The prince only allowed me to have a baby, so the pressure is a bit high!

Chapter 21: Women of Yuqing Palace

After finishing his recollection, Yinreng noticed the maid hesitant to speak to Buerhe, and motioned for him to look over. Buerhe, upon seeing Yinreng's gesture, turned her head and saw Mo'er looking at her, wanting to say something but hesitant to because the Crown Prince was there. Seeing this, Buerhe almost covered her face. How could Mo'er be so unruly? It seemed she needed some more discipline from the nanny before she could be of any use.

However, this was not the time to dwell on this matter. Since Mo'er had appeared at this time, there must be something wrong. Since the prince had seen it, Buerhe did not intend to ask privately, but directly said: "Mo'er, what's the matter?"

Mo'er was a little hesitant when she saw her master wanted to speak in front of the Crown Prince, but seeing her master's resolute eyes, she sighed inwardly and told the matter: "Master, Madam Wu said that the princesses from the back courtyard want to come and kowtow to you and pay their respects. Would you like to meet them in the front hall?"

Before Buerhe could speak, Yinreng interrupted, "No need. They are just irrelevant people. There is no need to waste time meeting them. Tell Nanny Wu that they don't need to leave the rear courtyard anymore, nor do they need to pay their respects to the Crown Princess. They just need to stay in the rear courtyard."

After saying that, he turned to Buerhe and explained, "Those were sent here by the Emperor some time ago. I don't like noise, so I locked them all up in the back room. Two of them weren't very well behaved before, always trying to go to the front yard to get information. To prevent future trouble, I ordered them to stay in the back yard. You don't have to worry about their affairs from now on. I'll leave all their food and daily life to Madam Wu. You don't have to come out during the holidays. Madam Wu will follow my instructions. From now on, just pretend they don't exist."

After saying this, he ignored Buerhe's surprised look and walked into Buerhe's small study in the main courtyard.

Buerhe and Mo'er, who remained behind, looked at each other in bewilderment. This Yuqing Palace was nothing like what they had imagined. Were the women in the imperial harem normally locked up like this, if they weren't liked, and not allowed to see the wife? Even the concubines in Ama's harem, no matter how disliked they were, had never been locked up and forbidden to leave. How was this indefinite confinement any different?

But it is strange to say that before Buerhe married into the royal family, she had never heard much about the women in the prince's backyard. Even Nanny Li once said that the prince's backyard was very peaceful and she had never heard any gossip.

Now it seems that there is no gossip at all. Everyone is locked up and it is difficult to get out. What trouble can they cause?

Even if he couldn't figure it out, he couldn't think too much about it at this critical juncture. The prince was still in the main courtyard. Bu Erhe signaled Mo'er to go out and convey the prince's intention to Nanny Wu, and he slowly walked to the small study.

In the small study, Crown Prince Yinreng was leisurely looking at the newly decorated small study by Buerhe. Yinreng could not remember what it looked like originally, but the current layout was very much to his liking.

The overall look is very fresh and elegant. The most eye-catching thing upon entering the study is the two large bookshelves, which are filled with books. In front of the bookshelves is a mahogany desk, which is also simply decorated with two or three brushes on a pen holder. Yinreng immediately knew that they were Hu brushes, which are most suitable for writing and painting.

Next to the pen holder is an inkstone. When you smell the faint scent of ink in the air, you can tell that it is not new ink, but the ink that the owner often uses.

Next is a piece of rice paper spread on top, which is still blank. It seems that the owner of the study has not had time to write or paint on it.

At the corner, there is a white porcelain vase with a chrysanthemum in full bloom in it. Chrysanthemum is considered a very auspicious flower in the eyes of the Manchu people. This one should have been picked from the greenhouse and looks very complete and beautiful.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, many flowers have been moved to the greenhouse. Now the only flowers blooming in the greenhouse are chrysanthemums.

There is also a chaise longue under the window, with a large pillow on it. It looks soft and must be very comfortable to lean on. The presence of this in the study makes it clear that the owner of the study is not a person who follows the rules. When he gets tired of practicing calligraphy or reading, he just leans on the pillow to rest for a while.

Yinreng imagined the scene of Buerhe leaning on the soft big pillow when he was tired from writing, sleeping in the sunshine with his little face flushed, and he burst out laughing.

After looking at all these, Yinreng walked to the bookshelf behind the desk. There were not many books on it, but not too few either. They were not works by famous authors, but mostly enlightenment books and some travel notes and miscellaneous essays.

Yinreng casually flipped through books like "Three Character Classic," "Hundred Family Surnames," and "Thousand Character Classic," and found annotations in the margins. He flipped through them carefully with interest, finding the explanations quite easy to understand, which might be better for beginners.

Thinking of flipping through a few more books later, he looked to the side. Most of the books standing there were travel notes. There were only a few books by famous people, and some of them didn't look original. The prince flipped through them briefly and found that there were quite a few: Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Spring", "Lushan Ballad" from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Li Daoyuan's "Three Gorges", Wu Jun's "Letter to Zhu Yuansi", Tao Hongjing's "Reply to Zhongshu", Su Shi's "Travel Notes at Dinghui Temple", Lu You's "Record of Entering Sichuan", Xu Hongzu's "Xu Xiake's Travel Notes" and even Nalan Xingde's "Miscellaneous Notes from Lushui Pavilion". The rest were basically unknown. Judging from the brushwork and style, they should be from this dynasty, and they basically wrote about the scenery of the Jiangnan area of ​​the Qing Dynasty.

After he had a basic understanding of the contents of the cabinet here, Yinreng became very interested in the things placed on the bookshelf a little further away from the desk. Could it be that the things placed there were all poems, songs, or some beautiful articles?

You should know that the eldest princess of the Ulanara family was a famous talented woman before. Her poem "Song of Burying Flowers" was praised by countless girls in the capital, and she was also named the most talented woman in the capital.

Yinreng stepped forward, but what caught his eye wasn't the poetry and books he'd imagined, but rather a collection of miscellaneous books with strange titles, like "The Rich Daughter Elopes with Me," "My Father-in-Law is a Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion," and "After Becoming a Prince Consort, the Princess Loves Me Like Her Life." Seeing these, Yinreng's mouth twitched. He'd thought the Crown Princess was a talented woman, but what were these? The titles alone made it clear they weren't serious books.

He couldn't help but pick it up and flip through it, and came across a passage: "The princess begged me to take in the concubine she had been searching for for so long. Seeing the anticipation in her eyes, I couldn't bear to disappoint her kindness, so I nodded and accepted her. But I also swore to the princess that I would never neglect her for other women, nor would I divorce her just because she couldn't have children. The one I love most in my heart is still the princess."

Huh? Yinreng was so angry he laughed. What kind of rubbish was this? A princess's husband was actually thinking of taking a concubine? You know, in the Qing Dynasty, no matter how high your official position or how powerful your family background, if you weren't surnamed Aisin-Gioro, you were still a slave. Even if you became a husband, you were just a high-level slave.

The princess of the Qing Dynasty had her own palace, and the prince consort was not allowed to enter without being summoned. Even if the princess couldn't give birth, it was impossible for the prince consort to take a concubine, let alone divorce the princess. Did he want to die, and his family too? The princess's marriage was a reward and recognition from the royal family for the prince consort's family.

Even if the princesses who were married to Mongolia for the purpose of alliance unfortunately died on the grassland, the prince consort's family had to submit a memorial to the emperor before they could remarry or take a concubine.

Just like the fifth sister's husband Shun Anyan in the previous life, he died not long after the fifth sister married him. However, even though Shun Anyan was the eldest grandson of the Tong family, the emperor's mother's family, he did not dare to marry openly after the fifth sister's death. It was only after the imperial concubine Tong in the previous life pleaded for him that the emperor allowed Shun Anyan to take a concubine to carry on the family line after he had fulfilled his filial duty to the fifth sister.

Yinreng put the book down angrily and opened another one. It read, "Ying'er, don't worry. We had no choice but to do this today. I believe that when we have made our vows and return next year with our child, my father-in-law and parents will definitely forgive us for what we have done now. I don't want you to marry anyone else either. Don't worry, as long as you come with me, I promise to study hard and strive to get you the top score in the imperial examination next year. Then you can be his wife and shut up all those who look down on me."

Yinreng was so angry that he tore up the book in his hand. What a joke! The one who is engaged is a wife, the one who is married is a concubine. As a lady from a noble family, can't she understand this? What about the title of "Top Scholar's Wife"? How could someone with such character possibly become the top scholar?

Thinking about his past life, when he helped one of the emperor's concubines who was infatuated with him, and was misunderstood by the emperor, who used this as an excuse to suppress him, he felt extremely angry.

The woman at that time was just like in the book, saying things like "Once I saw a man, I was ruined for life", "In the next life, I would like to be a flower or grass just to stay by the prince's side", and "I don't ask for anything in my life, I just want to be supported by the prince". Although these sweet words are different from those in the book, the meaning is the same.

She was so stupid in her previous life that she actually believed it. She took the risk of being discovered by the emperor to include the Yuan family in the imperial merchants and also helped her family join the banner.

Now that I think about it, it wasn't unfair that the emperor misunderstood me as having an affair with a concubine in the harem because of this incident. After all, if this happened to me, I would also be suspicious, and I would rather kill a thousand people by mistake than let one go.

Just when Yinreng was angry, Buerhe came in. Seeing the papers scattered on the ground and the location of Yinreng, Buerhe instantly understood something. She laughed in her heart. She didn't expect that the prince was such an angry young man. As a woman, she knew that these books were written by those unsuccessful poor scholars to make money. The prince must know this, but he was just pleasing himself in the story for a moment and couldn't stand the shameless behavior of the men in the books.

Bu Erhe did not let Yinreng think too much. He coughed lightly and said, "Master, would you like some tea?" Then he brought a cup of tea served by the palace maids to Yinreng.

Seeing the smiling Buerhe, Yinreng could not show his anger even though he was still angry. He had to put down the novel that he had destroyed, took the teacup handed to him by Buerhe, walked to the desk, sat down, and drank tea slowly.

Buerhe did not follow them. Instead, he picked up the scraps of paper on the ground, took a quick look at them to understand what the story was, and put the things away, leaving them for the palace maids to come and clean up later.

Then he turned around and sat down on the chaise longue. "Why are you so angry about this, sir? Those are just some miscellaneous books written by poor and frustrated scholars to make a living. They're just for fun. There's no need to get so angry about it."

Seeing that Buerhe was trying to make a story about this matter without making a big deal about it, Yinreng was immediately amused: "So this is still my fault. This storybook is completely absurd and full of nonsense. What's the point of reading it? It's not even suitable for entertainment."

Bu Erhe did not want to conflict with Yinreng over some insignificant stories. Besides, he had read these stories a long time ago, so he would not feel bad even if he threw them all away. New ones would soon be available on the market anyway. He would just have to read them behind the prince's back.

Buerhe: "You are right, sir. This is my fault. Please don't be angry. I will have my servants clean up and dispose of all these."

Yinreng also realized that his behavior was a bit extreme. He coughed dryly and said with a hint of embarrassment in his voice: "Well, there is no need to deal with all of them. Pick out the ridiculous ones and leave some for you to pass the time."

After thinking for a while, Yinreng said, "You can do it, but you can't learn it from the storybooks."

Seeing Yinreng being so awkward, Buerhe chuckled for a moment, then turned serious and said, "Yes, I will listen to you."