Chapter 114: Zhu Qing

“Greetings to Lady Yue Zhaorong.” Lian Qiao also knew that this Lady Yue Zhaorong often came to Yilan Hall to visit her mistress, and their relationship seemed somewhat closer.

Lady Yue Zhaorong asked her, “How is your mistress?”

“Replying to Your Ladyship, my mistress has merely caught a chill by accident. The Imperial Physician said it’s nothing serious,” Lian Qiao replied cautiously with a bow.

Lady Yue Zhaorong nodded gently. Seeing her slightly guarded attitude, she chuckled softly and said, “Since it’s nothing, I am relieved. I will come to see her again after your mistress has recovered.”

Lian Qiao acknowledged with a “yes” and bowed to see her off.

Inside the main hall, the Imperial Physician had already withdrawn. The person on the bed was no longer delirious, as if having escaped from a nightmare.

Chu Mingheng stayed by the bedside, his tall figure appearing excessively silent. He simply sat by the bed, his gaze unwavering, occasionally reaching out to gently touch Lan Wu’s face.

Suddenly, his hand paused as he remembered something.

Just as he was about to call for someone, he stood up and walked out instead, addressing the palace maids waiting at the hall entrance, “Fetch a bottle of Jade Dew Ointment.”

Shortly after, what he requested was presented.

Chu Mingheng carefully and gently pulled down Lan Wu’s blanket, just a few inches, revealing the red marks on her neck from where he had torn at it. Frowning intently, he took the ointment and applied it to her.

Even just applying the ointment, he managed to exhaust himself.

Finally, he let go and placed the bottle of Jade Dew Ointment on the table.

He turned his head to look at Lan Wu’s sleeping face, lowering his gaze. His expression was cold and stern, as if rigidly incapable of showing any other emotion. The earlier trace of panic was firmly buried deep within his heart. He leaned down and only gently kissed Lan Wu’s forehead.

“Since you tell me nothing,” he stood up, tucking Lan Wu’s bedding properly around her, his voice calm and natural, as if narrating the most ordinary of matters, “then I will investigate myself.”

Lan Wu had kept many things from him. Even though he had long sensed something amiss, he had thought it best to let Lan Wu tell him herself. After all, Lan Wu was timid; if forced to speak, she would surely be fearful of this and that.

But now, since she had been frightened to this extent, there was no reason to indulge her any longer.

Zhu Qing’s identity was suspicious. Yizhen said she came from the palace—what a coincidence indeed. Just as he had uncovered some secrets, this person named Zhu Qing appeared.

The several palace maids waiting at the hall entrance saw someone walking out from inside and hurriedly bowed, intending to pay their respects.

Chu Mingheng scanned them and asked, “Where is Dan Shan?”

Mujin replied, “Aunt Dan Shan is overseeing the small kitchen. She said if the mistress wakes up, she might be hungry, so she had someone prepare porridge and snacks.”

“Call her here.”

When Dan Shan was summoned to the main hall, she was still unclear about Chu Mingheng’s intentions. However, the main hall was separated from the inner chamber by only a single door, neither too far nor too close. Moreover, Mujin and Lian Xi were inside the inner chamber taking care of things, so she assumed nothing would go wrong.

Yet she had thought His Majesty would stay by the mistress’s side without leaving an inch.

“She dislikes noise.” Perhaps guessing the meaning behind Dan Shan’s sidelong glance, Chu Mingheng spoke indifferently.

So that was it.

Dan Shan understood.

“What does Your Majesty wish to ask?”

“Aunt, do you know a palace maid named Zhu Qing?” Chu Mingheng looked at her. “She is skilled in incense making.”

Dan Shan did not answer immediately but thought carefully first.

Then she shook her head: “This palace maid named Zhu Qing, I don’t know her. But if Your Majesty is asking about a palace maid skilled in making incense, I do indeed know one.”

“That person is called Zi Ming. She excels at making incense, and the fragrances she creates are novel and unique. Empress Dowager Jingwen was quite fond of them, so she kept her.”

“Because she had this skill, Empress Dowager Jingwen did not treat her as an ordinary palace maid. She also had an aloof and proud temperament, usually keeping to her own room. Later, when Empress Dowager Cimin entered the palace, this person was gifted to Empress Dowager Cimin.”

“She was truly low-key. By the time I heard news of her again, she had already been transferred to another palace for making a mistake.”

As for where exactly, that could not be determined in detail.

Upon hearing this, Chu Mingheng lightly tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, silently pondering something.

There were several obvious inconsistencies in these words.

Since that Zi Ming had an aloof and solitary nature, logically, as long as she kept a low profile, she shouldn’t have made a mistake that led to her being punished and sent to another palace. Moreover, she was someone given by his mother. Even if Consort Qiao were to punish someone, she would have considered his mother’s face.

Unless she had committed a grave mistake, one that could not be spoken of openly.

“Auntie, please go to Shenxing Si and see if that palace maid named Zhu Qing is indeed the Zi Ming you mentioned.”

Dan Shan responded with an affirmative.

The imperial concubines hurried to Yilan Hall in the middle of the night to watch the commotion, never expecting that in the end, they were watching their own spectacle. Each returned disheartened and embarrassed, but after all, they were not the most humiliated ones, and privately, they all found some amusement in Consort Shu’s predicament.

What good is having authority over the palace if one still lacks the emperor’s favor? Though the authority is in her hands now, who knows about the future.

Zhaoyi Wen followed Consort Shu to the fork in the road, respectfully bowed, and then turned back toward her own palace.

Her thoughts differed from Consort Shu’s.

Perhaps Consort Shu believed Lan Wu’s status was too low and assumed His Majesty would never entrust palace authority to her, but Zhaoyi Wen did not think so.

From the current situation, it was clear that His Majesty had already taken a liking to Lan Wu. When had His Majesty ever shown such special treatment to anyone? Thinking carefully, it seemed that from the very beginning, this dancer named Lan Wu was special.

If Consort Shu did not provoke her and instead obediently handed over the authority in her hands to Lan Wu, perhaps everyone would be happy. But Consort Shu would certainly not be willing to give what she had worked so hard to obtain to someone else. His Majesty, biased and doting on his favored consort, would naturally not see any fault in Lan Wu. If Consort Shu were to confront Lan Wu, there was no need to guess who would lose.

Suddenly, the miserable fate of Consort Zeng appeared before her eyes. Recalling her empty mouth, she couldn’t help but shudder.

She could no longer align herself with Consort Shu—at the very least, she could no longer work for her.

But at this critical juncture, breaking free would be difficult.

Zhaoyi Wen furrowed her brows tightly, thinking of a way all the way until she entered her own palace.

The palace maid helped her remove her cloak. She sat on a chair, took a sip of hot tea, and unconsciously began tracing on the table the strokes Consort Zeng had written in her palm earlier that day.

A tangled mess.

It was also her fault for being too panicked at the time; otherwise, she would have known what Consort Zeng was trying to tell her.

“What is Your Ladyship drawing circles on the table for?” the palace maid Zhuzhi cautiously approached and inquired, thinking she had some instructions.

Zhaoyi Wen glanced at her and asked, “What do you think this looks like?”

Among palace maids, those who could read were considered quite learned. Zhuzhi was her personal maid and had only learned to read in a rough, haphazard manner later on. She hadn’t placed much hope in Zhuzhi to begin with, knowing that the maid didn’t recognize many characters.

Zhuzhi, however, traced the shape in her own hand and said sheepishly, “This character Your Ladyship drew… this servant doesn’t recognize it…”

Zhaoyi Wen felt somewhat disappointed.

“But if a vertical stroke were added in the middle, it would look like the character for ‘king.’”