concubines

Qi Niqun's life has not been very good these days. Since the rumors started in Beijing, she was in a state of despair, and after she went to ask the queen for help, she made things worse. The most important thing is that Qi Niqun gave birth this time. Still not a boy, still a daughter.

Concubine Ji's son is three years old, and Concubine Wei's son is also in good health. She is becoming more and more flustered. The prince has won and returned to the court. It is rumored in Beijing that the emperor intends to give Zhao Weidu's eldest daughter to the prince. Now Zhao Weidu is rising. His daughter's status is naturally not low, Qi Niqun is worried all day long, and her face is very bad.

When she came in, the wet nurse behind her was hugging the third miss, Princess Roujia, Qi Niqun didn't notice Qi Yunruo, and Fushen said: "My concubine greets the prince."

Li Chen said: "Princess please get up, bring Rou Jia over to me to have a look."

Qi Niqun stood up with a smile, but when she saw Qi Yunruo her eyes widened in astonishment, Qi Yunruo looked back flatly, Qi Niqun lowered her head and frowned fiercely, she took her little daughter sideways and walked to Li Chen's side.

Miss San has a title but no name yet. Li Chen looked at this little baby, who looked much thinner than his elder sister Li Yan this month, and her face was not as tender as Xiao Yan'er. Li Chen took his daughter by himself. , Qi Niqun felt relieved, and Li Chen said: "Now is the time when the grass grows and the yinger flies, and the little girl just gave her the title of princess. It is not bad to use the time as a name, let's call it 'Ying'er'."

Qi Niqun said blessedly: "On behalf of Yinger, I thank the prince for giving me the name."

Li Chen said to Su Ge: "The princess is not invited to sit down yet."

Li Chen already knew about the things that happened in the palace. The rest of the people in the mansion kept themselves safe. When the concubine gave birth, Princess Jing came to help take care of her. Princess Yong also came, but she was young and inexperienced. The concubine only showed up on the last three days, and didn't show up the rest of the time.Qi Niqun's face was still a little haggard, she looked at Qi Yunruo with a questioning look on her face.

Li Chen said: "Xiao Qi is now the new Chief History Officer of Prince Chun's Mansion."

"My lord——" Qi Niqun screamed, Ying'er, who was watching her father curiously with her eyes open, was frightened and began to cry, and the wet nurse rushed to hug her.

Qi Yunruo stood on the side calmly, Li Chen waved away the nurse with displeasure in his eyes, put his hands on Yinger's back and patted gently, Qi Niqun sneered, "My lord, what does this mean?"

It wasn't until Ying'er's crying subsided that Li Chen let the child out and said calmly, "What does the princess mean?"

Qi Niqun's face turned ashen and said: "My lord, what will you think of Prince Chun's mansion in the future? If Qi Yun is in Beijing, who doesn't know? The lord is still in the northwest because of his reputation, and he almost caused a big incident. The history of the mansion is not everyone's favorite." You can do it, if the prince wants to reward him, gold, silver and jewels are enough, why do you need to pay him with an official position?" In the past, Qi Niqun would never ask the prince in this tone, she exploded very quickly, she I felt that something was wrong, but the sharp words kept coming out, "The prince has just returned from a great service, and he is going to give a speech to the speaker, making people think that our Chun Palace..."

The wet nurse sensed something was wrong, and carried the child down a long time ago. Li Chen's eyes became colder and colder. Qi Yunruo interrupted Qi Ni's skirt and said, "My lord, who is appointed by the lord as the head of the palace is a matter of the outer courtyard, and you have overstepped it."

"Shut up!" Qi Niqun snapped.

Qi Yunruo looked at her, took a step forward, and calmly held down Li Chen who was about to stand up, "Princess Wangfei, whether I will do this job well is not something you can say for sure."

"My lord..." Qi Niqun looked at Li Chen, remained silent for a long time, and said: "I'm being rude, I've been alone in the palace for a year, no one discusses everything, so I have some things in my heart, today's matter, The concubine really shouldn't ask, but since the concubine is the mistress of the princess, she can't just stand by and watch you act rashly, so the concubine has retired."

Qi Niqun turned around and walked a few steps, Li Chen said: "Princess."

Qi Niqun stopped walking, and looked at Li Chen half sideways.

"Princess, there are some things that I don't want to ask you, but it doesn't mean that I don't know," Li Chen said in a flat tone, "When rumors broke out in Beijing, I sent a letter back quickly, telling you to guard the palace and don't stand out. But you hurried into the palace to meet the queen mother, what you said to your brother before, this king is also clear."

Qi Niqun's heart skipped a beat, but she looked at Qi Yunruo with hatred in her eyes, Qi Niqun said, "Does the lord think that my concubine did something wrong? Isn't your reputation damaged because of him?"

"No!" Li Chen said.

Qi Niqun gritted her teeth. She realized that everything had changed since she gave birth to her second daughter. The queen treated her indifferently. The emperor seemed to intend to give the prince another noble side concubine. He and Concubine Wei always had profound arrogance in their eyes, she always wanted to impress the prince quickly after he came back and have another child, but things backfired, she didn't even know how this conversation got to where it is now - Qi Yunruo!It's Qi Yunruo!Qi Niqun remembered that it was she who saw Qi Yunruo, and her heart could no longer be calm. The prince took him to fight for a year, and a lot of things happened in this year...

Li Chen said: "Wangfei, let's go back first, I will visit you after I have free time."

Qi Niqun glanced at Qi Yunruo coldly, "Yes".

Concubine Wei gave birth to a son named "Mu" by the emperor. When Li Chen went to see the second son, he also left a lot of rewards for Concubine Wei's mother and son. Li Chen did not visit the other concubines for the time being.

After Qi Niqun left, Qi Yunruo moved out of Li Chen's bedroom and temporarily moved to another wing room. On the second day after he took office, Li Chen took him to the outer study to meet several staff members.

Li Yue went back to the south, and now only old man Ouyang stayed in the mansion, Li Xiuqi was dismissed and Cao Manjin, who had no place in the imperial examination, both Li Xiuqi and Cao Manjin stood up and saluted: "I have met Mr. Qi." Old Ouyang stood up slowly, Qi Yunruo was busy Said: "Old gentleman, you are welcome, please sit down."

Now there is Qi Yunruo's place in the outer study, Qi Yunruo has heard a little about these three gentlemen in the past, the notorious Cao Manjin is in his thirties, has small eyes, looks bad, but has a good voice, reciting poems and speaking loudly; It is rumored that Li Xiuqi was dismissed by impeaching the powerful. He is also in his 30s. There are more than a dozen people in his hometown, and he alone supports him. Li Chen pays 200 taels of firewood a year for the three gentlemen, in addition to food and clothing. All provided by the palace, it seems that Li Xiuqi's clothes are not as exquisite as Cao Manjin's.Old Ouyang has gray hair and a relaxed expression. He is dressed in a coarse cloth and his hair is only tied with a wooden hairpin.Among the four, Qi Yunruo, who was dressed in a neat official uniform, was very conspicuous both in appearance and in age, and he was particularly humble, not daring to show his official authority in front of the three senior gentlemen.

After Li Chen handed over the Northwest affairs, he didn't have to go to the household department for the time being, and spent more time in the study outside than before. "The gentlemen have met Xiao Qi," Li Chen suddenly felt that something was wrong, but he didn't think it through. , just frowned slightly, and continued: "In the future, Xiao Qi will be the chief history of my Prince Chun's residence, and he can act on behalf of the king."

Qi Yunruo cupped his hands and bowed, "If I do something wrong, I hope you gentlemen will not hesitate to enlighten me."

Old Ouyang stroked his beard and smiled, "Master Xiao Qi is young and promising."

Li Chen frowned, and finally remembered something that made him uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything. Cao Manjin stood up and replied, "Your Excellency is too modest, please take care of us in the future."

Li Xiuqi also stood up, he had a heavy scholarly air about him, his words were full of books, and he only said: "Your Excellency, you are welcome."

If Qi Yun didn't stay any longer, he said to Li Chen, "My lord, today I'm going to settle the accounts of the palace with Mr. Su Ge, and I'm resigning."

Li Chen nodded, Qi Yunruo saluted, then nodded to the three gentlemen, and left the outer study.

The accounts in the backyard of the palace are put into the general ledger every month. When Qi Yunruo saw the complicated numbers in the general ledger, his head grew bigger. Feng Yuan became more polite to Qi Yunruo, and he was not as casual as before. In the wing room of the courtyard, after reconciling accounts one by one, Su Ge handed Qi Yunruo a key.

"This is..." Qi Yunruo took the key and his heart skipped a beat.

"This is Wangfei's hand." Su Ge said.After Li Chen went to war, he gave Qi Niqun his key to Qi Niqun, and asked Qi Niqun to act cheaply. After he came back, Qi Niqun returned Li Chen's key, but Li Chen took back both keys.

Qi Yunruo frowned, looking worried.

Su Ge said with a smile: "In the future, the princess's private treasury in the backyard will be rebuilt, and another silver treasury will be set up for the princess' use. From now on, only the general ledger will be calculated, but no money will be used back and forth."

Qi Yunruo nodded, and put the key away carefully.

"The dowry of the concubine and the concubine is managed by the concubine's people, and we don't need to manage the shop of the side concubine Ji, but Wei side concubine's Zhuangzi has no income, and it is maintained with the money in the front yard. This is a separate portion; these are The future of our palace, Huangzhuang, shops, etc., my lord, take a look."

Qi Yunruo took it and scanned it with one eye.

"These are the income and expenditure of the palace for the past few months, please take some time to look at it."

"it is good."

"These are the gifts of Shan in the royal family in recent years..."

...Qi Yunruo went back to the bedroom exhausted, lying on the bed and didn't want to wake up. The general account of the palace is hundreds of times more complicated than the backyard making clothes, jewelry, and monthly distribution. The expenditure for one thing may exceed the backyard for more than a month. There are rules and regulations, if what Qi Yun needs is to go through the old accounts and read the regulations, he can think about it on his own, but now he needs to quickly understand all the sophistication of the civil and military officials inside and outside the capital that need Li Chen's attention, such as weddings and funerals of princes and nobles, and official positions. Changing from side to side, etc., Qi Yunruo's mind is now full of the original spouse of when the Marquis died, when did he appoint another concubine lady as the second wife, and when was this concubine lady's relative? Brother moved out to be an official...

At night, Qi Yunruo was lying on the bed alone, with the glowing candles outside, his hands resting on his pillow, his eyes were empty, he couldn't sleep well these days, and he was always with the prince for a year, the conditions outside were poor, inside the palace Exquisite and luxurious, but he always felt that there was a lot of space around him.

In the main room not far from the wing room, Li Chen was leaning on the desk and looking at a volume of books. There was a blank sheet of paper in front of him, on which many words were densely listed.

It was only when Xiao Qi needed to leave the inner house to socialize that Li Chen remembered that Xiao Qi had no characters, only names - "Twelve princes of the emperor can be crowned", and Li Chen was given the characters by his father when he left the palace on the fifteenth day. Today Xiao Qi was in the study outside, when Li Chen called him "Xiao Qi", he felt something was wrong, he thought about it all night, thought about many things but didn't know how to choose.

He crossed out the names he had written one by one, leaving only one in the end. He said "Yu Ze" silently several times, and circled a small circle beside it.Goodness is like water, and water gathers to form a lake. Xiao Qi's surname is also water...

Not only Qi Yunruo, but Li Chen also felt that when he returned to the palace, he and Xiao Qi began to distance themselves. It was rumored in Beijing that he was going to marry Zhao Weidu's daughter. Get married... Some people don't want Zhao Weidu and Li Chen's relationship to go further.

Xiao Qi...

Li Chen likes Xiao Qi very much. From the first glimpse left a deep impression, to the life and death in the northwest, two years is enough for Li Chen to put Xiao Qi in his heart and surpass the weight of others, but the more Li Chen likes it He let Xiao Qi move out and separated from him.

Li Chen felt a little strange, even he couldn't figure out what he was thinking.