Chapter 63 "Please let me do you a small favor..."

Empress Dowager?

Why did the Empress Dowager suddenly summon her to the palace?

Baozhu put down the water ladle, wiped her hands, and said, "Perhaps the young lady has finished her hundred-day prayers, and the Empress Dowager wants to see how well the young lady's prayers have gone?"

Yu An stood up: "Did the eunuch who delivered the message say anything else?"

The servant shook his head, "He only told the young lady to hurry up, and didn't say anything more."

Yu An quickly tidied herself up and took a carriage to the palace.

Shou Kang Palace remains unchanged; the gardenias in the courtyard have been removed, leaving the flowerbeds bare and devoid of color.

Without waiting for the usual announcement, the eunuch led her directly into the palace.

"Oh."

When the old woman saw Yu'an, she exclaimed with delight, "Quickly go to the back hall and invite the Empress Dowager over. Young Madam Ji has arrived."

As soon as the words fell, the Empress Dowager was helped out of the rear hall, and Yu An quickly knelt down, "Greetings, Empress Dowager."

If she wasn't told to get up, Yu'an remained lying on the ground.

"How is your stay at Tantuo Temple? Have you slacked off even for a single day?"

“Your Majesty, you misunderstand. I know my sins are grave and I am grateful to Your Majesty. I have never been negligent in my duties. If Your Majesty does not believe me, you may ask the abbot of the temple to testify for me.”

"You're so afraid just because I said it casually? Afraid the emperor will punish you again?" she said coldly.

After a while, a voice came from above: "Come here."

Yu An dared not make any rash moves and knelt forward two steps.

"Closer."

Yu An knelt down two more steps.

The Empress Dowager sighed helplessly, "I'm not going to eat you, raise your head."

Yu An straightened up, looked at the kind-faced woman in front of her, and couldn't help but smile. Suddenly, a layer of fog covered her eyes, blurring her vision.

"I am the one who has been wronged. I am not crying, so why are you crying? You scoundrel."

"It is precisely because the Empress Dowager has been so tolerant of Yu'an that Yu'an is where she is today. The Empress Dowager's kindness to Yu'an is more than that of giving her a second life."

The Empress Dowager waved her hand, "Alright, alright, I've had enough of this kind of empty talk. My ears are calloused. Say something useful."

Yu An bit her lip. "I also made some handkerchiefs for the Empress Dowager. Would the Empress Dowager like to take a look?"

"Today is your birthday, what should I give you?"

The old woman stepped forward to help her up and said with a smile, "Young mistress is easily fooled. The Empress Dowager is just playing with you; she's not really angry with you."

"Who told this demon to be such a good actress? During the three months she was at Tantuo Temple, not a single day was a day when I could relax. She was always on my mind. She has quite the skill."

During her hundred-day absence, she was constantly being sent food and embroidery. Now, the cabinets in Shou Kang Palace are half full of the things she sent.

The abbot said that she was a vegetarian and had copied hundreds of volumes of scriptures in blood. Over time, she had softened her heart.

Besides, she wasn't heartless.

“Mingjia wasn’t lying, you have indeed lost a lot of weight…”

"Now that you're finally back, you must take good care of yourself. Women are not like men; it's not easy for women to make up for deficiencies, and they are more prone to health problems when they get old."

Empress Dowager: "I have ordered the imperial kitchen to prepare a meal for you today. After you have eaten this meal with me, I will let you go back."

Yu An was surprised.

The Empress Dowager sighed, "The day you were imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice, Ji Jinghe came to see me. He said he had someone divine the feng shui of your birth date and time, and it turned out that the feng shui of your birth date and time clashed with that of the Ji family mansion. So he asked me to spare the Ji family's reputation for your sake. Later, he pleaded with me to help you..."

"Otherwise, I wouldn't know that your birthday is actually today."

"My birthday?"

“I know that your birthday has always been in the twelfth lunar month. I don’t want to do anything special today. I’m just using this as an excuse to invite you to a meal. After you go back, you can celebrate your birthday in the twelfth lunar month as usual.”

Seeing her bewildered expression, the Empress Dowager was not surprised.

Ji Jinghe had told her about this before, and he learned about it by chance when exchanging birth charts before the wedding.

After all, this isn't something that everyone should publicize.

The Empress Dowager stood up and walked to the dining table next to her. "If you ask me, your taste in men is truly terrible. How could you have chosen such a person?"

Yu An was stunned, unable to figure out whether he had deliberately given her the wrong birth date or had genuinely forgotten it.

Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the case.

Since the Empress Dowager was in a good mood, Yu'an couldn't very well point it out and could only go along with it, whatever she said.

"Don't think that my celebrating your birthday means I've forgiven you. I just don't want to be angry with you."

She understood her desire to avenge her father, but she would never forgive anyone who took advantage of her, no matter what their reasons were.

Knowing he was in the wrong, Yu'an dared not ask for an exception, and was content with that.

After leaving the palace, they discovered that Ji Jinghe's carriage was also parked outside.

Qingque stood guard outside, and before he could speak, Ji Jinghe stepped forward.

"You're out?"

Yu An glanced at the eunuch beside her and instructed, "I'll just ride in my own carriage. Please trouble you to go back and report the situation to the Empress Dowager."

Huangmen readily agreed, and Yu'an followed Ji Jinghe into the carriage.

Without the eunuchs serving the Empress Dowager, one can act more freely.

Yu An then began to recount what had just happened.

Ji Jinghe: "I was waiting for you here because I heard that you had been invited to the palace at the last minute."

Yu Anjing will be featured in the next installment.

“When Baozhu told me that you resembled the princess who died young, I thought I would take a gamble. If the Empress Dowager intervened to protect you, the odds of winning would be higher.”

Yu An: "So you fabricated my birthday, and the Empress Dowager believed it?"

Ji Jinghe: "I even had someone alter your Yellow Register."

"The Empress Dowager does not believe in reincarnation, and you do not need to feel apologetic. The reason she values ​​you so much now must be for other reasons."

"Was the eldest princess born in September?" she asked.

"yes."

Yu An sighed, unsure of what to say.

Honestly, after Mingjia mentioned that she resembled the Princess, she did intentionally imitate her. From clothing and facial features to the way she spoke, she tried her best to extract more information from Mingjia and imitated many things.

So that one day, he could use the Empress Dowager's compassion.

But she didn't expect that Ji Jinghe was even more ruthless than her.

"Ji Jinghe, this is deceiving the emperor! If anyone finds out..."

"Even if they find out, they'll only pin the blame on me. It was just something I made up, it has nothing to do with you."

His gaze was intense, as if filled with a deep affection unparalleled in the world, especially when he stared at her intently, revealing everything about her.

Yu An looked away without hesitation. "Don't even think about helping me, and I'll forgive you."

“I know,” he answered readily.

"I'm still investigating Qian Zhang's case. I'll let you know as soon as I have any news."

He added, “You are staying at the Chu residence, but the servants are still a bit short. To ensure your safety, I have sent a secret guard. If you need anything, just call the leader of the guard.”

While Yu An was filled with doubt and struggling with whether to refuse, he dispelled her concerns beforehand.

"The investigation is urgent. If I can really help you, it would be a way of making amends. Please let me do you a small favor."

Silence fell inside the carriage. Just as Yu'an was thinking about how to get back, the carriage stopped.

As if to escape, or perhaps because she really couldn't stay any longer, she got out of the car.

On the way back, Baozhu noticed that Yu'an looked unwell and couldn't help but ask, "Did the master bully the young lady again?"

“I said you shouldn’t have given me such a nice look. You can’t even remember my birthday. How can you ask for my forgiveness?”

Baozhu was indignant, seemingly more concerned about the birthday than Baozhu herself.

Yu An: "It wasn't because of this matter, but he... also helped me in a way."

"Help with what?"

Yu An chuckled lightly: "I didn't help much."

It seemed like it helped, but it also seemed like it didn't quite hit the mark.

Baozhu didn't understand, and finally just muttered one sentence: "I don't know anything about the young lady and the old man. Only you two can figure these things out. But I do know one thing: if the old man wants to pursue the young lady, he has a long way to go."

She couldn't keep secrets, and when Chu Zhuo'an asked why she went to the palace that day, she told him everything without missing a single detail.

Chu Zhuo'an was also angry that Ji Jinghe had misremembered her birthday. "Brother-in-law is really careless. I clearly told him that my sister's birthday is on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. How could he still get it wrong?"

Yu An was helpless.

Baozhu stepped forward to pour tea and earnestly advised, "So young master, you must never follow his example. If you get married in the future, you must remember your wife's birthday and not get it mixed up and spread it around."

“Don’t listen to her nonsense.” Yu’an sat down beside him. “He was trying to help me, so he deliberately said something wrong in front of the Empress Dowager.”

"The Empress Dowager loves me so much because of my love for her. If it weren't for her compassion, your sister might not be standing in front of you."

To file a complaint with the emperor would result in being struck fifty times.

Knowing that Chu Zhuo'an couldn't understand, Yu'an didn't want to say more and left it at that.

Chu Zhuoan: "I'm not just the young master of the Chu family anymore. If anyone dares to bully our family now, I'll be the first to fight them and show them what I'm made of."

As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves, and Yu'an then noticed a new scar on his arm.

"Where did you come from? And why are you injured?"

Chu Zhuoan smiled frankly, "Oh, it's just that I ran into a group of bandits while transporting goods and was accidentally slashed."

It had been half a year since I last saw him, and he had matured a bit. If it were before, he probably would have cried his eyes out.

That's for the best; someone from the Chu family has to take the reins again.

Even if the Yan family was indeed secretly involved in smuggling, it would be necessary to investigate thoroughly in Lizhou. Similarly, they couldn't remain idle in the capital. Yu'an had no choice but to focus the clues on the "headless letter".

She asked Su Mu to look for the person based on the portrait. She originally thought it would take a long time, but unexpectedly, she found out about Uncle Zhuang in just a few days.

Betrayal aside, he was still the servant her father trusted most when he was alive. Now that the Xia family has fallen from power and she has no more worries, perhaps she can get some useful information out of him.

Before meeting her, Su Mu had already had Uncle Zhuang thoroughly cleaned up, so that he could at least be recognized as a human being, much better than when he was begging outside the city gate.

"You should have heard about the Xia family's affairs. The reason I called you here today is to ask if my father ever asked you to keep an eye on the Xia family?"

Yu An squatted down and held the headless letter in front of him.

Do you still remember?

Uncle Zhuang cried out, extremely excited, as if he had a lot to say.

Seeing this, Baozhu placed the paper and pen on the ground.

Uncle Zhuang was once a capable official in the Chu family. His writing skills were no less than those of a scholar outside the family. He could write down the general outline of the matter in the blink of an eye.

It turned out that Chu Xingjian had long been aware of the murky waters within the cabinet, and in order to protect himself, he had sent people to keep an eye on the Xia family for over a month.

One day, while the servants were keeping watch, they were accidentally discovered by the deaf-mute messenger. In a moment of panic, the deaf-mute swallowed the poison hidden under his tongue, and the servants in the house only managed to obtain a secret letter from him.

All that is known is that it came from the Xia family, but no one knows where it was sent.

That's how it became a piece of waste paper.

Uncle Zhuang also said that most of the people who passed messages to the Xia family were deaf-mute and had tattoos.

"That's all the information my father found out?"

Uncle Zhuang nodded.

They had planned to go deeper, but before they could unleash their full potential, they were fatally attacked.

It wasn't a complete loss.

Yu An sighed and stood up to walk towards the desk when Uncle Zhuang suddenly started kowtowing to her as if he had gone mad.

Everyone present knew why.

Yu An: "If it were any other servant who betrayed my father to save his own life, I could understand, but it can't be you."

Chu Xingjian regarded him as a confidant, treating him with the utmost respect in terms of both allowances and daily life. Even she and Chu Zhuoan had been calling him "uncle" for over a decade.

Even with such affection, he couldn't spare a thought for his master's life; he's truly an ingrate.

“If you really feel guilty, then don’t die so easily. You know more about my father’s life than I do.”

Su Mu led the person away, but Yu An was still reeling from the aftermath.

No wonder her father tried every means to hide the item in his clothes, and even on his deathbed, he didn't take it out.

It's useless to take it out; it's better to leave it as evidence for future generations.

The Xia family probably found out about the death of a messenger, which is why they sped up their actions and caught her father off guard.

Thanks to Xing Jijinghe's convenience, he retrieved the list of all the servants of the Xia family and checked them one by one, but found no deaf or mute person.

"Everyone's here." Ji Jinghe handed her the roster.

Yu An glanced over, but still couldn't figure it out.

“Uncle Zhuang wouldn’t lie to me. I think we should find some more people.” Yu’an looked up and asked, “Where is the Xia family’s official?”

Just like the Chu family, officials are mostly the confidants of their masters. Compared to ordinary servants, they have more contact with things and may know something.

Ji Jinghe shook his head: "After the incident, the Xia family's butler died suddenly in prison due to the severe torture he endured."

"How could it be another sudden death?" Yu An frowned.

No need to think about it, it's probably someone else who did it again.

"If they wanted to silence everyone, shouldn't they have silenced everyone? The Xia family father and son, Luo Qian... everyone involved knew about it, yet they only silenced the butler?"

“The simpler a person is, the more they should be kept silent. No matter how serious the crimes of the Xia family are, they still have children and grandchildren to take care of. The same applies to people like Luo Qian.”

Ji Jinghe said, "Compared to them, this butler, who has no relatives or friends, is the most reckless and willing to give everything."

"So even when the interrogating officials had that headless letter, the Xia father and son said they didn't remember it..." Yu An breathed a sigh of relief.

Ji Jinghe also asked at the time, but Xia Zhao and his son rarely gave the same answer, both saying they couldn't remember.

"But I've heard that this steward has a whole bunch of sons, so perhaps we can get something else useful," he reassured him.

As they were talking, a constable stepped forward and brought a man forward; it was the adopted son of the Xia family steward.

Under Ji Jinghe's questioning, the man didn't hide anything and told everything he knew in order to save his life.

“I knew very little before, and he would beat me up if I asked too many questions. But once when we were talking, he revealed to me that the Xia family only used deaf-mute people when delivering important letters in private.”

"These people weren't born deaf and mute; they were bought from outside and specifically poisoned to make them deaf and mute..."

With a knife to his neck, he was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Before anyone could press him further, he added, "Yes, to make it easier for them to identify each other, these people also have unique tattoos on their necks. Beyond that, I don't know anything else..."