Harem: Biography of Concubine Qin

Chapter 234
In Yongshou Palace, the palace people who were taken by Yikun Palace checked it several times, even dug up the underground.

After a while, a few palace servants came to the main hall with some items in their hands, and knelt down in front of Chen Wenxin.

"My lord, I found five kinds of alcohol in Yongshou Palace. Small kitchen cooking wine, rice wine, warehouse shochu, daughter red, and pear flower white from Yigui's bedroom."

The little eunuch brought up the five kinds of wine, and Chen Wenxin only nodded slightly.

"My lord, all kinds of rouge powder, brow powder and lip balm were found in Yongshou Palace, all of which are here."

After all, Mrs. Yigui is a woman who loves beauty. She was surprised to see the wine in her palace being dug out, but she felt resentful when she saw the rouge and gouache being taken out.

"Concubine Qin, despite searching for evidence, what are you doing with the concubine's rouge and gouache?"

She can't live without rouge and gouache, and her life in the palace is not easy now.

If these rouge and gouache were taken away, she would no longer be able to use such good ones.

How can a harem concubine win back the emperor's heart without rouge and gouache?

Bai Lu sneered and said, "Mr. Yigui, why are you so stinging? Does our master still care about things like yours?"

Seeing Mrs. Yigui's appearance as if someone wanted to grab her rouge and gouache, Bai Lu was deeply moved.

Yipin, who used to be very beautiful and impressive, has fallen to the point where she can't even afford better rouge and gouache.

It's really embarrassing.

"Eunuch Du."

Chen Wenxin looked down at the first person who was dressed in the eunuch's uniform, he hurriedly stepped forward and cupped his hands: "The servant is here."

"You are in charge of the Wine Tasting Department of the Imperial Dining Room. There are six teacups here in this palace, and one of them smells like wine. Come and smell it."

The Wine Tasting Department is in charge of alcohol in the imperial dining room. This Eunuch Du is even known as the successor of Du Kang, the god of wine, as long as he smells it, he can know what wine it is.

"The slave obeys the order."

Bai Lu signaled the maid to bring up the teacups used by several concubines during the day, and Eunuch Du smelled the six top-quality Ge Kiln ice cracked teacups one by one.

He cupped his hands and said, "Mrs. Hui, the last teacup smells like wine. It's a very good aged Lihuabai, it's been ten years old."

Chen Wenxin raised his eyebrows, and said in surprise: "Elder-in-law can smell it even after years?"

Eunuch Du said modestly: "This is the job of a slave, so naturally we must do it better."

So good.

"Then the father-in-law went to smell it, and what kind of wine were the five kinds of wine found in Yongshou Palace?"

There are five kinds of wine in total. If they can match what the palace officials of Yongshou Palace said, then there is no doubt about this Eunuch Du's ability to appraise wine.

Eunuch Du took the order and went to smell the five kinds of wine in Yongshou Palace again.

"This is cooking wine. It should be newly brewed this year with mountain spring water in the suburbs of Beijing. The imperial dining room also uses this kind of wine."

"This is rice wine. It must have been produced in Jimo, Shandong Province. It is brewed with chestnut rice. The taste is mellow and not spicy, and it has been brewed for three to five years."

He said the same thing in the past, the more he talked, the paler Yigui's face became.

Although Yigui himself didn't know how the wine in his palace was brewed, how long it was brewed, and where it was produced.

Just looking at Eunuch Du's confident appearance was enough to make her heart jump.

Eunuch Du picked up the last wine and smelled it, and said with a smile, "Isn't this the pear blossom white in the tea cup just now? Even the brewing time is the same, and it smells mellow."

Yigui could hardly stand still, the red medicine beside her quickly supported her.

Chen Wenxin laughed.

Sure enough, as she expected, Yigui only put this kind of pear blossom white in the bedroom, which shows that it is commonly used.

Xu had only used it during the day today, so he hadn't had time to put it away yet.

"Who is in charge of these wines in Yongshou Palace?"

As soon as Chen Wenxin opened his mouth, all the palace servants of Mr. Yigui who were kneeling in the hall lowered their heads.

Now Yigui is no longer the master of Yongshou Palace, and the palace people around her have also dropped sharply.

Bai Lu reprimanded: "There are only seven or eight of you in total, why, do you still have to have Concubine Qin interrogate you one by one?"

A young eunuch hurriedly stepped forward and kowtowed.

"Hui Qinfei, Mrs. Yigui is surrounded by servants who are in charge of the wine."

Chen Wenxin was not angry either, but just smiled slightly and said, "Then tell me, are there any mistakes in the name, origin, and year of the wine that Eunuch Du said just now?"

The little eunuch was about to look at Yigui's face, when he heard Chen Wenxin slowly say: "You tell the truth. Anyway, you two are not the only ones in this palace who know about wine, if there is any discrepancy between what you two said It is not difficult for me to call ten or eight eunuchs who know how to drink."

What this means is that even if he lied and denied Eunuch Du's words for the sake of the nobleman, it would not help.

The little eunuch thought about how Mr. Yigui treated them. When Mr. Yigui was a concubine and had an elder brother, they didn't do anything good.

Mrs. Yigui was demoted, and the fifth elder brother was sent away by the emperor, but she took revenge on the servants every day.

Not to mention him, even Hong Yao, the big palace lady who served Yigui personally, whenever Yigui got angry, didn't she just hit him?

Such a master, how can he risk his life to deceive Concubine Qin?

He kowtowed vigorously to the ground, gritted his teeth and said, "Concubine Huiqin, what Eunuch Du said is true."

Yigui resisted and said: "This Lihuabai was sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not only in Yongshou Palace, but also in other palaces. This alone does not prove that the wine in that teacup came from my mouth."

Chen Wenxin nodded, "Mr. Yigui is right. Come here, pass the message to Eunuch Liu, the head of the House of Internal Affairs."

Eunuch Liu had been waiting outside for a long time. Hearing the summons from inside, he hurried in to kowtow to Chen Wenxin.

Chen Wenxin said: "Eunuch Liu, I ordered you to check the records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to see which palace has this kind of pear blossom brewed for ten years. Have you checked it out?"

"Returning to Concubine Qin, this kind of pear blossom white is produced in the south of the Yangtze River, and it will be paid as a tribute every spring. According to the rules, this wine is in the old cellar, and it will only be opened when it meets the third year."

"Ordinary people can only drink wine that has been brewed for three years, while princes and ministers can drink wine that has been brewed for six years. The tribute wine that enters the palace is all nine-year-old."

Eunuch Du laughed and said: "I have heard about this wine for ten years. I think it was the wine that entered the palace last year. It was carefully buried in a warm and humid place and continued to be brewed."

"Since that's the case, Eunuch Liu only said which palaces the pear blossoms that entered the palace last year were awarded."

Eunuch Liu took out a booklet from his bosom, "Please allow the servant to read from this booklet, if the servant makes a mistake and misses the matter of the mother, it will be bad."

Where all the tributes that entered the palace came from and where they went, they were clearly remembered in black and white.

Just listen to Mr. Liu read: "On March 21th in the spring of the 99st year of Kangxi, a total of [-] altars of Lihuabai were purchased in Jiangnan for the [-]th year of tribute. Most of them were kept in the imperial dining room for the emperor to hold a feast."

"There are not many concubines in the harem who are good at wine, and there are not many concubines who are high enough to ask for this pear blossom. Only the concubine Tong of the Chengqian Palace and the Concubine Hui of the Changchun Palace want it, and the Yongshou Palace, at that time Empress Yipin."

This wine is so precious that ordinary concubines can't even get it.

Chen Wenxin is not good at drinking, so Yikun Palace does not have this kind of wine.

"Mr. Yigui, what else do you have to say? Neither Concubine Hui nor Concubine Tong have been to Yikun Palace today. There are six concubines present, including Ben Gong. Only you have Lihuabai here!"

Last spring, Mrs. Yigui just gave birth to her fifth elder brother, which is the time when the honor and favor are endless.

It's easy for her to ask for this wine, but now this expensive wine looks out of place with Yongshou Palace.

Mrs. Yigui is still struggling, "Just because I have this wine in my palace, I can't tell that it's me, maybe it's Concubine Rong, De Concubine and the others, where did they get this wine?"

Eunuch Liu was the first to retort: ​​"From my servant's point of view, this is unlikely. This wine is expensive, and there are not many in the palace. No matter which palace it is, it is treasured and well-preserved. How can I get it easily?"

If it can be obtained casually and easily, then it is not tribute wine.

Chen Wenxin was not in a hurry to argue, she just said: "Mr. Yigui's temperament of not shedding tears when he sees the coffin, I have already learned from it. Since you still want to argue with tricky words, I will let you die convincingly."

"Pass it to Nan Huairen."

When the blond-haired and brown-eyed Nan Huairen walked in from the outside, everyone was a little surprised.

How can this matter have something to do with the foreign devils?

Nan Huairen looked up at the masked beauty sitting upright. Now that she was getting older, she had a faintly intimidating demeanor.

In the past, it was lively and beautiful, youthful and innocent, but now it washes away the simplicity and adds elegance.

The woman who was painted on the beauty lamp by him in the past is now a high-ranking concubine Qin, holding the power of life and death in the harem.

He no longer dared to blaspheme.

"My humble minister Nan Huairen, please concubine Qin Jin An."

Her vermilion lips parted slightly, "Your Majesty Nan, please forgive me. I have heard that there is a kind of glazed instrument in the West, which can make extremely small things bigger, isn't it?"

Nan Huairen glanced behind him, he was followed by a young eunuch, carrying a huge wooden box in his hand.

"Hui Niangniang, yes. It's right behind Weichen."

Chen Wenxin has been observing those six teacups since the concubines left, that is the only clue to this matter, she can't let go of any clues.

Who would have thought that this observation did reveal something.

Those teacups are all made of Ge Kiln ice with cracks. If you look closely, there are some red things faintly stuck in the cracks.

She compared each teacup, looked at it for a while, and finally understood what those red ones were——

lip fat!

The cosmetics of the Qing Dynasty were not yet so advanced that they would not fade at all, so when the concubines drank tea, the lip smear on their lips would more or less stay on the teacup.

The etiquette of the concubines is well trained, and the movements of drinking tea are very light.

It just so happened that the teacup she served today was cracked, so that a little bit of mouth fat could be caught.

It's just that there are very few residues of the lip balm, how can she determine which tea cup's lip balm belongs to which person?
She thought, if only there was a microscope, all of this would be no problem.

With a glimmer of hope, she sent someone to ask Nan Huairen, but she didn't expect that Nan Huairen really knew about microscopes.

It's just that Western microscopes in this era are not yet microscopes, they just use the refraction of a large pile of glass to make tiny objects clearer.

At best, it can only be regarded as an advanced magnifying glass.

But that's enough.

"Master Nan, please set up the instrument and see what color is the little bit of lip balm on this teacup."

Chen Wenxin has always disliked cosmetics, everyone in the palace knows that.

She was afraid of getting it when she kissed Fifth Elder Brother, so she didn't even apply lip balm today.

Among the five concubines who visited Yikun Palace today, Zhang Guiren is delicious, and she doesn't like to put on lip balm, saying that she would eat them all.

Only Concubine Rong, Concubine De and Wei Chang are left, and the last one is Yigui.

Concubine Rong and Concubine De are older, and the color of their lips has always been lighter, closer to the color of their lips.

As for Wei Chang, whose status is low, he doesn't dare to overdecorate, and he doesn't know how to use bright colors.

Only Yigui always likes to put on heavy makeup and dress up, and what she most often uses is cinnabar-like red lip balm.

"My lady, please look, the color of the lip balm on this teacup is very clear."

(End of this chapter)