"Get out of the way!" A eunuch who looked to be in his forties lashed out at a ragged figure on the ground with a thick leather whip in his hand.
The woman let out a groan and quickly scrambled to her feet from the path blocking the man's way, nimbly running to the corner of the wall. She stared at the eunuch in terror, seemingly terrified of him.
Under the trees throughout the courtyard of the Cold Palace, several women sat, some with their hair loose, others barefoot. Upon seeing Zhou Cheng, the head steward of the Cold Palace, enter, they all showed a hint of fear.
"Granny De, this way please! This way please!" The eunuch glared at the woman, then immediately turned to Granny De behind him and said respectfully.
"Zhou Cheng, don't be too harsh on them! They're all pitiful people." Granny De, accompanied by two palace maids, arrived at the entrance of the Cold Palace. Now that Consort De was in charge of the affairs of the inner palace, how could the head eunuch of the Cold Palace dare to neglect him!
"Yes, yes! These women don't smoke, they just don't know their place. They still think they're some kind of noble lady or something." Zhou Cheng bowed and smiled obsequiously at Granny De.
"Is the person our lady is looking for still here?" Granny De was too lazy to meddle in other people's business.
"Yes, this servant searched through several books before finding this former Consort Qi. As you know, Ulanara has been in this Cold Palace for almost thirty years. Most people thought she was dead, but I didn't expect her to still be here," Zhou Cheng said in surprise. In this Cold Palace, it's not uncommon for people to die every few days, because those women who were once high and mighty often die of illness or commit suicide because they can't adapt to the Cold Palace.
“Consort De will not forget you. Alright, take me to see her!” said Granny De.
Zhou Cheng immediately smiled broadly and gestured for Granny De to follow him.
As they followed Zhou Cheng deeper into the Cold Palace, Granny De felt increasingly uncomfortable. Even in the sweltering early autumn, the Cold Palace still exuded a chill from the inside out.
The Cold Palace was in disrepair for many years, with cobwebs hanging everywhere and some parts were so dilapidated that they looked as if they would collapse if shaken again.
“Zhou Cheng, this place is in such a dilapidated state, why don’t you go and talk to the person in charge of the Imperial Household Department’s house repairs? Is this place still habitable?” Granny De frowned.
"Granny, you don't know how difficult it is to live in the Cold Palace. Those gentlemen in the Imperial Household Department are too busy trying to please the favored concubines to care about the people here. It's not that I don't want to invite them, it's just that they won't come!" Zhou Cheng said, looking very aggrieved.
"We've arrived. This is the house where Ulanara lived." Zhou Cheng led Granny De to a very dilapidated house.
Looking at the room before her, Granny De saw that the paper on the windows and doors was tattered and torn. She wondered how they would survive the winter. A room like this would freeze people to death in winter. Thinking back to how Consort Qi was when she held her position in Zhongcui Palace, it was simply incomparable to this place.
"Granny, shall I go in and take a look?" Zhou Cheng immediately offered, seeing that Granny De was unwilling to go forward.
Granny De nodded; she really didn't dare to open the door directly in this state.
Zhou Cheng was used to the various miserable conditions in the Cold Palace, and he didn't care at all whether kicking open the rickety door would affect the people inside.
"Ulanara clan!" Zhou Cheng walked in and called out in a cold voice!
Standing outside the house, Granny De straightened her collar and led two palace maids into the dark room.
The furnishings inside the house were not much better than those outside, and everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. A woman in a qipao of indeterminate color was sitting at a table in the house, embroidering on an embroidery frame.
"Ulanara! I'm calling you, why don't you answer!" Zhou Cheng suddenly felt inferior in front of this woman. This feeling made him very uncomfortable, so he couldn't help but shout.
"I'm right here! Speak your mind!" The woman appeared to be around forty-five years old. Although her clothes were quite old, her hair was still neatly combed, though her once jet-black hair was now mostly white.
"Pah! You dare call yourself 'this Empress'? That's laughable!" Zhou Cheng was enraged by the woman's arrogance and was about to unleash a string of curses when he was stopped by Granny De behind him.
“Eunuch Zhou, I have something to say to Consort Qi. You may leave now!” After seeing the woman sitting at the table, Granny De recognized her at a glance, even though they hadn’t seen each other for almost twenty years.
Zhou Cheng glared fiercely at Consort Qi a few times, then turned around and smiled as he spoke a few words to Granny De before leaving.
"This servant greets Consort Qi!" After Zhou Cheng left, Granny De bowed to the woman.
The woman then stopped what she was doing and looked up at the newcomer.
"It's you!" A glimmer of light appeared in the woman's eyes.
"Yes, it's Hui Rong!" Granny De could hardly believe it when she saw that the once beautiful Consort Qi had aged so much that she looked like an old woman who was twenty years older than Consort De.
"Hehe, she's the one who sent you!" Consort Qi was stunned for a moment, then suddenly cracked her withered lips and laughed.
"It was Her Majesty who sent me to see Consort Qi," said Granny De.
"What are you looking at me for? Look at how badly she's ruined me! Why didn't you come sooner? It's been thirty years, why did you remember me?" Consort Qi mocked.
“Your Highness, I won’t go into details about who harmed whom back then. I was just a young palace maid in my teens at the time. Today, I’ve come to see Your Highness with a message from Consort De. She says, ‘Would Your Highness be willing to leave the palace and escape this cold palace?’” said Granny De.
Consort Qi stared at Granny De for a moment, then asked sharply, "Why is she being so kind as to try and get me out of here?"
Granny De said, "Doesn't Your Highness know what happened back then? If Your Highness hadn't harbored ill intentions towards my master and used those shady things, how could you have been banished to the Cold Palace by the Emperor?"
Consort Qi seemed to have been slapped hard by Granny De's words, and said, "Your mistress must have something on her mind, otherwise why would she suddenly send you to find me?"
Granny De nodded and said, "My lady wants to ask you, who helped you find that thing back then, and is he still in the Imperial Household Department?"
Consort Qi chuckled and said, "I never thought that the incredibly clever Wuya would one day come to me for help. Haha."
When Granny De saw Consort Qi laughing, she wasn't in a hurry. Instead, she waited for Consort Qi to finish laughing before asking again.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
