The Emperor's Favorite (Dropped)

20. The Empress

The photo I used as the chapter cover is
Noble Lady Liu, aka Liu Ying.
The photo I used it's not mine, credit to the rightful owner.

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It was the day of the selection. currently it was held in the Hall of Ethereal Blessings, only the Emperor and the Empress Dowager were allowed to decide and observe the outcome of the selections. In the end, the concubine who are competing for the Empress seat are, Imperial Noble Consort Qi, Noble Consort Xi and Consort Chun.

The other concubines, like Jiao Wei said, were waiting under the Pavilon of YuanMing Garden, meanwhile the servants just arrived with the new brewed Longjing tea and some refreshments, Imperial Concubine Li started the conversation to break the awkward silence,
"NiangNiang, this concubine wonders how will the Emperor and the Empress Dowager select the Empress."

"The Empress will test himself the three Consorts, and Li Gong will let us know for first who will be the Empress, – said Jiao Wei, – Li Pin, who do you think will be the Empress?"
If Imperial Concubine Li gives the wrong answer, she might even get demoted or have some physicist punishment, Consort Zhen really has shown who are the powerful concubines here, excluding the three candidates, the most powerful concubine in the harem is Jiao Wei.

"This concubine thinks that whoever the Emperor and the Empress Dowager will decide to be the next Empress, will be worthy, – replied flawlessly Imperial Concubine Li, – all of the three candidates have potential to be Empress, pin qie doesn't dare to make assumptions."

'She's smarter than I thought, I will keep an eye on her in the future.', thought Jiao Wei, after she replied, "Yes, Imperial Concubine Li is right, us as concubines, we don't have the right to speak about who will be the next Empress, we will just wait for Li Gong."

The concubines didn't dare to talk anymore, since not only Consort Zhen was present, but also Consort Xian; who quickly became a powerful force in the harem, after giving birth to a Prince and getting promoted to a high-ranking concubine. After some minutes, Ling Xue spoke, trying to start a chat with the concubines, "Li Pin, is the pregnancy difficult? Do you already know the due date?"

"Pin qie thanks NiangNiang for worrying,this concubine is currently eight months pregnant, even if pin qie has some difficulties to eat and sleep, but Imperial Doctor Jiang is checking every week to see if there are improvements or not, so this concubine is not that worried."

"Also both Imperial Noble Consort and Consort Zhen are pregnant!, – added Imperial Concubine Rong, – this concubine gives her congratulations another time to NiangNiang."

Jiao Wei didn't say anything about Rong Pin interrupting Li Pin, she played the same game and she replied thanking her, "Thank you for the thought, MeiMei, BengGong thinks that it doesn't matter if its a Prince or a Princess, the most important thing is that my child is healthy."

(t/n. BengGong means 'This Palace', high ranking concubines (from Consort and higher) can use this word to refer themselves to low ranking concubines or servants.)

"JieJie is right, the things that matters is that the Royal child is healthy." continued Ling Xue, then Noble Lady Niu added,"NiangNiang is for sure blessed, after only a year of the birth of the blessed twins, Consort Zhen is already pregnant."

Jiao Wei knew they were trying to win her favor, since the rumor that the Emperor will promote her to Noble Consort has spread trough the Forbidden City, not only concubines, but also servants were more careful around her.
After the Empress Selection, Jiao Wei will ask to the Emperor to investigate another time the poisoning of Imperial Concubine Li and Jia, 'There's something fishy about it.', thought Jiao Wei.