First-rank palace maid Su Jixiang

Su Jixiang and Xie Yingfeng waited outside for about an incense stick of time, and the crying in the tent gradually stopped.

Soon, Qu Wanning wiped her tears and invited Xie Yingfeng and Su Jixiang to come in.

Qu Wanning's father Qu Yunfeng and her elder brother Qu Chenxing also had red eyes, obviously they had been crying.

The Qu family was unlucky. Qu Wanning's mother died of illness when she was very young. Her father Qu Yunfeng was afraid that remarrying would make Qu Wanning and Qu Chenxing suffer, so he had no intention of remarrying. But his immediate superior took a fancy to him and wanted to marry his daughter to him. However, he felt very embarrassed after being rejected, so he removed Qu Yunfeng's military power and asked him to raise horses.

Just raise horses. It’s a leisurely job anyway and you can take care of the children. Qu Yunfeng doesn’t mind at all.

When Qu Chenxing grew up, he took part in the military examination and became the top scorer of the year. However, he was suppressed. Such a top scorer was forced to raise horses with Qu Yunfeng.

Later, Emperor Jing went to the horse farm to choose horses and fell in love with Qu Yunfeng's daughter Qu Wanning at first sight. The next day, he issued an order to let Qu Wanning enter the palace.

In this way, Qu Wanning became a concubine in the palace. At first, her rank was only Baolin and she was bullied everywhere.

The Concubine Chen was competing with the Queen, and the Queen wanted to win favor, so she helped Qu Wanning several times. However, Qu Wanning knew very well that the infighting in the harem was not something she could handle, so she rejected the Queen's kindness.

As soon as she rejected the Queen, the Concubine Chen found a way to give her a higher position and made her a Zhaoyi. However, because of this Zhaoyi position, she was deceived by the Queen several times, both openly and secretly.

In order to make his sister live a better life in the harem, Qu Yunfeng sold some of his property and gave away a lot of money to buy an official position as a military commander.

In this way, he and Qu Chenxing were directly sent to the front line to guard Jialing Pass. To put it bluntly, this father and son were sent to be cannon fodder.

Now that Qu Yunfeng and Qu Chenxing had real power, Qu Wanning's life in the harem became better.

Later, the war broke out and the marriage that Qu Chenxing had been planning to find a new wife fell through because he had to go to the battlefield.

As a result, Qu Chenxing's marriage was delayed. Now he is 25 years old and still has not married.

The father and son became famous because they successfully blocked the Black Tiger Army at Jialing Pass. Instead of being cannon fodder, they became famous generals. Qu Wanning in the palace was also promoted to Mei Fei because of this.

But the good times didn't last long. The Qu family father and son were so brave and good at fighting that other generals seemed too mediocre. After they had guarded Jialing Pass for more than a year, they were transferred away by people who envied them to guard Wancheng, the last checkpoint to enter the capital.

Emperor Jing thought he was smart and sent two men who were good at fighting to guard the gate, but he didn't know that the real gate was Jialing Pass. If he gave up Jialing Pass, the natural barrier, the road ahead would be smooth.

Wancheng cannot be defended for sure, and both Qu and his son know it.

But because Qu Wanning was still in the palace, the Qu father and son had to grit their teeth and persevere.

But Emperor Jing was not a human being again. He withheld military pay and used it for other purposes, causing the soldiers and civilians in Wancheng to be without food for half a month.

They had eaten everything they could eat, even the bark had been peeled off, and there was no point in enduring it any longer. They had no other choice but to find Wei Ling, who was besieging Wancheng, and discuss with him that if they committed suicide, they should let the soldiers and civilians in the city go. Wei Ling was known as a massacrer, and when he was in Mangcheng, he massacred all the officers and soldiers in Mangcheng. So the Qu family father and son were willing to die in exchange for a glimmer of hope for their soldiers.

Wei Ling spared the lives of the Qu father and son and promised to retain their military positions in the Black Tiger Army. He temporarily concealed the whereabouts of the Qu father and son for fear of implicating Qu Wanning in the palace.

When the imperial city was breached, Wei Ling sent people to look for Concubine Mei, but at that time Concubine Mei was dressed up as a eunuch by Su Jixiang, so he didn't find her at the first time. Later, when he found her during the re-registration, he sent people to take good care of Concubine Mei. At the beginning, he proposed to marry the concubines in the harem in front of His Highness in order to protect Qu Wanning. After all, he had promised the Qu family father and son that he would definitely take Qu Wanning away from the palace.

Qu Wanning was brought to the Black Tiger Army because Xie Yingfeng deliberately did it. The reason why they didn't report Qu Wanning's affairs to the King of Huainan was because they were afraid of any complications, so they just pretended to know nothing about it. What if the King of Huainan suddenly wanted to keep Qu Wanning, wouldn't that delay the matter? After all, the father and son of the Qu family are already in the Black Tiger Army, and if the King of Huainan was not afraid of Wei Ling, he would not send him out to fight and cultivate land.

To put it bluntly, in the eyes of the King of Huainan, Wei Ling was just a knife, a tool. If he was obedient, he could continue to use him. If he was not obedient, he would abandon Wei Ling's sharp knife and find someone else to replace him!

Wei Ling also didn't want the father and son of the Qu family to do anything against their conscience just because Qu Wanning was in the hands of King Huainan.

The Black Tiger Army doesn't need the nails planted by King Huainan!

So the matter was never made public again, and even Qu Wanning handled it like an ordinary concubine of high rank.

Even in the military camp, the Qu family was very low-key and did not disclose Qu Wanning's identity.

The father and son of the Qu family thanked Su Jixiang for saving Qu Wanning's life. If it weren't for Su Jixiang, they probably wouldn't see each other again.

"If Miss Su is really willing, I am willing to be generous and treat her as my own daughter." General Qu smiled when he knew that his daughter and Su Jixiang were sworn brothers.

Su Jixiang...is she really going to have another father?

She looked at Qu Wanning, who looked at her aggrievedly with her big wet eyes. Su Jixiang couldn't bear to refuse.

In modern times, she was alone and grew up in an orphanage. In order to save money, she did not go to college and joined the army directly. Because of her outstanding training, she was awarded the title of female soldier model in the army for several consecutive years and also went out for peacekeeping. Later, when she was discharged from the army, she had some money and used it to learn cooking.

After all, running a restaurant can make a lot of money. She went to a nationally renowned cooking school and was assigned to a five-star hotel as a chef after graduation. However, the hotel's kitchen would not allow a novice chef like her to cook. She was not in a hurry but calmed down to learn from the famous chefs in the hotel while practicing various basic skills. Because she came from the army, she was honest and hardworking, so everyone in the kitchen liked her. Finally, the opportunity came. A food critic came to the hotel for dinner, and the chef asked her to make a dish and bring it to the food critic.