Qingying couldn't stand sitting at the table for too long, so she and Xie Jiaoying went out for some fresh air.
They sat under the paulownia trees by the lotus pond outside the palace. Xie Jiaoying held some pastries she had taken and complained as she ate, "These palace banquets are so boring. They're all just gimmicks. If Chu Lingyu hadn't returned to the capital, we probably wouldn't have had a chance to enter the palace."
Qingying smiled and said, "His Majesty just wants to find a suitable opportunity to bestow a marriage. Without this gimmick, would Sister Xie really want to accept the imperial decree on behalf of General Chu?"
"Pah! Who would want to marry Prince Xuan? How boring..."
Qingying quickly covered her mouth with her hand and whispered a warning: "Be careful, the walls may have ears!"
"I understand." Her mouth was covered, and her voice was muffled.
Qingying withdrew her hand and looked at her palm. It was covered in pastry crumbs, and still a little sticky. She frowned and took out a handkerchief to wipe it clean.
Seeing this, Xie Jiaoying pointed to the side and said guiltily, "Why don't you go wash up in that pool over there?"
She refused, saying, "That's unrefined."
After finishing the last piece of pastry, Xie Jiaoying shrugged. "It's just the two of us here, and it's just washing our hands. What does it matter if it's polite or not?"
Just as Qingying was about to retort, she suddenly heard voices approaching from afar. She quickly stopped and listened intently.
"You..." Xie Jiaoying had just opened her mouth when she was covered by her mouth again.
As if guided by some strange force, Qingying pulled her to hide behind the sycamore tree.
The voices grew closer, and she glanced over discreetly, only to discover that it was Wei Huaichong and Chu Lingyu.
She immediately crouched down. There was a clump of grass nearby, and she pulled Xie Jiaoying closer, pressing her back against the tree trunk, not daring to move again.
The two argued along the way, and by sheer coincidence, they ended up stopping next to a sycamore tree.
Chu Lingyu: "You haven't made any progress over the years. How come you're still so childish?"
Wei Huaichong: "Yes, I am naive. I am three years younger than you, aren't I?"
Chu Lingyu: "Why are you doing this? It's destined that we can't be together."
"But you clearly promised me..." Wei Huaichong's voice suddenly choked up, "Ayu, you promised you would marry me. Before Father Emperor issued the decree, he asked if you were willing to be Fourth Brother's Princess Xuan. Why didn't you refuse then?!"
"How can I refuse? Didn't you see that His Majesty's decree has already been drafted? How can I have a say in this matter?"
"Ayu..." Wei Huaichong gripped her wrist tightly, "I don't want you to marry him! I won't allow it!"
Chu Lingyu looked at him with cold eyes, scoffed, and said, "What good is it if you're not allowed to? Are you going to defy the imperial decree for me, Wei Huaichong?"
"I... I'll go find my mother right now, no, I'll go find my grandmother. She loves me the most, she'll definitely have a way..."
"Heh~ No need." She pried Wei Huaichong's fingers apart one by one and said indifferently, "I don't want to get involved in your conflict, Wei Huaichong. Let me go, and let yourself go too."
After saying that, she turned around and continued walking forward.
I thought that was the end of it.
But Wei Huaichong only paused for a moment before immediately sticking to him like a leech, "Ayu, I'll go to Father tomorrow and beg him to rescind the decree..."
As the sound faded into the distance, the two people who had been hiding tremblingly behind the tree finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, the next second, a figure suddenly appeared in front of them.
The two of them held their breath and stiffly raised their heads.
But when they saw that it was Lu Xingli, they relaxed at the same time.
"Xingxing, why do you walk so quietly? You scared us to death!" Xie Jiaoying complained as she stood up and pulled Qingying along.
Lu Xingli looked at them and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"N-nothing...it's nothing." Qingying felt a little guilty.
She felt something sticky on her hands and thought it was Xie Jiaoying's saliva. She took out a handkerchief to wipe her hands, only to see that there was a pool of blood on her hands.
Her eyes widened as she looked in the direction where she had just been crouching, and she screamed in fright.
The other two looked over with suspicion.
She pointed at the bushes, trembling, and said, "Dead man!"
"Ah—ah—" Two more loud screams rang out.
The commotion quickly attracted the attention of the patrolling guards, who simply said that they had stumbled upon the body while passing by.
Qingying tightly clutched the handkerchief in her hand, hiding it in her sleeve so that no one could see it.
Someone reported this to the Emperor, and they were sent back to the palace banquet.
Seeing that her face was pale, Madam Pan quickly asked with concern, "Shushu, what's wrong? Why do you look so pale?"
She then recounted how she and Xie Jiaoying had found the body in the bushes outside.
Madam Pan was also startled, "I just heard about this, and it turns out it was exactly what you saw!"
"We happened to be resting by the lotus pond, and at first we didn't realize there was a dead person lying next to us."
"That's terrifying, we're only a few steps away from you."
Xie Jiaoying's expression was also not good. "You're right...it's terrifying."
Only the two of them knew best that it wasn't just a few steps apart; it was clearly close contact.
Because of the murder, the palace banquet tonight was hastily ended halfway through.
Before leaving the palace, Qingying overheard people talking, saying that the person who died was a beauty recently appointed by the emperor, who had been a maidservant of Consort Yu, and was favored by the emperor simply because she lit a lamp for him one night.
On the carriage back to the manor, Qingying's face was still deathly pale. Madam Pan, who was beside her, held her hand and said, "I knew the inner palace was a place that devoured people. Now it seems that it is much deeper than we can see on the surface."
Qingying closed her eyes slightly, feeling a little uncomfortable, and her eyelashes trembled slightly.
“Shushu, I suddenly regret it. Imperial power and the harem are like a bottomless abyss. Once you are drawn in, it is difficult to get out. Although the Crown Prince treats you very well now, if he becomes emperor in the future, who knows when he will change his mind. In that harem where people eat each other without spitting out bones, how can you survive without protection?”
Qingying was stunned for a moment, then gradually realized, "Mother, so you knew all along?"
Madam Pan sighed and said helplessly, "I've been in charge of the General's Mansion for so many years, what can be hidden from me? He sneaks into your courtyard every few days. If it weren't for his status as the Crown Prince, I would have had him tied up and dragged to the pond long ago! But I still have to turn a blind eye and cover for him."
She lowered her head somewhat guiltily and awkwardly, saying, "Thank you for your trouble, Mother."
"Sigh~ Daughters grow up and can't be kept. Although you are not my biological daughter, I watched you grow up little by little. I don't want to see you suffer those grievances."
“My daughter understands, but…” she hesitated.
Madam Pan patted the back of her hand and said, "It's alright. I know you can't make the decision on this matter. Once His Highness the Crown Prince sets his mind on it, even if you don't want to, he has plenty of ways to make you comply. Besides, you're doing this willingly now."
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