The silver moon hangs high in the sky.
Two furtive figures appeared in the palace.
Gu Jiangli and Hehua extinguished the lanterns and arrived outside the so-called house where the paintings were hidden.
This room is located at the far eastern end of the palace, almost the first place to be illuminated by the sun after sunrise.
The emperor's choice to place the painting here was indeed quite good.
The two-story detached building, surrounded by flowers and plants, has a unique charm, forming a stark contrast with the other solemn and grand palaces in the palace.
Gu Jiangli pushed open the wooden door, and a faint fragrance of ink and painting from books wafted into her nostrils.
Lotus dared not come in and stayed outside to cover for her.
Gu Jiangli walked into the room alone, where various picture albums were neatly arranged on the display shelves.
She casually picked up a scepter and gently unfolded it. Under the bright moonlight, a traditional Chinese ink painting of mountains and rivers appeared before her.
Towering peaks rise one after another, a lone boat adrift on the river. The grandeur of the landscape and the solitude of the small boat seem to grip her gaze, drawing her eyes in and making it impossible to look away.
Could an emperor, in his high position, really create such a sorrowful and melancholic painting?
Gu Jiangli picked up another painting, still a landscape.
I picked up another painting, and unsurprisingly, it was another landscape.
She changed four bookshelves, and the paintings she took out were all landscapes.
Gu Jiangli curled her lips, "Has the emperor seen many landscapes? How come he has painted so many landscape paintings?"
After she finished muttering to herself, a "thud" sounded behind her.
Gu Jiangli's eyes narrowed, "Who!"
The noise disappeared.
Gu Jiangli has no other skills, but he is very bold.
She took a tinderbox out of her pocket, blew on it gently, and the faint candlelight enveloped her.
She calmly and deliberately walked toward the direction from which the sound came.
"It seems that besides me, there are others who are interested in His Majesty," Gu Jiangli said softly, without stopping.
She darted forward, stepping over the bookshelf blocking her way, and with a flick of her tinder, a tall, pale figure appeared before her.
Gu Jiangli exclaimed in surprise, "Your Majesty?!"
She thought it was one of the concubines who wanted to explore the emperor's secrets with her, but she never expected to encounter the emperor himself!
Only after seeing the person in front of him clearly did he realize that the emperor's expression was unusual.
He gripped the bookshelf beside him tightly with one hand, as if he wanted to crush it with his bare hands.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and his face was even paler than when I saw him during the day.
His eyes were fixed on the tinderbox in her hand, his flickering pupils filled with...fear.
Why is the emperor alone in his room so late at night without lighting a lamp? Is it because the emperor is afraid of fire?
After a moment's thought, Gu Jiangli immediately extinguished the tinderbox, and the faint light disappeared instantly, leaving only the silvery moonlight from outside the window shining on the emperor's face.
He was breathing heavily, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.
Gu Jiangli was stunned.
Upon closer inspection, the emperor was indeed handsome. His strong features had softened perhaps due to his illness, and his thin, red lips appeared even more alluring against his pale complexion.
The emperor possessed a contradictory quality: aloofness coupled with vulnerability.
Very...attractive.
Gu Jiangli admired the man in her heart, completely forgetting that she was a concubine and he was the emperor. She should have bowed to him when she met him, instead of staring at him so rudely.
Fortunately, the emperor had no time to pay attention to her rudeness at that moment.
He seemed unsteady on his feet and almost slipped.
Gu Jiangli subconsciously reached out and placed his hand on the emperor's elbow.
"Your Majesty, are you alright?" Her voice was full of concern.
"Consort Gu..." the emperor murmured, his voice betraying no emotion.
Gu Jiangli forced a smile, trying her best to avoid making the situation awkward, "Your Majesty, I am here."
The emperor shook off her hand and took several heavy breaths before he regained his balance.
"You've got guts to come here."
Gu Jiangli's lips twitched. She knew that running into the emperor in a place like this was bound to be bad.
"I didn't know that I couldn't come here? Then I'll leave now."
As soon as she turned around, the emperor called out to her, "You spoke so eloquently to the Empress Dowager during the day, leaving Consort Lan speechless. Why can't you speak to me?"
It would have been better if he hadn't brought it up, because the moment he did, she felt incredibly resentful.
If the emperor hadn't intervened today, would her wishful thinking have failed?
Gu Jiangli turned around and poured out all her grievances to the emperor.
"What's the use of all this babbling? In the end, it's all just a favor to Consort Lan. I will reflect deeply on my mistakes and never try to use my words to benefit myself again."
The emperor then asked, "Are you speaking sincerely, or is this a tactic of feigning weakness to advance your own interests?"
Gu Jiangli was taken aback.
The emperor had asked this question during the day as well.
She seemed to have answered incorrectly, for she could see the emperor's disappointment.
Why is he asking this question again now?
At this moment, with his back to the moonlight, she couldn't clearly see the emperor's expression, making it difficult to fathom the meaning behind his question.
So, she mustered her courage and said:
"Does Your Majesty hope that I am sincere, or that this is a feigned retreat?"
The emperor fell into a brief silence.
In that instant, she seemed to hear his heavy breathing.
"When you pushed Consort Lan into the Taiqing Pool, you made no attempt to conceal your methods and intentions. You are one of the few honest people in the harem."
"How come this honesty completely disappeared when facing the Empress Dowager?"
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