A template cost 500 points and was only effective for 72 hours. Jiang Xian wanted to get her money's worth, so she kept it active, eager to hear what a legendary favored concubine had to say about the concubines of this fictional dynasty.
But Fei Ji said she had no great insights.
Daji was dismissive. 'In the palace, I only needed to please the King and hold his heart in my hands. Why would I need to care about these people's personalities or preferences? Queen Jiang, Huang Fei, and Princess Consort Yang lost to me because, to put it bluntly, the King didn't like them enough. Otherwise, all my schemes would have been for naught. In the harem, focusing your energy on taking down others is the wrong approach to begin with. I advise you to use your cleverness on something other than this. It's useless.'
Her logic—to capture the king before the bandits—was sound.
Jiang Xian, however, had other ideas. 'Next time, I should probably buy a template for a palace-intrigue expert, one who survives to the very end and becomes the Empress Dowager.'
Only by excelling at both palace intrigue and winning favor could she be called a true "pentagon" of a favored concubine.
"Shu Changzai arrived early today and seems to be in good spirits."
There was still some time before the new year, and the heavy snow made it inconvenient to hold banquets or gatherings. The harem had been quite peaceful lately. With a smile, Lu Ronghua shifted the topic to Jiang Xian, who had served the Emperor for the second time last night.
Besides heirs, what else was there for the women of the harem to fixate on but that little bit of favor?
Lu Ronghua brought the conversation around to Jiang Xian without expressing any clear opinion, waiting for someone more impatient to take the bait. And she didn't have to wait long.
Consort Guo sneered, "Clearly, being punished to copy the *Women's Precepts* didn't work. Her mind is still completely set on seducing the Emperor."
The noble ladies in the palace cherished their reputations, striving for an image of obedience, gentleness, chastity, and knowing their place. Even if they secretly wanted to rip the pearl flowers from another's hair and stomp on them, they had to maintain a gentle facade. It was rare to find someone as blunt as Consort Guo.
Upon hearing this, the Empress first glanced at Noble Consort Rong.
Because Noble Consort Rong was the one in the palace with the nastiest tongue.
Zhang Changzai, who lived in the same palace as Consort Guo, chimed in hypocritically, "When the Lady punished me to copy texts before, I didn't dare take a single step out of Zhongcui Palace, except to pay my respects at Jianzhang Palace. I only wanted to finish copying the Palace Rules as soon as possible. I never imagined Sister Shu would disregard the Lady's words so completely."
The Noble Consort had indeed previously punished her and Consort Guo to copy the Palace Rules.
Zhang Changzai had gone back and stewed in resentment for a full day. Now, she hated Jiang Xian—who was also a Changzai but outranked her due to having a title—even more. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Besides, there was no shame in submitting to the Lady; she considered herself a clever girl who knew when to bend and when to stand tall.
"Zhang Changzai, I am not familiar with you. If you want to talk, then talk, but do not use me as your example."
Noble Consort Rong set down her teacup, her gaze never once straying toward the area where the lower-ranking concubines sat.
'Paying respects to the Empress is already annoying enough.'
'Not seeing the Emperor last night just made it doubly so.'
Zhang Changzai's expression froze. Mortified, and terrified of offending the Noble Consort, she stammered, "I... I only meant to show my respect for the Noble Consort. I would never dare to forget her instructions."
"Speak less nonsense. I have no desire to offer you guidance."
A small smile appeared on Princess Consort Zhang's dignified face.
'Only someone who had been in the palace for a short time would dare to provoke the Noble Consort like that.'
'Did she think it was so easy to get into Noble Consort Rong's clique?'
'Disrespect her, and you're courting death.'
'Respect her, and if she deems you unworthy, she'll get annoyed and want to kick you away.'
'If you want to suck up to her, you'd better consider your own rank and abilities first.'
One could only watch as Zhang Changzai's application to join the team was rejected for being too low-level. Her pretty face flushed red and pale in turn, and she was too mortified to speak another word.
What was even more infuriating was that after humiliating her, the Noble Consort seemed to recall something and used Zhang Changzai's own words to question Shu Changzai. "Ah, yes. That just reminded me. I wonder how Shu Changzai is progressing with copying the *Women's Precepts*?"
Zhang Changzai was speechless with rage.
The Noble Consort had clearly picked up on her point, yet just moments ago, she had acted as if she couldn't stand the sight of her.
Noble Consort Rong had made up her mind. If Jiang Xian said she hadn't copied it, she would use it as a pretext to cause trouble.
'Considering she was summoned to serve the Emperor at night, even if she did start copying, how much could she have possibly finished?'
If she dared to claim she had finished, planning to rush back and cram, Noble Consort Rong would immediately send Qiu Yun to Yizhu Pavilion to inspect her work.
Oho.
Hearing this, the palace maid Xia Mian, standing behind Jiang Xian, had to frantically recall the painful memories of her master dragging her along for triathlon training and of her parents sending her into the palace, just to barely suppress the smile threatening to break out on her face.
'I bet you didn't expect that, Lady! Our master really finished it all!'
This, too, was something Jiang Xian had anticipated.
In her past life as an office worker, she'd had a supervisor who was parachuted in due to connections. He had some skill, but not much, and spoke in a stream-of-consciousness style, often giving requests with no clear deadline—"Do some market research on a certain product," "Find the contact info for the CEO of some company," "My son's summer craft project," "Change the copy for this batch of products"... He never said when he needed them.
With tasks like those, it was always better to get them done sooner rather than later.
A rookie in the workplace might think that no deadline meant it wasn't urgent, but when the boss asked for it and you couldn't deliver, you'd get the classic "Didn't I tell you about this a long time ago?" reprimand.
Jiang Xian stepped forward, preparing to give an honest and straightforward answer.
But unexpectedly, Daji's coquettish laughter echoed in her mind. Recalling the life lessons of this Evil Concubine, when Jiang Xian lifted her head again to reply, her eyes were filled with flirtatious charm, and her voice dripped with seduction. "To answer Sister-in-law, I have already finished copying it all!"
The final syllable, drawn out playfully, was both frivolous and coquettish.
The assembled concubines were all stunned.
The Noble Consort hated competition for favor more than anything. Before visiting her at Zhaoyang Palace, Ma Wanyi even had to remove her pearl hairpins and makeup, appearing before her with only a light touch of cosmetics.
'To think someone actually dared to put on a cutesy voice in front of the Noble Consort!'
'And so brazenly, too!'
It was Daji, weaponizing her cuteness. Jiang Xian nearly broke.
She gave a look to her palace maid, Xia Mian, who brought out the copied *Women's Precepts*. Bypassing the Noble Consort, she presented it to the Empress with the utmost respect. "The Empress instructed me to deliver this to Jianzhang Palace for your inspection once I was finished. I did not dare forget for a single moment. After returning from Qiankun Palace, I copied the text continuously and only dared to blow out my lamp and sleep after it was done. I had intended to deliver it to Jianzhang Palace immediately, but then I realized it was almost time for morning greetings, so I brought it along with me."
Hearing this, everyone was stunned once again.
'To be able to copy texts after serving the Emperor... Shu Changzai must have incredible stamina!'
A rare look of surprise crossed the Empress's face. "You worked hard serving the Emperor. There was no need to rush like this. I had no intention of pressuring you."
Under Daji's expert guidance, Jiang Xian blinked, her eyes welling with tears.
"The Empress is truly benevolent."
Noble Consort Rong was not.
Ma Wanyi was incredulous. "Ten times? The *Women's Precepts*? And you served the Emperor until the middle of the night. How could you possibly have finished?"
Jiang Xian remained calm and delivered her all-purpose response:
"I suppose we're all built differently."