Transmigration: The Main Character is Not Becoming the Cannon Fodder!-Chapter 129 - 1: The Imperial Concubine Has a System (Part 1)

Chapter 129: Chapter 1: The Imperial Concubine Has a System (Part 1)

When Li Shuning awoke, and saw the room adorned in bright yellow with an ancient and classical style, she was momentarily stunned. Had she arrived in the ancient world?

"Would the host like to receive the storyline?"

"Receive."

After a long while, Li Shuning opened her eyes. Taking another look at this room, she sighed. No wonder it was so luxurious.

The bed she lay on was a canopy bed, with several phoenixes carved onto the corridor.

This time, she had actually become an Empress.

This world was not a dynasty she recognized from any history. Thinking it over, it made sense; this was a Task World.

The Empress hailed from Jiangnan.

Due to certain reasons, the Emperor had no choice but to marry a woman from a Jiangnan noble family. As a family of both fame and deep roots in Jiangnan, the Li Family naturally caught the Emperor’s eye.

Li Shuning was a child born late to her parents, the youngest in the family, doted on by her parents, and cherished by her brothers and sisters, which nurtured a charming and innocent personality.

Who would have thought that someone like her would actually become an Empress one day?

Upon the unexpected passing of the late Empress, the Crown Prince ascended the throne, and the Crown Princess Consort became Empress. However, the Crown Princess Consort had a frail constitution, lying ill and childless.

After only a few months as Empress, she succumbed to her illness.

At this point, some took the opportunity to spread rumors that the Emperor was lacking in virtue since shortly after ascending the throne, the Empress had passed.

Fortunately, having been designated Crown Prince at birth, his position remained stable over the years. Though accused now, he was not without recourse.

Nevertheless, he urgently needed an Empress capable of setting an example for the realm.

Within the Imperial City, he assessed many great families, only to find an awkward situation, as most allied noble families were from military backgrounds.

After much consideration, he turned his focus to southern noble families, intending to bridge the north and south.

Thus, Li Shuning married into the Royal Family.

To demonstrate the importance placed on the Empress, the intricacies of the canopy bed, among other things, were personally arranged by the Emperor.

Women from Jiangnan, petite and gentle, like flowing water; at first, the Emperor married her merely to have an Empress, yet gradually he was drawn to Li Shuning, and an affection developed between the Emperor and Empress.

After giving birth to a child, the Empress’s son was immediately established as the Crown Prince.

All of this changed due to a system.

The former Empress had a sister. After the Empress’s death, her family once hinted at wanting to send in the Empress’s sister into the palace.

But for various reasons, the Emperor could not directly marry the late Empress’s sister and confer onto her the title of Empress.

Yet, as she was his first wife and there were genuine feelings involved, the Emperor granted the late Empress’s family certain prestige, bestowing the title of Imperial Concubine upon the late Empress’s sister.

The Imperial Concubine frequently used the late Empress as a pretext to approach the Emperor.

However, as the Emperor grew more aware of the Empress’s charms, he gradually stopped visiting the Imperial Concubine.

The Imperial Concubine was of average appearance and had an unpleasant temperament. If not for the allure of unprecedented riches, she wouldn’t have entered the palace; she relied on the Emperor’s nostalgia.

When even nostalgia faded, her living quarters became no different from the Cold Palace.

The Imperial Concubine was naturally unwilling. Upon dying in the Cold Palace, she vowed that if given another life, she would never enter the palace again.

She returned to the age of seventeen, and even acquired a system.

Upon completing the tasks, the system would grant her whatever she desired.

However, some of her tasks were tied to the Emperor, and curiously, she felt her chance had come. Originally vowing never to set foot in the palace again, in the face of the temptation of the Emperor’s favor, she resolutely entered the palace once more.

Through the system, the Imperial Concubine garnered the Emperor’s affection.

But after all, the Empress was the Empress. Naturally calm, she remained elegant and true to herself even if the Emperor did not favor her.

The Imperial Concubine, yet, thought the Empress was insincere; she disliked her tranquility.

Since the Empress’s child was the Crown Prince, she intended for the Empress to experience the agony of loss. She wanted to see if that woman would remain elegant then?

All of Li Shuning’s focus centered on the Crown Prince, educating and nurturing him.

But the Imperial Concubine sought to destroy that child.

When the Crown Prince was just three, at the age where he was incredibly endearing, the Imperial Concubine had someone lure him into a concubine’s chamber, hiding a pink dudou under his clothes. Then, in a public setting, the Crown Prince was caught, and the pink dudou fell to the ground, seen by all.

A three-year-old child, doing such a thing?

In no time, ministers led by the Imperial Concubine’s family petitioned one by one, demanding the Crown Prince be deposed.

How could a child of three understand matters of men and women? How could he possibly steal a dudou?

Yet, the Emperor also flew into a rage, as the Crown Prince involved himself with his concubine.

He felt the Crown Prince showed no regard for his father.

The Crown Prince was deposed.

The Empress was also at fault for failing to teach and was stripped of her phoenix seal.

For an empress publicly declared and crowned, if she were to be deposed, the Emperor’s painstaking courtship would become a laughingstock.

Thus, the Emperor did not deposed the Empress, only confiscated the phoenix seal and transferred its management to the Imperial Concubine, conferring her the title of Imperial Consort, effectively rendering the Empress deposed.

This was a blatant slap in the face.

The Empress could not understand what she had done wrong; why, as the father of her child, did he so distrust their child? How could the Emperor believe such a shallow slander?

But it wasn’t over yet. After becoming Imperial Consort, the Imperial Concubine became pregnant and, after ten months, bore a son.

Though the Crown Prince was deposed, he remained the legitimate firstborn. How could the Imperial Consort be content?

The Empress, though on guard, lacked favor and was weaker in the harem than the Imperial Consort, who seized the opportunity. When the Empress witnessed her child’s small body floating in the lotus pond, her heart shattered.

Becoming part of the Royal Family was not what she desired, but what the Emperor persistently requested.

Now, everything she suffered, the Emperor had given her; how she hated him.

Yet, no matter how much Li Shuning hated, it was all useless.

The Imperial Consort had already amassed her own power, and like a tiger fallen to the plain caught by dogs, the Empress was left powerless.

When the Empress learned that, because of the Imperial Consort’s slander, her family was forcibly relocated from Jiangnan, the Emperor fearing their deep-rooted standing there, ordered all her family members to leave Jiangnan and settle in the Southern Wilderness.

Most of the family were scholars; how could they survive in the harsh and inhospitable Southern Wilderness?

Having lost her child, and now her family, the Empress could not bear it and ended her life with a white silk ribbon.

After receiving the storyline, Li Shuning felt as though her head would split.

This world, a realm where imperial power reigned supreme, was unimaginable to her. Becoming the Empress, did it mean she had to fulfill the duties of an Empress? She didn’t like it—no, she truly disliked it.