Go out of the palace to the west, and you will arrive at the north gate of the imperial city after a street corner. The Imperial City is wrapped in the Imperial Palace, and the Zhiyang Palace is the center of the entire Imperial City, with the yamen of the Six Bureaus and One Division directly serving the Imperial Palace in the east and north, and the Imperial Garden in the south and west.

When I really arrived at the palace gate, I intuitively found that the dark red palace wall covered with bright yellow glazed tiles was so high, and no matter how strong the eaves were to walk the wall, I didn't know what year and month I could come out, but it was not as easy to come and go as freely as buying a ticket to visit the Forbidden City, Qiwen couldn't help but feel heavy.

Alas, nowadays, it would be a waste of brainpower to complain about anything.

Within the walls of the palace was a world of women and middlemen, and only one man was allowed for the emperor to survive. The guards of Yulin Wei are limited to outside the palace gate, and they are not allowed to set foot in the palace without the emperor's order; There are also strict restrictions on the entry and exit of the imperial doctor, and when to enter and exit, where and where to see and who you have seen, you must keep a careful record; As for the rest of the male royal relatives, even if they are the respect of King Rutan, they are only allowed to enter and exit the Ciqing Palace where the Taishang Imperial couple is located, and there are no more privileges.

-- The kind of bridge where a concubine can casually fall in love or even cheat with the prince of the guard, is purely imaginary here.

In previous years, when the palace maids were selected to enter the palace, they stayed outside the palace for several months, for training and selection, and those who had a bad character, were not too hard, and were too stupid to learn the rules, and were brushed down during this period and sent back to their hometowns. The rest of the talents were brought into Zhiyang Palace, but they were not directly hired, but were led to a remote courtyard on the edge of the West Five Institutes to continue to participate in further training. This courtyard belongs to the Shangyi Bureau, which is one of the six bureaus of the six bureaus and one division.

Now is not the season to select palace maids, and Qiwen is not entering the palace according to the normal process, because there is a back door opened by the eldest princess, she does not have to go through all the steps, she directly enters the palace from Shenwu Gate in one step, and is brought into the Shangyi Bureau for training.

In order to avoid foreign relatives from harming the country, the ancestral system stipulates that the origin of concubines must be limited to small families, and the background of palace women is naturally not much higher. Most of the palace maids are from poor people's families, not to mention what they will do, they are afraid that they will drag their noses and eat their fingers when they come, and they dare not answer when they ask questions.

If you want to send such a little girl to the most honorable people in the country to serve, you must screen layer by layer and educate over and over again. The Shangyi Bureau is in charge of the highest level of education and screening.

Aunt Yue was in charge of receiving Qiwen into the palace. After waiting for Qiwen outside the small courtyard of Shangyi Bureau, she handed Qiwen to Mama Li inside, and simply stated that this was her cousin, and that the eldest princess passed through Yue's house when she was traveling, and she went home to sit down for a while, and when she saw that her cousin was oppressed by her sister-in-law, she recommended her to the eldest princess on an errand, and the eldest princess fell in love with Qiwen, and agreed - a story that evolved from facts.

said some polite words that asked the aunts and grandmothers to take care of them, and finally Aunt Yue instructed Qiwen that the princess would help arrange everything, and asked her to rest assured that she would be trained here, and she would do it step by step, and strive to come out as soon as possible to get started on an errand.

There weren't many intimate words, and I didn't show much enthusiasm, but I ordered everything that should be ordered, which was thoughtful enough. Qiwen felt that such a moderate concern was just right, and it was the way a smart person should behave, and she was very grateful to this "cousin".

From this moment on, she became a member of this Zhiyang Palace.

When you enter the palace, you can't bring any of your clothes in, so you can say that you come and go naked. The first thing Qiwen did when she walked into the Shangyi Bureau was to be pulled into a room, stripped off, took a bath, and changed her head in a complete set. Prisoners in modern prisons are still allowed to keep a few harmless personal belongings, but the court ladies of this era are not.

It's not the draft season, and the female officers in charge of training in Shangyi Bureau are like farmers in winter, enjoying their leisure, and they didn't expect to suddenly take over such a transfer student. Even if it is the order of the eldest princess, they will not complain about slackness.

Will this girl's origin really be as simple as Aunt Yue said? The eyes of the female officials were full of suspicion, but they didn't dare to openly express their doubts about the eldest princess in front of Qiwen.

This girl of unknown origin took a bath in Chinese medicine soup and did not soak fleas, and there were no grate lice on her head, the skin on her body and hands was delicate, there were no calluses, her teeth were fine and white, there was no breath, and there was a hidden style in her gestures, even Aunt Shangyi's sighed to herself, where is the girl who came out of a small portal like Aunt Yue?

The eldest princess was known for her eclectic behavior, but with the imagination of these palace ladies, it was not enough to imagine that she could abduct the daughter of a criminal official who had raided her house into the palace.

No matter how you imagine it, there is one thing that none of them doubts: this girl is far better than ordinary show girls everywhere, not to mention choosing a palace maid, it is more than enough to choose a palace concubine - those palace concubines selected by poor families are far inferior to her.

When I came here, the food and accommodation conditions were naturally too different from those in the Hou Mansion. The palace maid stipulates that you can't eat greasy, and the meat in the dishes is rare, and Mama Li saw that Qiwen's face was slightly depressed when she ate the first meal, so she comforted her: Train hard, and wait until you really go to serve the eldest princess.

Close servants and maids can always get high-end meals from their masters.

In fact, Qiwen didn't care much, she still had to keep filial piety for her cheap father, if she was in the mood to feast soon, the eldest princess and the emperor heard the news, the impact would be too bad.

The accommodation is not bad, it was originally arranged for eight people to sleep in the bunk, because there are no other students now, so she sleeps by herself. Although the conditions are simple, Qiwen is a person who has lived in the school's collective dormitory, and it is completely acceptable.

After the medical examination, the class training will begin. In the past, when the palace maids were selected, the aunts and grandmothers were all professors who led a few by themselves, but this time it was good, a few people surrounded Qiwen to teach one.

The leaders divided their own labor and taught her to learn female redness, culture, and palace etiquette. In the old calendar, most of the eunuchs were illiterate, and the chores in the palace that needed culture had to be done by the palace maids, so the cultural education of the palace maids was quite strict. Now that the eunuchs are all writing, this practice has not changed, and the palace maid needs to at least be able to read and write. In addition, palace women also have to do some sewing work from time to time, and female red is also a compulsory course.

Qiwen generally retains the memory of the original owner, the original Miss Zhao is a standard lady, the female celebrity and culture are very good, although she has been discounted a little, she is still at the level of a thin camel, according to Aunt Shangyi's grandson, "If it weren't for the person named by the eldest princess, I really want to stay in front of me to be a female history." ”

As for the palace ceremony, in the past, this alone was enough for the little girls to practice hard for a few months, but when it came to Qiwen, it was still not difficult.

Teachers like students who are easy to teach, and Mama Li, who teaches palace etiquette, simply loves this apprentice to death. In the past, it took a lot of effort for the little girls to learn to stand and sit, but look at Qiwen, she just needs to make some corrections in the details, and then teach her to memorize the palace rules by rote.

"Don't slack off because of this, ordinary palace maids were only thirteen or fourteen when they were selected, and they were already trained at your age. If you come in late, and as soon as you go out, you will be sent to the nobles to serve, and you must be better trained than them. "No matter how much Mama Li likes it, she still has to put on the master's shelf from time to time, so as not to loosen the strings of the apprentice.

"Mama said very well, I must learn quickly and well, and when I go out, I let outsiders see me, and they all praise Mama, this master is amazing." Qiwen held an elegant squatting posture steadily, and expressed her determination very sincerely.

Mama Li's face was still majestic, but there was a smile between her eyebrows. This girl is not only sensitive and teachable, but also listens to her words, even if she is a whisker and a horse, she is more eloquent than those people in the small portal.

She held the pole used as a whip in her hand, and looked up at the clouds above the courtyard wall: "It's the first day of the new year today, and the queen can wait to visit today." ”

In the blink of an eye, after entering the palace for more than ten days, Qiwen has already figured out the pattern, and every time Mama Li makes such a slightly melancholy "self-talk", it means that her gossip nerves are operating again.

The palace maid can't visit the door for no reason, she usually guards the acre and three points of land in front of her, and she contacts these acquaintances, and no matter how interesting the topic is, it always talks about it between the same people, and it becomes a chewing gum with no taste.

A woman like Mama Li with a talent for gossip caught Qiwen as a person who liked her, and she was naturally very happy to popularize various gossip in the harem for her, which became the best breakthrough for Qiwen to absorb information.

However, Mama Li is not the kind of stupid person who only wants to speak quickly and recklessly, and what she said to Qiwen is basically harmless gossip that everyone knows about the palace, and often adds a sentence before the statement, "Anyway, if I don't come to say, you will hear it sooner or later" to affirm that she is not chewing her tongue without choice.

There must be some secrets of the deep palace that are not suitable for legends, even if she knows, it is impossible for her to say.

In the past ten days, Qiwen has learned from her that the emperor has not married a wife when he was in the palace, and when he was recalled to the capital, there was no concubine by his side.

It is indeed "marrying", Si Guogong's family is the most prominent duke's house in the dynasty, and Queen Wu Zhining is the daughter of Si Guogong, second only to the princess in terms of background, which obviously violates the ancestral regulations of choosing a concubine from a small household.

Mama Li's explanation for this is: "The queen mother and the emperor are small, and the emperor is determined for the emperor because of their affection." Alas, the love he has enjoyed since he was a child is limited, isn't the Emperor Taishang's arrangement also to leave a caring person around him who knows hot and cold? ”

The ancestral system is dead, and the people are alive. Grandpa has been dead for more than 200 years, and it is not a big deal that the Emperor Taishang broke this example in order to sympathize with his son.

The queen who lives in Kunyu Palace is also the wife of the male protagonist, and Qiwen listens very badly. With her identity, it is inconvenient to take the initiative to inquire about more content, so she can only wait, she has been uncomfortable for several days, and finally today she is looking forward to Mama Li turning the topic to this again.

At this time, she was practicing squatting on the square brick floor, and while Mama Li couldn't see it, she quickly glanced at the lock of hair on her cheeks and swept her face, and asked carefully: "Listen to Mama's meaning, it's rare to see the queen mother today?" ”

I heard rumors early on that Jinshang was very cold to the concubines of the inner court, and what Qiwen was most concerned about was how cold it was.