Chapter 187
As soon as Xia Yuqing walked out of the door of Chengqian Temple holding the tray, she was grabbed by Fu Gonggong, who had been waiting anxiously outside.
“How was it? How was it? Did the Emperor say anything? Did he punish you?” Fu Gonggong asked Xia Yuqing nervously. This kid was brought in by him. If something really happened and Xia Yuqing was punished, he would definitely bear the blame.
Xia Yuqing was suddenly grabbed by someone, so she was also taken aback. After she saw the person, she breathed a sigh of relief and said with a faint smile: “It’s okay, the Emperor and the Empress just allowed me… Nu Cai to stay and serve them. After setting up the dishes, they let Nu Cai come out.”
Fu Gonggong was relieved after hearing Xia Yuqing’s words. Then, his face sank. Staring at Xia Yuqing, his face was unkind, “You really though. This is your first time serving people and you almost caused some trouble, even daring to make trouble in front of the emperor? You really want to die.”
“…” Listening to Fu Gonggong’s reprimand, Xia Yuqing silently rolled her eyes. This time she was really more wronged than Dou E. It was obvious that Yun Xi’s father’s ability to control himself was too weak. He became this shocked just by looking at herself, it was not her fault at all!
Although Xia Yuqing was roasting him in her heart, she could only helplessly respond: “It’s Nu Cai who is wrong. Nu Cai has rough hands and feet. Although Nu Cai has done rough work before entering the palace, Nu Cai has never served anyone. In addition, Nu Cai is a small commoner. Nu Cai had never had the chance to meet such a n.o.ble character like the emperor and the empress. This is the first time seeing them, so it was inevitable that Nu Cai was a little nervous and dragged Gonggong down with him. Nu Cai begs Gonggong for forgiveness.”
Fu Gonggong was not a hard-hearted person. Seeing Xia Yuqing’s pitiful appearance, he couldn’t blame her any more: “Fortunately, this time the Emperor was generous and nothing happened, otherwise even if you have a few heads, it would not be enough to chop off. But if you’re so clumsy, don’t go to the front to serve people in the future. Instead, go give a helping hand in the imperial dining room. Although the chance of getting favored by the Emperor and Empress will be less, at least your life will not be in danger.”
“Yes, yes.” Xia Yuqing repeatedly nodded. While following Fu Gonggong, she observed the palace guards around them, looking for a way to escape.
“Okay, okay, let’s not repeat this. Just now you must have been scared, go back to the imperial dining room first.”
Xia Yuqing heard that she could leave, and hurriedly raised a smile: “Nu Cai will leave first. ”
“Go ahead.” Fu Gonggong waved his hand and told Xia Yuqing to leave. Then, as if thinking of something, he turned around and shouted, “Wait!”
Xia Yuqing paused in her footsteps. She turned her head stiffly: “Gonggong, is there anything else you need to instruct me?”
“What is your name?”
“Ah?”
“I still don’t know what your name is.” Fu Gonggong looked at her. Xia Yuqing’s face was blank and somewhat slow to react.
“Ohh…” Xia Yuqing realized, “Nu Cai… Nu Cai is called Xiao Anzi. Gonggong can just call Nu Cai, Xiao Anzi.”
“Xiao Anzi?”
“Yes, right, it’s getting late, so Nu Cai will go back to the imperial dining room. Nu Cai will depart first!” Xia Yuqing raised her head and glanced at the sun above her head. She laughed dryly, turned around and ran.
Fu Gonggong looked at her back and sighed helplessly. He turned and left.
Xia Yuqing bypa.s.sed a palace wall and flashed to a relatively secluded bamboo forest. She pulled the eunuch’s clothing she put on her body and threw it into the hidden rockery beside her. In a moment, she recovered into the outfit she had when she just entered the palace. Dressed up, she went out and grabbed a little eunuch to ask for directions.
Fortunately, when the Eldest Princess first entered the palace, there was a lot of commotion and this little eunuch had seen Xia Yuqing. Knowing that she was lost in the palace and left behind, they were very enthusiastic to help her leave the palace.
When Xia Yuqing hurriedly rushed to the gate of the palace, a young man from the princess’s mansion had been waiting there for a long time. They were a little surprised to see Xia Yuqing coming out alone: ”Little Gongzi, why did you run out alone? Where is the little eunuch who led the way?”
Xia Yuqing suddenly remembered the little eunuch she had forgotten in the yard. She seemed to have forgotten to move him back to his original position. However, she didn’t hit him too hard, so he shouldn’t sleep for too long, right?
“Ahem, I don’t know. When I came out of the latrine, I didn’t see anyone. Maybe they were called away by someone temporarily. Without him leading the way, I would have become lost. If it weren’t for this other little eunuch helping guide the way, I would still be wandering around in the palace.”
“No wonder. Nu Cai was wondering why Gongzi hasn’t come out for so long, it turned out to be… Well, that little eunuch is too irresponsible. Fortunately, Gongzi met someone else to show you the way, otherwise with this palace being so big, it would not be a strange thing to lose a person.” The young man twisted his eyebrows and said with lingering fear.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s easy to get lost when the palace is so big. It’s not early, so let’s go back quickly or Her Highness will be angry.” Xia Yuqing hurriedly changed the topic.
The servant did not doubt her, so he hurriedly took Xia Yuqing into the sedan chair and walked back in the direction of the princess mansion.
Xia Yuqing didn’t dare to let out a sigh of relief until she sat in the sedan chair. She stretched out her hand to touch the two letters in her arms. She pursed her lips, a trace of deep thought crossed her eyes.
Xia Yuqing had already set off for home, but the little eunuch who was forgotten by Xia Yuqing in the small yard was still sleeping soundly until night fell. When two little eunuchs on patrol pa.s.sed the secluded courtyard, they found him.
“Ruian, Ruian, wake up, wake up.” The two little eunuchs entered the palace at the same time as Ruian, so they recognized him. At this moment, they were shocked to see him lying in the yard naked and hurriedly shook his shoulder.
Ruian woke up in a daze. Seeing the two little eunuchs: “Why are you two here?”
“We wanted to ask you that, why are you lying here? Moreover, you don’t even have clothes on? Where’s your clothes?”
After a reminder, Ruian realized that all of his clothes were gone. He was lying on the ground naked. It was still cold and late on a summer night, so he got gooseb.u.mps.
“Why aren’t I wearing clothes?”
“You have to ask yourself. You don’t even know what’s going on and how your clothes are stripped off?”
“Well, I remembered that I seemed to be leading someone at that time, then someone yelled, there is a pig flying in the sky. Ahh, I know, I was stunned by a pig flying in the sky and my clothes must have been stolen by the pig.”
“……Was stunned by a pig flying in the sky? The pig stole your clothes?” Are you f*cking kidding us? The two little eunuchs looked at the naked Ruian with embarra.s.sment. Then one of them took a step forward, reached out and touched his forehead: “Weird, you don’t have a fever. Why are you speaking nonsense?”
“… ”
Hey, do you think Ruian… saw a ghost?” The other little eunuch was timid, looking at the pitch black, lonely yard, and asked with a s.h.i.+ver.
Ruian and the little eunuch in front of him froze. They turned their heads to look at the secluded small courtyard behind them. Their expressions were pale: “This courtyard seems to be the one where Princess Shu Jia lived.”
“Princess Shu Jia?! The daughter of the former Lingnan King, who for some reason hung her own neck, Princess Shu Jia?” The timid little eunuch asked with a pale face and trembling teeth.
“Yes, this yard seems to be the one where she hung herself.”
“…” When the words fell, the few people were unexpectedly silent. They looked at each other for a long time. Suddenly, there was a gust of cold wind blowing in the courtyard. The wind blew through the empty gaps in the courtyard, making a sound like the scream of a ghost at midnight.
“Aaahh, ghost, run quickly.” The timid little eunuch screamed, turned and ran.
The other two people reacted, their expressions also changed. After looking at each other, they threw away what they were holding and rushed out quickly.
The cold night wind poured into the courtyard making horrible noises, which lasted for a long time. Ever since Xia Yuqing’s infiltration into the harem, it became a supernatural event under the cover of palace’s ghosts. Thus, no one had insight into the truth.
When Xia Yuqing followed the young man back to the princess mansion, night had fallen quietly. Xia Yuqing wanted to go to the Eldest Princess’s place to report, but she was stopped before she could walk into the courtyard where the Eldest Princess was. She was told that the Eldest Princess had announced to have Xizeyan service her and she was not necessary.
Xia Yuqing was stunned. She glanced at the two in the courtyard not far away. Xizeyan seemed to feel the gaze she projected. He raised his head and gave her a provocative look.
Well, since you are rus.h.i.+ng to serve the princess, I cannot be happier. Moreover, I wanted to take a leave of absence, so I don’t have to spend so much time on work.
Holding the two letters in her pocket, Xia Yuqing turned around and ran back to her yard in a hurry, thinking about quickly handing these two letters to Yun Zhongyue and Feng Tingye.
She didn’t know that when done in the eyes of everyone on the side, it has long since become: Tsk Tsk, it turns out that Lord Xi’s methods are more clever. Only a few days have pa.s.sed and Lord Xi has regained his honor. Pinching down the small Gongzi, look at how sad the little Gongzi is now! How sinful!
The servants along the way sympathetically watched Xia Yuqing run back to her yard. Then, they withdrew their gazes and went back to do their own things. It’s not because they don’t have compa.s.sion, but this kind of scene has been repeated too many times in this mansion. Even with them, they have become a little numb to it.
Xia Yuqing rushed back to her yard happily and was quickly pulled in as soon as she opened the door.
“Oh…” Xia Yuqing whispered and slammed into Feng Tingye’s arms.
“Nothing happened, right? Have there been any accidents after entering the palace? Did you suffer at all?” Feng Tingye frowned. His face that often smiled revealed some obvious worry.
Xia Yuqing was startled. Looking at the person in front of her that was different from usual, an unclear emotion overflowed from the bottom of her heart. The words Helian Mingyue said to her not long ago suddenly appeared in her mind.
“Instead of waiting for him to find out in the coming days, it is better for you to be honest with him earlier on.”
“Nothing happened. Your Majesty, I…” Xia Yuqing was interrupted by a soft cough when she was about to speak.
“That… it’s not that I want to interrupt you, it’s just that… you should pay attention to your surroundings, I’m still standing here.” Yun Zhong Yue reminded the two of them with some embarra.s.sment. Public displays of affection, it is too dazzling and will blind people!
“Second Royal Brother, why are you here? By the way, when I left, you and Jiang Feizao was still here, where did Jiang Feizao go?” Xia Yuqing was stunned and remembered that when she left Yun Zhongyue, Jiang Zhaorou was still there.
“Ahem, Ms. Jiang has already left.” Yun Zhongyue twitched the corner of his mouth while holding Feng Tingye’s slightly unkind gaze.
“Then why didn’t you leave?”
“…” Junior Sister, do you think I wanted to stay as a third wheeler? Do you know how terrible it is to spend such a long time under the same roof of your family? ! If it weren’t for… he wouldn’t have bothered to stay here!
Yun Zhongyue took a deep breath before he forced his mouth to hold back his comments: “I stayed here to know what’s the situation of my Royal Brother right now. Is it really serious or is it…”
“Oh! If you didn’t mention that, I would have forgotten, Yun Xi’s father is not sick at all. He is alive and well. There is no need to worry.”
“No illness? But the servant said…”
“He’s pretending to be sick.”
“Pretending to be sick?” Yun Zhongyue became startled. He glanced at Feng Tingye.
Feng Tingye was also a little surprised. He asked in a low voice: “What’s going on?”
“I’m not very clear about the details. But don’t worry, they were concerned that I wouldn’t be able to explain the situation well, so they wrote a letter to both Your Majesty and Second Senior Brother. They told me to bring them to you.” As she said this, Xia Yuqing hurriedly took out the two letters from her arms and handed them over.
The two took the letter and looked at each other. At the same time, they opened the letter and spread it out. As a result…
With a click, two suspicious cracks appeared on the faces of the two of them at the same time.
Xia Yuqing looked at the two men in a puzzled manner. She twisted her eyebrows and moved towards Feng Tingye’s side, but what entered her eyes were…
“F*ck, what is this?” Letter? Does an ordinary letter have this kind of indecipherable handwriting?
Feng Tingye glanced at Xia Yuqing and raised his brows, “You don’t know what you brought back?”
“Uh…” Xia Yuqing took the letter in Feng Tingye’s hand and murmured, “Is it possible that someone stole and replaced the letter on the way back? Umm, but I obviously did a good job in protecting them!”
On the way, she obviously hugged them tightly. Is it possible that a person could be trained until they are able to steal things from thin air?!
“This…should be a letter written by the empress.” Yun Zhongyue interjected with a subtle expression on his face.
“Huh?” Xia Yuqing was startled. Looking at the letter in Yun Zhongyue’s hand that also resembles chicken scratch, she said with some doubts: “What kind of code is this? Is it to prevent the letter from being read in case it falls into the hands of others halfway? Was this code specially arranged?”
She’s indeed worthy of being her senior in transmigrating from the 21st century. She did not expect her to be able to make secret codes in such a place. Moreover, she actually made two copies as soon as she did it. It’s really amazing, it’s the ancient version of 007! No, it’s even more 007 than 007!
“…No, you’re thinking too much. I think the empress was just too lazy to write.”
“…” The smile on Xia Yuqing’s face cracked. Her eyes widened and she turned her head to look at Yun Zhongyue. “Aunt Yue can’t write?”
“She can… it’s just the words written by the empress are normally only understood by the empress.”
“…” What is the difference between this and not being able to write? ?
“But it’s strange. Ordinary letters can be read by the empress, but her handwriting is really… hard to compliment.” ‘
“…” Xia Yuqing silently looked at the sky for a few seconds. Okay, she finally understood the saying that a child who can’t do calligraphy was semi-illiterate in ancient times.
“In that case, you should have seen Aunt Yue write a letter before, right? The content of this letter…”
Yun Zhong Yue’s embarra.s.sment flashed past. He coughed slightly: “Just because you’ve seen it before doesn’t mean you can understand it.”
“…In other words, you can’t understand it?” Xia Yuqing looked at Yun Zhong Yue in despair, “Then these two letters are useless? “
“……”
I took them all the way out of the palace so carefully, but it turned out to be useless!
“Of course not. I don’t understand it, but it doesn’t mean that no one can understand it.”
“You mean, there are other people who can understand the content written on this?” Feng Tingye raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, I can’t understand it, but one person can definitely understand it.”
“Who?”
“Xiao Xi.” Yun Zhongyue said naturally, looking at Xia Yuqing with a look of disdain.
“…”
“In that case, when the Sixth Prince returns, he will inform Wei Yan to pretend to be sick and send a small servant to the princess’s mansion to report. Tomorrow, Ai Fei will go to the Eldest Princess to take a leave of absence. She will say that us brothers are concerned about our uncle’s sickness and want to visit and take care of him for a few days. Then when we go back to the Wei Mansion together, we can ask Xiao Xi to explain to us the meaning of the letters.”
Before Feng Tingye ‘s words fell, Xia Yuqing’s eyes quickly lit up. After being locked up in this mansion for so many days, she had long been annoyed. If it weren’t for the Ultra Seme Lord to accompany her, she would have escaped over the wall by now. Moreover, since entering the princess mansion, she had not seen the two children, Yun Xi and the others, so she didn’t know how they were.
“Well, under normal circ.u.mstances that should be fine, the Eldest Princess would have no reason to hold you back.” Moreover, she only treated us as p.a.w.ns at the beginning. Now that her goal was basically reached, even if they don’t return, the Eldest Princess shouldn’t show much care.
“Well, Second Senior Brother, go back and speak to Uncle Wei and the others.” Xia Yuqing grabbed Yun Zhongyue’s hand and said with bright eyes.
“Now?”
“Of course now, otherwise how long will we have to wait? Hurry up.”
“…” Little Junior Sister, do you throw things away like this after using it? As soon as the business is finished, you will order people around? Do you have to be that hard working? !
Yun Zhongyue wanted to say a few more words, but he felt a chill behind his back. Hiding around all year round, he was experienced in sensing when danger was approaching. As soon as he raised his head, he faced a pair of beast-like eyes behind Xia Yuqing. His heart felt chilly. So just when he was about to speak, it became stuck in his throat. He swallowed down his words.
“Be careful, I’ll go first. See you tomorrow.”
Xia Yuqing thought that Yun Zhongyue’s face was so ugly just now, that he had to be complaining about her. After all, he did wait for an entire day before he was driven out by herself before he could say a word. She didn’t expect him to say nothing. However, he just paused for a long time, then turned around and ran as if he saw a beast. Is it possible…
Xia Yuqing was wondering this, then heard a low laugh from behind: “Ai Fei…”
“Yeah?”
“If I remember correctly, you followed the Princess to the Palace, right?”
“Yes.” Xia Yuqing answered like a silly person. She did not realize that a person’s smile was moving in a dangerous direction.
“In that case, you should be with the princess. How were you able to get these two letters from the hand of Empress Shu under the eyes of everyone? Over the many ears and eyes in the palace?” Feng Ting Ye squinted slightly and asked in a dangerous voice.
Xia Yuqing felt a chill from her feet to her back. She smiled and stepped back two steps: “Ahhahaha, I just remembered. I don’t think I have eaten anything since noon. I’m hungry. Your Majesty, you haven’t eaten yet right? I’ll go find food for you.”
With that, Xia Yuqing turned around and smeared the soles of her feet with oil wanting to run, but Feng Tingye got an early insight into this and carried her back by the collar.
“What…what are you doing? I’m going to find food for you. Let me go first, if there is something we can talk about it after we finish eating.”
“If you want to eat something, there’s something here, why bother to go elsewhere to get it?”
“What?” Xia Yuqing’s struggling stopped. She raised her head questioningly and asked.
In response, someone gave her a strong kiss with a little anger.
“Mmm…” Xia Yuqing was shocked by someone and her small fist kept greeting that certain someone. It’s a pity that no matter how hard she hit, that person wouldn’t let go of her shackles from beginning to end.
“Humph!” When the kiss was over, Feng Tingye snorted coldly while carrying her by her back collar, “It’s better to eat a cat that doesn’t obey and acts at will, so the owner doesn’t need to worry!”
“Mm, but I’m fine aren’t I? Don’t…” Eat!
Xia Yuqing’s last protest was drowned in Feng Tingye’s anger. This evening, Feng Tingye used her body to make Xia Yuqing remember this terrible lesson and have her take it as a warning!
It was not until the next morning when Xia Yuqing was lethargic that Feng Tingye let her go “magnanimously”.
When she was about to fall asleep, Xia Yuqing vaguely heard Feng Tingye sigh…
“Can’t you be a little better behaved? If anything happens to you, where can I find another person who is exactly the same? How will you reimburse me?”
“…” Xia Yuqing’s heart trembled. She wanted to say something, but she didn’t have the strength to move her fingertips. Before her consciousness completely disappeared, Xia Yuqing’s last thought was… d*mn it. In the end, she still didn’t say anything about that!
At noon the next day, when Xia Yuqing got up from the bed with two big dark circles under her eyes and after she freshened up, she received a message from Wei mansion.
As Feng Tingye expected, Xia Yuqing ran over to the princess to explain what happened and the princess didn’t think much about it. She just replied lazily for her to go early and return early, then sent Xia Yuqing away.
Before Xia Yuqing left, she received Xizeyan’s white eye. Xia Yuqing was embarra.s.sed for a second before she turned around and pretended as if she did not see it.
As soon as Xia Yuqing followed Feng Tingye to leave the princess mansion, the princess mansion exploded.
“Have you heard? The Young Gongzi went back to Wei mansion.”
“Wei mansion?”
“Don’t you know? It’s the Wei family, the largest wealthy merchant in the capital. The young man seems to be a distant nephew of the Wei family.”
“In that case, the young Gongzi was left out in the cold by Her Highness recently and was so sad that he went back to his maiden house? Ah, no, returned to his house? No wonder the young Gongzi’s face was pale when I saw him! I felt so distressed when I looked at it.”
“No, but…it shouldn’t be like that. The little gongzi is sad, but how can this well behaved child be like some people and have a temper tantrum. I just asked earlier, it’s actually because the young gongzi’s uncle, that is, old man Wei, is sick. The young gongzi and his brother were just uneasy, thats why he went back.”
“If that’s the case, the young man is so pitiful. He just received a cold reception from Her Highness and now his elder is sick? It really is an unfortunate time. G.o.d doesn’t care for good people. I really can’t figure out what is so good about that Lord Xi. Isn’t it just having some face in court? Just because he has some status, he tries to show off his talents and act as if he is well learned, even if he is not very decent. That Gongzi on the other hand is cute and polite. I gave him more buns since he looked so handsome and he actually thanked me. His little mouth is so sweet…Ah, I don’t know what Her Highness is thinking to like Lord Xi who only knows how to show off his power and to ignore the little Gongzi who is so unfortunate…”
A group of women talked really lively and didn’t even realize a figure had slowly approached until…
“Don’t say it, don’t say anymore.” One of them found out one of the protagonists of the topic was slowly approaching not far away, and hurriedly reminded several people to silence themselves.
Seeing this, the few people stopped talking. Then, they all flew off in all directions to do their own tasks.
Xizeyan looked at the people who had dispersed and paused in his footsteps. The hands on his side clenched into fists and his drooping eyes flashed a clear killing intent.
Wei Ming, you’d better not come back again after you leave, otherwise…don’t blame me for being cruel!