Chenshen Palace was built on a high place, with twelve stone steps as stairs. There were lush trees on both sides. On the left was the Imperial Concubine Palace, on the right was the Imperial Kitchen of the Back Court, and further down was the Garden of the Six Palaces. From the high place, one could overlook the entire Back Court, which had a geographical advantage.
Of course, there is another palace above Chenxin Palace, where the emperor lives.
Xie Xuanzhao was squatting by the corridor, cutting leaves for a maple tree.
Today she wore a red palace gown embroidered with a golden phoenix pattern. She was the only one in the vast harem who could pull off such a vibrant and flamboyant color. She held a pair of scissors in her hand, and as she squatted, the gown unfurled, stretching to the ground.
Liu Qinglan emerged from the bushes and saw her right in front of him.
It turned out that the Albizia Julibrissin tree in Qinglan Palace had grown extremely tall. It had grown over the high wall and its branches had already grown across the red sandalwood railings of the long corridor in Chenxin Palace.
Liu Qinglan lay on the tree branch and with a stretch of his hand, he could touch the neatly arranged wooden railings.
She looked at the beautiful queen in front of her with a smile, and felt that she was truly a beautiful woman squatting beside the flowers and leaves and in the center of the spread palace skirt. The colors were rich, like the autumn forest, red as fire.
So Liu Qinglan got excited and called out to her a few times, then realized something was wrong, she cleared her throat and changed to human language: "Hi, hello~"
Xie Xuanzhao raised his eyes and looked at the little beauty who suddenly appeared, his phoenix eyes rarely widened.
She reacted quickly, lifted up her skirt, stood up, and walked to the railing. "Why are you here?"
Liu Qinglan tilted his head and said as a matter of course, "I climbed up."
Xie Xuanzhao looked down the corridor. Wow, there was a huge Albizia tree, and she had managed to climb it from bottom to top. Even she, the daughter of a general, hadn't been as good at climbing trees as her when she was little.
"You climbed up by yourself?" Xie Xuanzhao still couldn't believe it and looked at Liu Qinglan's small body.
Liu Qinglan hugged the branch and puffed out his chest slightly, "Of course! If Queen Sister doesn't believe me, I'll climb it again and show you."
"No..." No need. Just as Xie Xuanzhao stretched out his hand, trying to hold her back, Liu Qinglan had already slipped down like a little loach.
Xie Xuanzhao could only helplessly hold his forehead. "You silly girl, there are stone steps at the door, why do you have to climb the wall?"
Liu Qinglan was determined to prove himself and not embarrass Feifei, so after sliding to the bottom of the tree, he used all four limbs to climb up again.
Xie Xuanzhao lay on the railing, looking at her agile figure with worry and surprise. How could she be so cute even when she climbed up, just like a cat climbing a tree.
Liu Qinglan popped his head out from under the branches again, grinning at Xie Xuanzhao, "See, am I really that powerful?"
Feifei’s specialty is: climbing trees!
Xie Xuanzhao was really at a loss for words. She wanted to blame her for disregarding her safety and image, but when she saw Liu Qinglan's sparkling eyes, she couldn't bring herself to blame. She could only agree with her, "Yes, yes, you are amazing, even more amazing than Xuetuan."
Liu Qinglan suddenly had a little man in his heart who stood with his hands on his hips and laughed wildly towards the sky. He had finally defeated that scheming cat!
Liu Qinglan laughed wildly in his heart while holding the railing and stepping into the corridor of Chenxin Palace.
She looked back and suddenly a thought popped into her mind: It will be really convenient to go to Chenxin Palace in the future!
Xie Xuanzhao looked at her lively surrounding him, his eyes full of smiles.
Because of climbing the tree just now, Liu Qinglan's hair was messy, with a few strands of hair scattered. The palace skirt with rolled-up sleeves became loose. There were a few gray marks on her fair face, and a few shiny beads of sweat were on the tip of her straight little nose.
Xie Xuanzhao held her hand, as if he were treating a child who had just come home dirty after playing outside, "Look at you, you've turned into a little cat. I'll take you to the waterside pavilion to wash your face."
Liu Qinglan now knew that humans also called cats "little lazy cat," "little greedy cat," and now, "little tabby cat." So she wasn't afraid at all anymore. She meowed a few more times at Xie Xuanzhao, holding her hand and following her obediently, actually rubbing off Xie Xuanzhao's spiritual energy.
Xie Xuanzhao enjoyed the pleasure of her clinging to him and calling him, and his pair of phoenix eyes sparkled and became more profound and charming.
When the Empress and the newly promoted Imperial Concubine walked towards the waterside pavilion hand in hand like sisters, Yan Mo stood beside the curtain and shuddered at the sight.
These two are so clingy and close!
Yan Mo knew that the Queen would definitely not want to be disturbed at this time. It was quiet and there was nothing to do, so she decided to go look for her sister.
That day, Taoxi showed a frightened expression and said that she saw herself stealing charcoal from the kitchen. She also asked if her injury had healed. All the signs indicated that her sister had been to the imperial kitchen and that she might really be injured.
Yan Mo walked into the dark room, deliberately stepping lightly, wanting to see what her sister was doing inside.
The stone table where her sister usually sat to practice martial arts was empty. Yan Mo quietly walked around the stone table and saw a figure squatting in the corner.
My sister was squatting in the corner of the dark room, and her back looked special... Yan Mo frowned. Why was she hiding there so stealthily?
My younger sister, clutching a small shovel, scraped the dirt and dug a small hole. She stared at the remaining water chestnut shells in her hand, her mind racing. She muttered to herself, "Water chestnut shells, oh water chestnut shells, it's not that I'm so heartless as to want to bury you in this place, where you'll never see the light of day, and destroy your bodies. I've been playing dirty tricks, using dishonorable means to get you. You mustn't be seen by those swans, especially my sister. If they see you lying in this grass nest of mine, it'll be clear that I stole you, and my crime will be exposed. But you're such a beauty, so delicious that I couldn't help myself. It was all my fault. Alas, alas!
Yan Mo stood behind, her forehead twitching, unable to hold it up. "Sister, you are using idioms incorrectly again!"
She felt she couldn't listen any longer, and hesitated to speak, finally choosing to quietly leave. Her sister looked energetic and even had the mind to use idioms, so it was clear that she should be fine.
Yan Mo stayed outside for a while, and after she estimated that her sister had "destroyed" the water chestnut shell, she stepped back in.
My sister was already meditating on the stone table, her beautiful and indifferent face looking very serious.
"Cough cough." Yan Mo saw her like this, and thought of how she was sneaking around in the corner and muttering just now. She felt a little uncomfortable and couldn't help wanting to laugh, so she could only cover it up with a cough.
My sister opened her eyes, her expression calm and composed. "Did you catch a cold?"
"Maybe it's because I fed the swans in the wind yesterday, so I caught a cold." Yan Mo smiled gently and amiably, and sat down beside her stone table.
My sister's back stiffened, and she lowered her eyes and silently glanced at the stone table that occupied a corner of her body. Without saying anything, she looked away indifferently and closed her eyes again.
"If you have nothing else, you can leave first."
"You went to Yu Cainv's place to check on her a few days ago, but you got injured?" Yan Mo decided not to beat around the bush and asked directly, "So this is why you've been in a bad mood these past few days?"
"I'm fine, I'm not hurt."
Yan Mo pulled out a piece of bark from his sleeve, "What is this?"
My sister opened her eyes and saw the ridiculous words she had written on it. She wanted to die for a moment.
"This is not mine." The younger sister maintained her aloof and cold image.
Yan Mo cleared her throat and began to read the contents with great emotion: Dear sister, life is as fleeting as a fleeting foal (Yan Mo paused because there was a typo here.) and like the morning dew, it is so fragile...
The bark was too small, and the words behind it became smaller and smaller. Yan Mo could only get closer to carefully identify them.
My sister's expression began to crack little by little, and then she used great willpower to gather her cold and arrogant expression back.
"Haha, which idiot wrote this? It's so dramatic." My sister began to whip herself mercilessly.
Yan Mo carefully put the bark away and smiled gently, "I found it in someone's sleeve when I was washing clothes."
"...Really?" The younger sister snatched the bark back from Yan Mo's arms in a lightning-fast manner, then took out a tinderbox as quickly as possible and burned the suicide note she had written in a fit of rage.
She now knew she wasn't going to die. She'd asked a doctor to examine her, posing as her sister, and she'd found nothing wrong. The black energy was also gradually dissipating. Later, she reflected, perhaps it was the effect of her decades of internal energy cultivation. After realizing she was completely unharmed and had simply overestimated her own abilities, her younger sister began to worry about the tree bark note she'd misplaced.
It turned out that it was left in the sleeve of the clothes she had just taken off, and was discovered when Yanmo took it to wash.
My sister threw the burned bark, which was only a corner left, on the ground. When it was completely reduced to ashes, she sat up again and pretended that nothing had happened.
"That's your illusion." said my sister coldly.
Yan Mo: ...
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