The abandoned concubine who transmigrated woke up shouting "Long live the widow!"

Ye Muchen went to the Duke of Anguo's mansion in the afternoon. He rarely visited other people's residences.

Firstly, he was too busy with other matters to spare much time; secondly, it was due to his personality that he had never been particularly enthusiastic about such social interactions.

When he saw him arrive, Duke Anguo Qin Huaining was quite surprised. His nephew had gone to the battlefield when he was a teenager. Although he had a good relationship with his son, he rarely came to the mansion. It seemed that something was wrong!

Tea and refreshments were served, and Qin Jing's mother also came over to sit with him.

“Xiao Jing went to inspect the shops after lunch. Did he not know that the Prince was coming?” asked Duke Anguo.

"Uncle, Aunt, I'm not here to see Xiao Jing today. I'm here on behalf of Prefect Li," Ye Muchen said directly, not wanting to beat around the bush.

Qin Huaining and his wife exchanged a glance and asked, "Li Huan?"

Ye Muchen nodded and said without beating around the bush, "Yes! The Li family has a family rule that Li family daughters cannot marry men who take concubines. However, the Empress Dowager is about to arrange a marriage between Xiao Jing and Li Qianqian. Li Huan wants to ask your family's opinion. If you do not accept this rule, then he will find a way to make the Empress Dowager withdraw her intention to arrange the marriage."

Qin Huaining and his wife never expected this. Although they did not have concubines in their household, Qin Huaining did have a maidservant when he came of age. However, that maidservant was short-lived and died soon after. Otherwise, she would have been promoted to a concubine or something.

The Duchess said, "Does the Li family have such a rule? Your Highness, as you know, our Duke's Mansion only has one legitimate son, Jing'er. If the principal wife has no children or no sons, then who will inherit our family business?"

Qin Huaining felt that his wife was right and nodded in agreement.

Ye Muchen said, "I've come to deliver a message to both of you. Li Huan is afraid that if he comes directly to your door, it will be awkward for both of you, and it won't be good for anyone if word gets out! There are still a few days until New Year's Eve, so you should discuss it carefully."

Qin Huaining said, "This matter doesn't need much discussion. I'll trouble Your Highness to tell the Li family that if she can't give birth to a legitimate son within ten years, we'll have to arrange for Jing'er to take a concubine. The illegitimate son will be registered under the mistress's name. This request isn't unreasonable. We can't let our Qin family line end, can we? Madam, what do you think?"

The Duchess replied, "The Duke is absolutely right. Your Highness, what do you think?"

Ye Muchen nodded, “That’s not excessive. Then I will speak to the Li family. If they accept, the two families will be in-laws and we can wait for the Empress Dowager’s decree. Otherwise, I hope you can go to the palace together to explain the truth to the Empress Dowager. My mother is a reasonable person.”

"Alright! Then I'll trouble you, War King!" Qin Huaining said, cupping his hands in greeting.

"We're all relatives, Uncle, there's no need to be so polite!"

When Jingxue returned to Yichun Palace, Xiaoman and the others had already made the sauce blocks, wrapped them in straw paper, and placed them in a cool place.

After the afternoon nap, the Imperial Guards delivered the New Year's gifts from the Empress Dowager and the Empress, which consisted of jewelry and silk. Jingxue picked out two inconspicuous items and gave them to Xiaoman and Liqiu, and put the rest into her spatial storage.

Jingxue was going to take stock of all the things in her space. She couldn't estimate the price of many of the jewelry, paintings, and calligraphy, but she could calculate the value of the gold and silver! She would do a year-end inventory tonight.

You don't know until you calculate it, and then you're shocked by the results.

The space contained over 800,000 taels of gold, silver, and banknotes. This was thanks to the 300,000 taels of banknotes from the Minister of Personnel's family and the more than 20 chests of gold and silver from Prime Minister Zou's family. The old man's more than 20 chests were mostly filled with gold, worth about 200,000 taels of silver.

The only regret is that no gold or silver jewelry was found in Hu Yucheng's house; otherwise, there would have been much more, and she could have helped even more impoverished people.

A day later, the Ministry of Rites held an equestrian competition at Wanyan Junhao's request.

Not many officials came this time, only officials from the Ministry of Rites and three princes. Even Qin Jing did not attend, which surprised Jingxue.

Ye Muchen told Jingxue that the Li family and the Duke of Anguo's mansion had reached an agreement: if Li Qianqian could not give birth to a legitimate son within ten years of marrying Qin Jing, the Duke of Anguo's mansion would have to arrange for Qin Jing to take a concubine.

However, the boy born would be raised as the legitimate son under Li Qianqian's name. Jingxue had no objection to this, as it was a matter between the two families.

The equestrian competition was held at the training grounds of Daying on the outskirts of Beijing. The negotiations had ended, and Wanyan Junhao had become much more obedient, so Jingxue just wanted to watch the competition today.

Wulin Tuya and Princess Jingyi also came to watch the competition today, and Jingxue sat on the viewing platform with everyone else.

The competition consists of three events. The first event is horse racing, which is to see who runs the fastest and reaches the finish line first.

Each side sent five soldiers to participate, and the soldiers from Cangbei narrowly won this round.

Wow! Wanyan Junhao immediately felt that the sky had cleared, the rain had stopped, and he could walk again.

"Haha, we won! Next one, hurry up!" the guy shouted.

Seeing that he was getting angry, Runyue pouted and said, "It's like you guys have never lost before."

The little maid glanced at her young mistress, Jingxue, who was staring blankly into the distance, lost in thought.

The next event will be the exciting mounted archery competition!

In the distance, on an open field, several soldiers were gripping a long rope tightly, the other end of which was tied to constantly moving targets. These targets seemed to be alive, sometimes moving quickly forward, sometimes swaying from side to side.

At the command, the soldiers from both countries mounted their horses and galloped off like arrows released from a bow.

As they steered their galloping horses, they swiftly drew arrows from behind their backs, nocked them on bowstrings, aimed at the swaying targets ahead, and released the arrows without hesitation.

This is no easy feat! Not only do participants need superb horsemanship to maintain balance and control their horses, but they also need excellent archery skills to accurately hit the ever-changing bullseye.

Compared to the simple direct fire during the previous siege, the difficulty of this mounted archery was obviously much greater.

After a fierce competition, the final result was revealed: the soldiers from the Northern Night side were superior in skill and won the victory!

Seeing this, Runyue was extremely excited. Her face turned red with excitement, and she immediately shouted at the top of her lungs, "We won! We won this time!" After shouting, she even proudly raised her chin at Wanyan Junhao.

Wanyan Junhao didn't care. "We'll definitely win the next round. Keep your eyes peeled and watch closely!"

"Hmph! Bullshit!" Leap Moon rolled her eyes.

The third skill is lassoing horses, which is Cangbei's forte.

At the sound of a horn, three spirited horses were released into the training ground.

The Cangbei soldier running at the front had piercing eyes. He leaned forward, almost parallel to his horse's back, and gripped the long lasso tightly in his hand, the rope at the end of the lasso whistling in the wind.

His steed reared up on all fours, each landing precise and powerful, rapidly approaching the target horse.

The soldier from Cangbei gripped his horse's flanks tightly, let out a roar, and swung his lasso with lightning speed. The rope traced a perfect arc in the air, precisely looping around the target horse's neck.

The rope was tightly wrapped around the horse's neck. Then, the rider pulled hard backward, his whole body leaning back. Using the horse's momentum and his own strength, he forcefully brought the horse to a stop.

"Good!" Wanyan Junhao suddenly stood up, waving his arms and shouting loudly.

In the end, Cangbei lassoed two of the last three horses, making it two to one. This time, Cangbei won, and Cangbei won the entire race.