Quick Transmigration: Underdog Turns out to be Untouchable

Chapter 940: Chapter 851: Refusing to Be a Slave 71

Of course, the Emperor’s attitude also shows that he doesn’t care whether these concubines share common interests with him, so it doesn’t matter much if these favored and arrogant concubines are difficult or not.

The difficult part is when the Emperor favors them, he’ll cover for their mistakes unless they offend the Empress. Unfortunately, there is currently no Empress in the harem.

It’s not difficult because the current Emperor is quite fickle. Nangong Shuangshuang merely helped Lady Jing find a good-looking young woman for changing clothes, taught her some tricks, and easily captured the Emperor’s affection, making the previously favored Lin Pin instantly lose favor.

Regrettably, Lin Pin did not realize the crisis and still thought the Emperor would eventually return to her; she even dared to be rude to Lady Jing, confronting her in the Imperial Garden and speaking insolently.

When this happened again, and the Emperor caught her in the act, Lin Pin thought the Emperor would merely reprimand her as usual. Unfortunately, the Emperor now has a new favorite and naturally would not continue to unconditionally favor Lin Pin.

Lin Pin was directly demoted by the Emperor to the lowest rank of changing clothes and was ordered to move to Qunfang Garden next to the Cold Palace, effectively the same as being banished to the Cold Palace. Lin Pin transitioned from a changing room attendant to a concubine and back again, officially stepping off the stage of palace intrigue.

A year passed quickly. During this year, Lady Jing’s nights with the Emperor became fewer, but her conversations with him became more frequent. Although the Emperor let Lady Jing share his bed less often, his affection for her remained long-lasting.

There was no sudden favor like those of low-ranking concubines, and no swift fading of passion that leaves the previously cherished ones behind heartlessly. The Emperor’s fondness for those low-ranking concubines came quickly and intensely, full of thrill, and left just as swiftly, full of coldness.

His affection for Lady Jing, however, was more like a gentle stream, lacking major thrills but always present and never ending, considered quite enduring.

But this bit of enduring affection was not enough to satisfy Lady Jing or Nangong Shuangshuang. Nangong Shuangshuang desired Lady Jing to advance further and further. However, to take another step was not easy, requiring a catalyst, which Shuangshuang had been preparing for a long time.

As the year ended, the issue of the Emperor’s successor Empress was raised again by the ministers. This time, the Emperor decided to select several ministers’ daughters into the palace.

The concubines chosen by the Emperor all came from families with significant backgrounds among the nobles or important ministers. Although the Emperor did not explicitly state it, everyone assumed that the future Empress would emerge from among these concubines.

Though the Emperor had not openly established which family would claim the Empress’s title, this move implied that the Emperor intended to select an Empress from the daughters of these families, thereby calming the restless ministers.

In Yingyue Palace, Lady Jing sat by the bed, staring at the peach blossoms about to bloom outside, frowning and somewhat worried, ”I heard the Emperor has decreed that several ministers’ daughters be selected into the palace as concubines.

What exactly is the Emperor thinking? Previously, he never chose the daughters of high-ranking officials as concubines, but now he wants to select so many at once.

Although these girls enter the palace as changing room attendants, given their backgrounds, if the Emperor doesn’t want the ministers to be outwardly obedient but inwardly resentful, he can’t leave these girls as low-ranking concubines.

It’s inevitable that these girls will rise to high positions after entering the palace; they might even surpass me, Lady Jing. Shuangshuang, what is the Emperor doing? Hasn’t he always disliked the power of external relatives, never favoring concubines from noble backgrounds?”

Nangong Shuangshuang was sitting at the desk, flipping through a stack of letter paper. Upon hearing this, she only murmured twice, her attention entirely on the letters in her hands. Lady Jing was used to Nangong Shuangshuang’s attitude and did not take offense, continuing to ponder on her own.

The letters in Nangong Shuangshuang’s hands were written by Gao Yan to his daughter, Lady Jing. Previously, Lady Jing mentioned her boredom in the palace and asked her father, Gao Yan, to write down the happenings of the marketplace outside and send them into the palace for her to see.

Of course, these letters had passed the Emperor’s scrutiny. It was naturally necessary for the Emperor to know about frequent communication between concubines and their families outside the palace, or there might be private exchanges. Naturally, the messages sent in by Gao Yan had to go through layers of checks, leaving no privacy at all.

However, there was no other way. Many political affairs could not be gleaned from inside the palace or from the Emperor himself, so they had to be inferred from these seemingly useless bits of market gossip.

Nangong Shuangshuang wanted Lady Jing to advance further, so the first thing she needed to do was not remain blind; she had to see the events outside the palace, even if it was just limited to the Capital City.

Today, the message sent by Gao Yan to Lady Jing was again a market story, among which Nangong Shuangshuang noticed this piece of news: Gao Yan, while wandering in the vegetable market to find interesting things for his daughter, mentioned about ten or so shrewish women getting into a fight.

These women were all stallholders selling vegetables in the market. The cause seemed to be an old customer of one stall going to another, which upset the stall owners. Following a few exchanged words, a scuffle broke out, dragging in everyone around.

Nangong Shuangshuang recalled Gao Yan previously mentioning his visits to the market in his letters, but at that time, the stalls were mostly manned by men. She wondered when it switched to women taking over.

On another occasion, Gao Yan casually noted in a letter a woman dragging a man along the street, crying and shouting, refusing to let him leave, reportedly because the man was going to join the military.

Nangong Shuangshuang kept recalling past letters from Gao Yan, analyzing them to extract the information she wanted. This was not an easy task, as much of the information was useless, and she had to sift through heaps of trivialities to find the essential information she needed.

The harassment by the Northwest Alien Clan has intensified over the past two years. The Emperor has been storing grain and money as a longstanding national policy, known without needing investigation. Also, the Emperor recruits and trains soldiers every year, but the numbers are not large.

The fact that men once ran the stalls but it has now shifted to women indicates an increase in military conscription. With men absent, women naturally have to step in. Although there are still places hit by disasters, the country’s grain harvests have been plentiful, thanks to favorable weather.

Currently, the domestic grain reserves are quite abundant due to frequent favorable weather conditions and the Emperor’s wise governance, which avoids burdensome taxes and allows the common people to recuperate well.