241

Chapter 241: Untitled

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The representative of this era was none other than Consort Xian, the most favored person in the harem before the new Empress entered.

Consort Xian of the Gao Clan was a descendant of a prominent figure who contributed to the founding of the nation, and she was the daughter of King Xiping. This King was known to be a highly principled man with nimble foresight. As the former close confidante of Prince Wen Yi, he was in charge of many critical affairs under the Prince, but he sold those vital pieces of information to Xuanyuan Cheng, and once again became a close confidante.

Naturally, the Regent King bestowed the Gao family with gifts and his favor, and even Consort Xian seemed to be in charge of the Imperial Harem. She became conceited and stuck-up, and the attendants around her changed at the speed of chopping chives. The ones that were replaced were either dead or sent to harsh places such as the department in charge of washing clothes. As such, when other attendants and eunuchs were told to enter her palace, they acted as though they were told to drink poisonous wine – they quickly held the hands of their companions and friends and bade their farewells in tears.

The entire harem had long suffered under Consort Xian. After the new Empress entered the harem, many had naturally tried to influence the tough Empress to take action. After hearing these, the new Empress, in a half-asleep state, merely said, “Oh.”

Many were so disappointed, thinking, ‘So she was just here for show.’

Since it was the first time greeting the Empress, everyone should, supposedly, wake up no matter what. Yet Consort Xian sent an attendant the day before to inform that she was not feeling well, and she would greet the Empress on another day.

When Meng Fuyao heard the message, she smiled. “Tell her that she should treat her illness. Go ahead.”

The attendant went back and relayed the exact message. At that moment, the well-dressed Consort Xian was just casually admiring the flowers in front of the window. Her palace had a special room, where the top-notch gardeners would specially attend to her flowers every day. The flowers which were in season would bloom right in front of her expensive, pale-rose and delicate muslin window so that Consort Xian could smell the scent of various flowers in her room without even sitting up on her bed.

However, she was not in a good mood as the gardener was unable to make her favorite peonies bloom. Hence, in her rage, she made the gardener turn into fertilizer, and she ordered the eunuchs to find a better gardener.

When the attendant relayed the Empress’ decree, the corner of her lips lifted and she smirked. Extending her fingers that were guarded by sapphire nail protectors, she gently snapped a stalk of green chrysanthemum that was painstakingly taken care of.

Slowly, she tore off the petals of the precious chrysanthemum one by one, until a bare stalk was left. “At least she’s adaptive to the circumstances.”

Then, she went back to sleep and was prepared to wake up at her usual timing.

By 3 a.m., the concubines had already gathered in the Empress’ palace. Those who were ranked equivalent to or higher than a Noble Concubine were given seats in the outer room, while those ranked lower than that could only kneel and wait in the courtyard. In the wee hours of a cold winter morning, this bunch of pampered women knelt to the point that they resembled the shivering stalks of grass in the harsh and icy wind.

In the outer room, though the flaming charcoal wood kept them warm, Meng Fuyao was not going to make their lives easy, and she tortured them in another way. Those of noble statuses sat stiffly in their spots and Consort Jade, Jian Xue, hung her head in discomfort. Her position was arranged in a very strange manner – the first on the left was Noble Consort, Tang Yiguang, the first on the right was Consort De, Hua Zhirong, second on the left was her and second on the right was Consort Shu, Situ Linyun.

The arrangement was… messed up.

According to the harem’s hierarchy of status of the Four Consorts, Noble Consort should come first, followed by Consort Shu, then Consort Xian and finally Consort De. Other than Tang Yiguang’s position, the other three Consorts were arranged wrongly. She who was supposed to be seated on the third position from the left was now sitting on Consort Xian’s position.

If Consort Xian were to know of this, there would be trouble for her, and Jian Xue whimpered in her heart. ‘Who said that the new Empress is a pushover? Even before she appears, she has already arranged the seats as such. That’s pushing Hua Zhirong and me to become the enemies of everyone else, and especially me as an enemy of Consort Xian!’ she thought.

At that moment, she was surrounded by the bizarre glances of the other women, and she sat so uncomfortably on her seat as though needles had grown all over her body. Looking at how Hua Zhirong remained nonchalant, and how Tang Yiguang only cared about eating the snack from her sleeves, she smirked to herself. ‘How reckless of them!’

Then, she thought of how she sent tonics to Yu Wenzi and suddenly sneezed during the selection of Empress, resulting in her missing out on the position of the Empress and the Four Consorts. Was that… also not a coincidence?

As she thought of that, she could not help but shiver in fear.

Just then, Consort Shu grinned and asked, “Sister Jian, are you feeling cold? Be careful not to catch a cold in this frosty weather in the winter.”

Forcefully, Jian Xue looked up and smiled. “Thank you, Sister Consort Shu, for your concern. Please take care of your noble body too.”

Casually, Consort Shu surveyed her nail protectors under the light and said, “I am an unrefined person and have always been able to handle tough situations unlike you, Sister. You’re a real jade that can’t catch any cold at all. I heard that after the day of the Empress selection, you caught the flu?”

In an instant, Jian Xue’s face turned ghastly white. The incident of her sneezing during the selection was her greatest embarrassment in life, and these women indeed did not intend to let it pass by!

“Consort Jade is a real delicate one. No wonder His Majesty favors you. I heard that when you sneezed into His Majesty’s palm, he did not even get angry.” Another Noble Concubine covered her mouth and mocked.

“That is because Consort Jade is so virtuous and beautiful, and hence His Majesty dotes on her. If it were ordinary people like you and me, forget about sneezing, we wouldn’t even be able to pass if we just revealed our teeth when we talked.”

“… Well, not everyone can be the ‘Sneezing Imperial Consort’…”

It turned into a lively discussion as everyone chimed in and laughed about it. Women in the harem had always been the most boring biological bunch in the universe. The only thing they would do other than trying to make themselves more beautiful would be to find ways to embarrass their opponents. With those gentle lips of theirs, they would sprout sentences that resembled sharps knives and daggers, making deep cuts in only the weakest spots of their enemies.

Being the laughing stock of the group, Jian Xue was drowned in a sea of mockery and laughter. She was already shivering with anger, and the acts of Hua Zhirong merely watching on and Tang Yiguang being engrossed in her snacks made her feel even more bitter. All three of them had fallen into the new Empress’ trap, but the two of them were utterly ignorant and did not know how to help each other, leaving her to fight the war alone. Why enter the harem then!

Seeing how the number of enemies around her was as dense as snow, how the two of them were as dumb as cattle, and how the new Empress had forced her into dangerous grounds even before showing her face, Jian Xue felt her heart drop. Suddenly, she recalled what her wise and farsighted grandmother had said when she entered the palace.

“Don’t be silly and never get involved in the fight in the harem. The fight in Xuanyuan’s harem is far eviler than that in any other country because that is no longer a fight between women for favor, but one that concerns the power over the country. It is a highly turbulent situation now, the Emperor is not without support, and every woman there is backed by their clans. Glory and downfall may happen to you at any moment, so don’t fight. If you’re forced to fight, then choose to follow the most malicious one!”

Choose to follow the most malicious one…

In an instant, Jian Xue made her decision.

Slowly looking up, she smiled. “Since it is brought up, I apologize for that incident. It was actually intentional on my part to be down with the flu.”

“Oh?”

Jian Xue stood and bowed respectfully towards the middle seat. “When I first saw Her Majesty in the first round of selection, I immediately thought that Her Majesty had such a majestic presence to look after the land under the Heavens. I dared not to fight with Her Majesty, so I chose to voluntarily step back.”

Although she said it in such a sincere and solemn manner, the other concubines revealed expressions of mistrust and distaste. They had seen shameless people who boot-licked, but they had never seen one so shameless!

Jian Xue beamed and sat down – it was not meant to be said for them anyway.

While there was a battle of words in the outer room, the situation was vastly different in the courtyard. The weather was too cold for the concubines to speak, and there had no news even after they had been kneeling for such a long while. Seeing that there was no one else, they started getting restless. The timid ones would try to move their legs as they leaned their weight on their hands, and the brazen ones directly stood up, holding on to the walls as they groaned and exercised their leg muscles. For a while, the courtyard was filled with the sounds of stomping.

“This is trying to torment us on such a cold day!”

“There should at least be a coal burner to keep us warm.”

“Forget it, someone is bent on making you kneel. What burner could there be!”

“I heard that she was not very favored when she was in the Zhang Ning residence? She probably knelt a lot when she was young. Now that the tables have turned, she would want us to have a taste of that!”

“Sister, you’re too nice. I’m more worried about this – does she even know what a coal burner is? Don’t tell me she has yet to know all the things we use in the palace?”

Giggles ensued.

“Hah.”

A sudden voice appeared, and it seemed as though the speaker was very interested in joining their conversation. “I heard that the northern areas don’t even use a proper coal burner, and all they use are heated brick beds.”

“That’s right,” said Concubine Liu, whose father was not ranked high but held significant authority in the court. As a Vice Minister at the Ministry of War, he was in charge of weapons and was a trusted confidante of the Regent King. Naturally, Concubine Liu basked in this honor and was able to speak with such confidence. Closing her eyes, she leaned against the wall and rubbed her waist. In a casual tone, she added, “I heard that the beds are huge in the northern area, and male and females sleep together and roll around on the floor.”

“Ah… there’s really such a way of sleeping?” The same person continued asking with much enthusiasm.

“Yes,” Concubine Liu answered and smirked nonchalantly. “I wonder who our Empress sleeps with on that big brick bed? Her elder brother? Younger brother? Grandfather or uncle? Hah.”

She was happily speaking away and did not notice that her surroundings had slowly turned quiet. The lively chatter just now had entirely died down, and the atmosphere was eerily silent.

“I feel that it’s nothing much to sleep with the younger brother. It won’t be nice if it was the grandfather or uncle,” replied that person, who raised her opinion in a very earnest voice.

“What do you know?” Concubine Liu raised one corner of her lip. “That’s already pretty mild. There are even cases of people who crawl into the beds of their daughter-in-law! Didn’t the third master of the previous generation in the Yuwen Clan commit suicide because of this? The genes do pass down…” she spoke, and she removed her hands from her waist in smiles. Turning to look back, she added, “Sister, you’re so naive and cute…”

Suddenly, she choked, and her eyes slowly widened.

Behind her, all the concubines had already knelt at their original positions, but one person was standing who did not wear any make-up. With hair tied up simply, she was clad in simple but strange clothes, and steam was still evaporating from her head. She beamed and looked at Concubine Liu with her hands behind her back.

Seeing that Concubine Liu looked back, she smiled and asked, “Say it, continue and say it. Why are you stopping?”

Concubine Liu’s lips quivered. From the surroundings and the accessories on this woman’s waist, she had inferred the identity of the woman. And just now… just now… just now, when the Empress led her on, what exactly has she said?

Slowly recalling what she had uttered, Concubine Liu felt as though she was struck by thunder and her body shook. Her knees gave way, and she knelt down immediately. In tears, she cried, “Your Majesty… Your Majesty… your humble servant is ignorant… it was all nonsense… your humble servant will slap herself!” Making up her mind, she raised her hand and gave herself a tight slap across the cheek. The sharp sound of the contact made the women in the courtyard bow down even lower, and Concubine Liu shivered as she looked up pitifully at Meng Fuyao.