After the matter of King Xuan’s Manor, Feng Yuran only left three concubines in the back yard. All the other concubines were sold or beaten to death.
The matter went on in silence, but the people who knew it did not dare to tell anyone about it because it was related to the dignity of the royal family. More than one concubine in the backyard had an affair with another man. The Emperor, who had always paid attention to the dignity of the royal family, could not bear it. His youngest son whom he loved most was humiliated like this. If his son had not happened to meet them, he would not have been able to discover it all the time!
Emperor Zongwen immediately ordered the concubines and the young and older maidservants in the back yard, who were involved in the matter, to be beaten to death, and the others who were not involved in the matter to be sold.
Only three of them were left behind in order to conceal it from others, and it was Mo Xuetong who begged in personal. She explained that she was in poor health and neglected the back yard. She was willing to pick some good women and promote them, and would definitely manage the back yard strictly in the future, promising that nothing like this would happen again.
She pleaded and took responsibility without jealousy. Furthermore, she took the initiative to ask for the promotion of a few concubines, which took the interests of the whole into account. It made Emperor Zongwen feel much better when he wanted to vent his anger on her. Then he remembered that his daughter-in-law was young, so she did not know how to deal with those things. She was in poor health, and there were too many concubines in Feng Yuran’s back yard.
Then he ordered Feng Yuran to take this opportunity to clean up all of them!
Emperor Zongwen had wanted to kill them all and then bestowed two girls from noble families to Feng Yuran to be his second consorts regardless of his objections. Feng Yuran was a special prince and according to the rules, he should also have two second consorts and four other consorts. These were all registered in the royal family. As for the other concubines, it was all up to him. Anyway, they did not have to be on the royal family’s list and no one cared about this.
However, Mo Xuetong had already brought up the idea and getting rid of all the women at once was not a good idea, which would arouse suspicion while they could not reveal the reason. Then Feng Yuran would be despised for the rest of his life. It would be the best idea to leave a few to protect his reputation. It seemed that his wife was not only generous, but also smart.
There was something else that Emperor Zongwen was most pleased with. It made him feel that Mo Xuetong was a blissful person. Emperor Zongwen did not forget that Mo Xuetong had married into King Chu’s Manor so early because his son had been so badly injured then that the imperial physicians didn’t know how to cure him. Helplessly, he thought of giving him a wedding to counteract his bad luck. Magically, Feng Yuran got well after that. Mo Xuetong was really blessed and destined to be with Feng Yuran. Now that something like that had happened, she had knelt down and helped to cover it.
Emperor Zongwen cooled down and then felt that Mo Xuetong was a good person!
In the end, the Emperor threw all those involved into prison on the grounds that someone had conspired with King Xuan’s concubines to murder him. Then all the people disappeared silently. Then Feng Yuran cleaned up the back yard and sold the other concubines. Mo Xuetong chose two of them to promote and happened to be on an equal footing with Concubine Qin. Then they could be regarded as the real concubines of King Chu’s Manor.
Even though there were no high-ranking concubines that could be on the list, it was fortunate that only King Chu’s Manor had a second consort. And the main consort had gone mad. As such, it was not conspicuous for King Chu’s Manor to have no second consorts or concubines. At the very least, they had a few concubines that looked good.
One of the two new candidates to be promoted was Concubine Yun, and the other was Concubine Wen.
The reason why they were chosen was that their father or brother was an official. Concubine Yun’s father was a sixth-grade official in the capital. Her mother was a concubine in the family. It was her father who sent her to the palace, and then the Empress Dowager sent her to King Xuan’s Manor to be with Feng Yuran. As for Concubine Wen, she was the legitimate daughter in her father’s family, but her brother was only a seventh-grade official in a small county near the capital. Therefore, she was sent to King Xuan’s Manor without any title.
Now that the manor had confirmed the identity of the three concubines, Mo Xuetong ordered servants to clean up the back yard and redistributed house. The second door in front of the back door was also cleared. The three concubines lived in the same courtyard and Mo Xuetong also sent some young and older maidservants to serve them. She had also told them to follow the rules of the back yard; otherwise, no one could protect them if something happened.
Many people had died in the back yard, and the other concubines had all been sold. Only the three of them were left. They were sad. Although everyone used to play dirty tricks on each other, it was sad that most of them were all gone all of a sudden. When they thought of how ruthless Feng Yuran was, the three of them were not in the mood to fight for a while and all stayed in the courtyard obediently.
Mo Xuetong only saw them once and did not ask them to come to greet every day. She only said that she would ask them to come over when it was necessary. She did not want to see those people. Even though she knew that Feng Yuran did not go to their place, she felt annoyed when she thought of their identities.
The back yard of King Xuan’s Manor was cleaned up in a hurry. The people in the capital only talked about it for a while and then stopped paying attention to it. Because all the students who took part in the imperial exam had already finished it. There were many carriages and people in front of the examination hall that day. They were all coming to pick up people from different families.
In many days of exams, the students ate and drank inside. There were not many people who really could hold on and didn’t feel tired. Most of these students were weak scholars. Usually, they only read books and drew paintings. They had never gone through this, so all of them were very tired.
“Elder Brother, here, here!” Qin Yuxuan stared at the people who came out of the examination hall one by one with big eyes. When he saw Qin Yufeng, who looked tired, he jumped up and shouted.
At the sight of him, Qin Yufeng smiled slightly. Then he came out of the crowd and turned to Qin Yuxuan.
“Elder Brother, how did you do in the exam?” Qin Yuxuan could not wait any longer. He squeezed over to take the food basket from Qin Yufeng’s hand and asked impatiently.
“Not bad!” Qin Yufeng rubbed his forehead and held Qin Yuxuan’s hand to get on the carriage. Then, Qin Yuxuan also jumped in and put down the food basket in his hand. “Father said that you must be very tired. He let me tell you not to worry about it. You can just sleep. I’ll call you when we reach home.”
“Okay!” Qin Yufeng nodded and closed his eyes. He was really sleepy. Although he paid attention to exercising his body, he couldn’t sleep well or eat well in the examination hall these days. He turned his head and rubbed his forehead. Without hesitation, he leaned on the couch and fell asleep.
Qin Yuxuan asked the coachman to set off. The carriage slowly squeezed out of the crowd and headed to the gate of the Qin Manor.
Not long after, they arrived at the entrance of the Qin Manor. Qin Yuxuan woke Qin Yufeng up and got someone to carry the food basket. Then, he and Qin Yufeng, who had recovered a little vitality, walked in the manor. They went to Old Madam Qin’s courtyard first. Both Mdm Yu and Qin Zheng were there. After greeting them, Qin Zheng asked him some knowledge questions. Qin Yufeng answered one by one, which made his father nod profusely. He looked at his son with satisfaction.
He had always been very satisfied with his eldest son. Previously, Qin Yufeng was unwilling to participate in the imperial exam, which gave him a headache. Now that he was finally willing to give it a try, Qin Zheng found nothing unsatisfactory in him. He was very confident in his eldest son’s talent. Although he wasn’t sure if he could be Number One Scholar, it should not be a problem for him to pass the exam and be on the list.
While Qin Yufeng and his father were talking enthusiastically, Mdm Yu was somehow absent-minded. She stood behind Old Madam Qin and hammered her shoulders from time to time. She glanced at her calm eldest son and second son who had always been playful out of the corner of her eye. Then, she lowered her head weakly. It seemed as if she was focused on hammering Old Madam Qin’s back, but in fact, she was already absent-minded.
No one in the room noticed that she was behaving oddly. However, Qin Yufeng’s gaze landed on her intentionally or unintentionally. There was a flash of thought in his eyes. Qin Zheng did not say much to him. He knew that he was extremely tired and called someone to prepare food for him. Then, he told him to go to his room and rest.
After all, such a big examination was the most exhausting!
The fact that Qin Yufeng walked out showed that he had a good constitution, and his exercise was not bad.
Qin Yufeng did not stand on ceremony. After having a little food, he went to his courtyard to rest. However, Qin Yuxuan stayed and was rebuked by Qin Zheng. His father asked him to learn more from his elder brother. Of course, Qin Yuxuan repeatedly said that he could learn martial arts, which naturally made Qin Zheng scold him angrily. The Qin family attached great importance to intellect and etiquette, and had always looked down upon the military successful candidate in the imperial provincial examination.
However, when he saw that his youngest son had hung his head and was being lectured listlessly, Qin Zheng felt that the kid at least had the desire to advance. Now that Qin Yuxuan was not good at studying, it was pointless for him to continue learning. Then Qin Zheng could not scold him any longer. As such, he allowed Qin Yuxuan to return to his courtyard to rethink. Qin Zheng had a few more words with his mother and left because he had something to do. There were only Old Madam Qin and her daughter-in-law in the room.
“What’s wrong with you? Feng’er has returned, but why are you not in high spirits?” Old Madam Qin gestured for Mdm Yu to stop and turned around to ask with dissatisfaction. She had felt that Mdm Yu was hammering her back weakly.
“Perhaps I was too happy when I thought that Feng’er was going to come out and slept late last night. I’m not feeling well right now.” Mdm Yu hurriedly stopped thinking other matters and turned around to smile humbly. Old Madam Qin was a smart person and was concerned about the reputation of the manor, so she did not dare to tell her what she was thinking.
Old Madam Qin’s expression turned cold as she stared at Mdm Yu and stated, “Then have more rest and don’t think too much. Get the servants to make some soup for Feng’er later. Feng’er is your son. Don’t meddle in other people’s matters. First of all, you are the daughter-in-law of the Qin family, and then the daughter of the Yu family.”
The words sent a chill down Mdm Yu’s spine. She quickly lowered her head and answered, “Yes, Mother. I have already got someone to make tonic soup. It still needs a little more time to become thick and fragrant. I will send it to Feng’er when he wakes up.”
Did Old Madam know something? Otherwise, why did she say those words to her? Old Madam Qin was usually rather polite to her, but this time, she did not show any politeness. Mdm Yu’s face was a little pale, and she bit her lips with a forced smile on her face. She did not dare to let Old Madam Qin see her panic.
“That would be best. Feng’er is old enough. When the list comes out, start to pick a suitable wife for him. The girls of your Yu family have evil ideas and are not a good match for Feng’er, so don’t waste your energy on them.” Old Madam Qin looked at her solemnly and waved her hand after a while.
Recently, people of the Yu family had come to the capital one after another. There were indeed a few ladies who were marriageable. Yu Feng’s wife, Mdm Chen, had already hinted to Mdm Yu many times that their children could get married so that the two families could help each other. Mdm Yu had been interested in it. If her niece became her daughter-in-law, it would definitely be good for her. However, according to Old Madam’s attitude, she knew that it was not necessary to discuss it, so she did not dare to mention it and just nodded vigorously.
