After Dawn - Chapter 1 Part 1. Concubine Born Girl Becomes An Imperial Concubine.

庶女成妃（一)

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“…..Finally, Huo Si Rong and King Xian Xuanyuan faked their death and left Xuanyuan Dynasty, living in the mountains. King Xuan Yuan Zhao loved Huo Sirong so much that he couldn’t do anything, he became depressed, he let go of the government and left the country. And Emperor Xuanyuan missed Huo Sirong for his whole life, no more visits of the emperor to the concubines and the Xuanyuan dynasty’s bloodline was severed. Therefore, the rest of the royal family’s children fought for the throne, causing civil strife, the country is in turmoil, foreign enemies spy, the people have no way of to make a living*…… The enemy country’s tiětí* trampled on mountains and rivers of the Xuanyuan Dynasty, killing and injuring millions.”

“Bad end*.”

A zhengtai*-like system closed the book, looked at Qing Ran who had misty eyes, and in a serious way, he said: “If Huo Sirong hadn’t appeared, the Xuanyuan Dynasty should have had a peaceful and prosperous period under the governance of the three Xuanyuan brothers, national power would rise, and finally conquered the surrounding small countries and grassland peoples, becoming the first country to dominate the world.”

Qing Ran sat opposite him, resting her chin in her hand, appearing awake. After seeing him finish, she laid her head down and went to sleep.

The system did not care if she was really asleep, he continued speaking even though there was no movement on her face: “Your task is not to let the three Xuan Yuan brothers fall in love with Huo Si Rong.”

‘That’s easy for you to say……” The voice of the person who seemed to have fallen asleep came slowly, “I only have twelve hours, I can control the three brothers for a while, but how can I control their whole life? Why don’t we just give them each a knife and let them be eunuchs, so they can’t all fall in love with Huo Si Rong?”

A small smile finally appeared on his cold face, the corner of his mouth twitched, but he kept himself as calm as possible: “As long as it has results, the process doesn’t matter.”

Qing Ran saw him with a sinister appearance, the corners of her lips curled up slightly, the evil preference in her heart had been satisfied one or two times, then she rested her upper body on top of the table with a weak and powerless look, only to hear her muffled voice come out, “Send me over.”

As soon as the voice fell, the breathing of the person lying on the table suddenly stopped, frost gradually appeared on her body, the original flush tinted by sleepiness also faded to pale.

The system came over and picked her up by her waist. But he was small, and holding the tall Qing Ran resembled an ant lifting weights.

Unlike other systems that need to go to earth to find their hosts, he was a replacement for Qing Ran’s last system that was programmed wrongly. From the day he was assigned to Qing Ran’s side, Qing Ran has always looked like this, lazy and seemingly unconcerned about anything.

But in fact, Qing Ran’s ability is different from the lethargy she shows, since the day the system followed her, she has never failed to take on a mission, and unlike ordinary missionaries who need the help of the system, she doesn’t even allow the system to follow her around to assist in completing the mission.

……

Qing Ran’s identity in this mission is Huo Qing Ran, the legal wife of the King Xuan Yuan Zhao.

Huo Qingran is the older sister of the heroine Huo Sirong.

Xuanyuan Zhao fell in love with Huo Sirong at first sight, he asked the Holy Lord* for an imperial decree to marry a daughter of the Huo family. However, the Huo family had many daughters, but only Huo Qing Ran was his own daughter.

She was worthy of the position of Xuanyuan Zhao’s imperial concubine, but the emperor did not expect that he was interested in a common woman, so he appointed a marriage*.

Xuanyuan Zhao originally wanted to give his sweetheart a surprise on their wedding night, but the surprise unexpectedly turned into a shock when he discovered his bride wasn’t Huo Si Rong, but Huo Qing Ran instead. Even before the wedding night was over, he hurried out to drink with the company of female entertainers*, leaving Huo Qing Ran alone to become the joke of the whole capital.

Huo Qing Ran was in her sweet sixteens, in her heart there was the longing of a young girl, when she learned that her husband was a young and promising king, her eyes and heart were filled with joy about marrying into the family of her husband. But who would have imagined that her husband’s behavior changed right after the wedding ceremony. And when Huo Qing Ran learned the truth about everything, the apprehension and sorrow turned into resentment.

Even Xuanyuan Zhao married the wrong person, this fault was not caused by her, Huo Qing Ran, but it was on him for not making a clear request when he first proposed the marriage. She was the first daughter of the Prime Minister, no matter whether she was favored or not in the house, but with her identity and beauty, as long as she waved her hand, there would be countless young men asking for marriage. But how could she be so humiliated? And what Huo Qing Ran hated more was her own concubine born younger sister. She wouldn’t care or didn’t want to care if her younger sister hooked up with other men, but hooking up with her husband was a different matter. Her younger sister frequently eyes flirted with Xuan Yuan Zhao, and that made Huo Qing Ran’s life in the mansion more and more difficult. It was her sister’s fault.

As soon as she learned of it, Huo Qing Ran lost all her youthfulness, and no longer looked forward to the so-called doting of Xuan Yuan Zhao. Relying on her dowry, she secretly recruited underlings to enlist in the court, although the King was wise and powerful in the court, he had very little control over his own backyard. After some coercion, Huo Qing Ran was able to seize half of the Rui Wang Mansion in her hands with ease.

After she figured it out what to do, Huo Qing Ran suddenly became exceptionally virtuous and generous, taking one beautiful girl after another into the house for King Rui. Even if Xuan Yuan Zhao did not get lucky, she put them there to block her younger sister to get closer to him. One day, when the two of them were in conflict, she spiked his wine and climbed into his bed. After that she gave birth to Xuan Yuan Mingdian.

From then on, she pretended to be heartbroken and worshiped Buddha every day, rarely even visiting her own son, but secretly stumbling over Huo Si Rong, and on a few occasions she even almost killed her.

It was a pity that there was no impenetrable walls in the world, and what Huo Qing Ran did was finally discovered by several men who loved Huo Si Rong deeply, so they locked her in the secret prison of Rui Wangfu and sent a specialist to torture her every day and in order not to let her die easily, once she showed signs of dying, she was given a top-notch concoction that made her continue to live. In the torment of day after day, Huo Qing Ran lived a life worse than death.

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民不聊生: The people have no way to make a living (idiom, from Record of the Grand Historian)

铁蹄: iron hoof (of the oppressor)

“Bad end” : it was originally in english.

正太:     young, cute boy / derived from Japanese loanword shotacon

太平盛世: peace and prosperity (idiom)

圣上: courtier’s or minister’s form of address for the current Emperor.

嫡: official daughter / daughter of the first wife

乌龙婚事: it said this but i couldn’t find a way to translate it well, so i left it as marriage, i was going to put ‘black dragon marriage’ or ‘Unexpected marriage’.

圆: to make consistent and whole (the narrative of a dream or a lie)

花酒: drinking party with female entertainers

拜堂: ritual kneeling to heaven and earth by bride and groom in a old-fashioned wedding ceremony.

王府    : prince’s mansion

临幸    : to go in person (of emperor) / to copulate with a concubine (of emperor)

嫡:  legal son of that dude, above the concubine children.

没有不透风的墙: (idiom) no secret can be kept forever