Because it was the first day of the lunar month, there was no bright moon in the sky, and the pitch-black sky was only dotted with a few stars.
After searching and finding her way, Hailanzhu finally arrived at the Cold Palace.
This is a dilapidated palace, with weeds growing all over the courtyard. Especially on a night when it's pitch black, it feels even more eerie and terrifying.
Hailanzhu stopped in her tracks. Although she knew she was not in mortal danger, she was still a little flustered, simply because it was a primal fear.
"Hoo-" She took a deep breath and was about to step in when she found that there were also guards waiting at the entrance of the Cold Palace.
As Consort Chen, the guards naturally dared not stop her, but she did not want anyone to know that she had been there, for fear of alerting the enemy. Therefore, she could not enter openly.
"That's it!" She suddenly had a flash of inspiration. She quietly circled the Cold Palace, but found that it wasn't as she had imagined.
"Isn't it said that a cold palace that hasn't been repaired for a long time will have a dog hole? How come it's different? Are all the things in TV dramas lying?" she murmured softly.
Just then, the system's mechanical voice rang in my ears, "This is the imperial palace, do you really think there are so many dog holes for you to crawl through?"
"Oh, you've finally turned on your computer. I thought you'd just leave it running until the mission was finished," Hailanzhu said, pursing her lips.
The system's voice remained cold, "This is your first time carrying out a palace intrigue mission. I'm not a heartless robot; I will do my duty to you."
"Alright, alright, stop joking with me. Now help me lure those two guards away and tell me where Yunxian is." Hailanzhu interrupted its incessant chatter.
"Okay, but there will be a price to pay."
"Heh, I knew there wouldn't be such a good thing." Hailanzhu pouted; she knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. "So, how much money do you want deducted?"
"Hehe, not much, a thousand is enough." The system said with a hint of smugness.
"What? A thousand? Are you robbing me?!" Hailanzhu exclaimed in surprise.
"Since you're unwilling to part with it, there's nothing I can do."
"..." She was silent. "Sigh, fine, I agree."
Helpless, she could only think about the insignificant little money in the one thousand hundred million to temporarily balance her mind.
"Great!" the system replied, and quickly directed Hailanzhu to the left side of the entrance to the Cold Palace.
It made a sound several dozen meters to its right, and the guards, hearing this, immediately ran over on alert.
"What a clever feint, but it's too expensive," Hailanzhu said with a pang of regret. Seeing the guards leave, she quickly slipped into the palace, afraid that if she was even a step too late, the guards would discover her and she would waste the thousand.
Guided by the system, she quickly arrived at Yunxian's residence.
Seeing that there was still light inside, she poked a small hole in the window paper with her finger and carefully observed the current state of the room.
There was a woman with gray hair carefully embroidering an inner garment. Her eyes were full of wrinkles, like an old woman, but you could still see the delicate beauty between her brows.
"She's Yunxian? How come she looks so much older than Huang Taiji, like she's twenty years older?" She was taken aback, but then she thought, this is normal.
After all, Yunxian was the Grand Consort back then. If it weren't for Nurhaci's affair, she might be the Empress in the palace now. Such a stark difference in treatment would surely make one's hair turn gray prematurely.
However, Huang Taiji was not one to forget old friendships. Out of respect for Hauge, he allowed her to live alone in a palace, and her daily meals were better than those of the lowest-ranking concubines.
The spotless room, the exquisite plates, and the silky cloak Yunxian wore—even if Hailanzhu were careless, she could still see that Yunxian was different from others.
Besides Hauge, Yunxian must have had the support of her maternal relatives, otherwise she wouldn't be living such a carefree life.
As Hailanzhu was thinking, someone suddenly pushed the door open and entered.
She became alert and looked in the direction of the sound, only to see a petite palace maid walk in.
In the candlelight, she felt that the palace maid looked very familiar, until the maid spoke and she suddenly remembered that this was a person from Namuzhong Palace.
"Hehe, Namuzhong, Namuzhong, I never thought that the fate of being betrayed by a palace maid would fall on you too." Hailanzhu couldn't help but laugh out loud, thankfully she didn't.
"Sang'er, you must have taken good care of me this time!" Yunxian put down her needlework and thanked the palace maid in front of her.
Sang'er shook her head, "Aunt, don't worry, there was no bribery this time."
"No bribes?" Yunxian was somewhat surprised. "Those two are the most greedy and insatiable. If you didn't give them some benefits, why would they let you in?"
Sang'er truthfully replied, "The palace gates were empty this time, which is why I came in."
It turned out to be a lucky coincidence; Sang'er caught up with Hailanzhu just a minute after she left.
"Empty?" Yunxian frowned, then looked around warily and suddenly said, "There must have been other people here."
Having said that, he quickly walked towards the door, intending to circle the main hall once.
"How could someone be so meticulous?" Hailanzhu never expected that someone could be so careful.
Hearing footsteps approaching slowly, she panicked, unsure whether to go forward or backward.
All I could think about was: if only I could become invisible.
The system received her message and immediately said, "Deduct one thousand to become invisible for one minute."
“You…” She wanted to bargain with the system, but the matter was urgent, so she had no choice but to agree.
In the blink of an eye, just a second before she disappeared, Yunxian walked over from around the corner.
Especially when Yunxian walked up to her, she could even hear her own heartbeat.
It wasn't until Yunxian returned to the house that she breathed a long sigh of relief, and her body gradually returned to normal.
Seeing how cautious Yunxian was, Hailanzhu became even more convinced that the poison in the flowerpot was Yunxian's doing.
"But who broke in?" Sang'er asked hurriedly.
Yunxian rolled her eyes at Sang'er, "Foolish. If something were really wrong, would I have been able to return to my room unharmed?"
Sang'er nodded awkwardly, "It was Sang'er's ignorance."
"Our time together is very limited, so we shouldn't waste it with useless words next time," Yunxian said with dissatisfaction.
“Sang’er understands.” Sang’er lowered her eyes and recounted the events of yesterday.
It turns out that Namuzhong was just a puppet, and everything he did was Sang'er's idea.
Upon hearing this, Yunxian slammed her hand on the table in anger, "Namuzhong is really stupid, he actually fell for Hailanzhu's trick."
Sang'er softly defended herself, "Hailanzhu was pretending to be weak to deceive others, and even I didn't see through it, let alone Namuzhong who is as stupid as a pig."
Yunxian snorted coldly, "It seems we underestimated Hailanzhu. We thought she was less cunning than Bumbutai, but we didn't expect her to be even more cunning."
Hearing this from outside the window, Hailan's lips curled up slightly, and she thought to herself: Thank you for your praise, but compared to you, I am still far inferior.
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