cause and effect
"Can't help me?" I pressed. "Is it that you're unwilling to help, or that you're unable to help?"
"I'm unwilling to help, and I can't help anyway." With a single, casual remark, she blocked all avenues of hope.
"Oh? Your master is still holding a position in the imperial court. You probably don't want his career advancement to be affected, do you?"
Madam Zheng snorted coldly: "If you're so capable, why didn't you just come with the imperial edict? Why did you have to come to this old woman's house alone?"
Oh, you're really asking for it?
“Alright,” I stood up immediately, “then I’ll come back after I get the imperial decree.” Then I walked outside.
Just as he stepped into the front hall, Lord Zheng approached: "Have you taken care of things, Your Excellency?"
"All done?" I mimicked Madam Zheng's tone and snorted coldly: "Hmph... Your lady is unwilling to exert herself without an imperial edict, so I'm going to the palace to request an imperial edict for your lady."
"What?" Lord Zheng's face turned pale, and he immediately called to his servants, "Go and invite Madam over, quickly!" The servants responded and ran to the backyard in a flash.
Lord Zheng smiled again and looked at me: "Please wait a moment, sir. I will have your wife come over shortly." As he spoke, he had a servant bring over two cups of fine tea.
Before Ah Shi had even finished half of his tea, Madam Zheng was invited over. Lord Zheng went straight to greet her, grabbed his wife's hand, and said earnestly, "Madam, please don't act rashly. It is our honor that such a distinguished person has asked us for help. Why do we need to ask for an imperial decree?"
With Lord Zheng's firm grip, Madam Zheng naturally understood the gravity of the situation. She then came over and bowed to me, saying, "This old woman misspoke. I will now go to the palace with Your Excellency."
"Are you leaving?"
"Yes, of course I'll go."
"No need to request an imperial decree?"
"No need, no need, I was just joking! Please forgive me, sir."
His face changes so quickly, without revealing even a hint of displeasure. I wonder how he's managed to get by all these decades.
I didn't intend to make things difficult for them, so I said, "Let's go then."
The two carriages soon returned to the palace. When we arrived at Chuanguang Hall, a palace maid brought the trembling Third Princess over: "Your Highness, we have re-hung the gourd. We haven't seen anything unusual these past two days."
“Okay,” I nodded, “Take your princess to stay somewhere else for a couple of days, and then you can move back here once things are better.”
After the palace maids led the Third Princess away, I said to Madam Zheng, who was following behind us, "You had a finger bone broken in this courtyard years ago. Your task today is to find that finger bone and dispel the evil energy on it before you can go back."
"This..." Madam Zheng looked at me with difficulty: "So many years have passed, how are we supposed to find it?"
“You were beaten so badly back then, you must have some memory of it,” I said bluntly. “Think carefully, you’ll be able to find it.”
After I finished speaking, I took Ah Shi and moved two chairs to sit down and watch.
Madam Zheng probably didn't expect Ah Shi and me to just sit there waiting for her. She glanced at me and said, "Aren't you going to help, young lady? More people will find it faster!"
When Ah Shi heard this, he tried to get up, but I pressed him back down: "This is your own finger bone, you have to find it yourself."
"Oh? This old woman doesn't have much strength, so it might take some time."
"It's alright, please feel free. I believe that the absence of you as the mistress of the Zheng household for a couple of days will not have a significant impact. If it really comes down to it, I can also have a lady-in-waiting from the palace help you manage the household affairs. It's just a matter of a word."
"You!" She glared at me. "You must have taken this on someone's behalf, right? The sooner you resolve this, the sooner you can do other things, right?"
“I’m not in a hurry, I’m fine. The person who entrusted me with this task is the emperor. The delay is because of you, what does it have to do with me?” I paused, then blocked another way out: “Don’t expect your master to remember to come and pick you up either. With this Eastern Pearl, even if he’s impatient, he can only wait.”
“A pearl…” she scoffed dismissively.
"Yes, it's just a single pearl, nothing special. But what if this pearl were the one on His Majesty's crown?"
"What?" she exclaimed, her face full of disbelief. "Impossible, how could this be?"
"Aren't you curious that I was invited into the manor so respectfully by your master while dressed in casual clothes? Yesterday, when I went to ask for the Eastern Pearl, your master was waiting outside the Imperial Study. He saw me clearly when I came out. Otherwise, why would he let you into the palace?"
I looked up at the sky and said slowly, "It's almost noon. If Madam Zheng doesn't hurry up, she might not be able to get back to the Zheng residence today."
"You..." She pointed her finger at me angrily, and I raised an eyebrow at her: "What? You're not happy?"
She angrily put her hand down, snorted, and then resignedly began searching with the other palace maids and eunuchs.
She procrastinated all afternoon, tapping here and there, and it was obvious at a glance that she wasn't looking carefully.
Is this an attempt to stall? I turned to look at Ah Shi: "Ah Shi, go find Mu Li and have him send a squad of imperial guards to surround this courtyard."
“Okay,” A-Shi nodded and went to find Mu-Li. A little while later, A-Shi returned and simply nodded at me.
As the sky was filled with the glow of sunset, Mu Li arrived on time with a small squad of imperial guards. He first bowed to me and said, "Miss." When I nodded, he turned to the palace maid and Madam Zheng, who were holding shovels and looking somewhat bewildered, and said, "There is a nighttime curfew in the palace. No one is allowed to wander around. I have specially brought soldiers to guard the area. You don't need to panic. Just focus on your work."
Now that Mu Li is here, there's no need for me to stay here. I stood up, dusted off my clothes, and headed out. Sure enough, I heard Madam Zheng trying to stop me: "Aren't you going to keep watch, Miss?"
"I guarded you during the day because I was afraid you would run around the palace and lose your lives. Now that General Mu is leading troops to guard the palace, what am I doing here?"
Madam Zheng forced a smile, but even with my back turned, I could hear the forced smile in her voice: "It's already very late. Why don't we palace maids and servants rest first, and continue tomorrow?"
“Madam Zheng probably didn’t understand,” I turned to look at her. “I’ve said it before, the Zheng family can manage without you as the mistress for a few days. As for these servants, they will be rewarded for finding the solution to the Third Princess’s illness as soon as possible. There’s no need for Madam Zheng to play the good guy.”
She stared intently at me without saying a word, so I looked up and let her stare back.
At this moment, Mu Li walked up to me and said, "Miss, since it will take some more time, I will take you back to the Imperial Observatory first." Then Mu Li turned to the Imperial Guards around him and said, "Keep a close watch. Once you find the item, release her immediately."
This means that the person cannot be released until they are found. The imperial guards responded in unison, "Yes."
I glanced at Madam Zheng again, and was about to leave when Madam Zheng spoke up again: "Young lady, these bones have been lost for so many years, and they really can't be found. It's not something that can be resolved in a few more days, so please don't make things difficult for this old woman."
"Oh?" I thought for a moment: "Since there aren't enough people, let your married daughter help you look. Take your time, we'll find someone eventually. Besides, I believe her husband's family will be happy to help His Majesty and the Third Princess with this."
"You, you're going too far."
"I'm going too far? I politely invited you to the palace to find your own bones, and you made all sorts of excuses. Who's going too far, you or me?"
"I did nothing wrong back then. She was just jealous that His Majesty glanced at me a couple of times, so she broke my little finger and kicked me out of the palace. Now that bone is causing her daughter's illness. It's a miracle, what does it have to do with me? It's her own doing!"
Finally, I told her the truth. I took two steps closer to her and looked at her: "You never intended to find that broken bone, did you?"
She didn't answer my question directly, only saying, "You reap what you sow."
"You reap what you sow?" I took two steps closer to her, staring directly at her. "That bone is yours, and that resentment is yours too. This resentment has lingered in Chuanguang Hall for over a decade. From the Imperial Concubine and the Third Princess down to the palace maids and eunuchs of Chuanguang Hall, who hasn't been affected by this resentment? Do you think these consequences are on their mother and daughter?" I raised my voice, shouting angrily, "Why don't you think about how you and your husband, who are so loving, only have one daughter? Why don't you think about why your daughter has never conceived after so many years of marriage?"
"You..." She took two steps back, her face filled with disbelief: "How did you know?"
"How would I know? Because all these consequences are attributed to your Zheng family!" I continued to press her: "You think I'm making things difficult for you? I'm helping you resolve future troubles, clearing the karmic debts for your Zheng family!"
"No, it's impossible, how could this be..." She collapsed to the ground, muttering repeatedly, "It's her fault, she's the one who's wrong!"
"She's wrong? And you? Do you think the cause and effect of this world is only her, the Imperial Concubine?"
"No, how could this be, how could this be..." She is still playing the victim.
I stood up and directly exposed her pretense: "You say she's jealous of you? Do you think everyone in this palace is blind? You came to the palace to accompany your sisters, wearing a flashy dark red wide-sleeved dress, wandering around this courtyard every day—whose attention are you trying to attract? Saying she's wrong—did she throw you out the moment you entered the palace? It was you who tried to seduce His Majesty and was discovered, which is why you ended up like this. People say that when someone has a thought, heaven and earth are watching. Do you think heaven and earth are blind?"
After saying that, I pointed to the rows of houses in Chuanguang Hall: "Couldn't the decades of resentment that has permeated Chuanguang Hall be the result of Heaven's cruel punishment?" Then I turned and pointed to Madam Zheng lying on the ground: "And the fact that I have found you now is because this karmic connection has come to an end. And you, you are still so foolish and unaware. What? Do you expect to wake up only when the Third Princess goes mad, when the Imperial Concubine dies, and when the consequences of their misdeeds are all projected onto your Zheng family?"
"You're exaggerating, I don't believe you!"
"Alright, then give it a try!" I looked up at the dark sky: "The cause and effect of this matter are laid out before you; I have also told you about the dissipation of this evil consequence; I have even built the ladder for you to descend the steps, it's up to you whether you will descend it or not!"
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