Chapter 3582: The Most Favoured Woman in the Inner Palace (1)
Chapter 3582: The Most Favoured Woman in the Inner Palace (1)
Passing a message for Si Tian and putting in a good word for him meant the two of them must be old acquaintances.
Shu Bai looked silently at Ning Shu. “I admire you too.”
Ning Shu let out a laugh. “If the people from this auction house really evacuate, I’ll consider letting Si Tian manage the place. At least Si Tian follows the rules and regulations.”
Shu Bai fanned himself with his round fan. “Si Tian would be very happy to hear that.”
Ning Shu grinned and said to the clueless Xiao Huo, “Are you done eating? If you’re done, let’s head back.”
“Aunt Ning, can I wander around a bit? Ziqing won’t let me leave the house right now,” Xiao Huo said to Ning Shu.
“Don’t call me Aunt Ning, got it? It makes me sound like a concubine.” Ning Shu really didn’t want to hear that title. Adding her surname to make it ‘Aunt Ning’ made it sound even more like she was a petty concubine.
“Okay, Aunt.” Xiao Huo changed his address very obediently.
Ning Shu: …
Ning Shu felt she wasn’t nearly old enough to be called an auntie. Table flip!
“Alright then, you can go wherever you want. Your Ziqing really worries himself sick over you.”
Mei Ziqing was probably mentally exhausted enough to drop dead right now because of this overgrown child.
She couldn’t bear to throw him away, but keeping him around was too exhausting.
After leaving the restaurant, Ning Shu took Xiao Huo wandering around. He bought some weird and wonderful things from street stalls and hunted for ancient books.
Whatever Xiao Huo fancied, Ning Shu paid for it. She was considered wealthy now anyway. Moreover, Xiao Huo was currently acting as a mother hen by incubating the world origin for her, so she had to be a bit more generous. Children just needed to be coaxed more, and everything would be fine.
Xiao Huo didn’t want to return to the system space and wanted to stay in Ning Shu’s city lord’s reisdence. Ning Shu set up a barrier and let Xiao Huo read in the residence. The range of activity in the city lord’s residence was at least much larger than the system space.
While passing by the auction house, she reinforced the barrier there and reinforced the barrier for the entire city along the way.
Ning Shu passed by the entrance of the auction house. A gust of wind blew past the doors right then, stirring up the fallen leaves on the ground. It looked quite desolate.
Ning Shu smiled faintly and then returned to the system space.
The chat system chimed. Ning Shu sat down on the sofa, hugged a throw pillow, and opened the chat system.
To Ning Shu’s surprise, the person who messaged her was actually Hong Yu.
Hong Yu opened by telling her to remove the barrier around the auction house. She outright stated that the auction house’s backer was Young Master Ronghua. Even though she added the word ‘please,’ Ning Shu could still feel Hong Yu’s condescending attitude of barking orders.
Ning Shu rolled her eyes. She thought, ‘If you’re so capable, why don’t you become the city Lord of the City of Water?’
Ning Shu directly replied that this was the City of Water’s business.
It had nothing to do with her.
Hong Yu felt a bit slighted. She had warned her out of kindness, yet the other party refused to listen. If she ended up stirring up trouble, she would deserve whatever was coming to her.
Ning Shu tossed the matter with Hong Yu to the back of her mind. Even if someone were to talk about the auction house, it had to be Young Master Ronghua himself. Anyone else’s words were useless. She could use this opportunity to find out exactly what kind of person this Young Master Ronghua was.
After being snubbed by Ning Shu, Hong Yu was naturally displeased.
However, the current Hong Yu had no way to track Ning Shu’s location at all. She could only swallow her irritation, but that didn’t mean she truly had no way to deal with her.
Ning Shu ended the conversation with Hong Yu and closed the chat system entirely. She was an unwelcome person in the group chat of the ordinance embodiments. Aside from occasionally lurking to see if any major events had occurred, Ning Shu never spoke up.
Ning Shu scooped a bit of agarwood into the incense burner. The elegant and fragrant scent of agarwood wafted through the space. Breathing it into her soul made her soul feel as if it had become crystal clear.
Ning Shu sat cross-legged and closed her eyes to rest. She felt incredibly comfortable.
When she opened her eyes again, she looked radiant, and her soul was brimming with power.
There was also a lively joy in her heart that made Ning Shu unable to stop the corners of her lips from turning up.
Ning Shu pulled out the red rose from the coffee table. Despite the erosion of time, this red rose remained delicate, beautiful, and delightfully fragrant. This was just a single blossom. She couldn’t even imagine what kind of environment could grow such a flower.
With a tap of Ning Shu’s finger, half a bottle of water appeared in the vase. Ning Shu placed the rose inside. She was genuinely afraid that this beautiful, unfading rose would wither in her hands.
Stretching lazily, Ning Shu was full of fighting spirit. She said to 2333, “Time to do a task.”
“Are you going to do a system task?”
Ning Shu: “Is that phrase your catchphrase now?”
“Yes, I’m just asking casually. Just in case you actually do one,” 2333 said.
Ning Shu: …
Ning Shu exchanged for some fasting pills and some basic medicines. These medicines were for reducing inflammation and fever, just in case of unforeseen needs.
Ning Shu’s head spun, and her soul slowly began to merge into a body.
When she opened her eyes, she felt a sharp pain and her head was spinning. Ning Shu sat up, rubbed her temples, and glanced at her surroundings. This was an opulent palace. Plumes of smoke rose from a gilded incense burner, carrying a sickly sweet scent that made one feel stifled in the chest upon smelling it.
What kind of incense was this? This body was truly exhausted. Ning Shu took her own pulse and found she had caught a slight cold, so she took two pills.
Then, she lay back down and began to cultivate. Ancient planes possessed a bit of spiritual energy. Afterward, she received the storyline.
The entrustor’s name was Tan Yuxin. She was the empress of the Zhou dynasty. The Tan family was a prominent and prestigious family. When the current emperor was still a prince, he married Tan Yuxin.
It seemed that Tan Yuxin was a woman who brought good fortune to her husband. Less than half a year after she married him, the late emperor passed away, and the prince, Ao Tianze, ascended the throne.
Tan Yuxin smoothly became the empress. Well, either way, Tan Yuxin would never lack wealth and glory in this lifetime. No matter who ascended the throne in the future, she would be the dowager empress.
A year or so after Tan Yuxin married Ao Tianze, she still had no children. The concubines from the prince’s rear courtyard back then had also been granted titles as imperial consorts.
With the new emperor taking the throne, the inner palace definitely had to be filled out. It was during this major selection that a certain woman was chosen to enter the palace. This woman could be considered Tan Yuxin’s nightmare. Not only was she a nightmare for Empress Tan Yuxin, but she could also be considered a nightmare for every woman in the entire inner palace.
This woman was named Fu Min. She was the daughter of a minor official and was fortunate enough to be selected as an imperial consort.
However, Fu Min was a brilliant and pure-hearted woman. She didn’t care about wealth and glory at all. She was well-read, elegant, and indifferent. She did not fight for favor and seemingly had no desire to serve the master of the realm, Ao Tianze.
If she had the choice, she would rather find a beloved man to spend her life with. She was a woman with quite a bit of a temper.
Although she didn’t fight or compete, it couldn’t be helped that the Emperor liked her. She was frequently called upon to share his bed and was rewarded with countless rare jewels. This made the women of the inner palace stare until their eyes were bloodshot with jealousy, practically catching red-eye disease.
There was only one emperor and one man in the palace. With only one teapot for so many teacups, it wasn’t guaranteed that every imperial consort would catch a few drops of sweet dew.
The women in the inner palace made moves to harm her, but they were all taken care of by the emperor. With the emperor protecting her, there was nothing anyone could do to her.
This wasn’t even the most terrifying part. The terrifying part came later. If the emperor wanted to dote on a woman, he was the emperor and he had the final say.
Ao Tianze no longer wanted to favor the other consorts in the inner palace.