Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 16: New Leaves Are Poisonous

   The three of them waited a long time before finally being received by Noble Lady Yu.

They say pregnant women are the happiest and most beautiful, yet her face was completely blank. When Momo Zhang told her to raise her arm, she raised it; when told to turn, she turned—like a marionette whose strings had been cut, unable to move on its own.

“That’s enough.” After Momo Zhang finished taking her measurements, she asked gently, “What pattern does Noble Lady prefer? Pomegranates with many seeds? Auspicious clouds and immortal cranes?”

Noble Lady Yu looked dazed, her lips moving faintly up and down, murmuring something extremely soft and low.

“Noble Lady, what did you say?” Momo Zhang had to lean her ear close before she could barely make out the words.

“Loquat paste, loquat paste, loquat paste…” Noble Lady Yu kept repeating these three words.

Momo Zhang was stunned for a moment. “Loquat paste?”

These two words seemed to strike Noble Lady Yu like a trigger. She suddenly shouted, “There must be something wrong with that loquat paste!”

Momo Zhang was startled by her outburst. Reflexively, she turned to glance outside the door. Concubine Yi’s punishment was still ongoing, and Noble Consort Hui’s dog-like servants were still standing outside. Who knew if there might be someone with especially sharp ears listening in?

“Noble Lady.” Momo Zhang quickly turned back and cautiously advised, “Physician Zhang is highly skilled. How could he possibly make a misdiagnosis…”

“No, no, no! There’s definitely a problem, definitely a problem!” Noble Lady Yu interrupted her. Then she stared at Momo Zhang for a long time. Suddenly her eyes lit up. She grabbed Momo Zhang’s shoulders tightly and said, “I recognize you. You were there that day too. And you… and you…”

Her gaze slid past Jinxiu and finally landed on Wei Yingluo’s face. With a hollow, shadowy smile she said, “You were all there. You all saw it. Noble Consort Hui wants to harm me. There must be poison in the loquat paste. But… but why couldn’t it be detected? Why? Why?!”

Noble Lady Yu’s voice grew louder and louder, eventually turning into near-hysterical questioning.

Sweat beaded on the tip of Momo Zhang’s nose. She wished she could reach out and cover the Noble Lady’s mouth, but bound by propriety, she could only keep glancing toward the door while pleading, “Noble Lady, this servant begs you—please stop talking…”

“New leaves are poisonous.”

Both Momo Zhang and Noble Lady Yu froze, then turned toward the voice.

Wei Yingluo kept her head lowered and said softly, “Mature loquat leaves are non-toxic. The young leaves are poisonous…”

A chill ran down Momo Zhang’s back. She snapped urgently, “Be quiet!”

“Be quiet!” Noble Lady Yu screamed at her, then quickly stepped in front of Wei Yingluo, her voice trembling slightly. “Go on.”

Wei Yingluo still kept her head bowed, staring at the pale golden osmanthus pattern on the hem of the skirt before her, and continued quietly, “When I was little, I loved eating loquats. Once I accidentally swallowed a seed and had difficulty breathing and kept vomiting. Later a traveling doctor told me that physicians follow the pharmacopoeia to make medicine, and the pharmacopoeia uses aged loquat leaves to make loquat paste. Most people don’t know why. He discovered it by chance: mature loquat leaves are non-toxic, while young leaves and the seeds are poisonous. Taking too much can endanger one’s life…”

“So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is. Young leaves are poisonous, young leaves are poisonous.” Noble Lady Yu murmured the words over and over. “The loquat paste Noble Consort Hui sent must have been made with young leaves. The toxicity is extremely faint, no wonder Physician Zhang didn’t notice it. And even if it were discovered, they could simply claim it was a mistake at the Imperial Pharmacy…”

Suddenly Noble Lady Yu grabbed Wei Yingluo’s arm, her expression feverish. “Come! Come with me to see the Empress!”

“Absolutely not!” Momo Zhang hurriedly blocked them. “Noble Lady, how can the words of a mere palace maid be taken seriously? Is she more reliable than Physician Zhang? Yingluo, do you know what happens when you speak recklessly in the palace? Kneel down!”

Wei Yingluo obediently knelt.

“Noble Lady,” she kowtowed and said, “This servant is of lowly status. Only because of your kindness was I given the chance to speak. But before Her Majesty the Empress, this servant may not even have the opportunity to open my mouth.”

In short, the Empress might not necessarily believe the words of someone as insignificant as her.

“…I understand.” Noble Lady Yu came back to her senses. She looked at Wei Yingluo with a complicated expression and slowly released her grip on the girl’s arm. “I’ll go plead my case to the Empress myself. You…”

After a pause, she asked in a much gentler tone, “What is your name?”

“This servant is called Yingluo,” Wei Yingluo replied respectfully.

Noble Lady Yu nodded at her, then hurried out the door.

The moment she left, Momo Zhang glared fiercely at Wei Yingluo. “Why did you say those things to Noble Lady Yu?!”

Why?

Wei Yingluo gazed at Noble Lady Yu’s retreating figure.

“Protecting oneself wisely—there are most things I can simply ignore, but them alone, this kind of sisterly bond…” Wei Yingluo thought silently to herself, “I cannot just stand by and do nothing. When I see them, it’s as if I’m seeing my older sister and me…”

So, for the sake of this rare and precious sisterly affection, she was willing to take the risk just once.

“Besides, it’s not as if there’s no gain at all.” She mused inwardly. “The rear palace is full of cliques and factions. The two largest are the Empress’s and Noble Consort Hui’s. If I truly offend Noble Consort Hui because of this, I will naturally be drawn into the Empress’s camp… The effect might even be better than directly throwing myself at the Empress. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Wei Yingluo had originally thought she had considered every angle.

But very soon, she realized she had still underestimated this rear palace—and underestimated other people.

“Yingluo!” After returning to the embroidery workshop, Momo Zhang dismissed everyone else and kept only Wei Yingluo behind. Holding her disciplinary ruler in hand, she barked sternly, “Kneel!”

Unlike Aunt Fang, Momo Zhang usually had a sharp tongue but a soft heart; the ruler in her hand had always been more for show and had never truly struck any young palace maid. Now, however, she was genuinely furious. Wei Yingluo hurriedly knelt, then lifted her head to look at her—there was no fear or resentment in her eyes, only worry.

“Momo,” she called softly, like a little granddaughter calling to the grandmother who dotes on her most. “Please don’t be angry. I know I was wrong.”

Momo Zhang’s heart softened, yet her expression grew even sterner. “Do you know exactly where you went wrong?”

“I shouldn’t have told Noble Lady Yu directly, in front of everyone, that the new leaves were poisonous,” Wei Yingluo thought for a moment and said. “I should have written it on a piece of paper, then secretly slipped it into the new clothes being tailored for her. To be even safer, when delivering the clothes I could ‘accidentally’ let the note fall to the ground. If Noble Lady picked it up and asked me about it, I would lie and say I didn’t know who put it on me…”

“Enough!” Momo Zhang cut her off, her tone sinking. “In the end, no matter how many different methods you came up with, you still planned to tell Noble Lady Yu that the new leaves were poisonous?”

Wei Yingluo was silent for a long moment. In the end, she didn’t lie to her and answered quietly, “Yes.”

She had thought she would be punished by Momo Zhang—beaten or scolded—and she was ready to accept it. Yet what she waited for was only a cold, mocking laugh from Momo Zhang.

“Heh.” The laugh sounded half scornful, half pitying. “Then use your own eyes and see for yourself, Yingluo. See with your own eyes what the result of what you’ve done will be.”

The next few days passed in apparent calm.

Because of Momo Zhang’s words, Yingluo remained heavy-hearted and preoccupied.

But no matter how troubled she felt, she could not neglect the work at hand. She cut the fabric that needed cutting, embroidered the flowers that needed embroidering, and in the end, on the appointed day, she finished two new sets of clothing: one embroidered with pomegranates and many seeds (symbolizing numerous children), the other with auspicious clouds and wild cranes. She then delivered both to Noble Lady Yu together.

“I’ll keep this one,” Noble Lady Yu said, pointing to the pomegranate design. Then she pointed to the one with clouds and cranes. “You can deliver this one to Concubine Yi for me.”

Yingluo carefully observed her expression. Unlike the fearful and uneasy woman she had first met, today Noble Lady Yu wore light rouge, her abdomen slightly rounded, and a rare trace of happiness glowed on her face.

“While you’re at it, pass on a message to Concubine Yi from me.” Noble Lady Yu casually rewarded Yingluo with a hairpin. “Tell her to endure just a few more days. In a few days, the Empress will surely stand up for her.”

Yingluo tried several times to decline, but in the end she could not refuse and helplessly accepted the hairpin. At its head were a pair of twin lotuses, one red and one white, entwined together like the closest sisters in the world.

“I am Wei Yingluo, a palace maid from the embroidery workshop. Noble Lady Yu sent me to deliver a newly tailored garment to Concubine Yi.” Acting on someone’s entrustment and fulfilling their trust, Yingluo arrived at Concubine Yi’s residence holding the clothes and announced herself to the palace maid guarding the entrance.

When one prospers, all prosper; when one falls, all fall. Perhaps because Concubine Yi had been punished, the maids in her palace were also anxious and uneasy, their eyes flickering like birds about to scatter the moment a great tree begins to topple.

Hearing Yingluo’s purpose, one of the maids forced a smile. “It’s kind of Noble Lady Yu to still think of our little mistress. Just give the item to me.”

“Noble Lady Yu also has a message she wants me to deliver personally to Concubine Yi,” Yingluo said, pursing her lips with some difficulty. “…She especially instructed me to say it to her with my own mouth.”

The palace maid eyed her with suspicion and wariness for a moment.

“Or perhaps you could ask Concubine Yi first?” Yingluo suggested kindly. “If she’s willing to see me, I’ll go in. If she isn’t, I’ll go report back to Noble Lady Yu. That way, I won’t delay anything, and it won’t put you in a difficult position either.”

“…Fine.” The palace maid finally nodded reluctantly. “Wait here.”

She turned and left. Not long after, a piercing, miserable scream rang out from inside.

The people in the room exchanged glances—then suddenly, as one, they all stepped forward. Big feet, small feet, eunuchs and palace maids alike, in a chaotic rush, poured through the doorway.

Wei Yingluo’s feet were among them, but they suddenly froze right at the threshold of the bedchamber.

Through the open door, what met her eyes were two feet dangling in midair.

They must have belonged to a woman who loved cranes very much and carried herself with aloof pride—even the embroidered shoes swaying gently from side to side were stitched with cranes spreading their wings in flight.

Slowly, her gaze traveled upward along those shoes…

“Concubine Yi…” Wei Yingluo murmured.

A length of white silk was looped around Concubine Yi’s neck, hanging her straight from the beam of the roof.

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