Chapter 3 – What should I do?
"Yue Qing Ying!"
I was about to stand up from the barrel of water when I saw the door being violently jerked open that it brought forth a gust of wind that blew the covering curtain up. A familiar figure stood by the doorway and with a loud voice called out. "Tell me honestly, where did you go last night? I went everywhere looking for you that my foot"s almost became swollen. You-"
The other party was originally in a rage but once seeing me behind the curtains, she quickly became dazed. "Why are you taking such an early bath?"
After a moment of panic, I slowly calmed myself. The person before me was not just anybody but my very own roommate, Yu Er. I meekly replied. "I…got dirty."
"You got dirty?"
As Yu Er was casually going to lift up the curtains, my face turned white and so I hurriedly submerged my entire body back into the barrel. "Don"t! Don"t come in!"
As if startled by my voice, Yu Er halted. "What"s going on with you?"
"I."
"What happened to your voice? Why does it sound hoa.r.s.e? Are you sick?"
My voice was indeed hoa.r.s.e. However, it wasn"t from getting sick but from crying the entire night but I didn"t dare say it and just bit my bottom lip. "I, I have a cold. Yu Er, don"t come in. Don"t come over."
"Oh."
After hearing that I had a cold, Yu Er didn"t step closer inside and withdrew her hand. "Where did you go to cool off yesterday night? You didn"t even come back. Did you know how worried I was for you?"
Recalling what happened yesterday night, something warm surged up and my eyes slowly became red. I quickly lowered my head "I… was a little busy."
Yu Er suspiciously looked at me, however with the curtain in between us, she was not able to see clearly and in the end gave up and said "Alright alright. I"m just here to tell you that Court Eunuch Yu came to the Lateral Court [1] today and asked everybody to go over."
"Court Eunuch Yu?" He was in charge of overlooking the matters in the inner palace, what did he come to the Lateral Court for?
"Yeah. I also don"t know why he came. In any case, a lot of people had already gone. Qing Ying, quickly dry yourself and don"t be late."
After speaking, she then turned around and walked out, closing the door behind her.
I was the only person remaining in the house accompanied by a sound of silence. Slowly standing from the already cold water, snow white skin s.h.i.+vered in contact with the ice cold air. Traces of scars that were tender pink and red in color were spread all over the body and under the clear droplets, particularly looked unsightly to the eyes.
This, was what I feared Yu Er would see.
Standing at the cold water, I was at wit"s end. Court Eunuch Yu who usually stood guard in the inner palace came to the Lateral Courts. What did he come here for? Is it possibly because of that affair?
A piercing gust of cold wind blew as I hugged my frail arms s.h.i.+vering.
What to do?
What should I do…
[1] Lateral Court: The place in the imperial palace where they house concubines and administrative offices.