Happy reading~

Chapter 71: Big Boss's Younger Sister

Ning Shu recuperated for half a month and nursed herself very well. It was to the point that her face became white, plump, and rosy. She didn't seem to be heartbroken at all.

The moment the consorts and concubines in the Inner Palace heard that Princess Jiahui had recovered, they all swarmed over to visit her.

Ning Shu ma.s.saged her head as she looked at the roomful of orioles and swallows. When a room was filled with beauties, the fragrances they applied all mixed together to create a smell so strong and intense that it made one's head hurt.

These consorts all had different styles and temperaments. There were enchanting ones, lovely ones, innocent ones, aloof ones, gentle ones, virtuous ones… There were all types of women. Li Wen was sure lucky to have so many women - and they were beautiful to boot - waiting to get his affection.

Ning Shu understood that the only goal these consorts had in coming to Orchid Garden Palace was to see Li Wen. Although these consorts made a lot of effort to find conversational topics and ask about her health, they continuously glanced towards the entrance of the palace.

Ning Shu didn't bother to expose them either. She had just come to this world and had to learn about the current situation within the palace. From the words these consorts spoke, she could figure out which consorts were favored and which ones weren't. She could even determine from these consorts' barbed words who held grudges against whom, and based on that, figure out the factions.

"The Emperor has arrived." A very unpleasant and screechy voice came from outside. However, it was as pleasant as the drizzle of rain to the women in the room. Every single one of them livened up and looked towards the entrance with radiant smiles.

Li Wen walked into the palace. Ning Shu immediately sensed a chill. It was freaking cold ah.

"Your Majesty, may you forever be in good health." The entire roomful of women curtsied towards Li Wen. Their movements were extremely lovely and charming and their voices were so tender water could be squeezed out. They faced Li Wen with their very best posture. Some bolder ones even tried to casually expose their well-rounded snowy bosom in a seemingly inadvertent way.

It was the stunning scene of a hundred flowers competing. Ning Shu was inwardly speechless as she looked at the roomful of beautiful women. Any one of these women, placed in the modern world, would be pursued by countless admirers, yet they were all stuck in this place to fight over a single man.

It was seriously a waste of resources.

Li Wen was indifferent towards the women in the room and simply said, "You may rise."

A consort that was near Li Wen purposefully stumbled as she got up and tried to fall towards Li Wen's chest. In the end, Li Wen side-stepped and that consort almost fell to the ground in a big faux pas.

Ning Shu's lips twitched. This Emperor seriously had a terrible personality ah. What was so hard about supporting his own woman for a second? It was a woman that was fawning upon you, and it was even such a beautiful woman. If it was her, she would have been overcome with joy.

Li Wen didn't even bother to glance at these consorts and turned straight to Ning Shu to ask mildly, "You look like you've recovered quite well?"

Ning Shu curtsied. "Many thanks for Imperial Older Brother's concern. Jiahui is much better."

Li Wen nodded, his expression still cold. "Even if Duan Xinghui is gone, there are still other good men in Great Yong. You are our sister."

Ning Shu automatically translated it. You're this big boss's younger sister, you can casually take your pick of any man in the world.

Ning Shu revealed a very sad expression that was at the same time touched as she said, "Thank you, Imperial Older Brother, for your concern. It's just that Imperial Younger Sister doesn't want to think about these things right now."

Li Wen stared at Ning Shu with his sharp gaze. He scanned Ning Shu's face, then nodded. After saying 'en,' he didn't say anymore and simply sat on the chair awhile before leaving.

"The Emperor is departing…"  The grand eunuch, Eunuch Jiang, sang the suave and melodious call with his sharp voice.

#comment: This is barely related, but I recently discovered this funny song about an eunuch. If you have the time, I highly recommend checking it out in this order. Here's the for you to try and guess at the meanings if you don't know fluent Chinese, then here's a of the translated lyrics. There's some cultural references that you guys might not know about, so I also made a short about it.

Happy reading~

Chapter 72: n.o.ble Consort Du and the Empress

Once Li Wen left, everyone turned their gazes towards Ning Shu. Ning Shu could sense keenly that their gazes contained envy, jealousy, and a few even contained extreme hate.

Ning Shu looked over and saw a woman dressed in night haze violet silk cloud vestige palace garments. Her expression was haughty and stern, and her eyes contained irrepressible jealousy and loathing.

Ning Shu thought for a moment, then smirked at that woman. She was n.o.ble Consort Du. The resentment between n.o.ble Consort Du and the original host had actually started due to the Empress. In the original host's heart, she had only one sister-in-law and that was the Empress. She always felt contempt towards all the other women.

Meanwhile, the Empress and n.o.ble Consort Du were quite evenly match in power. However, due to the original host, the Empress managed to move into the advantage. That was why n.o.ble Consort Du had never had any good feelings towards Princess Jiahui. The only reason she came to Orchid Garden Palace was because all the other consorts were going and she wouldn't be able to explain herself if she didn't go.

She did this only for Li Wen to see. Li Wen currently loved this younger sister very much. Even if she wanted to make small moves, in front of the Emperor they all still had to act harmonious.

Ning Shu couldn't help but ma.s.sage her forehead, feeling a headache. Speaking of which, the original host was a daughter that had yet to get married. Was it really a good idea to meddle with her older brother's back courtyard affairs? Not only did the original host get involved in palace battles, she also got involved in residence battles. Staying out of everything was the best choice.

The incident in which the original host got married off was also partially due to n.o.ble Consort Du's encouragement.

To put it plainly, the original host was mostly an idiot in regards to human relations.h.i.+ps. A part of it was also due to the fact that she felt it beneath her dignity to try and cultivate relations.h.i.+ps.

The original host couldn't be said to be a bad person - her thoughts were quite pure - but her personality was too arrogant. She was simply too conceited.

"Is n.o.ble Consort Du glaring this way because Imperial Older Brother spoke to this princess but did not speak to you? Is that why you're so conspicuously angry?" Ning Shu spoke bluntly.

>Ning Shu uses 'ben gong' with the consorts, which translates to "I, of the palace." This term is typically used by an empress or high-ranking consort when speaking to a person of lower status. I'm using 'this princess' to avoid using pinyin or that mouthful of 'this one, of the palace.' () I'm also using the royal 'we' for the Emperor, btw if you haven't noticed.

n.o.ble Consort Du: …

n.o.ble Consort Du's expression seemed to freeze. This blockhead seriously said whatever came to mind. In the palace, a person had to pay careful attention to every single sentence since it contained countless curves, hence n.o.ble Consort Du wasn't the only one unused to such straightforward speech, this entire nestful of people weren't used to it.

All of their expressions turned embarra.s.sed and one by one they excused themselves. The words earlier were probably too frank, frank to the point they all felt awkward.

Ning Shu watched as n.o.ble Consort Du left angrily and smiled. There was no way to fix the relations.h.i.+p between them. Since that was the case, it'd be better to just tear off the mask of cordiality so that it would make these people hesitant to make a move.

Ning Shu thought for a while, then decided to go pay a visit to the Empress, this sister-in-law of hers. The original host would usually tell this sister-in-law everything so their relations.h.i.+p still counted as pretty good.

However, how could there be any true friends.h.i.+p in the Inner Palace?

Much less between a person's wife and the person's younger sister?

Ning Shu headed to the Phoenix Waters Palace. When she walked into the palace, she saw the Empress sitting on a serpentine gems-decorated fragrant rosewood couch with a four-section primrose-colored cedar screen that was interwoven with gla.s.s behind her.

>Primrose is a yellow, I didn't know that.

When the Empress saw Ning Shu, she hastily stood up and walked towards Ning Shu. Ning Shu curstied towards her. "My respects, Imperial Sister-in-law."

The Empress hastily stopped Ning Shu. Taking her hand, she revealed a warm smile. "You look wonderful! Jiahui, child, you seriously gave Sister-in-law such a fright. Your Imperial Older Brother even worriedly exhorted for me to look after you."

"Thank you, Imperial Sister-in-law, Jiahui is almost all better," said Ning Shu.

#comment: "night haze violet silk cloud vestige palace garments" If there was a voiceover, I'd have the person reading take a big breath, then p.r.o.nounce all of this in one breath. The reason for these long names is because, most authors of historical chinese novels have two main options: Come up with descriptions for the character's apparel, aka describe what they have in their hair, the layers and colors of clothing they have, bracelets, waist ornaments, and accessories, or just take one of the available style names and insert. In addition, near the end of this chapter I found out that furniture had set names too. *sigh* I've yet to find a translated list.