Chapter 976 The Beautiful Empress
It was dark, and the rain was pouring down.
Lightning flashed across the sky from time to time, and the thunder came late.
The snow-white waterfall separated the inside from the outside, and also muffled the sounds of rain and thunder.
Behind the waterfall's curtain of water, outside a hidden natural cave entrance.
After Li Ruotong finished speaking, the atmosphere was quiet for a while.
Gao couldn't hold back any longer and cautiously asked:
"Fairy Li, where...where is this? Who do you want us to deliver this food to?"
Li Ruotong only answered half of the question:
“The Fifth Lady is inside. Walk along the passageway and go down a hundred steps. There will be a staircase. Go down the staircase and you will see a gray door. Knock twice, but no matter if anyone answers, push it open and bring the vegetarian meal in. Personally deliver it to the Fifth Lady.”
She paused, then said:
"After entering, do not go too deep, and do not concern yourself with the other people or things inside. Do not wander around or touch anything. Your first priority is to check if the Five Ladies are inside. If... if you find anything amiss, return immediately and tell us."
Gao looked somewhat bewildered.
Wu Cui pursed her lips, turned her head to look at the familiar passageway, and was clearly not as confused as Gao Shi, because she had been here before.
I think I gave her similar instructions last time.
Ouyang Rong nodded: "Understood, Fairy Li."
He and Wu Cui exchanged a glance, and the two of them took the lead and walked towards the passageway, with Gao Shi carrying the food box and timidly following behind them.
But they had only taken a few steps.
"etc."
Li Ruotong's voice suddenly came from behind.
Her tone was calm:
"You, you, you two stay here first. You go in first."
Ouyang Rong turned around and saw that this Fairy Li pointed at Wu Cui and Gao Shi, and then pointed at him and gave him instructions.
The following sentence was addressed to him.
Ouyang Rong pointed to himself, a puzzled look on his face: "Me?"
"Okay, you can go down now."
Li Ruotong spoke with certainty, pointing to the food box he was carrying, which she had personally handed to him earlier:
"The vegetarian food in this food box is specially prepared for the Fifth Lady. After you go down, give it to the Fifth Lady. Also, did you hear what I just said? I don't need to repeat it."
Ouyang Rong nodded, then shook his head.
"Okay, go ahead."
Seeing how obedient he was, Li Ruotong's expression softened slightly, and she waved her hand:
"Just do as instructed. We're up here, so you don't need to worry."
Ouyang Rong nodded obediently, his face expressionless.
But I couldn't help but complain in my heart:
We're so far away, who knows what's going on in the water dungeon down there? What if a prisoner escapes? We'd run right into them. You guys up there wouldn't be able to do anything for a while, not to mention whether you could even fight those vicious prisoners. What if something happens to the Five Women Queen?
Ouyang Rong was speechless.
However, having come this far, and having already promised Chen Jiaxin, Ouyang Rong had to risk going down to investigate for the sake of public duty, personal reasons, and emotional considerations, after all he had been lying low for so many days.
Ouyang Rong took a deep breath and turned to walk deeper into the passageway.
He faintly heard Wu Cui's voice coming from behind him:
“Fairy Li, I’ll go with him. I actually know the way well…”
"No, you stay here first."
Wu Cui's request was rejected by Fairy Li without any expression.
Lacking certain crucial information, the freckled young woman was unaware of the danger below. Instead, she saw it as an opportunity to impress the Five Goddesses and was somewhat envious.
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips, offered no explanation, and walked straight into the darkness deep within the passageway.
After shaking off Li Ruotong and the others, he paused briefly, took out a tinderbox from his pocket, lit it, and continued on his way, using it as a light source.
I walked along the passageway for a hundred steps. There were no forks in the road. The walls on both sides were wet and dripped water from time to time. The dripping sound seemed to match some kind of heartbeat rhythm.
When Ouyang Rong reached the end, he indeed saw an old stone staircase that meandered downwards.
Ouyang Rong descended the steps, which were very slippery due to his location below the waterfall. He simply took off his straw sandals and walked barefoot on them, making his steps lighter.
With his constitution allowing him to conceal himself and gather energy, Ouyang Rong actually possessed a strong ability to hide. If it weren't for the tinderbox, he would have been completely silent in this darkness...
He walked up the stairs for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, and then stepped onto solid ground, no longer on wet steps.
Ouyang Rong held the food box in one hand, then took the tinderbox and looked up at what was in front of him.
A gray door was faintly visible in the darkness ahead.
He finally arrived outside the legendary water dungeon.
The place where the embroiderer once visited.
"Boom... Boom..."
Suddenly, a clap of thunder came from somewhere.
Ouyang Rong, standing in front of the door, subconsciously looked up at the dark top of his head.
Logically speaking, this water prison is located deep underground beneath the waterfall, so the sounds of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning outside should not be able to reach it.
The atmosphere was a bit eerie.
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips and checked the bamboo tube hidden at his waist.
The Peach Blossom Spring painting and the inkstone containing the essence of the wonders were lying quietly inside.
He adjusted the bronze mask on his face again, and after confirming that the fake was safe, he did not hesitate any longer. He picked up the food box and pushed open the gray door in front of him.
"Squeak—!"
The moment he touched it, the sensation in his palm and the sound of the bolt made him realize that it seemed to be a flimsy, old wooden door.
But at that moment, before Ouyang Rong could react, he had already pushed the door open and entered.
At the same time, Ouyang Rong belatedly realized something.
He seemed to have forgotten to knock, and didn't come as that Fairy Li had instructed.
But it was too late.
Behind the door was a square room.
The courtyard was about the same size as the one where Ouyang Rong lived.
Directly opposite the door he entered through was another gray wooden door, its destination unknown.
On each of the four walls of the room hung an oil lamp, but the light it emitted was weak and dim, unable to illuminate the entire room.
In the center of the room was a table with an oil lamp lit on it.
There was a woman's back view at the table.
She had her back to the doorway where Ouyang Rong was.
As if she hadn't heard Ouyang Rong open the door, the woman didn't turn around, so her face couldn't be clearly seen.
All that could be seen was her hair at the back of her head, styled into two strands and bound into a ring with a white silk ribbon, towering high on her head... It was a double-ringed high bun popular in the palace at the foot of the mountain.
The double-looped high bun leans to the left, giving it an elegant and graceful appearance.
Ouyang Rong paused at the door. After the door opened, the surrounding atmosphere gradually returned to quiet.
Seeing that the woman at the table remained motionless, Ouyang Rong took the opportunity to scrutinize her closely.
I looked at it more carefully this time.
A woman dressed in white sat gracefully on the ground by the table, her head bowed, slowly turning the pages of a thick book under the oil lamp.
It was unclear whether the woman in white was engrossed in her book or simply ignored everyone.
Ouyang Rong thought for a moment, then flicked his finger to knock on the gray wooden door beside him.
"Knock knock, knock knock."
The woman in white seemed to raise her head from behind, closed the thick book, stood up in front of the lamp, and then turned around.
Ouyang Rong's eyes narrowed slightly.
At this moment, he found it difficult to describe his face with words.
I thought about it carefully.
Stunningly beautiful.
Yes, she is stunningly beautiful.
Her oval face seems to have been made specifically for this word in the dictionary.
This is a stunningly beautiful woman.
Beauty is easy to understand, but the word "glamorous" is not as vulgar, cheap, and rampant as most people in the world imagine; it is different from "charming."
"艳" is a beautiful word, yet it has been misused by many people.
In ancient Chinese texts, the character 艳 (yàn) means magnificent or beautiful.
In ancient times, only those whose writing was beautiful and elegant could be praised as "beautiful".
A simple way to explain the character "艳" is to separate it into "丰" and "色", which can be summed up as "abundant beauty".
This is different from those singular forms of beauty.
The same applies when describing a woman's appearance.
Bright, vivid, beautiful, sunny day.
You see, only the most vibrant and colorful flowers in spring and the brightest and most comfortable weather in summer can be described with the word "vibrant".
This is a difficult word to use correctly to describe luxury.
In Ouyang Rong's extensive experience with people, there were very few women whose appearance could be described as "beautiful".
But the white-clad woman who turned her head in front of him felt that she was perfectly worthy of the word, and her beautiful face seemed to have been born for the word.
In the dim firelight, the woman's beauty shone through, brightening the otherwise dark room.
But she was wearing the simplest white dress.
This white dress is similar to A Qing's snow-white Wu skirt, but it's slightly different... It's too white, even whiter than the white skirts of all the Yue women Ouyang Rong has ever seen, including those of Zhi Shuang, A Qing, Chen Jiaxin, and Song Zhian.
It is a pristine white, unlike any color of the human world, more like the pure white of a snow-capped mountain peak, untouched by worldly dust.
The ethereal white robes, worn by this woman, did not overshadow her beauty; instead, they accentuated the stunning beauty of her face.
After witnessing it firsthand, Ouyang Rong did not have any lewd desires or sordid fantasies.
Only two words emerged from the depths of his heart and occupied his mind.
nice.
She is a very beautiful woman.
No matter how much praise or description is given, when it comes to reality, at first glance, it feels so simple. It can be summed up in just two words: colloquialisms. It makes people want to take a look.
The last woman to evoke such thoughts in Ouyang Rong was Li Guo'er and his junior sister. However, his junior sister was a bit special; her first appearance was so stunning that it added to his emotional appeal. As for Li Guo'er, she was simply beautiful, so beautiful that everyone would find her attractive.
Let's set aside these minor details for now.
Although Ouyang Rong had never personally seen the Sixth Lady, who was rumored to be a pair of sisters with the Fifth Lady, the most recent time he had seen her was through a dripping cave hall.
However, Ouyang Rongguang recognized her noble status simply from the snow-white Wu dress she wore.
This style, resembling A Qing's snow-white Wu skirt, is exclusive to the Queen's Palace.
She is Yun Xiangyi.
At this moment, in the dimly lit room, the two silently gazed at each other.
Ouyang Rong resisted the urge to look at that face again, lowered his eyes slightly, and waited for the Fifth Lady to speak.
The beautiful woman in white remained silent, simply gazing at him.
It seemed they were waiting for him to speak first.
Ouyang Rong also noticed this.
He mustered his courage, looked down at the floor at his feet, and took the initiative to speak.
The sound broke the deathly silence in the room.
"I am Liu Aliang, a cook from the kitchen. I have come down to deliver food to the Five Goddesses as ordered by Fairy Yutang. May I ask if you are one of the Five Goddesses?"
After waiting for a while, he caught a glimpse of the woman in white seemingly nodding.
When Ouyang Rong looked up, the woman in white had already sat down again, her back to him, and continued to turn the pages of her book under the lamp, as if she were doing something very important.
Ouyang Rong took the opportunity to look around the room beneath his feet.
The room had four walls, no windows, and was empty, with a few oil lamps hanging high... It felt to Ouyang Rong like a prison cell.
Perhaps it was indeed a prison cell before, but it has now been converted into a guardhouse.
However, inside the guardhouse, apart from the woman in white, a book, and a lamp, there was no sign of any cells or prisoners.
Ouyang Rong's gaze involuntarily fell on the tightly closed gray wooden door opposite.
The seat of the five ladies in front of us was quite strategic, subtly blocking the path leading to it.
Ouyang Rong glanced around, then looked away and nodded slightly.
Clearly, the water dungeon is divided into two areas, an inner and an outer one. The room he is currently in is the outer area, while the inner water dungeon has a larger space containing the ten cells.
But you need to go through the wooden gate on the opposite side to get in.
This room connects the outer and inner doors, making them a necessary passageway between them.
Whether it's prisoners escaping from the water dungeon or people outside wanting to enter its depths, they all have to pass through this room.
The white-clad woman in front of him, who was flipping through a book, had been guarding this room, somewhat like... drawing a circle around herself and imprisoning herself.
They not only imprisoned the criminals, but also imprisoned themselves.
No wonder he felt like he was in a prison as soon as he entered the room. In a sense, the room was indeed a prison for this white-clad lady.
After Ouyang Rong finished his analysis, seeing that the woman in white had not made a move for a long time, he hesitated for a moment and then walked straight forward.
He approached the table, but the woman flipping through the book did not look up.
Ouyang Rong gently placed the food box on the table, and his position was also appropriate and sensible. He stood to the side, not on the opposite side of the table so that his shadow would block the light used by the white-clad lady to read the books.
The angle was very close, and Ouyang Rong glanced quickly at the thick book she was opening in her hand, his eyes widening in surprise.
The text on these pages is not from the Great Zhou Dynasty.
It seems to be... Goguryeo script.
Ouyang Rong was surprised, but he quickly lowered his gaze and lowered his head.
Yun Xiangyi probably never expected that the butcher who delivered her food could recognize the words in the book. She did not close the book or look up at him, and remained quiet the whole time.
Only after Ouyang Rong had taken out all the vegetarian food from the food box and arranged it properly did he slowly back away, preparing to leave.
"Please enjoy your meal, Goddess. There are a few more vegetarian meals outside that you might need. I will go out now and have my companions bring them over."
After Ouyang Rong finished speaking, he turned to leave.
"etc."
The woman in white, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up at the table.
(End of this chapter)
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