https://www.novelupdates.com/series/ying-chong/ Empress Dowager Yi An finally achieved great success in this life, her son became the emperor. She had a bad fortune in the first half of her life but she was favored by the former Emperor for the second half of her life. In this situation she should be happy however there was one problem, a tired heart. If one may ask, who is not tired in this deep palace? — When she woke up, she went back to her fifteen-year-old self, and was still a ‘thin horse’. When she was sent to the capital as a tool for connection, thus the story began… T/N: ‘thin horse’ [shòu mǎ 瘦马] – was a term used to denote girls reared specifically for the purpose of supplying Yangzhou City’s [Jiangsu Province] market in concubines. Has anyone read this novel? Would really love some spoilers for it, mostly spoilers regarding the harem scheming drama.
I really can't chronologically write eveything...it's been a long time since i read this one...just ask whatever u guys wanna ask...
At the beginning of the novel ,to everyone she always said that she didn't do anything to the earlier married concubines of the crown prince....well she lied..she was responsible behind abortion and death of some person in the backyard and since then in a inner monologue in some chapter of crown prince we come to know that was where she started disgusting him...he gave her a lot of chances but she never improvised or try becoming a better person...btw another thing mentioned in inner monologue was despite being disgusted and disappointed in her why did he still tolerate her...the reason was his own mother...in some chapter tge crosn prince was lost in his childhood memories...at first the emperor and the empress had good relationship...i guess the time before his father was still the crown prince...his mother was a smart woman and gradually after instigated by a lot of ppl by his side his father started fearing his mother...not coming to look for his mother...his mother suffered a lot...he always thought that even if he hated his mother he could still have her respected as the official wife..that was what his mother deserved "respect "..growing up this was etched in his mind so he let ppl respect his crown princess despite not liking her but she took it all for granted The crown princess even poisoned her own children against MC and her kids...her daughter growing up always hated MC but we see that the eldest prince aka crown princess son was actually a good person despite his thoughts constantly being poisoned by his mother and sister he never once hated MC or her kids...he was competitive yes, wanted his father's love and affection...once when he was still young he saw how his father different was different to MC and her kids...how his father loved interacting with MC kids at dinner table ..asking them what they did and learned..teasing them etc ..this was all what he never had..so he yearned for these...since then he started coming for dinner at MCs place.... Btw at the end chen family was involved in acting against emperor ..participating in rebellion etc so they didnt have a good end...having pressured all her life and now without the weight of chen family behind her crown princess went nuts for real...she was not allowed to leave her courtyard since then...after that MC was crowned as empress
Like many emperors in history...MLs father too didn't want to leave the throne..reign forever aka obsessed with immortality...never listened to his advisors and kept taking weird medicines..by the time his father lost his ability to speak and stand , ML already had enough power and resources plus his status as the eldest prince so he didn't wait for long and took the throne... Btw MC again gave birth to a pair of dragon and Phoenix aka twins...
So what happened to his favored brothers? Did they try to rebel against him? And what happened to Hu/something concubine? The one who is currently pregnant in the translation with the dying daughter?
Spoiler: Su Family So in one of the extras, Zong Cong, the Crown Prince, as a ghost/spirit, ends up stuck with baby Pan'er one day when she was going to visit her Dad. He watches his beloved consort grow up, and we get a glimpse of the Su family. They were very poor but got along well. Pan'er's oldest brother, Su Jiang, was sent to a local blacksmith to apprentice under him and although he didn't get paid, he was given a roof and food. Later on, Pan'er and the second brother, Su Hai, found out that he got visibly thinner and looked weary. Su Hai swears he will become a rich official and will have lots of maids and a big dowry for Pan'er so she won't have to suffer. Says that if her future husband dares to bully her, he will give him a piece of his mind. (Later on in the main story, he does end up doing just that, which allows a "thin horse" like Pan'er to become an Empress). Yao Jinzhi, their mother, later found out he was being abused by them and took him back. Because there are now 5 people to feed, the previously plump younger children, as well as the whole family, suffer from hunger. Then tragedy struck when their father has an accident and is out of commission. Su Jiang tries to find work but he's either too old or too dull or both so he can't get a proper job. That's when Yao Jinzhi starts acting weird, which we later find is due to Zhao Wu's proposition to sell Pan'er. Eventually, she has to relent and both Su Jiang and Su Hai explode. Yao Jinzhi explodes as well, explaining it's not simple to live life as a poor person and so long as they can work well in the future, they can always buy her back. Pan'er is sent to the "academy" and cries to Zong Cong who tell her he can predict the future and predicts her life will be abundant later, that she'll marry a great guy and her family is blessed because of her, that Su Hai becomes an official, etc. But no matter how hard they work, 10 tael is still too much for them and every time Su Hai and Pan'er meet, they end up arguing about it. After years, finally, Pan'er meets with Yao Jinzhi who breaks it to her that she has been sold for 1800 taels. And this is, of course, the scene that starts the novel after Pan'er goes back in time.
So how was their reaction? Bet they where expecting her to be some small concubine somewhere. Can you also spoil about some of the harem fights and the ML’s crown princess and his mother?
It's been a long time since I read this so I'm going to back to check before posting something but... From the little I remember, I was very annoyed with the family, Su Hai kind of rubbed me the wrong way sometimes. Spoiler: About the servants Remember that Pan'er is half a slave, considering she is a concubine. She is also a commoner who was raised to essentially become s*x toy /walking uterus. The way the servents treat her kind of reflects that. While the servents do try to accommodate the most favored person in the inner yard, they are also mostly slaves and servants who have seen people rise and fall. So the inner monologue and actions of those characters reflect that. It's not until later when she has left the residence and already given birth do they realize that Pan'er holds a permanent, large place inside Zong Cong's heart. tldr: She is legally half a slave and is thus treated that way, try not to get your blood pressure too high.
The timeline might be a bit off and the events might not be in chronological order. It's been a while and my Chinese is not that good. Spoiler: Spoiler Taizifei Chen shi's family tries to meddle in MC's pregnancy by giving her something that induces early birth and the ML makes it so she and her family cannot do it again. I don't remember the details but Chen shi becomes a more virtuous wife after this due to the shock and understanding of what she was doing and what the consequences were. Also, Chen shi's son, Zong Duo, was born sickly and during MC's birth, he spits out blood. She gets scared and grabs the Imperial Physician who was here—the problem is, he came here for MC's birth. She only realizes later she was mostly likely schemed against. MC gives birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix twins. The daughter was born perfectly okay, but her younger brother was coming out feet first and one of the birthing mamas had to put him back. He did end up healthy and okay, just a tad bit smaller than his sister. ML comes right after to check if she's okay, despite taboos, and told her to just sleep. It was a rather cute moment, and I wish I could accurately describe it ( Chen shi petitions the palace to raise MC's rank from Fengyi to Liangyuan. which is the 3rd highest rank, after Fei and Liangdi. Given her background, this is actually huge. ML was impressed and glad she seems to be genuinely changing, though it seems like he only plans to respect Chen shi since his feelings for MC is getting stronger and stronger. This also affords MC her own yard and she moves into one that she doesn't have to share with anyone. He shi remarks that even she cannot compete with MC anyone. When the servants try to argue, He shi says given MC's son and favor, she doubts anyone can steal it, for now. Or something along those lines. So something that bothers MC about the twins is that they look almost identical—she was worried that if the girl was too masculine, she would have trouble marrying, and if the boy was too feminine, he would be constantly pointed at and gossiped about. ML seemed a bit speechless and said she's worrying too much, and that the twins' eye shape were distinctly different anyway. She wanted to give the children milk names and wasn't sure what it would be. When MC looked at her cute daughter, the first that thing came into mind was... Ugly. The servants were speechless and tried to stop her but MC seems to like it. Later, ML gives a paper containing the characters for the twins' names. The characters were Yue and Zhou/Chou. The generational name for girls is 'Wan' so the twins are now named Zong Yue and Zong Wanzhou. MC expected the boy's name from her previous life and decided to forgo a milk name for him since she is used to calling her last life's son Yue'er anyway. MC was ecstatic about the girl twin's name though because it is a homophone for 'ugly' and all... When ML hears about it, he is speechless but allows it anyway, probably out of exasperation. There are a lot of cute moments with the family, and MC is basically dominating ML's time and favor. Everyone else is sort just resigned to it, and rumors of MC being favored is passed far and wide, everyone knows basically. ML wanted to throw a big full month banquet but he didn't do it for Zong Duo and tongues would wag if he did for Yue and Wanzhou so he apologies to MC and says they can hold a small, residential banquet but MC's chill and doesn't care much. They hold one anyway and the other wives all eat vinegar. So Wanzhou is on the bigger and stronger side and MC is worried more and more about her being heavier and complains to ML. ML is wasn't worried cause they had mamas just to carry the children and it's fine. Well, that's what he thought until he held her and realizes how strong and heavy she is. She goes to the palace to meet Empress Fu, ML's mother. She seemed to be satisfied with MC and is very fond of the twins, especially Yue. MC muses to herself that it's expected because despite being so old (ML should be around 28ish), ML had few kids and even fewer sons. Of the ones he had, one of them is very sickly. Given ML's situation, that could've been a huge thorn for her path to ascension so with Yue, the Empress feels a bit relieved. Though she also finds Wanzhou charming as well. They talk a bit and the Empress starts to even like the MC a bit. When the twins were around half a year, palace drafts were conducted and the residence welcomes 4 new concubines: Zhong Liangyuan, Li Liangyuan, Qian Fengyi, Qiao Fengyi. Soon after(or maybe a bit before?) they enter, MC was found to be pregnant and this pregnancy is much more difficult in the first trimester because she is throwing up a lot. According to the Empress, she had the same problem when she was pregnant with the ML and gave MC some advice. This causes ML to neglect the newbies, which attracts the ire of Li shi, who is ML's cousin through an Imperial aunt. She is rather tactless and everyone just kind of ignores her but she drags the other three to MC's yard and they witness first hand the extent of ML's favor towards the infamous Su Liangyuan. There are some cute moments with the leads and the children, and then there's a time skip to 4/5ish years later.
MC seems adopted, who are her parents? was it the 2nd Chen master as it was mentioned earlier that MC resembled some concubine the Chen master did have?
Her real family sold her, and she was bought by the crown princess sister’s husband, who I think adopted her as a sister or something to give her a better status instead of a slave/servant one. 2nd Chen master is the crown princess father right? She is not related to any of them, but she just reminded him of his deceased concubine.
@Elv Nope there was a chapter where the ML was tasked to visit South, MC tag alonged and somehow MC met her family again, her mother revealed that she was somehow adopted and thats why she was put in the 'foster' place because there was no blood relation in the first place. It's revealed on chapter 53.