"Okay," Ji Fengyao agreed. After parting ways with Shang Beiyu, she did not go directly to the banquet to meet with the Ninth Prince. Instead, she found a sheltered place, took out a small stove and charcoal from her storage space, lit a fire, and the four of them, master and servant, sat around the fire talking.
Today is Shang Chuyue's wedding day, which coincides with Nie Meier giving birth.
Because of his own health condition, and because Consort Yin had recently become increasingly favored, Shang Xiche paid special attention to Nie Meier's pregnancy; he only made a brief appearance before leaving behind a group of concubines, ministers and envoys, and went to Chengxiang Palace.
The Empress Dowager sat there for a long time, but Ji Fengyao did not appear.
A man's voice faintly sounded in her ear: "Empress Dowager, it's done."
The Empress Dowager thought the matter was settled, and her sickly, sallow face beamed with joy.
That bunch of despicable bandits, at least their surrender wasn't in vain.
Finally, I can do something practical for her.
Shang Xiye sat alone at the table for a while. A guard came over and whispered a few words in his ear before leaving in a hurry.
Upon seeing this, the Empress Dowager exchanged glances with Aunt Sun.
Aunt Sun smiled and stepped forward, saying, "Your Majesty, it's too cold outside. You're not fully recovered yet. Let's go to a nearby palace to avoid the wind. We'll come back to see the Sixth Princess off when she leaves the palace."
"Very well," the Empress Dowager said with a smile, genuinely happy.
Seeing the Empress Dowager smiling so happily, the Empress thought that something good must have happened.
She wanted to leave to join in the fun and get closer to the Empress Dowager, but since the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and Consort Yin were not present, she had no choice but to stay and maintain appearances.
It wasn't that the Empress suddenly realized something, but rather that the Emperor, for some unknown reason, detained Jiang Zhenning somewhere and has refused to release him ever since.
Without Jiang Zhenning by her side, the Empress is like someone who has lost a leg and gone blind in one eye; now, she has to take control of many things in the palace herself.
Unable to go herself, the Empress sent one of her maids, under the pretense of caring for the Empress Dowager's health, to accompany her to see what was going on.
The Empress Dowager and Aunt Sun rested for a while in a nearby warm pavilion.
They dealt with all the tails that followed them.
Then they led a group of trusted palace maids and eunuchs, and from the side gate of the warm pavilion, they took a more secluded route to the Brocade Pavilion.
Halfway there.
An old nanny with sallow skin, dressed in coarse linen palace clothes, walked out from under a tree by the roadside and bowed to the Empress Dowager without saying a word.
Aunt Sun patted the old woman and gestured in sign language that only the two of them could understand: "Old woman, did you bring the things?"
The mute woman hurriedly took out a black wooden box from her sleeve and opened it slightly.
The box contained a strange, crimson, meatball-like object that emitted a strong musky scent and a faint smell of blood.
This thing was about the size of a small glutinous rice ball. Its fleshy skin had countless small openings that kept opening and closing. Inside the openings, there were fleshy buds that looked like flower stamens constantly expanding and contracting. They would frantically try to swarm out when they smelled human scent, as if trying to entwine themselves around it.
Before the fleshy buds could grow out of the wooden box, the mute woman closed the box and silently gestured to Aunt Sun.
Aunt Sun nodded, turned to the Empress Dowager and smiled, "The food is ready. It's a live animal that the mute woman just peeled off from someone else."
"Hmm," the Empress Dowager nodded with a cold smile, maintaining her superior demeanor, and led the group to quicken their pace, continuing towards Suijin Pavilion.
It was as if what the mute woman held was not obtained by exchanging the life of a beautiful young girl, but by exchanging the life of an insignificant animal.
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