My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 321 Me! What is my virtue?

Inside Shangguanli, the atmosphere of confusion and silence remained.

The Pingyang Marquis Mansion, which is the mother's family of the current queen, is also eerily quiet.

But in the backyard of Marquis Pingyang's mansion - in her newly acquired solitary residence, Wei Zifu stood up with a solemn face and rubbed the silk handkerchief in her hands nervously.

"Relatives..."

"Relatives..."

Her younger brother Wei Qing had said it so bluntly, how could Wei Zifu not know that the 'big shot' who had taken a fancy to her was undoubtedly the current emperor?

Otherwise - if the current emperor is interested in my elder sister Wei Junru or Wei Shaoer, then the treatment that Marquis Pingyang gives to Wei Zifu now should be given to them both.

Today, Wei Zifu's family, from her mother Wei Ai, her eldest brother Wei Changjun, to her sisters Wei Junru and Wei Shaoer, and even her three younger brothers Wei Qing, Wei Guang, and Wei Bu;
Including Wei Zifu herself, there were a total of eight people, mother and children!

Only Wei Zifu lived a life in the Pingyang Marquis's mansion that ordinary concubines and slaves could not live, and enjoyed the treatment of a concubine's daughter in the mansion;

Furthermore, the three younger brothers were summoned into the palace by the current Emperor Liu Rong, with the vague intention of training and promoting them.

In the past, Wei Zifu thought that all this was bestowed by the current Empress Cao, who came from a marquis's mansion.

It was Empress Cao who took over the imperial palace and made the Pingyang Marquis and his family prosperous. Even Wei Zifu, a slave-born child, benefited from Empress Cao's influence.

But now, after learning the truth from her brother Wei Qing, no matter how slow Wei Zifu was, she finally reacted.

--yes!
No matter how noble Empress Cao was, the people who benefited from her were probably the distant relatives, close neighbors, old acquaintances, and family friends of the Marquis of Pingyang.
Even if it were to come, it would probably not be the turn of the concubines and servants in the Marquis's mansion to benefit from Empress Cao's influence.

Even if the current emperor really dotes on Empress Cao to the extent that he loves even the servants and concubines in the Pingyang Marquis's mansion more pleasing to the eye than ordinary people and is valued more by the current emperor Liu Rong, it still doesn't make sense.

Why?
Why could Wei Zifu, a slave, give birth to a child?

How could a concubine who was in her forties but had given birth to more than ten or twenty children, and had a large family to support her - seven slave-born children in total, receive such unique honor and favor?
Over the years, no matter how down and out Marquis Pingyang became, or how he faded from the core of power in the court, he was still a real marquis after all.

Even among the servants and slaves, there were still some capable people.

Why did the current emperor take a fancy to Wei Zifu's family among the hundreds of slaves and concubines in the Pingyang Marquis's mansion?
Now it seems that everything makes sense.

"His Majesty……"

"His Majesty………"

For a moment, Wei Zifu fell into unprecedented fear.

If the same thing happened to an ordinary woman - no matter if she was a noble lady, an ordinary citizen, or even a girl from a peasant family, she would definitely be extremely happy.

When a lady from a noble family receives such imperial favor, the elders in her family will surely smile like an aunt and repeatedly instruct their daughters: After entering the palace, you must serve His Majesty well and avoid causing trouble for him.

If there was something that needed help from home, he would send someone back to let them know;
If my family can help, they will help. If they can’t, I will always think of ways and use my connections to help.

If a girl from an ordinary family had such great fortune, her honest and simple parents would probably smile so hard that their teeth would show but not their eyes.

Then he clumsily told his daughter: When you go to the palace, don't argue with others, be more diligent, and don't say things that you shouldn't say to others.

No matter how well you are doing, you should always ask someone to send a message home so that we don't worry about you...

But Wei Zifu wouldn't.

For Wei Zifu, the current emperor is already beyond the upper limit of the "big man" that Wei Zifu can pursue and cling to given her current status.

——If she was favored by a certain marquis or official, Wei Zifu would only dare to call herself a "concubine" and would not dare to hope for more;

Even if she was liked by a minor official, Wei Zifu would still not be tempted by the idea of ​​being a wife, and would be content to be a concubine.

As for the emperor today...

"Your Majesty, what did I tell you?"

"Tell me everything, don't miss a single word!"

In an instant, Wei Zifu's childish face, which only faintly revealed her gentleness and prettyness, suddenly showed a solemnity that did not belong to her age or status!
Frightened by his sister's attitude, Wei Qing did not dare to delay and quickly told his sister Wei Zifu every word Liu Rong had mentioned to him intentionally or unintentionally since he entered the palace.

After about an incense stick of time, Wei Qing finished speaking, then he knelt down nervously a few steps in front of his sister.

But at this time, Wei Zifu had fallen into extreme fear and extreme pessimism about the future.

"His Majesty……"

···
"Why is it Your Majesty..."

Muttering with a dull look in her eyes, Wei Zifu unconsciously stretched out her hand and instinctively placed it on her brother Wei Qing's arm, only then did she manage to steady herself.

——Wei Zifu was born and raised in the mansion of Pingyang Marquis;

The Pingyang Marquis' Mansion was well-known in the Shangguan community for not caring about its reputation.

Different from those meritorious marquis families that were still able to interfere in the court and had not completely withdrawn from the court decision-making center - before Empress Cao entered the imperial palace, the Pingyang Marquis family had already completely withdrawn from the Han family's power decision-making level and became an idle meritorious marquis family with only fiefdom and status but without any power or influence.

This means that the Pingyang Marquis family, unlike the Gonghou family, whose sons are officials or generals and who need to protect the people's livelihood and protect their reputation, are more or less concerned about the impact of their actions.

Not to mention the distant past, just take the entire Shangguanli last year as an example. Hundreds of Chehou families reported a total of about 200 cases of "slaves being disrespectful and being beaten to death by their masters" to the former Tingwei, now the Dali Yamen, within a year.

That is to say, throughout the whole of last year, on average, every noble family in Shangguanli had two slaves and concubines who were beaten to death for various reasons.

Remember this number—two people per household on average.

Then let’s visit Pingyang Marquis Mansion.

Last year alone, just in the large bunk bed where Wei Zifu once lived, four of the twenty or so young girls died of illness and one died suddenly!
On the surface alone, the Pingyang Marquis's Mansion reported fourteen cases of "slaves' deaths from illness" and "sudden deaths" to Dali.

This is just on the surface.

There was no telling how many people there were who were never reported and who were simply wrapped up in a torn straw mat and thrown into a mass grave outside the city after being beaten to death.

As for Wei Zifu herself, she had lived in the Marquis of Pingyang's mansion for more than ten years since she was born.
In my memory, at least half of the faces and figures that existed in the Marquis' Mansion during my childhood have been replaced.

You should know that the Pingyang Marquis Mansion maintains two to three hundred servants all year round!
In other words, just based on the impression and memory of Wei Zifu, there were at least hundreds of people who were buried in the Marquis Pingyang's Mansion in the past decade or so.

In fact, before Empress Cao, the reputation of Pingyang Marquis Mansion in Chang'an had been so bad that ordinary families had to sell their children for it. Unless they had to make a little more money or could not survive without selling Pingyang Marquis Mansion, they were unwilling to sell it to Pingyang Marquis Mansion.

Compared with other meritorious families, when purchasing slaves and concubines, the Pingyang Marquisate often had to raise the price by at least 50%, and also rely on luck, in order to have a chance of buying them.

For example, a farmer's family has a major accident, such as the death of a relative, and needs to arrange funeral affairs, which requires 100,000 yuan;

After much deliberation, the farmer finally made a helpless decision: he had to sell his youngest daughter and use the money for emergencies.

But in Chang'an, a female slave, especially a child slave, could be worth no more than 30,000 coins.
Even if she is pretty and has the potential to be cultivated into a beauty, her worth will never exceed 50,000 coins at most.

At such times, the Pingyang Marquis family would stand up and say to the farmer with compassion: Sell your daughter to me for 100,000 yuan.

Only under such circumstances could the Pingyang Marquisate buy slaves and concubines at prices far higher than the market price;
If the farmer needed only 50,000 coins instead of 100,000 coins, they would have tried every possible way to sell their daughter to another family for 50,000 coins instead of selling her to the Pingyang Marquis's Mansion for 100,000 coins. Before Empress Cao entered the imperial palace, the Pingyang Marquis's family, who had no political qualifications and no military background, lived a boring and dull aristocratic life and lived off the merits of their ancestors, was such an existence.

Wei Zifu was born and raised in such a meritorious family;
From childhood to adulthood, Wei Zifu has not seen much goodness in human nature, but has seen almost all the dark sides of human nature.

So, when the gift package of "The emperor has taken a fancy to you" fell on her head, the only thought in Wei Zifu's mind was: It's over.

Completely finished.

I am a slave-born child, yet I have won the favor of His Majesty;

But the Queen has not yet slept with him!

The Queen must hate me.
Marquis Pingyang, I’m afraid he would rather bite me to pieces alive!

With your majesty's instructions, Marquis Pingyang might not dare to do anything to me.

But my mother, my brother, my sister...

"Aqing!"

"You must help me with this matter!"

After a long period of shock and confusion, Wei Zifu finally suppressed the fear in her heart and forced herself to calm down for a short time.

This posture of facing a formidable enemy was enough to scare Wei Qing out of his wits, even though he had been in the palace for some time and had practiced some Qi-nourishing skills.

"Sister, why is it so?"

"Your Majesty's favor will bring a hundred benefits to my sister and my family, without any harm?"

"Why are you so frightened, sister?"

Wei Qing also asked with half fear and half doubt, but he did not disrupt Wei Zifu's thoughts which she had barely sorted out.

Wei Zifu took a deep breath and looked deeply into the eyes of her brother Wei Qing;
After a long while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence with a trembling voice: "Ah Qing is in and out of the palace, so she must have a chance to see the Pepper Room."

"Even if you can't meet the Queen in person, you can always ask someone to pass on a message to the Queen?"

Trying his best to calm down his emotions and keep his tone as calm as possible, he asked this question;
After her brother Wei Qing nodded his head with no less doubt, Wei Zifu finally said, "Give the Queen a message for me."

"——Then she said, the guilty maid Wei Zifu, accidentally got something she shouldn't have."

"The rules of being a slave or a maid have been lost;"

"Wei Zifu, I will leave it to the Queen to decide..."

···
She used up all her strength to say this, then took a deep breath with trembling hands, and it took her a long time to recover from the mixed emotions of fear and shock.

After hearing his sister Wei Zifu's apology, the confusion on Wei Qing's face gradually turned into a thoughtful understanding.

"Sister, what you mean is..."

"Queen?"

Then Wei Zifu nodded slightly, and swallowed her saliva with trembling eyelashes.

"The Queen grew up in the Marquis's Mansion. Although she is older than me, I watched her grow up and become an adult."

"Although the Queen's temperament is gentler and more virtuous than the other women in the Marquis' Mansion, she is still the Marquis's legitimate daughter after all."

"When someone really wants to compete with the Queen for favor - especially when the Queen has not received favor yet and starts competing with the imperial concubine for favor, no matter how virtuous and gentle the Queen is, she is not an ordinary foolish woman from a peasant family after all."

"——In any powerful and noble family, there are no ordinary people."

"The Queen is definitely not someone who is easy to get along with..."

···
"If I don't take this opportunity now - before His Majesty brings me close to the palace, I will be the first to express my loyalty to the Queen. If I really get to the palace, it will be a fight to the death..."

"I can't defeat the Queen."

"My mother, son, and brothers are definitely not able to fight against me."

"I hope the Queen will understand my feelings and forgive my mother, son, brothers and all the others."

"As for entering the palace in the future, I will serve the Queen as attentively as I did in the Marquis' Mansion, that's all..."

Until this moment;

Only after she spoke out her plan in one breath did Wei Zifu's pounding heart finally calm down a little.

But deep down, Wei Zifu was still full of worries.

——In Wei Zifu’s impression, nobles often care a lot about their face.

Even though she was humble enough, there was one thing that was completely beyond Wei Zifu's control and could not be changed by Wei Zifu.

The current Empress Cao was the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Pingyang.

However, Wei Zifu was the slave-born daughter of the Marquis of Pingyang—not even an ordinary farmer’s daughter!
What if Empress Cao is not as kind as she seems? What if Empress Cao feels that Wei Zifu is not worthy of serving the same man as herself...

"Aqing."

With this in mind, Wei Zifu finally pulled herself together once again - for the last time, and reached out to hold her brother Wei Qing's arm;

When her brother Wei Qing sat beside her in confusion, Wei Zifu said solemnly, "Sister, I will probably still be hated by the Queen."

"If the queen holds a grudge against my family, our indentures are all in the Pingyang Marquis's mansion."

"——Sister, there is absolutely no way for me to survive."

"When that day comes, if Ah Qing feels that there is something that can be done, then bring Ah Guang and Ah Bu to ask His Majesty for mercy and see if you can save your mother's life."

"You three are valued by His Majesty. If you ask for your help with words of loyalty and filial piety, I'm sure His Majesty will not sit idly by..."

···
"If something cannot be done, don't force it."

"Don't worry about your mother, your elder brother, your two elder sisters and I. Your three brothers, just stay by your side and serve your Majesty carefully."

"When I grow up, I will find an opportunity to escape from slavery and live a good life."

"——Whether you are a farmer or a merchant;"

"But no matter what, never sell your children, wives, and young children to the rich and powerful again."

"To prevent my descendants from following in the footsteps of my mother, son, and brothers..."

(End of this chapter)