Chapter 809 The End of Yao Lu’s Story
“You are getting increasingly proficient in playing chess. Well, I’ll do as I promised you today,” the Emperor said.
He seemed to be in a good mood. Not only did he talk in a much gentler voice, but he and Madame Jingrou, who had treated each other with slight aloofness and proper respect before, got along in a mature way and became affectionate to each other.
They probably made an improvement in their relationship after getting over what had happened between them back then.
Lin Mengya had thought about how to find out the truth so that Madame Jingrou could get over what had happened.
It seemed that the Empress’s death was the key to undoing the knot in Madame Jingrou’s mind.
Now plenty of problems could be solved easily.
Lin Mengya bowed respectfully and saw the Emperor off, wondering what he had promised Madame Jingrou to do in person.
Anyway, as soon as he left, there were only a few people in the resting palace.
Later, even Ningqiu left as well, leaving the two of them in the resting palace.
“Do you know what I’m going to ask you to do?” Madame Jingrou asked.
She, who was in a good mood, even stared at Lin Mengya with gentle eyes and joked with her.
“I… I don’t know what you are going to ask me to do, but as long as you ask, I’ll try my best to do as you say,” Lin Mengya said.
In fact, she had a vague speculation.
Nevertheless, she could rest a.s.sured that Madame Jingrou would never harm her.
Madame Jingrou said, “You’re such a clever girl. How could I hide this from you? I think you’ve figured out that I want you to send Yao Lu out of the imperial palace. His Majesty and I have arranged a residence where she can live in comfort for the rest of her life. After thinking back and forth to myself, I believe I can trust no one other than you to perform this task.”
Sure enough, Lin Mengya had guessed that the abnormal behavior of the Emperor and Madame Jingrou must have something to do with the Empress’s death.
It seemed that the news of the Empress’s death was just a smokescreen.
“Okay, Madame, please rest a.s.sured,” Lin Mengya said.
The Empress must have been heart-broken after this.
Now they got the best opportunity to send her out.
Moreover, Madame Jingrou was right. Lin Mengya was the right person to perform this task.
“There’s one more thing. Although Yao Lu is declared guilty, she’s still the Eldest Prince’s birth mother. Therefore, after talking it over, His Majesty and I think that we must hold a fake funeral for her. Regarding how to conduct it, I hope you could take full charge of the arrangement,” Madame Jingrou said.
Although the news was a little unexpected, Lin Mengya nodded in agreement after thinking for a while.
Madame Jingrou and the Emperor certainly had their considerations. On one hand, it was inappropriate to make the Empress’s death public. On the other hand, the Empress’s real whereabouts certainly should be kept from the others.
Lin Mengya was the one in charge of sending the Empress out of the imperial palace and arranging for her to settle down.
Naturally, she was the most suitable person for this task.
“Madame, rest a.s.sured. I’ll make proper arrangements. But by what standard should I conduct her funeral?” Lin Mengya asked.
In fact, there must be special personnel in charge of conducting funerals in the imperial palace.
She was only responsible for watching them and making sure that nothing went wrong and the secret that the Empress was still alive was kept properly.
After pondering for a long while, Madame Jingrou let out a sigh quietly.
To be honest, she had spent half her life fighting with the Empress. Moreover, if it were not for the Empress’s poor health, she would not have had the opportunity to meet the Emperor.
At the end of the day, she felt a mixture of grat.i.tude and guilt towards the Empress.
Otherwise, she would not have endured the Empress’s deliberate coercion again and again.
She said, “His Majesty means to keep her funeral secret and send her out of the imperial palace as soon as possible. But I think, after all, we should give her a t.i.tle. So His Majesty agreed to let her be buried as a Shaoshi. Regarding the details, you may talk them over with the personnel of the Ministry of Rites.”
“Okay, I got it,” Lin Mengya said with a grasp of the situation.
Although Yao Lu had spent half her life on open strife and veiled struggle in the imperial palace, she, who had been given the embarra.s.sing t.i.tle of the Empress, ended up with the t.i.tle of Shaoshi that was of the lowest rank.
If the nominal t.i.tle of the Empress was Yao Lu’s obsession, she was eventually referred to as Shaoshi in history.
“Thank you for helping me handle it. I’m supposed to handle it myself. But His Majesty and I have wasted too much time, and we are too old to waste more time. I have spent half my life living for others. Now, I should do something for myself as you said,” Madame Jingrou said with helplessness, gratification and hope in her tone.
Her feelings were too complicated for those who had never experienced this to fully understand.
She and the Emperor, who knew each other in their youth and had weathered lots of trials and tribulations, were finally able to be candid with each other in middle age.
Looking back at the past, they had made too many detours.
Time flew, and life was short. They could not afford to waste another twenty years.
“Madame, I’m glad that you understand this, but now it’s not the time for you and His Majesty to retire into seclusion. I b.u.mped into Madame Hui during this trip. She seemed to intend to persuade the Divine Witch to cooperate with her to deal with Xiaoyu. Although the Divine Witch didn’t agree for the time being, I have an intuition that she won’t give up so easily,” Lin Mengya said.
She didn’t even mention this to Xiu.
The Divine Witch was of a significant status. If she was really convinced by Madame Hui, it would probably cause Xiaoyu more trouble.
Madame Jingrou also frowned. As a citizen of the Lieyun Empire, she knew better than Lin Mengya about the influence of the Divine Witch.
She said, “The Divine Witch is of an extraordinary status, so she won’t interfere in this easily. I don’t think Huining can succeed in convincing her. Nevertheless, I’m afraid the Divine Witch, who is aloof and proud, is no match for Huining, who is brimful of mischief and drastic means. I’ll ask His Majesty to send some people to protect the Divine Witch. Speaking of this, thanks to the Divine Witch’s help, I was able to safely give birth to Yu’er. I have been looking for an opportunity to repay her over the years. Now I finally got it.”
Madame Jingrou seemed to be an old acquaintance of the Divine Witch. Hearing this, Lin Mengya felt more relieved.
However, at the thought of the Divine Witch’s face, which was very similar to Baizhi’s, Lin Mengya was certainly unwilling to let go of such a rare opportunity to ask about it.
She said, “I was lucky to meet the Divine Witch. She’s really an extraordinary person. But I’m curious about who she is. Why didn’t I hear of her before I came here?”
Because of Xiaoyu, she had specially searched the information about the Lieyun Empire.
Unexpectedly, after coming here, she found she had heard of nothing about one and another powerful people she met here.
She felt like a blind and found herself in a pa.s.sive position.
Fortunately, Madame Jingrou was always willing to tell her everything she knew, so she learned a lot of things from Madame Jingrou.
“In fact, the succession of the Divine Witch is somewhat similar to that of the chosen witch of our Xin Family. Nevertheless, the tile of the chosen witch is handed from generation to generation, while the Divine Witch must come out of the tomb of the Witch Empress. I don’t know since when every new Divine Witch showed up after the last Divine Witch pa.s.sed away. Without exception, they were all 15 years old, and each of them was the only one coming out of the tomb. No one knows the past of the Divine Witches who had shown up or where exactly they came from. Only the person coming out of the tomb of the Witch Empress is the real Divine Witch,” Madame Jingrou said with a look of reverence.
It could be seen that the Divine Witch, who is sacred and mysterious, enjoyed extremely high prestige among the people of the Lieyun Empire.
As Lin Mengya rolled her eyes, another question came into her mind.
She asked, “Madame, you said that all the Divine Witches came out of the Witch Empress’s tomb. Could there be people living in the tomb?”
Lin Mengya suddenly thought of the tomb of living dead, where there were people living, mentioned in a martial arts story.
But could it be a coincidence that there was also an unworldly Little Dragon Maiden in the Witch Empress’s tomb?
“That’s not true. In fact, the tomb is located in a large mountain with deadly poisonous mist and insects at the foot all year round. Even the members of the Xin Family have to spend a lot of effort to go there, not to mention there are plenty of fierce wild beasts and poisonous snakes in the mountain. Therefore, no one other than the Divine Witches can get in and out of there. It’s said that the tomb of the Witch Empress is in the mountain, and those obstacles are supposed to prevent others from approaching the tomb of the Witch Empress,” Madame Jingrou said.
Lin Mengya did not expect this.
However, her intuition told her that such a legend must exist for a reason.
Since all people of the Lieyun Empire considered it as the sacred place, no one would think the legend too mysterious and weird.
“Then does the Current Divine Witch have any relatives or children?” Lin Mengya asked.
On hearing her question, Madame Jingrou revealed a look of astonishment and said, “Don’t talk nonsense. The Divine Witch keeps her chast.i.ty and has no relationship with anyone all her life. You can say this in front of me, but don’t say this in front of anyone else!”
The Divine Witch had neither relatives nor children.
It seemed to be just a coincidence that the Divine Witch looked like Baizhi.
“Okay, thank you for warning me, Madame. I’m leaving now. If there’s anything else, please summon me,” Lin Mengya said.
Since she had gotten the information she wanted, it would be a waste of time to stay here.
What was more, both conducting a funeral to deceive everyone and escorting Yao Lu secretly out of the imperial palace required meticulous preparations and deliberate arrangements.
After coming out of the resting palace of the Emperor, Lin Mengya thought for a while and headed for the Linqiu Pavilion, where Yao Lu had lived before.
By this time, the news of Yao Lu’s death presumably had spread there.
As the person in charge of the funeral, she should at least go to check the situation before making a decision.
The Linqiu Pavilion, which had been bustling, was now deserted.
Despite some palace servants who looked curiously into the Linqiu Pavilion, the courtyard was empty.
Baisu, who had been following Lin Mengya, glanced coldly at the surrounding palace servants, and they left in an instant.