Dad, open the door. I'll bring your mistress back for you.

In the Qushui Liushang Pavilion of the Governor's Office, five women with beautiful looks and outstanding temperament were sitting leisurely on soft cushions.

While tasting the fresh fruits and vegetables that had just been chilled from the deep well, they were enjoying the rare cool time in the summer.

The five people are Shen Chuning, Xie Xinyan, a talented and beautiful girl from Taishan Academy, Princess Jiahe Xiao Jinyu who came all the way from the capital to attend Shen Chuning's coming-of-age ceremony, the distinguished Princess Nanyan, and Zhou Lan, a heroic man from General Dingguo's Mansion.

At this moment, they gathered together like sisters, chatting softly about trivial family matters, and bursts of laughter as sweet as silver bells could be heard from time to time.

Just as everyone was chatting and laughing, Shen Chuning's thoughts suddenly drifted back to the time when she left the capital.

At that time, news came from the palace that a concubine was eight months pregnant. No one knew whether the child was born safely, whether it was a boy or a girl, and how much impact it would have on the situation in the court.

Thinking of this, Shen Chuning couldn't help but feel curious and asked, "I wonder if the baby of that Concubine Qin...oh no, she should be called Concubine Ying now, has been born safely?"

Hearing this, Princess Nan Yan raised her slender eyebrows slightly and said with a sweet laugh, "Oh my, Sister Chu Ning, you don't know, there are no concubines in the palace now! She has been promoted to a higher position a long time ago and is now a concubine!"

Shen Chuning couldn't help but show surprise when she heard this, and secretly sighed in her heart: This concubine is really favored by the emperor!

She was conferred the title of noble lady when she entered the palace at the age of eighteen, and she rose rapidly in the imperial court ever since, winning the favor of the emperor.

No matter what she wanted, the emperor would satisfy her request without hesitation.

In order to make the beauty smile, he even spent a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources to build a glazed tower specifically for her.

Even Xiao Yuanlang, who was responsible for supervising the construction of this tower, was rewarded by the emperor.

It has not even been five years since she entered the palace, but this woman, who is just in her early twenties, has already been promoted to the position of concubine!

For a woman who has no support from her family and no background at all, such a fast promotion is incredible.

It is no wonder that those powerful families racked their brains to send their daughters into the palace.

After all, after entering the palace, if she could get even half of Concubine Wei's favor, her entire family would prosper.

Let’s not talk about the distant past, just talking about the Shen family, if it weren’t for the Empress Dowager Shen sitting in the palace, Shen Huaizhong would probably not have been able to fill the vacancy of the Left Prime Minister so early.

"She was actually canonized as a consort at such a young age. She must have given birth to a prince. But I don't know what the child's name is?" Shen Chuning asked curiously.

In her previous life, she was hastily married just after she came of age, and became pregnant not long after the wedding. From then on, she had been staying in the Third Prince's mansion to take care of the baby and wait for the birth. She never stepped out of the mansion until her death.

Because of this, we naturally know very little about many things in the outside world.

However, what surprised her was that the sixth prince had obviously been born before she came of age. Moreover, she had always lived in the capital in her previous life, so according to common sense, she should have known something about this.

But in her mind, there was no memory or impression of the Sixth Prince at all?

Xiao Jinyu's originally pretty face suddenly became gloomy, as if covered with a layer of frost, and her beautiful eyes revealed undisguised contempt and disdain.

"Haha! A prince? He wasn't even born!"

As she spoke, she curled her lips in disdain, as if she was extremely ashamed to mention this matter.

"Forget it, forget it. Now that things have come to this, I might as well tell you everything. Anyway, this matter is no longer a secret in the palace."

Xiao Jinyu snorted softly and continued, "It's not entirely true that the baby in Concubine Wei's belly wasn't born. What was born was a purple ball of flesh. It's said that the midwife who was in charge of the delivery witnessed this horrifying scene, and that the ball of flesh was hastily burned shortly after it landed."

Upon hearing this, Princess Nanyan hurriedly nodded in agreement, "That's right! Not only is it known to everyone in the palace, but even I, outside the palace, have heard a little about it. My mother told me that the pimple wasn't just a strange purple-blue color, it was also densely covered with jet-black hair."

Shen Chuning couldn't help but feel horrified after hearing this description, and felt goose bumps all over her body.

She asked in a trembling voice, "According to common sense, giving birth to such a freak is a serious taboo. Even in an ordinary family, if this happened, both mother and child would usually die, and all servants who knew the inside story would be silenced. How come when this happened in the royal family, not only was the news not suppressed, but it became known to everyone? And even the person who gave birth to this freak was rewarded?"

Shen Chuning was puzzled. There was something strange about this matter.

Although she knew from Shen Qingyuan that Concubine Wei was also sent by Lingshan, the people of Lingshan were very good at deceiving people and it was unbelievable that they could do things to this extent.

Xiao Jinyu then asked, "Have you heard of lucky beads?"