The Emperor's Favorite (Dropped)

15. The Selection

The photo I used as the chapter cover is
Noble Lady Lu during the selection.
The photo I used it's not mine, credit to the rightful owner.

-

Since Princess Uisun entered the harem as Noble Lady Yu and Noble Consort Shu's passing, it passed a month.

Nobody was ready at the sudden passing of Noble Consort Shu, Jiao Wei heard that recently her illness got worse, but to get so sick to not even making it in the morning, Jiao Wei regretted she didn't visit the docile and mannered Noble Consort Shu.
Unfortunately, since her birth, Noble Consort Shu was considered to have a poorly body condition, which made her constitution poor; during her short but luxurious wife, she contracted multiple illness that made her body more and more fragile, she also risked her life giving birth to the Third Princess, and since then, her illness got worse and worse everyday, until the poor concubine couldn't fight her anymore.

The Emperor was devastated by her death, he didn't attend the morning court for three days straight, he gave to Noble Consort Shu the posthumous title 'Imperial Noble Consort ShuXian', her funerals were also arranged as an Imperial Noble Consort.

For the Third Princess, since she had more familiarity with Imperial Noble Consort Qi, she went to live with the latter; even if other concubines wanted to try to rise the Third Princess, the Emperor decided to follow his child will. Also the Emperor elevated the rank of the Third Princess from Princess of Third rank (junzu) to Princess of the Second Rank (gungju), usually both Prince and Princess born from concubines, would be elevated to the Second Rank after the coming-of-age, at sixteen years old.
Meanwhile, since Noble Lady Shen regained favor and got promoted to Imperial Concubine Jia, the Emperor called for her night services two times, also Noble Lady Yu was called for night service, more than Imperial Concubine Jia.

After a month from these events, Jiao Wei was already seven months pregnant, Imperial Concubine Chun and Consort Xi both were five months pregnant, even if Consort Xi pregnancy was revealed later, she was almost at the same term as Imperial Concubine Chun.
After the selection's proposal was signed by the Emperor, the officials and nobles, foreign too, began preparing for sending their most talented and pretty daughter, trying to have connections with the Imperial Family. The last round of the selection will be held at the Hall of Great Fortune in the three days, but the Empress Dowager won't attend the selection, since she didn't want to intervene in the harem's stuff, she opted for asking the Emperor to send four of his concubines to supervise the selection.

In the end, only four concubines were selected: Imperial Noble Consort Qi, Noble Consort Xi, Consort Zhen and Consort Hua.
The Emperor picked only the Consorts, since he wanted more of a professional judgment.
Even if Consort Hua sometimes might let her emotions betray her, the Emperor trusted the other three concubines to do the job right and, maybe, even make Consort Hua learn something.
After the selection, the concubines, the new ones too, will attend the meeting with the Imperial Noble Consort Qi, as the master of the harem, she has to introduce the new arrivals to the harem, not only to let them know the Imperial Palace's rules, but also other things such as their new residence and night service.

-

At the Pavillon of Eternal Spring, Jiao Wei was performing a song with the guqing, while her friend, Ling Xue, was accompanying her with the sound of the pipa. The two friends, after taking a stroll together, decided to stop at the Pavillon to admire the flower blooming; noticing how the weather was good, the duo decided to start playing some music, entertaining the servants that were passing by.