The harem is too complicated; the empress, a lazy bum, wins by doing nothing.

Chapter 165 Walking Sideways

To express his gratitude for sending Liu Ruyan to marry into the Mongols, Mo Ganxie, the King of the Northern Desert, specially sent his younger sister into the harem to serve Emperor Yuanwu!
Shen Qingwan looked at the letter and gave a cold laugh.

She herself had asked for this concubine of the Northern Desert King, yet now she had to offer a grand gesture of gratitude.

Sending women to her brother-in-law's bed while claiming it's for her sister's own good.

What a good younger sister!

"What are you looking at? You seem so engrossed."

Unbeknownst to them, Emperor Yuanwu was standing behind Shen Qingwan. He followed the direction of her gaze and landed on the letter in her hand.

Upon hearing this, Shen Qingwan slowly turned her head. "It's nothing, just a letter sent back by Princess Chang Le."

Emperor Yuanwu paused, "What did this letter say? It made the Empress so engrossed in reading it."

Shen Qingwan was speechless for a moment.

This letter was not just a warm family letter; it mentioned that Moganxie wanted to send his sister to the palace as a concubine, which concerned the diplomatic relations between the two countries. It is likely that Emperor Yuanwu had already received the news from the northern desert before Shen Qingwan received this letter.

So his question was a rhetorical one?

Shen Qingwan simply handed Liu Ruyan's letter directly to Emperor Yuanwu, saying, "There's nothing special in the letter, but there's something I'd like to know if Your Majesty already knew about it."

"What is it?" Emperor Yuanwu seemed uninterested in the contents of the letter, glancing at it indifferently before placing it on the table.

Shen Qingwan: ...

good good!
If you force her to say it, how come she never noticed before that Emperor Yuanwu was such a scoundrel?

"The letter says that Mo Ganxie wants to send one of his younger sisters into the palace to become the Emperor's concubine." Shen Qingwan said sullenly, "Does the Emperor not know about this?"

"This matter..." Emperor Yuanwu raised an eyebrow slightly, "It seems that it was mentioned in the previous memorial, but I have been too busy lately and have not paid attention to it. I have forgotten about it for a while."

Shen Qingwan sneered inwardly.

She realized he hadn't forgotten; he just wanted to see what she and Liu Ruyan had said in their letters.

He probably didn't expect her to show him the letter so openly, which left him unsure of how to react.

After all, even though it was within the imperial harem, letters from the concubines to their families were still a rather secretive matter.

"What does the Empress think of this matter?" Emperor Yuanwu asked while washing his hands. "I feel that the Empress doesn't seem very happy."

Shen Qingwan: ? ? ?

She was unhappy simply because she thought he was a dog, and it had nothing to do with the contents of the letter.

“I’m not upset, I just don’t understand what Mo Ganxie is up to. Why did he suddenly decide to marry his sister off so far away? If she were just an ordinary woman, it would be fine, but she is, after all, a princess from the Northern Desert… The hostage has already entered the palace, there’s really no need to send another princess, unless this princess has some other purpose in entering the palace.” Shen Qingwan said with a serious expression.

"Purpose?" Emperor Yuanwu wiped his hands clean and sat down next to Shen Qingwan. "Whatever his purpose may be, she is nothing more than a woman confined to the harem. The harem is not allowed to interfere in politics. Even if he really has some purpose, what is there to fear?"

"It's not that I'm afraid, it's just that I feel that having such a woman in the harem might cause unrest," Shen Qingwan sighed.

Although the harem is currently rife with infighting, the concubines are ultimately daughters of ministers and members of the royal family. Regardless of the methods they use to gain favor, they will at least consider their maternal families and won't do anything too outrageous. However, Mo Ganxie's sister is different. "But I'm thinking about something else. The letter says the person to marry into the family is Mo Ganxie's sister. If she really is his biological sister, that's fine. But I'm afraid this sister might be just someone he randomly adopted, like Liu Ruyan, using her to expose Liu Ruyan's true identity." Shen Qingwan suddenly thought of something and looked up at Emperor Yuanwu.

"Whether it's a gentle nudge or something done intentionally, since Mo Ganxie and Princess Chang Le have this intention, I will gladly accept it."

Anyway, there are so many women in the harem, one more or one less won't make a difference.

Every year, various princely residences and regions send in a considerable number of women. In addition, there are the imperial concubine selections held every three years, and even many concubines in the harem. Even if he has favored them once or twice, he may not be able to remember their names when he encounters them in the palace.

It must be said that these women raised in seclusion are almost identical, and there is really nothing new about them.

They all look exactly the same, as if they were made from a template.

Often, he can basically guess what they're going to say next just by hearing their previous sentence.

"As long as His Majesty is happy," Shen Qingwan replied calmly.

Anyway, no matter who sent the women in, or how many women were sent in, as the emperor, he only cared about his own pleasure.

If anyone in the harem uses the wrong methods in their quest for favor, in the end, it will only be the Empress who is held responsible for failing to manage the harem properly.

Seeing Shen Qingwan lower her eyes, Emperor Yuanwu seemed to be in a good mood. "If the Empress is really unhappy, then I will return to the northern desert and not let them send the princess in."

Shen Qingwan was taken aback. "Your Majesty, I never said such a thing."

"Oh? Really not?" Emperor Yuanwu said with a slightly teasing tone, "But the Empress's face clearly says it."

She was unhappy, but not because Liu Ruyan was sending women to Emperor Yuanwu's bed.

Rather, they were worried that the woman's purpose in being sent to the palace was impure.

If we are not careful, the pacification of the northern desert may be disrupted from within the inner palace.

Then wouldn't this Mo Ganxie's sister be able to walk sideways in the harem from now on, and not even need to put the Empress in her eyes?

Otherwise, a punishment under palace rules would become an excuse for the northern cavalry to rebel, and she would be remembered in history for all time.

This is exactly what she, as the empress, least wants to see.

"Really not?" Emperor Yuanwu asked again, unwilling to give up.

Even though Shen Qingwan was getting a little impatient, she still patiently and firmly said, "Really, no."

Emperor Yuanwu did not press the matter further. He simply moved to the food platter, looked down at the table of dishes that Shen Qingwan had prepared in advance, and asked, "Let me see what the Empress has prepared for us?"

The two sat facing each other. "What food has the Empress prepared?"

"Rice wine duck, tomato pork trotters, black bean sauce spare ribs and bitter melon soup, mung bean and pork bone stew with kelp, stir-fried loofah with mushrooms and egg white, and fish head tofu soup." Shen Qingwan pointed to the dishes on the plate and introduced them one by one.

"Wine can be used in cooking?" Emperor Yuanwu asked with curiosity.

"Wine can naturally be used to stew dishes. If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, try it. However, some dishes prepared by the Imperial Kitchen previously, even if they contained wine, did not show it in their names, so Your Majesty naturally did not know that wine was added to the dishes."

(End of this chapter)