Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 17: First Meeting

   “I don’t understand.” After returning, Wei Yingluo racked her brains but still couldn’t figure it out. So she sought out the only person who could give her an answer. “Momo Zhang, why did Concubine Yi die?”

“A dignified consort, publicly slapped in the face—could she still hold her head up in the palace after that?” Momo Zhang replied indifferently while embroidering a peony flower. “Anyone else might have endured it, but her temperament is famously proud and aloof…”

In other words, Noble Consort Hui knew her personality all too well and deliberately used this humiliating method to force her into such unbearable shame that she chose to take her own life.

“…How foolish.” Wei Yingluo’s face was clouded with gloom; it was unclear whether she was speaking to Concubine Yi or to herself. “Only by staying alive does one have the chance to turn things around. If it were me, forget being slapped—I could even endure having someone spit in my face. I’d endure it all the way until the day I could take revenge and wash away the humiliation!”

A bone-chilling, piercing hatred radiated from her, making Momo Zhang’s skin prickle. She couldn’t help but set down her embroidery hoop and stare at her in shock. “You…”

“It’s nothing.” The surge of hatred came quickly and vanished just as fast. Looking at Wei Yingluo’s face now—bright with a sweet, charming smile—it felt as though that earlier coldness and fury had been nothing more than Momo Zhang’s imagination. “Momo, I’ve finished embroidering. What do you think?”

Momo Zhang took the hoop she handed over. On it was a white peony. Together with the large crimson peony Momo Zhang had yet to finish beside her, both were being prepared for Noble Consort Hui.

This consort was never willing to fall behind anyone. Noble Lady Yu was getting two new outfits—so she demanded twenty. On top of that, matching embroidered handkerchiefs and new shoes, all in peony patterns. Not a single color could repeat, not a single flower design could repeat. It had utterly exhausted the embroidery workshop’s maids.

In the end, even Momo Zhang had to personally take up the needle to barely finish all the patterns within the allotted time.

“Hm, not bad.” Momo Zhang nodded, then glanced at the sky outside. “It’s already this late—you haven’t eaten lunch yet, have you? Go eat quickly.”

“Yes.” Wei Yingluo replied obediently. “I’ll eat fast and try to come back early. I want to finish tonight’s work before the night is over.”

She was always so considerate and likable. Momo Zhang nodded, thinking that her earlier impression must truly have been an illusion…

But after leaving the embroidery workshop, Yingluo did not go to eat.

She couldn’t swallow a single bite.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw those two feet hanging in the air.

Suddenly opening her eyes wide, Yingluo kicked hard at the tree in front of her.

There were far too many bastards in this rear palace—and the worst part was that they all held high positions and great power. She couldn’t afford to provoke a single one of them. So she could only treat the tree in front of her as their stand-in, kicking it again and again to vent the stifling rage in her heart.

“Insolent servant!”

Wei Yingluo’s heart jolted. She whipped around sharply.

She was so completely absorbed in venting the resentment pent up inside her that she didn’t even notice someone had arrived behind her.

Judging from his clothing and the exquisite horsetail whisk resting across his elbow, this was a eunuch of extremely high status. He barked sharply:

“The Emperor is present—why aren’t you kneeling?!”

…The Emperor?

   Wei Yingluo froze for a moment, then hurriedly dropped to her knees, pressing her face tightly against the back of her own hands.

“This humble servant respectfully greets Your Majesty and wishes You ten thousand years of health.”

The sound of footsteps approached her slowly.

A pair of bright yellow boots stopped right in front of her. A languid male voice sounded above her head:

“Who gave you permission to harm Lingbai?”

Lingbai?

Yingluo’s heart sank—this was bad. Anything given the prefix “ling” (spiritual) immediately became something extraordinary, no longer an ordinary object. She had likely committed a grave offense. At this point she could only pretend to be puzzled:

“This servant boldly asks—I do not know what Lingbai is.”

“You insolent thing! This very tree is Lingbai!” The chief eunuch pointed his whisk at the tree she had just kicked earlier and scolded, “It bears the Emperor’s own brush-written inscription of the two characters ‘Ling Bai.’ Look—there’s even a copper plaque hanging on the back! In the past, countless people would kowtow and pay reverence to it, yet you dared to injure it like this!”

He still had the patience to explain to Wei Yingluo, but the other person clearly did not—or rather, had no interest in wasting time on a foolish little palace maid.

“Drag her away.” The bright yellow boots slowly moved away from her. “Thirty strokes of the heavy staff.”

Thirty strokes?

Wei Yingluo’s face instantly turned pale.

Thirty heavy staff blows—most people wouldn’t die, but they would lose half their life. Afterward she would need a long period of recovery and medical care. Where did she have that kind of time to waste?

Even worse, receiving punishment would become a permanent stain.

A person who had been personally ordered punished by the Emperor—how could she ever stand firm in the harem afterward?

Most likely even Noble Lady Yu and Momo Zhang would have to draw a clear line with her on the surface, lest they accidentally displease His Majesty.

From then on, she would be unable to take even a single step forward in the palace.

She absolutely could not allow such a stain on her record!

“Having entered the palace not long ago, this servant did not recognize Lingbai. However, there is a reason for what this servant did!” Sweat beaded at Wei Yingluo’s temples as she desperately racked her brains.

The bright yellow boots paused.

“Oh?”

Since it was called “spiritual,” it was something profoundly mysterious. In matters like this, there was no need to adhere to ordinary human reason. Wei Yingluo’s eyes darted once; gritting her teeth, she simply went all in:

“This servant truly did not know this was Lingbai. However, last night an old tree appeared to this servant in a dream. It said that it had stood here for many years and its body felt unbearably itchy. It asked this servant to come to the garden, find it, and scratch its back—What this servant was doing just now was precisely scratching its itch for it!”

The chief eunuch sneered coldly:

“The more you speak, the more absurd it becomes. How could a tree appear to you in a dream!”

Wei Yingluo had been waiting precisely for those words. She immediately kowtowed hard, her forehead striking the ground with a resounding thud:

“Since this cypress tree possesses spirituality and is able to provide shade for His Majesty, naturally it can also appear to this humble servant in a dream! Every word this servant has spoken is the absolute truth—there is not a single falsehood!”

The chief eunuch was rendered speechless by her argument. In the end he could only turn his gaze toward the one person present who could decide.

“Enough.” Yet the voice above sounded careless and indifferent:

“Let’s go.”

From the corner of her eye, Wei Yingluo saw the bright yellow boots pass right beside her, followed by pair after pair of black boots, pair after pair of white embroidered shoes, and numerous waist-sheathed sabers—a grand procession that moved off into the distance.

Only after they had gone far did Wei Yingluo finally let out a long breath and collapse weakly onto the ground, her whole body limp with exhaustion.

She had escaped disaster.

Thwack!

A sharp rap landed on the back of her head.

“Ouch.” Wei Yingluo turned her head. “Momo, why are you here?”

“You little brat!” Sweat was also beading on Momo Zhang’s face. “The moment I take my eyes off you for a second, you nearly cause a catastrophe!”

Being scolded like this, Wei Yingluo actually felt her heart soften a little.

“This is personally bestowed by the Emperor himself—sacred spiritual wood.” While helping Wei Yingluo up from the ground, Momo Zhang explained, “Back when the Emperor was traveling incognito during the height of summer, all the ministers were drenched in sweat, yet the Emperor didn’t have a single drop. Everyone found it strange. When the Emperor spoke of it, it was as though, in some mysterious way, a giant cypress had followed him all the way from the Forbidden City, providing shade. Everyone said it was the sacred cypress that knew the Emperor was traveling and deliberately came along to protect him!”

She rambled on at such length precisely because she wanted Wei Yingluo to be more cautious in her actions.

In the palace, some people were dangerous to provoke—and sometimes even trees were.

“I understand.” Wei Yingluo sighed, gazing steadily at the delicate, noble tree beside her, and murmured, “In the Forbidden City, even a tree favored by the Emperor is worth more than a person who has fallen out of favor.”

On the other side, the pair of bright yellow boots suddenly stopped.

All the boots behind them stopped at the same moment.

“Your Majesty?” The chief eunuch looked at him in confusion.

“I was just thinking about court affairs…” Hongli said slowly.

The chief eunuch assumed an attentive, ears-perked posture.

“So it took me a while to react.” Hongli slowly turned his head. The tree shadows swayed; droplets of light filtered through the gaps in the leaves, falling like golden rain across his body and face. Suddenly he smiled. “Now that I think about it carefully—a mere little palace maid—on what basis would a sacred cypress appear to her in a dream?”

Your Majesty, you’re only just realizing this now?!

The chief eunuch thought this in his heart, but on the surface he showed the same righteous indignation, as though he too had only just realized it. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Exactly! This servant only just realized it too. That little girl opened her mouth and spun a whole pack of lies, one after another. She should be arrested—at once—and executed!”

“Do you still remember what she looked like?” Hongli asked calmly, hands clasped behind his back.

The chief eunuch was stunned for a moment, then racked his brains trying to recall…

“Can’t remember, can you?” Hongli said lightly. “All the palace maids dress exactly the same. And right after she spoke, she immediately knelt down, pressing her entire face against the back of her hand. She never lifted her head once.”

The chief eunuch was dumbfounded. “This… this… she did it on purpose…”

Women in the rear palace were all desperate to “show their face.”

Who would have thought someone would go to such lengths to hide her face?

“Now it’s like water poured into the sea, a leaf fallen into the forest. If we want to find her again, we can only try to recognize her by her voice.” Hongli gazed at the swaying trees in the Imperial Garden and said unhurriedly, “Li Yu, while you still remember her voice, go and find that person for me.”

“—Oh, right.” After a moment’s thought, he added with a half-smile, “When you find her, don’t kill her right away. Bring her to me first.”

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