Harem for a living

Chapter 154

There are two rounds of the draft, the first round is about the physical condition of the show girls and their demeanor.The imperial doctors took turns to check the pulse, and those with hidden diseases, or those who were not suitable for pregnancy, would be brushed off.Demeanor is to see if there are any scars on the body, birthmarks, whether there is a bad breath when talking, and whether there are any indecent movements when walking.

In this round alone, a large number of them were collected, and in the second round, there were only thirty show girls left.At the beginning, the emperor issued a decree, saying that he would not disturb the people, so the draft was only selected from unmarried girls of the right age who were officials of the fourth rank or above.The rest of the background is pretty good.

Chen Manrou flipped through the newly changed roster twice, the girl from the Tang family was already at the top of the first page, and the girl from the Zhu family was ranked second.Girls in the clan will never participate in the draft, so Ci'an's natal uncle Zhongyong and the first empress' natal Duke Ding are more prominent.

"Let's go, let's go greet the Queen Mother." Turning over, Chen Manrou turned her head and ordered, Lichun immediately came over and saluted, helped Chen Manrou to the inner room first, dressed up, and went outside to get ready Feng chariot.

The Empress Dowager Ci'an just woke up from a nap, when she heard the announcement that the Empress was asking to see her, she paused for a moment, and then responded, "Let her in." The eldest princess was joking around beside the Empress Dowager, she took a sip of tea and said with a smile, "Grandmother , Don’t you always say that you are tired recently? Why don’t you move in with your granddaughter so that you can take care of the emperor’s grandmother on a daily basis.”

"If you have such filial piety, the Ai family will be very satisfied." The Empress Dowager Ci'an said with a smile, and shook her head after thinking about it: "It's just that the Ai family has always been clean, and most of the Ai family eats vegetarian food and recites Buddhism on weekdays. You are a girl Every family, you can’t make your room look like a snow cave.”

The eldest princess stretched out her hand to embrace the Empress Dowager Ci'an's arm: "Grandmother, you are the kindest and kindest grandmother, and I like Grandmother the most."

"Hey, let Aijia take a look, has our eldest princess eaten honey today?" Ci'an smiled and pinched the eldest princess's cheeks, the grandparents and grandchildren laughed together, and it was a happy scene. It also didn't mention Chen Manrou who was still waiting in the hall.

Just when Chen Manrou felt that her ass was hurting, the Empress Dowager Ci'an came out holding the princess's hand: "Why does the empress have time to sit here at Ai's house today?"

Chen Manrou got up to salute the Empress Dowager Ci'an, and the eldest princess stepped aside: "I pay my respects to the Empress Dowager, I would like to come here a few more times on weekdays, but I am afraid of disturbing the purity of the Empress Dowager."

"There's no such thing as cleanliness. Ai's family is old, and they hope that their children and grandchildren will be around their knees. The juniors are filial. If you don't have time to come, let Xiaosi come and walk around often." The Empress Dowager Ci'an said, almost pointing at Chen Manrou's nose to say that she was not filial. up.

Chen Manrou wanted to bite the old woman twice, but she still had to keep a smile on her face: "The empress dowager is joking, and I have a lot of time. I just want to talk to the empress dowager when I come here this time. About the draft, let's first talk about it." Leave it to Concubine Hui and Concubine De, I will spare some time to chat with you, old man."

The empress dowager's face darkened. If Chen Manrou was really asked to hand over the selection to Concubine Hui and Concubine De, and then she came to Ci'an Palace every day by herself, if word spread, it would become the empress dowager deliberately making things difficult for the queen.

Such a major event as the draft is originally the responsibility of the empress. If it is really said, even the empress dowager cannot intervene.In the past two times, it was the emperor's filial piety, coupled with the method of compassion, that's why he was able to say a few words in the draft.A large part of the final list was decided by the emperor.The rest is irrelevant, the Queen Mother has the final say.

"That's not necessary. The draft is a big matter. Although Concubine De and Concubine Hui are capable, they can't interfere with it." Empress Dowager Ci'an said with a smile: "It's fine to find another person to accompany you here at Ai's house. The empress this time Come here, but what's the matter?"

"Empress Dowager, my concubine is here because I have something to report." The Empress Dowager Ci'an withdrew her troops, and Chen Manrou didn't rush to shake her face. She took the roster from Li Chun and presented it to Ci'an directly: " This is the draft list, please look over it, Empress Dowager."

The Empress Dowager Ci'an took it over and flipped through two pages, nodded and said: "This beautiful girl will live in the palace for a while, in the next few days, you will call people over in batches, watch their performance carefully, wait for the last paragraph It's time, let's see their talents."

"Empress Dowager, I have something else to ask you." Chen Manrou hurriedly said: "You know, this is the first time I have experienced the draft. Many things have only been seen in the cutscenes, and my vision is not so good, so I want to ask for it." Empress Dowager, let this concubine take care of her."

Seeing Chen Manrou being so knowledgeable, the Empress Dowager Ci'an's face was finally not so tense, showing a little bit of satisfaction, but she still had to decline: "Ai's family is getting old, and I'm afraid her eyesight is not very good."

"The empress dowager is not old. If you sit here, others will think that you and the eldest princess are sisters. What do you use to maintain yourself, empress dowager? This skin color makes me a little envious." We can't scold you publicly, so let's use the spirit of Ah Q secretly.

The queen mother only heard that Chen Manrou said she was young, and laughed twice: "Where did you use it? It's just that you use more tortoise jelly every day. If you want it, there are some here at Aijia. Send someone to it later. You give some."

"Thank you Empress Dowager, my concubine will be as young as Empress Dowager in the future." Chen Manrou hurriedly thanked the old woman, and praised the old woman highly. Empress Dowager Ci'an was in a good mood, so she stopped picking criticism. The matter was handed over.

After saying a few more words, Chen Manrou got up to leave, and Empress Dowager Ci'an didn't stay either.

As soon as I returned to Yongshou Palace, I heard Li Qiu gossip: "The Empress Defei sent someone to visit the Chonghua Palace, and when she came back, the Empress Defei dropped a set of tea sets, and there was no movement from Empress Hui."

"Where is Concubine Fu?" Chen Manrou asked slowly after taking two sips from the teacup.Li Qiu frowned: "Concubine Fu hasn't gone out these two days, and Chang Meiren and Cui Wanyi haven't moved either."

After Chen Manrou moved to the palace, she gradually changed places for more than half of the people in the palace. Cui Wanyi and Chang Meiren were all sent to Fufei's Chengqian Palace. This kind of sisterly love is deep, so let's continue to love deeply now.

"Well, you have to watch if there is no movement. Concubine Fu is not a worry-free person." Chen Manrou said softly, there was no concubine Fu's promotion last time, and I don't know if she will be promoted at the end of this year. According to the usual practice, Yes, but he was just promoted last year, so it will depend on the emperor's will.

Sighing, Chen Manrou felt that when she was not a queen, she had to work hard, but when she became a queen, she had to work hard.

"Where did the fourth prince go?" Chen Manrou put down the teacup and asked, Li Qiu quickly pointed to the inner room: "I was talking with the fifth princess inside, the fourth prince just learned a few words, and he is teaching the fifth princess."

Thinking of the cute son pretending to be an adult and the baby girl who is pink and tender, Chen Manrou temporarily put aside these things in the harem, got up and walked to the inner room.Before entering the door, I heard Xiao Sinen's whirring words: "Come on, sister, read after brother, at the beginning of human beings, nature is kind~"

Xiao Wu murmured: "Everyone, everyone, good~"

"No, I read it wrong. It should be that human nature is good at the beginning." Xiao Si corrected, and Xiao Wu looked up at Xiao Si with a small face: "Human, beginning, basic, good~"

Xiaosi wanted to correct him, but Xiaowu got impatient, grabbed the cloth tiger on the bedside and threw it on Xiaosi: "Brother is naughty, don't read it! Cake!"

"Sister, you ate two pieces of cake today, you can't eat any more, or your teeth will be broken." Xiao Si taught him patiently, but Xiao Wu ignored him and continued to shout: "Gao Gao, cake, I want cakes!"

"Well, I can only take one bite." Chen Manrou looked inside, and saw Xiao Si pinching his finger and making a gesture, which was about the size of a fingernail. Xiao Wu looked at him, and moved his finger down: " Big, one bite."

Xiao Si was a little embarrassed, seeing Xiao Wu pouted and wanted to cry, he nodded quickly: "Okay, then take a big bite."

Chen Manrou laughed, went in and hugged Xiao Wu, stretched out his hand to pinch her nose: "You are naughty, just look at my brother to bully you?" Xiao Wu was quite happy to see Chen Manrou at first, but after listening to Chen Manrou's words, she blinked and did it. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Still acting with the queen mother?" Chen Manrou was surprised, and reached out to rub her nose: "Well, the queen mother did something wrong. The queen mother shouldn't pinch our little princess' nose. As an apology, our little princess can eat half a piece of cake today." Is the cake good?"

Although Xiao Wu didn't understand everything, he could still understand half of it.On weekdays, when Chen Manrou gave her how many pastries, she would always compare and measure them in front of her, so now she also knew that half a piece was bigger than a bite, so she clapped her little hands happily and smiled: "Half a piece!"

Chen Manrou winked at Xiaosi, Xiaosi suppressed a smile and went outside to get pastries, not a whole piece, but a small piece before going in.Then in front of Xiao Wu, he gestured and broke it in half: "Look, this is half a piece."

Chen Manrou took the opportunity to say: "Little Wu is half a dollar, brother is half a dollar, the same size, okay?"

Xiao Wu looked back and forth between the two pastries, compared them for a long time before stretching out his fingers: "This one, Xiao Wu's."

Xiaosi smiled and handed the piece to her, and the two brothers and sisters got together to eat pastries. Chen Manrou reached out and took a purse and gestured to Xiaosi: "You can't put pastries in your purse in the future, mother will make it for you A small schoolbag, just for that."

"Well, good." Xiaosi nodded obediently, looked at the new purse, squinted and smiled.

"How about your two companions? Do they get along well?" Chen Manrou paused and asked again. A few days ago, the emperor rewarded Xiaosi with a set of four treasures of study, and officially approved Xiaosi to go to Chongwen Museum. The two companions It was also ordered by the emperor himself.

One is the young grandson of Prince Duan's family. Prince Duan is the emperor's cousin. His seniority is not considered the highest in the clan, but his words carry more weight.Back then, the relationship between Prince Duan and the first emperor was quite good.

The other one is the little grandson of Mr. Peng, a scholar of Diange University. He was smart and cute since he was a child.

Originally, there was a child from Prince Chun's family on the list given by the Chen family, but Prince Chun was a patriarchal order, and this status was too special, so Chen Manrou crossed it out in advance.

(End of this chapter)