There were no more words to say as everyone else began tot discuss the matter at hand; and I managed to pull myself away from the crowd for a while, leaving HuiJae in charge of everything so that I could greet my husband and watch how good the concubine was serving him at least in the regards of tending to him when he came home. "Don't you think that it is time that you return to the banquet to be of help to the family? I can take care of myself you know!" "Is that why you always fall int your wife's arms as soon as you come home?" "She is my wife, she is supposed to tend to even my smallest matters." "I am your concubine My Lord, I should share the same right as she does, even if I am one in name. She is already managing the entire lunch by herself and you need Someome to tend to you in times when she cannot." "Watch that tone of your girl, you are starting to sound jealous of my wife and I need no evil eye hovering over her." "The people in this home have already taken their sides, so there is nothing that I can do even if I wished it is." "Bad intentions are enough; it was a mistake to keep you here, so clear your things and…" "My Lord! Please forgive me! I didn't mean to…" "My wife is finally pregnant and I shall not take any chances, woman! Either you leave or all of you stay here and I shall take my wife and move her away from all of you! Your infatuation with us must come to an end!" "Pregnant? Your wife is…pregnant? Well I guess only a child would retain the heart of a husband…but what about The Mistress Han? I have also heard of your love story with her and…" "There was no love in that story; when a woman has an illusion that she is equal to men, then she will waste her life trying to live in competition and end up gaining nothing, why else would she throw this lunch for the officials without my permission or approval? Can you imagine how embarrassed I was at work today when everyone brought it up to me?"
"Since you are a part of this household concubine, then let me give you a golden rule to live by so that you can attain some peace." "Madame Nam? Forgive me for not greeting you earlier…" "Go and get dressed husband and join everyone outside husband. And as for you concubine; suspicion and doubt always create suspicions of their own. The more you think about things, the more that unnecessary conflicts will arise out of it. Those who do not worry are the smart ones; bed couples have astounding faith in one another and suspicion will ruin you both." You both share deep affection with each other, so it is much easier for you to think of each other, especially now that you have a child on the way. But what place do I have in this household?" "You were aware of the terms of your stay here and you agreed to help me out since I was the one who sent you here to look after my husband. So your place here is of a daughter=in=law to tend to the family as I am not able to do so. You must be virtuous, wise, patient and kind to everyone and we will let you go if you choose to be a wife to somebody else. Or we can ignore titles for now and you can settle for whichever man you wish to outside of this yangban. You can be coronated later on if you cannot find anybody and…" "So there is no chance of me becoming the second wife? Without any titles?" "That is up to my husband I am afraid." "Is my humiliation not enough already? To be the concubine of a man who does not see me, even though he expressed his wishes to help me? I am just the laughing stock of the entire Nam yangban? I am shamelessly attached to your own husband and…" "You knew what you were getting yourself into concubine, so what is the use of throwing a tantrum now? I suggest you wipe your tears and join the family in the courtyard to help settle matters, otherwise you really will not have any redeeming or useful qauliiees about you at all, and that would really give my husband the idea to kick you out once and for all."
"Wife? Are you ready?" "Give me a minute husband, I am feeling rather overwhelmed. I haven't been around a large group of people since my brothel days…" "A lot of time has passed since then wife; but you are able to face everyone and help me out with the situation, even though it wasn't caused by you this time." "Bring your cousin and your aunt's sister from their chambers so that I may speak with them, but you have to tell me what you want husband." "I have a new plan that I am slowly developing since this wasn't in our original plans, but I think my cousin should marry The Prince."
"What angle do you have in mind husband?" "To punish my family clan and stop The Senior Scholar from getting his way, as I have had it on good authority that he wishes to wed his own daughter to the Prince." "I have the same idea husband; we need to enrage him enough for him to commit severe mistakes so that you can locate The Third Prince, punish him as he deserves and you get your reputation back." "So you do want me to find him? Wife?" "Husband….all of my own plans, everything that I have done from the moment that I broke away from your father's yangban and even my brazen brothel stays…I am ready to finally confess everything to you now and to surrender to you…on one condition." "Wife? Are you only doing this because you are pregnant now?" "You will understand everything when I tell you, but your role in the palace, could you please stick to minimal duties until your children have grown up?" "Yeon?" "Husband, please do not leave behind such a dangerous and reckless legacy as my father did for us. Everything I have done from the moment that I was orphaned was because of him, but he didn't have the time to get his affairs in order and as you can see, I have had to take full advantage of my lowly and disabled background to just ensure my family's survival. No woman with family willingly walks into a brothel and settle down there unless she has a plan in mind and even then it was horrible husband. It was pure torture to live there every single day away from you, even though I had to and I do not want a similar life of hardship left behind for our children and nephews and nieces, not if we can avoid it. Please husband I am begging you to only take our your own enemies and do not target anyone else lest they all come for our children before they are even grown up. Please promise me now husband and take it seriously….then I will tell you everything here after we settle this scandal for ourselves."
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"Madame Nam, you need to understand that I am a mother first; naturally these decisions are quite hard on me to make in the absence of my husband and…." "Is exactly the fact that you are the girl's mother and nobody else can think of her wellbeing better than you can. The fact of the matter is that aside from this scandal that she has created, the girl will need to marry eventually and now that she had ruined her own reputation, she can marry nobody else apart from The Prince that she has already encountered. The Emperor himself is trying to find any and every excuse to annihilate this clan as it is, so what better way to save us all including your family by reaching out to a matchmaker to solidify this union?" "Save us all? You mean it will regain my parent's power, their control and their tyranny over us?" "You speak as if your parents will live for another 6 decades when you know that they are more likely to not even life out half of a single decade. And this will mean power for yourself as well." "Myself? What do you mean?" "Forgive my bluntness, but haven't you always suffered in your marriage that your parents arranged for you? Doesn't some of those issues include your husband's growing harem? Without his concubine's family's assistance, he would cease to gain the useful information that he does, then what use is he in The Emperor's court? But if you were to marry your daughter to The Prince yourself, then your reputation and status would surely rise above the concubines who like to trample over you. Not only yourself, but your children's status would rise itself without your husband's assistance that would surely hang above your heads for the rest of your lives? You can return to your husband's home and even his clan with your head held high and two children married into The Royal Family." "2 children? What do you mean Madame?"
"Ah, I see that my husband has not talked to you about this, so I must do it myself. It turns out that another Princess of The Royal Family has taken a shine to your son and has even begged her parents for a union with him as soon as she got the chance to bring it up to them." "My son?" "The Emperor has many sons and a small amount of daughters, so he always fulfil their wishes no matter what they are. The daughters of The Royal Family are always treated as precious pearls and soon enough someone will come here to ask for his hand as soon as the matter of your daughter is dealt with." "My son? To marry into The Royal Family? Along with his sister?" "How lucky you are madame to have both children married off at the same time to spare unnecessary expenses and into the same family so that they can both look out for each other long after your departure from this world? Even without this marriage, our families have to live within this kingdom and we cannot afford to offend anyone of a higher authority than us."
"Madame Nam please answer me honestly as my family's life hangs onto this topic; do my children have any contenders or rivals for this marriage?" "Absolutely not, not after this scandal cured anyways. It looks as though The Prince has agreed to the marriage to keep the peace and he himself comes from the best of noble backgrounds without any scandal apart from this recent one involving your own daughter. This Prince is so popular that his power is bound to increase in the future and who knows, he will be eligible for the contest of The Crown Prince soon. Going against a family like that will guarantee the loss of your lives sooner rather than later as I have stated, this concubines family has never lived in scandal before. But your blessings will relieve us of all of that and even help establish their family reputation even more. I cannot deny that my husband lost his position and now holds onto an empty post with no favour and this marriage would help him as well, but this marriage will also place you in a higher position of your own clan above your parents as well as your husbands entire clan, as their past achievements cannot possibly surpass a royal marriage. We can preserve our flourishing family with your children's heirs and you can have a royal backer in all of you endeavours that will help you as a single mother to gain your independence from your husband's clan and their charity. Otherwise your family will be the first to go if somebody else is elected as The Crown Prince for embarrassing The Royal Family and getting away with it." "But The Mistress Han…!" "I believe that there is a solution to quell her intentions for this marriage, but you will have to trust me more than you do her." "What do you mean?" "Why don't we send off your daughter as the bride and her virgin concubine that hasn't gotten close to my husband at all as the escorting concubine for The Prince? This will provide your daughter with additional support and the help of a concubine that would be fully under her control in case she needs her husband's ear in times that they do not get along at all?"