Hustle Queen in the Harem: My Consort Won't Stop Grinding

The Emperor affirmed Jiang Xian’s "audacious claim."

But it wasn’t a serious affirmation.

He placed a hand on her flat stomach and said with a laugh, "The greatest contribution Xian’er can make right now is to bear me an heir. Only then will my throne be secure."

This wasn’t purely a flirtatious remark.

After all, his sons would truly have a throne to inherit. Whether a nation had a stable number of potential heirs was a testament to the throne’s stability. The Empress Dowager had lectured him on this several times, berating him for not frequenting the harem diligently. In the early years, only Consort Xian had become pregnant, but she hadn’t been able to carry the child to term.

One could only imagine the glory and favor that would come with being the first to give birth to a royal son.

"If Xian’er can conceive, I will grant you the rank of Pin."

After the rank of Pin, she would become a proper mistress of her own court.

As the sky turned completely dark, the Emperor could not stay much longer. He lifted her chin and kissed her again and again, loath to part, before reluctantly leaving Yizhu Pavilion. He had waited for so many days and finally had a chance to sit and talk with her for a while, yet he hadn’t truly had her, which only made him long for her all the more.

The Emperor gently caressed the narcissus flower in his hand.

It was such a small blossom, its petals slightly crushed and wrinkled.

"Liang Yuyin," the Emperor said, handing him the narcissus flower. "Press it flat and make it into a bookmark."

At the Longevity Festival, the Emperor had seen her as a Moon Palace Fairy, an incarnation of the moon itself. But after she had leaped into the pond to pick a flower, he now felt she was a Narcissus Fairy.

But...

The image of Jiang Xian’s dazed expression as she claimed to be willing surfaced in the Emperor’s mind, and he couldn’t help but feel a little unsettled.

’A beautiful young woman, kept in the palace and showered with mountains of gold and silver, so why does she still look so perpetually anxious?’

"Go and investigate Noble Lady Gu’s situation at home."

※

After seeing the Emperor off, Jiang Xian couldn’t fall asleep for a while, so she decided to fleece the system.

Jiang Xian: [Give me a course on how to make cement.]

System: [What does harem scheming have to do with cement? The System isn’t falling for whatever the host says this time.]

[It does,] Jiang Xian stated without batting an eye, delivering a horrifying statement: [I’m preparing to bury the Noble Consort alive in cement.]

After a brief short-circuit, the System applied to other systems and acquired a course on cement production.

[Name]: Cement Production

[Type]: Course

[Note]: This course has been dispatched from the infrastructure system next door. After hearing its intended use, they exclaimed, "What a bloodthirsty host!"

The course was very cheap, and at first, Jiang Xian thought she’d found a treasure, but a closer look proved otherwise. To achieve the strength of modern cement, it required high-temperature calcination—at 1500-1600°C, maintained for a sufficient length of time... Just maintaining that temperature would be incredibly expensive. It was unlikely she could achieve the cheap, mass-produced result she had imagined. Additionally, the fineness of the cement powder needed to be on the micrometer scale...

’Well, this really is all high-tech and hardcore stuff.’

After all, Jiang Xian hadn’t studied these things in school, so she had been a bit too idealistic.

’Things that seemed simple and useful in her imagination were all inseparable from modern industry.’

[The cement is a no-go. System, I haven’t finished this course. Can I transfer it for a low price?]

Originally, that wasn’t allowed.

The frugal Jiang Xian pestered the system for a long time. Coincidentally, the host from the infrastructure system wanted to buy it back, so she managed to transfer it at a 70% discount, recouping some of her losses. It was just that when the other party asked if she no longer planned to bury the Noble Consort alive in cement, Jiang Xian could only reply: [On second thought, a white silk sash is more economical and practical, so I don’t need the cement anymore.]

The other party was horrified.

※

「The next morning」

Chen Daying came looking for her in the main hall in a great hurry.

"He Xiang told me you came back ’horizontally’ last night. What happened?"

Jiang Xian gave her a rough account of what had happened, and only then did Chen Daying breathe a sigh of relief. "You and the Emperor made up?"

"It wasn’t really a fight to begin with. Don’t overthink it."

"How could I not overthink it? My wealth and glory for the rest of my life are tied to you! The other day, the Emperor came to Yizhu Pavilion and was looking through the sachets you made. It scared me to death! I thought he was going to favor me with his presence, and I wasn’t ready at all. The thought of angering His Majesty and getting my whole family punished made me so nervous. When I think about serving him in bed, I feel like my parents are staring at my back. I’d have to think about my father’s head on the chopping block before even changing position. How is anyone supposed to get it on like that?"

Listening to her mistress ramble on and on, He Xiang’s entire face turned beet red. "My lady, you are still an unmarried maiden! How can you say such things so freely?"

But then she heard Noble Lady Gu offer a gentle consolation, "Thinking about how your entire family’s lives and reputation are at stake, wouldn’t that just make you serve him in bed with more... enthusiasm? It’s all motivation!"

’Perhaps the real titles for palace-scheming novels should be—’

*"For the Sake of My Nine Generations of Kin, I Pinned the Emperor to the Wall and Kissed Him"*

*"With My Parents’ Blessings, I Became the Harem’s Favorite"*

*"Sudden Death During Sex and the Nine-Generations-of-Kin Elimination Game"*

...

Listening to their conversation, He Xiang’s face went numb.

Jiang Xian mentioned that the Emperor had promised her the rank of Pin and also brought up the matter of moving to a new palace.

"Moving palaces? You absolutely have to take me with you!" Chen Daying immediately grew anxious. "Just keep me in a side hall like a little cat or dog. If I take up a spot, it’ll save you the trouble of some new, unfamiliar, and overly ambitious person being stuffed in to annoy you."

"Of course I’ll take you. Once we’ve moved, I’ll ask the Emperor for a small kitchen. I wouldn’t feel at ease with outsiders in my palace either."

Chen Daying swore that after they moved, she would help guard the new palace like an iron fortress.

"Like the Palace Attendants in my side hall, they’re all my own people. There are no spies from other palaces."

He Xiang lowered her head, her toes curling so hard in embarrassment they could have carved out a new Yizhu Pavilion.

’Should she remind her mistress that the reason they didn’t have any spies was not due to her excellent management, but because no one bothered to waste money planting a spy on an unfavored concubine...’

After chatting for a while, the two of them went to Jianzhang Palace together to pay their respects.

During the morning greeting, Lu Ronghua asked cheerfully, "I heard Noble Lady Gu fell into the water in the Imperial Garden last night. How careless. What happened? Could it be that someone pushed Noble Lady Gu into the water?"

She had been grounded to "recuperate" for a while. Now that the Emperor had released her, she was back to her feisty and energetic self, having clearly not learned her lesson.

As she spoke, her gaze kept darting toward Noble Consort Rong.

The latter grew impatient with the glances and raised an eyebrow. "Lu Ronghua, if you have something to say, say it. Why are you looking at me? What does Noble Lady Gu falling into the water have to do with me? You, on the other hand, seem remarkably well-informed, Lu Ronghua. I recall your palace isn’t near the Imperial Garden. How is it that someone fell into the water there last night, and you already know about it this morning? Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were in charge of the Imperial Garden!"

At the head of the room, the Empress—who was exhausted from grinding away at palace affairs all by herself because her special assistant had been snatched away by the Empress Dowager to burn incense—looked dazed. She mused inwardly: ’Who? Who wants to help me manage the Imperial Garden? It’s almost time for the annual repairs anyway. Someone please help me manage it!’

Lu Ronghua grew fearful. "I wouldn’t dare. It’s just that my palace maid was passing by the Imperial Garden and heard about it."

Consort Xian’s lips twitched as she inwardly mocked Lu Ronghua for being both a coward and a troublemaker.

Noble Consort Rong snorted coldly.

"You don’t dare manage it, but your palace maid does? With such lax discipline over your own people, you still dare to covet power over the harem? Heh!"

The concubines who were usually on good terms with Lu Ronghua didn’t dare to speak up for her.

A silence fell over Jianzhang Palace.

After a moment, it was Feng Liangyuan who spoke up. "So, what exactly happened with Noble Lady Gu falling into the water?"