Red Chamber 7
The ones conducting the physical examinations were all midwives—experienced, sharp-eyed women.
From the moment A Yuan entered the room until she came out, the entire process took less than a quarter of an hour. Most of that time was spent undressing and dressing. The inspection included checking her virginity, verifying the chastity mark was intact, ensuring there were no unusual odors, and examining for any scars or birthmarks.
This stage was extremely strict. Just yesterday, there were still over a thousand candidates, but today more than half were eliminated, leaving only one-third remaining.
As soon as she settled into the carriage, Qiao Xiu quickly took out a bowl of silver ear soup from the food box. “Miss, please drink this to warm yourself. The palace gate has been bustling all day long, with Candidate Maidens coming out from the palace from time to time. My heart has been in my throat the whole day.”
“Now that Miss has returned safely, I can finally relax.”
A Yuan took the silver ear soup, lifted the curtain, and glanced around. “Where is Matron?”
“Someone from Rongguo Mansion came, so Matron went back early to receive them. It must be about Miss entering the palace in a few days.” At this, Qiao Xiu’s eyes reddened. She knew that once Miss entered the palace in a few days, they would likely never see each other again.
In the future, Miss would be fighting her battles alone in the palace, while she… her own future was uncertain. She didn’t know where she would go—probably just staying outside the palace, guarding Miss’s dowry.
Fortunately, her deed of sale was in Miss’s hands. Otherwise, if they returned to Gusu, the Madam would likely sell her off directly.
A Yuan drank the silver ear soup in one go.
The inspections themselves were brief, but the waiting in line took all day. Although tea was provided in between, no one dared to drink too much. Now, after having a bowl of the soothing silver ear soup, her parched throat finally felt some relief.
Qiao Xiu took the bowl, lowered her head, and quickly dabbed the tears from the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief before turning to tidy up the food box.
“I wonder if we’re allowed to bring maids into the palace.”
Looking at the pitiful Qiao Xiu, A Yuan felt reluctant to part with her.
This girl had been by her side since she arrived in this world. Though not particularly clever, she was loyal. If it were allowed, A Yuan would definitely bring her along. But if not… she would have to think about what to do with the girl.
“Does Miss have any instructions?” Qiao Xiu turned back, looking at her with confusion.
What instructions could A Yuan have? She was busy worrying about the girl’s future, but this silly girl didn’t even know to ask for a favor for herself.
The carriage slowly made its way back to Lin Mansion.
Naturally, she didn’t need to receive the visitor from Rongguo Mansion herself—Lin Wang’s Wife handled everything. A Yuan returned to her room and slept soundly. When she woke again, it was already time for dinner.
Qiao Xiu set out the evening meal, and A Yuan had a small side table arranged nearby with a few dishes and a pot of wine. She then asked Qiao Xiu to invite Lin Wang’s Wife over. The two of them ate while discussing the purpose of Rongguo Mansion’s visit that day.
A Yuan would be studying in the palace for the next month, so she needed to know Rongguo Mansion’s backup plans. If Rongguo Mansion continued to hide things, there would be no point in cooperating further. Fortunately, this time Rongguo Mansion was very forthright. It was only then that she realized just how much influence these hereditary nobility wielded within the palace.
“There are four teaching Matrons in total, two appointed by the Retired Emperor, and the other two are the Chief Matrons from the Emperor’s side… Good girl, what you must do is successfully be assigned under the Chief Matron during the group instruction in half a month.”
Although the Marquis of Baoling was a sickly man, he possessed a keen mind. The teaching Matrons were only decided last night, yet the news arrived today.
While A Yuan was surprised that the Imperial Palace’s fences were as leaky as a sieve, allowing all sorts of information to spread outside, she pondered more deeply about the Emperor’s intentions.
In this round of contention between the Retired Emperor and the Emperor, the Emperor, being young, had lost a move. He was blocked by the Retired Emperor’s strategy of selecting consorts from commoners, cutting off his path to draw closer to the old hereditary nobility. What could the Emperor do?
After dinner, having seen off Lin Wang’s Wife, A Yuan strolled around the small courtyard with her hands behind her back, digesting her meal while placing herself in the Emperor’s position to consider the problem.
In the original story, this Emperor was also a formidable figure. With the strategy of the Imperial Consort’s Home Visit, he not only emptied the coffers of the Four Great Families but also drained the Lin Family’s wealth left without heirs. Later, he even swept through the entire Jiangnan officialdom in one fell swoop. The Zhen Family was merely a microcosm of Jiangnan officialdom; the reality was undoubtedly even more exaggerated than described.
So… would he compromise on this path to personal rule?
Of course not!
The Emperor was already nineteen years old and would come of age next year. With the Retired Emperor suppressing him, even if the Emperor could endure it, the officials supporting him in the court could not.
Didn’t the old hereditary nobility rely on the Retired Emperor’s favor to act arrogantly and oppressively over others?
If they could help the Emperor assume personal rule, they could become his trusted aides in the future. This held immense appeal for the upright literati officials and the lesser aristocratic families… Back then, the Rongguo Duke had become a Super-rank Duke due to his merit in supporting the Emperor. Who could say they wouldn’t become the next Rongguo Duke in the future?
Therefore, if she were the Emperor, once this batch of Candidate Maidens entered the palace, he would ensure the imperial consorts became pregnant as quickly as possible, giving birth to the First Imperial Prince before coming of age.
This would boost the confidence of the officials supporting him.
Once he gained a measure of power, the old hereditary nobility would naturally shift their stance, sending their daughters into the palace. By then, the situation would reverse: it would no longer be the Emperor begging these nobles, but rather these nobles fighting among themselves for the position of Empress.
Having figured this out, A Yuan’s mind instantly cleared.
Thus, she must be assigned under the Chief Matron, gain her trust, and become the mother of the First Imperial Prince chosen by the Emperor.
Since she had decided to undertake the mission, she naturally aimed for the best outcome.
Once she became the mother of the First Imperial Prince, even if she were not favored, she would at least hold a Consort rank. With a son and status, and by supporting Lin Ruhai from within and without, she could sit securely in the future, completing her missions while raising her child.
As for whether the Emperor would become wary when her son grew up…
A Yuan had no qualms about slaying the dragon.
After all, she had done it before.
Having clarified her future path, A Yuan immediately began formulating a plan. First… open the system space.
Inside, colorful lights flickered—all the useless cards A Yuan had drawn. Only the card in the first slot shone with a golden glow. As usual, she spent a moment admiring that SSR card before forcing her gaze to shift to the smaller cards.
Those Skill Cards and equipment cards were temporarily useless. A Yuan circled a pile of Character Cards.
Over the past few months, she had gradually figured out this system. The SSR card could be bound to a real person, and there was even an opportunity to unbind it once a month and rebind it to someone else—even a matron serving the Retired Emperor was possible.
There were also three Skill Slots where she could freely combine skills. By simply equipping a Skill Card onto the card interface, the corresponding matron in reality would automatically learn that skill, complete with a plausible background story. Not only would she have a master to learn from, but she could even leverage the associated connections.
This card was truly divine, worthy of its SSR status.
As for the other Matron Cards—gray cards, green cards, and blue cards—they were all duration cards. The matrons they summoned could exist for three days, half a month, or one month respectively, and they had no identity or background. Once the time was up, they would automatically vanish without a trace, making them perfect for shady dealings or spreading rumors.
Purple cards were different. They came with an identity card and lasted for a year. Later, they could extend their duration by consuming other purple cards. However, their spawn points were entirely random. It was entirely possible to wake up as a matron in the cold palace, swatting flies all day with nowhere else to go.
That would render the card utterly useless.
A Yuan disliked making losing deals, so her feelings toward purple cards were a mix of love and hate.
She carefully reviewed the skills of these Matron Cards and finally found a gray card with the skill “Seek Medicine and Inquire about Remedies.” Without hesitation, she activated it. For some reason, though, the matron didn’t appear immediately, but the card was indeed used up.
A Yuan stood quietly in the courtyard, waiting. After about a quarter of an hour, there was a knock at the gate.
Qiao Xiu hurried to open the door and saw a plainly dressed old woman standing there, wearing an ingratiating and flattering smile. “Miss Qiao Xiu.”
“Who are you…?” Qiao Xiu frowned, not recognizing the woman.
“This humble one’s surname is Hui. The other day, the young lady asked me to handle a small matter. Now that it’s done, I rushed over to report back.”
Qiao Xiu grew even more suspicious. She was with her young lady all the time—how could she not know about this?
Hearing the commotion, A Yuan immediately came from the pavilion to the gate. Upon hearing the woman’s surname was “Hui,” she realized this was the gray card taking form. She promptly said, “Qiao Xiu, let Matron Hui in.”
Seeing that her young lady actually knew the woman, Qiao Xiu quickly stepped aside to let her in. As she closed the gate, she instinctively glanced around, only to feel puzzled afterward about why she had done so.
Since it was her card, this woman was hers to command.
A Yuan directly instructed Qiao Xiu to keep watch outside and led the old woman into the house.
Matron Hui was a skilled actress, her flattering smile ever-present. No one who barged in would suspect the two were conspiring, especially since she had an exceptionally honest, simple, and innocent face.
“What kind of medicine is the young lady looking for?”
“Can you find medicines in forms like fragrant powder, medicinal wine, or topical liquids?”
Matron Hui straightened her expression. “Of course, but for anything too special, you’ll need to spend Points, Master.”
A woman skilled in “Seek Medicine and Inquire about Remedies” naturally excelled at preparing medicines and had access to her own medicinal ingredient marketplace. However, this marketplace was exclusive to the skill itself—A Yuan couldn’t see or touch it.
“Then find me a colorless, odorless, topical passion-inducing medicine.”
Gray Matron immediately nodded without hesitation: “It can be done, but to make it colorless and odorless, we need a Hundred-Dispelling Herb. That has to be exchanged with Points.”
A Yuan: “…”
It stung a little—her Points should all be used for card drawing!
But for the sake of the mission: “Alright, how many Points?”
“Not many. Five Points can buy a pound, and only one drop is needed each time.” So a pound would last a very, very, very long time!
Hearing the price, A Yuan immediately stopped feeling the sting and waved her hand grandly: “Buy it!”
Sister has money, she can afford to be extravagant!
Upon hearing that Points would be spent, Gray Matron’s eyes lit up. She immediately opened the shop interface and began operating. Soon, a pound of Hundred-Dispelling Herb was retrieved—fresh and dewy, with droplets still clinging to it. Then, she took out tools to grind and extract it, finally concentrating it into a small white porcelain bottle the size of a thumb, containing Hundred-Dispelling Liquid.
A Yuan instantly felt cheated—there were at most twenty drops in that bottle.
But she was the one who wanted to buy it; she couldn’t back out now. So she took out a hundred taels of silver: “Use the rest of the ingredients freely, prepare it in a vat. After all, that one drop of Hundred-Dispelling Liquid shouldn’t go to waste.”
Her fingers gripping the silver turned slightly pale.
Gray Matron gave A Yuan a strange look and whispered a reminder: “Master, take it easy. The Emperor’s life is a life too.”
If a whole vat were used, the Emperor might be drained to death.
A Yuan took a deep breath: “Don’t worry about that. Also, prepare a fertility-enhancing medicine for me.”
Preferably effective in one go.
She was there for a mission, not to fall in love with the Emperor!
“That’s easy. Ordinary ingredients will do. Should it be made into pills?”
“Obviously. Who wants to drink bitter medicine?” A Yuan rolled her eyes at Gray Matron. Why was a single card so lively in personality? Wouldn’t it be better to just be a well-behaved AI?
“What about beauty pills, slimming pills, and skin-softening pills? Do you need those?” Gray Matron rarely appeared for three days, so she wanted to make a good impression. What if there was a chance to be summoned again in the future? She also had to work hard to earn Points and strive to upgrade to SSR.
How could she refuse?
A Yuan immediately nodded frantically: “Yes, yes, yes!”
It seemed that gray cards could be quite useful when used well. If only she had taken it out and used it back in Gusu, she wouldn’t have had to sneak out of bed at night to do yoga just to get a curvy figure.
“Then another five hundred taels.”
As long as it didn’t cost Points, A Yuan was quite generous with silver. She directly handed her five silver notes, and Gray Matron left under the cover of night.
Qiao Xiu stood at the door, watching her retreating figure. Perhaps she had stared for too long and her eyes were playing tricks on her, but it seemed as if Gray Matron vanished in the blink of an eye. Indeed, the low-ranking maids were nimble-footed and moved with urgency.
Closing the courtyard gate again, Qiao Xiu subtly inquired about Gray Matron’s origins. A Yuan casually brushed it off with an excuse, saying she was a gardener who tended to flowers and plants. Seeing that A Yuan had successfully advanced to the third round of the Imperial consort selection, she had come specifically to ask for a reward to buy flower seeds.
Although Qiao Xiu felt something was off, many servants had come asking for rewards that day. While the young lady was napping in the afternoon, she had already distributed a round of rewards, so it made sense for this old woman to come late.
Her mind was simple, and she soon forgot about it.
After attending to A Yuan and helping her settle down for the night, Qiao Xiu took a candlestick and went to the small couch in the side room. Lying down, she couldn’t help but sigh. At most, she could only serve the young lady for two more nights, unless the young lady failed the selection and returned home.
That night, A Yuan slept quite well, while Qiao Xiu cried for half the night—she truly couldn’t bear to part with the young lady.
Ever since falling ill last year due to the imperial consort selection, the young lady’s temperament had changed, yet she still treated her just as kindly. She couldn’t bear to part with such a fine young lady.
The next day, as soon as A Yuan woke up, she saw Qiao Xiu with eyes swollen like walnuts, which made her both amused and exasperated. She sent the little maid at the door to the kitchen to fetch a few raw eggs, boiled them on the stove in the tea room, and had Qiao Xiu roll them over her eyes for a long while before they were finally presentable.
While the small courtyard remained calm, outside, Lin Wang’s Wife was nearly driven mad with busyness.
Perhaps having received definite news, Lin Fu began busily preparing A Yuan’s dowry. Rongguo Mansion and Baoling Marquis Mansion secretly sent additional dowry gifts, though they dared not interact openly, treating it as a covert investment.
With these two mansions taking action, the Wang family could no longer keep it hidden. They sent some silver to Lady Wang at Rongguo Mansion, but no one knew what Lady Wang was thinking—she privately intercepted this additional dowry gift.
For a time, the Wang family believed they had made their contribution, considering it an early investment to secure future influence through pillow talk. Meanwhile, Old Madam Jia felt the Wang family was too arrogant, looking down on the future imperial consort by not even giving a dowry gift—just a few shops and estates, worth little money. Why be so stingy and appear petty?
She only thought about restraining Jia Yuanchun from interacting with the Wang family in the future—they were simply too miserly and lacked tact.
Lady Wang had no idea what a mess she had caused. She merely thought that even if the Lin family entered the palace, it would pave the way for her own daughter. Thus, the Wang family’s dowry gifts might as well be saved to give directly to her daughter, Jia Yuanchun, later, rather than letting an outsider benefit.
A Yuan was completely unaware of the Wang family’s dowry matter. By now, she had become a genuine little rich woman.
After nightfall again, the gray Matron arrived as promised, delivering the items A Yuan needed. Even that jar of passion-inducing medicine was squeezed in among the pile of gray junk.
However, it was surprising to A Yuan that the passion-inducing medicine was still a green-grade item.
If the gray Matron could produce green medicine bottles, could the purple Matron perhaps even craft SSR-grade medicine?
But the purple card Matron’s spawn point was too random, and skills couldn’t be chosen either. It was unlikely to coincidentally unlock the ‘Seek Medicine and Inquire about Remedies’ skill. She only wished these Matrons had empty skill slots—otherwise, ‘Seek Medicine and Inquire about Remedies’ would surely be a fixed skill.
The gray Matron’s online time was only three days. After finishing her tasks, she bid farewell and went out to observe the medicinal herbs of this world.
She was an ambitious Matron, after all.
On the morning of the fourth day, A Yuan brought a pile of ‘miracle medicines’ and rode a carriage to the entrance of Shenwu Gate. After entering, she was immediately taken to change into a uniform outfit. Then, another Matron came to inquire about her menstruation dates, as they needed to prepare menstrual belts for the entire month.
This inquiry alone eliminated over fifty people right at the entrance.
The reason was that these fifty-plus individuals had not yet experienced menstruation. Without menstruation, they could not serve in the bedchamber. The imperial consort selection was for bearing heirs and expanding the lineage—idle individuals were not to be kept.
Thus, on the first day, the number of candidates in the three-hundred-strong selection group plummeted. By the time rooms were assigned, only around two hundred and forty people remained.