband was idle all day and didn't pay enough attention to her. Although he didn't dare to take a concubine, he flirted with the maids in the mansion, making her suffer a lot of grievances."

The Crown Princess said,

"The second princess also said that she had nothing to do all day and was getting sick from being bored, so she wanted to go to the manor to do something.

The Emperor has been in a good mood recently, and he probably feels that they are all his daughters, so he cannot favor one over the other. He has promised her to the Second Princess, and asked her to take charge of the manor after the new year. You already have the helper you want."

When Ling Yue heard her mention the Second Princess, she immediately showed a disgusted expression and said with disgust,

"My second sister and I have never gotten along since we were little. She is five years older than me and always bullied me. It was only after she got married that I felt comfortable living in the palace.

She said that her husband-in-law had wronged her, but why didn't she say that she was narrow-minded because her husband-in-law beat the palace maid to death just because she said a few words to her.

With her domineering personality, who knows what kind of trouble she will cause when she comes to the manor."

The Crown Princess did not know the Second Princess, who had been married a long time ago. She had only met her two or three times at palace banquets, and had never heard of her beating or killing a palace maid.

Therefore, upon hearing what the Second Princess had done, the Crown Princess frowned in disgust.

"Does the Emperor know about this?"

"I know. At that time, the emperor reprimanded her and asked her to reflect on her mistakes. But she is the second princess. How severe a punishment can she take for beating and killing a maid?"

Ling Yue frowned and expressed her attitude as soon as she opened her mouth.

"Because the Crown Prince is kind and knows how to use people, he gives the royal children the opportunity to display their talents. With the successful examples of Prince Duan and the Sixth Prince, many people think they can do it too.

But in fact, not everyone is Prince Duan. Although the fourth brother was a spendthrift before, he has good intentions and is even more talented.

They are not like the Sixth Prince, who is simple-minded and only focuses on those weird researches and ignores worldly affairs.

Take my second sister for example. She doesn't have much talent in doing things, but she is absolutely first-rate at making false accusations and causing trouble. I am so fed up with her.

If she takes over the estate, I will just quit and let her do it herself. I want to see what she can do."

Ling Yue could already foresee that if the Second Princess came to the manor and worked with her, she would definitely be thinking about how to squeeze her out and take over the power of the manor.

Then he will use all kinds of insidious tricks, which will not only disgust you to death, but also make the manor a mess.

She was too lazy to fight with someone like the Second Princess. It wasn't that she couldn't beat him now, but she was disdainful of associating with him, and she didn't want to waste her energy on such a person.

She might as well step down and take a rest, look more at her Prime Minister Fang, and develop more interesting couple games.

"This... Ling Yue, I really admire you. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to let go just like that."

The Crown Princess looked at Ling Yue with some surprise, and felt that she also had a sense of freedom, a bit like Qing Zhi.

"I don't care that much, so I can let go." Ling Yue smiled, "How can I be so carefree about the things I really care about?"

The Crown Princess also smiled and nodded to show her agreement, but she also reminded her,

"You said you wanted to let go and not care about the manor anymore. You have to get the Crown Prince and Qingzhi's consent. The manor is their hard work. We can't let the Second Princess ruin it and bring shame to the royal family."

"Then I'll ask them when they come back." Ling Yue said dejectedly.

Just as he finished speaking, a eunuch came to report that the Crown Prince and his concubine had returned.

The Crown Princess and Ling Yue both stood up to greet them.

"Ling Yue is here too." Ye Qingzhi's eyes lit up with joy when she saw her. She looked at her carefully again, "How come you have lost weight after not seeing her for more than half a month? Did she have a quarrel with Prime Minister Fang?"

"Of course not. We are a harmonious couple. I am just tired of managing the banquets at the manor." Ling Yue complained.

"I just heard from my sister-in-law that after the New Year, my father wants the second princess to come and manage the manor. I want to make it clear that it's either her or me. It's either me or her. She and I can't work together."

Ye Qingzhi stepped back due to Ling Yue's anger. She didn't know anything about the second princess yet, so she looked at Xie Jin with a questioning look.

"That's true." Xie Jin nodded and emphasized again, "Father has been in a good mood recently. Anyone who goes to him to ask for a job will succeed."

Ye Qingzhi,...

The emperor has drunk too much chicken soup and has started to give out titles and official positions crazily, enjoying himself.

As the first beneficiary, her family was conferred a title, so Ye Qingzhi couldn't complain and could only say to Ling Yue,

"You really don't want to do this anymore?"

"With the Second Princess here, there's really nothing I can do."

Ling Yue talked about a lot of old grudges between her and the Second Princess, as well as some of the Second Princess's dark history, to make her attitude clear.

Ye Qingzhi had foreseen such a situation. The royal family was the largest family business, and the inheritance system fully reflected the harm of nepotism. The royal family was the place that least valued rising to power based on ability.

Therefore, from ancient times to the present, a dynasty has a history of about two to three hundred years, and the mechanism for selecting successors should also bear part of the blame.

"If you don't want to do it, then we won't do it." Ye Qingzhi said in a doting manner.

“Things like this for the Second Princess will happen again in the future. Your brother the Crown Prince is not the one in charge now. If the Emperor is willing to pamper her, then let her do it.

It's just a manor where banquets are held, and it's ruined by the second princess."

"...That's your hard work, are you really going to ignore it?" Ling Yue was confused by her quick attitude.

"It's okay, let her do whatever she wants. Maybe the Second Princess can do it. We can't underestimate her." Ye Qingzhi said nonchalantly.

"Just take a good rest and put the lean flesh back on."

Ling Yue felt a little bit confused after hearing this, and couldn't help but turn to look at the prince, asking him what his attitude was.

"Listen to Qingzhi." The prince looked like a tyrant, "Just do as she says."

There are some things that require killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, and the second princess took the initiative to jump out and was willing to be the chicken, which he thought was very appropriate.

There are some scum and little scum among the royal children. We haven’t had time to deal with them before. It’s time to use the knife to clear out the poisonous sores and tumors.

If you want to expand the family, you can't just rely on talents, you also have to clean up the poisonous sores in the family. Don't expect them to do great things, but don't poison others either.

The prince had originally planned to touch this area, but he had never had the time to do it.

While the emperor is happy and it is the New Year, all kinds of ambitious little devils will pop up. I will deal with a wave of them first, and then the rest will be obedient.

Therefore, the prince's attitude is to leave it alone and let them do whatever they want. After all, they have limited power, limited brains, and limited destructive power, and they are just doing minor things.

He has dealt with the biggest troublemakers and released them, so there is no need to be afraid of these little devils.