On The Self-Cultivation Of A Favored Concubine - Chapter 1

Liu Qinglan was a Feifei, a small mythical creature shaped like a civet with a snow white tail. In the ancient text Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), it is described as such “Further north for forty li, is Mount Huo, where the trees are mostly boxwood. There is a beast whose form is like a civet, but with a white tail and a mane. It is called the Feifei. Keeping it can cure sorrow.”

Having cultivated for many years, the immortal Liu Qinglan lived a carefree life on Mount Huo until one day, the Royal Hunting Team captured her and presented her before the Emperor, the Son of Heaven.

When she was caught, Liu Qinglan was in human form, and in her haste, she remembered to quickly flatten her exposed cat ears.

The handsome, yet sinister looking, Emperor narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the scantily clad girl before him, and an idea came to mind.

“Take her back to the palace and confer upon her the title Consort Liu (Liu Pin).”

The palace maids took the order and led the bewildered Liu Qinglan to the imperial resort palace, where they dressed her up, adorning her with silks and pearl hairpins, serving her delicacies, and waiting upon her like an ancestor.

Liu Qinglan had never lived among humans and did not understand their customs, but she realized that following these people meant delicious food, beautiful clothes, and company, so she happily settled down.

But, what was a Consort Liu?

“Your Ladyship, being conferred as a Consort means you are now the Emperor’s woman. This is what every woman under heaven dreams of.”

“Then, what does an Emperor’s woman do?”

The palace maids exchanged glances, then covered their faces and giggled, a little shy. “It is to regard His Majesty as the sky, to take care of him, and to serve him.”

“But I have never served anyone. I don’t know how to do it,” the young girl humbly asked.

The inexperienced junior palace maids also didn’t know how to serve a person, so they just vaguely explained: “Your Ladyship doesn’t need to do anything special just listen to His Majesty. Do as he instructs you.”

Liu Qinglan carefully took this to heart.

She would do whatever the Emperor asked her to do.

On the very first night after returning to the Imperial Palace, the Emperor made a grand, publicized show of summoning this young woman, picked up from the wilderness, to his bedchamber.

Liu Qinglan was washed until she was fragrant and sent to the Dragon Bed.

Suddenly, she became frightened, unsure of what was going to happen next.

The handsome Emperor, clad only in his under robe, reached out from behind the luxurious gauze curtain and helped her sit up.

The slender girl in sheer silk had skin as white as snow and a graceful figure sitting in the quilt, she was breathtakingly beautiful and pitiable.

However, the Emperor was unmoved, completely unfazed. This was because he preferred men and had absolutely no interest in women.

But he was the Emperor, and he needed an heir to the throne. The entire court urged him daily to take concubines, and so, reluctantly, he had taken a few.

Before this, the Inner Palace only had the Empress.

And so, trouble arose. The Inner Palace became a battlefield, fraught with ceaseless turmoil. The several male favorites the Emperor kept became intensely jealous and clashed with these consorts.

The Empress, as the legitimate Queen and holder of the Phoenix Seal, once directly ordered the execution of a handsome male favorite whom the Emperor had recently favored. The reason was that this ‘corrupt minister’ had offended several concubines.

Yet, the Empress had the backing of a powerful, distinguished family. Although the Emperor was furious, he couldn’t do anything to her.

Looking at the few remaining extraordinarily beautiful male favorites, the Emperor, having learned his painful lesson, decided to find a scapegoat.

The little scapegoat, Liu, sat trembling in the quilt. Out of nervousness, her white tail behind her popped out.

If the Emperor came any closer, she would probably swoosh and revert entirely to her original form. Fortunately, the Emperor merely helped her up, then sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes fixed on her with a deep gaze.

Liu Qinglan blinked, just barely managing to suppress her anxiety.

“Do you desire glory and wealth, the feeling of commanding thousands?” the Emperor asked.

Liu Qinglan didn’t understand, but she could sense that the Emperor wanted her to nod. So, she hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

She must have answered correctly, because the Emperor smiled.

“Then you must be obedient and listen to me. Here are a few portraits, take a look.”

Seven or eight portraits of beautiful women were spread out on the bed, some plump, some slender, each with distinct characteristics.

One woman, in particular, was stunningly beautiful, radiating a captivating brilliance that made her seem almost ready to step out of the painting.

The Emperor pointed at her and said, “This is my Empress. She is also the most difficult one to deal with. In the future, you must be very careful of her.”

“Is she very fierce?”

“Extremely cruel,” the Emperor said, gritting his teeth.

Liu Qinglan looked again at the great beauty in the portrait big eyes, high nose bridge, red lips, a stunning beauty, no doubt. “She doesn’t look fierce.”

“She is merely a woman of empty looks,” the Emperor’s eyes were filled with utter contempt and disgust.

If it weren’t for the constraints of her family’s power, why would he have married this vicious woman just for show? Now that he had ascended to the throne, it was time to get rid of this evil woman.

Liu Qinglan cautiously reached out and pulled the sketches closer to herself. “Can you give these to me?”

The Emperor didn’t care about these few worthless papers. He waved his hand and stood up. “You sleep here and are not allowed to go anywhere. Someone will escort you back tomorrow.”

Is that all there is to serving him? Liu Qinglan was relieved and nodded vigorously.

Seeing how easily fooled she was, the Emperor was also pleased. It seemed he had not chosen the wrong person!

He got up and pushed open the screen door partition. Inside was a large hot spring pool. The long prepared male favorites, with their hair unbound and their robes open to reveal their smooth, snow-white chests, were already waiting by the edge of the pool for the Emperor’s favor.

The Emperor was immensely satisfied. From now on, he could wantonly indulge in pleasure with them. Anyway, Consort Liu was outside to act as a shield. In a few more months, he could consider promoting her to Noble Consort.

That is, if she covered for him well and made no mistakes.

Outside, on the Dragon Bed, Liu Qinglan first rolled up all the portraits, placed them next to her pillow, and planned to take them back tomorrow.

She lay in the soft, cotton quilt for a while. The surroundings were silent, and she found it hard to fall asleep.

Since she had grown up in the mountains, Liu Qinglan was accustomed to falling asleep to the sound of chirping insects.

Moonlight spilled into the courtyard, and a small animal, snow white all over and shaped like a civet, scurried out.

It first cautiously raised its two ears, confirmed that the patrolling guards had moved away, then leaped onto a tree branch, using it to jump onto the roof ridge.

Liu Qinglan squatted on the golden tiled roof ridge, looking out.

The layers of palace buildings were shrouded in the night. Only the octagonal palace lanterns hanging from the eaves emitted a faint glow, illuminating the long, covered corridors.

From Liu Qinglan’s perspective, these palace lanterns looked like stars in the sky, twinkling dots that paved a ten mile stretch of splendor.

So the Imperial Palace was this beautiful. No wonder those palace maid sisters said this was the place every woman under heaven dreamed of.

Liu Qinglan quietly admired the view from the rooftop for a while, then spread her little paws and, stepping along the roof ridges, wandered around.

Before she knew it, she had wandered into the Six Courtyards of the Inner Palace.

This area was where the palace consorts lived, including Liu Qinglan’s own Moon Fei Palace (Yuefei Gong).

Because the mistress was summoned for the night, most of the palace maids at Moon Fei Palace were absent, leaving only a few to guard the house.

These few junior maids, who were not very old, were sitting on the cold stone steps gossiping.

Liu Qinglan gently landed on a Parasol tree in the courtyard, curled her long tail, tucked herself into a ball of fluff, and peacefully nestled in the branches, perking up her ears to listen in.

“Our Lady is truly beautiful. No wonder His Majesty fell in love at first sight and immediately brought her back to the palace. This is truly a crow flying onto a branch and turning into a phoenix.”

Liu Qinglan twitched her ears, feeling delighted. This must be a compliment to her beauty. She tucked her head into her neck and changed her position to lie down. As for a phoenix, that was a divine bird; these human girls truly thought highly of her.

“However, she is immensely favored now, but it’s hard to say what will happen later. Which of the Ladies in this Inner Palace is a vegetarian?”

Liu Qinglan: I’m not a vegetarian either. I eat meat. It seems there are quite a few like-minded people.

Someone agreed, “That’s right. Especially the Empress a general’s daughter, with fierce methods. Our new mistress definitely won’t be her match.”

Liu Qinglan extended her small, snow white paw, licked off the stray fur, and thought, I’m not going to fight with this Empress. But she does seem very fierce otherwise, why would everyone say she’s formidable?

“Just think about the male favorite who was just beaten to death with a staff not long ago.”

The palace maids shivered, clearly recalling a dreadful scene.

“But I heard that corrupt minister, relying on the Emperor’s favor, was so audacious that he snuck into the Rear Courtyard while His Majesty was out hunting in the fields and tried to seduce Consort Kang Zhao Yi. Only then did the Empress order his death by the staff,” a maid whispered, covering her mouth to gossip.

“I heard the junior maid sweeping the courtyard that day say that the corrupt minister grabbed Consort Kang Zhao Yi’s hand and insulted her, saying that since the Emperor was leaving her as a living widow, he might as well serve her instead. Pah, pah! That’s disgusting.”

“Shhh, don’t speak recklessly! Stop talking about this matter,” someone interjected, ending the topic.

Living widow? Serve? Liu Qinglan didn’t understand. She scratched her fuzzy head in confusion.

The few palace maids began to chat idly again.

“It was terrifying to see that corrupt minister die in front of the palace hall, bloody and mangled.”

“But the Ladies in the palace all felt satisfied and strongly supported the Empress.”

“The Empress is indeed powerful she avenged Consort Kang Zhaoyi.”

“I heard that after that incident, Consort Kang Zhaoyi runs to Chenxin Palace every day to keep the Empress company and relieve her boredom, completely changing her previous arrogant attitude.”

“But the Empress throws her out every time.”

The few palace maids all shivered again, clearly indicating that this wasn’t a simple “throwing out.”

Liu Qinglan was listening with great interest. Ever since she saw the portrait of this Empress, she had become curious about this beautiful woman.

The Emperor said she was extremely cruel, and these palace maid sisters also said she was formidable, yet they later praised her as powerful, so they didn’t seem truly afraid of the Empress.

Liu Qinglan was now impatient to see her in person and find out what kind of person this Empress really was.

“Ah, it’s getting late. Our Mistress must be done serving the Emperor by now, right?”

The few palace maids suddenly mentioned her again. Liu Qinglan’s ears perked up, and the entire Feifei stood up.

At this moment, a eunuch’s slightly sharp voice sounded outside Moon Fei Palace, “By His Majesty’s decree, Consort Liu will return at dawn. You need not go to welcome her.”

“Yes.” The palace maids respectfully performed their bows and then obediently closed the gates of Moon Fei Palace.

Liu Qinglan only now remembered that if the Emperor returned and found her not on the Dragon Bed, he would probably be angry. So, she shook herself, spread her paws, and swiftly leaped back along the path she came from, returning to the imperial bedchamber.

Just as she had transformed back into her human form and settled into the quilt, the Emperor walked out, looking utterly satisfied and refreshed.

He looked as if he had just had a hearty meal.