《Story of Yanxi Palace》E1
1
On the second day of February in the sixth year of Qianlong's reign, Wei Yingluo entered the palace together with other maids to be selected.Several palace maids saw the gorgeously dressed show girls preparing for the palace selection on the way, and they talked for a few words. When passing by the show girls waiting for the palace selection, one of the palace ladies Jixiang who was waiting for the palace selection was accidentally knocked over by the palace lady Jinxiu.The bucket wetted the skirt of the beautiful girl Wuya Qingdai.Wu Ya was furious and said that she had specially prepared these clothes for today's palace election. At the same time, she refused Ji Xiang's offer to help her clean the clothes.Ji Xiang begged Wu Ya to spare her life, and Wu Ya asked others if they should spare Ji Xiang.The beautiful girl Lu Wanwan said that Ji Xiang did not do it on purpose and hoped that Wu Ya would spare her but was rejected.Aunt Fang stood up and told Wu Ya that these maids were all new to the palace and were as stupid as pigs. They could be beaten or scolded, so don't let your anger ruin your body.Wuya said that since Jixiang soiled her clothes, she would use her hands to compensate, and stepped on Jixiang's hand with her foot.Seeing Ji Xiang's painful look, Yingluo stepped forward to stop her and told Wu Ya that although she was not qualified to show mercy to her, today was Wu Ya's royal election and it was a happy day, so it was not appropriate to spoil the mood of the young master by being stained with blood.Wu Ya deliberately made things difficult and said that she was not happy that her shoes were dirty. Yingluo explained that Wu Ya had carved a lotus flower on the sole with unique ingenuity, but there was still one thing missing. Then she mixed the powder from her sachet and Linglong sachet and applied it on it.Wu Ya put the soles of her shoes on and asked her to take two steps to try them out. The shoes left traces of lotus flowers wherever they stepped, and others praised her repeatedly.Yingluo cleverly embedded rose scented powder into the soles of her shoes, wishing her little master good luck and success, and that Wuya would be spared.The palace maid Jinxiu also blamed Jixiang for being so stupid and almost hurt everyone. When Aunt Fang saw this, she said that the palace maid should not be just a talker but must have real skills.Ji Xiang asked Yingluo why the Wu Ya family was so bad that he helped her win the election, but Yingluo said that she often heard that things in the palace were related to good and bad, and it was not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing.Queen Fucha was pruning the branches, and her maid Mingyu told Queen Fucha that the palace election was coming soon and she should prepare earlier.Empress Fucha thought that it was none of her business that the show girls were competing for beauty today. Mingyu said that if the empress didn’t go, wouldn’t she be giving the chance to Chu Xiugong, but she was interrupted by Er Qing.Er Qing said that the palace election was a major event and advised the empress to go and have a look, otherwise she would be accused by the Queen Mother of neglecting official duties.The emperor, the queen and Concubine Gao presided over the palace election together. Before the emperor came, Concubine Gao was disrespectful to the queen, but the queen didn't care at all.After the emperor came, Concubine Gao saw that the emperor only had eyes for the queen, and she became even more jealous of the queen.During the palace selection, Concubine Gao echoed the emperor's comments on the beautiful ladies.When she arrived at Wuya, the emperor asked her why her feet were broken. Just when she was proud, the emperor was furious and ordered her to be pulled out. Even the queen's plea was of no use, and even her family members were also accused. This made the waiting XiuThe women were frightened.The emperor chose Nalan Chunxue because she followed the old Manchu customs, and then lost interest and left. Concubine Gao also resigned immediately, leaving the queen alone.The maids were doing embroidery. Jixiang stained the embroidery cloth with blood because of the injury on her hand and was ridiculed by Jinxiu. She asked Linglong, her friend, for help but was declined.When she was desperate, Yingluo once again extended a helping hand to her and gave her the pictures she had almost finished embroidering in exchange to help her get through the test. Others thought that Yingluo was blind and trying to be strong.Manager Wu came to check and praised Yingluo's exquisite embroidery work, but was reported by other palace maids as cheating.Just when Jixiang wanted to admit his mistake, Yingluo explained the matter perfectly. Manager Wu told Yingluo to remove the cheaters and praised their embroidery workers for keeping them in the embroidery workshop.The emperor ordered people to give the palace instructions to the concubines in the harem. The queen had a plaque detailing the inner rules and a picture of Tai Si's teachings. The queen ordered people to hang the plaque and choose an auspicious day to hang the picture. She suddenly felt gloomy and wanted to stay alone.With.The imperial concubine lost her temper because of the picture of Xiling silkworms that the emperor had gifted her. She was even more jealous of the emperor's favor that the queen received.Upon seeing this, the imperial concubine's attendant Jia Concubine said that the emperor wanted everyone to imitate the virtuous concubines in ancient times to calm the arrogance of the imperial concubine.The imperial concubine asked Jiabin what the emperor meant, and Jiabin guessed that these twelve pictures represented the image of the ideal concubine in the emperor's mind.Concubine Xian's mother-in-law fought for her, but Concubine Xian didn't care.The emperor said that he felt that the beauties in the harem were too busy, so he gave the palace instructions to let them think about finding purity for a while.When the concubines were sleeping, Concubine Chun was ridiculed by the imperial concubine because of her illness. Guiren Ying discussed with everyone that they should go visit her, but the imperial concubine said that they did not need to worry because of the queen's care.Yu Guiren felt unwell and took leave of absence. The imperial concubine wanted to invite the imperial doctor to come and take a closer look, but Yi concubine declined.The imperial concubine advised everyone to take care of themselves and cheer up, as the new concubines chosen by the palace will soon enter the palace and not be outcompeted.
