"Slave Su Mei visited Zhaoyi Niangniang, Zhaoyi Niangniang is fine." Chu Xiugong taught Mama Su Mei to salute Li Jingxi in a proper manner.

"Mama Su, please get up. This time, I invited my grandmother to come because I had something to ask for. She looked at Su Mei without a trace, it is said that she once served Concubine Shu when she was young, and later transferred to Chuxiu Palace to teach the new Xiu Girl palace rules and etiquette.

Su Mei is over forty years old this year, but she looks much younger than her actual age. She is wearing a brocade dress with elastic flowers and dark patterns today, and her high-spine bun is meticulously combed, and although the silk flower tassels on the bun are not precious, they are also so appropriate that people can't find fault with them. The woman was dressed in such a bright color that she looked no more than thirty-four or five years old.

"The slave doesn't dare, the mother commands." Su Mei's attitude is neither humble nor arrogant, in the end, she is an old man who has been up and down in the harem for many years.

"Then the palace will not be polite to Mama." Graceful took a sip of rose snow lotus tea and got straight to the point: "Five days later, there will be a general election, and this year's selected show girls will still enter the Chuxiu Palace according to the rules and return to Mama*." There is a lack of a maid in the palace, and I want to ask my grandmother to help the palace pay attention to whether there is a suitable candidate. ”

"I don't know what kind of mother wants?" Su Mei seems to be no stranger to this kind of thing.

"Don't be too high-born, but you must be innocent. The most important thing is to be obedient and teachable. As for her personal attendant, Li Jingxi hopes that she can be loyal to herself.

"The slave and maid understand, and the slave and maid will definitely pay attention to the mother."

"Then please Mama. Amber! Li Jingxi summoned, and Amber immediately walked to the front of the hall with a brocade box. Amber respectfully walked up to Su Mei and opened the brocade box, which contained a six-petal golden orchid step shake, the stamen of the golden orchid and the step pendant were made of ruby, and she was more called this dress than the silk flower tassel on Su Mei's head.

"Thank you for the reward, the slave and maid must do their best to do their errands!" Su Mei took the step shake, bowed to Xie and stepped back.

On the eighth day of the fifth month, the day of the primary election.

A gorgeous carriage stopped at the gate of the palace, and many brightly dressed girls came down from the carriage one after another, they were laughing and laughing in twos and threes, or looking at the depths of the palace with hope in their eyes, until Su Mei and several fathers-in-law appeared, this group of girls stopped laughing and closed their eyes.

"The slave maid is Su Mei of Chuxiu Palace, congratulations to all the little masters for passing the primary election. Before the palace election, you have to stay in Chuxiu Palace for a month-long study of palace rules and etiquette, and the slave maid is the teaching of the little master. Please also ask the little masters to line up and follow the slaves and maids to Chuxiu Palace in order. Su Mei is still neither humble nor arrogant, but the six-petal golden orchid on her bun shows her pride and wisdom more and more.

Su Mei led a group of show girls to Chuxiu Palace, and the show girls stood quietly in the front yard.

Chuxiu Palace is located in the northwest direction of Yeting, and is the largest dormitory in the entire palace except for the emperor, empress and queen mother. All the show girls who passed the primary selection in the past had to live in the Chuxiu Palace before the palace selection, so the Chuxiu Palace is also the palace with the most rooms. Although Chuxiu Palace is very large, due to the large number of people staying in the palace, the activity space of each show girl is very limited, which is not as good as the real palace concubine.

Su Mei opened the roster, began to roll call, assign rooms, and wait for all kinds of matters to be arranged one by one, it is already the beginning of the day.

The girls who entered the palace for the first time were so excited that they couldn't wait to return to their small courtyard after dinner, chatting in groups, and soon formed their own small circles.

Zimo didn't eat much for dinner, and he always wanted to have some snacks at this time, but unfortunately the palace was not as good as the Horse Mansion, and he couldn't do whatever he wanted. Zimo is seventeen years old this year, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and is one of the show girls selected by the Horse Mansion. Speaking of this Horse Mansion, I have to mention that peerless marriage that makes people sigh.

It is said that at the beginning of Duan Yulin's ascension to the throne in the first year of Shunjing, relations with neighboring countries were once tense, and small surrounding countries disturbed the Dahan border from time to time. Fortunately, it is still relatively stable in China, especially in Yong'an, Kyoto, and the people's lives are thriving. The first happy event after the new emperor ascended the throne was the wedding of the emperor's sister Princess Yinghua, the eldest son of Qin Ming, a scholar of the palace court.

This was supposed to be a good thing for the whole country to celebrate, but I couldn't bear to let someone want to block the people of Dahan on this happy day - the Snow Country, one of Dahan's neighbors, invaded the Dahan border at this time.

Qin Yan was the general of Huaihua at the time, and just when Qin Yan lifted the hijab of his new wife, the battle report reached his hands. So, this Qin Yan didn't even care about the flowers and candles in the cave room, so he immediately put on the battle and led all the soldiers to the border pass. Later, the incident was even more dramatic, after Qin Yan rushed to the battlefield, he overcame all the obstacles and defeated the enemy army, and drove the Snow Country thieves back to their lair in less than half a year, and the Snow Country has since bowed down, but Qin Yan was also seriously injured for this. Qin Yan traveled day and night regardless of the pain, just to reunite with his newlywed wife as soon as possible, but he didn't expect that when he returned triumphantly, it was the time when the princess's soul was broken! Everyone who heard it sighed.

Because this matter belongs to the royal secret, it is only said that the princess died of illness when she was suddenly infected, but the real cause of the death of Princess Yinghua is a mystery. Qin Yan was grief-stricken, and swore that he would only serve the princess as his wife in this life, and decided not to marry again. The emperor was grateful for Qin Yan's deep affection, not only retained his title of concubine, but also gave the general's mansion to be renamed the concubine's mansion, Qin Yan resigned from the post of general because he was seriously injured in this battle, and the emperor named him the lieutenant of the concubine. So far, Qin Yan surpassed the eldest princess of Hongluan in one fell swoop and became Dahan's "first concubine", and he was in the limelight for a while.

The Horse Mansion selected and sent a total of three show girls this time - Zimo, Zixiao, and Su Lianyi, Zimo and Zixiao were originally the slaves and maids of Qin Yan's family, and they could only be charged to the court in such an identity, and then they were assigned to each palace as errands; As for this Su Lianyi, although he was actually supported by the Horse Mansion, he ran for election as the daughter of the governor of Hengzhou, and on the surface he had nothing to do with the Horse Mansion. It's just that she was secretly taken to the Pony Mansion three months before the draft, and before that, where she was selected and who trained her, the entire Pony Mansion was secretive.

Zimo thought to herself that she didn't need the palace election anyway, and she would be assigned to a certain palace as an errand boy, so she was naturally too lazy to deal with those noble girls, so she was happy to entertain herself. Zimo was taking care of herself under the roots of the tree, when someone suddenly nagged in her ear: "What is the origin of that Su Lianyi?" Why is the master even hiding it from us? It was Zixiao, who was from the same background as Zimo, who spoke, and the master in her mouth was naturally the concubine Qin Yan. Although Zimo and Zixiao have worked together for more than ten years, it is a pity that the relationship between the two has not been very close, and they are basically working separately.

"What do you care so much about? Just do your own thing. Zimo didn't bother to pay attention to her.

"If it weren't for my bad background, I would have learned based on my appearance, and it wouldn't be a problem to be a talented person! Am I worse than that Su Ripple? Zixiao pursed her lips unconvinced, and deliberately scratched her head to make a gesture.

That action made Zimo laugh: "I don't think it's too much for you to be a nobleman in one fell swoop." If you are not convinced, you can follow Su Lianyi, if the master is favored, you can also ascend to heaven. ”

Seriously, Zixiao's appearance is not much worse than Su Lianyi, Su Lianyi is the kind of quiet and graceful beauty, she looks like a lily that blooms quietly alone, with a dark fragrance; And Zixiao is obviously an active girl, she can't stop all the time, her lines are not as soft as ripples, and she seems to be born with a sense of anger, perhaps related to her "Fan Nation" (a small number of foreigners who have lived in Dahan for a long time and become the people of Dahan, collectively referred to as "Fan Nation") blood, Zixiao's eyes are faintly blue when you look closely.

"Phew! You're the chicken dog! Su Lianyi brought the dowry maid by herself, and I couldn't be a close attendant with her. Besides, do you think I really want to be the emperor's concubine? What's so good about a whole bunch of women robbing a man. I won't talk to you anymore, I have to feel the situation in this harem and strive to be with the most favored master. Zixiao returned to the right color, and trotted into the circle of nobles not far away.

Zimo looked at Zixiao's distant back and smiled helplessly, yes, she also has to find a good master, otherwise how will she survive this harem life.

It is said that this box smile has successfully entered the circle of a group of show girls, and at this time she is chatting with one of the girls, and from time to time she also chats with Su Lianyi on the side. Zimo secretly admires Zixiao's communication skills, and Zimo still has to learn more from Zixiao in terms of being sophisticated.

Zimo got up from the stone bench and was about to go back to bed, but was unexpectedly stopped by Su Lianyi's personal maid: "This little master is fine, why does the little master have to go back to rest so early?" As he spoke, he also bowed to Zimo.

"Don't dare, the slave is from a humble background, and she can't afford to be called a little master. It's good for my sister to call me Zimo. Zimo returned the salute, thinking that he had seen it in the Horse Mansion, but he still pretended not to know, should he avoid suspicion? If you want to avoid suspicion, why bother talking to me? Maybe if you want to act, I'll accompany you to act.

"Maple Birch was abrupt. It's just that my sister is talented, even if she is a palace person, she doesn't have to worry about getting ahead one day. "It turns out that this woman's name is Maple Birch, but Zimo thinks that this Maple Birch is not good. If it's the first time you meet, how can you see that you are talented? Even if the Horse Mansion met a few times in a hurry, there was no intersection, let alone any character that could be seen.

"Whew—the two minions are complimenting each other. It's ridiculous to still think that a sparrow will turn into a phoenix! With such a bold slave, which master dares to stay? As he spoke, a blue-clothed girl with a beautiful face wearing a double-swirling lotus bun walked from behind everyone to the front.

I saw that the two ends of the woman's hair bun were symmetrically hairpinned with a pair of palm-sized water-blue flower and leaf shaped headdresses, which seemed to be made of silk brocade from a distance, but when you got closer, you could find that the stamens were made of fine and dense rice grains-sized pearls, and the leaves were polished with fine silver as thin as cicada wings, and the lower end of the headdress was also decorated with three pairs of tassels made of blue crystal and gray magpie beads, and then matched with the Su embroidered moon brocade skirt of the same color on the body, which was really luxurious and compelling.

"The slaves and maids are ignorant, and they annoy my sister. Maple Birch is not retreating yet! Su Lianyi stepped forward at the right time, and Feng Hua and Zimo stepped aside when they heard this.

"Which one are you?" Fang Huanshan glanced at Su Lianyi with disdain, she saw that Lianyi was wearing a tender yellow cloud goose fine brocade skirt, although the texture was excellent, the style was decent, and there was only a pearl-inlaid narcissus silk flower on her head, and she was not a lady from a big family at first glance.

"In Xia Hengzhou, the sister of Zhizhou, Su Lianyi, Miss Fang is fine." Su Lianyi smiled slightly, not caring about Fang Yushan's unkind tone.

"Since you know that I am from the Fang family, you are a little sister of Zhizhou and deserve to call me sisters?" Knowing Su Lianyi's family background, the contempt in Fang Lianshan's eyes was even better. Su Lianyi just turned a blind eye.

"Miss Fang's words are wrong." At this time, a girl who had just been enjoying the cool air with another group of people interjected: "If we all become holy concubines one day, don't we want to be called sisters?" Sister Su is older than us, so there's nothing wrong with calling you sister. This woman's face is beautiful, although she is not as beautiful as Fang Yushan, but she is amazed when she sees it.

She gave a salute to Su Lianyi and Fang Huanshan: "In Xiajiang Lianhuan, I have seen all the sisters. Jiang Lianhuan wore a red auspicious cloud pattern crepe smock, lined with a black gold lotus pattern dress, and there were not many ornaments on the Feixian ring forehead bun but it was exquisite, and the jewelry with gold leaf on the red treasure showed that her background was extraordinary, and this person was the only concubine Jiang Lianhuan of the Ministry of Shangshu.

"Who should I be, it turned out to be Sister Jiang. Although they are all sisters, their identities are different and their descendants are different. As soon as the words came out, he pretended to be a gaffe, and hurriedly blamed himself: "Oops, I actually forgot that Sister Jiang is a concubine." However, Sister Jiang is naturally different from other concubines, Jiang Shangshu only has one daughter, what is the difference between her and her daughter-in-law? After speaking, she looked at Jiang Lianhuan with a playful face, covered her mouth with her hand and pretended to yawn: "It's not early, the sisters are gone, you have to learn the rules tomorrow." After saying that, they walked towards the bedroom with a silk handkerchief, and everyone was so embarrassed by their words and swords that they went back to their rooms without mentioning it.