Volume 1: The Initial Appearance of Beauty Chapter 3: The Empress's Thoughts

  They arrived at the Fengyu Palace where the Empress lived, and a palace maid went in to report first. Ruo Chen waited outside the hall, not feeling anxious at all. After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a palace maid came out, bowed to Ruo Chen and said: "Your Highness, Her Majesty the Empress has summoned you." Ruo Chen thanked her and followed the maid into the hall with Qing Hong.

  The queen looked to be in her thirties, with a well-maintained face that was elegant and dignified. As the mother of the country, she still had an air of nobility. Seeing Yichen enter, she smiled and beckoned, "Is it Seventh Princess Yichen?"

  Ru Xuan bowed down according to etiquette, "I have seen Her Majesty the Empress."

  "Get up." The queen helped Yu Chen up, carefully sizing her up. "Qing Huan's appearance is beautiful and lovely, Xiao Qi Er is also a national beauty, growing up must be a stunning beauty." Yu Chen hung her head in silence, secretly scolding the queen for giving people strange names, Xiao Qi Er? Yu Chen felt a chill. The queen thought she was shy, pulling her to sit together on the edge of the bed, "In recent years, the palace has neglected you, Xiao Qi Er, have you suffered? I heard that Qing Huan's illness is very severe?"

  Qing Hong stepped forward and bowed, saying: "Your Majesty's concern is our princess's good fortune. But Qing Pin is seriously ill and has become somewhat confused." The Empress sympathetically pulled Yu Chen close, "Poor child, come to Fengyu Palace often from now on, if you encounter any grievances, tell Mother about them." Yu Chen nodded, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty."

  The queen nodded, satisfied with the answer: "Good child. Tomorrow you will go to school. Today, first go and choose a few servants. And tonight's banquet, you come too." Ruò Chén looked at Qīng Hóng suspiciously, nodded, and understood.

  "That's good, let's have lunch at Fengyu Palace later, and in the afternoon, ask the people from the Imperial Weaving Workshop to make a few sets of clothes and send them over."

  Accompanying the Empress Dowager to dinner, Yu Xuan only left Fengyu Palace afterwards. In Fengyu Palace, she had always been quiet and rarely spoke, only answering a few words when the Empress Dowager asked her questions, but the Empress Dowager didn't mind at all, with an extremely fond expression. After leaving Fengyu Palace, it was up to the old ladies in the Empress Dowager's palace to select maidservants for Yu Xuan, "Seventh Princess, according to reason, princesses in the palace can choose two personal maidservants, six general palace maids, and two personal guards."

  "Personal bodyguard?" She thought princesses were women who couldn't get close to men, how could she have a personal bodyguard?

  The old lady nodded, "This rule was established by the founding emperor, princes can be paired with four personal guards, and princesses living in the inner palace are paired with two." Ru Chen nodded, this rule is rarely seen, but soon she realized that this rule was also carefully considered, because the personal guards of the princess were different from those of the prince, all eunuchs, commonly known as courtiers. Ru Chen was not satisfied with this in her heart, thinking about it, if the princesses and concubines were all paired with guards, the deep palace would be desolate, and it would be difficult to prevent something from happening. The way ancient people solved problems is indeed direct and barbaric.

  They arrived at the place where the inner palace guards were trained, and the person in charge came out personally. This was not because of Princess Ruochuan, but because of the old lady who accompanied her. She was the wet nurse of the empress and had served the empress for nearly thirty years, making her a powerful figure in the palace.

  There were twenty or so boys standing in the courtyard, ranging from fourteen to fifteen years old to seven or eight years old. Each and every one of them had a clear face and a slender figure. If they furrowed their brows, it would be too weak. Except for those older ones who were limited by age and strength, all the others under ten could easily knock them down. What's the use of using them as guards?

  "The princess can choose whichever one she likes." The leader of the servants said.

  "Weren't there several excellent ones just a few days ago? How come...?" The old lady's face wasn't looking good, and even if she didn't know martial arts, it was clear that these people weren't up to par.

  "Yesterday, Princess Chang and Princess San, as well as Princess Liu all came to select. Indeed, several with excellent qualifications were taken away by Princess Chang." The housekeeper secretly lamented in his heart, the Empress Dowager had no children of her own, who would have thought that her trusted confidant would personally accompany a neglected princess?

  The old woman was slightly displeased, but still smiled and said: "Princess, just choose two for now, and I'll give you better ones to replace them another day." Yu Chen looked up and scanned the crowd, locking eyes with a pair of bright, yet distant eyes belonging to an eleven or twelve-year-old boy standing in the second row. The moment their eyes met, he was taken aback, and immediately looked away. Yu Chen raised her small hand and steadily pointed at him.

  The manager took a glance and immediately shouted: "Qin Shuyan, come out!"

  The boy slowly walked out, knelt in front of Ruò Chén, "Qín Shū Yán has seen the princess." Ruò Chén looked at him with a tilted head, and the indifference in her eyes was clearly discontent. Ruò Chén glanced at the remaining crowd, pointed to a similarly twelve or thirteen-year-old delicate boy in front. Seven or eight-year-olds are easy to deal with but are useless, they might even drag her down.

  "Lin Shen, Qin Shu Yan, you two are now the guards of Princess Qi. From now on, you must protect the princess well and not let anything happen to her. Princess Qi, please give them your orders."

  Named? "Qin Shu Yan, forest deep." Like dust way.

  Everyone was stunned, and Qin Shuyan, who had been keeping his head down all along, also raised his head in surprise.

  "Princess, once they become personal guards, no one will use their real names. Please give them a name, Princess."

  Ruò chén looked at the flash of shame in Qín Shūyán's eyes, tilted her small face and glanced at Lǎo Māma, as if she didn't understand. Repeated: "Qín Shūyán. Lín Shēn." The palace guards were essentially eunuchs, with strange names. This was natural, not to mention the little princesses who were only five or six years old and couldn't come up with good names, let alone the imperial concubines in the harem, who would bother to think of a name for a slave?

  "The Seventh Princess thinks these two names sound good? Then let's just call them by their original names." The old nanny said with a smile.

  Then, a group of people led by two new members went to the Weiting Palace to select palace maids. Along the way, Ruocheng could feel that someone was sizing her up without looking, it was that person named Qin Shuyan, this person's background is probably quite interesting.

  If dust needs to choose only two palace maids, the rougher ones can be chosen by Qing Hong. The old lady took Ruocen to several girls who looked very clever and smiled: "The princess looks at who she likes and points to whom." Ruocen glanced casually, unlike the eunuchs, the palace maids were at least from a clean family background, some even had a good background. After all, they are the princess's personal attendants, so these people may also be someone else's eyes and ears.

  If Dust didn't have the energy to distinguish who was a spy and who wasn't, she wouldn't bother. She randomly pointed out two of them. Qing Hong also led over several maidservants who looked unremarkable. As usual, she lectured the person in charge for a while, then asked her to name them. Ru Chen remained silent for half a day. The old lady-in-waiting smiled and said, "The princess means to keep things as they were?" Ru Chen nodded casually, these palace maids' names would change with each new master, she didn't bother to rename them again.

  As they exited the Yuting Palace, the old nurse smiled warmly and said: "This old servant won't see you back to your residence. Tonight, someone will be sent to escort you to the evening banquet." Qinghong saw off the old nurse, probably slipping her something, and from afar, Ruo Chen saw the old woman's face light up like a flower. Ruo Chen glanced at the eight people behind him and said calmly: "Let's go back."

  The Qingning Palace suddenly had many more people, and Ruochuan was too lazy to manage them all, so he handed everything over to Ruan Cui. However, after a short while, Ruan Cui came to report that she had arranged for the two palace maids to serve Qinghui, four rough servants were outside the hall, but the two personal guards did not know how to arrange them.

  "If I think about it, 'call them out when going out, practice martial arts at home'."

  Ruan Cui nodded, and Hong Dian brought in some pastries. Frowning, she said: "The princess's future days may not be very stable." Ruoxuan nodded, the empress would not treat her so well without a reason. But what benefits could treating a powerless and background-less princess like her bring?

  "The Empress Dowager has no children, and three years ago she adopted the late Yun Fei's son, the fourth prince Long Yan. However, the fourth prince is not favored.

  Light Red continued: "The Emperor has a total of seven princes and nine princesses. The eldest is the Crown Prince, who is the same mother as the eldest princess, and is 17 years old this year. His birth mother is Lan Gui Fei. Next is the second prince Long Jie, who was born to Rong Fei. There are also the third prince Long Feng, fifth prince Long Mo, sixth prince died young, seventh prince Long Ge is six years old this year, and the same age as the princess."

  "It's not that many, either." She remembered a period of time when she was very interested in history. In the past, some emperors had dozens of princes, and the struggle for the throne was earth-shattering. "A concubine without a background can't give birth to an imperial son." Yu Chen remained silent.

  "So nowadays, the most favored in the palace is the Crown Prince's faction, he being the eldest son. However, the strongest power actually lies with the Fourth Prince's faction, as he has the support of both the Empress Dowager's family and Concubine Yun's family, and he is also a legitimate son."

  He rubbed his forehead, "Not interested."

  Qing Hong pulled her up, "The princess can't be uninterested. The queen's kindness to the princess isn't without reason. Whether it's the Queen Mother's family or the Blue Noble Consort's family, there's a problem."

  "Huh?"

  "They have no right to military power."

  "What's it to you?"

  Qing Hong said, "In our Longteng country, the military power is divided into three parts: one part is in the hands of the Emperor, one part is in the hands of Lin Wang, that is, the king uncle of the princess, and the remaining one part is in the hands of General Shen Yu."

  "Shen Yu?"

  Hong smiled lightly and said, "It's no wonder the princess doesn't know. General Shen Yu is our Dragon and Tiger's first young famous general, and he's only 19 years old this year. He's the son of the late General Shen Lie, who protected the country. At the age of 13, General Shen Yu followed his father to battle on the battlefield. Two years ago, when Old General Shen passed away, General Shen took over his position and became the Grand Marshal of Dragon and Tiger Country."

  Ruò chén nodded, "Mm. What's the key point?" Qīng Hóng sighed, "Princess, you shouldn't be too lazy either, okay?" Ruò chén argued, "I'm only six years old!"

  Qing Hong looked at her helplessly, "The key is that it's said the Emperor intends to arrange a marriage for General Shen. The Shen family has been loyal and dedicated to the country for generations. The Emperor must be planning to marry off one of the princesses to General Shen in order to control him. Whoever marries General Shen will likely end up with military power." Yu Chen almost choked on the pastry in her mouth, coughed twice, and then said, "Qing Hong, this palace is only six years old." The Empress must have lost her mind, thinking of marrying off a six-year-old princess to a great general. It's not right to ruin someone like that.

  Qing Hong looked at her strangely and said, "What's wrong with being six years old? It's just an engagement. Your Majesty probably doesn't mean for General Shen to marry now either. In eight more years, the princess will be 14 years old and can get married, and General Shen will only be 27 years old then." Yu Chen was silent. In her previous life, being in her twenties wasn't considered old. But isn't this world supposed to be one where you get married in your teens?

  "The queen's winning chances aren't great, I'm afraid."

  "That's not necessarily true. The eldest princess under the Empress Dowager is already fifteen this year, which matches General Shen's age. However, it's well-known that the eldest princess has a stubborn personality. As for General Shen...it's said that he once declared that he would rather marry a poor girl than the eldest princess. The second and third princesses have already been betrothed. The fourth princess is the twin sister of the fifth prince, the fifth princess died young, and the sixth princess is only half a year older than you."

  Ruofei was taken aback, "This General Shen is quite interesting."

  "So, the queen is probably trying to use the princess to win over General Shen. She might even want to adopt the princess." Yu Cen's face sank as he looked at Ruo Cui, "From now on, you must protect the empress dowager's safety well."

  Ru Cui was taken aback, her face also turned solemn, and she nodded: "Don't worry, Princess."

  Qing Hong said: "That... General Shen, what does the princess mean?"

  "No."

  Ruoxuan said firmly. It's not that she wants to pursue true love in the future or anything. After going through zero things, he has no expectations for love. He just doesn't want people to calculate like this, and... Ruoxuan sneered coldly... If the one who laughs last is not the empress, she will also be implicated.