“Our Eastern Palace has always been peaceful, and the younger sisters are all sensible. Why would we need to keep an eye on them? I am just reminding the younger sisters not to fall into the traps of outsiders. After all, the princesses will also be coming to the palace in the next couple of days.”
The Crown Princess stopped there, and after speaking, she raised her teacup to indicate that the guest was to leave.
This was probably the fastest greeting I've ever finished.
Everyone got up and walked outside. Guo Liangyuan's expression was not very good, and she walked rather quickly, being the first to exit the palace gate.
Song Xibai fell behind.
Du Chenghui took small steps closer and asked in a low voice.
"Sister Xi, may I come to your room for a while later?"
Song Xibai blinked and nodded with a smile.
She could tell that Du Chenghui had something to say to her privately!
The group filed out and went back to their respective houses.
Song Xibai returned to the east side hall, waved to the palace maids who were busy inside, and told them to go and rest.
After Granny Fangqi arrived, the palace maids became more orderly and behaved much more quietly, bowing their heads as they withdrew, leaving only Fuliu behind.
Du Chenghui didn't even keep his personal maid, sending her away instead.
After Fuliu closed the door, Du Chenghui grabbed Song Xibai's wrist and led her into the inner room.
"Sister Xi, I've discovered a huge secret!"
Du Chenghui looked nervous, and his speech quickened considerably.
Song Xibai patted her hand reassuringly and then pulled her down to sit.
"Tell me slowly, what is it?"
"Just a few days ago, the gardeners from the Imperial Garden sent over a lot of beautiful flowers, saying they were new varieties they had cultivated, and they were giving them to the Crown Princess to admire in advance. After looking at them, the Crown Princess gave them to everyone."
Song Xibai's eyes flashed as he thought of the flower on Guo Liangyuan's head.
"Is there something wrong with those flowers?"
“I don’t know if there’s a problem. I’ve been in poor health since I fell into the water before the New Year. I often cough and can’t stand the smell of flowers, so I had them moved to the porch outside. The maid in my room said that these flowers were a gift from the Crown Princess and that it’s not appropriate to do this, lest it displease the Crown Princess. I’ve been thinking about it and wondering if I could find the gardener in the Imperial Garden to replace them with a flower that doesn’t have a fragrance.”
Du Chenghui spoke at length without taking a breath, which showed that she had been holding these words in her heart for a long time, thinking about them repeatedly.
"But when I went to the Imperial Garden, I found that the gardeners had all been replaced."
"What do you mean? You've replaced all the gardeners?"
Song Xibai sat upright, his body involuntarily leaning forward.
“Yes! They’ve all been replaced!” Du Chenghui lowered his voice and continued, “Sister, you know it’s easy to offend people in the palace. Servants are rotated frequently, but gardeners don’t need to serve you closely, so they are rarely moved. I found it strange, so I asked around, but no one knew where the original gardeners went. Neither the Censorate nor the Palace Expedition Records.”
Gardeners were all eunuchs, since planting flowers and trees and moving them around was physically demanding work.
Unlike palace maids, eunuchs mostly stayed in the palace until old age and could not leave.
The founding emperor of the Dayin Dynasty took pity on them and ordered a manor to be set up in the suburbs for the old eunuchs to live out their days and die. The manor was later named Rongyang Manor.
This was the only time the eunuchs were allowed to leave the palace.
Normally, whether it was illness, purchasing supplies, or accompanying the master out of the palace on business, everything had to be recorded.
There are no records of them leaving the palace, nor of the Imperial Penal Office, and those gardeners are not even of retirement age, yet they just vanished into thin air.
Du Chenghui became increasingly frightened as he thought about it, and fell ill after returning home, taking medicine for two days.
"I don't even dare to tell my aunt. I only dare to tell you when my sister comes back."
Du Chenghui's fair face showed a relieved expression, and she blinked her eyes as she looked at Song Xibai.
No wonder you look a little thinner.
Song Xibai touched her forehead, then asked Fuliu to fetch her medicine box.
"Drinking too much herbal medicine will affect your appetite. If you don't want to drink medicine, you can ask the Imperial Hospital to make some pills, about the size of a mung bean, which you can just swallow directly."
As Song Xibai gave her instructions, he took a small bottle from his medicine box and handed it to her.
Du Chenghui didn't ask what kind of medicine it was, but obediently accepted it and got up to thank him.
“I haven’t been eating much lately, and I thought it was because spring is here and I have no appetite! But it’s not just me, Guo Liangyuan has also been eating less lately. I see that every time she takes out food from her room, it’s still full.”
Du Chenghui usually stayed quietly in his room or sat by the window, not attracting attention, but he saw quite a lot.
Is there anything else unusual about her?
Song Xibai asked again.
Du Chenghui thought about it carefully: "It seems like I've been making some perfumes and cosmetics lately."
No sooner had she finished speaking than Fu Liu couldn't help but interject.
“This servant knows! My lady, Consort Guo has somehow obtained two beauty recipes, which she says are ancient and lost. One can whiten the skin, and the other is said to make the body fragrant! They are quite peculiar.”
"Beauty recipes?"
Song Xibai looked puzzled.
Why is she looking for this?
Guo Liangyuan isn't ugly at all!
Of course, she's not quite a beauty that could topple kingdoms, nor can she be considered an absolute beauty, but she can certainly be considered a pretty girl.
She usually speaks in a soft and gentle voice, and her main persona is that of a kind and gentle beauty.
To be fair, among the beauties in the Eastern Palace, the one with the most beautiful features is the brainless and troublesome Zhu Qianqian. The one with the best temperament is the Crown Princess; her dignified and elegant bearing is not something just anyone can possess.
Song Xibai didn't have much contact with others, but she felt that Du Chenghui was the innocent, timid type, while Guo Liangyuan was more like a gentle older sister.
As for what Guo Liangyuan's true personality is, no one knows.
"This servant guesses that Consort Guo feels that her appearance is not as good as yours, so she cannot win over His Highness the Crown Prince. That's why she is going to great lengths to improve her looks!"
Fu Liu shared her guesses, not forgetting to flatter him.
Song Xibai completely ignored her flattery.
Her appearance was at best that of a girl from a modest family, not enough to arouse Guo Liangyuan's competitive mentality.
Song Xibai was quite rational in this regard.
The crown prince wasn't someone who cared much about beauty; he took a liking to her mainly because of her boldness and initiative.
After all, Song Xibai was probably the only one in the entire Da Yin Dynasty who dared to ask the Crown Prince to take off his pants.
Song Xibai blushed slightly, coughed lightly to hide her unease, and then asked.
"Is it possible to get her two prescriptions?"
Fu Liu frowned: "That might not be easy. She doesn't allow anyone else into her room except for her two personal maids."
"Never mind her for now, let's talk to His Highness about the gardener first!"
After weighing the options, Song Xibai felt that the gardener's disappearance was more urgent.
So, after instructing Du Chenghui not to tell anyone else about this, Song Xibai got up and escorted her back to the inner palace.
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