In order to eat, I signed a contract with the system

It is the hottest day of the year in the Forbidden City again. Unfortunately, the emperor does not plan to take his concubines to the Old Summer Palace to escape the heat this year. After all, after the trip to the Old Summer Palace last year, the empress dowager, the queen, and the favorite concubine Hua Fei left the palace one after another.

Now, more than half a year has passed, and the emperor's sadness has just begun. First, he lost two royal heirs in succession, and now Princess Wen Yi's biological mother, Concubine Cao, has fallen ill again, and it seems that she will not live long.

Lingrong didn't expect that it would be so easy to deal with Concubine Cao who had divorced Concubine Hua. Concubine Duan just gave her a portion of the honey incense that the emperor had awarded to Zhen Huan and drugged Concubine Cao.

Lingrong shook her head and couldn't help but sigh for Concubine Cao. Perhaps it was because she had no money and little experience. After Concubine Hua was gone to bully others, Concubine Cao was left without anyone to do things for her. She was also short-sighted. Although she suspected that there was something wrong with the honey incense, she was reluctant to give up such a precious spice and couldn't invite an imperial physician to carefully identify it. In the end, she still fell for the honey incense that had been added with additives.

In the plot, Zhen Huan and the Fourth Prince Hongli happened to meet during the trip to the Old Summer Palace that year. Although Lingrong and the Fourth Prince have no grudges against each other in this life, in order to realize her own wish, it has to be said that the Fourth Prince who cannot match Zhen Huan is the one Lingrong wants more.

However, this alone is not safe. The emperor is getting older, and sooner or later he will remember that the Fourth Prince wanted him to enter the palace. If by that time the Fourth Prince happens to be hooked up with a high-ranking concubine, the Fourth Prince will be in great danger given the age difference between him and the Sixth Prince.

Before that, Lingrong decided to find a way to block the Fourth Prince's way back to the palace!

But before that, it would be better to "help" Concubine Cao first. After all, Concubine Cao is a member of Qixiang Palace, and she is the mistress of Qixiang Palace now. Concubine Duan is scheming against people in Qixiang Palace. Isn't this just ignoring Lingrong, the beautiful concubine of Qixiang Palace?

Lingrong didn't do much, she just told the next imperial physician who came to Qixiang Palace to treat Concubine Cao to tell the truth!

Soon after, the emperor learned that Cao Guiren of Qixiang Palace was not sick but poisoned, and he was furious! Since the Queen Mother and the Queen died of poisoning, the emperor conducted a large-scale investigation of the eunuchs and palace people in the entire palace. Anyone who behaved in a wrong way was either killed or punished to do hard labor in the Xinzheku.

"I thought the palace was much cleaner after the inspection last year, but I didn't expect that there are still so many hidden forces!" The emperor attached great importance to this. If even the emperor could not eliminate the lawless elements in the palace, then who could guarantee that the emperor's daily life would not be affected?

"Check it out! Check it out for me thoroughly!"

"After we find out who it is, we must punish them severely. I want to see who is so capable that he can still stir up trouble in this palace!"

Su Peisheng faced the emperor's wrath head-on, and couldn't help but feel frightened. He was in charge of the investigation last year, and Su Peisheng never expected that even with his full efforts, there were still so many fish that slipped through the net.

Now we just hope that the emperor will not remember this, otherwise the charge of "incompetence" will be put on Su Peisheng's head.

Under tremendous psychological pressure, Su Peisheng conducted strict investigations day and night, and soon what Concubine Duan did to Concubine Cao could no longer be hidden, and the evidence and confession were soon delivered to the emperor's desk.

The emperor suppressed his anger and read the confession. It not only confessed Concubine Duan's plan, the imperial physician involved, the bribed person, but even mentioned Zhen Huan. After all, the box of honey incense that Concubine Duan sent was exactly the reward given to Zhen Huan by the emperor. It just didn't indicate whether Zhen Huan was involved in the matter. However, because of Zhen Huan's behavior of participating in state affairs during this period, although the emperor didn't say anything, it can be seen from his furrowed brows that the emperor is sure that Zhen Huan was involved.

Soon, Concubine Duan was demoted to a noble lady by the emperor's order. As for the staff that she had trained since she moved into Yonghe Palace as a child, they were completely removed by the emperor. In addition, many imperial doctors who were involved were also dismissed by the emperor's order.

However, Concubine Cao had been poisoned for too long and ultimately did not survive. For Princess Wen Yi's sake, the Emperor finally chose to bury Concubine Cao with the ceremony of a concubine. Death is like the extinguishing of a light. No matter how many bad things Concubine Cao had done with Concubine Hua, the Emperor was somewhat grateful for her motherly heart and gave her posthumous honors.

The issue now is the custody of Princess Wen Yi. After thinking for a while, the emperor issued an imperial decree to confer the title of Concubine Ji on Concubine Borjigit and handed Wen Yi over to Concubine Ji for upbringing. If Concubine Jing was not pregnant, the emperor would have wanted Concubine Jing to raise Wen Yi. Now that Concubine Jing has been ruled out and Concubine Duan has committed the act of killing her mother and taking her son away, the emperor will not consider her no matter what.

As for the other concubines, either they already have children, such as Concubine Qi, Noble Lady Xin, and Lingrong, or they are still young and can give birth themselves, such as Zhen Huan, Shen Meizhuang, Fang Chunyi, and Noble Lady Fucha, or their status is not high enough and the Emperor does not even consider asking them to raise children, such as Huanbi and the other little concubines.

Time went on like this, and after the incident of Concubine Duan becoming Noble Lady Duan, the harem became peaceful again. The Emperor had a grudge against Zhen Huan, and he no longer doted on her as much as before. However, apart from Zhen Huan, it was either Huanbi or Noble Lady Chun, and the Emperor was more or less tired of it.

After forcing herself to hold back for a while, the time for the selection of beauties finally came. This time, the emperor did not propose to postpone the selection, nor did the queen propose to cancel the selection and select the daughters of meritorious officials to enter the palace.

The three-yearly beauty pageant was held as scheduled. It must be said that the quality of this year's beauty pageants was indeed not as good as the first one. The emperor picked and chose all the way, and finally only selected 6 newcomers to enter the palace. Among them, the noble lady Guaerjia Wenyuan in the plot was one of them. However, Nian Gengyao died early in this life, so Guaerjia Wenyuan did not have the label of a daughter of a meritorious official, and was only granted the title of a concubine to enter the palace. The other 5 newcomers were average in appearance and had poor family backgrounds, so they were only granted the title of "Agreement" by the emperor and entered the palace.

Guaerjia Wenyuan was the first one to serve the emperor in bed after entering the palace. After serving the emperor, she won the emperor's favor with her beautiful face. After serving the emperor in bed for five consecutive days, the emperor gave her the title "Tian" and she became Tian Changzai.

Tian Changzai's father and Zhen Huan's father were both officials in the Censorate. Tian Changzai asked to live with Zhen Huan in order to gain the emperor's attention.

The Emperor could not stand Concubine Tian's pestering and had to ask Zhen Huan for her opinion. Although Zhen Huan was reluctant in her heart, she still forced a smile and agreed in front of the Emperor.

For a long time afterwards, the emperor lingered in Suiyuxuan, either to see Zhen Huan or to see Concubine Tian. Occasionally, he would meet Huanbi who lived in Suiyuxuan with her. Lingrong simply could not imagine how lively Suiyuxuan was now.

Even without the Queen's instigation, Lord Guarjia outside the palace was still jealous of Zhen Yuandao. He slandered and defamed Zhen Huan's father Zhen Yuandao in front of the Emperor. The Emperor became alert and finally ordered Zhen Yuandao to be dismissed and imprisoned. His family members were confined in the palace, and the Zhen family fell into decline.