Chapter 35 Chapter 35 First come, first served, what's wrong with her! ...
Li Shuyao's face turned red instantly, her eyes were flustered and at a loss. She tightly gripped the brush in her hand, and shook it above the rice paper. After shaking for a long time, only a few drops of ink fell, leaving deep and shallow marks on both the "一" she had written before and the "壹" written by the emperor.
It's over, the scroll is cut.
Li Shuyao's head buzzed again, and she quickly put the brush on the imperial desk and turned her body slightly to the side. When she was thinking about whether to go back and continue kneeling, she suddenly heard a man's chuckle above her head.
It sounds comfortable and pleasant, without any gloom or anger.
Li Shuyao blinked in confusion, looked at the bright yellow figure behind the imperial desk in doubt, and then raised her left hand and rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
No, not angry?
That's great.
She breathed a sigh of relief quietly.
The man reached out his hand, tapped the table twice, and asked her, "Do you know any other words?"
Li Shuyao nodded.
The emperor said, "Could it be 'two' and 'three'?"
Li Shuyao thought about it and decided that it was not impossible. She still remembered how to write these two words in traditional Chinese. She was eager to try and picked up the brush again. While doing so, her sleeve accidentally knocked several memorials on the table to the ground.
She immediately squatted down in a panic and picked up the memorial on the ground with her free hand.
As he was picking up the papers, he suddenly uttered a soft "Huh?" and squatted on the ground, reading over and over again a few words on the memorial. Hesitantly, he stood up and placed the memorial, whose inner pages had been accidentally unfolded, on the imperial desk. He pointed at a word and asked, "Your Majesty, what is this word...?"
The emperor didn't know what she saw. He raised his eyebrows slightly, sat up slightly, lowered his head and looked at the place she pointed.
What caught my eye was a finger as white as jade, and under the finger was a strong stroke of thick ink, which was the character "一" that Li Shuyao had just written.
Li Shuyao asked him, "Your Majesty, didn't you say that was the character 'one'? Then what is this character?" She pointed to the rice paper where she had accidentally dropped black ink.
The emperor was silent for a moment, his eyes drifting unnaturally, and he said, "He can't read, so he probably made a typo."
Li Shuyao's eyes suddenly widened. Qing Dynasty officials were illiterate?
Who are you kidding?
I heard that the imperial examinations in ancient times were much more difficult than the modern civil service examinations!
It is several times more exaggerated than thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge!
So... illiterate?
If she hadn't heard it wrong today, then...
There is no other possibility, she must have heard it wrong!
Li Shuyao bit her lip and asked again, "What did the emperor just say?"
The emperor raised his head and met her large, moist eyes, which were clearly filled with question marks. He remained silent for a long time. In the end, he couldn't bear to treat her like a one-year-old child, so he put his fist to his lips and coughed lightly, hesitatingly explaining, "Perhaps, I remembered it wrongly..."
His guilty conscience came suddenly, and his explanation was very sloppy.
But there had never been such a moment in the first twenty years of his life.
I felt a little complicated for a moment.
If Liang Jiugong were here, he would probably be so shocked that he wouldn't be able to utter a complete sentence for ten days.
But Li Shuyao didn't know.
She only knew that lying was a particularly immoral thing to do, especially when the person on the other side was an emperor.
Isn’t it said that a king never jokes?
She puffed up her cheeks in frustration, and there was a blazing fire in her clear eyes.
If it weren't for the wrong occasion, she would have wanted to put her hands on her hips and ask the person opposite her what he meant.
Is it fun to lie to her?
She had been feeling guilty, inferior, and self-deprecating for a long time, feeling like her nine years of compulsory education had been wasted...
Now it seems that all my reading was in vain. I even believed such a lie!
She bent down angrily, picked up the other memorials scattered on the ground, and threw them all on the imperial desk in a clatter, without even tidying them up, and then put the brush in her hand back.
He turned around and walked to the open space in the middle of the imperial study, then turned around and knelt down again.
She said in a stern voice, "If the Emperor has no other instructions today, I'll excuse myself and take my leave."
Only then did she remember that her knee was still hurting. She was frightened by the little prince's words and hurried to find Qingyao to discuss countermeasures. She even forgot to check the knee wound.
Now that I have relaxed, I suddenly feel the stabbing pain coming from my knees.
So after he finished speaking, regardless of the reaction of the person opposite him, he carefully supported his knees, stood up tremblingly from the ground, turned around and was about to walk out.
"What happened to your foot?"
Unexpectedly, the emperor suddenly spoke again.
He keenly noticed that when Li Shuyao knelt down just now, she hissed softly.
Then he subconsciously wanted to frown, but perhaps because he remembered that he was still angry, he only frowned slightly and then his whole face quickly fell apart.
It was like a small animal that was extremely wary of humans. While being afraid, it showed its short and small claws that had no deterrent effect at all.
To be honest, the emperor didn't care about her almost rude behavior just now, and was only thinking about her legs.
Li Shuyao's body stiffened, then she turned back reluctantly, pouted her lips and was about to kneel down again.
He was stopped the next moment: "Just stand and answer."
"Oh." Li Shuyao responded dryly, explaining in a depressed tone: "My knee hurts..."
"It hurts?" The emperor was stunned at first, then frowned and thought carefully for a moment. From the time she entered the door until now, she had only been kneeling for less than half a cup of tea. How could it start to hurt?
That's a bit too delicate...
Li Shuyao nodded and said, "Maybe he's injured."
As he spoke, he bent down and touched his knee, feeling as if something was tightly attached to the wound. So, when he knelt down to serve the little prince, he accidentally broke the skin and started bleeding?
She thought in her head and explained at the same time: "Maybe there will be a little bleeding...?"
The tone was somewhat uncertain.
The tall man sitting on the dragon throne didn't notice at all that the expression on his handsome face suddenly darkened the moment she finished speaking.
There was an indescribable feeling of irritability and depression slowly fermenting in my heart.
No matter how dumb or unmotivated Li Shuyao was, she was still his servant in the Qing Palace.
Who in the palace is so bold that he even dares to bully her?
The big hand with distinct joints suddenly grasped the jade ring, and the dark eyes instantly became extremely deep.
The emperor suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice: "Who..." bullied you?
Before the last four words were uttered, the innocent little maid below blinked her bewildered eyes and continued with a tone of grievance, "This servant was too anxious and didn't pay attention to her feet for a moment."
"While paying respects to His Royal Highness, I guess he bumped into some sharp stones? Or was it because the bricks were too rough?"
She tilted her head, as if she was confused.
My attention was completely focused on the floor environment when I saluted. I kept thinking about it in my mind, but I couldn't think of any more useful clues.
Instead, he recalled his previous fear and panic, and his little face, which had originally had some color, suddenly turned pale again.
"Prince...Baocheng?" the emperor repeated softly.
Li Shuyao came back to her senses, nodded at him, and nervously tugged at the hem of her skirt with her fingers.
She suddenly thought to herself, would the emperor think she was saying bad things about the little prince?
...Would he think so?
Considering the characters portrayed in the original novel and the descriptions of Kangxi in history books, Li Shuyao knew without even having to think about it that what was going through his mind was probably:
How could the prince be wrong? Someone else must be wrong—and so on.
So she pursed her lips, and before the emperor could speak, she quickly defended herself: "I was talking about the floor tiles. It's all their fault. The second is my own fault. I was too careless..."
In short, she blamed the heavens, the earth, and herself, and she didn't even dare to blame the little prince.
I hope the emperor is not wrong and turns around to punish her for the crime of disrespect.
She had suffered enough throughout the day and didn't really want to go to the Ministry of Punishment again.
The emperor said nothing, but silently turned the ring on his finger.
After dialing the number for a while, he saw the little maid standing below couldn't help but tremble slightly. He closed his eyelids slightly and said in a tired tone, "Alright, you can go down."
He continued, "I will ask Liang Jiugong to find an imperial physician to examine your knee. You can rest in your room for the next few days. You don't need to be on duty."
Paid vacation?
Li Shuyao's eyes lit up in an instant.
The emperor seemed to remember something and knocked on the table with a slightly gloomy expression. "What I said is, rest well in your room and don't run around. Do you understand?"
Li Shuyao nodded several times, still wondering in her mind whether going to look for Qingyao would be considered running around. After all, the enclosure also belonged to the territory of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, and was not very far from her residence. In addition, when she was running around before, she also found a small path that could directly shorten the distance by a long distance.
It used to take more than ten minutes to walk to Qingyao, but now it only takes five or six minutes.
He quietly slipped away to play with Qingyao, and then quietly hid back along the path.
As long as she avoided the other palace maids' shift changes...even if she missed her shift change, she wouldn't be afraid. At most, she could stay a little longer until the palace maids had finished their meals and bathed and returned to their rooms. Then she could take the opportunity to slip back...
She was daydreaming happily.
The emperor, sitting behind the desk, only needed to see through her little calculations at a glance, so he raised the corner of his mouth, revealing a half-smile, "I will send people to check on you from time to time. If I find that you are not in the room..."
He pondered for a moment, then decided he had to scare her, so he continued, "I will charge you with treason."
What is the connection and what is the enemy?
Li Shuyao couldn't believe what she heard, and her clear and clean apricot blossom eyes suddenly widened.
Then she stretched out a finger and pointed at herself tremblingly, "Slave, slave, am I collaborating with the enemy?"
The Emperor, upon seeing her reaction, hummed with satisfaction and smiled, "I commanded you to stay indoors. This is an inviolable decree, yet you disregarded it and tried to sneak out. Apart from collaborating with the enemy, I can't think of any other possibility."
Li Shuyao:?
Is it possible that she is just having fun?
Besides, she only had a minor knee injury, not a broken bone or sprained ankle. Who would stay in her room like a deadbeat and not be able to take a step out?
This is not paid leave, this is clearly imprisonment!
Isn't it okay if she doesn't want it anymore?
After thinking about it, she placed her hands on her waist and slowly squatted down, her tone full of determination: "My knee is not seriously injured and does not need to be repaired. Your Majesty, please allow me to return to the tea room to serve."
"Whenever I think about not being able to serve Your Majesty for such a long time, my heart becomes agonized. I simply cannot bear the torment of my conscience. I cannot sleep at night, I cannot eat or sleep peacefully. I am in utter agony, as if I were pierced by thousands of arrows, and walked through mountains of swords and seas of fire..."
No, the last few words were not appropriate. Li Shuyao quickly corrected herself, "It will be as painful as being thrown into the eighteenth level of hell!"
"So please, Your Majesty, grant my request. I will be grateful."
The emperor was indeed silent: ...
He stared at the clusters of velvet flowers on Li Shuyao's black hair for a long while before hesitating, "Can't sleep at night? Can't eat or sleep well?"
“…Eighteen levels of hell…”
He couldn't continue speaking. He looked at Li Shuyao deeply and tried to threaten her, "Think it over. The crime of deceiving the emperor..."
"Every word I say comes from the bottom of my heart. If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, please have someone dig out my heart and see for yourself!"
Li Shuyao simply closed her eyes and talked nonsense.
Anyway, it's impossible for him to really dig out his heart.
Otherwise, the history books would have left a vivid record like this: In a certain month and year, Kangxi actually dug out the heart of a certain palace maid in the tea room because of her extremely pious and touching words...
Eh, it seems disgusting no matter how I think about it.
Li Shuyao opened her eyes quickly and felt a little regretful. Why did she say so many nonsense?
She thought with regret, if she had known earlier, she would have studied Chinese Language and Literature instead of English, foreign trade, or international negotiations...
There is no point in talking about it at all.
“You…”
Li Shuyao was still regretting it here, but over there, the man on the dragon throne did not look unhappy at all.
Only a hint of helplessness flashed in his deep eyes. He stared at Li Shuyao for a long while before he let out a long sigh, "I will let Guo Luoluo visit you from time to time, okay?"
Li Shuyao's brows instantly lit up with joy.
If Qingyao were to accompany her, it would seem that not being able to go out wouldn't be a big deal.
She thinks it's okay.
But the emperor seemed to think that was not enough, and before she could agree, he continued to add conditions, "But if you do that, you need to complete some other things."
"What's the matter?" Li Shuyao blinked and did not agree immediately. Instead, she asked cautiously.
The Emperor: "I haven't made up my mind yet. When I do, I'll ask Liang Jiugong to tell you."
"Okay," Li Shuyao said hesitantly. After a few seconds, she nodded and said, "I understand. Your Majesty, please take your time to think about it..."
After spending some time together in the afternoon, she seemed less afraid of the man in front of her.
Sure enough, can courage grow with practice?
Li Shuyao slowly stood up and asked cautiously, "Then Your Majesty, shall I leave first?"
The emperor nodded indifferently, withdrew his gaze from her face, and lowered his head to tidy up the several sheets of rice paper that were scattered on the table.
After everyone left, he folded a few sheets of rice paper neatly and was about to throw them away, but then he thought of something and hesitated for a moment. Finally, he got up and walked into the inner room, found an empty drawer on the treasure rack, and threw all the pages of rice paper into it.
…
On this side, Li Shuyao endured the pain in her feet and slowly skipped out of the Qianqing Palace.
She was in a very good mood. Seeing Liang Jiugong waiting outside, she raised her hand without thinking and gave him a bright smile.
Liang Jiugong, who had just witnessed a "father-son game" in the afternoon, felt a little complicated when he saw Li Shuyao still being so heartless.
He bowed to Li Shuyao silently.
Li Shuyao:?
Is Eunuch Liang crazy?
Why are you bowing to her?
Li Shuyao was so frightened that she forgot the pain of her wound. Her feet were smoking and she slipped away without even looking back.
After returning to her residence, Li Shuyao immediately closed the door, lifted up her skirt, and tugged at her panties that were tightly attached to her knees. She felt the wound was not too deep, so she only tugged a few times and the pants were separated from the wound.
A wave of heat surged through the injured area again, and it felt a little itchy.
Li Shuyao didn't dare to touch it. She let her skirt down again in disappointment, walked out of the house, and called a few eunuchs to prepare hot water for her.
It was not until she was showering that she saw the wound on her knee clearly. It was not very serious. It was probably because she knelt too hard and for too long, which caused several bright red scratches from the rough floor tiles.
The scratch was nothing serious, but after a series of movements, she first went to Qingyao's place, and then was summoned by the emperor to the imperial study. She only knelt for a short while, and the wound rubbed against her underwear, causing blood to seep out.
Li Shuyao pursed her lips and walked out of the bathtub. She wiped the water droplets off her body, stepped on the small stool beside her, bent down, and blew on her knees carefully and carefully again and again.
Then she slowly put on her trousers, inner skirt and clothes, until she was completely tidy inside and out. Only then did she open the door and let the eunuchs and palace maids guarding outside come in to pack up the bathtub and carry it out.
Then she sat in the house and waited patiently for a long time before she saw Nanny Lin, with a worried expression on her face, leading a middle-aged imperial physician and two women wearing clothes of unknown style, walking towards her house.
Nanny Lin entered the room and saw her waiting obediently inside. She felt relieved and pointed at the two women behind the imperial physician. She said like coaxing a child, "Let the female doctor check your knees first."
Female doctor?
Li Shuyao blinked in surprise, and it took her a while to remember that this was a private part of the novel.
Because the harem was full of concubines, some injuries or illnesses in private parts of the body could not be directly exposed to the imperial physician in public. Therefore, the Imperial Medical Bureau recruited some palace maids who were not born as bannermen and came from poor families as female doctors. On weekdays, they only needed to accompany the imperial physician to see patients.
When seeing patients, female doctors did not need to diagnose them. Instead, they only needed to verbally describe the patient's condition at certain times so that the imperial physician could understand the patient's injuries and symptoms, and then prescribe the right medicine.
Thinking of this, Li Shuyao obediently followed the female doctor into the inner room, lifted up his pants and showed them the minor injury on his knee.
The two female doctors just took a quick glance, and then one of them went outside to describe the condition to the imperial physician.
The one who stayed behind continued to squat at Li Shuyao's feet waiting.
Her posture...
Li Shuyao moved her feet a little unnaturally and said to the female doctor in a low voice, "Doctor sister, please move a stool and sit down and wait."
Upon hearing this, the female doctor looked up at her with a surprised expression.
Li Shuyao also lowered his head to look at her. When his eyes swept across her pretty face and saw a small mole under her right eyebrow, he didn't know what came to his mind and his expression froze.
Ahhh, she met the key characters from the original novel again!
Tian Jiarou is the most capable assistant to the heroine Uya.
When she was young, her hometown suffered from famine, and she followed her parents all the way north. Later, she was sold to the palace by her parents to be a maid. Because she had no family background, she was bullied by others after entering the palace. Fortunately, she had a quick mind and a good memory, so she was noticed by the director of the Imperial Hospital and was appointed as a female doctor.
After that, her days in the Imperial Medical Bureau were still very unfortunate. She was either ostracized by the other female doctors or used as a punching bag by the sick concubines.
It was not until she met Uya that she was noticed by her special privileges in the Imperial Hospital. She not only bribed her privately but also taught her some palace fighting skills. This prevented her from being bullied by other female doctors.
Since then, she has become completely devoted to Uya.
In the middle and late stages of the plot, the reason why Uya was able to successfully attack the concubines, royal heirs, and even the emperor was inseparable from Tian Jiarou's help.
Her name sounds beautiful, but her hands are stained with the blood of countless people.
Li Shuyao felt a chill down her spine for a moment.
Fortunately, she has now learned to conceal her expression a little, so Tian Jiarou didn't notice anything.
only……
She stared at Tian Jiarou's mole for quite a while, so long that Tian Jiarou couldn't help but give her a puzzled look and asked softly, "Girl?"
Li Shuyao pursed her lips and hurriedly withdrew her gaze.
Then he looked at his knees and asked her softly, "Is it serious here?"
Tian Jiarou smiled gently and kindly, "It's not serious, don't worry, young lady."
"Oh, that's good." Li Shuyao nodded, then hesitantly pointed at her temples, "Is it a little red here?"
Tian Jiarou was startled, and subconsciously reached out to cover half of her cheek, then lowered her head, and said in a tone that seemed to be hiding something, "No, no, you must have seen it wrong, right?"
Li Shuyao pretended to be innocent: "Huh? I'm not seeing things."
She bent down and leaned close to Tian Jiarou's ear.
Tian Jiarou felt her breath approaching, and endured it without retreating, but she covered her face with her hands with a little more force.
Li Shuyao continued, "Yes, I was right. This is the mark left by the slap. Although you covered it with makeup, the part at the temple was not covered, so I could see it."
She finished speaking with a smile, then her face straightened. She grabbed Tian Jiarou's hand and said fiercely, "Did someone bully you? Tell me, and I'll find someone to help you teach her a lesson!"
Palace bullying is not acceptable!
Li Shuyao refused to admit it. She just wanted to snatch Wu Ya's helper.
...Besides, what if they robbed it?
Tian Jiarou is not a member of the Uya family now, it’s first come first served, what’s wrong with her!
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