Su Rong understood that the Emperor seemed to very much wish Zhou Gu to stay in Nanchu, better yet to claim her as his queen.
By his view, it would very much benefit Daliang. After all, Zhou Gu was born to the Duke Residence, with all her family in Daliang. If he could harness her, then he could tie Nanchu tightly on Daliang’s leash. Though her foster family was in Daliang, for the emperor, it wasn’t enough. After all, those people were simply her adoptive parents and siblings, without any blood connection. The emperor and the crown prince, who had a kinship with her, had not watched her grow up from childhood, and the emperor knew that there was no affection strong enough to tether her.
If one day, she became overwhelmingly ambitious and turned against Daliang, he believed it was not impossible.
Thus, he told her about the hardships of being an emperor, and how one could not act on their will or desire freely since it could lead to errors, prioritising the country and the people above all else. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
Reflecting on the emperor before her, although he might not be a good emperor, he took the prosperity and stability of Daliang to heart, which was commendable. His ability to admit his momentary lapse and error, meant he might still be redeemable.
The Emperor exchanged some idle words with her, and then asked, "You have come to the palace on a rare occasion, would you stay and dine with me before you go?"
Su Rong agreed cheerfully, "The day is still relatively early. I heard there’s a Book Pavilion within the palace housing thousands of volumes. Uncle Xie had once told me that if I ever get the chance to visit the palace, I must head to the Book Pavilion and immerse myself in the world of books. If you allow it, I would like to visit the Book Pavilion and then return to dine with you at noon."
One after the other, she respectfully addressed him as ’Uncle’. It was not as unfamiliar as when she referred to him as ’Your Majesty’ a few days prior. Moreover, she mentioned Xie Yuan, a book enthusiast, meaning it wasn’t odd for his name to be associated with the Book Pavilion. The emperor didn’t think much about it and granted her permission gladly. With a smile, he said, "Very well, you may go. Do you still have the token I gave you? With that token, you can easily access the Book Pavilion. I will have someone accompany you."
Su Rong stood up and politely expressed her gratitude, "Thank you, Uncle. I still have your token, and I will be on my way."
The Emperor waved his hand, "Go ahead."
Thus, Su Rong left the Yangxin Hall with Fen Ling, led to the Book Pavilion by a eunuch.
There were heavy guards outside the Book Pavilion. Su Rong showed them the ’As I am present’ token, and after examining it, they saluted her respectfully, opened the doors of the Book Pavilion, and invited her to enter.
The eunuch faithfully served her, keeping up with the notion that the Book Pavilion was a distinguished place. Therefore, he accompanied Su Rong and Fen Ling into the Book Pavilion without any objection.
The Book Pavilion in the royal palace was indeed grand, with rows of bookshelves housing an impressive number of books.
After entering the Book Pavilion, Su Rong seemingly strolled aimlessly along the rows of bookshelves. Whenever she found an interesting book, she would pick it up and glance through it for a while, then put it down and continue forward.
The eunuch followed her for half an hour and began to feel tired. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he dared not disturb Su Rong and remained silent.
Taking the opportunity, Fen Ling tactfully suggested, "Why don’t we sit down and have some tea delivered? We can sit and let my sister roam freely on her own, since I am not a fan of reading in any case."
The eunuch asked, "Are you thirsty, Master Fen?"
"Isn’t it obvious?"
The eunuch glanced at Su Rong and seeing she had a book at hand, leaning against a bookshelf, casually flipping through it, paying no attention to their hushed chat, he nodded, "Wait a moment, Master Fen. I’ll have someone bring the tea. Please, find a place to sit."
Fen Ling pointed, "Over there. Isn’t there a table and chairs? It looks comfortable to me. Is it not specially set up for people to rest while reading?"
The eunuch glanced there, "Indeed it is."
Fen Ling waved him away and proceeded to lazily take a seat.
The eunuch turned and left to relay his instructions.
Su Rong glanced up at the departing eunuch before swiftly pulling out Zhang Wu’s letter from his book and quickly beginning to read it.
The eunuch returned soon, followed by a small eunuch carrying a teapot and a tray. Fen Ling invited the eunuch to join him for tea. Without any hesitation, the eunuch sat down with Fen Ling as the serving small eunuch retired.
After enjoying a cup of tea, the eunuch suddenly tilted his head and passed out on the couch.
Fen Ling wasted no moment, rapidly moved to Su Rong’s side, and said, "Sister, hurry up."
Su Rong put down the half-read letter from Zhang Wu and sensed that it might not be as urgent as the treasure map. Even though Zhang Wu’s letter was indeed impressive, making Zhou Gu regret not having enough time to fully enjoy reading it, she also shared the same feeling.
Zhou Gu had previously mentioned that the map was hidden in a secret compartment located at the top of the Book Pavilion. He had been studying mechanism-triggered hidden weapons and assumed that he could now crack open that particular compartment. He had shared his investigative findings with Su Rong yesterday.
Upon arriving at the designated location mentioned by Zhou Gu, Su Rong and Fen Ling referenced Zhou Gu’s method of disarming the mechanism. They found that the result of his two years of research was indeed worth the effort. If she and Fen Ling were to disarm the mechanism blindly, it would have certainly taken longer. The hidden weapons in the palace have much more intricate mechanisms than those in Buddha Temple.
In spite of Zhou Gu’s guidance, it took them the time of burning two incense sticks to disarm the mechanism. Upon opening the secret compartment, they found a scroll hidden within.
The scroll was dusted with poison powder, which proved no problem for Su Rong. She deftly shook the poison off into a kerchief, proceeded to open the scroll with Fen Ling.
The scroll was quite long and depicted a landscape, disappointingly it was a half scroll.
It appeared that someone had torn the scroll in the middle, splitting it in two, with the first half being kept in the Daliang Imperial Palace.
Fen Ling was somewhat disappointed and said, "Sister, it’s only a half scroll, how can this be! It was a waste of our efforts."
Su Rong was not so disappointed and said, "If it were a whole scroll, Zhou Gu would not have needed to dwell on it. The Crown Prince would have already taken it and studied it. It’s unlikely that a treasure map would be sitting confined in the Daliang Imperial Palace, especially when the national treasury is short of silver."
Fen Ling sighed thoughtfully, "We have no clue about the whereabouts of the other half, despite the half scroll being torn and damaged. It’s still worth the effort to remember its details. Who knows, we might get lucky and find the other half someday."
Su Rong nodded in agreement, "Of course."
She couldn’t let her efforts be in vain and decided to pursue the second half of the scroll.
An incense stick’s time later, Su Rong rewrapped the scroll, sprinkling the poison powder back on it, and placed it back in the secret compartment.
After restoring everything to its original state, Su Rong returned to finish reading Zhang Wu’s letter while Fen Ling went on to revive the unconscious eunuch with the kerchief. He then continued to sip tea.
Upon waking up, the eunuch assumed he had dozed off. He turned his gaze towards Su Rong who was still reading at the original bookshelf, and Fen Ling who was lazily sipping tea; he rubbed his eyes, "Did I doze off, Master Feng?"
"Did you fall asleep?" Fen Ling looked surprised, "Didn’t seem like it, we were just conversing weren’t we?" Without waiting for the eunuch’s response, he expressed sympathy, "Serving the Emperor must be exhausting. You look weary. Do you want to rest for a bit? There aren’t many others here, and it’s quite some time before my sister is to have lunch with the Emperor, we’ll just have to kill some time here."
The eunuch shook his head vigorously, "The Emperor entrusted me to accompany your esteemed guests. How could I be lazy? I wouldn’t dare fall asleep. After all, I can rest tonight. I can hold up, Master Feng, and thank you."
Fen Ling did not insist further, poured a cup of tea for him, "In that case, let the strong tea invigorate you. Please have a few more cups."
The eunuch nodded incessantly, not doubting for a moment that he had been unconscious for a while.
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