Seeing her smug and charming appearance, Meng Yuxiu could only smile helplessly.
"Wait a moment, I need to write a reply!"
Chang Lili excitedly climbed up the steps, found paper and pen from somewhere, and wrote a letter on the small table in the wooden house with flowing strokes.
During this time, Meng Yuxiu couldn't help but try to peek, but Chang Lili warily blocked him. However, judging from her handwriting, he couldn't recognize what she was writing after just a couple of glances.
After Chang Lili finished writing the letter, Meng Yuxiu was about to leave. She handed the letter to Meng Yuxiu and then saw him off.
"If anything happens, tell the people who bring the food. They are trustworthy and will tell me themselves," Meng Yuxiu said with a worried look on his face.
Chang Lili nodded and pushed Meng Yuxiu toward the horse by the tree, saying, "I know, I'll take good care of myself."
Meng Yuxiu then mounted his horse and rode away, but the worry between his brows never dissipated.
Watching his receding figure, she couldn't help but cross her arms and sigh to herself, "Where did the aloof, handsome, and decisive Meng Yuxiu go? Why has he become so fussy and indecisive?"
"This is what they call being too concerned to think clearly."
A weathered voice rang in her ears, startling Chang Lili. She turned her head and saw Zhou Lue watching Meng Yuxiu leave in the same manner.
With his eyes glazed over, he said in a profound tone, "This is what they call a hero who can't resist the charms of a beautiful woman. In front of others, he is still that handsome, dashing, wise, and incorruptible general. But in front of you, tsk tsk tsk, my poor disciple has become a henpecked husband."
"You...you! Don't talk nonsense!" After saying this, Chang Lili fled as if she were running away.
Thinking of Lu Ming's letter, she felt a surge of emotion.
The girl started her letter by complaining that she was so bored because Chang Lili wasn't around. She asked her how she was doing now that she had joined the Light Machinery Department, what the Light Machinery Department was like, and that the news of her joining the Light Machinery Department had spread. She also said that she was now a big shot.
She also said that Chu Huan was always following her around, which made her feel very troubled and uncomfortable.
At the end of the letter, Lu Ming still told Chang Lili, unwilling to give up, that she couldn't find Su Ling no matter what she did. It was as if he had vanished. There were no wealthy families in the capital with the surname Su, and she didn't know how to find him.
Chang Lili sighed inwardly. In fact, the so-called Su Ling was both far away and right in front of her. But Chang Lili felt that if she told Lu Ming about this, it would not help her, but rather harm her.
If she were to be accidentally drawn into the undercurrents within the palace, she would surely be like a lamb to the slaughter, with little chance of survival.
So when she replied, she first told her that she was doing well, then said that everyone in the Light Machine Department was strange, and finally continued to advise her to cherish the people in front of her, as someone like Su Ling was out of reach.
Soon, the tools she used at the military workshop were brought over by the washing and washing department, and Chang Lili began to focus on making her mechanical bird. Time passed quietly and quickly.
The Imperial Palace.
Even the magnificent palace has its dilapidated parts.
Deep within the palace, overgrown vegetation lay untended, and even palace maids and eunuchs were rarely seen.
In a palace with mottled walls, the pale-faced Consort Lan sat in front of an old dressing table, dumbfounded.
She used to be so glamorous; the palace she lived in was even more magnificent than the Kunning Palace where the Empress resided.
But now she was sitting in this dilapidated palace, where even the plaque was half-hanging on the lintel and the words on the plaque were missing corners.
She threw the food that the maid brought her onto the ground. In the past, she ate delicacies and slept on a high bed with soft pillows, but now, the food on the ground was no different from what was fed to pigs.
That hard bed made it difficult to fall asleep, and when I woke up, my whole body felt like it was falling apart.
That's not the worst part. As the saying goes, times have changed, and people are forgotten when they're gone. Now that she's lost power, it's a relief for those snobbish palace maids and servants.
Even after being banished to the Cold Palace, she was still a Noble Consort. But unexpectedly, these people dared to ride roughshod over her.
The things they usually sent were not only underweight, but also of extremely poor quality. They spoke as if they were the masters.
"You're already lucky to have these things, yet you're still nitpicking. Do you think you're still the same Consort Lan you used to be?" This was a lowly eunuch whom Consort Lan had never even remembered by name before, yet he dared to come before her and flaunt his power, emphasizing the words "Consort Lan" with particular intensity.
Consort Lan, panting with anger, said, "That's none of your business to put on airs in front of me. Who do you think you are!"
“Oh,” the little eunuch raised an eyebrow, “You’ve become like this and you still have quite a temper. Let me tell you, from now on you have to call me Grandpa, otherwise, if I’m in a bad mood, it’s very possible that I’ll forget to bring you food one day.”
"Get out! Get out of here!" Consort Lan's face turned red and then white with anger as she roared and chased the little eunuch out.
Her personal maidservant hurriedly stepped forward to comfort her: "Your Highness, please don't be angry. These scoundrels are just like that, always changing their tune depending on the wind..."
Before she could finish speaking, the out-of-control Consort Lan yelled at her as well.
"Get out, all of you! You get out too!"
The maid looked aggrieved and left.
After the maid left, Consort Lan was still furious. In her anger, she swept the rough white porcelain teapot and teacups off the table.
The old table, with one leg broken off and no satin covering it, looked incredibly ugly. Consort Lan, with a burst of energy she didn't know where she got the strength, overturned it to the ground, but still felt it wasn't enough to vent her anger.
Just then, she suddenly heard someone whispering outside the door: "Sister Xiangyu, why don't you just come with us? What are you doing staying with this old witch? She's lost power now, and you won't have a good life if you stay with her."
These people probably didn't know how poor the soundproofing was in this dilapidated palace, and assumed that Consort Lan couldn't hear them talking.
"Oh dear, I wish I could, but when I followed her before, I offended everyone I could. Now that I'm out here, who can I turn to? The Emperor?"
Consort Lan was very familiar with that voice. It was the person she trusted most in the palace, Xiangyu, her personal maid who had followed her into the palace. She had always treated Xiangyu very well!
Consort Lan's anger suddenly dissipated. She felt a surge of bloody smell and coughed, almost coughing up blood.
The anger in her heart had now turned into sorrow and a deep-seated hatred. She hated it so much, she was unwilling to accept it. The nail polish on her ten fingers had dug into her flesh because she had used too much force, and her palms were bleeding.
"Your Highness, Princess!" came the panicked voices of the palace maids.
Xiao Shu'er's haughty voice rang out: "Where is Consort Lan?"
Xiangyu quickly and respectfully replied, "Her Majesty is in her room; she just lost her temper..."
The tone sounded concerned, but Consort Lan felt nauseous.
"Your Highness, please allow me to go in and inform them. The palace still needs some tidying up... Your Highness!"
Before Xiangyu could finish speaking, Xiao Shuer snorted coldly and, ignoring any attempts to stop her, went inside.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
