The truth was similar to what Li Huairou had guessed. Although Li Huailan was puzzled and aggrieved, she did not dare to resist. Tears in her eyes, she washed up and ate breakfast, then went to the main hall to pay her respects to Consort Dowager Hui.
But the Consort Dowager didn’t come to meet her.
Li Huailan was even more aggrieved, her tears raining down.
Li Huairou sent her out of the palace, gently guiding her along the way. “Jie, Consort Dowager won’t see you because she’s afraid that she’ll be sad when she sees you. This marriage was carefully selected by her—the Consort Dowager is thinking of you, so you have to cherish it. Although I haven’t seen my future brother-in-law, I heard the momo say that he is an honest person who cherishes others. Jie, you can live with peace of mind. If my future brother-in-law dares to treat you badly, I’ll vent my anger for you, and there’s always Consort Dowager.”
Li Huailan was in a trance. Silently expecting something to happen, she didn’t even hear what Li Huairou was saying. Although she knew it was impossible, she was still fantasizing a little in her heart.
Li Huairou saw this, looked around, and whispered, “Don’t wait for him. Prince Qi entered the palace early in the morning, and he is still in the empress dowager’s Ningsheng Palace. You are just a little maid of Qingning Palace. Except for me, who do you think will take your departure to heart?”
Li Huailan was a little flustered. “What nonsense are you talking about? I’m not waiting for him.”
Li Huairou looked into Li Huailan’s eyes and said, “Whether you are or aren’t, jie, is something that you know best. Jie, the moon in the water is beautiful, but it is illusory—not real. Only the things that you hold in your hands belong to you. Instead of longing for someone who could never belong to you, or looking forward to a life that doesn’t suit you at all, it’s better to have ordinary days and manage your own happiness.”
“Huairou, the momo said that you’re a master who appears as a fool. I didn’t believe it at first, but now it seems that I was indeed wrong.” Li Huailan laughed at herself.
“Jie, I’m your only relative in this world. I hope you can live well,” Li Huairou said softly.
Li Huailan’s expression was complicated. She didn’t know if this was just her own wishful thinking, but how could she forget her first love?
“I shall be fine. You should also take good care of yourself in the palace and listen to the words of Consort Dowager and momo. Don’t fool around, don’t be headstrong.” Perhaps it was because their parting was imminent, but Li Huailan finally remembered that she was still an older sister. Was this wrong? Going away and leaving Huairou alone in the imperial city? She was so young! Li Huailan told her this over and over again, tears in her eyes.
“Jie, here’s the gate of the palace. You should go.” Li Huairou suddenly hugged her tightly, and then let go. “Jie, since you’re leaving the imperial city, take a big step forward. Don’t look back!”
Li Huailan wiped her tears and nodded. “I will!”
Then she turned around, stepped out of the palace gate, and got into the carriage.
“Jie, don’t look back!” Li Huairou shouted.
Sitting in the carriage, Li Huailan endured the sorrow and the urge to look back, her tears like rain.
Watching the carriage slowly ride off, Li Huairou breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to Qingning Palace.
When she passed by the imperial garden, she saw that two figures seemed to have entered a nearby plum grove.
Li Huairou was hiding under a tree, thinking about the plot—those figures should be Prince Qi and Concubine Ling. She smiled disdainfully. These two people really were bold, to regard the palace rules as nothing in broad daylight!
[Concubine Ling: Ling (令) means virtuous; pin (嫔) is a mid-tier concubine position]
Li Huairou turned around to leave, but then she accidentally saw a figure hidden in the dark. That’s what she’d thought—no matter how courageous Prince Qi was, he didn’t actually dare to be so blatant. So it turned out that someone was standing guard.
Forget it. Let’s wait a while; it’ll be troublesome if she’s discovered.
It was just that, how many things did these two people have to say? Why were they still not finished?
In the plum grove, Prince Qi’s gaze was filled with forbearance. “Are you alright?”
Concubine Ling gently shook her head. “You should not have come.”
“I know, but I couldn’t help myself. Didn’t you come too?” Prince Qi whispered. “I didn’t think much about it last night. Fortunately, you were fine.” The noble consort had set up a trap and wanted to frame his Wan’er. Prince Qi had been anxious and arranged for a court lady of Qingning Palace to come forward to confess her guilt as a scapegoat for Wan’er. But who would think that the court lady would fail to appear? Fortunately, he’d also arranged a later move; otherwise, if something had happened to Wan’er, he’d definitely kill that bitch!
[Guifei: the title of a high-tier concubine]
“I told you that I don’t need you to do this for me. I don’t want to hurt others! The maid is also human, and she grew up held in her parents arms too. You can’t be so selfish!” Concubine Ling grimaced.
“Okay, I understand. I won’t do this in the future.” Prince Qi looked at Concubine Ling with a smile. She was so kind, so considerate of others.
“We won’t meet again in the future. If we missed each other, we missed each other. I can’t go back—I am the emperor’s Concubine Ling now, and you are the emperor’s younger brother. Unless we’re in public, we shouldn’t see each other. This is for our own good!” Concubine Ling said after hesitating again and again. Although she had always truly liked him, she’d already entered the palace; whether it was for her sake or for family’s sake, this dangerous relationship could not continue anymore.
Concubine Ling turned around and left.
Prince Qi grabbed her. “Wan’er! I had a reason when I left without saying goodbye.”
“It doesn’t matter what happened back then. The important thing is that I am Concubine Ling now, your sister-in-law. We should keep our distance. This is a good thing for you and a good thing for me!” Concubine Ling finished speaking and threw Prince Qi’s hand away.
“I can’t do it! Wan’er, I love you! In this life, I will only love you. In this life, missing the chance to be with you is my only regret. I won’t marry anyone except you,” Prince Qi affectionately declared.
Concubine Ling was a little moved, but she still hardened her heart and left.
Li Huairou watched the two figures come out of the plum grove, one after another, and then several figures left from the dark, one after another. She patiently squatted on the spot and waited for a while until a man with the appearance of an eunuch came out from behind the fence and looked around. Then he turned and left.
Really worthy of being the hero. Really cunning.
Li Huairou wanted to stand up, but she found that her legs were numb, so she simply sat on the ground. She thought that she’d wait for a while before leaving. While she was bored, she saw an ant hole on the side of the road, and along the way, she broke a branch and poked the ant hole to have some fun.
“Which palace maid are you, and why are you being lazy here? Aren’t you afraid of being scolded by your gugu?”
[Senior maid]
The sudden voice frightened Li Huairou. When she turned her head to look, she was horrified to find that it was Prince Qi who was speaking. Oh god, when did this fox come back?
“You—you—who are you? Why do you care about me?!” Li Huairou stammered.
There was a gentle smile on Prince Qi’s face. “Forget it. You are still young. If your gugu scolds you, say that you were helping Prince Qi find something. Here, this is a reward from Prince Qi.” With that, he threw a golden bead to Li Huairou.
Li Huairou held the golden bead and thought to herself, This Prince Qi really is generous. No wonder his spies are everywhere in the plot.
Li Huairou didn’t want to talk nonsense with Prince Qi, so she got up from the ground, turned, and ran away.
“Your highness, would you like to find out who she is?”
“No need.” Prince Qi smiled; that would be too deliberate and attract his brother emperor’s attention. These humble court ladies and eunuchs had often helped him at critical moments.
Li Huairou ran back to Qingning Palace.
Fang-momo was looking for her. “Huairou, why did you come back so late? Consort Dowager is waiting for you to have a meal.” Li Huairou had a big appetite, which made all the food look delicious when she ate. When Consort Dowager ate, she liked to let Li Huairou accompany her, watching her eat.
“Momo, I met Prince Qi on the way back. He thought I was a lazy little palace maid, and he gave me a golden bead. He said that if my gugu scolded me, I should say that I helped him look for something.” Li Huairou showed the golden bead to Fang-momo.
Fang-momo smiled. Prince Qi was well-known in the palace; that was simply how it was—using some small favors to win people’s hearts. Hadn’t Huailan been drawn in just like this?
“If you like these things, I have a bunch of them and will give them to you later.” Fang-momo patted Li Huairou’s head. “Go clean your hands. Consort Dowager is waiting for you. There’s your favorite sweet-scented osmanthus duck for today’s lunch.”
“I’ll go right away! Momo, this is for you. Keep it for me and send it to my sister when the time is right.” Li Huairou stuffed the golden bead into Fang-momo‘s hands and ran away in a hurry.
After finishing lunch with Consort Dowager, Li Huairou walked back to the garden, and Consort Dowager went back to take a nap.
Li Huairou wasn’t in the habit of taking naps, so she climbed up a tree and sat on a branch. The wind was blowing, and looking at the palace wall in the distance, Li Huairou began to recall the plot.
This was a novel with a female main lead.
The heroine was now Concubine Ling Su Wan’er. Su Wan’er had grown up in Mingzhou since she was a child. Her father used to be Prince Qi’s teacher. When she was fourteen, she met Prince Qi, who had come to visit his teacher. The two fell in love with each other at first sight. Prince Qi told her that after returning to the capital, he would inform the empress dowager and ask her to bestow a marriage upon them.
[Su Wan’er is her name, and Concubine Ling is the title given to her]
Who knew that Prince Qi would suddenly disappear on his way back to the capital, and then the emperor would order the concubine draft, and Su Wan’er’s name was listed.
[A list for choosing concubines]
Su Waner waited infatuatedly, but she was still waiting at the end of the draft. Instead of an imperial decree to marry Prince Qi, the one she got was the emperor’s imperial decree to make her a noble lady.
[Guiren: noble lady (low-tier concubine)]
After everything was settled, Prince Qi finally appeared, and she heard that he had been attacked on the way back to the capital. He’d been injured and unconscious for several months; that was why he was late.
The emperor doted on Su Wan’er very much, and he spoiled her alone.
Su Wan’er was moved by the emperor’s affection and favor. She had thought about drawing a line between her and Prince Qi; she was spoiled, but she also had a combination of grievances—the harem infighting was endless. Although the emperor spoiled her, he couldn’t ignore the empress and the noble consort. Even in front of the so-called evidence, he’d misunderstood Su Wan’er several times.
Only Prince Qi had been wholeheartedly helping her.
But then Su Wan’er was framed for having an affair with an imperial physician and fell out of favor. The emperor doubted her innocence and insisted on having Su Wan’er kill the unborn child. The empress inadvertently had Su Wan’er learn that she was just a stand-in; the one who that emperor loved was the shadow behind her. Su Wan’er became completely disenchanted with the emperor.
Sad and desperate, the Su family fell into chaos. Su Wan’er’s father was framed, her brother and his wife died in prison, and her mother committed suicide in despair. Prince Qi tried his best, swapping Su Wan’er’s nephew with another child and saving her nephew’s life.
In an instant, her family had been destroyed, and everyone had died. Su Wan’er finally woke up. She abandoned her kindness and love, deciding to take revenge. With Prince Qi’s help, Su Wan’er regained her favored standing with a flying fairy dance created by Empress Xiaoyuan.
After that, she got rid of the noble consort step by step, abolished the empress, and sowed discord in the mother-child relationship between the empress dowager and the emperor.
She’d also found many women with similar appearances and temperaments to that of Empress Xiaoyuan for the emperor, which made him obsessed with women, so he paid no attention to political affairs.
She also got into a secret affair with Prince Qi, giving birth to a pair of princes and princesses who symbolized the prosperity of the dragon and the phoenix. The emperor was overjoyed; he named her the empress and made her son into the crown prince.
But Su Wan’er and Prince Qi’s affairs had been reported. In order to save Su Wan’er and the child, Prince Qi took all the guilt on his shoulders, pleaded guilty, and committed suicide by drinking poisoned alcohol.
Su Wan’er was heartbroken, but she could only watch as Prince Qi died and was buried in the ground.
Although the emperor did not come after Su Wan’er, he treated her coldly. Su Wan’er didn’t care. She stayed in her palace all day, raising her children. The crown prince was smart, righteous, and quite famous.
The emperor was hollowed out by sex, and he finally died on his 35th birthday.
The crown prince succeeded to the throne, honoring his biological mother with the title of empress dowager. As the new emperor was young, the empress dowager was in charge of politics for ten years; it was not until the new emperor got married that she returned the power to him. After the empress dowager returned the power, she was not greedy for power and settled in the harem. The new emperor’s filial piety was pure, nurtured by the world.
In the 15th year of Jian’an, Emperor Jian’an restored Prince Qi’s name, and because Prince Qi had no heirs, he ordered his four sons to be Prince Qi’s heirs.
In the 30th year of Jian’an, the emperor collapsed, the crown prince succeeded to the throne, the new reign was named “Longchang”, and his grandmother was named the grand empress dowager.
In the 20th year of Longchang, the grand empress dowager became seriously ill. Emperor Longchang granted amnesty to the world and prayed for the grand empress dowager. In the 21st year of Longchang, the grand empress dowager passed away.
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The concubine ranking system
- Fei (妃): means “consort”, high-tier rank
- Huang-guifei (皇贵妃), imperial noble consort, is the highest position. Only below the empress, it’s usually given to the one who the emperor loves the most
- Guifei (贵妃) means noble consort, usually given to the daughter of a high-ranking officer
- Then the most-used title is de (德), shu (淑), and xian(贤)
- Pin (嫔): means “concubine”, mid-tier rank
- The lower ranks: guiren (贵人) is Noble Lady, cairen (才人) is Talented Lady, and meiren (美人) is Beautiful Lady. If no title is given to the concubine, they will use their surname.
All the concubines will be known by the title bestowed to them, not their name anymore.
