Chapter 213 The Secret of Nanny Liu: The Truth Revealed...
Qi Chengming was an adult prince, so he couldn't go directly to the inner palace or meet the concubines. He could only go to the palace first to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager—thanking the Empress for having been confined to her palace for so long and not having the power of the Empress, so there was no need to waste time going there.
On the way back, Xiao Chengzi, who had already slipped away, returned from the palace road and gave him a wink.
"Your Highness..." The maid brought by Xiao Chengzi was a senior palace maid who kept looking out from the palace passage. She looked somewhat distressed. She had come from Consort Zhao's palace to ask for help.
Without wasting any words, Qi Chengming strode forward while asking, "What's going on?"
The palace maid naturally followed behind the prince, lowered her head and pretended to be his personal maid, answering quickly, though her voice was still choked with sobs: "Aunt Anxiang has been dragged to the Shan'en Hall, and we beauties couldn't stop her... Please, Your Highness, save Aunt Anxiang!"
Shan'en Hall was a secluded courtyard where sick palace servants were taken to recuperate; in short, it was a place to wait for death.
Those palace servants who couldn't survive would be moved to mass graves. If they were lucky enough to live, and a kind-hearted concubine remembered them, they could return to their original positions. However, if no one in their original palace remembered them, even if they survived, they would have nowhere else to go.
"Do you know how to lead the way?" Qi Chengming saw what she was about to say and interrupted her. "I'll back you up. You just keep an eye on things when you go in."
"Yes...!" The palace maid breathed a sigh of relief and readily agreed.
As long as it's not about taking the precious prince to such a filthy place, she has no worries.
Qingyou was a trusted head maidservant of Consort Zhao, but many years ago, when she was still a junior maidservant, she was taken in by the then-head maidservant Anxiang. Later, Anxiang became a nun and stayed in the palace, unwilling to marry. Qingyou also eventually became a head maidservant, and the three of them lived a simple but contented life.
Unfortunately, a beauty can only have one self-combed aunt by her side. Although Qingyou was unwilling to leave Aunt Anxiang, who was like family to the beauty, she could only hold back her tears and think about how she would live after leaving the palace these past two years. Who would have thought... that this would happen suddenly? If Aunt Anxiang leaves, Qingyou can naturally become the only aunt by the beauty's side.
But she would rather leave the palace herself!
...Aunt Anxiang absolutely cannot get into trouble.
Qingyou's heart pounded with the weight of that secret, making her breath quicken. When Consort Zhao arrived, she looked exhausted and grasped Qingyou's hand, instructing her, "I can't meet Prince Rui, Qingyou... this secret can only be told by you. But remember! You must see Anxiang safe and sound with your own eyes."
Coming to my senses, we arrived at Shan En Tang.
The place was oppressive and cold, with faint groans and moans. Qingyou called out the head eunuch, a round-faced eunuch who sat listlessly on a mound of earth in the sun. He was initially indifferent, but when he saw a young man with a stern face standing at the door, dressed in noble clothes he had never seen before, the eunuch suddenly became frightened and ran over to be reprimanded.
"A new aunt just moved in here today, is she really here?" Qingyou asked, hands on her hips. She never thought she could one day act like a bully, and this feeling was quite pleasant.
"Yes, yes...!" The little eunuch didn't dare to raise his head and said repeatedly. He only dared to carefully observe the boots on the silent boy's feet, which were faintly embroidered with dragon patterns. "That aunt has a high fever. I thought she wouldn't make it through the night."
Upon hearing this, Qingyou hurriedly urged the eunuch to take her to see it. Xiao Chengzi also followed silently.
After a short while, only Qingyou and the little eunuch returned.
"This servant will go get the medicine right away." The little eunuch was still smiling obsequiously, pressing his bulging chest, and quickly slipped away. Qingyou was left behind, relieved, and said meekly, "Your Highness, Eunuch Cheng said he was afraid the eunuchs wouldn't be diligent enough, so he'll stay here to keep watch for the night before leaving, and he wants this servant to go back to the Prince's residence with you first."
"I understand." Qi Chengming knew perfectly well what was going on.
Xiao Chengzi wasn't worried about the eunuch not doing his job properly. Normally, even a prince like himself would personally reprimand someone, and the eunuch would treat him with utmost respect and wouldn't dare to misbehave. Xiao Chengzi was afraid... that someone in the shadows would continue to interfere and harm Anxiang.
It would be too strange for a prince to be completely alone.
Qi Chengming led Qingyou back to the Second Prince's residence. The unfamiliar palace maid kept her head down and spoke cautiously. Once inside the palace, she did not speak to anyone, but simply acted as if she were serving him closely.
The other palace maids and eunuchs in the Second Prince's quarters looked on with envy and jealousy, but dared not approach them too familiarly. This was a rule established when Gan Tang was in power. Prince Rui only valued the group of people he took with him to serve him, and the newly transferred palace maids in the Second Prince's quarters could not get close to him or become his confidants. Although they were unwilling, they could only give up their positions to this unfamiliar new palace maid.
Qi Chengming dismissed the servants and cautiously surveyed the surroundings again using the system map. Finding nothing amiss, he prepared to question Qingyou. After returning to the capital, the Second Prince's residence was no longer a disorganized mess. He had removed all the spies from others, leaving only palace servants on the talent list who had pledged their loyalty.
"Your Highness." Qingyou knelt down with a thud.
"The beauty said that Aunt Anxiang and she were originally from the same clan. Later, after Aunt Anxiang separated, the beauty took her in and protected her. Over the years, she has been very careful with her words and actions... all because Aunt Anxiang stumbled upon something..."
Qingyou took a deep breath, thinking of the consequences of revealing the secret the beauty had entrusted to her... She knelt on the ground and kowtowed with a death-defying resolve, saying, "Back then, the Second Prince's wet nurse was supposedly punished by being sent out of the palace for ruining the Empress's meal, but that was just a pretext. In reality, it was the evening before..."
"That wet nurse was perched in the tree; perhaps she overheard the Third Prince plotting to harm Your Highness!"
Qi Chengming frowned: "...?"
When the wet nurse Liu fled to Liuzhou to seek refuge with him, she recalled several old incidents. One of them was that after the original owner of the body, the Second Prince, went to school, the Third Prince took pleasure in bullying him. That day, the original owner ran back to the Second Prince's residence crying, but the Third Prince caught up with him and continued to bully him relentlessly. It was because of this that the wet nurse Liu came up with a way to divert people's attention and bring the original owner back safely.
The very next day, a pretext was found to remove him from the palace.
Liu, the wet nurse, also mentioned that she was very good at climbing trees. Because the original owner of this body was a naughty second prince when he was young, she climbed up to catch him many times. She also got some benefits in the palace because of her skills in climbing walls and trees.
If what Qingyou said is true...
Qi Chengming still had many questions in his mind, and pressed on, "How did Anxiang witness all of this back then? How much did she hear?"
"Aunt Anxiang didn't see Consort Hua much back then, so she stayed to serve the Second Prince. But actually, the Second Prince's residence was quite neglected... so the lowly palace maids and eunuchs all became the servants and lowly maids in the entire prince's residence. That day, the Third Prince's men scolded the palace maids and drove them all out. Only Aunt Anxiang... suddenly remembered that she hadn't taken the basket of cicadas she had secretly hidden. If she was discovered, she would be severely beaten."
Qi Chengming did not ask why Anxiang had hidden it back then.
He gradually learned that the eunuchs and maids in the palace, busy serving others, never truly ate their fill. Mealtimes were always rushed, and it was common for them to sneak in something to eat when they were starving. They would stuff anything into their mouths. That's probably how Xiao Chengzi developed his love of food.
"So she secretly went back?"
Qingyou nodded: "Aunt Anxiang vaguely heard the Third Prince say that he wanted to think of a way to deal with you properly." She stammered for a long time before finally finishing those disrespectful words.
It's not about dealing with it. The Third Prince is furious because the Second Prince's wet nurse is causing trouble. She said that the abandoned well in the princes' quarters smells terrible. If we can find a way to trick the Second Prince into going there before tomorrow's reading and scare him to tears, the Second Prince will never dare to talk back to him again, and that troublesome wet nurse will have to be sent away.
"Just as I overheard this, the wet nurse darted past in the tree, startling her... Aunt Anxiang quickly ran away, as if she heard the Third Prince discover something." Qingyou recounted, "After that, she pretended not to know anything, and the next day she was transferred away along with many of the palace servants under the Second Prince."
"Aunt Anxiang recently ran into Gantang, who was with the Second Prince. She's been restless and has been suffering at night ever since. It took this servant and the lady a lot of effort to finally find out the reason..."
Qi Chengming's face darkened: "..."
So the next day, the wet nurse was found guilty and expelled from the palace. Perhaps she hadn't been discovered eavesdropping; otherwise, she would have been murdered to silence her during the years she was banished. The wet nurse never mentioned this incident back then; perhaps she herself didn't even know what she had witnessed.
The Third Prince... probably only noticed the commotion and knew someone was eavesdropping, but didn't know who it was... So, perhaps after realizing something was wrong, the Third Prince didn't dare to act rashly against the original owner of this body and focused all his attention on finding out who had overheard the incident.
"Was Consort Rong involved in this?" Qi Chengming seemed to be asking himself the question, and Qingyou couldn't answer it.
But Qi Chengming already had the answer in his heart.
Consider the drastic changes in the Second Prince's palace and the people in Consort Hua's former palace, as well as the palace maids who died in various accidents outside the palace. Only powerful people could accomplish these things. The Third Prince was only a few years old at the time; no matter how wicked he was, he couldn't have done it all by himself... He must have had his mother's help.
"...I understand." Qi Chengming was deeply disturbed after hearing this.
He could roughly guess where the earring that disappeared before and after Liu the wet nurse left the palace went, and he could also guess why the Third Prince's lineage would buy such an ordinary earring many years later.
That is clearly "evidence".
—Evidence proving the identity of the person who eavesdropped that day. Perhaps the earring that was lost back then has fallen into the hands of the Third Prince or Consort Rong.
When Consort Rong was cleaning up after her son, she probably didn't pay much attention to Wet Nurse Liu, which is why she lived peacefully for many years. It wasn't until Qi Chengming was exiled after his transmigration that Wet Nurse Liu tried to travel thousands of miles to find him. This unusual situation caught Consort Rong's attention again, and she finally saw an opportunity to kill the innocent rather than let the guilty go free.
However, Liuzhou was quickly transformed into a monolithic city by Qi Chengming, leaving no room for further development.
It wasn't until she returned to the capital... and Liu, the wet nurse, pawned another earring, that the matter was finally confirmed. But... at that time, Liu's entire family was being monitored by Emperor Hongren as part of his testing plan. Do you remember those people Qi Chengming discovered, secretly lurking near her husband's house, and ultimately reporting back to the palace?
Perhaps Consort Rong discovered this, but couldn't find another opportunity to strike. Or perhaps, having been demoted and ordered to remain secluded in the palace, Consort Rong simply lacked the ability to extend her influence beyond the palace walls.
Since then, Nurse Liu has stayed at home and hasn't left.
Looking at Qingyou, who was kneeling before him with a sense of relief, Qi Chengming felt a pang of guilt. He promised her, "Go back and tell your mistress to keep this matter a secret. I will find a way to protect you all, including Anxiang. Nothing will happen to you."
Ultimately, Anxiang had kept a low profile, living cautiously. It was Qi Chengming who sent Gantang to test her, which alerted the mastermind to Anxiang's unusual behavior. He will take responsibility for their safety.
"...Yes." Qingyou's voice trembled slightly. Who would want to die if they could live? People of lowly status like them would be powerless to resist retribution once it came their way, but if His Highness Prince Rui was now willing to protect them, a glimmer of hope arose in Qingyou's heart.
Long nights bring many dreams.
Qi Chengming was in a state of confusion upon hearing this, and immediately sent Qingyou with his token to the inner palace to seek protection from Consort Xue, and to briefly explain the key points if necessary.
Although Consort Xue's family had suffered misfortune, Grand Secretary Xue was still in the court. Consort Xue had given birth to a son and a daughter, and now remained a high-ranking but virtually invisible figure in the palace. Protecting a lowly, insignificant beauty and her two maids was certainly within their capabilities.
In Consort Xue's palace, after listening to Qingyou's brief description, the other party remained silent for a long time: "..."
"Your Highness?" The palace maid Xiangzhu, holding the fruit syrup, didn't understand what her mistress was thinking about. She had assumed that her mistress would agree to Prince Rui's request without hesitation.
"...Xiangzhu, go and tidy up the west side hall first, and I will inform the Empress Dowager later."
Consort Xue snapped out of her daze and gave the order. Looking at Qingyou's surprised yet disbelieving expression, she calmly said, "I will send a message once there is news in the next two days."
Consort Xue wasn't hesitating about whether or not to do it. She listened to the advice of the palace maids; even if she didn't want to befriend Prince Rui, she shouldn't offend him. The entire Xue clan outside the palace had now pledged allegiance to Prince Rui, so it was only natural for her to do such a thing.
Consort Xue had no real power in the palace. She could protect other concubines if she wanted to, but to protect a concubine in this special situation... she had to keep her under her nose to intimidate others. Fortunately, her palace gates were always tightly closed, so no one could reach into her palace to harm anyone.
Is there a safer place than here? This is probably what Prince Rui was thinking too.
If you can't get along in the future, just send the person away after this incident.
Consort Xue agreed.
"Thank you, Your Majesty! On behalf of my beauty, I thank you all!" Qingyou cried tears of joy, kowtowing repeatedly. This was truly a stroke of good luck, like a windfall had fallen right on her head.
Let alone the fact that following Consort Xue saved my life...
With a lord willing to protect them, they will no longer be bullied, whether for food or daily chores! These beauties have finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel!
Only then did Qingyou feel her heart finally settle back into her stomach. The result of having to reveal this secret... was well worth it!
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