Lingshe looked at her second uncle, who was blunt as always.
"The seventh prince, huh" she said, smiling. She knew this guy well, very well. He was the disgusting third male lead who would force himself upon the female lead. He died early on, with little importance, but there was something about him that just made people want to hit him in the face, so even if he wasn't like that to the female lead, he would not survive long.
Her third uncle looked at her "Do you know something?" he wanted to avenge his son. At first, he was mad for having such an unruly child, but now he feels like his son was schemed against, something he couldn't allow.
Although he's called the rat in the court, he was actually very mild, only using his own resources and skills to make others give concessions and follow his advice. There's nothing shady about it, which is why he's called a rat and not a snake.
When hearing this, Lingshe smiled once again, nearly grinning, as she said "That ungrateful thing…" she started, causing all those present to pay more attention to her.
"He doesn't care about his father at all, even though he gave up so much for him. He even treats his mother badly, only listening to her when she's with him, but ignoring her calls when he's alone. No matter what, the third concubine still knows right and wrong and won't teach her son to go against our Yu clan."
"His father?" Luyen asked. He know very well that his daughter was well mannered and wouldn't disrespect the emperor, no matter how much they disdained him in the palace, this was a step too far for them who are brought up well.
"Haha, you don't know, grandfather" she smiled smugly. This was a story told in the novel she read.
At the start of the romance, the third male lead who was a junior to the female lead, tried to make her pity him. That was when he told her the story of his own background. It wasn't interesting and couldn't be more cliché for Lingshe when she read it first, but now with the additional experience of having lived in this world, she understood the deeper story, which is much more interesting.
The story given in the novel by the third male lead was that his mother was actually childhood sweethearts with the general's son in their eastern border city. Their own family was a small noble family who focused on trade, so although they were rich, they didn't have many resources.
One time, when war broke loose with the kingdom east, there weren't enough supplies. Just the months prior, the east had a famine, which was also the reason why the eastern kingdom launched this war in the first place.
Their small noble family had connections far and wide and had already hoarded a lot of grain. Even before transmigrating, Lingshe felt that this was fishy. Anyways, the story continued, they used the grain to help the war and defended successfully.
The general was thankful and planned to marry the young general and the young lady of the merchant family.
But! A tragedy happened!
Instead of becoming the generals wife, the young lady was taken in as a concubine to the emperor, becoming the third concubine Yao.
In secret, concubine Yao and the new general Zhao stayed in contact and a son was born between their affair – the seventh prince Zhu Yenlu.
This secret was kept from him until he had to leave the world and ascend to the immortal cultivation world, the middle world. His mother told him to clear him of his origins, now that he would leave, she wanted him to know the truth.
'A tragic yet basic story' – was Lingshe's thought when she first read this part. Now, with all the experience in this life, she only had one thought 'How fake!'.
A family kept grain after a famine – what for? Of course these merchants wanted to rig off the other families in that place! They wanted to use grain as currency to take advantage of the situation! The war made up for an even better use, because they, as merchant nobles, actually got awarded with a title, advancing from the low nobles to the middle nobles.
In addition, they also gained another thing – the emperor promised either he or his first born would take a lady of their family as a concubine. In this aspect, if they waited for the first son, their lady would be the first concubine with a lot of power, but they didn't want to wait and chose their eldest lady to become the third concubine Yao.
The so-called romance is also a bit of a ruse. The concubine was smart and knew that her own position in the harem was shaky. After all, emperors all only had a few concubines, unlike the ideas conveyed in some stories, only the top officials could send people to the emperor to become concubines, and even then, most would rather wait for the princes to be born, so their children could become the wife of the prince instead of the emperor's concubine.
As for childhood sweethearts becoming concubines… this is why the position of first concubine exists. In most cases, even the childhood sweetheart is a descendant of a powerful official, it's just that the emperor could choose as he wanted here.
The empress had a high position, the first concubine was a childhood sweetheart and the second concubine came from a family with long heritage, only a bit weaker than the Yu family. As the third concubine, Yao needed something to stabilise her position and create a power for herself and the future prince.
So, she decided to have an affair with the young general with which she had contract. Things played well and they had a son… or, rather than saying they had a son, it's unclear whether Yenlu is general Zhao's son or the emperors.
Lingshe looked at her father and said slowly "I heard a rumour that concubine Yao and general Zhao were quite close when they were young. After all, they were born in the same town, so they should have some relations…" this was a blind guess.
"After every small win in the east, it would be this general Zhao who came back to report. Although general Zhao's position isn't as important as the Grand General Zhao's position in the east, he still holds high power… it's too much of a hassle to come here to report every small thing."
The second uncle chimed in here "The rumours outside indeed mentioned this… but they generally confer that the general likes attention and praise, which is why he comes in contact with the emperor so much, attending every banquet…
Now it seems he came to these banquets because they are the only occasion when the concubines would leave the backyard."
The first uncle nodded in this regard "The emperor's palace hasn't seen so many banquets since the emperor before the former… they are so extravagant! Our family has been trading with the imperial palace a lot lately, as well as with other noble families. They all want to buy the luxury goods produced in our workshops."
The Yu family is specialised in luxury items, whether porcelain, jewellery or other things, they got their hands on it. As for jade itself… they only buy but never sell jade.