Gradually, Yun Duoduo's reputation spread throughout Western Chu.
It is said that the Ninth Princess from Nanyang is highly skilled in medicine, kind-hearted, and very willing to help these lowest-ranking servants in the palace. She has never looked down on them.
Moreover, she was highly skilled in medicine; she could cure illnesses that the Imperial Hospital and folk remedies could not.
The word spread quickly, and more and more palace maids, eunuchs, and eunuchs came to Yun Duoduo for treatment. They naturally regarded Yun Duoduo as the future queen of Western Chu.
She also wholeheartedly helped those who came to Yun Duoduo for medical treatment, and cured many people.
In just a few days, Yun Duoduo has gained the trust of most people in the palace and can move around freely with almost no restrictions on her comings and goings.
That night, Yun Duoduo learned from several palace maids she was on good terms with that Xi Jing would be discussing matters with his ministers in his study that evening, so she decided to sneak into Xi Jing's bedchamber to steal the defense map.
The defense map is inside the pillow.
Yun Duoduo recalled what Xi Jing had said, and a plan came to her mind. She then took her medicine box and a basket and went to Xi Jing's bedroom.
"Greetings, Your Majesty."
Yun Duoduo was taken aback when she heard the word "Your Majesty," but she didn't say anything. She nodded and said, "I'll go in and use the medicinal fumigation to treat Your Majesty's illness."
The guards at the door glanced at the hay in Yun Duoduo's basket, then at her large medicine chest, bowed, and made way for her.
Everyone in the palace knew that it was the Ninth Princess of Nanyang who was treating their king's cough, and the treatment seemed to be quite effective.
Yun Duoduo nodded slightly and went inside. She looked at Xi Jing's bedroom and thought that it was indeed luxuriously decorated.
A huge crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling in the very center of the sleeping quarters, with a candle in each crystal tray.
How do I light this lamp?
Could it be that every evening at dusk, eunuchs would come and climb a ladder to light candles?
[How extravagant...]
Yun Duoduo was carrying a basket of dried herbs, which she put into the incense burner on the table.
She looked around and saw that no one was watching her. Midway through, a palace maid came and asked if she needed any help. Yun Duoduo thanked her and then left.
Yun Duoduo walked quickly to Xi Jing's bedside and grabbed his pillow.
It was a long, hard pillow.
Won't sleeping on this kind of pillow cause a stiff neck?
Yun Duoduo touched the pillow as she spoke, but the pillow was flat and didn't seem to have anything hidden inside, nor did it have any protrusions.
She carefully examined the direction of the stitching on the pillowcase.
He found a small opening, put his hand inside, and felt around.
After touching it for a while, I didn't find anything.
She was very puzzled.
[Wait, that's really strange, there's nothing here!]
Could it be that it's not inside the pillow?
But I clearly heard that's what Xi Jing was thinking!
Yun Duoduo frowned deeply. She had already spent a lot of time inside, and staying there for too long would inevitably arouse suspicion.
"Your Majesty!"
Hearing the sound behind her, Yun Duoduo was so frightened that she quickly put her pillow away and frantically scattered the dried herbs from the basket onto the bed.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"I'm preparing the fumigation ingredients for Your Majesty!"
She turned around and saw that it was the palace maid who had come to her for treatment of body odor.
"I heard that Your Majesty later fumigated Your Majesty's bedchamber with medicine, so I came to ask if the bedding and pillows that were drying in the courtyard should be brought in for fumigation as well."
[Bedding and pillows drying in the yard...]
Yun Duoduo's eyes lit up. Could it be that the defense map was hidden inside another pillow?
She nodded repeatedly and said, "Bring it in quickly. All of the King's utensils need to be fumigated with the medicine."
"Yes, this servant will go get it right away." The palace maid nodded and went out.
Before long, the head palace maid came over carrying bedding and pillows.
"Just put it on the bed, I'll be fine here."
Yun Duoduo wanted to get rid of the palace maid so she could find her things.
"This servant will stay and help the princess."
The palace maid felt very guilty looking at Yun Duoduo, who was so thin and small.
This kind of work shouldn't have been done by her in the first place.
"It's alright, you go ahead and do your work. I'll have to do the fumigation myself," Yun Duoduo said with a smile.
Seeing Yun Duoduo's insistence, the palace maid stopped disturbing her and went to the small kitchen in the backyard to prepare fruit drinks and food for Yun Duoduo.
Yun Duoduo spread the bedding neatly on the bed, then stuffed some dried herbs for treating coughs into the four corners of the bedding, and sewed them up with needle and thread to secure the herbs.
After looking around to make sure no one was there, she quickly reached her hand inside the pillowcase and felt the texture; it should be a nanmu wood pillow.
She simply tore off the pillowcase and carefully examined the nanmu pillow, which was covered with intricate carvings.
The patterns on the pillow are very intricate.
[It turns out it's a wooden pillow; no wonder I took it out to air it.]
However, this piece of wood looks like a single piece; where could the defense map be hidden inside?
Her fingers traced the pattern on the pillow, feeling it twice, but she couldn't find any grooves or marks that didn't match the overall shape of the wood.
Originally, she thought the defense map would be hidden in the center of the wooden pillow, like a small drawer or a hidden compartment that could be opened.
However, it now appears that this pillow is indeed made from a single piece of solid wood.
[Could it be that the defense map isn't included here?]
Yun Duoduo sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the pillow.
Suddenly, she noticed that although the patterns on the pillow were complex and numerous, some of the patterns seemed to appear in a very regular way, with Buddha images, arched lines, trapezoids, and rectangles appearing frequently.
She recalled that when the Grand Tutor was lecturing, he had mentioned the structure of the defense map. Generally, there were four city gates in the east, west, south, and north, and four temples in the northeast, northwest, southwest, and southeast corners outside the city.
To the north of the palace, there would be a tower for vantage points to assess the deployment of nearby troops.
As Yun Duoduo pondered this, she looked at the pattern on the pillow.
The pillow has a large circle in the center, with an arched line around it on each of the four cardinal directions.
This likely refers to the imperial palace and the four city gates surrounding it.
Looking at the positions of the four Buddha statues, they really do appear in the northeast, northwest, southwest, and southeast corners of the circle.
Could this pillow itself be a defense map?
[The defense map of Western Chu is not a scroll, but a pillow?!]
Yun Duoduo was both amused and exasperated. This was really going to be the death of her; the thought process of this crazy guy from Xida University was truly something else.
She found it hard to imagine that Xi Jing would be looking at a wooden pillow while pondering military deployments.
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