Chapter 979 The Princess of a Fallen Kingdom?
Ouyang Rong glanced down at the bamboo tube and reacted immediately by reaching out and pressing it down.
He sensed it and realized that the noise coming from inside was from Miaosi, not from the Peach Blossom Spring painting.
The female immortal seemed to want to speak.
They may have discovered something.
However, Ouyang Rong silently held down the bamboo tube, preventing her from escaping.
We are currently still near the water prison, and the Five Women are not far away, so it is not appropriate to expose the aura of Miao Si.
It must have sensed his thoughts, because after a short while, the bamboo tube that had been making strange noises quieted down.
Ouyang Rong breathed a slight sigh of relief; he hadn't stopped climbing the stairs the entire time.
Just as he was preparing to focus on his journey, he suddenly heard a series of clear, crisp wooden fish sounds that he hadn't heard in a long time.
It means your merits have increased.
The number is approximately fifty or sixty.
Ouyang Rong paused, frowned slightly, and turned to look at the gray wooden gate in the distance.
At this point in time, coupled with the sudden increase in the amount of merit, Ouyang Rong found it somewhat familiar.
A while ago, when he first started working the night shift at the dining hall, every time he finished preparing vegetarian meals, he would receive a donation of between fifty and one hundred yuan in the middle of the night.
At first, I was puzzled about the source.
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips, and some of his guesses became certain.
He didn't do anything in a short time; he just brought over four large food containers. But when he came back with water, the four large food containers had disappeared and were no longer in the house.
Clearly, the five women sent them deep into the water dungeon, and most likely they were distributed to the prisoners.
The food box contained eight vegetarian meals, corresponding to eight prisoners.
The merit that is about to be rewarded should come from them.
After pondering for a moment, Ouyang Rong picked up the empty food box and continued back upstairs.
...
The heavy rain subsided in the latter half of the night.
Once we were away from the waterfall where the water prison was located, it became much quieter.
Having completed the task of delivering the vegetarian meal, Li Ruotong assigned a silver-ranked Yue maid to personally lead Ouyang Rong, Wu Cui, and the other two away from Qingliang Valley.
In addition to leading the way, the silver-medal Yue maiden also explained to Ouyang Rong and the others the taboos and rules for entering Qingliang Valley.
Of course, the most important thing was to teach Ouyang Rong the route from the Qingliang Valley dining hall to the water prison. Before parting, the silver-plated Yue woman also gave Ouyang Rong a parchment map so that he could deliver vegetarian meals every night.
Half an hour later, the three of them returned to the dining hall in the light rain.
Ouyang Rong lowered his eyes, still thinking about the merit of that water prison.
Wu Cui remained silent on the road.
Upon entering the dining hall, Wu Cui suddenly called out:
"Liu Aliang".
"Um?"
Ouyang Rong turned to look at her.
Wu Cui stared at him for a while, but didn't say anything.
Gao, who was standing to the side, was puzzled and kept glancing back and forth at the two of them. At one moment, the woman's face showed a hint of sudden realization, as if she had discovered some kind of hidden affair.
Wu Cui asked, word by word:
"Did the Five Goddesses really say that?"
Ouyang Rong nodded slightly:
"almost."
Wu Cui didn't say anything more.
Feeling dejected, he turned and left.
"etc."
Ouyang Rong suddenly called out to her.
Wu Cui didn't turn around. The next moment, she heard the dull young man's voice:
"If I have the chance, I'll tell her about you. Also, does the Five Goddesses know your name?"
Wu Cui turned around and shook her head somewhat blankly.
Ouyang Rong nodded:
“I will talk to her.”
He walked forward, and Wu Cui stared blankly at his back.
Thanks.
"It's nothing."
Ouyang Rong waved his hand.
Actually, I was already blushing when I said that.
However, he had more important things to do right now and didn't have time to talk to Wu Cui.
Although he had received special permission from Li Ruotong and Yu Tang to return home earlier every night without waiting for dawn.
However, Ouyang Rong did not leave. He returned to the stove and, taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, opened the food box.
Inside are the bowls and chopsticks that the five women had finished eating from.
Ouyang Rong sized him up.
He wasn't about to do anything strange; instead, he focused his attention on the perfectly preserved bowl of pickled radishes.
He discovered this while cleaning up the dishes in the water dungeon.
The Yue women of Yutang mostly loved and highly praised the pickled radishes, but the fifth lady, Yunxiangyi, didn't offer them any.
As for the reason, Ouyang Rong felt there was no need to overthink it; it was very simple—he just didn't like the food.
Then there's the Goguryeo script in the thick book that Yun Xiangyi kept flipping through.
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips.
...
Ouyang Rong returned to the courtyard before dawn.
The key at the door showed signs of being tampered with. Ouyang Rong opened the door and entered the yard. He glanced at the kitchen and knew without a doubt that the mother and son next door had used it.
Ouyang Rong turned his head and glanced at the dark and quiet courtyard next door, without going to check the kitchen.
They went straight back to the main house.
After entering, I checked the house and found no signs of disturbance; it seemed no one had come in.
This is a good sign, indicating that Li Wan and the others did not suspect him and their attention was still on the red leaf forest behind them.
Ouyang Rong untied the bamboo tube from his waist, placed it on the table, and went to wash his face.
A dark figure slipped out of the bamboo tube and returned to human form.
"Little Rongzi, you almost suffocated me!"
As soon as the brilliant idea came out, he started cursing.
Ouyang Rong pretended not to hear, temporarily took off his bronze mask, hung it on a wooden shelf to the side, scooped up some water, and splashed it on his face.
After a short while, he wiped the water droplets off his face with a towel and took a deep breath.
The hair at her temples was already wet.
It wasn't from the rain outside that soaked it, but from the sweat that was coming out.
He was focused the entire night on his first meeting with the woman in white, and he was also a little nervous.
Yun Xiangyi was somewhat unfathomable to him, and that was what made him most wary.
Ouyang Rong's rich experience taught him that he should be careful and have a sense of awe towards anything he couldn't understand.
After cursing for a while, seemingly satisfied, Miao Si crossed her arms, tilted her head, snorted coldly, and asked proactively:
"Little Rongzi, can you smell that?"
What does it taste like?
"The smell in the house, especially before you left, when she opened the inner door, carried a bucket of water inside, and a smell came out!"
Ouyang Rong remembered that the wonderful idea was the one that made the noise inside the bamboo tube.
He nodded in reply:
There was blood inside the door.
No, not only that.
With a wave of her hand, Miao Si declared decisively, "There are dead bodies inside! Someone has definitely died! And they just died recently, that's why the smell is so strong, mixed with the stench of blood. Little Rongzi, my nose is definitely not mistaken..."
She spoke with absolute certainty.
Just like the last time she smelled the stench of death in the circular hall inside Lu Changgeng's tomb.
Ouyang Rong didn't even frown, as if he had expected this.
Miao Si touched her chin with her little hand and muttered:
"Little Rongzi, what does that Fifth Lady look like? This fairy can't see outside from inside the bamboo tube, I can only locate her by sound."
Ouyang Rong ignored this question and said directly:
"She delivered eight vegetarian meals in total. One person died inside, which means there are still seven prisoners. Of the ten cells, three are empty?"
Miao Si was somewhat speechless: "Why are you focusing on this?"
Ouyang Rong narrowed his eyes: "I have some suspicion that Yun Xiangyi's lateness and failure to leave the water prison this time is related to the dead people inside the gate, rather than some excuse for seclusion and cultivation that she told Li Ruotong and the others."
Miao Si tilted her head and thought for a moment:
"Did she kill this prisoner, or did he die in an infighting among the prisoners?"
Ouyang Rong shook his head:
"I'm not sure, but I hope Old Master Sun is alright."
At this point, he gave a slight smirk:
"I'm afraid this old Taoist priest will still have a sharp tongue, but the other prisoners in the cell won't tolerate him."
Miao Si didn't quite understand what he meant. She had never met this so-called Old Master Sun. She had only learned about the story of the embroiderer and Old Master Sun saving Ouyang Rong in Longcheng from Ouyang Rong's own account.
"Xiao Rongzi, now that I think about it, it actually makes sense. Didn't she ask you to fetch a bucket of water? And then she carried it in herself. She was probably cleaning the cell, finishing up the last bit. Tsk tsk, this woman is quite clean."
Ouyang Rong remained silent, but he somewhat agreed with the guess; Yun Xiangyi certainly didn't go deep into the water dungeon to bathe.
While the young man was lost in thought, Miao Si picked up the bamboo tube, poured some water into his mouth, and smacked his lips.
Ouyang Rong suddenly said:
"She referred to herself as 'this Empress'."
A musing thought turned to doubt:
"It does seem so, why does that name sound familiar?"
After Ouyang Rong entered the room, he did not light a lamp. The two, one human and one spirit, spoke in the darkness. In the distance, the sky was already beginning to brighten, but the human world below was still a beat behind. His face was somber that his expression was unreadable; only his voice could be heard:
“Rongzhen used to refer to herself that way too, but I only found out later that she was a princess of the Great Zhou. I never paid attention to it before, so I always overlooked it.”
Ouyang Rong spoke calmly.
Miao Si put down the bamboo tube, tilted her head, and asked:
"So you mean we should learn our lesson this time, and I guess Yun Xiangyi should too?"
Ouyang Rong wiped his face with a towel and paced back and forth in the room.
"The book she was flipping through looked like a Buddhist scripture to me, but the text was in Goguryeo. That's quite interesting. If it's a Buddhist scripture, why not look at a Sanskrit or Chinese version?"
Miao Si asked curiously, "Wait a minute, you know Goguryeo script?"
Ouyang Rong stopped in his tracks, his face calm:
“My aunt has a personal maid named Bansi. You should have met her before. She's a Silla maid, also known as a Goryeo princess. She speaks very eloquently because she was sold to the Great Zhou by a slave trader when she was very young…”
He remained calm and spoke patiently:
"On the Dongyi Peninsula, Silla and Goguryeo shared the same language and culture, but they were often at war. Until the reign of King Gojong, Goguryeo was destroyed by the two kings. After that, Silla submitted to Goguryeo, and a large number of Silla maids, as well as Goryeo concubines from the fallen kingdom, were transported to the two capitals to become slaves of the powerful officials in the court..."
“My aunt bought Banxi before, just to show off her refined tastes… However, I later got Banxi’s indenture back from my aunt. I had already returned it to Banxi when I was in Xunyang. The indenture was written in Goguryeo script, which I vaguely remember and have studied, but I’m not an expert in it.”
"Actually, this so-called Goguryeo script uses our Chinese characters as a basis, with some changes. The grammar, word order, and word choice are different from ours. It was made to adapt to their Goguryeo language, so it's actually quite a hodgepodge... That's why I recognized the book she was flipping through at the table as a Buddhist scripture. Goguryeo isn't that difficult..."
"I see, Goryeo-hee, huh? No wonder she's called a cultured person. She's tried everything and can draw inferences from one thing to another. You cultured people really know how to have fun."
Ouyang Rong frowned: "Don't interrupt."
He paused, his expression turning serious, and said solemnly:
"To be bold, the twin sisters, the fifth princess Yun Xiangyi and the sixth princess Hua Xiangrong, are very likely also Goryeo princesses, from the court of Goguryeo or Silla. The former is more likely, because their country was destroyed a few years ago."
"Moreover, both Goguryeo and Silla, these two small countries, admired Chinese etiquette and learned all the rules and regulations of the Chinese court. Therefore, even if they were not princesses of the Goguryeo royal family, they were still royal women. Only in this way could they habitually refer to themselves as 'this palace'."
"Otherwise, it's unlikely that they would be surnamed Wei or Li. The possibility is very small, especially given the current tense relationship between Yunmeng Jianze and the imperial court. If they were truly two princesses of the Great Zhou, they would have had a channel of communication and wouldn't have fallen out like this."
Miao Si crossed her arms, nodded, and praised:
"Hmm, your analysis makes some sense."
Ouyang Rong ignored the pretentious little ink spirit. In fact, he wasn't saying these words to it at all, but rather he was clarifying his own logic.
"Goryeo Princess, is she? She's even suspected to be a princess of a fallen kingdom. She loves reading Buddhist scriptures. Hmm, maybe the Goguryeo royal family believed in this... But no matter what, it's still a bit strange. As the Queen of Yunmeng, she has entered the Queen's Palace and hidden her name. She should have abandoned her old beliefs and affairs in the mountains and turned to serve the Queen. Why would she secretly read Buddhist scriptures...?"
He muttered to himself:
"Also, she doesn't like pickled radishes? Banxi loves them, so she should love them too, since they're from the same place."
Ouyang Rong nodded slowly. Fortunately, when he was at his home in Xunyang, he had treated the maids very well and was familiar with the head maids, including Banxi.
Next, regarding Yun Xiangyi's vegetarian meals, they were able to tailor their approach to her specific needs and cater to her preferences.
"Helping Wu Cui is no problem, but how do we get into the deeper cells of the water dungeon? That's all the help Chen Jiaxin can offer. Sigh, this is a bit of a headache..."
...
(PS: A colleague I knew well left. He was about the same age as Xiao Rong. We were both editors, and our works were published in the same issue in early 2023. We were also writing fantasy novels. Three years have passed in the blink of an eye. Xiao Rong is still writing about gentlemen, while he has had other experiences.)
When I confirmed the news during the day, I was stunned for a long time, feeling a mix of emotions. I still remember when Xiao Rong finished writing Sword Maiden and started writing Gentleman, he wasn't very familiar with the peer circle. After it was published, he was the one who familiarly pulled me into a small peer group. It was from then on that I met my friends, such as Honey Princess and He Ping, who were also his friends.
And he was chatting normally in the small group last Thursday... He seemed a bit down all evening. Xiao Rong is trying to cheer him up, and everyone else too, please take care of your health, that's the most important thing. Get your annual checkups on time, and spend more time with your family when you have time. Let's all strive for that!
(End of this chapter)
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