Chapter 146 Someone Will Care

Upon hearing this call, Sister Niu's cries abruptly ceased.

She called out softly, "Granny..." and then got up without hesitation, staggering towards the inner hall.

Shen Yiqiu breathed a sigh of relief. Not daring to delay, she immediately followed and slipped into the inner hall, gently closing the door behind her.

She had just adjusted to the darkness and hadn't even regained her footing when she felt a cold touch on her neck.

A sharp blade silently pressed against her throat.

Shen Yiqiu froze, her heart filled with horror.

With the alertness and skills she had honed on the frontier, she was completely unaware of the person approaching from behind.

This cold palace is indeed a place where hidden talents abound; this person's martial arts skills far surpass hers.

The two sides remained locked in a stalemate for several seconds, the air almost frozen.

Just as Shen Yiqiu was concentrating on finding a weakness, the sword around her neck loosened for a second.

She seized the opportunity, suddenly twisting her body to the side and back, and swiftly slamming her elbow backward in an attempt to retaliate.

However, her opponent was faster. She only felt a blur before her eyes, and when she came to her senses, the blade was already precisely pressed against her throat, even closer than before, and faint bloodstains were already being pressed under the blade.

"Speak! Who sent you?"

Shen Yiqiu forced herself to calm down, without struggling, and tentatively began to speak:

"Are you... Granny Su?"

She could clearly feel that the person behind her had loosened their grip on the sword slightly compared to before.

There's hope! She immediately struck while the iron was hot:

"Don't worry, I mean no harm. I've come at great risk simply to inquire about some old stories and learn about some long-forgotten matters..."

After a brief silence, the coldness on my neck disappeared.

Shen Yiqiu slowly exhaled a breath of stale air before daring to turn around completely.

By the faint moonlight, she could see the person behind her.

An elderly woman with almost completely white hair and a hunched back stared intently at her.

"After all these years, this old woman has been waiting to die in this godforsaken place. I never thought... anyone would still care about me. And I never thought you would be the first person to unexpectedly barge in and stand up to talk to me."

Shen Yiqiu nodded slightly in greeting, her gaze sweeping over a disfigured woman huddled in a corner:

"This young lady is... Green Peach?"

Granny Su shook her head and gave a cold laugh:

"Green Peach? She's long dead."

She gestured with her chin towards the two prostrate skeletons outside the door.

"That one of them is Green Peach. This..."

She looked at the woman in the corner.

"She was just the only sister Green Peach had ever been close to in this cold palace, called Sister Niu. After Green Peach died, she became like this."

Shen Yiqiu was startled:

"Green Peach is dead? When did that happen?"

Granny Su spoke in a flat tone:

"He died long ago, in that plague."

Shen Yiqiu frowned and bluntly pointed out:

"But there was never a real plague outbreak outside, was there?"

Upon hearing this, Granny Su abruptly raised her head, staring intently at Shen Yiqiu, quite surprised:

How did you find out?

“Those two skeletons. I’ve seen real plague victims on the frontier; their bones would show abnormalities due to specific diseases, especially at the joints. But the two skeletons outside the door were relatively intact and did not have this characteristic.”

She paused slightly and continued:

"Moreover, I saw several violets and dandelions growing at the corner of the outer wall of the hall."

"The old lady, having lived in the palace for so long, may not know that these two herbs are commonly used in folk medicine to treat the plague and to clear heat and detoxify."

"If a deadly plague had indeed broken out here, the first priority in the palace's epidemic prevention would have been to clean up the filth and burn and bury it. There would have been no way that herbs that could cure the disease would have been allowed to grow luxuriantly in the center of the epidemic area."

"The skeletons showed no signs of plague, yet life-saving medicine was produced in the plague-stricken area... Isn't this plague theory self-contradictory and full of loopholes?"

After listening, Granny Su gave a strange smile and casually said:

"In this deep palace, there's no shortage of corpses labeled with all sorts of names. Whether they died of disease, poisoning, or... were disposed of, who cares?"

"What does it matter if it's the plague or not? Right now it's just a pile of bones. In a few years, even the bones will be worn away by insects, ants, and wild dogs, and then it will truly cease to exist. Just like this old woman of mine, sooner or later it will be the same."

Her tone was completely numb and sorrowful.

Shen Yiqiu interrupted her decisively:

"But I care."

Seeing the astonished look in Granny Su's eyes, she pointed to the skeletons outside the door:

"Green Peach cares."

"I care about the millions of innocent people who died without knowing why."

"The truth should not be easily erased. Green Peach should not have died under mysterious circumstances, and you should not have disappeared silently in this dark and sunless place, carrying a secret."

"Tell me, what exactly happened when Marquis Yongjia, Shen Zhaohua, was in the palace? And why were you trapped here?"

Granny Su stared at Shen Yiqiu. In the dim light, the girl's eyes shone with an astonishing brightness. She had seen that look in her eyes once before, but she never expected it to be like this...

After a moment of silence, she suddenly spoke:

"Shen Zhaohua...who is he to you?"

Shen Yiqiu was slightly surprised, but did not hesitate and told him frankly:

"She is my maternal grandmother."

Upon hearing this, Granny Su looked at her intently.

After a long while, she nodded, asked no more questions, silently turned around, and walked into the house.

After fumbling for a moment, he took out something tightly wrapped in a faded red cloth, held it up, and handed it to Shen Yiqiu.

“This… is the child Green Peach. Before she died, she risked her life to snatch it from the people who came to clean up the place, hid it, and begged me to keep it and give it to the descendants of the Shen family.”

“She said that this was something that the Marquis of Yongjia left in the palace… I’ve been waiting here for so many years, but I haven’t found a chance to send it away, nor have I waited for anyone from the Shen family to come looking for it… I never expected that you would come looking for it yourself today.”

Shen Yiqiu accepted the red cloth bundle with both hands, and Granny Su continued:

"However, I know very little about the specifics of your maternal grandmother's life in the palace. I only remember that during the time she entered the palace, all her daily needs were personally arranged by Consort Zhao Ke'er, who was then a Noble Consort. I am of lowly status and have only seen Lord Shen a few times from afar..."

"Lord Shen... is truly an extraordinary woman. In the entire harem, only she would genuinely speak up for us lowly palace servants whose lives are as insignificant as weeds."

"I still remember that time I saw her from afar on the palace road. Her eyes... were bright and clear, as if they could see right through people's hearts. I've remembered that one glance for the rest of my life."

Her gaze returned to Shen Yiqiu's face, and she sighed:

"I never expected to see such eyes again today."

“Granny Su, I’ve risked coming here today not only to investigate my maternal grandmother’s past, but also on the behalf of His Highness the Crown Prince. He wants to know about his birth mother, Consort Jia, back then…”

"The Crown Prince?"

The moment the words "Consort Jia" were uttered, Granny Su's expression changed drastically.

She quickly interrupted Shen Yiqiu, waving her hands repeatedly:

"Go! Go now! This old woman knows nothing about His Highness the Crown Prince. Don't ask any more questions, don't investigate any further, take your things and leave here immediately. Hurry!"

As she spoke, she pushed Shen Yiqiu toward the door without saying a word, her attitude completely different from before.

Shen Yiqiu was taken aback by her intense reaction. As dawn broke, she knew it was no longer safe to linger there.

"Take care, Granny. I will always remember your kindness today."