Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 128: Misunderstanding

   The Emperor’s favor was directly tied to the treatment each palace received.

Ever since Hongli stopped visiting Yanxi Palace, supplies of food, clothing, and daily necessities immediately became tight. It wasn’t to the point of starvation, but the dishes served were unappetizing and often not fresh. As for the daily snacks and pastries, they disappeared entirely.

Half a month later, things in the palace even began to go missing. In just a few days, Wei Yingluo lost several earrings and jade bracelets. Ming Yu flew into a rage over it and complained to her: “This life is truly unbearable now. People outside dare to give our palace the cold shoulder, and people inside dare to steal from us. When I find out who it is, I’ll skin them alive!”

But these were small matters. After venting for a while, Ming Yu said worriedly: “Yingluo, do you think… His Majesty really believes the rumors and that’s why he’s not coming to Changchun Palace anymore?”

“What else could it be?” Wei Yingluo was gently waving her beauty-round fan. Suddenly her hand stilled, and she looked toward someone not far away.

Following her gaze, Ming Yu cried out in alarm: “Lord Fucha…”

Somehow, Fuheng had slipped into the Imperial Garden and come close to where they were standing. The years had sharpened his features; the air of a noble young master had faded from him, replaced by the weathered ruggedness of a battlefield general. He stood utterly out of place amid the palace’s refined splendor—one side filled with music and dance, the other carrying the scent of blood on long spears.

Ming Yu immediately grabbed Wei Yingluo’s arm, staring warily at him, and said urgently: “Your Ladyship, we’ve been out here long enough. Let’s go back quickly!”

It is said that rumors stop with the wise, but the world has always been short on wise people.

There are far more who believe blindly and follow blindly, and plenty more who fan the flames. Ming Yu was terrified that someone might see them and cause the already blazing rumors to burn even hotter. She almost wanted to hoist Yingluo onto her back and run.

But Wei Yingluo shook her head, refusing her kindness.

“Whether I leave or stay, the result will be the same,” she said. “If I don’t leave, people will say we have a secret affair. If I do leave, they’ll say I’m guilty and panicking. Do you understand?”

Those who harbor malice toward her will find malice no matter what she does.

The one spreading rumors behind her back would not stop just because she had left.

“Yingluo.” Fuheng had already walked over from the opposite side and was gazing deeply at her. “I have something to say to you.”

As it happened, she also had something to say to him. Wei Yingluo smiled slightly. “Let’s talk over there.”

She found a pavilion nestled beside a wisteria tree, its branches heavy with luxuriant purple blossoms cascading downward. Wei Yingluo sat inside the pavilion. Under Ming Yu’s openly warning glare, Fuheng did not sit; he merely stood not far from her and asked, “Why?”

A question without preamble, yet Wei Yingluo answered directly: “I didn’t want to remain a palace maid any longer.”

Fuheng was silent for a long moment before speaking in a hoarse voice: “Why didn’t you wait for me to return? I could have—”

“Become your concubine?” Wei Yingluo said with mockery. “No. If I’m going to be a concubine either way, why shouldn’t I become His Majesty’s? At least then I would rank above others. When I sit, you can only stand.”

Fuheng stared at her for a very long time, then shook his head. “Yingluo, you don’t need to say such things to anger me. I know what kind of person you are…”

Hearing those words, Wei Yingluo said nothing, but Ming Yu’s eyebrows twitched violently—she looked ready to leap up and slap him across the mouth, to teach him which words could be spoken and which could not.

She had not expected him to say something like that. Wei Yingluo fell silent for a long while. Wisteria petals drifted down around them. If she thought back carefully, in the past they had often sought out a pavilion just like this one, a flowering tree just like this one, to tease each other into anger and then coax each other into laughter.

The pavilion was still the same pavilion; the flowering tree was still the same tree. But the people were no longer the same people.

The young master of those days, the stubborn little palace maid of those days—they had both been buried beneath the fallen petals of memory.

“…Fucha Fuheng.” At last Wei Yingluo spoke. “Do you know that rumors about you and me are circulating in the palace right now?”

As an outer-court official, Fuheng was naturally unaware of the inner palace’s private scandals, so he asked, “What rumors?”

“They say that you and I have had an improper relationship.” Wei Yingluo spoke calmly. “You are a minister who has rendered great military service; His Majesty naturally will not make things difficult for you. But I am different… So from today onward, please keep your distance from me!”

“…And if I say I cannot do that?” Fuheng lowered his head for a moment, then suddenly lifted it again.

“You!” He had always been gentle and refined, never aggressive. Wei Yingluo truly had not expected him to speak this way.

“I cannot stop looking at you. I cannot stop caring about you.” The battlefield had truly changed him a great deal. In the past he would never have looked at Wei Yingluo with such frank, unguarded eyes, nor would he ever have spoken his heart so openly. “In my heart… you are not His Majesty’s Concubine Ling. You are simply my Yingluo.”

You stand on the bridge gazing at the scenery; someone below the bridge is gazing at you.

“Look.”

Not far away, Noble Consort Chun was leading Hongli over. She pointed toward the two people whose eyes had just met and said, “Isn’t that Concubine Ling? And the man beside her seems to be…”

The palace was full of watchful eyes. Wei Yingluo had made no particular effort to hide, so the news had naturally traveled to Zhongcui Palace at lightning speed—and Noble Consort Chun had, with equal speed, brought Hongli to the Imperial Garden.

Hongli watched them from afar.

At such a distance, he could not hear what they were saying.

But merely seeing the two of them looking into each other’s eyes made his chest feel unbearably stifled. All the jealousy he had swallowed over the years surged up into his throat at once, so sour that he could not even speak.

“Your Majesty.” Noble Consort Chun appeared to be comforting him, but in reality she was pouring more vinegar down his throat. “Concubine Ling used to be a palace maid in Changchun Palace, so naturally she is familiar with Lord Fucha. The two of them are speaking in an open place, with palace maids present—it is all perfectly proper and aboveboard…”

How could Hongli listen to her explanations? He only believed what he saw: “If it is all perfectly proper and aboveboard, why do you need to explain it?”

Noble Consort Chun hurriedly lowered her head. “Your Majesty, I was only afraid you might misunderstand Concubine Ling. After all, she is young and spirited; she does not yet fully understand palace rules. If she occasionally steps out of line, it is only human nature…”

A misstep? What kind of mistake—and committed together with whom?

The angrier Hongli became as he listened, the more fiercely he glared at Wei Yingluo in the distance before finally flicking his sleeve and storming away.

Yanxi Palace.

   Ever since returning from the Imperial Garden, Wei Yingluo had been distracted and restless. While watering a pot of gardenias in front of her, the water overflowed the basin entirely; by the time she noticed, a small puddle had already formed on the floor.

With a sigh, Wei Yingluo was just about to call Ming Yu over to clean it up when the door opened. Li Yu entered, followed by several eunuchs.

Li Yu was always all smiles, but smiles come in different varieties. The one he wore now could hardly be called friendly—it was chilling, almost sinister.

“Chief Steward Li, what brings you here?” Ming Yu hurried forward. “Is His Majesty coming?”

Li Yu ignored her question. With a glance at the eunuchs beside him, they immediately scattered in different directions. One of them approached Wei Yingluo, bent down, and picked up the pot of gardenias from the floor.

Wei Yingluo watched calmly, showing no reaction. Ming Yu, however, could not stay composed. She cried out at once:

“What are you doing?”

“Concubine Ling, Your Ladyship,” Li Yu said with a beaming smile, “His Majesty said the smell of the night-soil buckets in Yong Alley is too overpowering. He’s borrowing your gardenias to perfume the place.”

“How can that be?” Ming Yu exclaimed in panic. “These are all precious flower varieties bestowed on Her Ladyship by His Majesty himself! How can they be used to fumigate Yong Alley? Put it down—put it down at once…”

Wei Yingluo tugged lightly at her sleeve, signaling her not to act rashly.

Soon the room was stripped bare of every potted plant. Presumably the ones outside would meet the same fate. One by one the eunuchs carried out armfuls of pots and left. Li Yu, ever the considerate man who always left himself an escape route, waited until the others had gone before speaking softly to Wei Yingluo:

“Your Ladyship Concubine Ling, His Majesty is currently angry with you. Once this burst of temper passes, things will be fine. This servant is merely carrying out orders—please do not blame me.”

Though the words seemed to defend himself, they actually conveyed one extremely important piece of information.

He was angry.

   Wei Yingluo’s heart stirred. After seeing him off, she instructed Ming Yu:

“Go find out whether His Majesty went to the Imperial Garden today.”

“Could it be…” Ming Yu’s face instantly turned pale.

“No need to guess wildly. First find out the facts clearly,” Wei Yingluo said.

Ming Yu rushed out in a hurry. When she returned, her steps were unsteady, her gaze vacant, as though she had lost her very soul. She kept muttering under her breath:

“It’s over… completely over…”

As pot after pot of gardenias was carried away in grand procession, everyone in the palace reached the same conclusion—

Yanxi Palace had thoroughly fallen from favor.

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