Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 181: True Heart

   “What is this?” Chenbi opened the sachet in front of her and took out a dried gardenia flower.

Yizhu said, “Your Ladyship, this is a token that someone from Yanxi Palace sent to Yangxin Hall. This servant intercepted it on the way. That lowly woman is counting on His Majesty changing his mind. You must guard against her!”

Chenbi toyed with the gardenia flower, smiling with amusement.

Yizhu pressed: “If you don’t cut the grass at the root, trouble will return in the future. My lady, it’s time to make up your mind!”

Chenbi: “Everyone thinks I want to kill Consort Ling—even you believe that?”

Yizhu froze.

“Besides, it’s still uncertain whether this thing really came from Yanxi Palace.” Chenbi twirled the gardenia flower in her fingers, but her gaze passed through the window lattice, looking toward the direction of Yanxi Palace.

The gardenias of Yanxi Palace had bloomed and fallen. Once proudly at the top of the branches, today they were crushed into the dust.

Wei Yingluo no longer had the strength even to stand. With longing eyes she stared at the teapot on the table. Forcing herself up, her body tumbled off the bed. Bit by bit she crawled across the floor, finally managing to climb up to the table and desperately clutch the teapot to her chest.

She lifted the lid—only to find it empty.

From that moment, Wei Yingluo had no strength left. She lay sprawled on the ground like the dead, not making the slightest sound.

After an unknown amount of time, a pair of hands helped her up and brought a cup of clear water to her lips. Her lips were already cracked and dry; the moment they touched the water, it was like parched fields meeting sweet rain—she drained the entire cup in an instant.

“Feeling a little better?” a familiar voice sounded beside her ear.

Wei Yingluo recognized that voice. She slowly opened her eyes: “…What are you here for?”

Crouching in front of her was none other than Chenbi—the very woman who had driven her to this state—yet her face still wore that innocent, guileless expression: “I came to help you.”

Wei Yingluo found it utterly laughable: “Help me? You just came to see how miserable I’ve become, didn’t you?”

“Place someone in a position of certain death, and then they will survive.” Chenbi looked at her with utmost seriousness. “If I don’t push you to the absolute limit, how could you ever be willing to give up the life you have now?”

Wei Yingluo gazed at her suspiciously.

“Isn’t that true?” Chenbi helped her back onto the bed. Seeing that she couldn’t even sit steadily, she thoughtfully placed a bolster pillow behind her back and spoke in a gentle voice. “The Forbidden City is full of fame, profit, and riches, but all of it is nothing more than fleeting clouds and smoke—including the Emperor’s favor. He seems to cherish you greatly, yet with just a little scheme on my part, he immediately began to suspect and dislike you. This shows that in his heart, you are merely a plaything—something that can be replaced by a better one at any moment.”

Wei Yingluo’s face turned pale at her words. Though she wanted to refute them, for a moment she couldn’t find anything to say.

She hadn’t touched a drop of water or a single grain of rice. She had endured torment until now, yet he hadn’t come to see her even once. Did he truly still have her in his heart?

“Yingluo, everything I’ve done has been to help you—to help you see clearly the reality of the Forbidden City and the Emperor of the Great Qing.” Chenbi moistened a handkerchief with water and placed it on her burning forehead. “He is a hypocritical, selfish, and heartless man. He is not worth wasting your entire life on.”

Wei Yingluo slapped her hand away and said coldly, “What exactly do you want?”

“I want to repay a kindness.” Chenbi looked at her with sincere devotion, like a devout believer confessing her wish to a Buddha. “To repay the grace you showed in protecting me, and also to repay Lord Fucha for saving my life.”

Wei Yingluo was stunned. She had no idea why the name Fuheng would suddenly come out of her mouth.

“On my way to the capital, I once fell off a cliff. If not for Lord Fucha, I would already be nothing but dry bones by now,” Chenbi said. “He is a good man—young, handsome, gentle, and considerate. I have always wanted to repay him, but I didn’t know how—until I discovered that he loves you.”

Wei Yingluo: “That’s all in the past!”

Chenbi: “But his love for you has never changed!”

Her resolute and certain manner made Wei Yingluo suspect that she had already met with Fuheng. Fuheng, oh Fuheng—do you even know what kind of woman is standing before you? Cooperating with her is no different from bargaining with a tiger.

   “You still don’t trust me—is it because of Ming Yu?” Chenbi carefully observed her expression and sighed. “Even now, I have no regrets. I’m glad she’s dead—because now you have one less burden… Yingluo, a person cannot always be bound by obligations and gratitude. You should think more about yourself.”

With that, she held out a dried gardenia flower to Wei Yingluo.

“Someone sent a dried gardenia flower to Yangxin Hall in your name, but it ended up in my hands,” Chenbi said. “Guess who that person might be?”

Who else could it be? Wei Yingluo answered firmly: “The Empress.”

This was yet another of the Step-Empress’s usual tricks.

When she wanted to harm someone, she would never dirty her own hands. Instead, she would use every possible means to incite others to act.

In the end, no matter who won or lost, the Step-Empress’s ten fingers would remain spotlessly clean—not a trace of blood on them.

This time was no different. The Step-Empress had someone send a withered gardenia flower to Yangxin Hall under Wei Yingluo’s name, but deliberately arranged for people from Baoyue Tower to intercept it along the way.

If Chenbi truly had ambitions to compete for favor, she might very well have taken the discarded pearl’s suggestion, kept the flower hidden, and then used Wei Yingluo’s illness as an opportunity to take her life.

—Wasn’t Consort Chun back then ensnared by a similar plot, and then acted on the Step-Empress’s behalf to harm the previous Empress?

But this time, something unexpected happened.

Or rather, neither Wei Yingluo nor the Step-Empress had truly seen what kind of person Chenbi really was.

She could never have anticipated that Chenbi would go straight to Wei Yingluo, openly presenting the withered gardenia flower along with her own suspicions:

“Yes, it was the Empress. She wanted to use my hand to completely end your life. But even without me, she can still borrow someone else’s hand. If you don’t leave now, you will surely die in the Forbidden City!”

Chenbi was not exaggerating.

Right now was the perfect moment to deal with Wei Yingluo.

One could say: once this village is passed, there will never be such a shop again. Having learned this harsh lesson, Wei Yingluo will surely raise her guard against the Step-Empress, against Chenbi, and against everyone around her. She will never again trust people lightly, nor will she ever allow herself to fall into such a desperate situation again.

   It will also be difficult for others to deal with her now—because Wei Yingluo no longer has any weaknesses. The only weakness she once had, Ming Yu, is already gone.

   The person who will stand before everyone from now on will be a flawless Wei Yingluo: one without weaknesses, with a heart of stone, perfect and unassailable.

   “…Even if I wanted to leave, could I actually get out?” For example, right now Wei Yingluo had no intention of paying the other person any real attention. She replied perfunctorily, “Once you enter the palace gates, it’s as deep as the sea. Do you really have some way?”

“I do,” Chenbi unexpectedly answered. “I have a way to help you escape.”

Wei Yingluo looked straight at her, as if trying to peer through that beautiful face to see clearly the heart beneath.

“Yingluo, I was sent to the Emperor like tribute. I lost my flesh-and-blood kin, lost my personal freedom. Every time I look in the mirror and see myself in these Manchu robes, the pain is unbearable! I cannot leave… because I carry on my shoulders the hopes of my clan for peace. I can only remain here until my flesh rots and my bones turn to ashes.” Suddenly Chenbi grasped her hand. “But you are different. You still have a chance!”

The way she looked at Wei Yingluo was exactly the same way Wei Yingluo had once looked at Ming Yu.

Forcing one’s own dreams onto another person, earnestly hoping, longing for you to achieve the happiness in my place.

Wei Yingluo was stunned into silence.

“Promise me—leave.” Chenbi stroked her cheek, her voice soft and bewitching like an enchantment. “Leave before this monstrous purple forbidden city completely swallows you whole…”

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