After witnessing the murder of her husband at the execution ground on that day, the imperial concubine Samao was heartbroken and fainted in the heavy snow.
The emperor picked her up and took her back to Zhaoming Palace. He sent an imperial doctor to treat her, and he learned about her pregnancy.
Although he felt uncomfortable in his heart, he still stayed with her the whole night and never left.
In the middle of the night, Samao cried in his nightmare: "Your Majesty, don't leave Samao, Your Majesty!"
After hearing her pitiful voice, the palace maid came forward to check on her. She was lying haggardly in the gauze tent, with red tears hanging from the corners of her eyes, and her mouth seemed to be gibbering.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" The maid patted her gently.
The emperor was dozing aside. After hearing these two calls, he immediately stepped up to send the maid away.
He held her hands covered with bloodstains and called gently: "Samao, what's wrong with you?"
The palace maid responded with a gentle tone, looking at each other from left to right.
She opened her eyes hazily, looked up at the light veil of plain gauze, and looked at his hands holding hers, then she sat up and retracted her hands.
The brightly lit Zhaoming Palace seems to be a magical place. All the utensils and parts are complete and exquisite. The carved flower stands, plain curtains, and vase baskets are all clean and bright. The countless jade heads on the dressing table are prosperous and dazzling. The finest velvet material is used, and the green smoke rising slowly in the distance is filled with a refreshing fragrance.
But she still remembered her husband's death smile, and sat on the bed as if she had lost her soul. She tilted her head and shed tears, and asked tremblingly: "Where is the king?"
The emperor frowned and replied: "Dead!"
"Where is he buried?"
He never spoke.
The emperor got an inch closer, looked at her clear eyes that could not hold back tears, and looked at her tortured pale cheeks. He felt pity for her and held her face in his hands: "Samao, do you know you are pregnant?"
She nodded feebly and touched her belly: "This is my husband and I's only child! Does Your Majesty also want to get rid of it?"
"No, I have no such intention. I have no such intention. He can be regarded as my nephew. As long as you promise to stay with me and be my concubine, then keep him, keep him!"
She chuckled softly: "Now, do I still have the right to choose? Your Majesty brutally killed my husband and trapped me, a powerless woman, in this cage. What else can I do?"
His throat moved up and down slightly, and he held up her messy hair and said, "Samao, I love you. I fell in love with you many years ago. Wan Yanyuan doesn't love you. He can't give you anything better. But I can, if you want, I will make you the queen, and when you give birth to this child, I will make him inherit the title of King Xun, how about it?"
"From now on, we will stay together in this palace for the rest of our lives. I would rather not have any other concubines but you! From now on, if you and my child have a child, I will make him the crown prince. I... I will make you the Yuan Concubine first. From now on, I will come to you every night, and I will only allow you to serve me."
A smile appeared on her lips, she closed her eyes quietly and shed a stream of tears, looking at the plain tent with empty eyes: "Why die if you can compare with your eyes? I would like to be a mandarin duck but not an immortal..."
She cried miserably, and her eyes became red and swollen: "In my whole life, my heart has always been stronger than one person. Now that he is gone, my heart has gone with him. I will never love anyone else except him."
"Samao, you are still young. You don't have to give up yourself for his death. I will love you more than him. You will understand!"
He held her hand tightly and held it in his heart, not knowing how to stop her tears.
"Your Majesty! The civilian woman wants to be alone for a while. I hope your Majesty will grant her permission."
"Okay, okay, have a good rest and tell me whatever you need and I will come back to see you later!"
She got into the quilt and turned her head away, huddled in the corner, shivering, covering her head and crying, thinking about her dead husband, and recalling the happy days he and she had spent over the years.
"Your Majesty! Concubine, I love you."
The emperor was silent, slowly stood up and walked towards the door, stopped in the hall and ordered: "Take good care of your empress, and don't make any mistakes."
The maids all answered, and he walked out of the curtain again, stood by the purple stove with his hands behind his back, and called Da Xingguo to his side.
"Pass the order, Imperial Concubine Samao has become the imperial concubine and has been named Yuan Fei!"
Da Xingguo's heart tightened, and he thought, this Concubine Yuan is a second-class empress. Could it be that the emperor was drunk?
He looked up at his sober state and spoke, then bowed again and replied: "Yes, slave, I will pass on the order now!"
With that said, he trotted out of Zhaoming Palace. The emperor looked at the slightly moving curtain again and left with his long sleeves waving.
Near dawn, the maids were all dozing around Zhaoming Hall. Some were lying on the footrests, some were standing under the curtains with drooped eyelids, and some were yawning and rubbing their eyes.
"The Queen is here!" A clever palace maid ran in, and everyone became energetic and bowed in front of them.
"Nunu, please say hello to the Queen, please?"
The queen is dressed in a long-sleeved crimson dress, a white harp with a windbird pattern and a hem with pearls, and a white fur collar around her neck. The pearls and jade hanging from a golden crown on her head follow her steps as a lady. His steps were swaying, and his criticism became audible.
She clasped her hands and walked forward, raised her slender eyebrows and sneered: "Hi——, the emperor really loves her and brought her to Zhaoming Palace!"
Samao raised his head from the quilt, then turned around and caught a glimpse of her through the gauze. He quickly lifted the quilt, stumbled and ran to the open space in front of her, knelt down, kowtowed and said, "Empress!"
The queen glanced at her condescendingly, sat down on the couch next to her, and looked at her nonchalantly.
"Empress, please save me. I don't want to be a royal concubine. I am pregnant with King Xun's child. He is the only one who cares..."
"Your Majesty has decided what to do, how about you let me take care of him?"
The female envoy next to the Queen clasped her hands and said, "Concubine, if you had known about this, why did you do it in the first place? When you intervened in the Emperor's affection, didn't you think that you would be begging like this?"
"My Queen, I have no second thoughts about your Majesty, and I have no intention of interfering in the relationship between you and Your Majesty. Please tell me!"
The queen came forward and lifted her chin, and suddenly smiled: "Haha, what a pure heart, but why should I help you? Huh?"
She climbed up a few steps forward and grabbed the queen's dress, crying: "Queen, for the sake of our acquaintance since childhood, please help persuade Your Majesty to let me go. I can go anywhere. If I don't Set foot in the palace! I just want to give birth to a good child and live an ordinary life."
"Get away! Get away!"
She left her scarred hands and looked at her lying on the cold ground, her eyes filled with tears and said: "Tudan Samao, have you ever regarded me as a sister? I...how many times have you been raped by the emperor because of you?" Do you know how many times you have been hurt by him? Wanyan Yuan and Wanyan Dan all love you, but what about me?"
"I have gone through many hardships with him, lost a son and a daughter, and now...what little love between husband and wife remains is broken! Do you feel how much I hurt?"
"Empress!" She stepped forward and pulled her brocade sleeves.
"Get away!" The queen threw her away.
The queen quickly left the Zhaoming Palace and secretly wiped her red tears under the plum tree. She looked at the square city with cold and tearful eyes, and her fragile heart collapsed in an instant.
The female officer came forward to support her, wiped the tears on her cheeks with a silk towel and said, "My dear, why are you crying?"
She walked on the snow, crouched down and huddled together like a child, drawing something on the snow with her hands.
"I remember the past. When she was young, she, Mingxuan and Lirou often came to my house to play, writing and playing the piano with me. She was the youngest and the smartest. Every time we did couplets, the private school teacher would Praise her,"
"The day I got married, she was only five years old, and she was my little girl and fed me cold dumplings!" She couldn't go on.
"Then the queen..."
"Go see His Majesty!"
"Mother, let's not get involved in this matter. Your Majesty will go crazy with alcohol again!"
The queen stood up, wiped away her red tears, cleaned the snow on her footwear, went up to the corridor, and headed towards the Fu'an Hall: "We can't let someone who is pregnant with her child enter the imperial palace! Think about it carefully, she Isn’t she also a poor woman? Her husband died and her belly was taken over by someone else.
Even if it wasn't for our past friendship, I would still save her! "
The female official could only answer: "Yes... it's your empress!"
When the female officer raised her head again, she heard the sound of something falling. She turned around and saw that a bright lantern hanging on the corridor not far behind her fell sideways with the winter wind and landed on the red plum tree just now. Next, she felt strange and had a bad premonition, and paused for a long time.
When the Queen arrived at Fu'an Hall, she smelled a strong smell of alcohol through the curtains, so she summoned Da Xingguo, who was waiting outside the curtains, and asked softly: "Didn't I ask you to stop His Majesty from drinking?"
Da Xingguo hugged himself aggrievedly and said, "My Lady, Your Majesty holds a sword in his hand and forces the servant to get the wine, and the servant dare not disobey!"
After hearing this, she shook her head, took off her cloak and rolled up the curtains. She looked at the empty inner hall illuminated by red lights. Only the emperor was holding a sword in one hand and a wine bottle in the other. He was walking barefoot on the cold ground, swaying He danced his sword dazzlingly and drank until he was drunk.
When he saw her coming, he quickly stood still and shook his face before he could see her clearly: "Huh? Empress... Empress, why did you... break into my bedroom again?"
He staggered over to the crescent table and opened another bottle of wine and asked, "Don't you want to tell me something?"
"Samao... is pregnant and should not stay in the palace. I beg your majesty to banish her from the palace." She was not as disrespectful as usual, but stood where she was and said this truly.
Before she could say a few words, the emperor threw the wine bottle out of his hand, and with the same thunderous fury as before, he pointed his long sword at her:
"She is my concubine now, why did I banish her? Is it because she is pregnant, or because you are jealous? Huh?"
"Jealous? If I were jealous, every concubine in this palace would have been poisoned to death. Why should I be like this!"
He looked at her, laughed crazily, waved his sword in the palace, and pointed it at her: "I will not keep any concubines in this palace, especially you! I want to abolish the queen. , I want to welcome Samao as my queen. From now on, she will be the only one in my harem, and you are the one I really want to send out."
The long sword with a cold light in his hand was pressed against her white neck. She looked at him like this, looking into his angry eyes, and listened to his heart-wrenching words.
"Your Majesty! Do you dislike me so much?" The skin on her neck was scraped with blood spots, and the tears she shed formed a bloody streak.
