I Work as an Entrusted Teacher in the Harem - Chapter 2

Chapter 4

The Noble Consort was usually the greatest stickler for rules.

Right now, she looked as if she wished she could shoulder the sedan chair herself and run.

The sedan jolted again and again, the motion matching the indescribable thrill and tension in her heart.

Was she rushing over to catch someone in the act, or to broaden her horizons?

As she passed my eldest sister’s palace gates, my eldest sister assumed the Noble Consort had come to make trouble.

She stood there, poised and proper, waiting.

Who would have thought the Noble Consort’s sedan would charge straight past without so much as slowing for breath?

“My lady, she went past.”

My eldest sister’s figure stiffened.

The atmosphere turned subtly awkward.

With a single look from her, the momo beside her slapped the little palace maid who had spoken.

“Go. See what the Noble Consort is up to.”

The group swept off in a grand flurry.

They stopped before the gates of my dilapidated courtyard.

The managing momo held that bowl of fertility-ending decoction. The Noble Consort smoothed her hair at her temples, then drew back the foot she had just stepped out with.

“Momo, this decoction…” The Noble Consort coughed lightly twice. “Does she even need it?”

The momo had seen plenty in her time, yet for once, she found herself unable to answer.

“Ah, mm, presumably, mm…”

The momo chose to mute herself.

The Noble Consort could wait no longer. She strode forward and lifted the hanging curtain.

“Who is dressing as a man here and defiling the inner palace!”

Only to see me just finished putting on a jade-white robe, my hair bound with a green hairpin, my long hair black as ink.

My dark, tranquil eyes looked straight at her.

I looked exactly like the sweetheart she had loved before entering the palace.

She froze.

Even her breathing grew shallow.

“You-”

I blinked at her.

“You, how utterly impro-”

I blinked at her.

“If you look at me like that, I still have to-”

Her lips parted, but in the end, she closed them.

Outside, the little palace maid my eldest sister had sent stretched her neck to watch the show. The slap mark on her face had yet to fade, but she was already whispering to the palace maid beside her:

“Just you watch. If they don’t give her two heavy paddles, then that fertility-ending decoction will be forced down her throat if they have to pour it in.”

Unexpectedly, before she had even finished speaking,

The Noble Consort lifted the curtain and came out.

“My lady.”

The managing momo presented the fertility-ending decoction.

The Noble Consort’s face was faintly red, her eyes brimming with tears, yet her expression was still as calm as water.

She looked at it for one second, picked it up, and downed it in one gulp.

“Ah, my lady, you mustn’t!”

“The imperial physician was right,” the Noble Consort said. “I really should drink more herbal medicine.”

That night,

Li Zun stood behind my eldest sister, watching her comb her hair.

He thought of the past.

“I” had once been like this too.

For a moment, he could not tell who he was really looking at.

Only when a eunuch came in from outside to report that someone from the Noble Consort’s palace wished to ask Li Zun for instructions did he return to himself.

My eldest sister’s hand tightened around the comb.

Was she here to steal him away?

“Reporting to His Majesty, my lady’s heart is panicking terribly-”

“Have you summoned an imperial physician?”

“We have, but my lady says the herbal medicine the physician prescribed is useless even after drinking it.”

Through the bronze mirror, my eldest sister glanced from the corner of her eye at the palace maid kneeling on the floor.

As expected, she was here to steal him away.

She raised her hand, already having thought of a countermeasure.

Then Li Zun lifted his eyes. “We are not a physician-”

“No, His Majesty,” the palace maid hurriedly waved her hands. “My lady does not wish to trouble you. She only wanted to ask you…”

“Stop stammering. Speak.”

“She wanted to ask whether you could let the lady from Yeting Palace sleep with her?”

The moment the words fell, the room went terrifyingly silent.

“My younger sister is truly virtuous,” my eldest sister said, lowering her eyes. “She is as close as sisters with everyone in the palaces. How am I supposed to conduct myself in the future?”

“So this is her goal?”

Li Zun curved his lips, mockery showing on his face.

“Then let her sleep.”

“She can sleep her way through the entire harem and still not dream of making Us look at her even once.”