Chapter 12
As far as the eye could see, a faded blue coarse linen curtain hung low over the narrow wooden bed, completely obscuring the interior of the bed, only vaguely outlining the shape of a woman behind the curtain.
Xi Xiao held her breath and stood properly a few steps away from the bed. The only sounds around her were the faint crackling of the oil lamp and her own suppressed breathing.
A moment later, a soft voice came from deep within the curtains, a voice as gentle as the warmest spring breeze rustling through the new willows, "Shuniang..." The owner of the voice called out, "Help me pull up the curtains."
Xi Xiao's heart stirred slightly, and almost instantly, the image of a graceful and beautiful woman took shape in her mind.
However, the old nanny Shuniang, who was standing by the bedside, paused upon hearing this. Her hunched back seemed to tense up even more. She slowly got up, and her withered fingers, covered with age spots, reached towards the blue curtains. The rough fabric rubbed against the rough wooden rods, making a hoarse "rustling" sound.
In an instant, all my imagination was shattered by the sight before me! Behind the curtains, there was no gentle beauty at all. Lying on the bed was a withered, dying old woman!
Her body was nothing but a jagged skeleton. Deep, knife-cut wrinkles covered almost every inch of her skin, making it difficult to discern the positions of her features. Her skin had a lifeless, ashen color, clinging tightly to her prominent cheekbones and jawline, and drooping loosely.
Only those eyes! They exuded a chilling and eerie vitality amidst the lifeless "ruins".
This stark contrast froze her, and she remained silent for a long time.
Seeing that she was frightened, Madam Lan seemed to be stunned for a moment as well. She managed to force a reassuring smile by pulling up the corners of her deeply lined lips. "Did I frighten you?"
Xi Xiao felt a strange pang of sadness. Driven by an impulse, she asked an extremely offensive question, "Madam... why..." She realized her mistake halfway through her sentence, and the words "became like this" stuck in her throat, turning into an awkward silence.
Unexpectedly, Madam Lan did not get angry. Her withered lips moved slightly, and she still spoke in that gentle tone that softened one's heart, "You will understand later." The word "understand" fell lightly, but it was like being shrouded in a heavy fog, pressing down heavily on Xi Xiao's heart.
Xi Xiao frowned, her mind churning with doubts. But strangely, facing this face that could haunt her dreams, she felt a strange, inexplicable sense of intimacy deep within her heart, as if an invisible thread was pulling her closer to this decaying body.
However, before she could sort out this confusing feeling of closeness, Madam Lan had already closed her eyes wearily, and her voice had become weak, "Come over tomorrow and take the books out of the camphor wood chest to air them out; they're too damp."
Xi Xiao was somewhat pleased and nodded, "Yes, Madam." She stood quietly for a moment, and seeing that the figure behind the curtain was no longer moving, she held her breath and backed out step by step.
It wasn't until she stepped back into the cool moonlight and was startled by the slightly chilly night breeze that Xi Xiao suddenly came to her senses. She had forgotten to ask Lady Lan whether it was possible for the maids in the palace to leave the palace.
Although Granny Li's firm "no" still echoed in her ears, for some reason, she felt that this reclusive Madam Lan would have a solution.
In the night sky, the cold moon was silent, casting a deeper, more unknown shadow over the low house and the girl's lingering figure outside.
*
The next day, at 3:45 AM. As the sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn, Xi Xiao rubbed her shoulders and neck, pushed open the creaking door, and the crisp air, still carrying the chill of the night, filled her lungs, giving her a slight boost of energy. Remembering Madam Lan's instruction to "air out the books," she walked along the slightly damp cobblestone path towards the main house.
The courtyard remained empty as if it were deserted, and the doors and windows of the main house were tightly closed and silent, clearly indicating that Madam Lan had not yet gotten up.
Xi Xiao stood silently in the courtyard for a moment, then turned around and found a quiet corner of the corridor. She leaned against the cold pillar and slid down to sit on the ground. Her mind was once again occupied by that heavy thought—leaving the palace!
Since the blood of the Yin royal family flows in her veins, that stone door that separates the inside from the outside should no longer be an insurmountable barrier for her!
Before leaving, she wanted to find her birth mother, the legendary princess! She wanted to ask her in person: Did she know of her existence, and why did she regard the current young master as her only blood relative?
This thought grew wildly like a vine, coiling around her heart, bringing waves of aching pain and indescribable frustration. Just as she was lost in her chaotic thoughts, a series of hurried, light footsteps approached from afar, breaking the tranquility of the morning.
Xi Xiao instinctively shrank into the shadow of the pillar. She saw two young maids in coarse palace attire, their faces deathly pale, hurrying frantically towards the kitchen. One of them, younger than the other, was sobbing uncontrollably, suppressed whimpers escaping her lips intermittently.
"Young Master and the Princess Consort had another huge fight..." The crying maid's voice was broken and thick with nasal tone, "But... but we are always the ones who suffer. Sister Xiujuan was almost beaten to death..." She sniffed sharply, her voice suddenly rising, "Her face was also scratched several times by the Princess Consort with a hairpin."
Her small, thin body trembled violently. "From now on, I'm afraid I'll just have to move to the backyard and wait to die."
The other, slightly older girl, turned around in alarm upon hearing this. She grabbed her crying companion's arm and whispered, "Shut up! What kind of place is this? How dare you talk nonsense! If people hear this and it gets out, how many lives do you have to pay for it?! Let's go!"
The crying girl was startled by her tug, and her sobs stopped abruptly. The two dared not speak again, and with their heads down, they disappeared at the end of the path as if fleeing.
Xi Xiao stood motionless in the shadows for a long time.
*
"If you want to slack off, get out." A cold rebuke suddenly pierced the silence of the courtyard. She snapped out of her chaotic thoughts and turned around to meet Shuniang's gloomy face, which looked like it could drip water.
Xi Xiao felt a pang of guilt, forcing a smile as she carefully continued to spread the book out on the clean reed mat laid out in the courtyard. The morning sun gradually warmed the pages, making the yellowed pages almost transparent. The strangely shaped illustrations on the pages seemed to shimmer with an indescribable luster under the sunlight, and Xi Xiao instinctively looked away.
Shuniang had been watching coldly from the side. When she saw her turn her head away as if to avoid suspicion, a strange tremor appeared on her gloomy face. Her withered lips moved, and when she spoke again, her usual cold and hard tone softened almost imperceptibly: "After you've finished drying them and moved them inside, make a copy of the booklet inside that says 'scripture' and send it to Madam." She paused, her gaze sweeping across the inner room. "Don't touch those ancient books under the seals."
Xi Xiaogong readily agreed, "Yes." She rummaged through the pile of books as instructed, quickly finding a thin booklet with the words "Qingxin Jing" (Pure Heart Sutra) written on its cover in faded ink. Her fingertips felt slightly cool as she turned the pages. The writing was blurred, the edges indistinct, requiring careful reading. She knew then that this was the book she needed to copy. However, as her fingertips brushed against the slightly curled pages, a question arose in her mind: This book should be frequently read by Madam Lan; why hadn't she memorized its contents herself?
Or... she had deteriorated to such an extent that she had exhausted even the strength to hold a pen and write from memory? Xi Xiao did not want to think about it any further. She moved a small wooden table and stool to a bright spot under the window of the side room, opened the booklet, dipped her pen in ink, and began to carefully copy it stroke by stroke.
However, as the ink meandered across the rice paper, Xi Xiao's hand holding the brush grew increasingly stiff, and cold sweat suddenly seeped from her forehead. This... this was no Qingxin Jing at all! What was recorded in the book were clearly the habits of various unheard-of poisonous insects and bizarre methods of refining Gu poison!
Her heart pounded, and she almost dropped the pen! She hurriedly flipped the booklet back to the cover; the three faded characters of "Qingxin Jing" were still clearly visible! Could it be… that Granny Shu had been wrong? Or…
“Copying from book to book…it’s really exhausting…” A weak yet unusually clear voice echoed from behind like a ghost!
Xi Xiao turned around abruptly and saw that Madam Lan had silently appeared inside the doorway of the side room. She was wrapped in thick old clothes, her figure terribly hunched over, but her eyes shone brightly in the dim light.
“You must memorize all these books…” Her thin fingers pointed vaguely to the ancient books spread out in the courtyard, “and read them to me tonight.”
boom--!
Like a thunderclap exploding in her mind, Xi Xiao looked into those clear eyes. Perhaps from the moment she stepped into this courtyard, Madam Lan already knew her identity and the royal blood she carried! This "airing out books," "copying," and even this "reciting" was not accidental, but intentional!
But isn't Madam Lan a foreigner? Why is she so familiar with the secret arts of the Southern Frontier? And why would she teach her?
Her instinct was to escape: "I am deeply grateful for your kindness, Madam." She paused for a moment, then continued, "However, I have no intention of staying here any longer; I only wish to leave this place!"
Looking at the woman before her who had suddenly lost all her vitality, Xi Xiao's heart clenched! A strong emotion mixed with inexplicable sorrow instantly overwhelmed her. Her lips trembled slightly, and her voice carried an urgency and sincerity that she herself did not realize.
"I like you very much, Madam!"
This seemingly random remark brought a long-lost smile to the person opposite.
Xi Xiao caught that fleeting smile, and felt most of the gloom and melancholy that had been weighing on her heart dissipate. A warmth filled her heart, and a bright smile involuntarily spread across her lips. She was about to say something more...
However, that hard-won smile vanished from Madam Lan's face in an instant, so quickly that Xi Xiao thought what she had just seen was nothing more than an illusion created by the interplay of light and shadow!
"Read a book." Madam Lan left behind only three emotionless words, and then, as if she had exhausted all her strength, she slowly turned around and disappeared back into the shadows of the main house, never to look back again.
Only Xi Xiao was left standing there, stunned, clutching the incomplete scroll of Gu poison called "Qingxin Jing" tightly in her hand.
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